Tuesday Open Thread

11 thoughts on “Tuesday Open Thread”

1. 20 million for a software program? I know the state tends to pay 10x what a start-up could do it for. But couldn't we shoot for just maybe 4x? Has the state ever considered changing the bidding process to favor companies good at developing software instead of companies good at bidding on projects?

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   1. Want some cheese with that whine, David?  There are plenty of really good consultants out there that can navigate you the procurement process at either the State or Federal level.  There are really smart guys who can prepare your cost proposal for you.  There are even proposal houses who will write the whole thing for you, "red team" your proposal, guide you through orals, etc.

      But then you'd actually have to do something besides complaining.

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      1. Does this mean you will not be complaining about anything unless you step up to solve it? 

         ps – I have no interest in having my company becoming a consulting shop. What matters in consulting is very different from creating a product. Consulting is primarily about relationships and deflecting blame. Product is primarily about creating a killer product and shipping it. Very different worlds.

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   2. I have a better question:

      If our state's prison computer system is so outdated, how is it that there isn't an available replacement available from some other state that could be quickly adapted and up and running within a year or two?

      There are 49 other states out there. Surely one of them has tackled this already.

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      1. That's a really good idea.

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2. Very Amusing:

    I think Republicans have a decent chance of taking control of the Senate. Then the party will nominate Rand Paul in 2016, and the Paul-Rubio ticket will carry several important counties in Alabama and Mississippi and the Republicans will lose Congress again.

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3. The  Federal 5th judicial circuit heard arguments centered on the constitutional standard of an "undue burden" on a woman's right to abortion yesterday in weighing the constitutuionality of the Texas' omnibus abortion bill passed last summer over Wendy Davis' famous filibuster:

   While four abortion providers in Dallas, Fort Worth, and Austin have been able to secure admitting privileges since November, both clinics in the state’s vast and rural Rio Grande Valleyremain closed, and providers say demand has increased significantly at clinics that have remained open as many abortion-seeking Texans now travel hundreds of miles round-trip to urban areas for safe, legal procedures. Texans seeking abortions in the Valley face a ten-hour round-trip drive to San Antonio or a six-hour round-trip drive to Corpus Christi to obtain the procedure legally.

   But the judges appeared largely unconcerned about HB 2′s effect on Valley residents, who are among the poorest in the country. Judge Edith Jones, who in 2012 upheld the state’s mandatory pre-abortion sonogram law and repeatedly referred to Texans who seek abortions as “mothers,” said during the hearing that the highway connecting the Rio Grande Valley to San Antonio is a “peculiarly flat and not congested highway.” 

   Disgusting.

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   1. Judge Jones is already under a judicial review proceeding because she expressed the belief that Hispanics and African-Americans are "predisposed to crime". She's a disgrace to the bench.

      I drive more than most people, and I will vouch that a requirement of two 300 mile round trips (or one 300 mile round trip plus a hotel stay) would be burdensome on anyone short of a long-haul truck driver.

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      1. 

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   2. Link, sorry.

       

      http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2014/01/06/fifth-circuit-judges-hear-arguments-on-texas-omnibus-anti-abortion-law/

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4. Wednesday am:

   Laura Woods, who was the architect of the Hudak recall/resignation, announced, on the boyles show,  that she is running for Senate in District 19,

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