Flooded Lizard Kingdom

Each month, Grace is posting a description of where she's donating money. I'm enjoying distrbuting the 5% of my take-home pay that I currently have budgeted for giving away, so I think I'll do the same.

Last month I donated to Medical Students for Choice. I wrote on my donation form "South Dakota really pisses me off." My mailed donation receipt had a hand-written note from the Executive Director: "We'll see what we can do about South Dakota." Very satisfying to both support a good cause and commune with good people.

I also donated a few bucks to NativeEnergy to offset the carbon costs of my trip to Colorado. I came back from that trip with a wicked cold but a clear conscience, having supported a privately held Native American energy company in its efforts to produce domestic renewable energy. Yay for that.

In March, I had to postpone my giving due to a last-minute IRA contribution that took a lot of the cash I had on hand. So in April, I've had LOTS of money to give away. Barbara Ann Radnofsky is running for U.S. Senate. John Courage is running for Congress in U.S. District 21. Radnofsky's campaign has a logo I can download from their website, Courage does not. However, both are serious candidates who could do a good job representing Texas in Washington, and both have been working hard campaigning and raising the visibility of Democrats. So I threw some money their way, hopefully enough to subsidize pizza for volunteers or some other worthy endeavor.

Texans, do note the Radnofsky message: vote for her in the Democratic runoff election! Early voting goes through Friday, and you can vote if you voted in the Democratic primary or didn't vote in either primary. Her opponent is Gene Kelly, who perpetually puts his name in and then does nothing. As far as anyone can tell, he gets votes just because his name is Gene Kelly. And he supports the Patriot Act (see this League of Women Voters Guide for details - PDF).

If you're eligible to vote and you skip this runoff, I don't want to hear you crying when Kay Bailey Hutchison does something you don't like.