Early voting begins next Monday, May 1.  The general election will be Saturday, May 13.  Now don’t whine, here’s a link to early voting sites and elections, courtesy of the Wilco Elections Division. 

To recap:

If you live in Austin or Round Rock, you get to vote on a host of propositions.  If you live in Austin’s ETJ, you vote only on Proposition 2. 

If you live in Austin, Bartlett, Cedar Park, Florence, Georgetown, Granger, Hutto, Jarrell, Leander, Liberty Hill, Round Rock, Taylor, or Thrall, you get to choose a couple of Mayors and some city council members.

If your schools are in the ACC District, or the Bartlett, Coupland, Florence, Granger, Hutto, Jarrell, Leander, Liberty Hill, Pflugerville, Round Rock, Taylor or Thrall ISDs, you get to pick your school board members and for or against some bond propositions.

If your utilities are from the Anderson Mill, Blockhouse, Brushy Creek, Chisholm Trail, Fern Bluff, Springwoods, the Ranch at Cypress Creek #1, Upper Brushy Creek, Wells Branch, Wilco-Travis #1, or Wilco #s 9, 10, or 16 MUDs or SUDs, you get to select your MUD/SUD puppies directors.

If you live in the Round Rock area, you get to decide if you want to establish the Emergency Services District #9.

In other words, if you breathe Wilco air, you probably need to vote somewhere in May.  Don’t forget.

We don’t post information about political or charitable fundraisers.  However, we decided to pass on information about one we believe is absolutely exceptional, courtesy of the Round Rock Leader.

Vern Ridings, 69, Marine, and Viet Nam veteran, is requesting funds for the Marine Corps League Wilco Detachment # 1022 in Georgetown.  Ridings is the fleet manager at Covert’s in Hutto.  The Detachment Commandant, Clifton Williams, will use the funds to purchase the materials to make blankets for wounded soldiers at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio.  His wife, Marie, hand sews each fleece blanket.

For those of you not familiar with BAMC, it houses a level-one trauma unit and the best burn treatment center in the country, if not the world.  It won’t cost you a lot to give up smokes or sodas for a week or two and send the money to Vern, but it will help a wounded soldier rest a little easier during a painful recovery.

Semper Fi.

Melissa Beaudoin is on the front page of the Hill Country News.  Again.  (see Close Enough for Government Work - Feb 2, The Third Degree - Mar 4, and You Go Girl - Mar 16)

*This* time, her opponent in the Cedar Park city council race, Glen Fine, filed a complaint with the Texas Ethics Commission when one of her contributors, the general purpose HERO PAC (Help Elect Responsible Officials), failed to file the required financial reports.  You have to take Fine’s word for it because the Texas Ethics Commission won’t ever say if a complaint has or hasn’t been filed.

We thought we’d save you some trouble and link to the reports so you don’t have to look them up yourself. 

The January 15 semi-annual report  began October 13, 2005.  That’s when the PAC was created.  Phil Duprey was the campaign treasurer and reported the PAC received $580 in contributions from Henry Mayes ($100), Kyle Hickham ($100)  Fred Sides ($100), Hicks Construction ($100), Texas Technologies ($80), and Duprey Enterprises ($100).  The PAC gave Iris Davis $100 for her Leander city council race.

The 30 day report covered the time period Jan 16 through April 13.  The new treasurer is Bobby Stephens and indicated former Cedar Park Mayor Bob Young as the #1 contributor.  He gave $750.00.  The other five contributors were Bob Stephens ($100), Fred Sides ($500), John Pieratt ($250), Jeff Bartlett ($250), and Gary Brown ($250).  According to the report, the PAC gave mayoral candidate Phil Duprey $1,200, Melissa Beaudoin got $500, and Iris Davis got $100.

Let’s take a pencil to it.  The first report indicated the PAC took in $580 and gave away $100.  That left a balance of $480.  But the report indicated there was no cash on hand at the end of the reporting period.  Interesting.  The second report indicated the PAC took in $2,100 and gave away $1,800.  That left a balance of $300.  Very interesting.  The reports don’t show where any of that left over $780 went.  For those of you who don’t want to do the math, that’s 29% of the funds unaccounted for.

Phil Duprey told the Hill Country News he resigned as PAC treasurer on March 13th, to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest.  Actually, the appearance of a special interest might be more like it because the HERO PAC gave his campaign $1,000 just 10 days later, on March 23rd.

Now remember, the stated purpose of this PAC is to elect responsible officials.  What they are supposed to be responsible for is anyone’s guess.  We’re not real sure how they define responsible either.  Remember you get to vote for - or against - these guys (or gals) in your city elections next month.

George Santayana once wrote that those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them.  While channel surfing earlier today, we ran across a commentary by Harvey Kronberg, publisher of the Quorum Report that reminds us of that very thing. 

We think Kronberg’s commentary is worth heeding. If you don’t catch it on News 8 Austin, check our link.  Some of us old timers remember what happened when the oil boom went bust before.  It took us decades to recover.

If we don’t heed the words of Santayana, Aldous Huxley’s quip will very likely prove true:  “The most important thing we learn from history is that we never learn from history.”

Samuel Langhorne Clemens once said the reports of his death were greatly exaggerated.

Craig Shirley, PR flak and author of Reagan’s Revolution, opined in the Washington Post that the GOP is in the throes of death due to the differences between the “elitist Rockefeller business wing and the party’s conservative populist base”.  According to Shirley, the Reagan Revolution is over, killed by a loss of faith in the principles of the party.

That may be true up there in Virginia, where his PR firm, Shirley & Bannister, hangs its’ shingle.  Perhaps Shirley has been buzzing the beltway a little too long.  We don’t think this is true in Texas and for definitedamsure it’s not true here in Wilco World.

We don’t think Shirley is all wet.  We certainly agree with his characterization of dimocrats as “feckless” and lacking a plan or agenda for their future.  Slackers.

I think we should invite Shirley to come on down to our RPT convention in June.  He can then see for himself if our GOP is on life support or not.  Better yet, he can hang around an extra week and check out the dimocrat convention. 

To paraphrase Mark Twain, we say:  Don’t write our epitaph just yet, yankee man.

Supporters of House Bills 1 & 2 are planning a rally at the Texas Capitol at 10:00 AM on Monday.  The Texas Tea Party is coordinated by RNC Committeewoman Denise McNamara and Conservative Activist Gina Parker, who oppose House Bills 3, 4, & 5.  They request you wear a tea bag on your lapel to show your support.   

You can watch the House of Representatives fireworks on-line in realtime or on Austin access TV.  As of Friday, there were 124 amendments filed for these five bills.  Then, there’s that pesky procedural rule change limiting amendments that will really ramp up the action.

We recommend a family-sized tea bag.

It’s *really* hard to blog when you’re laughing so hard you can’t see the keyboard. 

According to Reuters, dimocrat loser pinata John Kerry is “thinking hard” about running for the 2008 dimocrat presidential nomination.  We understand thinking is hard for you, Senator, but you just keep on thinking.

Bwah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

UPDATE  UPDATE  UPDATE:   You know you’re in baaaad shape when even your home-town columnists don’t like your chances at getting in the White House other than as part of a guided tour.  Boston Globe opinionist Ellen Goodman admits she voted for uber-whiner Kerry SIX times for senator.  While she might be a tad slow when it comes to some things, she exhorts her homie to sit out the presidential race this time.  She then procedes to remind everybody why he’s such a great pinata lousy presidential candidate.  With friends like this, who needs enemies??

Precinct One Constable Gary Griffin was back on the carpet, hat in hand, facing the Gang of Four on Tuesday.  Yep, the same Constable that is suing the County for transferring seven of his deputies to the Sheriff’s Office after he refused to serve mental health warrants last October (see February’s King’s X).

The Round Rock Leader reported Griffin approached the Gang of Four in December with his request for more deputies, even though he no longer is responsible for mental health duties.  His request was denied and commissioners asked him to provide them with more data about his remaining activities. 

In November, Precinct One JP Dain Johnson moved his warrant services from the Precinct Four Constable’s Office over to Griffin’s office, creating an even bigger backlog in Griffin’s Office. Now, Johnson has joined Griffin in a whine fest about how he can’t get his work done.  Griffin did admit the other Constables have small or no backlogs.

Griffin’s “conspiracy” lawsuit against the County is still pending. Assistant County Attorney Dale Rye says it will cost the County more money to litigate the suit than the cost of adding deputies.  But that is really a non-issue, because Griffin has said through his attorney, Bill Aleshire, that he is not going to drop the lawsuit even if he gets the deputies he wants.  That said, the County Attorney’s Office is absolutely correct continuing to vigorously defend the County from this frivolous lawsuit. 

When you get right down to it, the bottom line in all this is Griffin’s ability - or inabilitiy - to manage his department and deputies in an efficient, cost effective manner.  He’s got three more years left in his term to figure it out.  Maybe Griffin can get some pointers from our other Constables, who seem to be able to run their offices just fine.  The Gang of Four is to be commended for standing up to Griffin’s bullying.

We knew we could count on our fearless Leader!  Thursday’s top story is a follow-up piece by Lauri Zachry about RRISD school board candidate Karl Falken - AKA: Carl Fork (see School Daze).  According to Zachry, this guy used yet another name alias - Marty Simpson, when he introduced himself to kindergarten teacher Memory Meyers.  Is this guy trying to give she-who-will-not-be-named a run for the money in the names department, or what?

Zachry interviewed Roger Shepard, the father of the student, who was quite disturbed when Fork Simpson Falken gave his phone number to his daughter.  He is even more disturbed to learn Fork Simpson Falken is running for school board and wants him out of the race.

Fork Simpson Falken now says he had a “medical mishap” in 2002 which caused a seizure, thus enabling him to “relate” to the child.  The candidate characterized the accusations made by the child and her father as “absurd”.  Fork Simpson Falken claims he was “discarded” as a substitute teacher because of the “emotional and misinformed outburst of a single parent” and the “unreasoning fears of the administration”.

Yeah, we guess school administrators are unreasonable when it comes to keeping substitute teachers from hitting on 6-year-old little girls.  Think he bothered to report his seizure-causing “medical mishap” to the DPS?  Maybe he is still driving around, subject to seizures that make him give his phone number to little girls.  Who knows.

You get to decide whether you want what’shisname or Diana Maldonado responsible for the safety and education of your 6-year-olds when you vote in the RRISD elections on May 13.

We read the comment from Right of Texas, correcting another comment about former RINO, traitor she-who-will-not-be-named running dead last in the polls.  We found the results of the March Zogby poll, as posted in the Wall Street Journal.  With a +/- 3.5 % margin or error:

Perry  36.3% (down slightly)   Bell  20.7% (up slightly)   SWWNBN  19% (down slightly)    Kinky  16.6% (up slightly).

This gubernatorial landscape will change, pending the outcome of the petition drives by the independent candidates.  As there are no statutory provisions for a runoff in a general election, the candidate with the most votes wins, end of story.  Theoretically, you could have a 26% winner.

We know candidates have more recent polling numbers, but we aren’t privy to them.  If you are, by all means, send them to us via our TIPS email.  Keep those cards and letters coming in.

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE:  The April 20 Rasmussen poll of 500 likely voters gives Perry 40%, SWWNBN 19%, Bell 17%, and Kinky 15%.  This poll is significantly smaller than the Zogby poll and has a greater margin of error  +/- 4.5%.