“On December 12, the occupy movements in different cities will stage mass mobilizations to march on the ports, create community pickets, and effectively shutdown the hubs of commerce, in the same fashion that Occupy Oakland shut down the Port of Oakland on November 2nd, the day of our general strike. The Oakland Port Shutdown was a historic and effective action, and the memory of that night on the port lives in the hearts of people across Oakland and around the country.”

Two things are clear:

1) Republicans' passage of a law in the last state legislative session requiring voters to show photo identification at polling places was not driven by legitimate concern about fraud. It was politically motivated, intended to lower voting participation by Democrats.

2) There is absolutely nothing wrong with requiring people to prove they are who they say they are before they cast a ballot.

By putting a hold on the Texas legislation last week, the U.S. Justice Department further politicized what at heart should be common-sense law. The Justice Department has asked for information the state said is impossible to provide - essentially the race and ethnicity of voters who would be disenfranchised by the new law.

The Republicans started this by including as eligible ID a concealed handgun license, a U.S. passport, and a military ID - all statistically more likely to belong to GOP-leaning voters - among acceptable polling place identification while excluding other ID forms more likely to be had by low-income Texans, students and the elderly, who statistically are more likely to vote Democrat.

Gov. Rick Perry had the audacity to call it an emergency bill, even though there was no evidence of voter fraud and the legislative session did not lack for real emergency items. All that said, eight other states already require photo IDs, which calls into question the feds' motives as well. Because of the DOJ request, the law might not be in place for the March 6 primary. If that happens, federal involvement will have changed the situation from undesirably anti-Democrat to unacceptably anti-democratic.

You know, they're just non-binding resolutions. The electorate in March's primary would decide whether they represented a 'sense of the party'.

You never see the SREC debating whether or not to stand up for their values (sic).

What the opposing SDEC members said, essentially, is: "we're too scared to even be associated with supporting Texas Democrats' right to vote on these, never mind actually standing up and supporting the values themselves". The irony w.r.t. to the party's argument against photo ID legislation is lost, obviously.

This is classic liberal versus conservative stuff here, not urban-rural. It's the same quarreling that motivated JFK to visit Texas in November of 1963; to calm the dispute between Connally and Yarborough in time for the '64 election. It's the same tussle that's been going in the Texas Democratic Party all of my life. It's really not so much a chronological divide, as Glen and Susan (Maxey and Bankston, in the comments at the BOR thread) have already demonstrated. I'm 53 FWIW.

Liberal v. conservative, progressive v. ... inert, I suppose is the best word. But it's also about being brave enough to fight for your values, no matter the odds.

It's time to clean all of the cowards off the SDEC. Past time actually. The sad thing is that it can't come soon enough to save the Democrats' chances in 2012.

A non-binding resolution supporting OWS never got out of committee, I take it? Another epic fail.

These votes yesterday are exactly the sort of message that could -- and should -- give tremendous momentum to the Texas Green Party.

Members of Occupy Houston will rally in silent protest at Energy Day on Saturday October 15, 2011.

Energy Day is sponsored the big oil companies responsible for the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and for building the Keystone XL Pipeline, a potential serious environmental disaster running from Alberta, Canada right into our backyard! Valero and other oil refining companies are seeking a tax refund to the tune of $135 million to cover the cost of hydro-treating equipment to reduce pollution. This refund is coming from our property taxes. Money meant for schools may go to large oil companies to cover these costs! We need to educate festival goers that there are serious threats to our planet, local tax money wasted, and a serious corruption chain behind big oil!

We will march the perimeter of the festival in white shirts and red bandannas or $1 bills over our mouths. Why do we cover our mouths? Why are we silent? Because the 99% of the citizens in this country do not have a voice in this country! Why do we wear white? It’s the opposite of black, the color of oil, and a symbol of the corruption and collusion rampant in the big energy industry.

Meet at 12:00 noon on Saturday, October 15, 2011 at lower Tranquility Park (map). Show up in your white shirts, bandannas, and bring a $1 bill. After we gather ourselves, get organized, and settled, we march at 12:30pm one block south to Hermann Square Plaza, right outside City Hall.

... the first $25 million in proceeds from the tax would go to programs that help victims of sexual assault. After that, the funds are earmarked for health care programs for uninsured people.