Monthly Archives: October 2012

(Community Matters) after MPR meetings, drove to Fredericksburg for a night with very dear friends, Joe Cloud & John Wallace.  Joe owns and operates several hospitality businesses (including several B&Bs) and is president of the Fredericksburg Hospitality Association. John’s president of JP Morgan Chase in Fredericksburg and in charge of middle market, business and retail lending from Austin to El Paso to the Valley.  Good gosh, I’ve now known John for almost 30 years and Joe since they first started dating 20 years ago.

(Community Matters) Seriously? Reading that while governor, Romney vetoed legislation that would have allowed medicaid to provide kosher meals to Jewish residents in nursing homes.

. . . not to mention myth of bipartisan, education and tax reform leadership:

educators largely credit an overarching reform of state schools 10 years earlier under Governor Weld. The reforms doubled state spending on schools and brought standards and accountability to administrators and students.

Mr. Romney’s claim that he was responsible for 19 separate tax cuts is also technically accurate, but not the full story. In 2005, for example, Mr. Romney’s administration wrote legislation refunding $250 million in capital gains taxes — but the bill came only in response to a court ruling that the taxes had been illegally withheld in 2002.

and by his second year as governor, his relationship with Democratic legislative leaders was so acrimonious, Romney organized and funded a campaign to unseat them. It failed miserably and Republicans lost seats.

article: Romney Claims of Bipartisanship as Governor Face Challenge

(Community Matters) Chinati Weekend events officially start today (Friday), though last night launched with the board’s dinner at Cochineal. My friends at Hotel Paisano squeezed me in for one night since my travel is last minute and I didn’t think about Chinati when I decided to drive over for a morning MPR meeting  & since David Egeland & Andy Friedman are in town and entertaining guests at the house.  As Cochineal was private booked, Andy & I had dinner at Jett’s, where we also caught up with Tim Johnson & Caitlyn Murray, then drinks with friends at the Hill House – Garrick Stephens was entertaining; Terry Mowers is in town.

Emily Keeton is in town too but I missed her last night; I’m not leaving before seeing her – also Julie Speed & Fran Christina. Julie’s just back; Her father passed away two weeks ago. This afternoon I’m off to Fredericksburg, a guest of Joe Cloud & John Wallace for one night of Ocktoberfest.

how do you make it dance? It dances on the Octoberfest site

(Community Matters) The Austin Business Journal reports that the Central Texas Angel Network is on track to invest more during 2012 than 2011 – at mid year they were reporting $3.5mm in 15 companies.

During 2010, members invested $5.7 million in 15 companies compared with $3.5 million invested in 12 companies in 2009. Median angel round sizes declined 21 percent to $550,000 versus the first half of 2011. The median round size was $1.5 million when angel groups co-invested with other investors.

(Community Matters) First, absolutely acknowledge last night was disappointing to Obama supporters and probably felt like a Phoenix moment to Romney supporters.

Calls from Obama supporters to get on message seem overblown – who wasn’t praising the campaign or wishing theirs was as successful just 11 hours ago?

I was watching while here in Midland at a Democratic friend’s house with two independents and three older teenagers. The two independents and the D thought the President did “fine.”  The independents haven’t followed the campaign or the candidates like die hard politicos. One was a bit turned off by Mitt’s disrespectful behavior toward Lehrer. I was shocked to hear them say they thought it was a draw – and they didn’t like comments about removing oil & gas subsidies, but they heard Romney say he’s likely to repeal these too.

The D expressed frustration that the President wasn’t more aggressive and didn’t call Mitt out on the inconsistencies of his comments, but he didn’t seem upset by the performance. Axelrod says  Romney’s likely to gain 1 to 3 points in the polls.

It’ll be interesting to see editorials and columns today – even more so to see the next 2 presidential debates. I’m not sure I want to watch the veeps’. It’s pretty clear the Romney/Ryan strategy is to make shit up – no tax cuts for the rich, some alternative healthcare plan that preserves protections against pre-existing conditions and college kids’ coverage on parents’ plans. Been there; done that w/ Ryan’s convention speech.

(Community Matters) “We have been there, we’ve tried that, and we’re not going back.” – tested as top political message, Politico

(Community Matters) After being shot in the head and left for dead in a LGBT hate crime in Portland, TX, Kristene is recovering, even thriving. An Equality Texas guest blog.

(Community Matters) NYT- Proudly Bearing Elders’ Scars, Their Skin Says ‘Never Forget’