First off, this is a decidedly Republican group. No, I suppose they aren’t officially tied into the Republican Party but make no mistake, this is a Republican group. Each speaker last night noted that the goal was to turn the country back over to Republicans and to elect more Republicans to office. Perhaps the purist will still think that they are a Tea Party group but you will not be able to convince me of that, so try it on someone else. Not that I’m complaining at all – I’ve said from the very beginning of this “movement” that the best way for them to influence people is to affiliate with Republicans. And this group is clearly influencing people – just look at the block walk numbers they are generating for various candidates in the Republican Party.

Now that we have that out of the way, let’s talk about the movie. “We Will Not Be Silenced” is a documentary about the fraud in the 2008 Democratic Primary that allowed Barack Obama to “steal” the nomination from Hillary Clinton. The film is yet to be completed and is about 41 minutes long at this point. The producers intend to eventually have a full-length movie documenting all of the fraud in that primary, focusing on the caucus states. The film starts and ends with Gloria Allred of all people. She drew the biggest laughs of the night when she stated that, regardless of the fraud that she admits happened, Democrats need to vote for Barack Obama because “more lives will be lost if we vote for John McCain” in protest. Think Afghanistan.

Some of the things I noted from the movie:

• Caucus states accounted for 3{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of the total votes in the Democratic Primary but 15{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of the total voting delegates.
• More than 2,000 voter fraud complaints in the Texas caucuses alone.
• Young black men were intimidating elderly black women if they wore Clinton buttons or stickers.
• Voters who did not speak English were turned away (think about that).
• In Indiana, high schools bused students to the polls and gave them slate cards for Obama.
• In Houston, rules were not followed because the precinct judge decided there would be a riot if they were (I recall watching that live).

One of the producers of the film, Bettina Viviano, was on hand to answer questions. Obviously, the movie is incomplete but you could tell that the group working on it has a lot of experience in the industry, it was well produced. Hopefully, the final product will be a coherent roadmap of how the Obama team managed to pull off this huge upset.

As I mentioned, the King Street Patriots are very well organized. Led by Catherine Engelbrecht, they have two primary functions: True the Vote and LINKS. Click on those links to learn more but in a nutshell, True the Vote is an effort to stop voter fraud. I promise you this: those areas in Harris County that traditionally have numerous voter fraud problems (think Sheila Jackson Lee’s district among others) will have several trained people looking over their shoulders this year, unlike in years past. I think that the LINKS program (Liberty in Numbers King Street) is their basic organizing tool for precincts but I’m not clear on that. I will eventually hook up with Keen Butcher and he will fill me in.

This is a very busy group. They meet each Monday evening at their own office, which is in the Southeast corner of Northwest Mall, next to Demeris Barbecue. They also meet each Thursday for Voter Registrar training and True the Vote orientation. In addition, they have regular volunteer office hours Tuesday through Thursday, from 10am – 3 pm. And here is a very interesting opportunity for someone that likes to take photographs: they are looking for someone that is able to attend on a regular basis to be the “official” photographer. I’d do it if I lived closer because this is a heck of an opportunity to document this group from the ground up. Imagine looking back through your files in a few years and say, hey, I was here when this (insert senator, rep, president) spoke to the King Street Patriots. Use the Contact page and let Nancy if you are interested. Heck, this group could use two or three “official” photographers, that is how busy they are.

Super busy. Next week, they will be hosting Rep. Kevin Brady and Independent Petroleum Association of America Chairman Bruce Vincent to discuss Obama’s offshore drilling ban. Yep, that Kevin Brady, he of the giving another billion dollars of taxpayer debt to rail companies in an effort to promote “green” rail cars. Unbelievable but like I said, this is a Republican group, not a Tea Party. Remember when TEA stood for Taxed Enough Already? Brady doesn’t exactly fit that bill but hey, he’s a Republican, right?

The following week, August 9th, Rep. Brady will be leading a protest outside a planned Obama/Pelosi fundraiser, so the meeting might be cancelled to attend that. If not, then

Filed Under: Harris County

But, they follow the rules. To the letter and spirit of the law. You see, CLAR holds their meetings in Judge Louie Ditta’s courtroom at the Harris County Annex in Clear Lake. And CLAR is technically a PAC (political action committee for those of you in Pasadena). There are laws against PAC’s receiving money in government facilities. So, when I tried to hand in my check to club Secretary David Janda, he recoiled and told me, no, no, no! What the heck? So, I had to go online this morning and do it the new fashioned way. Now, I’m an official member. I think. Who knows?

Back to the meeting. Club President Richard Risinger started the meeting promptly at…13 minutes after 7 pm. Um, hum. Promptly. At. 7:13 pm. Versus promptly on time at 7:00 pm. Just ribbing Richard a bit because when I saw him at Sheri Y. Dean’s Birthday Party, he made it a point tell me that one of the things he has improved at was, you guessed it, starting meetings promptly at 7:00 pm. Ha. He also told the attendees (about 35) that he was dressed “casual” because this was a working meeting. Casual? Dude, I was casual. You? Not so much.

The meeting started with typical club stuff. An invocation (prayer, for those of you…) was said, then the pledges to both the U.S. flag and the Texas flag. Then approval of the minutes from the previous meeting, etc. Then it was on to the topics of the evening.

“Proud to be an American” Event on October 9^th

This is going to be an awesome event. Club Treasurer Daniel McCool is in charge of it and gave a brief update on the activities he’s scheduled thus far. Ladies, get ready! He’s having a Sadie Hawkins type of dance with a major twist to it. The men have to wear a card around their necks and if a lady asks them to dance, the men have to pay $5. That’s right, not only do I get to crush a woman’s foot, I have to pay for the privilege! Does that sound right to you? Of course, first someone would have to actually ask me to dance, so I think I’m fairly safe.

Daniel has the party scheduled to last from 6 – 11 pm, five full hours of fun. He has four speakers lined up, Jim Pruett, Ted Poe, Apostle Claver, and Michael Berry.  There will also be a buffet style dinner, a live auction, a private VIP social complete with autographed picture, and the aforementioned dancing. Plus other stuff that he said but I didn’t write down. I had to laugh when he said that Pruett, Poe and Claver would be given 10 minutes, and Michael Berry 45. He’s obviously never heard Claver speak – it takes him 10 minutes just to say his name!

It is going to be a major, awesome fun fundraiser. Click here to sign up – if you are a politician on the November ballot, you’d better be there!

New Website

I had noticed a change in the club’s website over the past few months. Change for the better in this case.  Turns out that the changes came from the club’s new Director of Public Information, Sandi Paulus. She gave a complete update on the website, going through the various new functions and outlining a vision of the future. She even asked for input, although she did note that the club was a Republican democracy, meaning she was still in charge. I enjoyed her presentation – how do you think I knew to head over there to join?

How to be an Effective Volunteer

Andy Mann was up next and gave a good overview of what it means to be a volunteer, what you should expect, and what you shouldn’t expect. I thought the “what you shouldn’t expect” segment was particularly informative, especially when he recounted his own inflated expectations when working with the Olson campaign, and how he felt when those expectations were deflated. It isn’t often that you hear about that side of the volunteer coin but that is probably the rule, not the exception. And the fact that he is still a huge Pete Olson fan and that Olson helped him later should remind us all that sometimes rewards are not immediate.

Precinct Development

The CLAR Club’s members are mostly in Senate District 11, Mike Jackon’s district. As with every Senate district, there are two members that are elected to serve on the State Republican Executive Committee, one man and one woman. SD-11’s male representative is Dennis Paul and he gave a presentation, overview, on building up precincts. He basically described the Republican party from the national level down to the street level and did a good, thorough job of it, even explaining why county chairmen and precinct chairs have to be elected. So basic that even I could understand it.

Getting Ready for November

Not a lot of politico’s attended this one. Judge Lynn Bradshaw-Hull was the only one, although Sheri Y. Dean sent a representative. It seems that Ms. Dean would rather celebrate her 36^th anniversary to Lance than to visit with a bunch of Republicans. Hmm. There was also a council member from one of the local cities but I missed his name. Judge Bradshaw-Hull focused on the Lt. Gov.’s race, noting that 70{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of the donations that came in for the Democratic candidate were from unions and PAC’s outside of the state. She stated that while Lt. Gov. Dewhurst could match the money, what it really means is that there are going to be “boots on the ground”, which went nicely with the theme of the evening being volunteer work.

So get your boots shined up and get ready to get out there and help put Republicans back in charge, of not control, of this country.

Website: ClearLakeAreaRepublicans.com

Yeah, I know, that probably surprises you, seein’ as how I’m often called a liberal and all. But alas, it’s true. Forcing citizens to fork over their hard earned money for something that isn’t for the common good (please, not today) is something akin to theft. Hey, little Johnny wants to weave a quilt so fork it over buddy! Seriously, don’t try to convince me that this (African American quilt by Regina Vigil) benefits anyone but Regina Vigil because it isn’t going to happen. Now, if Regina Vigil was paid to put asphalt in one of Harris County’s various potholes, I’d be all for it.

So there I am, knowing I have to criticize one of the few politicians that I respect. I respect Judge Emmett because he is open and honest, to a fault. And this is a fault, in my book, right? So, I have to criticize him. Check this quote out from Moran’s article:

“I think in a budget of our size, we should be able to find it,” Emmett said after Tuesday’s Commissioners Court meeting.

That kind of thinking is exactly why we are in the budget mess we are in, not only in Harris County, but in every other governmental agency. In fact, Renew Houston is counting on that mentality in order to pass their boondaggle of a proposition in November: hey, it’s only $5 a month for you Mr. or Mrs. homeowner! 5 bucks! C’mon, it’s nothing.

Add that to the fact that at every single opportunity, I politely, and sometimes not so politely, ask Harris County politicians to stop criticizing Judge Emmett because it will affect the whole ballot in November, not just Judge Emmett. Are you getting the picture that I was a bit peeved at the Judge this morning?

But rather than just blast him, I did something that David Benzion over at Lonestartimes begged me to do when I was writing there. He got tired of D_n and others calling him after I ripped the local guys, or mentioned that D_n was a rhetorical conservative, and asked me to please contact people before I ripped them. Best lesson I ever learned – believe me, it has saved me a lot of headaches. So, I emailed the Judge to ask him, somewhat politely, what the hell he was doing.

He happened to be driving to a meeting, so he called me instead of replying. And once again, I understood why I respect him so much. He didn’t pull the misquoted line out or try to back away from it. Rather, he explained how it came about and why he wanted to find the funds. Basically, it boils down to this: if he says he is going to do something, then he thinks he should do it.

Forget the philosophy of the funding for moment and think about this. That $75,000 was budgeted to be given to the Houston Art Alliance. The HAA made plans based upon that promise, a promise that had been kept since 2006. When it came time to find budget cuts, Budget Director Dick Raycraft cut that $75,000. On his own, without going to the court. He simply decided to cut it. So Judge Emmett gets a call from HAA CEO Jonathon Glus asking for a meeting (noted in Mr. Moran’s article). Mr. Glus explains about the cut and Judge Emmett is unaware that Mr. Raycraft had done this on his own initiative. Judge Emmett rightly decides that the full Commissioners Court should be the ones to decide to renege on a promise, not the Budget Director.

So there you go, that is what this boils down to. Judge Emmett wanting to be fair and just, as a politician should be. Again, lets keep the philosophy out of it because that was already decided. Put pressure on the commissioners to eliminate this funding in the next budget, if that is your wish, but for sake of this argument, think about the bigger picture.

Interestingly, Mr. Moran managed to find Gordon Quan, the invisible candidate, for a quote:

He said, ideally, the county would look to private sources to cover the gap first. Nor could Quan resist suggesting with a laugh that Emmett use campaign funds.

Hey, using private funds to cover the gap is a great idea. If only Mr. Raycraft had thought about that before arbitrarily cutting it. The quip about using campaign funds is probably just a cover for what is undoubtedly going to be a very poor showing on Mr. Quan’s campaign finance report, due today. Judge Emmett filed his yesterday – the report isn’t available yet but it will show a very strong fund raising effort by the Judge. I doubt that the Judge’s supporters would like it if he used their contributions to fund African American quilt making. Or Hispanic American quilt making. Or American American quilt making. They want him to use their contributions to remain in office and continue doing the great job he’s been doing.

We’ll talk about the philosophy behind this another time. And hopefully, Judge Emmett won’t be using that line about finding such a small amount in such a large budget again anytime soon.

And about those layoffs. They aren’t laying people off, they are doing something far worse. They are reducing their workforce through attrition. You know, when someone retires, leaves, moves on, etc., they simply don’t replace them. This is the worst type of workforce reduction you can have because no one is in control of it. Let’s say 10 deputies retire or leave for whatever reason. I’d say that would be a whole lot more important than having 10 dog catchers quit. Or 10 secretaries in the office pool. Wouldn’t you? Do you seriously think that Commissioner El Franco Lee is going to stop shuttling seniors around if a bus driver quits? Nope, he’s going to bring in a temp. Just wait until the spending numbers come in and you’ll see what I’m talking about. Probably a subject for another post of its own but an across the board hiring freeze is nuts.