May 2007 Archives

So the Texas Bicycle Coalition is all proud that they got SB248 past the Senate. But they passed it with this little provision known as the Brimer amendment. The amendment means you don't need to give three feet of clearance on roads without paved shoulders!

If you don't need a safe passing law on Hamilton Pool Road, where do you need it?

The bill as amended is worse than no bill at all, because it enshrines in the law that the three foot requirement isn't necessary on those roads. I mean, right now, you can at least argue that it is a necessary safety measure whether enshrined in law or not; but now anyone can point to this law and refute that.

For that reason, we now have to defeat the Safe Passing bill. Or get that obnoxious amendment removed in conference. The Brimer Death Bill. Keerist.

Received this email yesterday:

From: grace@...

To: grace@...

Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2007 6:52 PM

Subject: Election Fraud in Lakeway?

May 8, 2007

Dear Friends,

Something truly disgusting happened today involving the LTISD Board Elections. Whoever you plan to vote for, you should be horrified. Our right to vote is meaningless when it is stolen by underhanded campaign tactics. Here is what happened.

One of the employees at The Summit assisted living facility on Lohmans Crossing Road has been actively encouraging the residents to vote for the Tolles/Buddin/Williams school board slate. If I were the owner of that business, I would wonder why my employees were spending their work time on such things. They are paid to take care of the retirees, not to tell them how to vote.

This employee went so far as to schedule a “Meet The Candidates” event at the Summit this morning. Again, such an event is a fine idea so that people can be informed before they vote. Not coincidentally, the mobile voting machines were scheduled to visit the Summit at noon so the residents could vote.

The strange part, however, is that the only candidates invited to this event were Susan Tolles, Jason Buddin and Alan Williams. Summit residents were NOT allowed to meet the opponents – Bob Weest, David Lovelace, Carol Johnson and Paul Hendricks. This was clearly not intended to be an “educational” event at all. It was a blatant effort to round up votes for the Tolles/Buddin/Williams slate.

We all know how elderly people can be. Many of the Summit residents are perfectly capable of grasping the issues and deciding who they wish to support. Some are not, and can be easily persuaded to vote for whichever candidate smiles and shakes their hand. Such shameless, cynical manipulation of vulnerable people should NOT happen here - or anywhere. Fortunately, at the last minute Summit management was informed of the improper electioneering and cancelled the event.

There is more. One Summit resident left Weest and Lovelace campaign flyers on a counter where residents are allowed to place free literature. A Summit staff member removed the flyers and hid them in an office. The person who works in that office was seen going from table to table in the cafeteria telling people to vote for Susan Tolles.

Again, whatever you think about the candidates, we can all agree this was wrong. We don't know whether it was legal or not; that is for the courts to decide. At a minimum it is unethical, shady political pandering. Tolles, Buddin, and Williams should publicly denounce what happened at the Summit. They should insist that all of their supporters refrain from any more such tactics from now until election day. If they aren’t willing to condemn this dirty campaigning, they certainly do not deserve to hold any kind of public office in our community.

Please forward this information to all Lake Travis voters you can before the election this Saturday. We have to stop the dirty politics now. Thank you for your kind support.

Patrick & Grace Watson

Our local Damian Priour, already selected as 2008 Texas State 3-D Artist, has initiated the Texas Chair Project. He's sending out 100 little 8x8x8 inch chair sculptures to artists around Texas. (These are some seriously cool chairs). The artists send back their own chair creations. Austin Museum of Art will exhibit them.