Third Saturday Seminar 2007-2008

“Humanity at a Crossroads”

Sixth Meeting
Saturday, 16 February 2008
9:30am to 12:00 noon
Room B-102, Montgomery College
3200 College Park Drive – Conroe, TX – 77384 – 936.273.7000

“Beyond Super Tuesday”

ROB L. WILEY, J.D. PhD
Partner, Stewart & Wiley, LLP
The Woodlands, Tx
http://www.stewartwiley.com

We welcome Rob Wiley back to the Third Saturday Seminar.  Rob is a long term friend and a dynamic speaker.  He has long been active in citizens’ rights issues.  At our November, 2006 meeting, after the mid-term election that changed the power balance in our Congress,  Rob presented, “The Aftermath of an Election” – “That Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth ” and shared some of his insight into the, then, future 2008 Presidential Election.


Here is a little of Rob’s background: University of Arkansas – Little Rock – B.A. (Speech Communication) 1973, University of Memphis – M.A. (Speech) 1974, University of Texas – J.D.PhD. (Speech Communication) 1985.

Rob worked as an aide/speechwriter for Bill Clinton when he was governor of Arkansas 1979-81.

Rob has been engaged in the practice of Law in the Houston area since 1987.  He and his wife Ida Stewart have a  law practice in the Woodlands.

He is a member of the Texas State Bar, American Bar Association, Houston Bar Association; Past-President – Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas; member University of Texas Commission of 125; former Vice-President – University of Texas Ex-Students Association.



There’s no avoiding it.(Now here’s an understatement…)  This is a political year.  In December we were fortunate to have Lance Tarrance, a native Texan and a McCain adviser telling  us a lot about the Primary Process and where to find polls and how to read them, with a lot insight thrown in.

Recently some of our members have asked me if we could get Rob back for an encore so I asked him and happily he agreed.

Sometimes you have gut feelings about the moment of the moment.  I suggested to Rob that next Saturday falls fall soon after the new phenomenon of “Super Tuesday” and the Texas Primary Election on Tuesday, March 4th. There ought to be some developments that he could find worth talking about.  Little did I realize, that in a few short weeks we would see two thundering herds pared down to three players, a pretender and a hopeful.

Tonights results may astound some of us.  They certainly do me.

From the CNN Website at 10:37pm

And the delegate count according to http://www.realclearpolitics.com/ as I write this:

And Somehow all of a sudden Texas with it’s 228 Democratic Delegates and 140 Republican is for the first time in a long time again a player in Primary Politics.

Sample Primary Ballots – Montgomery County
Republican – http://www.co.montgomery.tx.us/election/Samples/2008/PrecinctALLREP.pdf
Democratic – http://www.co.montgomery.tx.us/election/Samples/2008/PrecinctALLDEM.pdf

Sorry, as hard as I looked, Harris County isn’t sharing sample ballots.

You might find something of interest is this very information-lite web page by the Texas Secretary of State’s office http://www.votexas.org

For those who like to read ahead, read the newspaper or surf the internet and be prepared to observe and discuss whatever evokes your interest and thoughts about ways to integrate the ostracized and the unemployed back into society and the economy abroad and here at home.
And for those of you who like to, “do the numbers,”  here are some political ones.

Primary Season Election Results – Delegates to date
http://politics.nytimes.com/election-guide/2008/results/delegates/index.html

Presidential Campaign Finance
Federal Election Commission
http://www.fec.gov/DisclosureSearch/mapApp.do

Poll Results
Real Clear Politics http://www.realclearpolitics.com/

Election 2008 National
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/national-primary.html

Maps and Dates of Primaries
Primary Colors
http://www.newsweek.com/id/68123

These are some of my perennially favorite links:
Project Vote Smart, http://www.vote-smart.org  find out how your elected officials voted and how to contact them by e-mail
League of Women Voters http://www.lwv.org    To find out where candidahttp://www.realclearpolitics.com/tes stand on issues.
Center for Responsive Politics.   http://www.opensecrets.org/ Find out who’s paying your politician.

Current Events: (We always talk about current events to start out ) It’s getting late and all my  brain can come up with is, “Are we going to elect a president or an emperor?” Santa Claus never promised so much to so many, and are we glad the writers strike is over?  GM reports a $38.7 billion loss and the planned layoff of 74,000 workers and the market goes up? Go figure. I’ll have more by Saturday, but bring some of your own just in case.

What’s a superdelegate? and how does it fit in a party that calls itself Democrat.
su·per·del·e·gate  (spr-dl-gt, -gt)

n.

An elected official or political party leader who attends a presidential nominating convention and who may or may not have made a commitment to vote for a candidate.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2003. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

This is the Sixth meeting of the Third Saturday Seminar for the 2007-2008 season. We run from September to June.  This will be perhaps our most interesting year so far.

About The Third Saturday Seminar:

Started in January 2000, We are about personal empowerment through demystification. Our subject matter is broad but it always tries to be about understanding ourselves and others better; and, having fun.

The Third Saturday Seminar is sponsored by the Academy of Lifelong Learning (ALL) Program at Montgomery College. http://www.montgomery-college.com/25959/

There is no fee for ALL members to attend TSS. You can find the ALL Schedule at: http://www.montgomery-college.com/11811/

Course Information –  Meets mostly on Third Saturdays (IN MARCH WE MEET ON THE 22ND – Because of Spring Break)
The registration number is 67007.  (ccall 3980032 M4215) 9:30-Noon Montgomery College B102 Gibby.  The rest of the class dates will be 3/22, 4/19, 5/17, 6/21.  We are trying to find a work around for the way it shows in the catalog which implies you should register separately for every session.  I’ll try to explain it in class.

For information about Montgomery College: http://wwwmc.nhmccd.edu   http://www.montgomery-college.com/

I suggest the using West parking entrance.  Ignore the “Instructors Only” signs on the parking, That only applies on week days.

Maps:

NHMCCD is becoming “Lone Star College System” (LSCS?)
http://wwwappsdstc.nhmccd.edu/newbrand/

http://www.montgomery-college.com/Templates/Content.aspx?pid=14972

http://www.montgomery-college.com/Templates/Content.aspx?pid=14970

http://map-it.woodstock.edu/map_pdf/B_floor_1.pdf

As usual, if anything in this notice doesn’t work or make sense (It is midnight somewhere), please let me know so I can warn the others.   If the spelling and syntax seems more fractured than usual, chalk it up to the fact I am (still) breaking in a new laptop computer (or, perhaps it’s the other way around.) Down with Vista!!

Hope to see you Saturday.

Best regards,

Curt Gibby
Spring, TX
281-353-4350 (cell-)
Fax: 281-288-8230
gcgconsult (at) n-star.com <mailto:gcgconsult (at) n-star.comhttp://www.northstarinst.org/TSS/ (REALLY OUT OF DATE)