Among active MLBers with less than 1,000 career games played, who has the most base hits?
The H-Town Firefighters didn’t get their petitions reviewed by the City of H-Town. So, we won’t get to vote on their issue this November. Maybe in May of 2018? Here is from the Chron:
That was upsetting to Marty Lancton, president of the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association, Local 341. Mayor Sylvester Turner’s “petulance” had kept their pay parity proposal off the ballot, he wrote in a letter to members on Monday, while vowing to continue the push for “fair wages, benefits and working conditions.”
“The mayor refuses to say when the petitions will be counted,” Lancton wrote. “We note that, as the submitted petitions sat in the city secretary’s office for weeks, the mayor rejected at least three offers, including ours, to fund overtime pay for city staff to count the petitions. Others volunteered to count petitions. The mayor smugly ignored the offers and the City Council took no action on the issue.”
Here is the entire article: http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/politics/houston/article/November-ballot-to-include-bonds-but-not-11948385.php.
Oh, well. What is the point in reminding folks who the Firefighters endorsed in 2015? That is the point! They say that breaking up is hard to do.
Steve Houston disagreed with my take on the petitions yesterday. He also didn’t think much of Bill King’s take. Here is from Houston:
It’s inaccurate to say that citizens can’t petition their government, they do so successfully all the time. What they shouldn’t expect is to turn in over 50 thousand petitions while another petition is being counted and then expect the first petition to be sidelined in favor of theirs being counted, especially when they turn in those voluminous boxes of petitions so close to a deadline. If they were serious about having the petition voted on in a particular election, they would have started months ago so that is on them. A delay is not a denial by any means.
As far as Bill King’s commentary, it’s curious that he goes on and on about a laundry list of societal ills that will take gobs of money to fix when the crowd he panders to is all about paying less toward government solutions in a penny wise but pound foolish manner. For years now, he has carried on about city of Houston pensions as though they were the only ones in need of change yet now that those have been greatly modified to lower employee benefits and save the city money, he’s trying to reignite his one trick pony issue with the state as his whipping post.
So while the majority of people that have voted for him might like the idea of storm surge protection, they want someone else to pay for it, the same for better schools, Social Security, and drug treatment programs. In the meantime, as King points out, those voters actually want to pay less in taxes, property or otherwise, and don’t bother to vote since the choices are often mighty slim pickings, his own election results proving the point quite well. Voters just aren’t going to prioritize voting for politicians like himself when they know his proposed solutions aren’t workable any more than the city police are going to prioritize catching thieves that steal trash cans, lawn ornaments, and other things of modest value but have no leads to pursue; the cost of investigating such crimes outweighs pursuing the crooks.
Bill has a lot of things, but not just a “one trick pony issue.” I will say that back in 2015, Bill was the fella who drove the pension issue. Folks can argue with me on this, but you are not going to change my mind. Bill has also been vocal on the revenue cap, so that’s another trick pony. He’s been a leading voice on hurricane evacuations along the Texas Gulf Coast, so that’s another trick pony. He has also staked out a position on the Ike Gate, another trick pony. He’s written a book, so another trick pony. Plus, he has some good takes on immigration reform, so that means he has him six trick pony issues if you are counting.
As far as the petitions go, if two groups are gathering signatures and one turns them in before another so the group that turns theirs in a few weeks later is f___ed? Commentary is not buying that argument. Sorry.
Speaking of campaign promises, check this from the Tribune today:
The El Paso City Council narrowly voted against creating a municipal identification card program amid concerns that the measure would lead to the border city being perceived as the kind of “sanctuary” jurisdiction that has been the target of President Donald Trump and Texas’ Republican leaders.
In a 5-4 vote, the council voted down funding the program, which immigrant rights groups and advocates for the poor have called for since 2014 as a way for those unable to obtain a driver’s license or other state-issued identification sign up for bank accounts and access city services such as libraries. Applicants would have had to prove they reside in the city to obtain the card.
Mayor Dee Margo cast the deciding vote against the measure, explaining that he didn’t want El Paso to be perceived as “sanctuary” city – the common term for a jurisdiction that doesn’t enforce state or federal immigration laws.
Here is the entire read: https://www.texastribune.org/2017/08/21/el-paso-votes-against-funding-municipal-id-program/.
Remember when folks wanted municipal IDs for folks in H-Town? Commentary always thought that was a bad idea. It just gives ICE access to info they may not have. Commentary is glad that promise has not been kept.
In 949 career games, Jose Altuve has 1,217 base hits of course to lead all active MLBers in the under 1,000 career games category.
There are only four MLB clubs with 70 or more wins this season. Two of them meet at The Yard this evening.
Camposcommunications' Blog 
The mayoral election where King lost and Turner won showed every single candidate taking a stance on pensions as part of their platform but King had made it his number one issue for years prior and only diversified into other areas when Houston voters showed they just weren’t interested enough to elect King on that alone. Ask a random sample of voters for King’s key points and pension reform would likely be the sole talking point most of them (not including his base supporters like Marc) remember, the guy filling column after column of the Chronicle’s op-ed page driven largely on that one issue. I know Marc’s been his supporter for a long time now but the fact remains that King tied himself to the pension issue above all else for so long that Turner’s actual progress on the issue forces King to try and find traction somewhere else.
As far as the petition for pay parity is concerned, again, if you wait until just before a deadline to submit signatures, you deserve what you get; the firefighters themselves will tell you how many years they have gone without significant pay raises so why not submit a petition before now. Some form of public safety pay parity existed in the not so distant past yet they sat on their hands complaining but not taking action to revive it until just before the deadline, knowing full well that the other petition was in the process of being counted so the clock would run out. Keep in mind that they hired professionals well versed in the law surrounding election law, even the former city attorney they vilified for years, so the faux display of shock their proposal wouldn’t make it on this Fall’s ballot rings hollow. So buy the argument or don’t but suggesting the counting could’ve been done as in past petitions that were submitted in much more timely fashion is just an example of comparing apples to oranges. Is there a reason to suggest the people signing the 401k petition were any less deserving than those signing the parity petition? And why not complain to the state legislature that enacted the petition language years before unless it’s not about denying voters a chance to vote on petitions but about personal interests, the previous silence on counting signatures from firefighters speaking volumes about it as a general issue.