Lubbock Left

Recently, the LPD cracked down on the homeless population of downtown Lubbock and confiscated some possessions left in the little gazebo area to the east of Mahon Library. The possessions were mostly sleeping bags and bedrolls. Perhaps this action reflects the tone set by our new mayor.

NTS, a local telecommunications company, is collecting sleeping bags for donation to the downtown homeless population. They can be dropped off with NTS on the 14th floor of Metro Tower (1220 Broadway), or to Brother Barry at the Mission Parish of St Benedict (1109 Main St), who interacts with many of the downtown homeless on a daily basis. He can help your donation of a sleeping bag find an immediate use.

Lubbock’s homeless population is on the rise, and how we as a city treat this group will be an important question for years to come.

Robert Ricketts and Quepha Lynn
Mary and Lynn Hatfield
John Masselli and Archie Pitsilides
John Miller, Frank Stogner,

Kirk and Stacey Franklin,
Sue and Bob Weninger, and
Marilyn and Peter Westfall

Invite you to a rally and evening of music under the wide West Texas sky as we welcome

Rick Noriega
Democratic nominee for US Senate

Tuesday, June 24th, 2008
5:30 pm - 7:00 pm

at the American Wind Power Center and Museum
1701 Canyon Lake Drive
Lubbock, TX 79403

$10 suggested donation
$500 host donation
$1000 sponsor donation
To purchase tickets or to sign up as a host or sponsor, visit
http://www.actblue.com/page/rickettsreception

For more information, please contact Phil Lovegren by phone at (512) 472-7425 or via email at phil@ricknoriega.com

Please make checks payable to Rick Noriega for Senate, and mail to Rick Noriega for Senate, P.O. Box 231163, Houston, TX 77223.

Contributions or gifts to Rick Noriega for Texas are not deductible as charitable contributions for Federal income tax purposes. To comply with Federal law, we must use our best efforts to obtain, maintain, and submit the name, mailing address, occupation and name of employer of individuals whose contributions exceed $200 per calendar year.

One of the many wonderful people I met at the Texas Democratic Party Convention is Cidia Flores, a candidate from the San Angelo area. Let me tell you about Cidia Flores for Tom Green County Tax Assessor-Collector.

Like Lubbock County, Tom Green County has been a one-party county in recent years. I am thrilled that, like us here in Lubbock, qualified, energetic candidates are coming forward to run as Democrats for county-wide office.

In addition to being great to work with at the state convention, I believe that Cidia Flores is well-qualified for the office of Tax Assessor-Collector. She has years of management experience within a large organization along with over twenty years of customer service experience.

To my West Texas readers, let’s support a candidate with a good chance to help turn our Senate District blue!

cidiafortomgreencounty.com

I thought it was very moving, and I like the way he expanded on a Chris Rock point that I’ve always liked.

This is going to be a great election season.

Richard Lopez — Community activist, leader, and Executive Director of Guadalupe Economic Services Corporation (GESC) — passed away on Sunday. He was 74 years old. Funeral services will be Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in the Guadalupe neighborhood.

Contributions in his memory may be made to:

GESC “Richard Lopez Memorial”
1502 Erskine
Lubbock, Texas 79413

One thing that’s great about the Texas Democratic Convention is the ridiculous number of stickers and buttons one brings home.

For those who couldn’t make it, I found some great online opportunities to get free Obama swag:

democraticstuff.com free Obama stickers

MoveOn.org free Obama stickers

Hop to it!

Just arrived home from the 2008 Texas Democratic Convention. I had a blast!

I am still gathering my thoughts of the experience, and will post more about it throughout the week.

In the meantime, I have started a thread about the convention at the Lubbock Online Forums.

Big shout-outs to spacedark and jobsanger, two excellent Amarillo bloggers I finally got to meet in person at the blogger caucus (ie, bloggers getting drunk) Thursday night.

Well, I’ve been pretty pumped up about the State Democratic Convention for weeks now, and the past week or so has been very hectic as I try to prepare for it.

Among other things, I look forward to meeting several of my fellow bloggers this weekend.

Hopefully I will have some time to blog about the convention as it happens.

Especially considering tonight’s news that Hillary will suspend her campaign this weekend, it’s a very good time to be a Democrat in Texas!

See you in Austin!