Max Powers

Enrique Moreno and the El Paso Times

It is endorsement time at the El Paso Times. 

It is that time of year when candidates go before the El Paso Times editorial board, and have to answer questions from El Paso Times employees like Bob Moore, and Enrique Moreno.

Wait a sec!?!?

Enrique Moreno does not work at the El Paso Times.

Last I checked Moreno ran his own law office.

And when he is not practicing law, he plays the role of  a male version of PeeWee in Democratic circles except he wears a suit, and does not like hanging out with the help.

Last cycle your County Judge, Veronica Escobar, rightfully made a stink that Moreno, who was solidly behind her then-challenger, sat in on the endorsement meeting. 

And it appears Moreno is still sitting in one those meetings.

Which brings up an issue for the El Paso Times. 

How is the El Paso Times, and Bob Moore, being fair to its readers when it has a non-employee, who is involved in political campaigns, on its endorsement board AND not disclose that?

State Representative Cesar Blanco has something of a really cozy relationship with State Representative Mary Gonzalez.  So cozy I would not be surprised if Blanco lost his virginity to Gonzalez. 

Anyways, Gonzalez has a race on her hands.

And want to guess who is Blanco's campaign treasurer?

That's right...Enrique Moreno.

What is to stop Gonzalez from asking Blanco to help out with Moreno during the endorsement meeting?

Nothing. 

So what to do?

Well, asking Gannett what is its corporate policy regarding allowing non-employees to participate in the endorsement process without providing any disclosure to its readers?

Furthermore, if non-employees are allowed, is there a publicly disclosed process by which non-employees can apply?

 

 

 

Tommy Gonzalez's New Job?

Here is an excerpt from a recent article discussing a City's previous city manager:

XXXXX became a controversial figure in the city. Some council members credited him with successfully negotiating big projects, such as the acquisition of a regional airport and the revival of a public-private partnership for a long-term stalled hotel and conference center.

But others questioned his hiring and firing practices, specially after XXXXX pushed out the longtime police chief and appointed Deputy City Manager XXXXXX in his place, with a pay raise. XXXXX and XXXXXX had worked together in XXXXX.

I took the names out on purpose only to show that what you think is unique to current El Paso City Manager Tommy Gonzalez is not. 

By comparison, Gonzalez's "sins" pale to those mentioned above.

But there is a notable difference.

That City is not considering doing away with council-manager form of government. 

And that City is one of the fastest-growing and wealthiest cities in Texas.

And it just so happens it is looking for a City Manager.

That City will pay more for a City Manager than El Paso, a city which is 5 times as large.

 

 

Veronica Escobar: Helping and not Helping Lina Ortega

On Sunday, the El Paso Times ran a piece on Lina Ortega, Democratic candidate for Texas House District 77.

The title of it is, "Ortega brings wide support to Dist. 77 race".

The article runs through the names of "wide support":

"...Ortega has the support of U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-Texas, Texas Sen. Jose Rodriguez, D-El Paso, and Texas Reps. Joe Moody, Mary Gonzalez and Cesar Blanco, all of D-El Paso."

Noticeably absent? Veronica Escobar.

As I have pointed previously, Escobar lives in District 77, and she has never been one to shy way from getting publicly involved in other people's races.

But either Escobar is worried about her own image, OR Lina Ortega is worried about Escobar's image.

Image issue, real or imagined aside, that is still not stopping Escobar from doing her part.  Only this time Escobar is being a little more cloak-and-dagger about it. 

The word is Escobar is hitting up donors for Ortega.

But there is a problem. 

This is 2016, not 2012. 

And for whatever reason once reliable donors for anything that Escobar asked for are telling Escobar, "No."

You would think Escobar would leave it a "No." 

No.

Escobar follows-up with something along the lines of, "Fine, but then you should stay out of it, and not support anyone."

Let me be clear, I still think Ortega is the odds on favorite to win, but there is an issue with the Escobar brand in of all places a district that she calls home. 

And if there is an issue with Escobar's brand, well, you can almost be certain there is an issue with Ortega's brand. 

 

 

What Xavi De La Torre Meant To Say

Ysleta ISD Superintendent Xavi De La Torre to spoke to a public relations association about YISD's most recent bond election.

I guess he had to do some soul searching after previous bond election failed because people thought, and perhaps still think, that De La Torre is something of a prick....at least that is the impression from the El Paso Times.

Anyways.

I managed to get a copy of De La Torre's original draft of his speech:

"I know I look like a poor man's John Travolta, but I really feel like a poor man's Alec Baldwin from 'Glengarry Glen Ross'. 

When the voters handed me my ass on a plate last spring, I thought, 'No way. No how.' 

Tower doesn't lose. 

So what did I do? I doubled-down. 

I spent more school district money to convince those asshats that they needed to vote to allow me to spend more of their money.  But knowing that those old f*ucks might fu*ck me over again, I came up with a plan. 

First, I created an "Advisory Committtee".

Basically I appointed a hundred, give or take, of a bunch of underemployed and unemployed losers and gave them a title and some free punch in exchange for getting their other loser friends to vote.

Second, I was going to increase the pool of voting asshats in this election.

So I called State Senator Jose Rodriguez and told him I needed him to do one of his bullshit voter registration drives at YISD schools.  The good thing about Jose is that for a sandwich and a captive audience that has to hear him drone on broken English for an hour he will do just about anything.

Normally, you wouldn't trust any of those little fuc*ks behind a wheel, let alone with a credit card.

Seriously.

One of the little bastards actually thought registering to vote early was lot like building credit.

Sorry, Paco, but it is me who is going to be using that credit card, not you.

All I needed was for those little shi*ts to vote "yes". 

But given how shit*ty a lot of them do bubbling in their own name on a Scantron I know this would still be a challenge. 

But I made it happen. 

Ain't gonna say how cos' that's my secret sauce. 

But like I said, "Tower doesn't lose". 

Now, I am just waiting for that call from San Antonio to get the f*uck out of here cos' let's face it, making six-figures is great, but it's not great if there is no other place than Men's Warehouse to get a shitty suit."

When Jaime Loved Mary

When State Representative Mary Gonzalez first ran for State Representative, Jaime Abeytia had this to say about her:

"She doesn't talk about politics with them. She talks about them. The conversation is never about her. She gets it."

"She's a country girl. Thats who she is. Its imprinted on her DNA. She could no more stop being a country girl than I could stop being barrio boy."

Fast forward to last month, when Jaime said:

"State Rep Mary Gonzalez is taking the credit for a project going through that she shouldn't be taking credit for."

"Sure she comes back occasionally and will make it a point to have a meal at Cotton-Eyed Joes or a drink a Mammacita's just so that people know she's around, but on the few occasions she is actually in town she doesn't spend much of it in the district."

So what happened?

Apparently, Jaime is upset that Gonzalez is taking credit for something she really did not do.

I know.

Elected officials taking credit for things they did not do is par for course.   Look at State Senator Jose Rodriguez.  The guy does not sit on a budget-writing committee, but Sito Negron won't let a little fact like that get in the way of a press release.

So what gives?

Jaime says if Gonzalez were "intellectually honest" she would have given credit to whole host of people that he names.

But the problem is that Jaime himself is not being upfront.

In his list of names - the first name to be exact - is the Texas Secretary of State's Colonia Ombudsperson in El Paso.

That person happens to be Jaime's girlfriend. 

It is sweet of Jaime to stick up for his girlfriend, but now there is something of a predicament.

Government employees are not in it for the business of getting recognized.  Their trade-off for lack of public recognition is job security and benefits. 

Maybe Jaime went out of his way to stick up for his girlfriend, or maybe his girlfriend was pissed at Gonzalez and wanted something to be done about it, and as pathetic as it sounds, she wanted Mary to be bashed on a blog. 

But because Jaime was not upfront and we can only speculate.  

So now his girlfriend may have to explain to an elected official that she is not responsible for the contents of her boyfriend's post because it would not reflect well on the Secretary of State's office if employees are finding ways to bash a legislator for not giving an employee publicly a pat on the head. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Me Quemé

When El Paso's Patron Saint, Hillary Clinton, says that her opponent, Bernie Sanders, is in the pocket of the gun lobby, well, that makes me more inclined to vote for Bernie. 

Yes, Sanders does say all sorts of crazy socialist things, but with a Republican Congress, his project will stop short.

But back to this gun thing.

The fact that Bernie is "beholden to the gun lobby" means he is less likely to issue executive orders against guns...whether the executive order does a damn thing, or whether or not EOs create a more imperial presidency are topics for another time.

Honestly, I am not surprised Bernie is committed to the Second Amendment. 

There is the whole practical bit about the fact he hails from a rural New England state - Vermont.  Remember Howard Dean?  He got straight A's from the NRA while he was Governor of Vermont.  If you want to win statewide in Vermont, you have to be right on guns.

But beyond the practical, there is another reason why you would think any committed leftie, liberal, progressive, whatever or however you define yourself on the left wing, would be all about the Second Amendment.

Three Words.

Guerra. Civil. Española.

During that time, democratically-elected lefties were in charge of Spain.  But the military and other groups, which were decidedly right-wing, had enough of democracy.  So it waged war against a democratically-elected government.  The poor democratically-elected government did not have much in the way of firepower to defend itself.  So it had to depend on the USSR, Mexico, British novelists and American journalists.  Believe it or not, Hemingway's reporting was no match for Franco's army.

Now, sure Spain does not have to worry about its military waging war against its democratically-elected government it has now.  But that is only because Spanish military isn't the military it once was.  And it does not have to be cos' the USN does most of the heavy lifting in the Mediterranean, but that is a whole separate story. 

Anyways.

Point is being a leftie and Second Amendment advocate can be one in the same.

Of course though, Sanders is practical enough to know that he cannot say, "I am all for the Second Amendment because it is an insurance policy against a fascist government."

Meanwhile on the right....

 

 

 

 

 

Not Pandering At All

This is who El Paso will be voting for...

...not desperate at all...

The El Paso Times Editorial "Board"

David KKK has a interesting post about the El Paso Times Editorial "Board".

I say "Board" because there really is no board at the El Paso Times.  The "Board" is Bob Moore.  No one is going to disagree with Bob because of the fear that he will pull rank. 

What I find interesting is this from David:

Those folks in the community who know what's going on are losing any respect they once had for the newspaper.  

Why is that interesting?

Because Bob Moore is doing County Judge Veronica Escobar's dirty work. 

If they are losing respect for the paper, they should probably lose respect for Escobar.

If speed-dial were still a thing, you better believe the Eskimo would have Moore on it. 

Moore is Escobar's de facto PR guy. 

Anything that makes the City look bad, helps make her look good.  Between a failed children's hospital, the clusterphuck that is the Sportspark, a failed county administrator hire, among other things, Escobar needs all the help she can get even if it is just speed bumps. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We Pray

Despite all the evils things that City Larry Romero has done and everything we have done to ruin him, we now pray for him.

As we pray for Romero, here are some other prayers we should pray:

• That the City Hall burrito lady, Lily Limon, stops selling City Representative Peter Svarbein pork-laced breakfast burritos; we pray...Lord, hear our prayer.
• That State Representative Cesar Blanco spend less time in front of a mirror; we pray...Lord, hear our prayer.
• That the next time El Paso Inc. reporter, David Crowder, writes a story about City Representative Claudia Ordaz that he use an ink pen, and not his meat pen; we pray...Lord, hear our prayer.
• That County Judge Veronica Escobar's and EPISD Trustee Susie Byrd's cups of Franzia never run dry; we pray...Lord, hear our prayer.
• That in the event the City of El Paso find it necessary to build another runway at the El Paso International Airport that it not consider City Representative Claudia Ordaz's forehead; we pray...Lord, hear our prayer.
• That a certain El Paso apartment builder finds the way during his difficult financial time to continue to pay his cheap day laborer blogger; we pray...Lord, hear our prayer.
• That Jaime Abeytia in his moments of passion with his lover as he engages in APPROPRIATE sexual positions that he does not blurt out, "Oh, Claudia!"; we pray...Lord, hear our prayer.
• That Norma Chavez, who has had some difficult months recently, continue to recover and that she finds herself to be stronger than before.  No punch line there.  While she may handled some of her business wrong, that did not mean she was not right.

Have a good weekend, kiddos!

               

Jim Tolbert's Problem

DavidKKK thinks Jim Tolbert would make for a great city representative.

Which might be true. 

But in order to become a city representative you have to be good at politics, or at least somewhat better than  your opponent(s). 

That was a problem for Tolbert.

Fortunately, politics gives you many lives.

And Tolbert was given a second life, but leave it to him to piss it way.

If he would have just kept his powder-dry during this whole ordeal he could run again and win.  Then he could undo all the evil things Larry Romero did.  But no.  Because Tolbert sucks at politics he did not see the opportunity that lay before him. 

Instead Tolbert took another lesson from his loss. 

Tolbert thought if he could not excel at politics, well, the next best thing was to do his damnedest to criminalize politics. 

In his self-righteous quest he has found other folks with an ax grind, and he of course considers them to be kindred spirits.

Never mind the fact those kindred spirits are actually engaging the activity he abhors and detests. 

Pardon the pun, but that environmentalist cannot see the forest for the trees.

Tolbert thinks he is a player for good, but the truth is he is being played. 

Couple that with a guilty conscience to boot.