Vast Write Wing - October 2011

[lwoolley]

Hello Lynn,

Thank you for allowing me to share my experience at the poll with your listeners on yesterday. I mentioned my ballot surprise and said I’d find out more information and I spent the rest of the day doing that.

As I stated there were four, not five, council members on the ballot issued to me. My ballot contained council members Cole, Cosper, Workman, and Rivera. Councilman Wells was not on my ballot because I do not reside in his district. I was eligible to sign Mr. Well’s recall petition.

Deemed eligible to sign petitions to recall any or all council member’s petition suggested an opportunity to vote for any or all would follow. I reasoned that my signature on any or all petitions counted toward the 1050 signature threshold required to place a council member on the for recall.

Per section 113 of the Killeen City Charter, a valid petition contains signatures of 51% of the total qualified electors in the last election of four council members. There were 2057 total votes in May 2009 city election. If 2057 is the total number of votes cast in the previous election and is the basis of the 51% signature threshold (1050), it reasons citizens are eligible to vote any or all council members in this recall election, without consideration given to the district in which they reside.

If this is not the case, arguably, the 1050 signatures per council member’s petition were ambitious and astronomically inflated by the city, achieved nonetheless. Signature thresholds proportional to the total votes cast per council member resembles reality. Citizens’ balloted council members for recall with disproportionally higher numbers than council members garnered votes to attain office in 2009.

Signature thresholds should have varied for each council member rather than the uniformed requirement given to attain. It may be argued that the true signature threshold was proportional, percentage wise, to the total votes cast per individual council member. For example, if the total votes cast for a council member was 413, 51% equates to 211 valid signatures needed to recall that council member, not 1050.

--

Jonathan

[lwoolley]

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1011/66724.html

I think Rove is a Progressive Liberal who will do anything to prevent a true Conservative from getting into office. He would prefer Obama to Palin, Santorum, or Cain.

Rayford

[lwoolley]

Neal Bortz....self destruction of a once prominent conservative talk show hosts?

First of all he has never been conservative. He always claim to be a libertarian.

Second this view of his on abortion is not new. He is not self destructing. He has always had
this view.

I listened to him years ago and this is the same rot I heard back then. He has many twisted
and hateful views. He has the same thing to say about them all. He gets very vicious and tells
them to not listen if they don't like it. He doesn't just give his opinion, he gives it with a snide and
hateful attitude.

He is all for homosexuality.

He is very much against the seniors getting their social security.

If I remember correctly, he is also an atheist.

Nothing but mockery. I turned him off and haven't listened to him since.

I kept wondering why you, Lynn, gave him so much credit and called him your good friend.

To say the least, I can't stand him or his voice. He sounds like he has a wad of cotton in his throat.

SAM

[lwoolley]

"Jonathan Okray" <jokray.jo@gmail.com>

The steady stream of people showing up Monday morning for early voting in Killeen could portend that the five month delay in holding the city council recall election has neither dimmed peoples' memories nor curbed their interest in this hot-button issue. The ballot, however, is bringing an “October surprise” that seems another example of governmental self-protectionist tactics trumping any apparent obligation toward protecting taxpayer interests - the very issue that prompted the recall election!

Five Killeen city council members currently face recall. This election stems from action taken last spring when the council first voted to spend $750,000 buying out the employment contract of former City Manager Connie Green and then resisted providing a credible explanation to outraged tax payers.

Motivated by the council's lack of transparency and non-responsiveness to taxpayer concerns, Killeen resident Jonathan Okray initiated a petition drive to force a recall election. Okray worked with city officials to learn the rules and procedures associated with this effort. Based on Okray's efforts, all seven council members initially faced recall, but one was defeated in a May re-election bid and another has since resigned leaving the fate of five remaining council members - at-large council members Larry Cole, Mayor Pro-Tem Scott Cosper and Billy Workman plus district members Kenny Wells and Juan Rivera - to be determined.

At the recall petition drive's onset, Okray had to identify the number of petition signatures needed for each city council member and who would be eligible to sign each petition. Killeen's seven member council comprises four district and three at-large members.

"When starting the petition effort, the city of Killeen first said that residents could only sign petitions for their district council member along with the three at-large members," Okray said. "After we questioned the signature threshold, the city reversed their prior position and said that all residents were eligible to sign any or all petitions."

Deeming residents eligible to sign petitions to recall any or all council members suggests an opportunity to vote for recalling any or all would follow. Instead, current ballots offer all voters the opportunity to recall the three at-large council members - Larry Cole, Mayor Pro-Tem Scott Cosper and Billy Workman – while the remaining two district councilmembers facing recall – Kenny Wells and Juan Rivera – will only be voted on within their districts.

Continuity is important and lacking in this process. And whether by accident or design, this void could significantly alter the entire recall effort. Here's how. Okray was told he needed 1,050 signatures per council member. This number was derived per city charter language which says a valid petition contains signatures of 51% of the total qualified electors in the last election of four council members.

With that, city officials used the 2,057 votes cast in the May 2009 city election as the basis for Okray's 1,050 signature threshold. With this basis, the city created a reasonable expectation that use of citywide numbers positioned this as a citywide recall effort and further reasons that citizens would be eligible to vote for recall of any or all council members without consideration given to the district in which they reside.

If this is not the case - which based on the current ballot, it's not - Okray characterizes the 1,050 threshold as "ambitious and astronomically inflated by the city, but achieved nonetheless." Instead, Okray contends, signature thresholds proportional to the total votes cast per council member should have been used.

Again, it's about consistency. If you use total votes cast as a basis for petition signatures to recall all council members, then all voters should be allowed to vote for all council members. If you use each members individual vote total, then voters should be allowed to vote for the at-large members and their respective district member.

What difference does this really make? These council members were elected in some cases with voting totals in the hundreds, not thousands. If the total votes cast for a district council member was 413, 51% equates to 211 valid signatures needed to recall that council member - quite a difference from 1,050.

The election ballot now precluding voters from weighing in on recalling all the council positions renders some voters' petition signatures meaningless. It also positions district council members in potentially “safer” electoral environments than their at-large counterparts.

"This entire situation is a result of inconsistencies in the city charter," Okray said. "A lack of continuity within the 2005 process which established the four council districts and three at-large positions is now working to the advantage of councilmembers Wells and Rivera. This is not the first time the city has changed the rules along the way."

A likely outcome of this election configuration is that the limited voting base will allow the two district members to avoid recall while all three at-large members will be ousted from office. This would leave four members intact, allow the council to maintain its quorum and "business as usual."

Killeen voters responded to the recall petitions out of frustration with a city council members seemingly more attuned to their own agendas than to taxpayer interests. In a city with a history of resisting accountability to taxpayers, might this ballot issue be another cause for concern? It's a fair question and one that will be answered soon enough as early voting continues ahead of the Nov. 8 election.

[lwoolley]

James:

To Whom It May Concern:

In 1964, Gov. Romney, R Michigan & Nelson Rockefeller R NY, led the white shoe boys out of the Cow Palace in San Francisco in a boycott of Sen. Barry Goldwater R Az. at the GOP convention. Thus, they set in motion the downfall of conservatives in the USA. Instead they permitted the rise of LBJ & the ghost of FDR & CPUSA & the progressives. We have yet to recover.
Mr. Romney is a white Obama. Or maybe he’s a Sen. John Kerry... “I was for it before I was against it!”

[lwoolley]

Terry Leafty <letsrodeo@yahoo.com>

Oil wells in the Permian-Basin are being shut off because the the holding tanks are OVERFLOWING with oil becuase so much oil is being produced here (why the heck are still buying so much foreign oil?) Major players like Conoco-Philips are terminating contracts and stopping buying of oil.

[lwoolley]

om hughes <thughes003@gmail.com>

I heard on another call in station that not only are illegals eligble for in-state tuition, but they are also eligble for education grants. This means that we the tax payer are paying for their free education.

I hope I heard this correctly.

[lwoolley]

http://www.window.state.tx.us/specialrp ... /intro.php

This report by Susan Combs details the types of jobs kids should be looking to fill.

The State of Texas only needs 10% college grads. We need many more semi-skilled/technicians than college grads.

It is an eye opening report that should have much more play than it has ebver gotten!

Belinda

The State of NY has adopted a new sex Ed. curriculum. That is what Hannity was addressing yesterday.
It is geared toward 12 year olds!

[lwoolley]

Member of a Group:
Get out and vote NOW.... Vote NO on the Recall.... If you vote yes, we will find you and report you to Social Services to have your "Aid package" cut off.... You know who we are.... BEWARE.....


The above was posted this morning on the newspaper comment section pertaining to the RECALL VOTE.

Texas Today: Early voting totals
http://www.kdhnews.com/news/story.aspx?s=61815

It sounds similar to what the new black panthers were doing in Pa.
I think its against the law.

[lwoolley]

Good Morning Lynn,

I am “Occupy Eddy”… Having watched the unwashed masses of Occupy Wall Street, Oakland, Atlanta, etc. It was a revelation to me that there was no body engaged in an “Occupy Eddy” movement. While there are no banks or brokerage houses in Eddy, and there are no commodity exchanges or stock and merger deals done at the Starbucks (we don’t have a Starbucks), Eddy should not be without the sort of grassroots movement encouraged by Unions, anarchists, communists and other “stellar” citizen groups. OK – Eddy has two convenience store/gas stations, we have a Family Dollar, but capitalist pigs are building a new one because the I-35 construction is going to take the old one. We have a part-time restaurant, a tack store and a car repossession firm. Surely there must be something an intellectual liberal of the protestor persuasion could find to center a protest around.

I am 55, employed, a Veteran, husband, father, grandfather, dog owner, etc. – somehow I have lived my entire life without the opportunity to be part of a meaningless protest movement of out of work (probably by choice or that there is no way anyone would hire these idiots) protestors. While I have no idea what in the world they are protesting or what their demands are or how they will measure success or how they will seek to end their protests or what they will move to after the weather gets crappy in New York – I do know that Eddy could be the perfect mecca for fair weather encampments, friendly Texas hospitality to northern outsiders, and we no doubt could use the influx of Union and Democratic cash that would accompany such a protest operation.

If the weather holds and I have nothing better to do on a Thursday evening, I might even be curious enough to drive by an “Occupy Eddy” event – they could hold it at the Bruceville-Eddy community shelter near the City Hall on the I-35 access road – if it fails they could transform it into a yard sale and probably attract 10 times the amount of people in attendance.

This would be the best opportunity to show off our new street sign format with the new city logo on them… We are progressive! So – in the spirit of expanding the occupy-whatever-city-you-are-in protest movement, why not come to Eddy?

Power to the people – see you in Eddy!

Respectfully,
Jeff McKasson
SAMS - Facility Planner
Central Texas Veterans Health Care System

[lwoolley]

Lynn,

In 2008 it was McCain. In the 1990's it was McDole. Now we have McRomney! It's deja vu all over again!

Jim
Temple

[lwoolley]

KEN FRASER <kandlfraser@hotmail.com>

i just got my first order of jerky and opened it while at the post office and ate several pieces right there. another satisfied customer from the GREAT LYNN WOOLLY SHOW. PASS IT ON TO PONDEROSA THANKS KEN

[lwoolley]

SOL,
I remember a comic strip satire about Fearless Fosdick, General Bullmoose, and SWINE. Wasn’t this from the fertile mind of Al Capp? The General Bullmoose character is circumstantial evidence that Al was acquainted with my father-in-law. SWINE was the acronym of a protest group……..Students Wildly Indignant (about) Nearly Everything. Perhaps you could link SWINE with Occupy Wall Street………if you haven’t already done so.
USL

[lwoolley]

I have to side with Ben. If the NFL wants to redistribute resources, as a corporation it can. If walmart wanted to send resources to beef up an under performing store you wouldn't complain about that. Like the show even when we are discussing pointless things.

-Bodie

Sent from my iPhone

[lwoolley]

Lynn-
Thanks for the flush. Halleluah.
Round Rock Ron

Ps- Its too bad Frank didn’t shoot himself first.