Brady ice cream social attracts hundreds to discuss healthcare Conroe Courier News Houston Community Newspapers Online - News Around Town
Thank you to all of the progressives who spoke truth to power at this event!
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Woodlands Texas Commentary: Woodlands resident and national congressman Kevin Brady speaks out on the Health Care Bill in Conroe Townhall Meeting
Here is one account of the Conroe Town Hall Meeting. Photo Courtesy of woodlandscommentary.com
Woodlands Texas Commentary: Woodlands resident and national congressman Kevin Brady speaks out on the Health Care Bill in Conroe Townhall Meeting
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Willis City Council Meeting
August 18, 1009 -6:30 pm
The Willis City Council considered city business in their August meeting at the
- Held a first reading on an ordinance to prohibit solicitation of any drugs prohibited under the
- Approved the Willis Community Development Corporation plan and budget.
- Appointed Mike Davis and Hector Forester to the Wills Community Development Board.
- Appointed Thomas Billnoske, Sherman Griffin, Anna Ross, Josey Billnoske, and Paul Henderson to the Citizen’s Advisory Committee for City Traffic Signal Enforcement.
- Increased contractor fees for the City of
- Referred a recommendation to demolish a structure at 601 Young to the Building Standards Commission.
- Changed the signatories to the city deposit account from the old city manager to the
- Considered a request by CenterPoint Energy to increase utility rates by 8.3%
The CenterPoint Energy proposal elicited the most interest from the Council. CenterPoint staff presented their justification for the increase to Council and said they had three options.
- Do nothing, in which case the rate increase would be automatic.
- Approve the rate increase.
- Deny the rate increase, in which case CenterPoint would appeal their decision to the State Railroad Commission.
Josey Billnoske said she didn’t want a rate increase. Council chose to suspend consideration of the CenterPoint proposal for 90 days.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
The newspaper of NO
The Courier editorialized today against a "Second Stimulus" package. It's a rather moot argument considering the White House has made it clear that there is no interest in another stimulus. However, that doesn't stop our favorite newspaper from taking on the issue anyway with typical ideological fervor."As Montgomery County residents contemplate the latest sour unemployment numbers, we doubt many are having warm feelings about that stimulus package passed earlier this year."I would agree, and that might be because Republican Governor Rick Perry rejected the part of the stimulus that affected extension of unemployment benefits. First they rail against the stimulus, get away with rejecting a portion, then argue that it's not effective in the area that the rejected funds were meant to stimulate.
The ultimate paradox is the acknowledgment that Montgomery County is finally feeling the effects of the economic downturn, yet the stimulus should not be given a chance to succeed here. With only 10% of funds spent, The Courier feels it should be repealed.
http://www.hcnonline.com/articles/2009/08/16/conroe_courier/opinion/edtaug16.txt
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Young Democrats celebrate 1 year
The Young Democrats of Montgomery County had their monthly meeting last night and celebrated one year of existence. The group was formed during a meeting at the Fox and Hound on August of 2008, in the heat of one of the most exciting elections in recent times. Over the past year, the Young Democrats put in countless hours during the campaign, hosted phone banking for Obama, adopted a stretch of highway for cleanup, represented Montgomery County at conventions of the Texas Young Democrats and Young Democrats of America, and grew their mailing list to 67 members.
The group also had their annual election and re-elected the founding executive committee:
President - Michele De La Garza
Vice President - Dylan Osborne
Treasurer - Austin Stout
Secretary - Kimberly Parrish
Communications Director - Jesus Blickwede
The next meeting of the YDMC will be held September 17 at 6pm @ Bucca di Beppo in The Woodlands.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Kevin Brady meets Rube Goldberg
Our very own Kevin Brady has become a sort of a celebrity in right-wing-nuttery world of late. The Congressman's staff has developed a "Flow Chart" that purports to demonstrate the health care system that is proposed by bills in Congress. It has spread like wildfire throughout the right-wing blogosphere and of course, Fixed News. Because the chart contains so many exaggerations that are misleading, the House Franking Committee initially refused to grant Brady and other representatives permission to distribute it via mail as official congressional correspondence. However, they are now allowing it to go out and I'm sure we'll all be seeing it in our mailboxes soon. Salon.com recently published an analysis of this hilarious prop:
Supposedly depicting how a new system would be organized, this drawing shows more than 50 multicolored boxes, circles and cartoon pictures, connected by red and blue arrow vectors. According to Rep. Kevin Brady, the Texas Republican who distributed it, the chart displays the "new levels of bureaucracy, agencies, organization and programs [that] will all be put directly between the patient and their healthcare."
That is simply a lie, as Brady surely knows, since none of the Obama administration's proposals or the Democratic bills would interpose any federal agency between patients and doctors -- or between consumers and insurers -- for those who are satisfied with their current plans. Examined closely, most of the items on the chart, including several Cabinet departments and federal agencies, as well as "the States" and "Consumers" and "Private Insurers," already exist, of course. It is hard to say what the GOP drawing can actually be said to show except that American healthcare is already complicated. Much more complicated than systems in other countries, such as France, Germany, Sweden, Norway and Japan, that rely on public as well as private insurance plans to achieve universal coverage.
The chart accomplishes its goal. It provides the shock value needed to reinforce the beliefs of the hard right wingers and it scares the bejesus out of middle of the road voters who've yet to develop an opinion but are certainly feeling the anti-reform pressure in one of the reddest counties in Texas. It doesn't have to be accurate, it just needs to be complex-looking and colorful. Just enough to make the point that Obama and the Democrats are just salivating over new bureaucracies that will drain our deficit further in order to give jobs to poor government workers (Democrats) and healthcare to illegal immigrants (also Democrats voting fraudulently). The Republicans don't need a plan of their own, they just have to keep saying NO to ours.
The larger point is missed with this chart. We deal with bigger bureaucracies today! They're called private insurance companies and unlike the federal system, their bureaucracy is designed to deny coverage and make huge profits at the expense of the lives of their policy holders. The reality is that running any large enterprise isn't as simple as running a lemonade stand. It requires a variety of functions that work collaboratively together and provide checks and balances to ensure success. Do you think the organizational chart at General Electric consists of two boxes and a straight line? Of course not, because General Electric is a mega corporation and their ability to provide products and services is a complicated venture. Just like providing health insurance to millions of Americans will be a very complicated venture.
Kevin Brady pushing his baby on Fixed News.
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