Cross-posted from Daily Kos
Kossacks in Austin TX got together for the first time face-to-face on Saturday afternoon, April 2. We met at the legendary watering hole for Austin liberal politicos:
Scholz’s is strategically located just a few blocks north of the (to some, infamous) Texas state capitol:
And it’s just a few blocks south of the University of Texas:
Seven Kossacks attended (a few others who couldn’t make it were there in spirit). Report of meeting (governor’s race, Dem Fest, planning for future meetups, etc.), with photos of Austin Kossacks, after the jump…
The person on the far left and the one on the far right are Kossacks who wish to remain nameless for now. Otherwise from left to right are Mrs. Terry in Austin, Terry in Austin, Janet Strange, and roses.
And here’s tmccann aka Tim McCann, the operations director for Chris Bell’s exploratory committee as Bell looks at a run for governor of Texas.
Among the topics we discussed:
The TX governor’s race: We all thought it was quite possible that Texas could elect a Democratic governor in the coming election. No one liked any of the probable Republican candidates: Perry, Hutchison, or Strayhorn, the woman of many names. Likewise, none of us will be shedding any tears as those three rip each other to shreds before the primary. (But yikes, I’ve since read somewhere that Strayhorn might switch parties and run as a Democrat–uh, that would be Democrat in name only.) We agreed that Chris Bell has great potential for becoming governor–his plain talking and humor, not to mention standing up against DeLay, should appeal to Texas voters.
Dem Fest: This national event is coming to Austin on June 17-19. Some of us hadn’t realized that Kossacks will be giving workshops there, including Markos himself, Jerome Armstrong, and Jeffrey Feldman. Not to mention the other celebs who will be there–Gov. Howard Dean, Jim Hightower, Molly Ivins, and more! Be sure to check out Janet Strange’s diary on Dem Fest.
Miscellaneous topics: Getting involved locally (e.g., Democracy for Texas meetings); Air America Radio (now broadcast in Austin); our old memories of Scholz’s; and BooMan Tribune, where many familiar dKos diarists also post. In getting to know each other, we discovered that some of us have been around quite a while–not just on the planet (as you can probably tell from the group photo) but in Austin. Some of us remember happier, Democratic times in Texas, and we look forward to experiencing such times again.
Questions for Austin Kossacks
(Please use comments to reply.)
- Want to meet again? When? Where?
- Want to be added to the Austin Kossacks email list? If so, email me and let me know if you prefer to keep your name and contact info hidden from others in the list or not.
- Would you prefer that we have a (private) Yahoo group rather than just having me maintain an email list? Or some other way of being in touch with each other? (There is a Yahoo group for Texas Kossacks: Texas Kos.)
- Ideas for welcoming/entertaining/hosting/getting together with out-of-town Kossacks at Dem Fest? The Dem Fest schedule is pretty packed and already includes meals and nighttime activities.
Many thanks to everyone for coming, and especially to Janet Strange for bringing her camera and to her and Tim for taking the photos. And, yes, there really were bagpipers!
