Houston Mayor Annise Parker Supports Renew Houston And Red Light Cameras—She Asks That You Please Do The Same

Houston Mayor Annise Parker recently discussed the various City of Houston ballot propositions in a conference telephone call with local political bloggers.

Here is Kraftwerk’s video The Telephone Call. It’s a classic.

(Below–A video snippet from Kraftwerk’s The Telephone Call.)

I don’t have any verbatim quotes from the Mayor’s call because I was knitting during the call instead of taking notes.

Please don’t tell the Mayor because she won’t approve, but knitted graffiti is all the rage. See below–

(Photo by Noah Sussman)

Don’t worry though, the essence of the Mayor’s words are clear in my mind to the extent that anything is clear in my mind.

There are three issues on the Houston ballot in 2010. Mayor Parker favors all three of these issues. See encourages all her supporters and all people of Houston to vote for these issues.

Proposition One is the so-called Renew Houston initiative.  This issue will levy a fee on property owners that will go to a dedicated fund that will be used to address wastewater removal and flooding in Houston.

Mayor Parker says that this initiative will use the funds it raises for only the stated purpose of curbing flooding in our city, and that she is aware of no other solution that has been proposed for this longtime problem.

She says that everybody has to pay up for this, because once exemptions are granted to one group of people or one type of property, then others will want an exemption.

Where would the pleas for exemptions end?

Again—I’m giving you the essence of the Mayor’s remarks because I was baking a pie during the call instead of taking notes.

Proposition Two on our ballot is so tedious to describe that someone is going to have to slap me across the face to keep me awake to write the next two sentences.

(Below–Former President George W. Bush slapping Houston-area Congressman Al Green across the face)

Proposition 2 will, for one time only, lessen the residency requirement for Houston City Council candidates to have lived in their district before the November, 2011 municipal elections. Since council redistricting will take place after census results are announced next year , some incumbents may find themselves in new territory.

(Below–Sometimes the ground shifts beneath your feet.)

Mayor Parker supports Proposition as a basic measure of fairness. Redistricting happens and folks deserve a chance at keeping their seats.

This is, in the main, the substance of the Mayor’s thoughts on Prop. 2. I did not take the exact notes because  I was playing pinball during the call.

(Below—KISS pinball machine. Photo taken by The Consumerist.)

Proposition 3 is red light cameras. If you vote Yes on 3, you will be voting to keep red light cameras in Houston.

Mayor Parker urges you to vote Yes on 3. Her bottom line concern is safety on our roads. She wants drivers in Houston to please stop at red lights. She feels red light cameras lessen the number of people running red lights.

That is pretty much what she said on the matter. I don’t have the exact notes because I was driving while on the call.

(Using the phone. Photo by Edbrown05)

Houston Mayor Annise Parker asks her fellow Houstonians to support all three Houston propositions on the 2010 General Election ballot.

She feels that these issues reflect good public policy that will benefit the people of our city.

I agree with the Mayor on these ballot questions.

Here are my Texas Liberal endorsements for 2010.

How Not To Conduct A Conference Call—People Want To Communicate

I was just on a conference call where two candidates running for public office here in Texas invited political bloggers to hear what they had to say.

(Above–Telephone from 1931.)

I won’t say who these folks are because I want them to win the election.

However…..

…Please allow me to offer some tips on how not to conduct a conference call when you are asking for support.

1. Do not start the call with everybody on mute. It was clear from the start that the idea on having folks on mute was done for a reason. Whatever that reason was, it could only be frustrating and insulting to people who dialed in and who thought the call would be an open forum.

(Above–Someone who merited being placed on mute.)

2. Do not express the concern that opening the call to all might be “unruly.” Democracy is unruly. If you find a conference call with a friendly audience daunting, just what will you do in a tough campaign?

3. When you finally do decide to open the call after nearly 50 minutes of us listening to you, please don’t cut off the call in a rush because some folks are a bit long-winded.

( Above–French army using remote phone in WW I.)

4. If you convey the impression that you don’t want to listen to people, the impression you will convey is that you don’t want to listen to people.

It is best to be open. As you can guess from this post, I did not find this conference call to be open.

People want to be able to communicate with one another. People want to be able to express what they think about things.

Who thought it would be a good idea to not let bloggers express themselves?

Here is a history of the telephone.

Here is the video of the excellent Kraftwerk song The Telephone Call.

Here is the video for Blondie’s Hanging On The Telephone.

(Below—Lady Gaga and Beyonce are on the telephone.)

I’m Sorry I’m Not Able To Accept Charges On Collect Calls From Harris County Jail—Rules For Inmates Making Collect Calls From County Jail

 

If you are the person who called me earlier this evening from the Harris County, Texas jail asking if I was able to accept the charges on a collect call—I’m sorry that I was not able to accept such charges.

( Above–Video to Kraftwerk’s The Telephone Call.) 

I did give taking the call some thought. The recorded operator said it would cost $3.60 to accept the call. The recording did not say who was calling. All it said was that it was a collect call from the Harris County Jail.

I asked myself who I knew that might be in the county jail. While I can think of people I know that should be in jail, or that I wish were in  jail, I don’t feel I know anyone in jail at the moment.

I was somewhat curious about who was on the other end of the call.  Maybe it was a person who wished to discuss American history with me this evening. Or a person pondering the nature of redemption after the committing of misdeeds.

In the end however, my guess was that I was better off not taking the call. 

Here are rules and procedures regarding inmates in our Harris County Jail.

Here is the link to County Sheriff Adrian Garcia.

Sheriff Garcia is a Democrat elected in 2008 to replace a Republican Sheriff.

Republicans are on the run here in Harris County. Harris County is the nation’s third most populous county.  Over 3.5 million people live in Harris County.   

Republicans think they can run minority-bashing anti-urban campaigns in a majority-minority urban county. 

That plan did not work so well for Republicans in 2008. 

Below are the rules for inmates placing a collect call at the Harris County Jail—

Inmates can place collect calls to phone numbers where collect calling is not restricted. This is the most common method of placing calls from the facility. However, there are some situations where collect calls are restricted… e.g.

• The phone number has reached its credit limit for collect calls
• The owner of the phone has requested no collect calls be permitted to their number
• The phone number is assigned to a cellular phone or pager
• The phone company of the called party has restricted collect calls

Rates – Rate quotes are available to the called party at the start of each call

Process–

• Inmate dials phone number
• System determines if called number is able to receive collect calls and places or rejects the call
• Called party must positively accept the call by following the automated instructions