From the InBox:
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politics in Harris County and Texas
From the InBox:
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by Guest
A call for conservative grassroots Texas activists to help oust Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu in the Dec 6 runoff election. A Mighty Texas Strike Force is being assembled to block walk in Shreveport, LA from Dec 1 – 6 for Dr. Bill Cassidy.
I am calling for up to four volunteers from the Greater Houston area to join with other Texas grassroots activists to travel to Louisiana and lend our support to our eastern bayou neighbor in electing the 9th new Republican Senate seat from Harry Reid’s Democrats who have all but destroyed this county and the rule of law. With the Congress firmly in the hands of a Republican majority, there should be no excuses in dealing with this lawless Administration’s over-reach and ruling by fiat. Indeed, we will know whether we are a still a constitutional republic or an oligarchy ruled by the two political parties.
To answer that question, we must give the Republicans as large a majority as possible to address the serious issues and concerns that are assaulting the people on a daily basis. If Senator Landieu is crushed in her re-election after the Obama amnesty is enacted, it will send yet another signal to which direction the American people want to go.
Food and lodging in Shreveport, LA will be underwritten by Americans for Prosperity (AFP). This Tuesday (November 18) in Forney, TX, AFP will provide a brief orientation and description of the ground game to the Mighty Texas Strike Force volunteers. For those volunteers in our area, attendance is not required and I will follow up with the details discussed in this meeting.
All that is needed for the volunteers in our area is to be able to travel to Shreveport, LA; be physically fit to spend 5 days block walking; and be comfortable being part of a group of “tea party” activists getting off their couches and making a difference.
Many of these folks traveled to Ohio to help elect Romney over Obama in 2012. The knowledge and connections they gathered from that experience has made them better activists right here in our home State.
If you are interested, I am vetting the first four volunteers from our area to join the team. Please send me your contact information to:
Dale Huls
I will pass your names and information to the Texas organizers in order to include you on the team. Once more details are know, I will forward them to the selected volunteers. If you want to go, please don’t hesitate as I expect the few slots to fill fast.
My thanks to Big Jolly for publicizing this call to action.
Together– We can Take our Country Back!!!
Dale
Dale Huls is a founding member of the Clear Lake Tea Party.
by Ed Hubbard
I grew-up in a society in which truth, though always difficult to discern through the prism of varying perceptions, was objectively knowable; right was different, and objectively discernable, from wrong; wrong means could never justify right ends; and society could only function properly in the long-run if its underlying relationships were built on the trust that depends upon truthful and right conduct.
To paraphrase Lincoln’s famous observation at Gettysburg, it seems that we are now engaged in a great social experiment testing whether a society dependent on truthful and right conduct can long endure when neither attribute is accepted or promoted any longer. Though there was a time not long ago when virtually all Americans recognized that lying, cheating, and stealing, or even the appearance that one might be engaging in such behavior, was objectively wrong, it now seems as though we are experimenting with a new approach to human behavior that encourages such behavior as long as the ends are justified.
The most glaring example of this new experiment arose recently when Jonathon Gruber, an MIT professor and architect of Obamacare admitted that the Obama administration intentionally lied to the GAO and the American people in order to get the bill passed into law. Calling the lie a mere “lack of transparency,” Gruber lamented that the lie was necessary to pass a bill that he thought was needed and good—that is, that the end he sought was so righteous that it justified the lie he knew was wrong.
But what are we to expect when we have spent the better part of two generations teaching our children that truth is no longer objective and knowable, that right and wrong are simply relative value judgments, and that the personal and civic relationships built on trust are no longer as important as submission to the guiding hand of self-anointed experts. In such a world, the effort to tell the truth becomes merely the desire to be “transparent,” and the intentional decision to lie becomes just a decision to be “less transparent.” As C.S. Lewis observed,
And all the time—such is the tragicomedy of our situation—we continue to clamour for those very qualities we are rendering impossible. … In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.
Unfortunately, after decades of engaging in this social experiment, we find “men without chests” in virtually every walk of life and political party. Yes, even among us Conservatives and Republicans we can find such geldings in our midst.
Look no further than the appearance of impropriety arising from the conduct allegedly committed by Gary Polland, our former Chair of the Harris County Republican Party, which has been detailed recently in a local blog and a complaint filed with the District Attorney’s office:
Whether his conduct rises to the level of being criminal, as at least one local attorney believes, is really beside the point: there was a time when we would have cared enough to say it was wrong, and to call on him to respect us—and the judges he professes to support—enough to stop it; to call on those judges who have enabled Polland’s behavior to follow Judge Farr’s lead and change their appointment practices to end this appearance of impropriety; and to call on ourselves to stop enabling Polland by stopping the underwriting and use of his for-profit slate mailer during our primaries. If his desire for more and more money is so strong that he won’t respect us enough to avoid this appearance of impropriety, and its potential impact on our party and its elected officials and candidates, why should any of us continue to respect his conduct and endorsements?
We Americans have never been so naïve or self-righteous to require those engaged in public affairs to be saints, but there was a time when we expected them to at least know that lying, cheating, and stealing was wrong; that such behavior could never be justified by the ends sought; and that even the appearance of such behavior should be avoided.
If we want the Grubers to stop lying to us, and the Pollands to respect us enough to avoid even the appearance of impropriety, than we will have to demand an end to this experiment that is rotting our society.
by Ed Hubbard
It is still a little overwhelming when I think about the gains Republicans made in last week’s mid-term elections.
With control of both houses of Congress, 67 state legislative chambers, at least 31 governorships, and a majority of Republican-appointed justices on the U.S. Supreme Court, we have the best chance in many years of producing real governmental reform that restores the constitutional allocation of federal responsibility and competence between the state and federal governments in a way that creates a solid foundation for growth, opportunity and liberty for the rest of this century.
That restoration must move along two tracks simultaneously: one at the state and local level, which restores trust, effectiveness, and responsibility for most domestic governmental functions; and one at the federal level, which restores
In my last posts in August of this year, I provided a philosophic foundation for these reforms, and I will not restate them here. Instead, I’ll just ask you to re-read them: Mercy, Trust, and the Future of the Republican Party; and Mercy, Trust, and the Future of the Republican Party – Part 2.
Although my list of reforms at the federal level is longer, the actual action that we should expect at the federal level will be slower and more limited over the next two years because the task at hand is to reverse the growth of the federal government that has occurred over the last 100 years, and that has exploded over the last 6 years, while we still have a President who is committed to its expansion by any means (constitutional or not) that he chooses.
While our Representatives and Senators fight with patient persistence to hold the line in Washington and proceed with the incremental reforms that are needed, the opportunity for the most far-reaching and effective reforms are at the state and local levels. Following the courage shown by Governors Walker, Snyder and Daniels in the Midwest over the last few years, we must commit ourselves to reform state and local governments so that they can accept the larger responsibilities they must exercise if we are to restore limited government at the federal level. This will require a commitment to govern effectively, efficiently and wisely—but to govern. It will require fundamentally reforming and re-building
I am still an optimist—I believe all of this is doable if we commit to the long struggle it will take to persuade our neighbors of the correctness of our goals, and to the patience it will take to formulate and implement these goals. This election gave us the opportunity to start this process, but we must seize that opportunity—now, the real work begins.
P.S.
Steve Munisteri publicly confirmed yesterday at the Greater Houston Pachyderm Club what he has been saying privately for several months: he will not serve his entire two-year term until the RPT Convention in 2016. Although he did not say when he would step down, his confirmation means that the SREC will soon choose a new Chair to serve the remainder of Steve’s term.
For me, this is a bitter-sweet moment. Sweet, because the efforts that were started by a handful of us in 2009 to improve the financial and organizational management of the Republican Party at the county and state levels were first realized under the Steve’s leadership at the RPT, and those efforts have now started to bear fruit here in Harris County since the election of Paul Simpson. I am proud to say I supported Steve’s quixotic campaign against the incumbent Chair in 2010, and I am even prouder of his accomplishments—he did what he said he would do, and then some. How rare is that in public life?
Bitter, because I know that his work is not done, and he leaves big shoes to fill. All I can do for now is hope that the candidates who come forward to run for Chair will pledge to continue Steve’s approach to the financial and operational management of the RPT and the Victory campaigns, including his ongoing efforts to grow the party in every community and demographic group in this state. We don’t need to return to the days when we confused cheerleading for leadership—we need to continue the hard work of real leadership that Steve started.
Steve, thank you. I wish you all the best in whatever you choose to do next. You’ve earned my unswerving admiration for all you’ve done.
Those are the words of Texas State Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, a Republican from the north Dallas area. From Scott Braddock reporting in the QuorumReport:
Some Tea Party supporters in Tarrant County got a wakeup call overnight as one of the lawmakers they have supported over establishment Republican figures told them late Monday that there is no race for Speaker of the Texas House.
In a town hall style meeting, Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, R-Southlake, answered questions about his newfound support for Speaker Joe Straus in a matter-of-fact way. “The reality is there is no race for Scott Turner versus Joe Straus,” Capriglione said, referring of course to the lawmaker from Frisco who has announced his challenge to Speaker Straus.
You really need to watch the video on Facebook to understand why Rep. Capriglione correctly states that there is no race.
That correct assertion doesn’t mean, however, that there will not be vicious attacks on Speaker Joe Straus from groups funded by Midland oilman Tim Dunn. These people would rather waste their time swinging pitchforks on the Oust Straus wagon rather than work to advance their public policy goals. They get paid a lot of money to try and divide the Republican caucus, not to push good public policy.
My fellow Harris County Republican Party Precinct Chair Greg Aydt is already hitting Straus, although not in the vicious way that Dunn’s groups will. Greg has written a couple of posts over at his RhymesWithRight site:
I have to disagree with this statement from the second link:
In other words, he has to show us that he is willing to defer to the GOP base and the GOP platform — or he needs to be replaced by someone like Scott Turner, who we know is a conservative who will run the Texas House like Texas is a red state.
First, Turner is not a “conservative” – listen to Rep. Capriglione discuss Turner in the video and then research him. Second, the reason that 80{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of Republican legislators and 100{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of Democratic legislators prefer Straus is because he lets the members run the House. He doesn’t run it like a dictator nor does he allow outside groups to have undue influence on House members. Ask any member that has been there under other Speakers and they will tell you that Straus is fair, effective, efficient, and leads the House to focus on major issues but allows the members the freedom to vote their districts. Your beef, if you have one, is with the legislators themselves, not the Speaker.
So, no, there is no Speaker’s race in Texas. But there will be a lot of hot air blowing in from those who would rather scream than discuss public policy.
Okay, so the election is over and you are in major withdrawal, needing your weekly fix of politics! I understand, me too! Here are a few meetings that might help you overcome that feeling of emptiness, despair, loneliness…. 😉
The NW Pachyderms will be hosting Republican Party of Texas Chair Steve Munisteri. They will be meeting at the Harris County Republican Party Headquarters at 7:00 pm. Click here for more information.
The Houston chapter of the Log Cabin Republicans will be meeting at Theo’s Restaurant in Montrose to review the election results. Fellow HCRP Precinct Chair Doug Markham and I will do our best to gloat and perhaps even explain a few things about the “why” of the results. The meeting starts at 7 pm at Theo’s Restaurant on 812 Westheimer Road, Houston, TX 77006 and phone number for restaurant is (713) 523-0425 and their website is www.theoshouston.com. I highly recommend the tortilla soup! Hope to see you there!
The Downtown Houston Pachyderm’s will host Dr. Michael Feinberg. Dr. Feinberg is Co-Founder of the KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) Foundation and Executive Vice Chair of KIPP Houston, which includes 22 public charter schools: ten middle schools, eight primary schools, and four high schools serving over 11,000 children. Now, I know this is a Republican club and all but even you Democrats could learn something from this one. In fact, you probably should be there to learn more about an issue that Lt. Governor-elect Dan Patrick is going to push hard for. The meeting starts at noon at the Spaghetti Warehouse in downtown Houston. Click here for more details.
The Cypress Tea Party will have three guest speakers. State Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, Attorney Greg Enos, and me! Rep. Kolkhorst will probably talk about her campaign to replace Sen. Glenn Hegar, Enos will undoubtedly talk about his quest to clean up the Harris County Family Courts, and I will gloat about the elections. Actually, the main reason I accepted the invite was to see if Enos’ head would fit through a standard size door at the restaurant! Oh, c’mon, don’t be such a sour puss, you know it was funny! The meeting starts at noon at Spring Creek BBQ on 290. Click here for more information.
So if you want to get over your withdrawal, make it out to one, two, or even all four of these choices! If you know of other meetings, leave a comment for everyone to see.