Who Rules El Paso? has recently been making the rounds through social media as the primer on El Paso political power, namely arguing that money buys control of the city. Unfortunately, the book glosses over many important details, leaves many out and offers little to no concrete facts from which to prove their central thesis.… Read More A Critical Review of Who Rules El Paso?
Jose Rodriguez, the District 29 Texas senator, was recently embroiled in a controversy for using the term “gringolandia” to refer to the ongoing controversy involving the proposed El Paso sports arena and the destruction of the Duranguito neighborhood. There is no doubt that Rodriguez has been helpful, some would argue instrumental, in keeping the Duranguito… Read More Duranguito and Jose Rodriguez
As you all likely know, Bob Moore is leaving the El Paso Times next month. Moore says he is making way for reporters to stay on at the newspaper. But, I don’t believe so. As some of you likely know, my blog is the direct result of Bob Moore. Specifically, it is my belief that… Read More Bob Moore Quits, Or So He Says
For some time now I have been developing my thesis that El Paso is unfriendly towards immigrants, contrary to the general notion that many believe. As a border city, El Paso is assumed to be friendly towards immigrants, especially those from México. But my personal experience exposed me to the exact opposite. El Paso is… Read More Grassroots Efforts Expose El Paso Duplicity Against Immigrants
When the FBI raided the County offices a few years back, Susie Byrd and Veronica Escobar literally danced a jig on the streets. As news filtered out that Anthony Cobos’ office was being raided by FBI agents with a search warrant, Byrd and Escobar gleefully laughed and exchanged high-fives. I witnessed this escapade with my… Read More Jim Tolbert Continues to Deliver Proof of Corruption
As you all know, I like to connect the political and corrupt dots for you. In today’s edition I am going to show you how engrained the political system is in El Paso. It involves a family that is well-connected politically and how the local political system enables the many problems the community faces. There… Read More Connecting the Cortinas Dots
As you all likely know, yesterday Jim Tolbert was sworn into office and took his seat at the city council chambers. I recently pointed out that Jim Tolbert is an extension of Susie Byrd, who by default is an extension of Veronica Escobar. There are still some who read my blog that believe that I… Read More Veronica Escobar Adds Vote To City
One of the reasons that I keep my blog going is that there is a lack of historical context about the politics in El Paso that allows certain political factions to build, cultivate and create public personas for future political races. I have previously shown you how individuals, like Veronica Escobar, are allowed to be… Read More A Look at How Public Personas are Manufactured
As I wrote yesterday, the Michael Nuñez deposition on September 29, 2015 further bolsters my belief that the children’s hospital scheme revolves around the so-called intergovernmental transfers, or IGTs. This is the little dirty secret that Veronica Escobar and Jose Rodriguez are desperately trying to keep you from finding out about. You see, if you… Read More The Children’s Hospital Scheme They Don’t Want You to Know About
I am sure not many of you are surprised that Jose Rodriguez is against guns. As you likely know, Jose Rodriguez has recently been on the news media circuit advocating against guns on campuses. I am not going to argue for, or against guns because many, if not all, of the politically active voters have… Read More Jose Rodriguez and Guns
Some of you may have noticed that all of a sudden Veronica Escobar is doing everything in her power to save the El Paso Children’s Hospital. This after the County had insinuated that the Medicaid debt might be too much for the County to absorb and after threatening to turn off all of the services.… Read More Why the Sudden Rush to Save the Children's Hospital?
This past weekend a frequent reader to my blog pointed me to an online petition by a group calling themselves the “ELP Tax Guardians.” I am not sure who they are but their petition had close to their stated goal of 200 signatures yesterday morning. This is about three days after the petition had been… Read More Change.org Petition to Commissioners Court and Others
As you likely know already, the Claudia Ordaz text messages have proven that the MPO issue was a conspiracy to keep Vince Perez in charge of the MPO. The question is why. The answer is rather simple. Today, I have my avatar, Robo-Pepe explain the details to you in the second episode of The Proteus… Read More The MPO Conspiracy
Of course, they are leaving! As you likely already know, Bloomberg reported on how El Paso leads the nation in residents abandoning the city for greener pastures. You also likely saw that Bob Moore’s newspaper mentioned the exodus as well. He had to because it was trending on social media. As is common with the… Read More The El Paso Exodus
As I have been pointing out for some time now, Jaime Abeytia has become the go to person for politicians looking to control the public perception of issues. Ever since Michiel Noe was chastised by members of the community for his attempt to appoint Abeytia to the Hispanic Cultural Center sub-committee, some of the politicians… Read More The Claudia Ordaz and Jaime Abeytia Connection
This post was updated on June 25, 2015 at 08:46am ET. There are some of you who still wonder about what political faction Peter Svarzbein belongs to. As soon as it became evident that District 1 would be represented by either Al Weisenberger or Peter Svarzbein, I knew that the tax spenders were still firmly… Read More Veronica Escobar’s Newest Team Member: Peter Svarzbein
It is a funny thing that the more things change the more they stay the same. Today city council is going to embark on the city’s latest fiasco by appointing a city board to oversee the development of a Latino/Hispanic/Mexican-American/And God Knows What Other Name It’s Going To Get Cultural Center. The conversation is an… Read More The Hispanic Cultural Center Isn’t For Mexicans
Today the city is abuzz about the upcoming Latino cultural center that city council discussed yesterday ad-nausea. Parading before the cameras were many “El Paso Hispanic leaders,” as the local paper labelled them, imploring city council to make the Mexican-American Cultural Center a reality. After all, it was promised to the community by the politicos.… Read More Notice Who Was Absent on the Cultural Center Discussion
City council discussed the status of the Lincoln Center on an agenda item that Lily Limon had put on the city council’s agenda that had been postponed for a few weeks. The anticlimactic vote basically directed the city manager to secure the building’s contents and continue the dialog with TXDOT about the future of the… Read More Lincoln Center Stalemate
Last Tuesday’s city council meeting in regards to the Lincoln Center is a case study on how the gentrification of El Paso is the public policy agenda of those in power. I have written numerous times before about how Ray Caballero started the gentrification by pushing forward a fantastical central parks fantasy that intended to… Read More Lincoln Center and the Continued Gentrification of El Paso
Welcome to the first issue of the El Paso Chusmas. As you know, the El Paso Chusmas represent everything that is wrong with El Paso. Today’s El Paso Chusma is Jose Rodriguez. I did not intend to start the Chusma lineup with Jose Rodriguez. However, recent events forced me to bring him to your attention.… Read More First at bat for the El Paso Chusmas is Jose Rodriguez
Indignant was the immediate response to Greg Abbott’s rhetoric calling El Paso corrupt. As soon as the words left Abbott’s mouth, the El Paso politicos, foaming at the mouth, circled the wagons to chastise him for daring to tell the truth. The problem with lies is that when the truth is uttered the reaction from… Read More Greg Abbott v. El Paso: Who Cares About the Truth?
Something that I noticed about the political undercurrent, once it became obvious that the public corruption investigations were throwing a wider net then the Luther Jones’ political faction, that has been bothering me for a while now is why did Eliot Shapleigh stop being a politician. In the various political functions, as the rumors simmered… Read More Why Did Eliot Shapleigh Suddenly Go Politically Quiet?
Welcome to El Paso Metro’s week in review. This section is updated every Tuesday night. City Council Review Approved the hiring an outside consultant, a Mexican attorney, to help the City interpret Mexican law regarding an international transit service; Approved renewal the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce contract for $140,000; Approved 2 street lights for District… Read More El Paso Metro Weekly Byte: February 12, 2002