{"id":2585,"date":"2010-08-27T17:01:24","date_gmt":"2010-08-27T23:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/?p=2585"},"modified":"2010-08-27T17:01:24","modified_gmt":"2010-08-27T23:01:24","slug":"bill-white-volunteer-all-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/2010\/08\/27\/bill-white-volunteer-all-right\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill White Volunteer All Right"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><object width=\"480\" height=\"289\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/nJfJQl7Zfrg&#038;rel=0&#038;color1=0xb1b1b1&#038;color2=0xd0d0d0&#038;hl=en_US&#038;feature=player_embedded&#038;fs=1\"><\/param><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\"><\/param><param name=\"allowScriptAccess\" value=\"always\"><\/param><embed src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/nJfJQl7Zfrg&#038;rel=0&#038;color1=0xb1b1b1&#038;color2=0xd0d0d0&#038;hl=en_US&#038;feature=player_embedded&#038;fs=1\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" allowScriptAccess=\"always\" width=\"480\" height=\"289\"><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n<p>Yesterday, partly in a quest to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.brainmysteries.com\/research\/Happiness_is_a_collective_--_not_just_individual_--_phenomenon.asp\">be more sociable<\/a> &#8212; and partly in a quest to save (improve?) the universe &#8212; I volunteered, phonebanking, for Democrat <a href=\"http:\/\/billwhitefortexas.com\">Bill White<\/a>&#8216;s campaign (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/billwhitefortx\">Twitter<\/a>; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/tx4billwhite\">Twitter<\/a>) for the Texas governor&#8217;s office.<\/p>\n<p>Some bullet-points about <b>Bill White<\/b>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p>The Houston area <a href=\"http:\/\/billwhitefortexas.com\/about\/record.html\">led the nation in job growth<\/a> during Bill White&#8217;s years in office. It added more jobs than 37 states combined.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Houston voters returned him to office as Mayor with overwhelming re-election margins of <a href=\"http:\/\/billwhitefortexas.com\/about\/record.html\">91% and 86%<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Bill White&#8217;s parents were schoolteachers, and he <a href=\"http:\/\/www.news8austin.com\/content\/headlines\/273075\/bill-white-talks-education-in-waco\">calls<\/a> &#8220;education the most important business of state government.&#8221; He <a href=\"http:\/\/billwhitefortexas.com\/about\/record.html\">pledges<\/a> to work toward increasing public education&#8217;s share of the state budget and toward making two- and four-year colleges more affordable.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>He <a href=\"http:\/\/billwhitefortexas.com\/about\/record.html\">helped<\/a> Houston free up an additional $80 million for parks and $40 million for libraries.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>His main opponent, incumbent governor <b>Rick Perry<\/b>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p>Perry <a href=\"http:\/\/www.seattlepi.com\/opinion\/98648_sodomy06.shtml\">opposes<\/a> consensual oral or anal sex between anyone, gay or straight, as does the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.1888932-2946.ws\/TexasGOP\/E-ContentStrategy\/userfiles\/2010_RPT_PLATFORM.pdf\"\">2010 Republican Party of Texas<\/a>; both want those acts to be <em>illegal<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>In 2009, with Texas unemployment at 8%, Perry <a href=\"http:\/\/www.texasmonthly.com\/blogs\/burkablog\/?p=4719\">expressed disbelief<\/a> when others said Texas was in a recession. Earlier, that January, in the middle of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chron.com\/disp\/story.mpl\/front\/6307951.html\">Texas-record<\/a> job losses, Perry <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/sharedcontent\/dws\/bus\/stories\/031309dntexperrystimulus.2b47185d.html\">turned down<\/a> half a billion in federal stimulus funds targeted toward unemployment benefits for Texans.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/governor.state.tx.us\/news\/appointment\/13203\/\">Perry-appointed<\/a> chairperson for the current Texas State Board of Education, Gail Lowe, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/texas-education\/state-board-of-education\/sboe-removes-thomas-jefferson-blames-media\/\">removed Thomas Jefferson<\/a> from the curriculum standards&#8217; list of world philosophers, making space instead for 16th-century theologian John Calvin (among others); <a href=\"http:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=bhyH7v5Sys0C&#038;lpg=PA65&#038;dq=calvinism%20worldly%20success&#038;pg=PA65#v=onepage&#038;q&#038;f=false\">according to<\/a> Max Weber and more, much Calvinism, if not Calvin, considered great success in money-making to be a sign that a person is one of the elect going to heaven.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Sarah Palin <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rickperry.org\/palin-letter\">is endorsing<\/a> Rick Perry&#8217;s gubernatorial run. The two appeared together at the <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rickperry.org\/Sarah\">Super Sunday with Sarah!<\/a><\/em> event along with Ted Nugent, where Perry <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=z75yHEy98wY\">said<\/a>: &#8220;Sarah Palin was a great person to put on the [Republican Presidential] ticket.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I had a lot of fun phonebanking. Most of the time I was just leaving answering machine messages or marking numbers as disconnected (&#8220;or no longer in service&#8221;); when I did get a person on the phone, most all of them were very polite, even the Perry supporters. I got the hang of it quick, and definitely talked a few people into yard signs or text-message updates or whatnot. ;-) If you&#8217;re able to volunteer, I bet you&#8217;ll get the hang of it quick, too. Find out <a href=\"http:\/\/action.billwhitefortexas.com\/page\/s\/volunteer\">how to volunteer for Bill White<\/a>!<\/p>\n<\/ul>\n<div id=\"attachment_1717\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=width: 150px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/redphonetrees.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/redphonetrees-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"My Headquarters\" title=\"redphonetrees\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" class=\"aligncenter size-thumbnail wp-image-1717\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">My Personal Station (via <a href=\"http:\/\/www.geograph.org.uk\/photo\/248336\">John Smith<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-flattr-button\"><a class=\"FlattrButton\" style=\"display:none;\" href=\"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/2010\/08\/27\/bill-white-volunteer-all-right\/\" title=\" Bill White Volunteer All Right\" rev=\"flattr;uid:DouglasLucas;language:en_GB;category:text;tags:Activism,Bill-White,DFW,Politics,Texas,blog;\">Yesterday, partly in a quest to be more sociable &#8212; and partly in a quest to save (improve?) the universe &#8212; I volunteered, phonebanking, for Democrat Bill White&#8216;s campaign (Twitter;...<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday, partly in a quest to be more sociable &#8212; and partly in a quest to save (improve?) the universe &#8212; I volunteered, phonebanking, for Democrat Bill White&#8216;s campaign (Twitter; Twitter) for the Texas governor&#8217;s office. Some bullet-points about Bill White: The Houston area led the nation in job growth during Bill White&#8217;s years in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,56,42,24,55],"tags":[125,134,122,111,133],"class_list":["post-2585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-bill-white","category-dfw","category-politics","category-texas","tag-activism","tag-bill-white","tag-dfw","tag-politics","tag-texas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2585"}],"version-history":[{"count":83,"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2668,"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2585\/revisions\/2668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}