Community Matters

(Community Matters) ADL Applauds President Obama’s Strong Outline Of Principles For U.S. Policy In Middle East- press release here

(Community Matters) Reading a couple of Facebook comments about President Obama’s call for the 1967 Israeli borders as the starting negotiating point for a Palestinian state (as well as specific assurances for Israeli security), I am surprised at the either the lack of awareness or misleading comments.

Israel has annexed most of the West Bank immediately west of Jerusalem, while dividing into unsustainable parcels much of the rest.  (And let’s remember, most of Jerusalem, aka East Jerusalem, is outside the 1967 borders as well.) The Israeli government often avoids talking about the 1967 border, instead simply referring to the West Bank.  Though areas of the West Bank annexed into Jerusalem are no longer counted as the West Bank and are not included in calculations of percentages of land to be or not to be “unoccupied.”

Also, when the Israeli government says it is willing to return 80% of the occupied West Bank (remember, not including what they’ve annexed into Jerusalem) much of the excluded 20% includes West Bank sources of water plus the most farmable lands along the Jordan.

Absolutely, there must be assurances for Israeli security. And, the 1967 borders alone do not provide for such – especially in light of the indefensible lobbing of missiles from Gaza at civilians. While the cement wall serving as a border disturbs many, its success preventing suicide bombing of children, women and men is indisputable.  And, in many of my visits with Israelis, most are happy to trade land for assured peace.

be sure to read: Friendship

and blowback

(Community Matters) Randi held a press conference today explaining her reasons for staying the race.

Why I think her reelection is critical: (and disclaimer, I don’t know Kathy Tovo. I hear she’s a nice woman; I believe that’s true. She’s a long time community volunteer/leader who has given much time & treasure to our city. So, in no way is this personal. It’s philosophical.) Among her closest supporters is an elite group of city hall insiders who believe they know better than the rest of us. We dealt with a couple of these leaders in our neighborhood association. Their default position was to oppose home owners’ requests and variances for their properties – instead of listening and understanding whether or not the proposal maintained or eroded the character of our neighborhood. They even default objected to VMU status for commercial properties on Guadalupe. They sought to impose historical zoning on neighbors’ homes against the home owners’ wishes, even against the wishes of almost every other neighbor in our subdivision. And, they have a sizable number of supporters on the zoning, planning and historical commissions who believe it is good policy to rule against homeowners and other neighbors and in favor of the vision of an elite few – sorta a neighborhood association model without neighborliness.

Some among Kathy’s closest supporters are outright against growth (don’t mind being on the record against growth) – either not understanding or caring that this means fewer jobs for Austinites now and in the future.  Many believe small businesses should be required to pay a minimum of $16/hour to employees (hey, who doesn’t wish they could?). I want our city leaders to prioritize new jobs, maintain Austin’s unique local character, prioritize building infrastructure for the city’s future, to protect our environment and to realize most of us want more – not less – fire, EMS and police protection.   I suppose some voters will be surprised to learn Randi is also a neighborhood & social activist – has been since way before running for city council; she’s always cared about neighborhoods, social services, affordability, schools and economic development. These objectives aren’t mutually exclusive, though admittedly finding the balance is hard, an inexact science.  AND . . . many of these Tovo supporters I write about are acquaintances of mine, some are good friends. I know their intentions are honorable; I just believe parts of their vision for Austin and some of how they propose to achieve it are wrong for our city and will result in a decreased quality of life for too many Austinities – probably not for them, probably not for me & Steven, but that’s not who I worry about in these elections.

Randi made the following remarks today at City Hall:

I’m extremely gratified to be joined by so many good friends and supporters. The last few days have been more exciting and more energizing than any time during this entire campaign – or even during my first campaign, three years ago.

I’ve literally been inundated with hundreds of phone calls and emails since Saturday from people urging me to stay in this race.

This is not about personalities, it’s about priorities.

I want to say that again, because it’s important: This is not about personalities, it’s about priorities.

Specifically, it’s about the enormous differences between me and my opponent when it comes to some big decisions that are critical to Austin’s future.

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(Community Matters) David Plouffe is one of the most engaging and confidence building men I know. He’s also one of those brilliant guys from whom you can feel and hear the hard drive and mother board in overdrive.

from Mike Allen’s Playbook: TWITTER AS THE NEW DIAL GROUP — TIME magazine “White House Memo: To spread the Gospel of Barack, the White House doubles down on social media — He’s back: Plouffe … is looking for new ways to pierce the media clutter,” by Michael Scherer: “When Barack Obama traveled to Texas this month to talk immigration, David Plouffe, his top message guru, decided to stay home and watch Twitter instead. While Obama spoke, Plouffe sat before two flat-screen televisions in the White House complex. One showed live footage of Obama in El Paso. The other flickered with a lightning-quick vertical ticker tape of people tweeting with the #immigration hashtag, reacting line by line to the President in real time. ‘I find it useful,’ Plouffe says, ‘to see what’s penetrating.’

“When Obama went off script to joke that Republicans would soon demand a border moat filled with alligators, a blur of Twitter messages showed people sending the quote to friends and followers, signaling a messaging victory of sorts. ‘It’s kind of the next evolution,’ Plouffe explains. ‘Remember back in 2008, you’d have the presidential debate, and then most of the networks would have some sort of dial going up and down. That seems very Jurassic Park-like compared to this.’ … Plouffe, who served as Obama’s 2008 campaign manager, is an engineer, more interested in data, numbers and quantifiable metrics than in storytelling. He uses the word cume as a verb – meaning ‘to build up a cumulative audience’ – and describes other people as ‘influence hubs.'” http://ti.me/jrh9O5

(Community Matters) Nick Espinosa dumped glitter on Newt Gingrich and his wife, Callista, during a book-signing event in Minneapolis.

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(Community Matters) She’s definitely in for the runoff – too much is at stake. Huge differences between the candidates and for the future of Austin, too much not to allow voters to decide.

“Despite the view of some political pundits, I am confident that we can compete effectively and win the run-off election.  The turnout on May 14th was just 7% — the lowest turnout in decades.  The final margin between myself and my opponent on Election Day was just over 4,000 votes — less than 1/2 of 1% of Austin’s population.  That margin is too small, and the differences of opinion between myself and my opponent too big, for me and my supporters to quit this race.”

The cost of the election pales in comparison to the millions Randi’s opponent would cost Austin.

(Community Matters) Shortest presidential campaign ever?

Mike Allen’s Playbook: THE PERSON YOU DON’T WANT TO BE TODAY: Newt Gingrich, who yesterday had to apologize to Paul Ryan for dissing his Medicare plan on “Meet the Press,” fend off questions about a Tiffany’s debt, and endure repeated airing of a video of an Iowa voter saying: “Get out now before you make a bigger fool of yourself.”

–Rich Galen, the veteran strategist and former Gingrich aide, says the campaign is “close to being functionally over” unless “adult supervision” is brought in: “This is what people in Washington knew would be the great weakness of a Newt presidential campaign: that he would say whatever came into his head, the moment it came into his head.” The telephoned apology has not solved his problems. A top House GOP aide emails: “The response and eventual apology proved how unprepared he is for a 21st-century political campaign.” http://bit.ly/mypuwh

–Team Gingrich thinks the crisis is serious but survivable. He held two conference calls with tea-party leaders, and one with conservative bloggers. Rick Tyler: “We’ve tried to correct the record and admit it could have been done better. Newt will get up to bat again, and he’ll hit a home run. This is just one event. I don’t think it’s a defining event.” http://bit.ly/lhP2XY

(Community Matters) “When you’re successful, all you can say to haters is ‘Hi, I’m winning and you’re not.'”

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(Community Matters) Steven and I are looking forward to this summer – which started this weekend by the way. Our cousin Brent Huggins moved in on Friday. By birth Steven’s cousin, Brent just finished his junior year at Northeast Oklahoma State University. He’s here for an internship under Matt Glazier at Progress Texas. An, Hilary Tomlinson joins us in a couple of weeks. She’ll intern at Thinkwell. Now if I could only convince Shaun Holifield to intern with us this summer as well . . .

(Community Matters) Steven & I attended the reading of Michael Mitchell’s Yugoslavia last night at Austin Script Works.

Austin Script Works is both a playwright-driven service organization and a theatrical producing company. We exist to support dramatic writers by providing opportunities at all stages in the writing process — from inception through production. Austin Script Works supports the whole writer, not just an isolated project, and dedicates itself to career advancement as well as artistic growth

From the comments after the reading, the script’s a big win. I loved it. I didn’t offer feedback for a while because I was trying to identify Michael’s voice in the play – somewhere between Tennessee Williams and Tony Kushner, and complicated with Martin McDonagh (Pillowman) twists. I argued against the comments seeking greater clarity and definition – I like Michael’s fog of ambiguity that engages audience imagination. It could be a defining and compelling voice if that’s where he settles for a while.

Michael’s blog – Squirrels in the Attic – where he’s been known to drop creative nuggets from time to time

(Community Matters)

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(Community Matters) love it – Thank you, MN State Rep. Steve Simon.

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Hat tip: Steve Adler