Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Bill Sanders Unleashes Beto 4.0 Amid Malfunction of BetoBot

Technical News

Bill Sanders Unleashes Beto 4.0

Amid Malfunction of BetoBot

O'Rourke Campaign states Bot was in "Suegro" mode when it exposes Plans for Segundo Barrio and South Yarbrough Ahead of Schedule

by Satira Sinvergüenza

Senior Technical Reporter

Last week's public malfunction of BetoBot has brought a series of customer complaints and jeers enough to make billionaire El Paso real estate tycoon Bill Sanders announce that he is releasing Beto 4.0 to replace the crash-frequest Beto 3.0.

Above, Sanders introduces the new Beto 4.0

At the Beto 4.0 release, Sanders described the new programing of Beto 4.0 and that programmers have ironed out most of the bugs found in earlier versions, especially Beto 3.0.

This announcement comes as public scrutiny has taken aim at recent malfunctions by a BetoBot with Beto 3.0.

According to witnesses, during a grassroots door-to-door district walking on Saturday in El Paso near South Yarbrough, BetoBot suddenly passed a bulldozer parked on the side of the road, jumped aboard starting the ignition, and drove toward the Ysleta Pre-K, Centro Cristiana Alpha y Omega, and Valentine's Bakery before neighborhood residents jumped aboard the bulldozer and stopped BetoBot.

“This is pretty alarming,” says CNET analyst Amado D. Kompuradoras. “The Betobot has had a series of problems since its initial outing as Robert O'Rourke.1.0. At that time, that version was sufficiently Republican until you got the BetoBot was released in Version 3.0, name change and all, now a Democrat.”

“I think the main problems the O'Rourke Campaign has had with the Beto 3.0 software," said Kompurador, "is several stability, reliability, and performance issues in the Beto 3.0 software"

However, computer analyst, Dan Deknica, says this is not the only problem with Beto 3.0.

At a recent party in the Five Points area of El Paso, Betobot danced up a storm with a local city politician and then suddenly started spurting out the names of the high-end contributors to the O'Rourke campaign, the majority being Republican donors including super-suegro Bill Sanders, Robert Hoy, among other.

Above, this past Saturday, Lower Yarbrough Dr. residents saved Valentine's Bakery & Ysleta Pre-K from destruction by Betobot. In a public statement, the O'Rourke Campaign said that demolition of Lower Yarbrough is not to begin until next year but a malfunction made BetoBot confused dates.

“We think this was just a vulnerability issues,” says Deknica. “One that exposes Betobot to flip flopping, run time errors, and other quirks.”

However, Saturday's incident has left many wondering about the reliability of Beto 4.0.

A previous version of BetoBot malfunctioned at an El Paso City Council meeting killing six city representatives before being disabled by Rep. Steve Ortega who had received training in disabling Beto 2.0's Suegro Mode.

In a statement, Annie Mentomain, technical director for the O'Rourke Campaign said the issue is very simple.

"There are various settings for Beto 3.0. On Friday, the setting was set to 'Suegro Mode.' At this setting, consumers can enjoy the 'classic mode,' the old Robert 1.0 through 2.0 settings such as bulldozing Segundo Barrio, building a port of entry over a Pre-School, and more Republican-like features,” said Mentomain.

“However, the campaign,” admitted Mentomain, “we forgot to switch Beto.3.0 back to Democrat mode on Saturday morning and this explain the incident with the bulldozer.”

BetoBot with Beto 2.0 killed 30 police officers at a Los Angeles police precinct in 1984

At Sanders' introduction of Beto 4.0, he explain that Beto 4.0 has settings for the far left too. “At our Cheechnchong Setting, Beto 3.0 can be spurting all the marijuana legalization talking points we grew to love until the race for U.S. Congress began,” says Sanders.

The O'Rourke campaign however, admitted that because of reliability issues, they seldom put Beto 3.0 on its Cheechnchong setting.

“What happened Saturday at lower Yarbrough was unfortunate,” says Ben Dido, the campaign Hispanic outreach coordinator, “and we are glad lower valley residents were able to stop Beto 3.0 before any demolition occurred.”

“It's is not in Beto 3.0's programing to bulldoze lower Yarbrough for a port of entry for his suegro,” says Dido, “at least not until after Beto 4.0 wins the election.”

Sunday, April 15, 2012

El Paso Times: El Paso ISD seeks secrecy over federal audit of allegations

El Paso Independent School District leaders are seeking to keep secret preliminary results of a federal audit, but two open-government experts say the Texas attorney general ordered the district to release the documents weeks ago.

The school district and the U.S. Department of Education last week sent letters to the state's attorney general seeking permission to withhold a four-page report that includes preliminary findings of a federal investigation into allegations of wrongdoing at the district.

El Paso Times: 36% of money to fix roads spent in West El Paso

from April 11, 2012, El Paso Times
36% of money to fix roads spent in West El Paso

If you want your street fixed, it might take 200 years or more to get it done because the city does not have the money, and the money it has is mostly going to the West Side.

Since 2004, the city has spent $205.4 million on street improvements -- 36 percent has been used on West El Paso, according to a City Council presentation on Tuesday. West El Paso includes council districts 1 and 8.

The issue caused a heated discussion among council members and the city's department of transportation director.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_20369455/36-money-fix-roads-spent-west-el-paso

Redistricting Blues, Part II: At-Large Districts and the Chicano Mayor

Redistricting Blues, Part II: At-Large Districts and the Chicano Mayor

Single-Member Districts

El Paso's move to single member districts did not bring the equality some had hoped for El Paso's people of color (POCs).

As mentioned earlier, the White-dominated city council of the time, divided the city into two “safe” white districts, and as for the other two districts, drew them so that they could go either way. So in those two districts, which should have been safe Chicano districts, the council drew them to make sure they did not go Chicano.

El Paso currently has eight districts which were last drawn in 2000 after the 2000 Census.

Return of At-Large

Have we seen the end of at-large council representatives. It is interesting to note which parties and representatives have mentioned briefly, that Downtown should have an at-large congressman. Watch your asses!

Why have a Brown Republican when you can have a White one?

Former County Judge Anthony Cobos represented District 8 at the time, and during deliberation of the Districting Commission, he was supportive of moving District 8 farther north past Sunland Park Drive thinking the richer and whiter residents would support his politics. But what often happens with POC who are of the conservative persuasion or Republican, when Whites can replace you with one of their own -- they will do it. Why have a Brown Republican when you can have a White one?

Now, remember, the city offices of mayor and representatives are non-partisan. That means candidates for mayor and city council do not run as Republicans or Democrats.

Non-Partisan City Elections

This all goes back to the 1957 Election. Raymond Tellez ran successfully for mayor in the Democratic primary. Everybody knows that in the Stronghold of Texas, if you win the Democratic primary, you are a sure win for which ever elected office you ran.

Tellez ran with a slate of White alderman candidates. When the White Elite found that they had been beat, they initiated a write-in campaign. They alleged that Tellez as a Mexican could not be “unbiased,” and would “fill the courthouse with Mexicans” as if whites are not biases.

Tellez would beat the write-in candidates, but two years into his election, the city changed their mayoral and city council races to non-partisan. How convenient?

You see, the White Elites realized that the Chicano community could organize and beat them in a Democratic primary. And even though most of the White Elite were “Democrats” in name, their politics was like today's fiscal Republicans. However, the White Elites knew they had to run as Democrats to win.

So, they moved to have non-partisan elections. In this way, Republicans did not have to run as Democrats or face a Chicano opponent in the run off who had the strength of a straight-ticket ballot.

People wonder why El Paso has only four Chicano mayors, five if you include Wardy.

It's been difficult to elect a Chicano mayor and those “Hispanic” candidates that cater more to the White elites than the POCs in El Paso, will gain favor from the White elites and maybe get elected.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

All In the Family: Reyes, O’Rourke, and Archie Bunker

The El Paso Time recently published an article on Silvestre Reyes and his family members. Check it out:

U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, family get $600K: Ethics group criticizes use of campaign funds

Also check out Ju Teixeira's guest editorial on the El Paso New Organization:

Political Candidates Working for Themselves… Indeed?

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

El Paso City Council Redistricting Blues, Part I

El Paso City Council

Redistricting Blues, Part I

Every ten years, The City of El Paso redraws the boundaries of its city council districts. Each City Representative appoints a commissioner to sit on the commission, which by now, late February 2012, has met several times.

History

I often tell people that having Chicano(a) office holders in El Paso is a relatively new phenomenon. Keeping Chicano(a)s out of office was achieved has much to do with pre-Voting Rights Act gabacho tactics. These included poll taxes and high filing fees for citizens who wanted to run for office. For example, when Raymond Tellez ran in the late 1950s, the filing fee to run was $2500. Adjusted for inflation that amount would equal $22,659 (2010).

From At-Large to Single Member Districts

However, one thing that the Voting Rights Act did not cure was that the El Paso City Council had at-large district for their councilmen. What I mean is that unlike today, in which each city representative represents a single district, before the late 1970s, a mere 30 or so years ago, city councilmen/women ran at large. This mean they did not represent a single district and everyone in El Paso could vote to put people on city council no matter where they lived.

So say you had three candidates living in the Northeast, it didn't matter. It also didn't matter if no one on city council say lived in the Lower Valley or South El Paso.

The typical result was that White El Paso would vote in who they wanted as they could turn out the vote. And when you had most of city council coming out of one side of town, you could have special pre-meetings, after all you were all from the same neighborhood.

Chicano Elected Officials: A Recent Phenomenon

When looking at El Paso's history, many people do not realize that from 1873-1980, there had been only two Chicano mayors. Chicano had only served 20 terms on the city council. To the present, only four Chicano mayors, five if one counts Joe Wardy.

From 1850 to 1990, only six Chicano(a)s had served as El Paso County Judge. You may be wondering when these six served. They served when the county seat was in San Elizario. Through a sham election, El Paso elites moved the county seat from San Elizario to El Paso and thus started 90 years of White County Judges. There have been four Chicano(a) County Judges since 1990.

Whites and White Candidates

Scholar Benjamin Marquez wrote that “Whites consistently vote for White candidates. The difference between the two groups is that when they were forced to choose between two Chicano candidates, the Mexican American vote split, while the white community supported the 'candidate for all El Paso,' i.e. the one who did not identify with the Chicano community.”

Marquez also states, quoting a study by Howard Neighbor, that over a 15-year span, Southside El Paso 'choices' for city office (i.e., candidates for office who consistently carried the vote in the area or ward) equaled 37.5% of the actual winners in city elections. He goes on to state that while the upper income Whites in West El Paso chose 84.5% of their preferences.

To Single Member District

Going to single-member districts was something the City of El Paso did not want to do, however, the tide was turning and by 1975, federal courts had declared that the Dallas' system of at-large city council representatives was unconstitutional. In 1976, a coalition of Chicano and Latino organizations threatened to sue and they pushed for a referendum on an amendment to the city charter to provide for the election of alderman from single districts.

Nevertheless, this did not sit well with the White power structure. Single-member district supporters wanted three safe Mexican American districts and the White-dominated city council made accusation that the single-member district supporters were bias.

So City Council created a committee to draw the lines, but the committee could not come to an agreement. The city would eventually create two high-concentration White districts and two marginally-majority districts for each ethnic group. Remember, Chicanos were not the 85% or more population we are today.

Historian Oscar Martinez has said when there are two districts, “ ...that can go either way, they are going to go to the Anglo.”

Thursday, January 12, 2012

El Paso City Reps. Niland and Ortega to Move to Arizona as Part of Western Refining Realignment

AP Associated Mess

Above, Rep. Ortega (second from the right) and Niland (right) announcing their move to Arizona.

El Paso City Reps. Niland and Ortega to Move to Arizona as Part of Western Refining Realignment
Niland's move to drastically affect women's shelters

by SATIRA SINVERGUENZA

Associated Mess

EL PASO (TX) -- In an event that stunned the city, at this morning's El Paso City Council meeting, Representatives Cortney Niland and Steve Ortega said they would be moving to Arizona as part of Western Refining's realignment.

In November of last year, Western Refining stated that it would move 50 employees from its El Paso headquarters, to Arizona.

Niland and Ortega announced this morning that they will be included in the 50 employees moved to Arizona.

“We have received our orders and we will comply as will our other co-workers,” said Ortega at this morning's meeting.

City Attorney Benji A. Bogado stated that his office is looking into the legalities of the move, as representatives must live in the district they represent.

“This is something new for us,” said Mayor John Cook, “whether a city representative can live in another city and remain a city representative is yet to be seen.”

Bogado does not anticipate much change. “I think it's more of an issue for Rep. Niland than it is for Rep. Ortega,” says Bogado. “Other than trying to close women's shelters in Segundo Barrio, Niland rarely steps into other parts of her district than The Willows.”

“Ortega's situation is far more complex,” Bogado elaborated. “If anyone, he's an expert at representing areas of town other than his own district, so his move is no big change.”

“And I think he's use to representing carpetbaggers, scalawags, and robber barons,” continued Bogado, “and that's something he can do from anywhere.”

How the corporate move will effect Rep. Niland's efforts to close every women's shelter in the city remains to be seen.

“I was focusing on the shelters owned by Mexicans first,” stated Niland, “but I think the Arizona air will help me clear my head and help me make better judgements so that I don't go throwing poor battered women out onto the streets during Christmastime.” “I'll wait until after the New Year,” added Niland.

For Ortega, his coming move to Arizona leaves several projects unfinished.

As for the use of eminent domain in El Paso's Lower Valley to build a Port of Entry, Ortega stated, “I was under the impression that land was owned by Billy Abraham. Now that I know it is not,” continued Ortega, “the Port of Entry does not fit into my plans to take all of Abraham's land and buildings.”

As for bridge wait times, “Right now, it is entirely too slow to smuggle marijuana into the country,” said Ortega. “How are we going to handle this when drugs are legalized?”

But Ortega was unmoved at criticism that he would be unable to represent his district from another state. Nevertheless, he admitted some issues like bridge wait times may have to be taken up by others.

“Speeding up the wait times that drug smugglers face to bring stuff into El Paso is something Beto O'Rourke will have to look into when he's elected U.S. Representative.”

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Follow Associated Mess reporter Satira Sinverguenza on Twitter.

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