08 January 2015
Jason Villalba's progressively thin skin
Dallas state rep Jason Villalba told an audience that Speaker Joe Straus would deliver a "progressive" agenda. That's pretty strange, since that's what liberals have been attempting to rebrand themselves for at least 15 years now. But yet, given a chance to correct a misstatement, Villalba reiterated, "I don't know why progressive is a bad word."
But then Straus was selected by Democrats (and a handful of liberal Republicans) to be speaker. Since then, Joe Straus has directed the Texas House like he owes his position to Democrats.
Apparently Jason Villalba wants to make sure Democrats know that Joe Straus is not going to abandon them, as he knew his remarks would get picked up by the press.
As long as Democrats remain 100% unified in their habitual pro-Straus bloc, then the Speaker is likely safe -- unless Republicans decide to stop letting Democrats pick Straus as speaker. Hence why I tweeted:
Wait, @JasonVillalba really said Straus was going to pursue a progressive agenda? Democrats should not pick the House speaker again #txlege
— Evan PvW (@PerryVsWorld) January 8, 2015Less than 5 minutes after I tweeted that:
Jason Villalba blocked me. For a politician, Villalba has some very thin skin.
Posted by Evan @ 01/08/15 11:52 PM | Comments (0)
06 January 2015
El Payaso FFF (prefiere TMF) tiene algunas propagandas
Ferdinand Frank Fischer, also known by his alias "Trey Martinez Fischer" has some interesting ads up.
His English ad is awwwwkkkkwarrdd, but his Spanish ad is quite good. It reminds me of Van de Putte, whose ads were better in Spanish than English. Que torpe.
Every single bit of that ad where "TMF" talks looks fake. It's incredibly overacted by someone who felt really uncomfortable. The head bobbing, the voice oscillations in odd places, all of it. It's strange. They manage to get Bernal in as many shots as possible, even as he doesn't speak to the camera.
So his Spanish actually looks dubbed in to me as the lips don't match the audio on the Youtube video. But that's hard to notice. It's a good ad, and in his brief spoken bits, he's got a better accent than I thought he had (especially when dubbed in?). But even if they dubbed it in, his face actually looks like it might believe what his voice is saying. That's the opposite of the English video, where the words are totally discombobulated from the body movements. It's a pretty solid ad.
I am amused that he takes a shot at Republicans in both videos -- Dan Patrick by name in the English one, and just "Republicans" in the Spanish ad. Nunca deja ser inflamatorio, lo que sea no importa.
Posted by Evan @ 01/06/15 08:49 AM | Comments (0)
04 January 2015
Jeb Bush is definitely running for president
Jeb Bush is definitely running for president:
Former Florida governor Jeb Bush, moving closer to a possible presidential run, has resigned all of his corporate and nonprofit board memberships, including with his own education foundation, his office said late Wednesday night.Bush's New Year's Eve disclosure, coming in an e-mail from an aide to The Washington Post, culminated a string of moves he has made in recent days to shed business interests that have enriched him since leaving office in 2007. The aide said the resignations had been made "effective today."
You don't give up millions of dollars and bury it with a NYE dump unless you're running for president. Especially if you're Jeb Bush, and you candidly spent the last 8 years or so talking about accumulating wealth.
Also, George P running for Land Commish instead of a higher office makes sense. If Jeb had been thinking that there was a good chance he'd run in 2016, he'd want to make sure there was absolutely zero chance of his son losing. [Wouldn't you make sure to fix the typo in your announcement though?]
I am completely against Jeb Bush for president. Our Republic deserves and requires better than Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama, Clinton/Bush, particularly after Obama's disregard for the Constitution. It's not the sign of a healthy democracy.
Jeb's 2016 positioning is fascinating: it sometimes seems like he wants to run as Mitt Romney, Jr. However, he's running the flip campaign of Mitt. Romney had a pretty bad record as governor, but he tried to run in 08 as the movement conservative guy. Lots of intense wooing of conservative leaders. He got ahead of the curve really early with National Review.
By contrast, Jeb was a more conservative governor than either George W. Bush and Rick Perry, considering that he was in charge of Florida and not Texas. Graded on that curve, it's not even particularly close. However, while W found a way to unite all the different wings of the party, Jeb seems to be trying to irk as many conservative activists as possible.
So now we have four Texans running for president: Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Rick Perry. We'll see how many of them make it to Iowa caucuses.
Posted by Evan @ 01/04/15 10:49 PM | Comments (0)