Common Sense Citizen Organization

Sara Legvold sends word that she is having an organizational meeting Monday night at the Golden Coral in Keller from 7:00pm to 8:30 for a new Common Sense Citizen Organization for the 76262 Zip Code.  As I have a P&Z Meeting Monday, I can’t attend.  If one of the readers has a chance to go to the meeting and post up details it would be appreciated.

As Predicted

Bud Kennedy comes out and says those Tea Party guys are nuts (he even throws out rage in the title) and in turn Giovanni is a nut.  All is great with Vicki Truitt.  Could have seen this a mile away in a snow storm, when will the FWST get a decent columnist to cover NE Tarrant County?

Stuck for a gift idea?Can’t figure out what to give grumpy Uncle Barney or paranoid Aunt Ethel?

Give the gift everybody wants this year.

His or her very own Tea Party.

Everybody in Tarrant County seems to be throwing a Tea Party these days. Apparently, you just call yourself an Official Tea Party and then tell your neighbors to trust everything you post on Facebook.

Southlake alone has almost as many Tea Party groups as it has Starbucks stands.

This is important, because voting in the party primaries — which decides most Texas state and local offices — starts in nine weeks.

Tarrant County alone has at least four Tea Party-related factions (originally “Taxed Enough Already”), from Glenn Beck and Ron Paul libertarians to religious conservatives. There’s even one group of Confederate separatists.

The debate in Northeast Tarrant County isn’t over whether to split North and South. It’s over tea in Southlake.

A new club calling itself the NE Tarrant Tea Party — a subcommittee of the Dallas Tea Party — hosted a candidates forum Tuesday in Southlake to hear state House Rep. Vicki Truitt of Keller and a challenger, Giovanni Capriglione of Southlake.

But the NE Tarrant Tea Party is in no way connected to the Southlake Tea Party, which staged a patriotic rally April 15.

“I don’t know who this new group is,” said businessman Dick Morgan, founder of the Southlake Tea Party.

“I know who Vicki Truitt is. She stands for a lot of the things that I believe in and support.”

Tarrant County is already led by conservative Republican incumbents.

According to its Web site, the Dallas group’s goal is to retire incumbents.

Capriglione, 36, is a private equity professional who voted for Ron Paul in the party primary last year. He mostly criticizes Truitt for supporting a local-option vote to raise taxes and fees for better regional transportation.

Capriglione hosted a “Boiling Point Tea Party” last month in Keller.

In other words, any campaign rally is now a Tea Party.

At the Southlake forum, Capriglione stirred paranoia by predicting a secret transit tax election: “It will not be on a regular day and you won’t be told about it. The Star-Telegram is not going to tell you about it.”

By phone Thursday, he said he simply meant that the election won’t get much attention. “These scheme artists prey on people,” he said.

Truitt sees a different scheme.

“A lot of Tea Party people are genuinely concerned — they’re angry at what they see in Washington,” she said.

“But right now, they’re being manipulated, and they don’t see it yet.”

There’s a Tea Party born every minute.

Vicki Truitt Memory Lane

Let’s take a moment to go down memory lane and shine some light on why I think Ms. Truitt should be replaced as our State Representitive.

In tonight’s episode we go back to her Ethics complaint from 2007 in which she was accused of using campaign funds for housing to pay “rent” to her husband for a Condo that he owns.  She was cleared of any “wrong doing” because the Condo wasn’t in her name. 

It just so happens that the one document that could prove her claim went missing.  Sounds like the Rose Law Firm records, doesn’t it?

It really doesn’t matter to me that she was cleared of the complaint.  The whole deal of her and her husband gaming the system is reason enough for me to distrust her.  It doesn’t pass the smell test.

Tomorrow, we will go down memory lane on how Ms. Truitt doesn’t really care for bloggers, and what she tried to do to silence us.

Giovanni Speaks….

And I listen.  After Randy and I went back and forth a little in the comments of my previous post, I sent off an email to Giovanni and he responded with the following comment on the blog.

Hi there,
   You are right Randy; my job is to get the message out. I have sent out thousands of postcards, visited hundreds of likely voters at home, and so on, and the website is going through its hopefully last and best incarnation. I have been to dozens of Republican / Tea Party / 912 club events in the past few weeks – and one debate.

I have a great group of supporters and we have been working with volunteers. But the reality is that the district is large, and so we need more help.

My focus is on a smaller government, one that is limited not by whatever it can borrow and raise, but on metrics tied to population+inflation, constitutional authority, and vital need. 

We need to promote personal responsibility over nanny state governance. We have to talk about tort reform because of the fear of crushing liabilities – not just in the medical field. 

I believe that politicians can’t stand up to special interest groups because they need them for reelection.  Now that I have spent months researching voting records, the lines are easily drawn between PAC contributions and how items live and die in committee.

Votes up OR down, should list potential conflicts of interest. Our representatives should release their personal tax records to the public. The appearance of conflict destroys the morale of the voter.

I think term limits are a bad idea whose time may have come.  At the same time, the responsible party is apathy – and my goal is to educate voters, even if it means offending incumbents – and entrenched special interests.

I am for the strongest property rights – I try and think about what it would mean for me to have to give up my home for a new stadium, or even, a road. 

I believe that a local election is bad, not _just_ because it is a tax, but because we are not looking at the problem of diversion.
       
I am pro-life and something I look forward to the most in this campaign is having pro-life coffees.

Voters want their representatives to be accessible all the time (blogs facebook). This is an important customer service job.  All material, including responses to voters, should be easily and freely accessible. Anytime a question is asked it should go on a public “ticket” so voters know the Representatives response time. And the answers should be public as well.

We should not use taxpayer money to fund taxpayer lobbyists – the thought itself seems anti-democratic. Thomas Jefferson: “To compel a man to furnish contributions for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.”  How true, and it is happening here – in our cities – right now.

There is a lot of data to share with the public – because no one else has. Yet the challenge is the 30 second sound bite attention span. I can do all of this just because I registered as a candidate.  I feel that this is my civic duty.  I am working hard for this opportunity, but I don’t want this job, as much as incumbents need it.

I have a Physics degree, an MBA in Finance, I have designed semiconductor chips and I have invested in small businesses.  And late at night on Tuesday we were all at a Tea Party meeting in a small school building discussing federal and state issues – to me a genuinely American moment – and one paid for by the lives and wills of many.

I did speak with Bud Kennedy earlier today and I can see uglier side of politics. His agenda was clearly my opponent’s. It is hard to argue with a liberal-mind over why my opponent’s mandatory healthcare program is bad in principle – when he is ok with the federal version. He did not want the detail of why the event was not allowed to be video taped. He had his agenda, and that is ok. I have mine: Truth, working hard, and irritating the establishment.

I have pledged not to raise taxes and to support the GOP platform (which is a great conservative document, if only our politicians would read it).

Sorry for the long message but I appreciate the platform and I am available for coffee.
Take care,
Giovanni

So Randy, should we invite him to coffee one morning with Big Bob?

Giovanni Capriglione on Last Night’s Debate

I missed the debate between former rodeo queen Vicki Truitt and challenger Giovanni Capriglione last night due to the fact I was in route back from Kansas City.  When I asked him on his Facebook page for a recap, here was his responses…pretty clever if you ask me.

Well, I am not sure how to do it without making it appear completely self serving! So I’ll just post the only tweets I can find on it – and provide biased documentary. Let’s say, “heated” might be a good word.

@budkennedy@ Keller Republican Vicki Truitt opens TXHouse debate by criticizing “self-serving jerks” backing Giovanni Capriglione; photos, video banned

(Gio: So step one, insult)

@mqsullivan: getting pretty vocal here isn’t it at NE Tarrant County Tea Party forum w/, State Rep Vicki Truitt & challenger Giovanni Ca …

(Gio: understatement…)

@mqsullivan@ Funniest moment at #teaparty forum tonight was State Rep Truitt having to silence her husband from stage w throat-slice gesture.

(Gio: No Comment!)

@budkennedy@ At forum, Southlake R Capriglione says it’s a “disgrace how cities–Fort Worth–hide illegal immigrants.” Some hide at jobs in Southlake

(Gio: I was responding to a comment about Fort Worth)

@budkennedy@ Toughest task of the night: trying to fit anything else into a 140-character tweet about Southlake Republican Giovanni Capriglione

(Gio: This was actually pretty funny)

I can post what my prepared speeches were, but I must admit, I can’t guarantee I stuck to it. No videos were allowed by request of my public official opponent.

I imagine since Bud Kennedy was there, he will do a column on the debate.  Seeing how Bud will spin things to favor Truitt will be interesting.

Austin Jackson to the Tigers

I’ve written about Denton Ryan’s Austin Jackson before, and today comes word that the Yankees traded Austin to the Tigers for Curtis Granderson.  Granderson is one hell of an outfielder, but has a big contract.  According to this article, the Tigers expect Jackson to start for them opening day.

This makes me ANGRY

From the FWST Foul Territory Blog:

A baseball official swears this happened recently. The Rangers, the official insists, offered right-hander Neftali Feliz and first baseman Justin Smoak to Florida for right-hander Josh Johnson. The top two Rangers prospects, arguably, for a young, arbitration-eligible All-Star. The official thought the Rangers should have offered more, but also said that the Feliz-Smoak offer tells him that the Rangers think they can win the next two seasons.

Idiotic….plain and simple.  While Josh Johnson is a stud, Feliz showed what amazing stuff he had last season.  If the Rangers trade him, I will be a little bit more than upset.  I may quit wearing my Ranger hat and move on….

There was also some rumblings about Nolen Ryan quitting the club, I’ll try to post on my anger on that later.

CJ Wilson as a starter?

And Kevin Millwood to the Orioles?  So says BBTIA

According to multiple baseball sources (via the Baltimore Sun’s Jeff Zrebiec), the Baltimore Orioles and Texas Rangers are closing in on a trade that would send veteran right-hander Kevin Millwood and “some cash” to the Orioles in exchange for 27-year-old right-handed reliever Chris Ray.

The included cash would help offset Millwood’s $12 million salary for the 2010 season, and while many of the specifics of the deal have reportedly been agreed upon already, there are still “a few details to work out, including a review of medical records.”

Assuming this deal goes down as reported (with Texas packaging a $2-4 million cash subsidy), the primary motivation behind the exchange would seem to be clearing payroll in order to make a legitimate run at one of the market’s higher-end free agent pitchers, such as Rich Harden or Ben Sheets. Such a move would position the Rangers to roll out an Opening Day starting rotation comprising one high-end acquisition, Scott Feldman, Derek Holland, Tommy Hunter and — depending on which way the wind is blowing on any given day — either C.J. Wilson or Brandon McCarthy.

Lack of Blogging

Been in KCMO since Sunday and haven’t been by a computer or even a TV except to watch the weather.  I know there has been a lot going on with the Rangers and I’ll try to update the blog as I get the time.

Steve Buechelle to Manage Frisco

With the hellish week I had, I missed this HUGE news.  Steve Buecheel will manage the Rangers AA Team in Frisco.

Perhaps the biggest actual news to come out of the Rangers’ pre-winter meetings press briefing is that former Ranger Steve Buechele is moving up the ladder in the minor league system.

After just one year of professional managing, Buechele is moving from Class A Bakersfield to Double-A Frisco, perhaps the key managerial post in the minor league system.

Buechele said that managing is now in his blood and that he wants to manage in the major leagues.

“This is something that I enjoy doing,” he said. “I had as much fun going to the ballpark every day this year as any year when I was playing. The years at home were great and afforded me a lot of opportunities, but baseball is what I do. This opened my eyes to what people have told me ever since I stopped playing – and that was that at some point I was going to get back into the game.”

Most of the minor league managing and coaching positions have been filled. Bobby Jones returns at Triple-A Oklahoma City. Bakersfield remains open for the time being. Bill Richardson moves up from rookie level Arizona to Class A Hickory. Tim Hulett returns at rookie-level Spokane and former Ranger minor leaguer Jayce Tingler goes from the Dominican Summer League to the Arizona Rookie League.

Mike Micucci moves from Frisco manager to the role of minor league field coordinator. It was a position the Rangers didn’t have last season.

Buechelle is a friend from years ago as his son Garrett played with Nicholas for a number of summers.  You could tell Steve loved to teach baseball back then, he would sit there and throw BP for seemingly hours to the boys before games.  He is also a very good story teller, some of his stories I could probably repeat in public.  I know that at one time he was working his way to become a broadcaster, putting time in on FSSW doing fill ins on the Rangers post games and doing some Rough Rider color.  I think that got sidetracked by him wearing some of the most god awful suits I’ve seen this side of Michael Irvin. 

His son is playing at OU after walking on his freshman year.  When Garrett, Mike Marshall and Nicholas were out at Stanford, Steve made the comment that when he played there (with his best friend John Elway) back in the day, that the field didn’t have lights.  When he signed his first big contract he wrote a check so they could install lights at his alma mata.

Just a good, good guy and a guy that when I had season tickets back in the day, was my favorite player.  Our seats were right by the third base dugout so we got a closeup view of his play every night.  I still remember the BOOOOO’s going up in the stand when he came up to bat.  I wish him the best~