Blog stage 8

After reading Taylor's commentary on abortion titled, "Abortion Isn't Just a Women's Issue", I have to say that I agree with him. In his argument he makes the point that while women may be affected more by the abortion clinics shutting down, men are affected as well. He cites that there are just as many pro-choice men as women, and the fact that generally it takes both a man and a woman to create a child and the man's input is just as valuable as the woman's because he would be expected to provide for the child as well. I feel very similar in this way and I think that if people are in a tough situation like this it's not just the woman being affected.

Should the Texas budget Cap be Changed?

In an article by the Texas Tribune, titled "State Leaders Adopt Spending Cap for Next Budget", a discussion topic about whether or not the spending cap should be altered is brought up. Proponents for tightening the budget cap argue that the legislature has easily passed budgets within the cap in the passed, so the cap should be tightened to prevent the threat of overspending. However on the opposite end, proponents of raising the cap suggest that by raising it there would be more room to help the infrastructure and public education. Based on the fact that we have billions of dollars in surplus right now, due to the petroleum boom, and because Texas education does seem to be suffering as well as other areas of importance such as road maintenance, I would be in favor of raising the budget cap as well. This doesn't mean the the legislature has to hit the cap, because as Dale Craymer said "the limit is a cap, not an obligation," meaning that there is room for the legislature to spend more on things they may need but they still don't have to hit the cap.

Classmate Critique

I thought Mr. Randolph's article on Proposition, "Stage Five", one was very informative. While I do feel that we need some relief from traffic, especially because I commute about three hours round trip, I also agree with him when he says that it is ill-advised to dip into the Texas government's "rainy day" fund. While I disagree about transportation being unimportant, I do agree in the sense that there are some more pressing issues that the money could be used for, whether it's education or something else. Overall I thought it was a well-written and factual based commentary.

Proposition One

Probably the most recent and prevalent subject being talked about in Texas right now is the election presently occurring. There are several positions and bills being voted on right now such as the governor position, the railroad commissioner, senate positions, and one of the more talked about propositions called proposition one. While there is a relative consensus as to who will win the majority of positions, Proposition one has many people on the fence. Proposition one will use existing financial funds to build a new transit line and improve roads to reduce congestion in Austin and surrounding suburbia. Proponents for proposition one cite benefits such as the hopeful reduction of traffic congestion, building of a new transit line for intercity travel, and the fact that all of this will be brought about using current funds such as Texas's "rainy day fund." On the flip side opponents of Proposition one are weary about using the "rainy day fund" for something that is not necessarily an emergency, as well as the increased construction that would inevitably bring about more congestion for a period of time, and also the possible displacement of some homeowners near the proposed expansion areas. All things considered I think in the long run Proposition one would be helpful to Austin and that it is a better idea than any alternative.

Think Twice Before You Publish

Recently I read an article entitled "I won’t publicize a YES vote of TxDOT Prop 1 on my campaign website, but I will tell you through email…" Which was an author, Yvonne Larsen criticizing a politician, Rick Miller, for what she essentially described as trying to sway people in favor of proposition one, which is a legislative agenda which is supposed to decrease congestion on large roads such as MOPAC and IH-35 by creating more roads with the pre-existing funding we have. More than likely Larsen's intended audience are political skeptics who are looking to criticize politicians for anything that they're able to, including a harmless email that was meant more for voters education rather than to persuade anybody. In addition to a poorly written and laid out argument, Larsen's credibility is questionable as well, seeing as she is a conservative, petroleum related sales executive, so not only could her argument be made for personal reasons, but The politician she argues against happens to be a republican, so she could be criticizing him due to her proclaimed party affiliations as well. All in all, I think if she was going to make an argument against Rick Miller, she could have made a more well thought out criticism.

The Best Representation

I am critiquing an article called "Fast Growing Districts Deserve Seasoned Senators", which is an editorial written by the Austin American Statesman editors board. The targeted readers were essentially anyone concerned with the experience of the senators representing their voting district, particularly the fast growing voting districts, such as district five which includes Williamson county and district 14 which includes Travis county. Since the article was written by the Austin American Statesman's editorial board, this article is more credible than the majority of other potential sources that are available, especially because it was more than likely written collaboratively. The argument being made in this article is that a senators experience should trump party affiliations and other things similar to this that voters generally concern themselves with. One such example would be the case of District five, which has been predominantly a republican area. This coming election there is a republican senator running and a democratic senator running and while the republican matches up with the majority party affiliation in Williamson county, the democratic senator has much more experience. The proposition is that while the republican may have more in common with the majority of voters, it might be more wise to vote for the democrat based on his experience because the voters would likely get better overall representation. I am in agreement with the editors because I feel that a less experienced senator would likely be less active and therefore even if he held more similar values to mine I still would not be represented well.

Texas Toilets

I chose to write about an article called "The Effluent Society," which can be found at http://www.texasmonthly.com/story/wichita-falls-drought-forces-town-to-drink-toilet-water. This article was particularly interesting to me because Wichita Texas is soon to be in a stage-5 water restriction due to the increasing drought. This proposes problems such as how to continue watering crops, how to use water based utilities and how to attain more drinking water without having it trucked in. The current proposal, since Wichita has no usable water basin near it, is to use purified water from toilets and washing machines, as well as other common household utilities. This seems very pertinent because central Texas is in a drought as well, and with our water supply diminishing it raises the question as to whether this could be a viable option for us as well.