Max Powers

UMC Responds To Max

A couple of weeks ago I told you about an open records request I put in with UMC.

I was looking for email correspondence between UMC CEO Jim Valenti's official email account and County Judge Veronica Escobar's personal email account.

One person - Rotten Peppers - commented that I should ask Escobar as well for those emails.

Well, I did, but not before I asked UMC.  There's a reason for that.

If I had asked Escobar's office first, Escobar's office could have responded by saying that County business is not conducted on personal emails, and that would be the end of that.  

Having another party involved mucks things up.

Valenti is not going to go out of his way to protect Escobar.  He's done that enough already. 

The attorneys at the County Attorney's office also are not going to go out of their way to cover-up for Escobar.  If there is one thing attorneys love more than their own clients, it is their state bar license.

So what has happened since my request?

Well, it turns out Escobar does conduct County business on her personal email account, but UMC wants an AG's opinion about releasing that information.

One thing of interest in the letter the County sent the AG regarding my request was that it did not make mention of the fact that the email account in question - [email protected] - belongs to an elected official.

Check it out:  Download Scan 28-041

Somewhere in El Paso both Stephanie Townsend and Steve Ortega are saying, "WTF, mates^^^"

 

 

 

 

Joe Pickett's Op/Ed

Your State Representative Joe Pickett has an op/ed in today's El Paso Times.

In a nutshell, what Pickett is trying to say is, "Phuck you, Ted Houghton."

Sofia Vergara's Ex- Wants To Run For Office...

...again.

I know this has nothing to do with El Paso.

But it does have to do with Sofia Vergara which is a-okay.

Sofia was my calendar girl in high school.  And Fuera de Serie was kind of my weekend highlight during high school.  Yes, I was a lonely, pimpled-face compulsive self-lover, but damnit in those moments it was just Sofia and I.

Anyways. 

You all know this non-sense going with Sofia and ex-fiance Nick Loeb, I am not going to re-hash all the details. 

But I will answer the question folks are asking of Loeb: "Why?"

The answer: politics.

Loeb wants to run for office.  He's a Republican, if you are wondering.

He tried once, and lost.  And he tried again, but bowed out because of a car wreck that sidelined him.  

You'll notice in his interviews that his audience is not Sofia, his audience is the pro-life crowd.  

Loeb will likely lose his legal case against Sofia, but now he has an in and issue to trumpet among pro-lifers.  

 

 

Mary Gonzalez: Show Horse

Of the two horses, guess which one is actually working?

State Representative Mary Gonzalez fancies herself as a leader in education. 

But she must though have some weird idea of what it means to be a leader in education. 

As you may or may not know, Ms. Gonzalez sits on the House Committee on Public Education.

So far so good. 

This session alone she filed 27 pieces of legislation that were referred to that Committee.

Okay, we are still good.

Of those 27 pieces of legislation how many were heard in Committee…the Committee that she sits on???

3 bills. 

That's right.

3 out of 27.

If my math is correct, that is 11 percent. 

Now we are not so good.

While Mary may spend 100 percent of the time tooting her own education credentials, she spends about 10 percent of the time working on education issues.  

The rest of the time?  

Who knows?

There could be a couple of reasons for Mary's lack of production on her committee.

It could be that she does not have much pull with her colleagues on the committee.

Or it could be that she is more of a show horse than workhorse.  

And would have thought there could be someone lazier than Chente Quintanilla?

 

 

 

Up in Smoke - Moody's Bill

UPDATE: Not too long after I posted this or possibly the same time, Moody's bill was voted out of committee.  Still that does not change the fact Herrero dicked over Moody.  This was a bill that should have been voted out of committee two or three weeks ago.  Yes, ultimately Herrero can say he voted the bill out of committee, but given the time constraints Herrero also knows the bill's chance are pretty close to nil.

It appears State Representative Joe Moody's biggest piece of legislation he filed this session - decriminalization of certain amounts of marijuana - will die a certain death.

But not for the reason you expect. 

That reason you expect is...los pinche Republicans.

But no.

Moody's bill will die because of ...wait for it...a Democrat.

And no, that Democrat is not Marisa Marquez.  

So who is that Democrat?

Unfortunate @abelherrero is stalling @moodyforelpaso decriminalization bill from a vote. Read facts attached #txlege pic.twitter.com/iqOfMfUe6S

— Solomon Ortiz JR. (@solomonortizjr) April 30, 2015

Corpus Christi's own Abel Herrero, Chair of the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence. 

You want to take a guess who is the Vice Chair of that Committee?

El Paso's own Joe Moody.

That Committee is made up 3 Democrats and 4 Republicans.  Mind you one of those Republicans, a conservative from behind the Pine Curtain, David Simpson, also filed "free the weed" legislation.

Presumably, Moody would be able to count on 4 votes, including his own, to vote that bill out of committee.  Granted, even after that it would still be a long ways off from the Governor's desk.

But no.

Moody was dicked over by his fellow Democrat.

Or on the flip side, you could say Moody does not even have any stroke with some of his fellow Democrats in Austin.

Either way, Moody's mellow has been totally harshed.

 

 

 

 

Bleeding Brushes

Because life isn't always about politics.

For me life is the outdoors or some Fernet Branca...although there is a great fernet out of Mexico - Fernet Vallet. 

For others it is art.

That you see there is from El Paso's own, Andrew Drewes. 

Not too long ago I ran into Mr. Drewes and his girlfriend at a coffeeshop in Oak Cliff - an area of Dallas-proper.

The conversation started by me being nosy when I heard Mr. Drewes and his lady friend talk about Billy Corgan. 

One topic lead to another, and ultimately El Paso came up.

Maybe to the surprise of some of you, we did not speak about El Paso negatively.

Anyways.

For a mental health break checkout his website: www.bleedingbrushes.com

It's a lot healthier than reading this blog.