City Council Approves Cell Phone Ban

In a stunning move of stupidity not seen since the last time The Weakest Link had on hip-hop artists (see video below), the City Council voted to ban the use of cell phones while driving in the City of El Paso. The same City Council that wants to legalize pot.

No one wants accidents and certainly no one wants children injured or worse, but lets stop and think about this one for a minute.

What is next to be banned?

And there has to be someone making money off of this idea somewhere (cue the conspiracy-theory music). Blue-tooth makers come to mind first.

I completely agree that using a cell phone while driving is a distraction and therefore dangerous, but if we are really serious about stopping distracted drivers, why stop at cell phones? Why not ban:

Women who apply make-up and drive?
People who read a map and drive?
People looking in the paper for a movie time?
Listening to the radio?
Arguing with your significant other in the car?
Smoking in the car?
Refereeing fights between your kids in your car?
Adjusting the temperature in your car?
Looking at scenery while driving your car?
Eating while driving your car?
The television show Cash Cab?

Special Guest Post: Rene Diaz to Run for EPCC Board

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is a special to TheLionStarBlog by Sammy C, co-host of Homeboy Fridays on The LionStar Live! heard on www.TalkRadio1150.com

L. Rene Diaz woke up one morning and decided he wanted to make a difference.

A former bank branch manager Diaz felt that his strong conservative views and relentless focus on change was what District 78 needed. He threw his hat into the Republican primary race up against a very well known Dee Margo and newcomer Jay Kleberg.

Diaz had no name recognition, no big contributions to his campaign and had a very small following outside of his family and friends.

Diaz spoke from his heart at every forum, he was the only candidate that was really sincere about his service to the community.

With his wife by his side Diaz walked relentlessly. He was set on knocking on every door and talking to every person in District 78. Diaz had a good message that came from the heart.

Would District 78 hear him out?

I spoke to him before election day and he sounded confidant like a warrior before battle. He had his war paint and battle gear on. March 2nd came around, the battle was brutal. All that walking, all that talking and all that waving netted Diaz a devastating 275 votes.

That's just 3.51% of the total vote.

That was enough to make anyone give up.

I gave him some time to take it all in and to spend alone with his family because he definitely needed and deserved it. I emailed him six days after the results came in. I didn't know how he would respond, I didn't know if he was ready to speak about his ordeal.

Then my phone rings. I recognize the number on my caller I.D. and prepare myself for a somber conversation.

Boy was I wrong!

I had planned to give Rene the good old "it's all going to be alright" speech. But as soon as I asked him how he was doing he blew me away.

Diaz said he had never been more motivated to serve.

He said he had done better than he expected election day, a lot of you are wondering, did he know he had only got 275 votes?

He did.

To him that meant that he had 275 people that agreed with his message. That's definitely looking at the positive side of things.

Most candidates would take some time off, regrouped and maybe run for a lesser office in the future. It would only make sense. Well, Rene is so dedicated in serving his community that he is going to do just that, minus the taking some time off.

L. Rene Diaz just met the filing deadline today for El Paso Community College Board of Trustees District 1.

That's right, Rene Diaz is running against long time incumbent Dr. John Uxer for the seat of District 1.

The election will take place May 8, 2010.

When I asked Diaz why he would jump into another race less than a week after loosing a statewide race he responded, "Why not?".

Diaz said that he ran for election to make a difference in the community not just to win an election.

His dedication to serve his community is what fueled him to continue this election cycle. He has the momentum, the energy, the desire to serve and not to mention a supportive wife, well I don't see why Rene Diaz shouldn't run for Board of Trustees.

Most people don't run for election once in there lifetime. Diaz is running in two within a week of each other. His actions are very admirable to say the least. That is just the energy and dedication that we need here in El Paso.

Just imagine, a candidate who sincerely wants to serve his community, what a concept?

Amber Alert!!!

A special announcement from The Lion Star Blog!

Please be on the look out.

Sex

That always gets people's attention.

Since St. Patrick's Day is around the corner and everyone talks about the luck of the Irish, I thought I'd post a new poll about how often my readers get lucky.

Take a break from politics and have a little fun.

Responding to a Few Comments

I thought I would take a few minutes to respond to some comments made around the blogosphere about me and my support for Norma Chavez.

Its funny how different people hate me for "supporting" different candidates. When I support someone from the Shapleigh camp, I get a group of people that hate me for it.

If I support someone from the Chavez camp, I get an entirely different group of people hate me for it.

You people need to make up your minds.

As for being an uneducated ex-cholo...you act like thats something I should be ashamed of. Sure, I'd like to have a degree, but it won't magically make me any more or less credible and won't change the "ex-cholo" thing. So basically, kiss my ass. Your acceptance of me is neither desired, nor required. Moreover, the person who made that comment clearly reads my blog, which sounds alot like acceptance to me.

As for Naomi not answering questions from me, get over yourself. Its not that I want her to answer questions from me, its that I want her to answer tough and relevant questions to the campaign. Has nothing to do with me, but everything to do with her articulating what her message and plan is.

As for me being a journalist, join the rest of us on planet earth. I have said a bazillion times I am not a journalist, nor do I play one on TV. I am the first one to tell people I'm not a journalist. Which means I don't have to be objective and can be one-sided all I want. The funny thing about you people is that you are pretty one-sided in your critique of my support for Chavez. Funny how when I am critical of Chavez, I don't hear shit from any of you, but your tune changes when I speak highly of her. How one-sided of you.

My credibility goes only as far as people are willing to recognize it. So for some, I have no credibility, which honestly doesn't bother me.

It used to, but I learned something from David K. Even when they hate you, they are still waiting to hear what you have to say. Lay all the criticism you want, many of you still tune in and many more of you still read my blog

I guess that's a form of credibilty.

Campaign Billboard

Well that was fast!

I drove by the spot that used to have Christine Pacheco's billboard on I-10 and Mesa downtown. It has already been changed back to a Reyes & Reyes sign.

That was really fast and sort of plays in to the criticisms many had of the length of time it took Larry Medina to change his campaign billboard on I-10 near Basset Center.

A Note to Naomi

I realize that I have pissed a lot of you off because I was very frank in my assessment of Saint, oops, I meant Senator Shapleigh.

I have challenged a lot of people on something and no one has been able to meet the challenge. The challenge is this: identify a platform or policy stance from Naomi Gonzalez.

Go ahead, take all the time you need.

I'll wait.

Can't think of one?

Try her website.

Go ahead, I'll wait here and tap my toes while you look for one.

Done yet?

It's okay, I have all day, I can wait...

Seriously, keep looking.

Can't find one can you?

Neither could I.

Thats because she doesn't have one.

This is the closest thing I could find to a platform or policy stance. Its from her website:

Restore public integrity to our State Representative Office.
Hold the line on property taxes.
Put El Paso first in the push for state funding.

There is a mailer that says the words "New Vision. New Leadership". At the risk of sounding like New Hector, I have to ask the question, just what exactly does that new vision look like?

This is the major weakness of the Gonzalez campaign. There is no substance to her campaign.

Now look, I get it. There are a lot of you that don't like Chavez because, well she can be a big pain in the ass to work with.

I get it.

But in your fervor to get rid of Chavez because of her personality flaws, ask yourself a serious question. Do you even know what Naomi stands for? Do you even know what her policies are?

If so, please pass them on to the rest of us because we'd sure like to hear them.

I know what you are thinking, LionStar likes Norma so thats why he's writing this stuff. A fair critique. But hey, don't take my word for it, look for yourself. This link is to all the mailers Gonzalez sent out. Do you see a platform anywhere?

I mean other than saying Norma is bad and she's not Norma, what is she all about?

Like I said, don't take my word for it, look for yourself.

Surely Naomi Gonzalez has a plan right? I'm not entirely sure she does.

Gonzalez has ducked and dodged anyone that will ask her a meaningful question. We have a responsibility to vet her candidacy before sending her to Austin. Just not being Norma isn't enough. We might find ourselves with a severe case of be careful what you wish for.

I think I understand why she only goes on ground of her choosing. If you remember back to the last time she ran, she went on talk radio and it was a bad experience for her. She was asked a basic question and bombed it on air.

Flash forward to this election and it was more of the same. I was able to get one 2 minute interview with her and I asked her a very basic question that ANY candidate should be able to answer, though several have had a problem with it. I asked her if she was elected what would be the first meaningful piece of legislation she would introduce. After fumbling around for an answer she came up with making Alameda a historic district.

Naomi has ignored repeated requests for interviews. In my opinion she, much like Theresa Caballero, seems to be focusing on negative campaigning, but hasn't given the voters any insight in to her positions.

There may be a couple of reasons why. Either she doesn't have any, which is something she wouldn't want revealed, or they are similar to her opponent, which would make the entire debate about personality and not substance...something else she isn't likely to want to be revealed.

She doesn't want to put herself in a position where someone exposes that liability of the fact that she doesn't have a strong position on issues.

Gonzalez has been and will continue to be the darling of mainstream media. That's why she's gotten a pass on the contributions from TLR. But replace TLR with a person. If 90% of contribitions came from a person, just how up in arms would the mainstream media be? Wouldn't people think she was indebted to that benefactor?

Gonzalez once asked me at a Halloween party last year if I was "bought and paid for by Norma Chavez." I guess that real question now is this. Naomi, are you bought and paid for by the Republican controlled TLR?
Ask yourself something. Is there a single elected official in this town that we can be proud of that won based on negative campaigning alone?

If this election were about ideas and vision and who has the better plan, and if the constituents evaluated the plans of both candidates and chose to replace Chavez, then I would be in support of the electorate.

We deserve to elect people in this town because they have the best ideas, not because they are the best negative campaigners.

If they want to "make us proud" to be our state rep, then they should make us proud in their campaign conduct and in their ideas for El Paso.

Senator Shapleigh, Naomi Gonzalez, & Rick Perry

If you've seen my previous interview with Senator Shapleigh, you probably remember the Senator getting pretty bothered by the fact that I asked him if he would vote for Representative Moody if Republican Jay Kleberg made it to the general election.

How dare his Democratic credentials be challenged.

But when you think about it, the self-described Democrat of all Democrats has challenged his own Democratic credentials. As I have previously posted, the Senator has been openly cozy with Kleberg.

Now Senator Shapleigh used his visit with KVIA last night as a chance to attack Representative Chavez over her argument about money from the Republican-backed Texans for Lawsuit Reform and by default, defended Gonzalez's acceptance of the money.


This is part of the reason why people are becoming frustrated with Senator Shapleigh. Organizations like TLR, along with Rick Perry and Tom Craddick backed Dee Margo in his bid to unseat Senator Shapleigh a few years ago. Now he's defending Gonzalez's acceptance of their money?

What happened to the Democrat of all Democrats?

I know the Senator's intellect is supposed to be the stuff of legend, but does he really think voters are stupid, or does he really not understand the difference between the contributions received by Representative Chavez and Naomi Gonzalez? Representative Chavez took TLR money to help Representative Marquez get elected. Shapleigh was against Representative Marquez and supported his colleague in the legislature, Paul Moreno.

Now he wants to plot against a colleague in the legislature?

Representative Chavez's donations from TLR are no where near the amount of money Gonzalez has received from TLR. To imply that there is some kind of equivalence is quite simply dishonest on the part of Senator Shapleigh.

Last I heard Shapleigh championed against people like Rick Perry Republicans, now the self-described Democrat of all Democrats is backing their play in their support of Naomi Gonzalez?

The Senator is trying to act as though Naomi Gonzalez's appoximately 90% Republican-backed contributions is somehow the same as Representative Chavez taking a limited amount of money from TLR?

Nearly all of the Senator's criticisms of Representative Chavez are critiques that could equally be applied to Senator Shapleigh. Combative, abrasive, egotistical, difficult, arrogant, abusive, petty, self-centered...those things could as easily said about Senator Shapleigh as Representative Chavez.

I respect the Senator and he's a smart guy, but I gotta call it like I see it. I think the Senator is full of it on this one and is being a hypocrite.

Senator Shapleigh now seems to be setting his sights on getting Gonzalez elected and defeating Chavez. Why is the Senator weighing in against a colleague when the last time around he was helping a colleague? Why is the Senator trying to be a king-maker and a behind-the-scenes power broker?

Representative Chavez backed a political nobody with no history of service to the community in order to take out her rival in the legislature. Senator Shapleigh is essentially doing the same thing to Chavez that Chavez did to Moreno but acting as though its different.

Now where have I heard that before?

That sort of reminds me of some else around town.

Sounds like another former elected official that has left office but continued to try to influence local elections.

His actions sound a lot like...Luther Jones.

A Republican by the way.

Tough Love for Representative Chavez

I have to admit it, I'm shocked at the outcome of the race for HD 76.

So much for bullet-proof.

To all you haters that are leaving comments without a name, kiss my ass, no one has “shut” me up. Gonzalez didn't win, she's in the lead going in to the run-off.

But there are clear lessons to be learned in this election for Chavez. First of all, she is in trouble...big trouble. Her camp needs to take her cell phone from her, snatch her laptop, break them, put the pieces in a plastic bag, climb to the top of the giant Asarco chiminea and drop them in there so she can't get a hold of them.

They have to do everything they can to keep Chavez from being her own worst enemy. Keep her off talk radio so that she will stop her sudden compulsion to commit public political suicide.

I'm serious, somebody needs to go to the dollar store and buy all the duct tape they can find. They have to stop the conspiracy theory, everyone-is-out-to-get-me, I'm-running-against-everyone, the-commercials-are-why-I'm-behind, my-consultants-screwed-up,Sito-Negron-is-part-of-a-political-faction-out-to-get-me tirades on the radio. It's not helping.

All that stuff does is feed in to the criticisms that are often leveled at her.

Chavez is bad in crowds, but she is a master of personal interaction with people in her district. She has to remind the voters of what she's done. But not the big stuff like the medical school, etc. Its a great accomplishment, in fact its historic.

She has to go back to her roots. She's Jenny from the block who stood up for her parent's small business and working class people like them back in the 90's and went all the way to Austin and fought rich white guys in suits, boots, and cowboy hats.

What I mean to say is, she has to remind the voters of the stuff she's done for them that is tangible to them. That has an impact to their lives. The medical school doesn't.

But things like paving Socorro Road does.

And so does saving a thousand homes during the Lee Trevino extension debate.

And fighting against the Yarborough Bridge.

She's a blue collar girl from working class parents who took on the establishment when her family needed her. That's real leadership, not a hot shot young lawyer who is looking for a title and prestige.

She didn't grow up in parochial schools, didn't have all the best opportunities others might have had, and doesn't have a law degree. But she's a gritty, street-wise American success story that pulled herself up and willed her way to a college degree.

Chavez is a beat-up old Chevy pick-up. Sometimes she's a little noisy and not so graceful, but when you need someone to haul the legislative payload, she gets the job done.

But its time for a tune up. Chavez has to come to grips with the fact that her woes aren't because of a media conspiracy, who wounds are most-often self-inflicted. She has to realize that her election numbers are ONLY because of negative campaigning and a bad summer in the press. Its the culmination of years of strained relationships and public missteps.

The sooner she comes to that realization, the sooner she can start a new relationship with voters.

She can't go negative against Gonzalez at this point. She has to highlight her value to the voters and the value of her legislative prowess, experience, and seniority.

She has to ignore the negative campaigning of her opponent and force her opponent in to talking about policy and issues, something no one in the mainstream media appears to be interested in asking Gonzalez.

And Gonzalez appears all to eager to avoid anyone that will ask her a substantive question.

Chavez needs to live in her comfort zone at this point. Stay organizing. Stay in the field, stay on message.

Its true that radio is Chavez's preferred medium, but the medium is only as good as the message. Chavez needs to make sure the voters don't change the channel.

A Message to Voters

This is the first time that I've stuck out my neck for a couple of candidates, which means I have a tremendous amount of faith in the candidates.

There are three other candidates that I wanted to do the same for, but two of them don't need my help and I ran out of time for the third one.

Please take a couple of minutes to hear me out on State Representative Norma Chavez and County Attorney Jo Ann Bernal.

Christine Pacheco & Robert Andrade Deal with Donation Issue

If you heard my show last week then you heard me discuss something that I think is worth some clarification. If you read the El Paso Times last week, very carefully because it was hard to find, you would've seen a piece talking about Pacheco returning a certain amount of money that had been donated to her.

Pacheco had taken more money than was allowed under election rules for judicial candidates.

The article leads the reader to believe that it was an error that was caught by the campaign.

If you were under that impression, you are wrong.

The piece in the El Paso Times specifically says, “She said she recently discovered that the firm's total contributions of close to $6,000 exceeded the limit on law firms established by the Texas Ethics Commission.”

She discovered that the contributions exceeded the limit because I told her campaign manager about it. Stick with me here, I want to lay out the timeline for you.

I also wanted to write about this because there are some things that you don't see transpire during an interview on the radio. I had come across the contributions and got a hold of the relevant documents.

I had the documents organized in a folder complete with tabs and highlighted sections to guide me through the law. I told Pacheco and her campaign manager, Robert Andrade that I was going to ask the question during the break, so that she wouldn't feel like she was ambushed.

Andrade did most of the talking; he's a lot more diplomatic than Pacheco. He told me that they had already been asked about the donation by a reporter from the El Paso Times, Adrianna Chavez. I guess the implication was supposed to be that it was nothing because the Times hadn't written about it.

I really didn't get a chance to get the question out before Pacheco started telling me how I was wrong, so I got the impression that she was familiar with the issue.

I then asked her the question on air and she all but dared me to call the state Ethics Commission to verify a particular sticking point (whether a law firm was considered on person or counted individually).

So I did.

Turns out, I was right and she had exceeded the maximum amount.

So I ran into Andrade the next day at a polling place. I told him what I'd found out and that I needed to get comment from Pacheco. He said he'd be happy to get me comment but that it would have to be later in the day.

I never heard back from him.

A couple of days later, the El Paso Times version of the story came out.

Not a front page piece, but buried on a subsequent page. The Times didn't get a quote from Pacheco either, but they did get a nice quote from Andrade about transparency.

I just wanted to explain what happened on my show when I asked about the issue nearly a week before the Times piece came out because I thought it would give a deeper understanding of the sequence of events.

KVIA County Judge Debate

So I was watching the KVIA debate on Sunday morning between County Commissioner Veronica Escobar, Sergio Coronado, and Rick Ledesma.

I was watching for several reasons, but the smart ass in me was watching to see Coronado and Escobar struggle to answer a question in under and hour and forty-five minutes. Don't get mad, admit it, they take a long time to answer a question.

For some reason Rick Ledesma showed up dressed like Cab Calloway, minus the fedora and tap shoes.

My favorite part of the debate was the end when Rick Cabrera gave the candidates a chance to ask each other a question. When this is done, you can always tell who the candidates see as the front runner because everyone guns for that candidate.

Ledesma started the questions by asking Escobar about the Playboy article and government cheese comment. Escobar offered a bit of a new development. She stated that Ledesma knew very well that the author of the article was a freelance writer, not a regular contributor to Playboy. The new part was a statement the author has come forward with indicating that Escobar did not make the “welfare flavor” comment.

Despite the fact that the author came forward with a statement stating that she didn't make the comment, something tells me its not going to go away.

I haven't seen a negative mailer capitalizing on it yet, but if its gonna happen it will happen it will show up in the mail Monday or Tuesday.

Coronado also aimed his question about Escobar and Escobar basically turned the tables on him and tied him to Theresa Caballero's argument against County Attorney Joan Bernal.

Escobar then asked Coronado a question about a contribution that he had received from the spouse of someone implicated in the Public Corruption Investigation. Escobar wanted his take on the Catalina Lawsuit, which involves the aforementioned implicated individual. Either Coronado really didn't know, or pretended he didn't know who she was talking about. Turned out the contribution came from Stanley Jobe and Martie Jobe was the implicated individual.

Coronado could've gotten away with answering the question without the Jobe's names being mentioned but he either didn't understand or was being evasive, which gave Escobar the chance to mention the Jobe's. Coronado struggled but didn't really have a chance to answer the question.

The bottom line is that Coronado and Ledesma identify Escobar as the front-runner. Escobar identifies Coronado has her main opponent and no one looks at Ledesma as any kind of threat.

Homeboy / Asshole of the Week Award

This Homeboy of the Week Award goes to Liz Gonzalez. There is a special place in heaven for people who die while trying to help others.

The Asshole of the Week Award goes to anyone who is eligibile to vote and who either hasn't voted in early voting, or doesn't vote this Tuesday.

My Republican Family

I've talked about this publically on more than one occassion about how many of my family members are Republican, but the unauthorized use of some of my video footage from an interview in a Republican PAC's attack ad got me to thinking.

Essentially the ad goes after Jay Kleberg, a Republican in HD 78 primary squaring off against Dee Margo and Rene Diaz, for voting for Barack Obama in the last election.

Kleberg said his vote for Obama was a protest vote because he didn't like what the Republican Party had become over the last eight years. He's certainly not alone.

Hell, REPUBLICANS are even reluctant to identify with their own party name. I was covering a Republican Party event last week and Bobby Ortiz, a former Congressional candidate for Congress, said he doesn't consider himself a Republican but rather a Conservative.



That remark drew applause from everyone in the room (okay, except me).

But some have put forth the idea that if Kleberg voted for Obama over McCain for president that he is somehow not a "real" Republican. Real as opposed to what exactly?

Thanksgiving before last my Dad was really sick and we spent a lot of time in the hospital. It was the first time I really had the chance to sit and talk with some of my dad's siblings, most of whom happen to be Republicans.

While my dad was as liberal as they come, my tata was as conservative as they come. He was Richard Nixon conservative. In our home we always had a picture of John Kennedy hanging on the wall. In my tata's house, it was a picture of Richard Nixon. (Which might explain why I am so liberal on social justice issues, but have a conservative streak in me when it comes to fiscal issues and my stance on life).

The bottom line is that many in my family were Republican Latinos before the GOP got smart and realized that Latinos were a group they should be recruiting.

Many of the Republican members of my family voted for Obama. Mostly because they didn't like the direction Bush was taking our country in. Think about it, if you are a Reagan Republican, you really couldn't be all that proud of Bush's spending and assault on the Constitution.

In fact, my uncle Bernie, a Repulican who supported Obama partially due to McCain's inability to support a particular veteran's issue my tio was advocating for, was asked to lead the Pledge of Allegiance when President Obama visited Phoenix on February 18, 2009.

That was the day my dad died. He knew my dad would want him to go and he went. He made us proud. He was one of those REAL Republicans, like others in my family, that voted for Obama.

The way one of the matriarchs in my family put it, "We didn't leave the Party, the Party left us."

The fact that the Tea Party is so successful is partially due to the frustration many traditional conservatives have felt with the GOP. And lets not forget that the "Maverick" from Arizona, John McCain, really wasn't all that much of a Republican. That's part of the reason Palin was put on the ticket in the first place, because she appealed to traditional conservatives.

And people who like the term "maverick".

So now a Republican PAC wants to paint Kleberg as something less than a "real" Republican?

They have no idea how much of a compliment that is in some circles.

"Anonymous" Comments

I'm serious about this comment thing. I encourage comments, even the ones that disagree with me. Hell, I don't even care what haters say about me online anymore because the more they talk about me, the more controversial they make me, the more people tune in.

But I've been pretty relaxed about comments lately, but I'm putting my foot down. Any comment without a name at the top, or within the body of the comment, will not be approved, no matter how harmless it is.

Sorry, but I need to be consistent and put a stop to some people's crap. If you are gonna say it, you are gonna at least own it.