RGV Life

RGV Life 1/31/06 Dell sending 5000 jobs to India . It's not suprising. Probably some people are bemoaning the loss of jobs in the U.S. Simple Economics, India has a competitive advantage to the U.S. They have highly skilled people who work for less. I saw the direction of Tech when I majored in Computer Science and CIS. There are jobs out there, but they are few and don't pay as much as they once did. STC, UTPA, and other colleges are churning out techs. That's why I decided to change to a business degree. I started using show notes to keep discussion on track. Visit http://slmpublic.schtuff.com to see where I prepare for my podcast and blog entry. Wikis are pretty helpful for keeping track of and organizing information. I would recommend one to anybody interested in a simple to run website. The Courtesy Bandit has been caught. This guy would go to motels and convenience stores and hold them up with a knife. The whole time, he was polite to the victim saying please and than...

Zeta drug dealer caught in Hidalgo . Whatever punishment he gets will be nothing compared to ratting out his gang. The problem of drugs, I think, is different from the problem with illegal immigration. A wall would not stop drugs, as pointed out by Scott Henson. It would curtail illegal immigration. Drug dealers won't smuggle people through their tunnels unless they're "cool". Nobody wants somebody getting deported to snitch on the tunnel's location. Immigrants don't have the time or money to tunnel. Drug dealers have both. Samuel Alito was confirmed . Yay! Victoria Kos is freaking out ; it's the end of the world for her. Hispanic Pundit has a point in stating that judges should not be for or against an agenda. Even the circus is scamming us. What is the world coming to? It's a pretty slow news day.

I've decided to not moderate comments. I had originally moderated them because I kept getting comment spam. I've set up notifications for when somebody comments, which should make it easier to delete spam. I'm still messing around with iTunes. It's not a great since I don't have an iPod. There are some good podcasts available. Last night, I found that Chris Bell has a podcast. This morning's news has info about McAllen Mayor Richard Cortez's new project to build a mini central park in downtown McAllen . Efforts to get County Clerk candidate Arturo Guajardo, Jr. in trouble for campaigning on the job have proved fruitless . Finally, the Rio Grande Valley county Health Departments are facing a lack of funding to fight Tuberculosis. The lack of money is exacerbated by the presence of multiple drug resistant strains of TB that cost more to treat. This is a public danger that can slowly creep up on us. Read more about it here .

I learned the hard way that I can't piece together recordings and podcast them. It has to be recorded in one shot.

Just trying out a format for future podcasts. It's a bit silly. Topics: Vioxx case in Rio Grande City and press release by JD Salinas about Judge Garcia Holding indigent health care hostage.

Shaine thought you would be interested in this article. Vioxx trial turning city of 12,000 into media ground zero http://www.themonitor.com/SiteProcessor.cfm?Template=/GlobalTemplates/Details.cfm&StoryID=11298&Section=Local ---------- Please do not reply to this email as it is an unattended account.

I haven't decided what the podcasting will be about. This is just an experimental audio post that will also be podcast. You don't have to listen, it's just sample audio so I can get the hang of this.

Today was my last day at Confetti . I showed Amanda and Krystal, my co-workers, now former co-workers, how to do some of the stuff they will need to do to keep the store running. I think they will be OK. Krystal has three weeks before she has her baby, so she'll be out soon. Amanda will try to hang in there as much as possible. Now, I am gainfully unemployed. Yay! What freedom. What joy. I will put off finding another job as much as I can. I just got my W2, so my wife and I will be filing our taxes and getting a big return because we are poor and have 2 children. If I cut my spending and she does too, I figure we have about 1 month before I have to start looking for work and 2 months before I have to land one. Of course, I can still do odd jobs here and there for cash. My plans during this free time is to hang out with the family. My daughter goes to school, so I won't get to spend as much time with her as I will with the boy. I'll take anything I can get. So, I'm off t...

Another Brick in The Wall : After reading this... I don't know. I'm going to tear into the Republicans on this one a little. It's admirable that you want to build a wall to keep out illegal immigrants. I agree that we should keep people from coming into the country illegally. If building a wall will slow them down, that's great. I do have to say that keeping people out for the sake of keeping them from "taking American jobs" is wrongheaded. In the years I spent working in the fields as a kid, both here, Indiana, west Texas, and Wisconsin, I never, ever saw a white person or a black person working beside us. We were all Mexicans or other than Mexicans. I can say this with some authority because we would work the fields from sun-up to sun-down every summer. The only "Americans" we saw were the farmers and their sons. It ticks me off when Republicans complain about Mexicans taking American jobs. Shut the... up. We do need these immigrants to do these jo...

http://dos-centavos.blogspot.com/2006/01/sheehan-for-senate.html This is the problem the Democratic party is facing today, people like Cindy Sheehan. In my opinion, when our current baby boomers were younger, they discovered that if they cry bloody murder about a cause, people will give in to their demands just to make them shut up. Since the sixties, the playbook hasn't changed much. I see it happen over and over again. The baby boomers aren't the ones doing it anymore, now the baby boomers are the ones in power. But there are Cindy Sheehans, pro-abortionists, environmentalists, anti-free traders, and other whacked out groups on the left all screaming bloody murder for their pet causes. It's an old play, but it draws press. On the right, all you can possibly label as extreme is the "religious right" whenever a whack job decides to blow up abortion clinics. There is no "cut tax right", small government right, kill the forests right, kill the minorities r...

I just added a link to the sidebar that looks like That is the address to download audio for RGV Life. I have it there, but it's empty. I haven't yet decided if I should actually post audio. I'm not certain what format it should take. Should I read my blog entries? Should I conduct it like a radio show? Should I just delete the button and forget it ever happened? The podcasts would be awesome for posting class lectures, if you were all in my class. Another thing I could do is post each entry directly onto my entries like in the past. Actually, I can do both. I found out that I can call in the blog entry and then push it into the podcast. Hmm. Let me think about it.

Tomorrow will be my last day to work at Confetti, the party store where I work in McAllen. I was given a choice, be happy or quit. So I'll be free and happy on Monday. I was offered the opportunity to get out today, but there are some things I need to do to make sure they are all squared away. There is so much of me in that store after three years of working there that I want to prepare my likely successor with last minute details so she won't struggle. Confetti is the last vestige of my struggle to support my family. With my wife earning more than me, I'm just struggling for nothing. So, back to school. I was just talking to my wife about my decision. She has been very supportive of me going back to school for my degree. She is also supportive of my decision to leave the store; she says I should have done that two and a half years ago. I guess I'm kinda slow. Alma began to worry today at lunch time as I have always had a job since we got married. The more she thought a...

Rio Grande Valley Politics: Hidalgo County Candidates Flog One Another Rico Politico has an entertaining entry today. It tells of the recent debates amongst candidates.

I just found the Hispanic Pundit blog. I didn't really get to read too much, but it's a fellow conservative hispanic, which makes him cool to me. I'll be adding him to my links later. I should be studying right now but I couldn't help checking the latest posts. I liked one by The Daily Texican . That reminds me, I find it easier to keep up by subscribing to blogs using the google feed reader at http://reader.google.com . There's this entry by Grits for Breakfast. My take is that we created the Meth problem by restricting narcotics and weed. Our chemists cooked up an alternative drug for those of us bent on getting high. Now that we are declaring war on pseudoephedrine, a decongestant that gets you wired and serves as an ingredient for meth, we are handing the Mexican drug cartels another high profit product that they can make themselves instead of importing from Colombia. Pseudoephedrine is not restricted in Mexico. Nobody stuck that in their calculator. Add that ...

Today's Monitor has a story about 5 Mara Salvatrucha gang members being caught crossing the river in the past 4 days. Here is a quote that you should know: All of those arrested in the Valley sector were from El Salvador and had criminal histories in the United States, including attempted murder... It's not really the Mexicans looking for jobs we ought to worry about, it's the threat to national security. This comes on the heels of a recent story about drug smugglers wearing camo crossing the border in SUVs loaded with drugs . I sympathize with our Mexican brethren who are seeking a better life where there is opportunity and less corruption (that means here in the U.S.). However, we need to secure this country from the likes of MS-13 (and 18) and terror threats. If Dems really want to clobber the Republicans with their own dropped ball, they would take up the issue of securing the border. This issue, however seems to be one of those third rails in politics that everybody is...

I was learning last night in BLAW class about choosing a court for a lawsuit. If you will file suit against somebody, you will have to do it in a court that has jurisdiction over the matter. In the case of Merck & Co., a large corporation that does businesses nationwide, the choices for the suit could be county, state, or federal court because there is concurrent jurisdiction. In this case, the venue chosen is a state district court. The complaint is that VIOXX caused the death of a Starr County man. The plaintiffs seek $1 Billion. I also learned that Starr County, being one of the poorest in the nation, has some of the biggest awards in the nation too. If the defendent has money, it's forfeit there. As a defendant, you need to change the venue to Cameron county, which is more conservative in its awards. As a plaintiff, you should try a suit in Starr County. I guess here in Hidalgo county we are somewhere in the middle. Still, $1 Billion! If awarded, the attorney would get, wh...

In case you're new to this blog, I have recently enrolled at the University of Texas-Pan American for the Spring Semester 2006 in an effort to finish my degree in Finance. I've been frustrated at work and was fixing to find another job, which I'll probably do after Valentine's Day, the big season at the store. Well, once I decided to quit working there, at Confetti, and get my old life back after 3 years, cool things have been happening. I'm not sure if I can explain it. To some extent, things are going my way. For example, I had not planned to go to school this semester. I thought I would not be able to get in. There was a small obstacle at first, but everybody at UTPA was very helpful. So, I registered and enrolled in one day, the Friday before classes started. In my BLAW class, I met my professor, Israel Ramon, Jr., whom I saw in the paper later in the week running for a Judge's position that will be opening up. I mentioned this to Laura Hinojosa, another gre...

I only have a few minutes before my BLAW class. I just finished chatting with Corrie MacLaggan from the Austin-American Statesman. I asked her to join me over at the Laura Hinojosa campaign office because Sally and Michael are more involved in politics than I am. We had a good chat, the four of us. We covered a good range of political topics. I think it's strange that my opinion on issues has any value to other bloggers. I freaked out when The Rep linked to my blog. Later, I started to see links from other blogs to mine. Then, I started seeing my entries quoted in other blogs. And now, it's wierding me out that a reporter would want to chat politics with me. It's one of those things I never would have expected. I'm amazed that I get comments. Who would have thought? How do you other bloggers do it? Are you seat of the pants, opinionated people like myself, or do you actually make blogging a job. Do you have other jobs like me? How old are you? Do you appreciate when yo...

This is my second video experiment. I wanted to add a soundtrack and play with a couple transitions. I probably violated copyright laws. If I get arrested (cuz I ain't paying a dime as I've more time than money), I'll use my one phone call to audioblog. Can it be defended as political speech? I really couldn't think of a subject for the experiment and wound up using Omar Guerrero. His was the first pic I saw in my folder, sorry. Montxu, I used your art too. I'm just going to post and go to bed. It's late and I have class in the morning.

My work schedule has me in the morning all week and all day Saturday. I have Thursday off, so I'll be able to work for a few hours on Thursday before heading back to UTPA for classes. Put together a punch list of things for me to do when I get there, please. I'll be calling later.

I made a short movie for my kids from pictures I took when we went to the Sonic playground in McAllen. I'm talking like Jacques Cousteau because Magnus is 4 years old and I want him to follow the story. This is my first movie. It took 10 minutes to make.

I just joined the Cameron County Democrats Yahoo! Group and was approved. If you are interested in joining, here is the link: Click to join camerondemocrats The main website is at http://www.camerondemocrats.com/ .

Elizabeth Pierson has a piece in The Monitor about Sen. Eddie Lucio, Jr. and Eddie Lucio, III along the same lines as an earlier article in Rumbo. It alleges that Sen. Lucio is using strong tactics to get campaign contributors to help the younger Lucio and abstain from supporting other candidates. On the one hand, it COULD happen. However, it seems illogical that a business person would throw money at one candidate and then turn around and throw money at an opponent. It would make more sense to spread the money vertically than horizontally. By this I mean that if I had spare cash to throw around, which I don't, it would make more sense to support a Senator (especially an incumbent or somebody with good name recognition), a representative, a judge for each court, one candidate for clerk, etc.. Why dump all your money on one race supporting different candidates? If your objective is to buy influence and access to officials, it would make sense to have access at different levels of go...

Are you running for office? Are you already in office? Do you aspire to run for office? Are you a politician? You should have a blog. "Why have a blog," you may wonder. The reason is simple. A blog is direct voice to voters and to the press. Obviously, you want to get your message across to as many people as you can with the least expense. You just turned in your campaign expenses thus far. I bet some of your money may have gone to ads in the papers, signs, and maybe some TV or radio. Then there are the push cards and other material that tell people your position. The only drawback to all of these is that you have to keep buying them. Even when you get free press, you have to be careful what you say lest you be misquoted. If you are misquoted, you have to spend the next day doing damage control. Then you have to spend more time getting out the message you wanted in the first place. A blog can't eliminate the problems entirely, but it does put you in greater control. For i...

I just had an anonymous submission for Eddie Zamora's website. Zamora is running for District 15 Representative against incumbent, Ruben Hinojosa, and another challenger Paul Haring. I visited the site, of course, and it is a blog. Here is some information that I garnered from Zamora's site: -Grew up in Hebbronville, Port Lavaca and Austin, TX -Graduated from David Crockett High School in Austin, TX -Served in the U.S. Navy for six years -Graduated from Southwest School of Electronics -Graduated from U.S.Navy Electronics Technician "A" School -Graduated from Naval Nuclear Power School -Graduated from S1C Navy Nuclear Prototype Training Unit -Certified Welder from Piedmont Community College -Licensed and Ordained Minister in full fellowship with Abundant Grace Community Church -Leader and teacher -singles' bible study group -Studiously followed politics on the national level for over 20 years Some more info about Zamora -Pro Life -choose life every chance you can -...

Omar is having his Campaign Kickoff tonight at the Habanero Cafe, located at 321 S Cage in Pharr. The event will be from 6 to 9 PM. As the joke goes, Ifa you decide to go... ...well, tell me how it went. I would go except that I am scheduled to work tonight. It would be interesting to find out who was there. Have fun.

Montxu has sent another piece of political art. Is this Laura Hinojosa? I got this message in the email: with no pic of Robert Mendoza, next week'll be another race. I wonder which race it will be. Thanks for the art, montxu. I look forward to next week's work.

This ad is the Spanish version of Laura Hinojosa's campaign ad. This is also scheduled to air at a later date. The original files for both the English and Spanish versions can be found on her website .

This ad is not scheduled to come out for a few days. I thought I'd give Laura a head start. The original file is in Quicktime and is 3 MB. This has been reduced to about 1 MB. I will be posting the Spanish version next.

I went into the Laura Hinojosa campaign headquarters to volunteer today. Sally tells me I just missed most of the action in the morning when the block walkers were in. They have already made and handed out most of the campaign lawn signs. This is a good sign as it means that Laura is getting a lot of support from the community. The block walkers have also been working hard handing out push cards. I counted the remaining cards with Sally, we'll need more. After that I cleaned up the warehouse. There were boxes all over from making the signs. After that, I did a little bit of data entry and then hung out until it was time to go to work. I had the pleasure of meeting Laura's mom and Laura's son, Esteban. He helped me sweep the warehouse, by the way. He was really committed to keeping the place clean. Laura's mom seems like a very down to earth lady, I showed her yesterday's article in Rumbo about the political families in the RGV. She seemed amused by it. Laura told m...

According to the tape just released about a half hour ago, Osama bin Laden is threatening the U.S. again. He claims that we have not been attacked because Al Quaeda has been making preparations, not because of our heightened security. The tape comes out on the heels of our recent strike that killed some of his top people . The tape is said to be dated in December. In the tape, Osama offers a truce so that he can rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan, in his image, of course. He also criticizes Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of operations in Iraq, as going too far by attacking civilians. This could be a wedge that can be used to destabilize Al Qaeda. Al Jazeera recently ran an article in which they believed that bin Laden may have died in April. The tape, if authentic, would be definite proof that bin Laden is still alive and still a threat to the United States. It will be interesting to watch how national Dems spin this. On the one hand, George Bush is accused of going too far in fighting the t...

I was just reading today's Rumbo, pg 4. The piece is put inside a picture frame with Eddie Lucio, III in focus and Eddie Lucio, Jr. in the background. The article is more about other families in the Rio Grande Valley that have a tendency to run for elected offices. At first, the article leads you into thinking that if you want to run for office in the RGV, you need to seek the permission of the Flores-Salinas in western Hidalgo County; the Palacios in the Pharr area; and the Vela and Gonzalez in Cameron County. The article also mentions the Lucios and the Hinojosas who are showing the start of family public service with Eddie Lucio, III and Laura Hinojosa. At the end of the article, however, Laura Isensee writes that getting the blessing of the prominent families in the RGV is a thing of the past due to our increasing and increasingly diverse population. Now, before running for office, candidates go to these families out of respect. The reason for doing this is that although they ...

Yesterday, I met my professor for Business Law at UTPA. He is a practicing attorney who likes teaching as a hobby. It was an interesting class. We did not go into any heavy duty arguments. Mostly, we reviewed the syllabus and he prepared us for what is to come. One thing that struck a chord with me is that he brought a list of laws that are, to put it mildly, stupid. He suggested that as an attorney, he often has to work with the laws on the books whether he agrees with them or not. His point was, our governments sometimes pass laws that are really dumb. They stay on the books because nobody bothers to repeal them until somebody gets arrested for that crime. Another major point in class was that in business, you always have to be careful because you run the chance of being sued, or may be in a situation in which you have to sue somebody. It is for this reason that business schools require that students take a course in business law. This is a risk you take when you are in business. We...

I received an email from a French couple whose daughter, Pauline, goes to school here in Mission. They have asked if I can help find another host family for their daughter by the end of the month. She is in Mission until june and she wants to go to the end of her stay in the valley. But on the moment we think that she doesn't feel very well. We think she is stressed. So she needs to get an other environnement, to know new people and to live a new situation. But we don't know how to find a new host family, and it will be very difficult to find a new one. Perhaps you have got some news or you can send to us some useful information. Sorry to take your time once more, we thank you for your attention with our unusual request. Merci beaucoup, au plaisir de vous lire, à bientôt Marie et Marcelin in France So, if you are interested in hosting and exchange student until June, contact Marie and Marcelin at marcelin.petit2@wanadoo.fr .

Arturo Guajardo Jr. is said to be campaigning on county time by two of his rivals, Andrew Pérez and Joseph Campos. At the heart of the matter is that his website and push card have some similarities. Guajardo explains that the site came up first and he simply used some of that to make his push card. This doesn't sound serious. Andrew Pérez and Joseph Campos should have damning evidence when they allege this sort of thing. Show us some video or pics. Otherwise, it's petty.

Starting tomorrow, I will begin classes at the University of Texas-Pan American . I have been out of school for the last 3 years, which will make going back a bit of a challenge. Especially with a morning Stats II class. I hardly remember Stats I. Consequently, my ability to keep up with what is going on in the Rio Grande Valley may suffer. I probably will not write long opinions as frequently. I will, however, write short opinions. I don't think I will be able to stay away from blogging. Blogging is like being a crack addict. I've spent many late nights getting my fix. I'll sneak a post here and there in free moments. My name is Shaine Mata, I am a blogaholic. After being really dissatisfied with my work situation and having limited options without a degree, I decided that going back to school is the only way to achieve the things I want. I am a business student, which means that I'm considered a professional nobody in the job market. In the Rio Grande Valley, everybod...

After writing the last post, it occurs to me that we really don't have true activists anymore. Martin Luther King, Jr. was an activist. Hugo Chavez was an activist. Malcolm X was a militant activist. Ghandi was an activist. In contrast, Jesse Jackson, the people pushing for the class action lawsuit, PETA, the environmental wackos, worker unions, and a host of other organizations are activist wannabees. What distinguishes the former from the latter is that the true activists sought to promote ideals for the betterment of all mankind. MLK peacefully brought attention to the injustice of the segregated south. He never thought that reciprocal violence was a solution. Ditto for Ghandi. Malcolm X actually did think violence was cool, but he mellowed out as he got older and changed his position. Hugo Chavez, I don't know. Unions actually did a lot of good when they first started. They all effectively brought attention to the plight of the oppressed. They made The Man see that what wa...

I was just reading an article in The Monitor about the people involved in "helping" the residents around the contaminated pesticide plant in Mission, Texas. I wrote about this earlier in another post . This is turning into a mess. To summarize the article, Mauro Reyna, who is running for Hidalgo County District Attorney, paid Ester Salinas, a very prominent "activist" in bringing attention to the plight of the families living in and around the contaminated plant. He says he paid her "a lot of money". Reyna is suing a long list of companies with the help of our County Judge, Ramon Garcia. Garcia claims to not be involved with whatever agreement Reyna had with Salinas. Attorneys are not permitted to share attorney's fees with non attorneys. So, Reyna's contract with Salinas is argued to be void. Whatever payments she received are said to be for hourly work. Our current DA, Rene Guerra, understandably will not investigate Reyna. I say understandably ...

I received this anonymous art in my email. It is a pic of Omar Guerrero, the current Hidalgo County District Clerk. I was going to trash it, but there is no specific bias for or against Omar in the picture, so I decided it couldn't hurt to post it for the public. If you read the papers, you know that this was in The Monitor from his court appearance. But, in art, it has another quality to it. He has an almost pensive, peaceful look. I was born without talent, but I appreciate the work of others. Good job anonymous artist.

I live in Mission, Texas, where a pesticide plant was recently "discovered" to have dangerous levels of chemicals in the soil. Here are a couple of articles: Chemical plant report public City, owner idle after EPA report’s unveiling I'm going to get hate mail and be quoted out of context. I just can't help wondering at the absurdity of it all. But, here goes. Have you ever seen Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979)? Towards the end of the movie, while Brian is being carried off for crucifixion, the Judean People's Front and the People's Front of Judea are arguing about which action to take. They know they have to do something, but they can't come to agreement about what should be done. They are stuck in committee waiting to come to some consensus. In the meantime, Brian is being hoisted up on timbers. This is what the whole situation reminds me of in Mission, Tx. This IS a criticism of the people involved in the whole mess. Here is my criticism. There ...

Today I did a little bit of work, not too much. After work, I went to pick up my children from Grandma's and took them with me. I had some signs to deliver and something to pick up. Sally was dressed really nice, so I think they were going to some event tonight. I delivered the signs and could not determine what to pick up, so I'll try again tomorrow.

You need to read Grits for Breakfast to know what I'm talking about in this comment. I think the Australian example was a good one. He does agree that rear-endings and similar accidents increased, but " FATALITIES and INJURIES AVOIDED vs additional injuries from rear end collisions were weighted according to economic costs associated with each". The argument of equal protection under the law when weighing the guaranteed $75 fine versus a POSSIBLE $200 fine has one shortcoming, these are punishments, not protections. Whether it's a $75 fine or a $200 fine, the PUBLIC is equally protected by keeping inconsiderate drivers from running red lights, in general. That's equal protection. So, it causes a few fender benders. It also helps save lives and serious injuries. In an accident, you take your car to the shop and it's fixed. One-time expense and it's over. People, on the other hand, may require hospitalization, home health care, physical therapy, or any com...

Aaron Peña has posted his second Audio Blog. This is a great addition to his effort to keep the public informed about issues important to him. Way to go Aaron! I think that you will find that prior to the audio blogging, Aaron found his "voice" in his blog. This refers to the style of writing that he brings forth. You know when somebody is pushing PR crap your way. You don't get that sensation when you read his blog. With voice, you can really tell if somebody is feeding you a bunch of BS. Again, you don't get that when you hear him post an audio entry. This will, no doubt, bring The Rep closer to his constituents and followers of his blog. This is a great move on his part.

I didn't make it to the campaign today. I stood them up; sorry Laura, Sally, Michael, Michael, and Michael (seriously, there's three of them). They have some work lined up for me already. I get out of work at three tomorrow, so I'll be going over. A friend of mine with ties to Omar Guerrero wants me to take him a Laura Hinojosa lawn sign. He's gonna get some grief about it; but, he's committed to change. So, I'll be glad to drop off the sign.

I have not had a chance to go to the Laura Hinojosa Campaign HQ this week. I wanted to go to the meet and greet on Friday night at España, but could not find somebody to watch the kids and still had to work. I called in to find out what's going on. One of the Michaels was busy making signs. I'll be going in to make signs tomorrow. I hear that this Saturday one of our block walkers filed a police report against another in San Juan. It was reported that somebody from Robert Mendoza's camp came up to the block walker and snatched away some push cards. I'll try to get details later. In other news, the politiqueras are already making their rounds asking for money. Of course, Laura wants nothing to do with them. She was against the practice before Juan Maldonado came out against them this week. By chance, we were talking about politiqueras last week. It appears that if you don't play ball with them, they hold a grudge against you. It just occurred to me that if you are b...

January 09,2006 Victoria Hirschberg The Monitor EDINBURG — It could be weeks before Hidalgo County District Clerk Omar Guerrero enters a courtroom following his November arrest for driving while intoxicated and possession of marijuana. The case is currently under review in District Attorney Rene Guerra’s office and has not been assigned to a court yet. Guerra said he will wait for a chemical analysis of the substance McAllen police officers found in Guerrero’s vehicle, which is registered to the district clerk’s father. Guerrero, 28, was arrested the morning of Nov. 30, when officers said he showed up disoriented at a crime scene they were working, with bloodshot eyes and slurred speech. The elected official refused a blood test, citing his beliefs in the ancient African religion Ifa. Guerrero is seeking his second term and faces Laura Hinojosa and Robert Mendoza in the March 7 Democratic Primary. His attorney, Al Alvarez, said it is unlikely Guerrero will even have a hearing before...

I was just visiting Michelle Malkin's blog and read this article about the tire slashers in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It just goes to show that the Rio Grande Valley is not the only place with election problems.

For a while, this blog required all comments to be from members of blogger.com. This was because it attracted comment spammers. Recently, Blogger introduced comment moderation, which allows me to delete the spam. If you wish to opine anonymously, go right ahead. So long as your comment does not have spam in it, I will post it (even the haters). I may disagree with you, but I'll still approve your anonymous comment. Of course, I'd prefer comments from people who are not afraid to voice their opinion openly. However, if you feel you need anonymity, I'll respect that. Let me hear from you.

I have linked to the Rumbo article about the race for Hidalgo County Judge between Judge Ramon Garcia and J.D. Salinas. Some readers may not be able to read Spanish very well, so I'll roughly translate the article. The article starts off with an introduction of Judge Ramon Garcia. The Judge states that his success is evident by Hidalgo County's financial state. According to Garcia, the county has had the best budget in 153 years. He goes on to cite the 2003 budget, which was $87 million with a $5.3 million emergency fund. Compare that with this year's budget of $122 million with a $13 million emergency fund. J. D. Salinas, who quit his post as Hidalgo County Clerk in order to run for Hidalgo County Judge, claims that the county is losing state and federal funds. The article mentions a $6 million loss, but fails to specify what the loss was. In continuation, J.D. has seen the county lose millions of dollars by not spending the state and federal funds. Garcia counters that ...

I was just reading on Taegan Goddard's Political Wire that Rick Perry, Governor Goodhair, as Sergio Sanchez from KURV calls him, is ahead in the polls. The article quotes a Rasmussen Report that polled the four-way Texas race for governor. I know that there are many Democrat readers of this blog who are wondering why I would support Rick Perry. Well, for one, I'm conservative. Mostly, I support Perry because he has been working to get things done for Texas. The main issues to me are Education Reform and Fiscal Responsibility. There is only so much that a Governor can do with respect to these issues. For those of you who remember learning about Texas Government, the Texas Governor is weak. Most of the work goes on in the legislature and by the Lieutenant Governor. You say that the Governor has failed to properly fund education? Baloney. All he can do is sign a bill. The Texas legislature has failed to properly fund education. Remember the special sessions the Governor called s...

So, I was chatting with John Kerry's anonymous foreign leaders. As you know, you can walk into any restaurant in McAllen and run into a foreign leader. Anyway, they tell me that asking readers to name candidates or officials who will be arrested, indicted, come under suspicion, or under investigation could be libelous. These foreign officials tell me that I ought to change the game a little and ask readers to guess how long it will be before one of our local officials falls into one of those situations. I agree. I don't want to embarrass anybody by being listed as a dirty politician by a reader. I understand that it's not libel if it's true, but I don't have the means to investigate false accusations. So, here it is. How to Play the Game You must leave a comment with your guess as to when a local official from Hidalgo, Cameron, or Starr County will fall into one of these categories: arrested indicted under investigation under suspicion The official can work for the ...

A CAPITOL BLOG: Rio Grande Guardian: Hidalgo County Democratic Party Chairman Takes On Politiqueras I was just reading Aaron Pena's blog and came across this story where Juan Maldonado, the Hidalgo County Democratic Party Chairman is taking on the use of politiqueras by members of the party. This is a good step forward for the Rio Grande Valley because our region is basically one party without any Republican challengers this year. The Valley draws attention and embarrasses itself every time we have crooked elections. We have to stop doing those tlaquachadas . The politiqueras are especially shameless to be preying on old people. I'm trying to figure out how to do something I put on my comment in Aaron's Blog. I want to take submissions by the public as which of our elected officials will be arrested, indicted, or come under investigation or suspicion in 2006. When I asked a friend earlier, she could not tell me who, but she had no doubt that somebody would. According to her...

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I added the candidate and office sites to the sidebar to make it easier for readers to find information.

Front page news on The Monitor today has the news posted last night about Jessica Reyes-Martinez being taken off the Democratic ballot by the Juan Maldonado. Apparently, she did not fill in her address completely, only writing in "Weslaco, Tx". This was enough to disqualify her. The move was a technicality which has probably saved other races and the Democratic Party of Hidalgo some headaches over the next couple of months. Imagine having to not only have to run against your opponent in the public's eye, but having to run against that story for press coverage.

Last we heard, officially, Jessica Reyes-Martinez, wife of Rep. Mando Martinez, was in the race against her husband for his seat. I heard it mentioned, today, that Juan Maldonado, Hidalgo County Party Chairman, took her off the primary ballot. Earlier, he had taken her off, then reversed his decision by keeping her on. Will he change his mind again? Hopefully not. The race between those two threatened to eclipse the messages of other races. Now after reversing his decision to take her off, then back on, and off again, Maldonado has made it an even bigger deal. The press would have great fun with the story. As it is, blog searches for Hidalgo County turn up story after story about the race. I thought this post was funny. I would agree that Sen. Joe Lieberman is not the most liberal of Democrats, but to include a couple of our Texas reps? I bet this has to do with CAFTA. Our region depends on import/export, which CAFTA facilitates. Besides, I have more respect for Reps who don't vot...

Today, I went into the campaign headquarters a little late, around 4:30. Things did not work out for putting up signs, so Sally suggested I do a couple other things. I'd really been wanting to go at the lawn signs. So, I set a goal of making 500 lawn signs. I got them all done using my patented ass-kicking process. I bet I could beat that with more time. So, I'll go back and work at making more signs. Afterwards, I got to watch Laura and Sally hammer out the details for the January schedule. By the sound of it, January will be quite hectic for the team. For now, I can only watch and learn. Announcements There are a couple of things of note. One is that the campaign will begin block walking in San Juan, Tx on Saturday, January 7th. If you wish to volunteer, you should be at the campaign headquarters by 9:30 AM. The address is 120 N 17th ST, McAllen, TX 78501. The other item of note is that if you are a college student, you are able to apply for a mail-in ballot so that you can v...

If you would like to meet Laura Hinojosa, candidate for Hidalgo County District Clerk, she will be present at España on January 6, 2006 during the McAllen Artwalk. España will be serving Paella to guests. The McAllen Artwalk is scheduled from 6 pm to 10 pm. Laura will be glad to meet with you and answer any questions about her campaign or about the office she seeks. Some of the highlights of the McAllen Artwalk will include España, Nuevo Santander Gallery, Jac-Lin's Florist, Art House, Casa Antigua, The Loft, Upper Valley Art League, Douglas Clark, S. Klein Gallery, U.S. Post Office, Fiorella Restaurant, and the Texas Commission of the Arts. Other scheduled Artwalk dates are February 3rd and March 3rd.

Now that the panic is over on President Bush's unwarranted wiretaps , I want to explain why it was not and is not a big deal. The argument is that if he is able to wiretap American citizens, he does not have to stop with terrorists, he can wiretap any of us. This is true to a certain extent. He technically can do this. But, think about what you talk about on the phone. The vast majority of us talk about nothing really important. GW doesn't want to know that Tia Lencha has toenail fungus. He doesn't want to know that you're out of milk and Pedro should bring some on his way home from work. There is so much minutae in our everyday phone conversations that it is silly to think that any one of us could be a target. Are all of us terrorists? No, of course not. Then what have we to fear? What generally stops our intelligence services like the CIA and NSA from tapping American citizens is simply a legal demarcation. Intelligence can intercept and use information outside of the...

Here are some blog entries that I found about elections in the Rio Grande Valley. Off the Kuff This story was in The Monitor today. It's about Rep. Armando Martinez and wife Jessica Reyes-Martinez. There are more blogs like it. I was at the event, but had to leave early, so I did not get to hear everybody speak. Link Here . Link Here . And on and on. This is popular in the RGV political blogs. It's one of those things that will probably drown out other campaigns for a while. Valley in Exile has an entry about the pathetic state of the Republican Party in the Rio Grande Valley. Not one Republican. Here's Aaron Peña's take on the matter . Then, of course, there is information about Chris Bell stopping by the Valley in The Monitor . He was also interviewed by Davis Rankin on KURV, yesterday I think.