Endorses Kip Averitt Prior To Primary Election
Special TEA Party Conference Call Tonight at 9:30 p.m. -
Remarking that of all the primary races coming next Tuesday,
"none is stranger" than the State District 22 race, the
venerable Waco daily newspaper reversed its editorial policy
and endorsed incumbent State Senator Kip Averitt prior to
the General Election season.
Members of the Tribune-Herald's editorial board often invite
primary candidates to be interviewed by them and answer
questions about their careers, their policies and their
candidacy. They shy away from endorsing candidates,
preferring the editorial board interview approach prior to
the nomination of a candidate.
The incumbent Senator, long-time legislator Kip Averitt had
previously abandoned his re-election campaign due to health
concerns. A "Keep Kip" movement led by Republican Party of
Texas Executive Committee member Chris DeCluitt has
flourished in past days, vowing to see to it that the
Senator is nominated and elected to succeed himself as the
powerful Natural Resources Committee Chairman and champion
of the state's water development plan.
Tribune-Herald Senior Editor Bill Whitaker commented, saying
that though he had extended an invitation for the
challenger, Mr. Darren Yancy, to meet with members of the
paper's editorial board and political Staff Writer Michael
Shapiro, Mr. Yancy never responded to the invitation.
Thus, there was no opportunity to "come by and talk policy."
The editorial, which appeared in Sunday's edition, cited how
civic and business leaders had become "nervous about the
sudden lack of a viable choice, especially as reports began
to surface about hwat some argue is Yancy's seeming penchant
for frivolous lawsuits and the loss of his real estate
license lat year for 'untrustworthiness.'"
Darren Yancy will appear on a special conference call
organized by Waco TEA Party operative Toby Marie Walker. He
will make himself available to answer callers' questions
about the allegations advanced by the editorial and his
reactions to the call for a victory by Senator Averitt and
the possibility of a special election in which voters may
choose from candidates nominated by the County Republican
Chairmen of the District.
He has previously stated in a radio appearance that he has
garnered the commitment of a majority of those ten chairmen
in the district.
The conference call appearance will take place at 9:30 p.m.
today, Sunday, Feb. 28. To participate, call 218-339-2699
and enter this code: 261532#
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Darren Yancy - "Our lives literally changed"
Delving into lawsuit brought threats, interference
Listening to the blog talk radio broadcast, one immediately
apprehended that the man is angry, and for a good reason.
A candidate for State Senatorial District 22, he could
barely contain his outrage.
In response to a statement by blog radio interviewer Duke
Machado, President of GOP Is For Me.com, Darren Yancy
paused, then blurted out the crux of his problem.
"When I discovered that lawsuit..." he paused for a moment,
letting the emotional impact of the moment sink in.
Then he continued.
In a rush, he responded to Mr. Machado's statement when he
prompted him to go on by saying, "There are some people who
don't want this story in the media."
Mr. Machado is speaking of a controversial multi-million
dollar lawsuit between the Brazos River Authority and Brazos
Electrical Co-Op in which the electric company has alleged a
breach of contract complaint against the water management
authority - a half million dollar a year agreement that has
so far produced no electrical power, as contracted.
Said Yancy, "We've had some unusual activities at our house.
I've had some strange calls."
There are security issues, he has stated in the past,
problems regarding the safety of his family, his kids.
He said other media outlets - newspapers, broadcast stations
- were discouraged with political interference, physical
threats from unnamed parties who urged their editors and
publishers to drop the subject.
The entire dispute is about the truth, he stressed, the
public record of State of Texas bond audits and Federal
operation inspections, the review of contract agreements and
scrutiny of court documents relating to the lawsuit filed in
the 414th State District Court.
The records don't belong to the Brazos River Authority or
the Brazos Electrical Power Co-Op.
They belong to the People of the State of Texas, and no one
else. They are subject to the provisions of the Texas Open
Records Act and the Federal Open Information Act.
He spoke of these things, then he threw down the gauntlet.
"At this point, I'm not taking anybody's word for anything."
The Brazos River Authority has refused to allow a public
inspection of the hydroelectric power generating equipment
because of a security risk - a Homeland Security matter.
He received their refusal in writing, he said.
"We're not going to stop there. I've got calls going in to
the Governor's office...So there will be a lot of eyes
focusing on this issue."
If as many as 50,000 people flood Governor Rick Perry's
office on Monday morning demanding a public inspection of
the power house of the Morris Sheppard Dam at Possum
Kingdom, "The Governor needs to pick up the phone and call
Homeland Security...There's a good possibility it will be
done that day, if not the next.
Why is it Governor Perry's responsibility?
Texas Bond Review Board records indicate that bond money -
"as much as $40 million spread over three issues" - is
alleged to have been allocated to maintaining the sluice
gates, penstocks and hydroelectric turbines of the venerable
dam constructed between 1938 and 1941, a structure that
started generating electrical power in 1942 and has never
failed a Federal Electrical Regulatory Commission
inspection, according to public records.
"Because we're talking about money that goes back to 1991...
There are people who have been involved every step of the
way, state and Federal...This might well extend past the
borders of the State of Texas."
But in the year 2007, the executives of the Brazos River
Authority shut down the power house at Possum Kingdom. That
took 24 megawatts off the power grid.
They said that the facility was in bad repair.
Either it has been maintained at public expense in tip top
shape, as public records indicate, or it was allowed to
deteriorate to the point that it was not economically
feasible to repair it.
It can't be both, a little bit of both, or anything of the
sort.
"We need an immediate public inspection...If it catches fire
tomorrow night..." He let his voice trail away.
"They took 24 megawatts off the grid. It affects every
county...When you do that, rates are bound to go up."
"The taxpayers and consumers have a right to know."
Then he answered calls from citizens who are just as
interested as he.
Ms. Toby Marie Walker, an operative of the Waco TEA Party,
called in to ask Why is the Federal government involved in a
state issue?
Mr. Yancy agreed to her protest. He said the state water
plan contained in enabling legislation for the Texas Water
Development Board, a massive, multi-billion dollar
reauthorization bill sponsored by incumbent State Senator
Kip Averitt does two things to Texans' water rights.
First, it reduces their riparian rights to the water under
the surface of their property.
Secondly, it exacts steep users' fees for drilling water
wells and maintaining them, fees collected on a yearly basis
for the privilege to use one's own water, a resource owned
by the deed holder.
GOP Is For Me.com Training and Development Director Janet
Jackson called from her Clifton home to ask if Senator
Averitt gave him his "blessing" when he bowed out of the
race due to "health concerns."
The answer to the question was a resounding no. In fact,
Brazos River Authority Presiding Officer Chris DeCluitt, a
Waco Attorney and member of the Republican Party of Texas
Executive Committee, has urged the voters to mount a "Keep
Kip" campaign at the polls because the veteran legislator is
still listed on the primary ballot.
Mr. DeCluitt, an appointee of Governor Rick Perry, is said
to have been recommended by Senator Averitt.
Mr. Yancy explained by saying, "I'm going to be the
Republican nominee. I have enough commitments from County
Republican Chairmen to get the nomination."
If he wins the primary election outright, he will be the
sole candidate on the General Election ballot. If there is
a need for a run-off or if he is defeated, the chairmen of
the county parties will have the opportunity to name a
candidate. That will leave the door open for a Democratic
Party hopeful.
If people vote for Kip Averitt when he has said he does not
want the nomination, "All they're doing is throwing their
vote away to the possibility of a Democratic candidate."
Joe Williams, a member of the Lake Granbury Waterfront
Property Owners Association, called to say that "Even before
the lawsuit, the BRA wouldn't give us the information about
the lake when we asked. Their answer is no comment, whether
it's about the dam or it's about the lake level or anything
else."
Mr. Yancy said that the pending litigation is no reason to
avoid comment about public matters, matters of record or
policy that impact constituents of a very large state agency
like BRA.
"Either we need to see the repairs, or we need to see what
they did with the money," said Mr. Yancy.
"Either they show us the work they did, or they show us
where the money is."
Listening to the blog talk radio broadcast, one immediately
apprehended that the man is angry, and for a good reason.
A candidate for State Senatorial District 22, he could
barely contain his outrage.
In response to a statement by blog radio interviewer Duke
Machado, President of GOP Is For Me.com, Darren Yancy
paused, then blurted out the crux of his problem.
"When I discovered that lawsuit..." he paused for a moment,
letting the emotional impact of the moment sink in.
Then he continued.
In a rush, he responded to Mr. Machado's statement when he
prompted him to go on by saying, "There are some people who
don't want this story in the media."
Mr. Machado is speaking of a controversial multi-million
dollar lawsuit between the Brazos River Authority and Brazos
Electrical Co-Op in which the electric company has alleged a
breach of contract complaint against the water management
authority - a half million dollar a year agreement that has
so far produced no electrical power, as contracted.
Said Yancy, "We've had some unusual activities at our house.
I've had some strange calls."
There are security issues, he has stated in the past,
problems regarding the safety of his family, his kids.
He said other media outlets - newspapers, broadcast stations
- were discouraged with political interference, physical
threats from unnamed parties who urged their editors and
publishers to drop the subject.
The entire dispute is about the truth, he stressed, the
public record of State of Texas bond audits and Federal
operation inspections, the review of contract agreements and
scrutiny of court documents relating to the lawsuit filed in
the 414th State District Court.
The records don't belong to the Brazos River Authority or
the Brazos Electrical Power Co-Op.
They belong to the People of the State of Texas, and no one
else. They are subject to the provisions of the Texas Open
Records Act and the Federal Open Information Act.
He spoke of these things, then he threw down the gauntlet.
"At this point, I'm not taking anybody's word for anything."
The Brazos River Authority has refused to allow a public
inspection of the hydroelectric power generating equipment
because of a security risk - a Homeland Security matter.
He received their refusal in writing, he said.
"We're not going to stop there. I've got calls going in to
the Governor's office...So there will be a lot of eyes
focusing on this issue."
If as many as 50,000 people flood Governor Rick Perry's
office on Monday morning demanding a public inspection of
the power house of the Morris Sheppard Dam at Possum
Kingdom, "The Governor needs to pick up the phone and call
Homeland Security...There's a good possibility it will be
done that day, if not the next.
Why is it Governor Perry's responsibility?
Texas Bond Review Board records indicate that bond money -
"as much as $40 million spread over three issues" - is
alleged to have been allocated to maintaining the sluice
gates, penstocks and hydroelectric turbines of the venerable
dam constructed between 1938 and 1941, a structure that
started generating electrical power in 1942 and has never
failed a Federal Electrical Regulatory Commission
inspection, according to public records.
"Because we're talking about money that goes back to 1991...
There are people who have been involved every step of the
way, state and Federal...This might well extend past the
borders of the State of Texas."
But in the year 2007, the executives of the Brazos River
Authority shut down the power house at Possum Kingdom. That
took 24 megawatts off the power grid.
They said that the facility was in bad repair.
Either it has been maintained at public expense in tip top
shape, as public records indicate, or it was allowed to
deteriorate to the point that it was not economically
feasible to repair it.
It can't be both, a little bit of both, or anything of the
sort.
"We need an immediate public inspection...If it catches fire
tomorrow night..." He let his voice trail away.
"They took 24 megawatts off the grid. It affects every
county...When you do that, rates are bound to go up."
"The taxpayers and consumers have a right to know."
Then he answered calls from citizens who are just as
interested as he.
Ms. Toby Marie Walker, an operative of the Waco TEA Party,
called in to ask Why is the Federal government involved in a
state issue?
Mr. Yancy agreed to her protest. He said the state water
plan contained in enabling legislation for the Texas Water
Development Board, a massive, multi-billion dollar
reauthorization bill sponsored by incumbent State Senator
Kip Averitt does two things to Texans' water rights.
First, it reduces their riparian rights to the water under
the surface of their property.
Secondly, it exacts steep users' fees for drilling water
wells and maintaining them, fees collected on a yearly basis
for the privilege to use one's own water, a resource owned
by the deed holder.
GOP Is For Me.com Training and Development Director Janet
Jackson called from her Clifton home to ask if Senator
Averitt gave him his "blessing" when he bowed out of the
race due to "health concerns."
The answer to the question was a resounding no. In fact,
Brazos River Authority Presiding Officer Chris DeCluitt, a
Waco Attorney and member of the Republican Party of Texas
Executive Committee, has urged the voters to mount a "Keep
Kip" campaign at the polls because the veteran legislator is
still listed on the primary ballot.
Mr. DeCluitt, an appointee of Governor Rick Perry, is said
to have been recommended by Senator Averitt.
Mr. Yancy explained by saying, "I'm going to be the
Republican nominee. I have enough commitments from County
Republican Chairmen to get the nomination."
If he wins the primary election outright, he will be the
sole candidate on the General Election ballot. If there is
a need for a run-off or if he is defeated, the chairmen of
the county parties will have the opportunity to name a
candidate. That will leave the door open for a Democratic
Party hopeful.
If people vote for Kip Averitt when he has said he does not
want the nomination, "All they're doing is throwing their
vote away to the possibility of a Democratic candidate."
Joe Williams, a member of the Lake Granbury Waterfront
Property Owners Association, called to say that "Even before
the lawsuit, the BRA wouldn't give us the information about
the lake when we asked. Their answer is no comment, whether
it's about the dam or it's about the lake level or anything
else."
Mr. Yancy said that the pending litigation is no reason to
avoid comment about public matters, matters of record or
policy that impact constituents of a very large state agency
like BRA.
"Either we need to see the repairs, or we need to see what
they did with the money," said Mr. Yancy.
"Either they show us the work they did, or they show us
where the money is."
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Candidates React With Alarm At BRA Decision
Turning down public inspection of Possum Kingdom
Power House Leads to Suspicion, Disbelief
Two Republican Party Primary candidates fighting for the
opportunity to compete in the General Election offered sharp
criticism of a Brazos River Authority decision to disallow
public inspection of the hydroelectric generating station at
Possum Kingdom.
"Major attention has to be given to the facility to prevent
sabotage if the unit is operable," said Darren Yancy, a
Burleson real estate and insurance broker who is involved in
investment banking for venture capitalist acquiring interest
in development of renewable energy sources.
A candidate for State Senatorial District 22, he placed
press releases on all TEA Party and political club websites
in the district, voicing his concerns.
"I am pushing for an inspection ASAP and will let you know
when it happens."
Mr. Yancy included internet links to pertinent public
documents gleaned from the Texas Bond Review Board and the
Federal Electrical Regulatory Commission in his statements.
Dr. Dave McIntyre, a candidate for U.S. House of
Representatives running against five others in the
Republican Primary for the right to oppose Democrat Chet
Edwards in the November 2 General Election, was even
stronger in his disapproval and suspicion of BRA's policy of
not allowing public inspection of the hydroelectric power
station at the Morris Sheppard Dam.
"Short answer is that I have been concerned for years about
officials using 'homeland security' as a cover to prevent
legitimate investigation into their illegitimate activities.
It is happening everywhere," he said in a prepared
statement.
"That fact is itself a story - but hard to write - hard to
write about what you are not allowed to know about - and
that is the rub."
A retired U.S. Army Colonel with 30 years of service, Dr.
McIntyre earned a doctoral degree in Political Science at
the University of Maryland during 22 years of staff duty. A
specialist in homeland security. He was the Dean of
Instructors at the National War College and served on the
staff of the Army's Office of the Chief of Staff.
Following his retirement, he worked for a think tank, then
relocated to Texas A&M University where he headed up a
doctoral program in Homeland Security.
In his statement, Mr. Yancy elaborated, saying, "If you are
wondering how this impacts you, it surrounds the
availability of electricity and water. Twenty-four megawatts
was removed from the electric grid of Texas in 2007. There
is a high chance your electic rates are more now than they
were before.
"With the pubic documnents on this issue, a public
inspection...must be (done) to get the actual answers to
what has happened. I have made my initial request to have
an inspection and it has been rejected. It will take the
voice of many to have the pubic process done. I hope you
will join me in demanding a public inspection of this
facility."
He added that "All related documentation, including bond
issuances and certified financials showing the state of
Texas is paying debt service on the bones, is at the
following link: http://www.darrenyancy.com/posts/darren-yancy-fights-to-protect-taxpayers-
and-consumers-from-mismanagement-at-the-brazos-river-
Power House Leads to Suspicion, Disbelief
Two Republican Party Primary candidates fighting for the
opportunity to compete in the General Election offered sharp
criticism of a Brazos River Authority decision to disallow
public inspection of the hydroelectric generating station at
Possum Kingdom.
"Major attention has to be given to the facility to prevent
sabotage if the unit is operable," said Darren Yancy, a
Burleson real estate and insurance broker who is involved in
investment banking for venture capitalist acquiring interest
in development of renewable energy sources.
A candidate for State Senatorial District 22, he placed
press releases on all TEA Party and political club websites
in the district, voicing his concerns.
"I am pushing for an inspection ASAP and will let you know
when it happens."
Mr. Yancy included internet links to pertinent public
documents gleaned from the Texas Bond Review Board and the
Federal Electrical Regulatory Commission in his statements.
Dr. Dave McIntyre, a candidate for U.S. House of
Representatives running against five others in the
Republican Primary for the right to oppose Democrat Chet
Edwards in the November 2 General Election, was even
stronger in his disapproval and suspicion of BRA's policy of
not allowing public inspection of the hydroelectric power
station at the Morris Sheppard Dam.
"Short answer is that I have been concerned for years about
officials using 'homeland security' as a cover to prevent
legitimate investigation into their illegitimate activities.
It is happening everywhere," he said in a prepared
statement.
"That fact is itself a story - but hard to write - hard to
write about what you are not allowed to know about - and
that is the rub."
A retired U.S. Army Colonel with 30 years of service, Dr.
McIntyre earned a doctoral degree in Political Science at
the University of Maryland during 22 years of staff duty. A
specialist in homeland security. He was the Dean of
Instructors at the National War College and served on the
staff of the Army's Office of the Chief of Staff.
Following his retirement, he worked for a think tank, then
relocated to Texas A&M University where he headed up a
doctoral program in Homeland Security.
In his statement, Mr. Yancy elaborated, saying, "If you are
wondering how this impacts you, it surrounds the
availability of electricity and water. Twenty-four megawatts
was removed from the electric grid of Texas in 2007. There
is a high chance your electic rates are more now than they
were before.
"With the pubic documnents on this issue, a public
inspection...must be (done) to get the actual answers to
what has happened. I have made my initial request to have
an inspection and it has been rejected. It will take the
voice of many to have the pubic process done. I hope you
will join me in demanding a public inspection of this
facility."
He added that "All related documentation, including bond
issuances and certified financials showing the state of
Texas is paying debt service on the bones, is at the
following link: http://www.darrenyancy.com/posts/darren-yancy-fights-to-protect-taxpayers-
and-consumers-from-mismanagement-at-the-brazos-river-
Friday, February 26, 2010
Security Risks Preclude Public Visits To BRA Dams
Homeland Security Concerns Force Closed Door Policy
Reached for permission to tour the hydroelectric project at
the Morris Sheppard Dam on Possum Kingdom Lake, the manager
in charge told The Legendary that security risks will no
longer allow the risk of public tours of their dams.
"We don't allow anyone on our dams any more," said Mike
McLendon, Regional Manager of Customer Relations for the
Brazos River Authority at the agency's headquarters in Waco.
"Ever since 9/11, the security risk is too great."
The 1938 WPA project has been shut down for purposes of
generating hydroelectric power for sale to consumers through
the Brazos Electric Power Co-Op because of a deterioration
in the turbine generating equipment that is powered by the
the constant flow of water through the gates of the
structure.
It is a design feature of the project that has been
discontinued due to what the BRA has termed a lack of
maintenance. This prompted the Brazos Electric Power
organization to file suit in state district court for an
alleged breach of a contractual obligation to generate and
market electrical power. The agreement was approved by the
Federal Electrical Power Commission in the year 2008.
In the BRA's year end report for 2009, the agency declared,
"This contract has not produced adequate revenue in recent
years. On June 15, 2001, the Brazos River Authority was
approved as a Power Generation Company by the PUC. The
action essentially deregulates the Authority's power
generation, releasing us from PUC oversight..."
Senatorial candidate Darren Yancy, a Burleson investment
banker and commercial insurance broker who is running on the
Republican ticket against incumbent Kip Averitt, expressed a
desire to pay a visit to the powerhouse and turbine setup to
see what type of deterioration had caused the cessation of
generation of electrical power.
The presiding member of the BRA's Board of Directors, Waco
attorney Chris DeCluitt, has urged a "Keep Kit" movement
among Republican voters, though the lawmaker, who is
chairman of the Natural Resources Committee and the
principle sponsor of the Texas Water Plan, has declared that
he is not interested in seeking re-election to his post.
Incumbent McLennan County Republican Chairman Joe B. Hinton,
former Vice President for European operations of
Exxon/Mobil, during previous tenure by other Senate District
22 veterans, Dave Sibley and Chet Edwards.
Reached for permission to tour the hydroelectric project at
the Morris Sheppard Dam on Possum Kingdom Lake, the manager
in charge told The Legendary that security risks will no
longer allow the risk of public tours of their dams.
"We don't allow anyone on our dams any more," said Mike
McLendon, Regional Manager of Customer Relations for the
Brazos River Authority at the agency's headquarters in Waco.
"Ever since 9/11, the security risk is too great."
The 1938 WPA project has been shut down for purposes of
generating hydroelectric power for sale to consumers through
the Brazos Electric Power Co-Op because of a deterioration
in the turbine generating equipment that is powered by the
the constant flow of water through the gates of the
structure.
It is a design feature of the project that has been
discontinued due to what the BRA has termed a lack of
maintenance. This prompted the Brazos Electric Power
organization to file suit in state district court for an
alleged breach of a contractual obligation to generate and
market electrical power. The agreement was approved by the
Federal Electrical Power Commission in the year 2008.
In the BRA's year end report for 2009, the agency declared,
"This contract has not produced adequate revenue in recent
years. On June 15, 2001, the Brazos River Authority was
approved as a Power Generation Company by the PUC. The
action essentially deregulates the Authority's power
generation, releasing us from PUC oversight..."
Senatorial candidate Darren Yancy, a Burleson investment
banker and commercial insurance broker who is running on the
Republican ticket against incumbent Kip Averitt, expressed a
desire to pay a visit to the powerhouse and turbine setup to
see what type of deterioration had caused the cessation of
generation of electrical power.
The presiding member of the BRA's Board of Directors, Waco
attorney Chris DeCluitt, has urged a "Keep Kit" movement
among Republican voters, though the lawmaker, who is
chairman of the Natural Resources Committee and the
principle sponsor of the Texas Water Plan, has declared that
he is not interested in seeking re-election to his post.
Incumbent McLennan County Republican Chairman Joe B. Hinton,
former Vice President for European operations of
Exxon/Mobil, during previous tenure by other Senate District
22 veterans, Dave Sibley and Chet Edwards.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Scrutiny of Public Records Reveals Baffling Truth About Possum Kingdom
Agreement between BRA and Brazos Electric previously approved
The facility has passed every Federal inspection since 1942
Bond money spent on maintenance of the hydroelectric
turbines, according to Texas Bond Review Board records
In a shocking turn of events, a check of the public record
reveals that there is no good reason why the hydroelectric
turbines at the Morris Sheppard Dam on Possum Kingdom Lake
aren't churning out kilowatt hours tonight.
According to a lawsuit filed by Brazos Electric Power Co-Op,
the year-end report of the Brazos River Authority, and the
statements of many seemingly knowledgeable public figures,
the operators of the 1938 WPA project could no longer obtain
an operating permit due to a lack of preventive maintenance.
And yet, a careful check of the records of the Federal
Electrical Regulatory Commission at Washington, D.C., shows
that the facility has been routinely inspected - and passed
- by Federal experts since 1942 when it was put on-line
making electrical power as a by-product of the very
necessary design function of keeping water moving through
the structure's sluice gates to prevent the bottom of the
lake from collecting too much silt to store its maximum
capacity of useful water resources.
How was this done?
According to audit reports turned in to the Texas Bond
Review Board, an agency that scrutinizes the records of
financial underwriting for projects public, private and
semi-private, the proceeds of the bond issues were spent
partly on keeping the gates in peak operating condition and
the turbines spinning at their maximum safe capacity.
In fact, anyone may see the truth of this by visting the
websites of the two government agencies at:
www.ferc.gov
www.brb.tx.us
According to records kept by knowledgeable experts at both
agencies, the record abundantly reflects a project in the
pink of health.
This is in contrast to the statement in the latest year-end
report of the Brazos River Authority, which states, "Upon
receiving federal approval of these agreements, BEPC can
begin their evaluation and repair process," published in the
year-end report for fiscal year 2009.
FERC records show that the agreement was approved in 2008.
Nevertheless, a lawsuit filed the following year shows that
the Brazos River Authority claimed the hydroelectric
generating equipment would have to remain shut down due to a
deterioration in their condition.
"I can't understand why they did this," said Darren Yancy, a
Burleson investment banker and insurance broker who is vying
for the right to run unopposed for the State Senate District
22 seat. "Why would they do this? It doesn't make any
sense."
He has vowed to request that Brazos River Authority
executives grant him permission to take an inspection tour
of the hydroelectric power station at some time over the
coming weekend.
The facility has passed every Federal inspection since 1942
Bond money spent on maintenance of the hydroelectric
turbines, according to Texas Bond Review Board records
In a shocking turn of events, a check of the public record
reveals that there is no good reason why the hydroelectric
turbines at the Morris Sheppard Dam on Possum Kingdom Lake
aren't churning out kilowatt hours tonight.
According to a lawsuit filed by Brazos Electric Power Co-Op,
the year-end report of the Brazos River Authority, and the
statements of many seemingly knowledgeable public figures,
the operators of the 1938 WPA project could no longer obtain
an operating permit due to a lack of preventive maintenance.
And yet, a careful check of the records of the Federal
Electrical Regulatory Commission at Washington, D.C., shows
that the facility has been routinely inspected - and passed
- by Federal experts since 1942 when it was put on-line
making electrical power as a by-product of the very
necessary design function of keeping water moving through
the structure's sluice gates to prevent the bottom of the
lake from collecting too much silt to store its maximum
capacity of useful water resources.
How was this done?
According to audit reports turned in to the Texas Bond
Review Board, an agency that scrutinizes the records of
financial underwriting for projects public, private and
semi-private, the proceeds of the bond issues were spent
partly on keeping the gates in peak operating condition and
the turbines spinning at their maximum safe capacity.
In fact, anyone may see the truth of this by visting the
websites of the two government agencies at:
www.ferc.gov
www.brb.tx.us
According to records kept by knowledgeable experts at both
agencies, the record abundantly reflects a project in the
pink of health.
This is in contrast to the statement in the latest year-end
report of the Brazos River Authority, which states, "Upon
receiving federal approval of these agreements, BEPC can
begin their evaluation and repair process," published in the
year-end report for fiscal year 2009.
FERC records show that the agreement was approved in 2008.
Nevertheless, a lawsuit filed the following year shows that
the Brazos River Authority claimed the hydroelectric
generating equipment would have to remain shut down due to a
deterioration in their condition.
"I can't understand why they did this," said Darren Yancy, a
Burleson investment banker and insurance broker who is vying
for the right to run unopposed for the State Senate District
22 seat. "Why would they do this? It doesn't make any
sense."
He has vowed to request that Brazos River Authority
executives grant him permission to take an inspection tour
of the hydroelectric power station at some time over the
coming weekend.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Senate Candidate Conducts Post Mortem of a Possum's Kingdom
Are We All Wet Yet?
Until one begins to delve into the true facts of the
dispute, it just looks like any ordinary West Texas hassle
over water.
But as the spade turns the earth, the awful truth begins to
sink in.
Dig this.
In 1938 the Works Progress Administration began turning dirt
to construct the Morris Sheppard dam at the Possum Kingdom
Reservoir. So named for the U.S. Senator from Texas who
arranged the financing, the massive hydroelectric power dam
soon backed up 550,000 acre feet of available water in a
total area of 750,000 acre feet on the unruly old Brazos
River. This resulted in average depths of nearly 80 feet of
clear, blue water - 17,700 acres of lake touching
alternately drought-stricken, flood-ravaged Young, Palo
Pinto, Stephens and Jack Counties and producing electrical
power with its two 11,250 kilowatt generators in 9 spillway
gates.
But in the year 2007 - 66 long years later - matters began
to go hincty in a big, big way.
It was in that year that the Texas Water Plan came up for
its five-year review and the legislature rolled it over for
another walk in the sun, eschewing sunset or alterations in
favor of its outstanding operation.
Problem: It was also in that year that the massive turbines
stopped turning to produce electrical power for the Brazos
Electric Power Company, purveyor of juice to cities all over
north and central Texas such as Cowtown and other western
environs.
Why? It was because of a lack of maintenance, according to
the folks who cut the operating permits for such projects.
It seems the Brazos River Authority had stopped keeping the
old tried and true project's bearings in plumb, its gears
and axles lubricated properly and its generators
refurbished.
Cussed old New Deal kind of thing, anyway, the renewable
energy project is the only one in the entire United States
that has been deactivated and closed for any reason - any
reason whatsoever.
What happened? The deal with Brazos Electric was subject to
state and Federal regulatory approval - approval that never
came. Brazos Electric could not justify investing in
repairs or replacements and the asset "remained in a state
of deterioration," according to the laconic language of
bureaucratic reportage.
Brazos River Authority is actively decommissioning the
operation at the present, according to a Brazos River
Authority Board Meeting Agenda item - number 9 on the
board's list of items for October 26 of 2009.
Where did all that leave Brazos Electric? They're stuck
with a half million dollar a year electric bill for power
they cannot receive. They allege a breach of contract.
They've brought suit against BRA in State District Court at
Waco, the 414th District, Judge Vicki Menard, presiding.
So, what does all that have to do with the State Senatorial
District 22 Repubican Primary race?
Plenty, as it turns out.
Waco's own Senator Kip Averitt is the chairman of the
Natural Resources Committee. He shepherded the current
water plan with its 4,500 "water management strategies"
designed to meet a need for water demands that will be
caused by an estimated population increase of more than
double the present 21 million to a projected 46 million
people by the year 2060. That represents an estimated
increase in demand for water to 21.6 million acre feet per
year, up from the present consumption of 17 million acre
feet at present.
Here's the rub. Existing water supplies will decrease by 18
percent - from about 17.9 million acre feet today to about
14.6 million acre feet in the year 2060.
The state's water managers say that is due to natural
sedimentation on the bottom of the state's reservoirs and
the depletion of aquifers. Texas will need 8.8 million more
acre feet of water by 2060 if new water supplies are not
developed.
Hydroelectric power as a renewable energy source helps pay
for water management projects such as the old New Deal
reservoir at Possum Kingdom with its venerable Morris
Sheppard Dam.
But it gets even better when you stop and look at the total
pattern that emerges in these questionable policy shifts.
The old Roman tradition of asking cui bono - Latin for who
benefits - throws the facts into stark relief.
On January 14, Senator Averitt suddenly announced he is
finding it "hard to strike a balance between my health, my
family, and my public service."
Putting his health "above all else," it was "with deep
regret" that he announced "the cessation of my Senate
campaign."
It was the end of multi-term tenure in the State House of
Representatives that began in 1992, followed by years in the
Senate for the Waco tax consultant, a product of the Baylor
School of Business.
But then along came his friend and colleague Chris DeCluitt,
a Waco attorney educated at Baylor Law who once served as
Judge Menard's campaign manager and is the presiding officer
of the Board of Directors of the Brazos River Authority. He
is also a member of the Republican Party of Texas' State
Executive Committee.
He decided to launch a "Keep Kip" movement, regardless of
the old boy's health.
The only other candidate in the race, Burleson investment
banker and commercial insurance broker Darren Yancy, a
conservative who has spent his business career researching
and promoting alternative, renewable energy projects,
decided to fight back in a big way. He's trying hard to
wear a couple of pairs of wingtips and he's gaining on his
goal.
He's not ready to let the County Republican Chairmen from
the 10-county Senatorial District select a candidate if he
should lose to a man who has declared if he's nominated, he
won't run and if he's elected, he won't serve.
He is touring the District letting voters know just what the
"fiscally conservative" Senator and his esteemed colleague,
the attorney and rock-ribbed Republican Executive Committee
member who helps run the Brazos River Authority with
conservative values galore, have left on the table.
It comes up to a lot of money when you take a hard look at
the figures.
Appearing before the Lake Granbury Waterfront Property
Owners Association last week, Mr. Yancy pointed out the
options facing BRA's management team.
They aren't very pretty to survey.
First of all, the stimulus package approved by the previous
Congress created a 30 percent energy tax credit on income
generated by renewable resources such as hydroelectric, wind
or solar-powered projects. When the current Congress
reauthorized that stimulus package, they changed the term
employed from a "tax credit" to a "grant." It's a hell of
break for those who sell electricity made with renewable
resources as opposed to fossil fuel solutions such as coal,
oil or natural gas.
Unfortunately, it's still laying there on the table where
the Brazos River Authority left it.
It won't be there for long, either. The grant expires with
the end of this year, 2010.
Remember, now, this is the only hydroelectric power project
that has been discontinued and deactivated in the entire
United States of America. It's a free country, but it's
also a very, very big country, remember?
But I digress. Let's go on to the options as outlined by
the investment banker, Mr. Darren Yancy, the once and
possibly future unopposed Repubican candidate for State
Senator in District 22.
We're going to have to take his word on these matters
because the executives and board members of BRA cannot
comment in any way.
They're involved in litigation, remember? It's only prudent
to keep their mouths shut about this affair.
There you have it. It's a state agency with taxing
authority, its leadership appointed by the Governor, but
they just cannot give up any details about their options or
what their intentions may be once they get this pesky
problem of Possum Kindom straightened out in District Court.
Onwards.
Option 1. - Since the State of Texas owns the facility, it
could always replace the asset with an "issuance of public
debt," taking advantage of what time remains to reap the
benefit of the 30 percent renewable energy "grant" bestowed
upon them by Congress. The advantage? Replacing the
facility that way would not have the same regulatory
constraints as a private solution. It should therefore come
online faster.
Option 2. - Find a private entity that will invest the $100
million it would take to refurbish the hydroelectric plant.
A questioner asked Mr. Yancy "just how realistic" would that
eventuality be. He answered, "There is probably $10 million
of venture capital available at this time." No problem
there. The down side? The transaction would be subject to
the same state and federal regulatory approval that snarled
the deal with Brazos Electric to start with, remember?
Option 3. - Restore a natural flow through the dam,
something the lake needs to survive. It can't be left to
stagnate and build sediment. It was designed for a natural
flow-through rate because of its hydroelectric function.
The way things stand now, in wet years such as 2007, 2009
and the present, the sluice gates are opened and water is
sent downstream. In drought conditions, who knows?
Still got to have water, hoss.
According to the hydrologists, it's bad news, a lose-lose
situation for those downstream and the condition of the lake
itself. They cite problems with bacterial build-up, for one
thing, algae blooms for another.
In any case, the figures tell a grim tale.
This would be the best case scenario:
With a total output of 25 Megawatts, assuming a 30 percent
tax grant of $45 million and a net financeable project of
$105 million, gross annual production revenue of $13,008,600
gets whittled down by an annual 10 percent administration
cost of $1,300,860, an annual loan payment of $5,957,756 at
5.25 percent - 360 payments - for a net annual production
revenue of $4,749,984.
Mr. Yancy's parting shots were acidic and timely.
For example, in response to a question about the BRA's
depressing proclivity to go into "executive session" when it
comes to any discussion of Possum Kingdom - litigation,
remember - "What you're trying to be nice about is, do we
need some changes at the BRA? The answer is yes.
"The reason they go into executive session is to do
something they don't want you to know about."
Asked why all the confusion, heat, thunder, lightning and
other distractions from the men behind the curtains, he
said, "This is where you have to look at who stands to
benefit more - one community or the entire Brazos River...I
have a bit of a problem signing off on a water plan when
these are the same people who mismanaged one of the state's
great water assets."
It seems the mainstream media chooses to ignore the status
quo - which is what that famous Texas Ranger once defined in
court testimony as "The mess we done got ourselves into
now."
Mr. Yancy's answer: "It's a grass roots effort - until
you've got someone in a legislative position to address it."
jim@downdirtyword.com
Until one begins to delve into the true facts of the
dispute, it just looks like any ordinary West Texas hassle
over water.
But as the spade turns the earth, the awful truth begins to
sink in.
Dig this.
In 1938 the Works Progress Administration began turning dirt
to construct the Morris Sheppard dam at the Possum Kingdom
Reservoir. So named for the U.S. Senator from Texas who
arranged the financing, the massive hydroelectric power dam
soon backed up 550,000 acre feet of available water in a
total area of 750,000 acre feet on the unruly old Brazos
River. This resulted in average depths of nearly 80 feet of
clear, blue water - 17,700 acres of lake touching
alternately drought-stricken, flood-ravaged Young, Palo
Pinto, Stephens and Jack Counties and producing electrical
power with its two 11,250 kilowatt generators in 9 spillway
gates.
But in the year 2007 - 66 long years later - matters began
to go hincty in a big, big way.
It was in that year that the Texas Water Plan came up for
its five-year review and the legislature rolled it over for
another walk in the sun, eschewing sunset or alterations in
favor of its outstanding operation.
Problem: It was also in that year that the massive turbines
stopped turning to produce electrical power for the Brazos
Electric Power Company, purveyor of juice to cities all over
north and central Texas such as Cowtown and other western
environs.
Why? It was because of a lack of maintenance, according to
the folks who cut the operating permits for such projects.
It seems the Brazos River Authority had stopped keeping the
old tried and true project's bearings in plumb, its gears
and axles lubricated properly and its generators
refurbished.
Cussed old New Deal kind of thing, anyway, the renewable
energy project is the only one in the entire United States
that has been deactivated and closed for any reason - any
reason whatsoever.
What happened? The deal with Brazos Electric was subject to
state and Federal regulatory approval - approval that never
came. Brazos Electric could not justify investing in
repairs or replacements and the asset "remained in a state
of deterioration," according to the laconic language of
bureaucratic reportage.
Brazos River Authority is actively decommissioning the
operation at the present, according to a Brazos River
Authority Board Meeting Agenda item - number 9 on the
board's list of items for October 26 of 2009.
Where did all that leave Brazos Electric? They're stuck
with a half million dollar a year electric bill for power
they cannot receive. They allege a breach of contract.
They've brought suit against BRA in State District Court at
Waco, the 414th District, Judge Vicki Menard, presiding.
So, what does all that have to do with the State Senatorial
District 22 Repubican Primary race?
Plenty, as it turns out.
Waco's own Senator Kip Averitt is the chairman of the
Natural Resources Committee. He shepherded the current
water plan with its 4,500 "water management strategies"
designed to meet a need for water demands that will be
caused by an estimated population increase of more than
double the present 21 million to a projected 46 million
people by the year 2060. That represents an estimated
increase in demand for water to 21.6 million acre feet per
year, up from the present consumption of 17 million acre
feet at present.
Here's the rub. Existing water supplies will decrease by 18
percent - from about 17.9 million acre feet today to about
14.6 million acre feet in the year 2060.
The state's water managers say that is due to natural
sedimentation on the bottom of the state's reservoirs and
the depletion of aquifers. Texas will need 8.8 million more
acre feet of water by 2060 if new water supplies are not
developed.
Hydroelectric power as a renewable energy source helps pay
for water management projects such as the old New Deal
reservoir at Possum Kingdom with its venerable Morris
Sheppard Dam.
But it gets even better when you stop and look at the total
pattern that emerges in these questionable policy shifts.
The old Roman tradition of asking cui bono - Latin for who
benefits - throws the facts into stark relief.
On January 14, Senator Averitt suddenly announced he is
finding it "hard to strike a balance between my health, my
family, and my public service."
Putting his health "above all else," it was "with deep
regret" that he announced "the cessation of my Senate
campaign."
It was the end of multi-term tenure in the State House of
Representatives that began in 1992, followed by years in the
Senate for the Waco tax consultant, a product of the Baylor
School of Business.
But then along came his friend and colleague Chris DeCluitt,
a Waco attorney educated at Baylor Law who once served as
Judge Menard's campaign manager and is the presiding officer
of the Board of Directors of the Brazos River Authority. He
is also a member of the Republican Party of Texas' State
Executive Committee.
He decided to launch a "Keep Kip" movement, regardless of
the old boy's health.
The only other candidate in the race, Burleson investment
banker and commercial insurance broker Darren Yancy, a
conservative who has spent his business career researching
and promoting alternative, renewable energy projects,
decided to fight back in a big way. He's trying hard to
wear a couple of pairs of wingtips and he's gaining on his
goal.
He's not ready to let the County Republican Chairmen from
the 10-county Senatorial District select a candidate if he
should lose to a man who has declared if he's nominated, he
won't run and if he's elected, he won't serve.
He is touring the District letting voters know just what the
"fiscally conservative" Senator and his esteemed colleague,
the attorney and rock-ribbed Republican Executive Committee
member who helps run the Brazos River Authority with
conservative values galore, have left on the table.
It comes up to a lot of money when you take a hard look at
the figures.
Appearing before the Lake Granbury Waterfront Property
Owners Association last week, Mr. Yancy pointed out the
options facing BRA's management team.
They aren't very pretty to survey.
First of all, the stimulus package approved by the previous
Congress created a 30 percent energy tax credit on income
generated by renewable resources such as hydroelectric, wind
or solar-powered projects. When the current Congress
reauthorized that stimulus package, they changed the term
employed from a "tax credit" to a "grant." It's a hell of
break for those who sell electricity made with renewable
resources as opposed to fossil fuel solutions such as coal,
oil or natural gas.
Unfortunately, it's still laying there on the table where
the Brazos River Authority left it.
It won't be there for long, either. The grant expires with
the end of this year, 2010.
Remember, now, this is the only hydroelectric power project
that has been discontinued and deactivated in the entire
United States of America. It's a free country, but it's
also a very, very big country, remember?
But I digress. Let's go on to the options as outlined by
the investment banker, Mr. Darren Yancy, the once and
possibly future unopposed Repubican candidate for State
Senator in District 22.
We're going to have to take his word on these matters
because the executives and board members of BRA cannot
comment in any way.
They're involved in litigation, remember? It's only prudent
to keep their mouths shut about this affair.
There you have it. It's a state agency with taxing
authority, its leadership appointed by the Governor, but
they just cannot give up any details about their options or
what their intentions may be once they get this pesky
problem of Possum Kindom straightened out in District Court.
Onwards.
Option 1. - Since the State of Texas owns the facility, it
could always replace the asset with an "issuance of public
debt," taking advantage of what time remains to reap the
benefit of the 30 percent renewable energy "grant" bestowed
upon them by Congress. The advantage? Replacing the
facility that way would not have the same regulatory
constraints as a private solution. It should therefore come
online faster.
Option 2. - Find a private entity that will invest the $100
million it would take to refurbish the hydroelectric plant.
A questioner asked Mr. Yancy "just how realistic" would that
eventuality be. He answered, "There is probably $10 million
of venture capital available at this time." No problem
there. The down side? The transaction would be subject to
the same state and federal regulatory approval that snarled
the deal with Brazos Electric to start with, remember?
Option 3. - Restore a natural flow through the dam,
something the lake needs to survive. It can't be left to
stagnate and build sediment. It was designed for a natural
flow-through rate because of its hydroelectric function.
The way things stand now, in wet years such as 2007, 2009
and the present, the sluice gates are opened and water is
sent downstream. In drought conditions, who knows?
Still got to have water, hoss.
According to the hydrologists, it's bad news, a lose-lose
situation for those downstream and the condition of the lake
itself. They cite problems with bacterial build-up, for one
thing, algae blooms for another.
In any case, the figures tell a grim tale.
This would be the best case scenario:
With a total output of 25 Megawatts, assuming a 30 percent
tax grant of $45 million and a net financeable project of
$105 million, gross annual production revenue of $13,008,600
gets whittled down by an annual 10 percent administration
cost of $1,300,860, an annual loan payment of $5,957,756 at
5.25 percent - 360 payments - for a net annual production
revenue of $4,749,984.
Mr. Yancy's parting shots were acidic and timely.
For example, in response to a question about the BRA's
depressing proclivity to go into "executive session" when it
comes to any discussion of Possum Kingdom - litigation,
remember - "What you're trying to be nice about is, do we
need some changes at the BRA? The answer is yes.
"The reason they go into executive session is to do
something they don't want you to know about."
Asked why all the confusion, heat, thunder, lightning and
other distractions from the men behind the curtains, he
said, "This is where you have to look at who stands to
benefit more - one community or the entire Brazos River...I
have a bit of a problem signing off on a water plan when
these are the same people who mismanaged one of the state's
great water assets."
It seems the mainstream media chooses to ignore the status
quo - which is what that famous Texas Ranger once defined in
court testimony as "The mess we done got ourselves into
now."
Mr. Yancy's answer: "It's a grass roots effort - until
you've got someone in a legislative position to address it."
jim@downdirtyword.com
Monday, February 22, 2010
How To Take Back Your Country In Six Easy Steps
It won't cost you anything and you'll be surprised how
little time it really takes to make some big changes
By Janet Jackson
Training and Development Dir.
GOP Is For Me.com
Step One - VOTE!
If you don't do this, none of the other steps that follow
will be possible because they all require you to prove that
you voted in the primary election. But your vote alone
won't guarantee that any real changes will take place.
You've got to get involved.
Here's how.
Step Two - Attend the Precinct Convention.
It will take place 30 minutes after the polls close on
Tuesday, March 2.
No matter if you voted in person on election day, cast your
ballot early at the courthouse, or voted absentee, your name
will be on a list of those whose vote qualified them to
attend the Precinct Convention.
The Election Judge will have the names of all who voted in
the Primary election. The Election Judge and his staff have
a large manila envelope with all the information necessary
to hold the convention inside it. As soon as the convention
is opened, he and his fellow staff members can go about
their business.
There will be nominations for a Precinct Chairman, Vice
Chairman and Sergeant at Arms. Candidates will be elected by
a majority.
Step Three - Nominate delegates to the County Convention.
Voters who cast ballots in the Primary may be delegated to
the County Convention, to be held on Saturday morning, March
20. Nominations will conform to Robert's Rules of Order and
require a majority vote for delegation.
Those who voted, but for one reason or the other cannot
attend the Precinct Convention, may be nominated as
delegates to the County Convention.
Step Four - Attend the County Convention on Saturday
morning, March 20.
The main business to be settled there will be to select
delegates and alternate delegates to the State Convention,
which will be held at the Dallas Convention Center on June
11 and 12.
Step Five - Attend the State Republican Convention.
There the delegates will cast in nomination the names of
those candidates who won their primary elections to oppose
the other party's candidates in the General Election.
Even more important, there will be a State Senatorial
District Caucus in which the members of the State Republican
Executive Committee will be chosen - one man and one woman
from each of 31 Texas State Senatorial Districts - a total
of 62 "committeemen."
These officials make key decisions about how the Republican
Party of Texas will conduct its business, spend your money
and select candidates in the future when announced
candidates have changed their minds and refuse to run if
nominated.
In the counties that are split by the boundaries of the
Senatorial District, there will be a Senatorial District
Convention, to be announced after the Primary Election.
Step Six - Vote In The General Election on November 2 to
elect a Governor, State Legislators, County Officials, U.S.
Senators and Representatives.
Your vote counts. Unless you cast that vote, you don't
count.
janet@gopisforme.com
254-709-1187
little time it really takes to make some big changes
By Janet Jackson
Training and Development Dir.
GOP Is For Me.com
Step One - VOTE!
If you don't do this, none of the other steps that follow
will be possible because they all require you to prove that
you voted in the primary election. But your vote alone
won't guarantee that any real changes will take place.
You've got to get involved.
Here's how.
Step Two - Attend the Precinct Convention.
It will take place 30 minutes after the polls close on
Tuesday, March 2.
No matter if you voted in person on election day, cast your
ballot early at the courthouse, or voted absentee, your name
will be on a list of those whose vote qualified them to
attend the Precinct Convention.
The Election Judge will have the names of all who voted in
the Primary election. The Election Judge and his staff have
a large manila envelope with all the information necessary
to hold the convention inside it. As soon as the convention
is opened, he and his fellow staff members can go about
their business.
There will be nominations for a Precinct Chairman, Vice
Chairman and Sergeant at Arms. Candidates will be elected by
a majority.
Step Three - Nominate delegates to the County Convention.
Voters who cast ballots in the Primary may be delegated to
the County Convention, to be held on Saturday morning, March
20. Nominations will conform to Robert's Rules of Order and
require a majority vote for delegation.
Those who voted, but for one reason or the other cannot
attend the Precinct Convention, may be nominated as
delegates to the County Convention.
Step Four - Attend the County Convention on Saturday
morning, March 20.
The main business to be settled there will be to select
delegates and alternate delegates to the State Convention,
which will be held at the Dallas Convention Center on June
11 and 12.
Step Five - Attend the State Republican Convention.
There the delegates will cast in nomination the names of
those candidates who won their primary elections to oppose
the other party's candidates in the General Election.
Even more important, there will be a State Senatorial
District Caucus in which the members of the State Republican
Executive Committee will be chosen - one man and one woman
from each of 31 Texas State Senatorial Districts - a total
of 62 "committeemen."
These officials make key decisions about how the Republican
Party of Texas will conduct its business, spend your money
and select candidates in the future when announced
candidates have changed their minds and refuse to run if
nominated.
In the counties that are split by the boundaries of the
Senatorial District, there will be a Senatorial District
Convention, to be announced after the Primary Election.
Step Six - Vote In The General Election on November 2 to
elect a Governor, State Legislators, County Officials, U.S.
Senators and Representatives.
Your vote counts. Unless you cast that vote, you don't
count.
janet@gopisforme.com
254-709-1187
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Candidate Calls for a New Perception of 17th District
Waco's Hub City Location Makes Infrastructure A Priority
Waco is a resource for the entire 17th Congressional
District, according to Dr. Dave McIntyre.
If there is a major disaster in the Metroplex, a nuclear
attack, for instance, evacuation calls for routing people
through Waco. Similarly, a hurricane at Galveston or
Freeport involves moving people through the Central Texas
area to safety. San Antonio refugees would have to seek
safety from an attack or a major weather event along a
northerly route that naturally heads through Waco.
It's a matter of perception, but that perception is key to
solving problems for the entire district, he said in an
exclusive radio interview piped in to websites from Burleson
to Bryan/College Station on Saturday night by GOP Is For
Me.com
"How did we move casualties out of New Orleans in Katrina?"
he asked interviewer Duke Machado.
"We moved them by air, but we don't have sufficient ramp
space to handle the aircraft...We have to use geography to
our advantage instead of worrying about each individual
community. Does that make sense to you?"
He pointed out how news photos showed aircraft parked on the
grass in Haiti's overcrowded airports, waiting for the
chance to load and unload on inadequate ramps and
hardstands.
The same problem would prove true in Waco, he said.
Water resources?
"They have one of the strongest water programs in the world
down at Texas A&M...but where did they go to run a
demonstration program? They went over to Beaumont...
"We're just not thinking of ourselves as a district."
Ambulance services, both air and surface, are woefully
inadequate, but more important, where are the trauma centers
needed to deal with the needs of massive casualties that
will surely come as a result of nuclear or biological
attack?
"We need to quit chasing grants for 10 jobs here or 30 jobs
there," he emphasized.
Key to solving the 17th District's infrastructure problems
is a new perception of McLennan County's central location,
as the place where all the roads cross the Brazos at Waco.
He scoffed at the reality that this location is fighting for
priority at the Federal trough with metropolitan areas which
have similarly sized populations, but smaller real needs to
service their regions when compared to Waco's focal point as
a transportation hub in a massive state that is a pathway to
Mexico, the Gulf Coast, South Texas, the Metroplex, the West
Texas oil fields and the west coast of the U.S.
The rail transportation infrastructure of the Johnson County
area, the watershed and aquifers of Somervelle, Bosque and
Hill Counties, the technology centers of the Bryan/College
Station Texas A&M complex - it all adds up to a
Congressional District anchored by Waco, crossroads of the
state.
As a Congressman, how would a person change the minds of
decision makers in such power centers as the U.S. Department
of Transportation, the Army Corps of Engineers and the
Department of Health and Human Services.
Freshman Representatives have the smallest staffs, the
basement offices without windows, the slimmest of committee
assignments. The outlook is bleak that the rest of the
Congressional leadership will come running to service the
needs of a newcomer.
His approach to identifying the real needs and bringing them
to the forefront of national decision-makers?
"I'm raising the question of how do we integrate our
interest across this district? How do the leaders want to
focus their efforts?
"I'd like to show you how we have a district where the
pieces all come together."
As a Colonel with 30 years Army experience, 22 of them spent
studying questions of national security and the last 10
years working directly with the government's umbrella
agency, the Department of Homeland Security, he spent his
time thinking and writing about the needs of regions across
the nation to withstand any kind of disaster or war.
How would a Congressman deal with the same issues in the
17th District?
"You don't just sit down and make out your list of earmarks.
What does Waco want? Check. What does Bryan want? Check.
What does Cleburne want? Check."
He said working through the Department of Homeland Security
to identify and gauge the interest of the local leadership
is key to finding the money and resources to attack the
problems as they exist on the ground.
But the key is money.
With a mounting debt in the trillions, the nation is now
experiencing an ability to deal with a Federal deficit that
amounts to about 30 cents on each dollar.
But interest rates are at the minimum. What happens when
the interest rates rise?
"You're looking at a government budget that just sucked a
trillion dollars out of the economy..."
If the government goes bankrupt, "Everyone who sells office
supplies to the government goes out of business. Everyone
who works for the government stops spending money."
The economic problems will begin to cascade in manifest
ways.
The key?
Aircraft transportation came as a result of government-
funded research. The same is true of the tremendous strides
made in medical science. The government funded most of the
research in medical and pharmaceutical sciences. The
internet? It's a product of a government project that was
made to service the needs of the military complex, but was
later turned to civilian purposes of communications,
marketing and information management.
The result? An economic bubble surfed by millions of people
for a decade-long period of economic expansion.
The 17th District must find a regional approach to compete
for the biggest bang from the Federal buck, he concluded.
Waco is a resource for the entire 17th Congressional
District, according to Dr. Dave McIntyre.
If there is a major disaster in the Metroplex, a nuclear
attack, for instance, evacuation calls for routing people
through Waco. Similarly, a hurricane at Galveston or
Freeport involves moving people through the Central Texas
area to safety. San Antonio refugees would have to seek
safety from an attack or a major weather event along a
northerly route that naturally heads through Waco.
It's a matter of perception, but that perception is key to
solving problems for the entire district, he said in an
exclusive radio interview piped in to websites from Burleson
to Bryan/College Station on Saturday night by GOP Is For
Me.com
"How did we move casualties out of New Orleans in Katrina?"
he asked interviewer Duke Machado.
"We moved them by air, but we don't have sufficient ramp
space to handle the aircraft...We have to use geography to
our advantage instead of worrying about each individual
community. Does that make sense to you?"
He pointed out how news photos showed aircraft parked on the
grass in Haiti's overcrowded airports, waiting for the
chance to load and unload on inadequate ramps and
hardstands.
The same problem would prove true in Waco, he said.
Water resources?
"They have one of the strongest water programs in the world
down at Texas A&M...but where did they go to run a
demonstration program? They went over to Beaumont...
"We're just not thinking of ourselves as a district."
Ambulance services, both air and surface, are woefully
inadequate, but more important, where are the trauma centers
needed to deal with the needs of massive casualties that
will surely come as a result of nuclear or biological
attack?
"We need to quit chasing grants for 10 jobs here or 30 jobs
there," he emphasized.
Key to solving the 17th District's infrastructure problems
is a new perception of McLennan County's central location,
as the place where all the roads cross the Brazos at Waco.
He scoffed at the reality that this location is fighting for
priority at the Federal trough with metropolitan areas which
have similarly sized populations, but smaller real needs to
service their regions when compared to Waco's focal point as
a transportation hub in a massive state that is a pathway to
Mexico, the Gulf Coast, South Texas, the Metroplex, the West
Texas oil fields and the west coast of the U.S.
The rail transportation infrastructure of the Johnson County
area, the watershed and aquifers of Somervelle, Bosque and
Hill Counties, the technology centers of the Bryan/College
Station Texas A&M complex - it all adds up to a
Congressional District anchored by Waco, crossroads of the
state.
As a Congressman, how would a person change the minds of
decision makers in such power centers as the U.S. Department
of Transportation, the Army Corps of Engineers and the
Department of Health and Human Services.
Freshman Representatives have the smallest staffs, the
basement offices without windows, the slimmest of committee
assignments. The outlook is bleak that the rest of the
Congressional leadership will come running to service the
needs of a newcomer.
His approach to identifying the real needs and bringing them
to the forefront of national decision-makers?
"I'm raising the question of how do we integrate our
interest across this district? How do the leaders want to
focus their efforts?
"I'd like to show you how we have a district where the
pieces all come together."
As a Colonel with 30 years Army experience, 22 of them spent
studying questions of national security and the last 10
years working directly with the government's umbrella
agency, the Department of Homeland Security, he spent his
time thinking and writing about the needs of regions across
the nation to withstand any kind of disaster or war.
How would a Congressman deal with the same issues in the
17th District?
"You don't just sit down and make out your list of earmarks.
What does Waco want? Check. What does Bryan want? Check.
What does Cleburne want? Check."
He said working through the Department of Homeland Security
to identify and gauge the interest of the local leadership
is key to finding the money and resources to attack the
problems as they exist on the ground.
But the key is money.
With a mounting debt in the trillions, the nation is now
experiencing an ability to deal with a Federal deficit that
amounts to about 30 cents on each dollar.
But interest rates are at the minimum. What happens when
the interest rates rise?
"You're looking at a government budget that just sucked a
trillion dollars out of the economy..."
If the government goes bankrupt, "Everyone who sells office
supplies to the government goes out of business. Everyone
who works for the government stops spending money."
The economic problems will begin to cascade in manifest
ways.
The key?
Aircraft transportation came as a result of government-
funded research. The same is true of the tremendous strides
made in medical science. The government funded most of the
research in medical and pharmaceutical sciences. The
internet? It's a product of a government project that was
made to service the needs of the military complex, but was
later turned to civilian purposes of communications,
marketing and information management.
The result? An economic bubble surfed by millions of people
for a decade-long period of economic expansion.
The 17th District must find a regional approach to compete
for the biggest bang from the Federal buck, he concluded.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Read His Lips - "No More Back Room Deals"
Will Jones planted his feet on the platform, took a deep
breath and leveled his gaze at the crowd. He had a death
grip on the cordless microphone.
Suddenly, electronic feedback blasted through the speakers
on his left and right.
Apologizing, the soft spoken money manager educated at
Baylor University said he is not familiar with public
appearances.
"See, I don't even know how to hold the microphone."
It was the perfect icebreaker for a man new to the political
stump. The crowd laughed with appreciation for his genuine
humility as he basked in their applause, grinning shyly.
It was a moment, the scene when the nice guy played by Jimmy
Stewart or Tom Hanks in a Hollywood production acknowledges
that he's just plain folks, trying to get the job done with
the tools he's got in hand.
There was one big difference and the people gathered
together at that TEA Party knew it as well as they know
their mothers' names.
For Will Smith and everyone else involved, this is what that
old Houston boy Dan Rather used to call "the real deal."
This is not a movie and it's not a dream. This is reality
and it's coming at you right now - in stereo.
Then a woman in the audience got a microphone from Ms. Toby
Marie Walker, a key organizer of the Waco TEA Party, and
asked him what he thought of any Republican operative's call
to vote for a candidate who has declared that he is not
seeking the nomination for State Senator, such as Mr. Kip
Averitt, whose name remains on the ballot, though he has
bowed out due to "health concerns."
In halting language, displaying a slight stammer born of an
unfamiliarity with public speaking that caused every
listener in the room to automatically lend him their
emotional support and their utmost respect, he said, "We
don't need any more back room deals...I want to empower the
grass roots."
No one made a mistake about his remark. It's well known
that if Mr. Averitt wins the nomination of his party and
refuses to run in the General Election, the duty to pick a
candidate for the Senatorial seat will devolve to the County
Chairmen throughout the district.
The applause from the couple of hundred TEA Party supporters
at the venerable Palladium on downtown Waco's Austin Avenue
was thunderous, instantaneous and prolonged.
And it's a funny thing to know, but Mr. Will Jones never
stammers in private conversation. He is as poised as any
confident business man may be. One is led to conclude that
his affect is propelled by his sincerity and his concern
with these issues.
A candidate for McLennan County Republican Chairman, Mr.
Smith followed an appearance by incumbent Republican County
Chairman Joe B. Hinton, a veteran vice president of Exxon-
Mobil's European division, who decried appeals made last
week by Democratic Party operatives such as President Bill
Clinton and "The mouth of the South," long-time political
consultant James Carville to "infiltrate" the TEA Parties
nationwide and bring them to heel.
At issue is a return to local control of local issues and
the peoples' choices then heeded - and followed - by their
elected representatives.
It's not a lot different than the conflict of taxation
without representation that came to a head the night Mr.
John Hancock and other members of his lodge dressed as
"Indians" and raided three ships lying at a Boston pier
laden with tea and coffee he had consigned from a London
merchant. In the interim, he learned from British Crown
customs officials, Parliament had imposed a Colonial Excise
Tax on just those very imported items and he could not take
possession of his property as the rightful consignee until
he had satisfied the tax by cash payment. The fact that he
had never heard of that particular tax made no difference.
At that point, the "Indians" told them they could just keep
the stuff, broke open the chests of tea and poured it in the
brackish waters of Boston Harbor.
What no one ever stops to realize or even discuss is that no
armed guards, no Royal Marines and no Customs officials with
drawn sabers and cocked pistols ever opposed them.
They walked aboard the ships unopposed and unmolested, did
their deed and went back to the tavern where the lodge was
known to meet on full moon nights. There, they reportedly
had a few more beers and a few more tears - maybe a few
laughs, too. It could be that the customs officers, the tax
men and their armed guards were members of the same lodge
back in their mother country, England. One never knows.
Certainly, the brethren never discuss these matters.
It was a rainy night in Boston, as they say in Newark, New
Jersey.
To sum up about Mr. Hinton's remarks, which were made to a
tepid response by the TEA Party audience, he declared of the
"Obama Nation" that "They are frightened to death" of what
is taking place at TEA Parties everywhere.
He warned his listeners about a redistribution of wealth by
Mr. Obama and his staff members.
"He has no right to go up there and fire (GM CEO) Waggoner
and then turn around and turn over 80 percent of General
Motors to the union."
Of President Obama, he said "Not only is he a Marxist, I
think he's a full-fledged Communist."
In comparison to other Presidential administrations, which
have averaged a ratio of business executives to career
government and academic types in their cabinets of between
40 and 50 percent in Republican organizations and between 30
and 40 percent in most Democratic White Houses, only 8
percent of the members of the Obama cabinet are experienced
corporate officers.
The rest have been either civil servants or community
organizers.
Of Mr. Obama, he said, "He's never had a real job."
The remaining 92 percent of the Obama cabinet have been
"either community organizers or politicians."
On a recent trip to Europe, Mr. Hinton declared, he was
shocked when a German restaurateur refused to accept payment
in U.S. dollars. Furthermore, during the London sojourn of
his trip, he received only £24 Pounds Sterling in exchange
for a $100 Federal Reserve Note from the concierge service
at his London hotel. He used it to pay a taxi driver to
take he and his entourage to a location 10 blocks distant
from the hotel and return, an item which cost him the entire
sum he had received in exchange for the $100 bill.
It was a 20-block transportation bill that cost him one
hundred U.S. dollars, he recalled.
"Obama Nation had just printed a trillion dollars in new
money," Mr. Hinton said by way of explanation.
The key to solving the dilemma?
"We need to get control of the House and Senate. That way
we can break his pen...He can't sign any bills if we don't
send him any bills to sign."
His opponent Will Jones said, "Without the TEA Parties,
Massachusetts Senator-elect) Scott Brown would not have won
Massachusetts."
breath and leveled his gaze at the crowd. He had a death
grip on the cordless microphone.
Suddenly, electronic feedback blasted through the speakers
on his left and right.
Apologizing, the soft spoken money manager educated at
Baylor University said he is not familiar with public
appearances.
"See, I don't even know how to hold the microphone."
It was the perfect icebreaker for a man new to the political
stump. The crowd laughed with appreciation for his genuine
humility as he basked in their applause, grinning shyly.
It was a moment, the scene when the nice guy played by Jimmy
Stewart or Tom Hanks in a Hollywood production acknowledges
that he's just plain folks, trying to get the job done with
the tools he's got in hand.
There was one big difference and the people gathered
together at that TEA Party knew it as well as they know
their mothers' names.
For Will Smith and everyone else involved, this is what that
old Houston boy Dan Rather used to call "the real deal."
This is not a movie and it's not a dream. This is reality
and it's coming at you right now - in stereo.
Then a woman in the audience got a microphone from Ms. Toby
Marie Walker, a key organizer of the Waco TEA Party, and
asked him what he thought of any Republican operative's call
to vote for a candidate who has declared that he is not
seeking the nomination for State Senator, such as Mr. Kip
Averitt, whose name remains on the ballot, though he has
bowed out due to "health concerns."
In halting language, displaying a slight stammer born of an
unfamiliarity with public speaking that caused every
listener in the room to automatically lend him their
emotional support and their utmost respect, he said, "We
don't need any more back room deals...I want to empower the
grass roots."
No one made a mistake about his remark. It's well known
that if Mr. Averitt wins the nomination of his party and
refuses to run in the General Election, the duty to pick a
candidate for the Senatorial seat will devolve to the County
Chairmen throughout the district.
The applause from the couple of hundred TEA Party supporters
at the venerable Palladium on downtown Waco's Austin Avenue
was thunderous, instantaneous and prolonged.
And it's a funny thing to know, but Mr. Will Jones never
stammers in private conversation. He is as poised as any
confident business man may be. One is led to conclude that
his affect is propelled by his sincerity and his concern
with these issues.
A candidate for McLennan County Republican Chairman, Mr.
Smith followed an appearance by incumbent Republican County
Chairman Joe B. Hinton, a veteran vice president of Exxon-
Mobil's European division, who decried appeals made last
week by Democratic Party operatives such as President Bill
Clinton and "The mouth of the South," long-time political
consultant James Carville to "infiltrate" the TEA Parties
nationwide and bring them to heel.
At issue is a return to local control of local issues and
the peoples' choices then heeded - and followed - by their
elected representatives.
It's not a lot different than the conflict of taxation
without representation that came to a head the night Mr.
John Hancock and other members of his lodge dressed as
"Indians" and raided three ships lying at a Boston pier
laden with tea and coffee he had consigned from a London
merchant. In the interim, he learned from British Crown
customs officials, Parliament had imposed a Colonial Excise
Tax on just those very imported items and he could not take
possession of his property as the rightful consignee until
he had satisfied the tax by cash payment. The fact that he
had never heard of that particular tax made no difference.
At that point, the "Indians" told them they could just keep
the stuff, broke open the chests of tea and poured it in the
brackish waters of Boston Harbor.
What no one ever stops to realize or even discuss is that no
armed guards, no Royal Marines and no Customs officials with
drawn sabers and cocked pistols ever opposed them.
They walked aboard the ships unopposed and unmolested, did
their deed and went back to the tavern where the lodge was
known to meet on full moon nights. There, they reportedly
had a few more beers and a few more tears - maybe a few
laughs, too. It could be that the customs officers, the tax
men and their armed guards were members of the same lodge
back in their mother country, England. One never knows.
Certainly, the brethren never discuss these matters.
It was a rainy night in Boston, as they say in Newark, New
Jersey.
To sum up about Mr. Hinton's remarks, which were made to a
tepid response by the TEA Party audience, he declared of the
"Obama Nation" that "They are frightened to death" of what
is taking place at TEA Parties everywhere.
He warned his listeners about a redistribution of wealth by
Mr. Obama and his staff members.
"He has no right to go up there and fire (GM CEO) Waggoner
and then turn around and turn over 80 percent of General
Motors to the union."
Of President Obama, he said "Not only is he a Marxist, I
think he's a full-fledged Communist."
In comparison to other Presidential administrations, which
have averaged a ratio of business executives to career
government and academic types in their cabinets of between
40 and 50 percent in Republican organizations and between 30
and 40 percent in most Democratic White Houses, only 8
percent of the members of the Obama cabinet are experienced
corporate officers.
The rest have been either civil servants or community
organizers.
Of Mr. Obama, he said, "He's never had a real job."
The remaining 92 percent of the Obama cabinet have been
"either community organizers or politicians."
On a recent trip to Europe, Mr. Hinton declared, he was
shocked when a German restaurateur refused to accept payment
in U.S. dollars. Furthermore, during the London sojourn of
his trip, he received only £24 Pounds Sterling in exchange
for a $100 Federal Reserve Note from the concierge service
at his London hotel. He used it to pay a taxi driver to
take he and his entourage to a location 10 blocks distant
from the hotel and return, an item which cost him the entire
sum he had received in exchange for the $100 bill.
It was a 20-block transportation bill that cost him one
hundred U.S. dollars, he recalled.
"Obama Nation had just printed a trillion dollars in new
money," Mr. Hinton said by way of explanation.
The key to solving the dilemma?
"We need to get control of the House and Senate. That way
we can break his pen...He can't sign any bills if we don't
send him any bills to sign."
His opponent Will Jones said, "Without the TEA Parties,
Massachusetts Senator-elect) Scott Brown would not have won
Massachusetts."
Read His Lips - "No More Back Room Deals"
Will Jones planted his feet on the platform, took a deep
breath and leveled his gaze at the crowd. He had a death
grip on the cordless microphone.
Suddenly, electronic feedback blasted through the speakers
on his left and right.
Apologizing, the soft spoken money manager educated at
Baylor University said he is not familiar with public
appearances.
"See, I don't even know how to hold the microphone."
It was the perfect icebreaker for a man new to the political
stump. The crowd laughed with appreciation for his genuine
humility as he basked in their applause, grinning shyly.
It was a moment, the scene when the nice guy played by Jimmy
Stewart or Tom Hanks in a Hollywood production acknowledges
that he's just plain folks, trying to get the job done with
the tools he's got in hand.
There was one big difference and the people gathered
together at that TEA Party knew it as well as they know
their mothers' names.
For Will Smith and everyone else involved, this is what that
old Houston boy Dan Rather used to call "the real deal."
This is not a movie and it's not a dream. This is reality
and it's coming at you right now - in stereo.
Then a woman in the audience got a microphone from Ms. Toby
Marie Walker, a key organizer of the Waco TEA Party, and
asked him what he thought of any Republican operative's call
to vote for a candidate who has declared that he is not
seeking the nomination for State Senator, such as Mr. Kip
Averitt, whose name remains on the ballot, though he has
bowed out due to "health concerns."
In halting language, displaying a slight stammer born of an
unfamiliarity with public speaking that caused every
listener in the room to automatically lend him their
emotional support and their utmost respect, he said, "We
don't need any more back room deals...I want to empower the
grass roots."
No one made a mistake about his remark. It's well known
that if Mr. Averitt wins the nomination of his party and
refuses to run in the General Election, the duty to pick a
candidate for the Senatorial seat will devolve to the County
Chairmen throughout the district.
The applause from the couple of hundred TEA Party supporters
at the venerable Palladium on downtown Waco's Austin Avenue
was thunderous, instantaneous and prolonged.
And it's a funny thing to know, but Mr. Will Jones never
stammers in private conversation. He is as poised as any
confident business man may be. One is led to conclude that
his affect is propelled by his sincerity and his concern
with these issues.
A candidate for McLennan County Republican Chairman, Mr.
Smith followed an appearance by incumbent Republican County
Chairman Joe B. Hinton, a veteran vice president of Exxon-
Mobil's European division, who decried appeals made last
week by Democratic Party operatives such as President Bill
Clinton and "The mouth of the South," long-time political
consultant James Carville to "infiltrate" the TEA Parties
nationwide and bring them to heel.
At issue is a return to local control of local issues and
the peoples' choices then heeded - and followed - by their
elected representatives.
It's not a lot different than the conflict of taxation
without representation that came to a head the night Mr.
John Hancock and other members of his lodge dressed as
"Indians" and raided three ships lying at a Boston pier
laden with tea and coffee he had consigned from a London
merchant. In the interim, he learned from British Crown
customs officials, Parliament had imposed a Colonial Excise
Tax on just those very imported items and he could not take
possession of his property as the rightful consignee until
he had satisfied the tax by cash payment. The fact that he
had never heard of that particular tax made no difference.
At that point, the "Indians" told them they could just keep
the stuff, broke open the chests of tea and poured it in the
brackish waters of Boston Harbor.
What no one ever stops to realize or even discuss is that no
armed guards, no Royal Marines and no Customs officials with
drawn sabers and cocked pistols ever opposed them.
They walked aboard the ships unopposed and unmolested, did
their deed and went back to the tavern where the lodge was
known to meet on full moon nights. There, they reportedly
had a few more beers and a few more tears - maybe a few
laughs, too. It could be that the customs officers, the tax
men and their armed guards were members of the same lodge
back in their mother country, England. One never knows.
Certainly, the brethren never discuss these matters.
It was a rainy night in Boston, as they say in Newark, New
Jersey.
To sum up about Mr. Hinton's remarks, which were made to a
tepid response by the TEA Party audience, he declared of the
"Obama Nation" that "They are frightened to death" of what
is taking place at TEA Parties everywhere.
He warned his listeners about a redistribution of wealth by
Mr. Obama and his staff members.
"He has no right to go up there and fire (GM CEO) Waggoner
and then turn around and turn over 80 percent of General
Motors to the union."
Of President Obama, he said "Not only is he a Marxist, I
think he's a full-fledged Communist."
In comparison to other Presidential administrations, which
have averaged a ratio of business executives to career
government and academic types in their cabinets of between
40 and 50 percent in Republican organizations and between 30
and 40 percent in most Democratic White Houses, only 8
percent of the members of the Obama cabinet are experienced
corporate officers.
The rest have been either civil servants or community
organizers.
Of Mr. Obama, he said, "He's never had a real job."
The remaining 92 percent of the Obama cabinet have been
"either community organizers or politicians."
On a recent trip to Europe, Mr. Hinton declared, he was
shocked when a German restaurateur refused to accept payment
in U.S. dollars. Furthermore, during the London sojourn of
his trip, he received only £24 Pounds Sterling in exchange
for a $100 Federal Reserve Note from the concierge service
at his London hotel. He used it to pay a taxi driver to
take he and his entourage to a location 10 blocks distant
from the hotel and return, an item which cost him the entire
sum he had received in exchange for the $100 bill.
It was a 20-block transportation bill that cost him one
hundred U.S. dollars, he recalled.
"Obama Nation had just printed a trillion dollars in new
money," Mr. Hinton said by way of explanation.
The key to solving the dilemma?
"We need to get control of the House and Senate. That way
we can break his pen...He can't sign any bills if we don't
send him any bills to sign."
His opponent Will Jones said, "Without the TEA Parties,
(Massachusetts Senator-elect) Scott Brown would not have won
Massachusetts."
breath and leveled his gaze at the crowd. He had a death
grip on the cordless microphone.
Suddenly, electronic feedback blasted through the speakers
on his left and right.
Apologizing, the soft spoken money manager educated at
Baylor University said he is not familiar with public
appearances.
"See, I don't even know how to hold the microphone."
It was the perfect icebreaker for a man new to the political
stump. The crowd laughed with appreciation for his genuine
humility as he basked in their applause, grinning shyly.
It was a moment, the scene when the nice guy played by Jimmy
Stewart or Tom Hanks in a Hollywood production acknowledges
that he's just plain folks, trying to get the job done with
the tools he's got in hand.
There was one big difference and the people gathered
together at that TEA Party knew it as well as they know
their mothers' names.
For Will Smith and everyone else involved, this is what that
old Houston boy Dan Rather used to call "the real deal."
This is not a movie and it's not a dream. This is reality
and it's coming at you right now - in stereo.
Then a woman in the audience got a microphone from Ms. Toby
Marie Walker, a key organizer of the Waco TEA Party, and
asked him what he thought of any Republican operative's call
to vote for a candidate who has declared that he is not
seeking the nomination for State Senator, such as Mr. Kip
Averitt, whose name remains on the ballot, though he has
bowed out due to "health concerns."
In halting language, displaying a slight stammer born of an
unfamiliarity with public speaking that caused every
listener in the room to automatically lend him their
emotional support and their utmost respect, he said, "We
don't need any more back room deals...I want to empower the
grass roots."
No one made a mistake about his remark. It's well known
that if Mr. Averitt wins the nomination of his party and
refuses to run in the General Election, the duty to pick a
candidate for the Senatorial seat will devolve to the County
Chairmen throughout the district.
The applause from the couple of hundred TEA Party supporters
at the venerable Palladium on downtown Waco's Austin Avenue
was thunderous, instantaneous and prolonged.
And it's a funny thing to know, but Mr. Will Jones never
stammers in private conversation. He is as poised as any
confident business man may be. One is led to conclude that
his affect is propelled by his sincerity and his concern
with these issues.
A candidate for McLennan County Republican Chairman, Mr.
Smith followed an appearance by incumbent Republican County
Chairman Joe B. Hinton, a veteran vice president of Exxon-
Mobil's European division, who decried appeals made last
week by Democratic Party operatives such as President Bill
Clinton and "The mouth of the South," long-time political
consultant James Carville to "infiltrate" the TEA Parties
nationwide and bring them to heel.
At issue is a return to local control of local issues and
the peoples' choices then heeded - and followed - by their
elected representatives.
It's not a lot different than the conflict of taxation
without representation that came to a head the night Mr.
John Hancock and other members of his lodge dressed as
"Indians" and raided three ships lying at a Boston pier
laden with tea and coffee he had consigned from a London
merchant. In the interim, he learned from British Crown
customs officials, Parliament had imposed a Colonial Excise
Tax on just those very imported items and he could not take
possession of his property as the rightful consignee until
he had satisfied the tax by cash payment. The fact that he
had never heard of that particular tax made no difference.
At that point, the "Indians" told them they could just keep
the stuff, broke open the chests of tea and poured it in the
brackish waters of Boston Harbor.
What no one ever stops to realize or even discuss is that no
armed guards, no Royal Marines and no Customs officials with
drawn sabers and cocked pistols ever opposed them.
They walked aboard the ships unopposed and unmolested, did
their deed and went back to the tavern where the lodge was
known to meet on full moon nights. There, they reportedly
had a few more beers and a few more tears - maybe a few
laughs, too. It could be that the customs officers, the tax
men and their armed guards were members of the same lodge
back in their mother country, England. One never knows.
Certainly, the brethren never discuss these matters.
It was a rainy night in Boston, as they say in Newark, New
Jersey.
To sum up about Mr. Hinton's remarks, which were made to a
tepid response by the TEA Party audience, he declared of the
"Obama Nation" that "They are frightened to death" of what
is taking place at TEA Parties everywhere.
He warned his listeners about a redistribution of wealth by
Mr. Obama and his staff members.
"He has no right to go up there and fire (GM CEO) Waggoner
and then turn around and turn over 80 percent of General
Motors to the union."
Of President Obama, he said "Not only is he a Marxist, I
think he's a full-fledged Communist."
In comparison to other Presidential administrations, which
have averaged a ratio of business executives to career
government and academic types in their cabinets of between
40 and 50 percent in Republican organizations and between 30
and 40 percent in most Democratic White Houses, only 8
percent of the members of the Obama cabinet are experienced
corporate officers.
The rest have been either civil servants or community
organizers.
Of Mr. Obama, he said, "He's never had a real job."
The remaining 92 percent of the Obama cabinet have been
"either community organizers or politicians."
On a recent trip to Europe, Mr. Hinton declared, he was
shocked when a German restaurateur refused to accept payment
in U.S. dollars. Furthermore, during the London sojourn of
his trip, he received only £24 Pounds Sterling in exchange
for a $100 Federal Reserve Note from the concierge service
at his London hotel. He used it to pay a taxi driver to
take he and his entourage to a location 10 blocks distant
from the hotel and return, an item which cost him the entire
sum he had received in exchange for the $100 bill.
It was a 20-block transportation bill that cost him one
hundred U.S. dollars, he recalled.
"Obama Nation had just printed a trillion dollars in new
money," Mr. Hinton said by way of explanation.
The key to solving the dilemma?
"We need to get control of the House and Senate. That way
we can break his pen...He can't sign any bills if we don't
send him any bills to sign."
His opponent Will Jones said, "Without the TEA Parties,
(Massachusetts Senator-elect) Scott Brown would not have won
Massachusetts."
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Electioneering and Fund-Raising Paradigm Shifts Again
In Republican circles, the heat turns up another notch
A group of Hispanic people in Bryan gathered last night at
Ninfa's Restaurant to discuss forming a Hispanic Republican
Club for Brazos County.
Through the offices of Paul Rieger, Brazos County Republican
Chairman, they had invited two savvy political operatives to
come and give a presentation about how they can organize
along guidelines set out by the Republican Party of Texas
and affiliate with GOP Is For Me.com.
It's an umbrella organization that offers the service of a
boutique advertising and marketing agency - for free. Not
one dime changes hands.
In return, Duke Machado, President of the Hispanic
Republican Club of McLennan County and Janet Jackson,
Training and Development Director of GOP Is For Me.com told
them, they get the legal services of some of the best
corporate lawyers to be found in Austin, Texas; the
expertise of a proven trainer who specializes in teaching
people how to become Precinct Chairmen of their party and
"get sent" to the State Repubican Convention to help choose
their District Committeemen and women; lists of registered
Repubican voters by precinct and zip code; free access to a
16-county website, blog and on-line radio and television
hook-up; and a total marketing plan that has been proven
effective in many election cycles.
"It almost sounds too good to be true," said Junior Leaguer
Tamara Garza, the newly-elected public relations
representative for the fledgling Brazos County Hispanic
organization. But she and her colleagues wound up agreeing.
There is no catch.
The key moment came when a mature gentleman who had been
elected the group's treasurer just moments before questioned
Mr. Machado about a proffered CD with all the forms for
incorporation, the training manuals and the Republican Party
rules already outlined on it.
He asked in icy tones, "Do we have to use your forms, your
system?"
There were many grim expressions on the faces of the people
at the table as he spoke.
Mr. Machado said with disarming candor, "No, you can do
whatever you wish; but what difference does it make? We got
all this material from the Republican Party of Texas in
Austin."
He quickly added that he had only something to give.
Nothing is for sale.
He and Ms. Jackson operate politically strictly as an
avocation. Mr. Machado is the sales manager for a local
Ford dealership. Ms. Jackson is a licensed ranch real
estate broker.
That broke the ice. The thaw was instant. Faces lit up.
Suddenly, the mood of the meeting lightened up.
The people around the table indicated by facial expression
and body language that they were suddenly receptive, ready
to work with the duo from the McLennan County organization
that exercises its influence from the far northern Johnson
County community of Burleson to all the counties involved in
Congressional District 17 and State Senatorial District 22.
They were all of a sudden ready to do business with the
people from Waco.
Why?
They've cleared the decks and gotten the paperwork done.
They followed instructions and suggestions from Austin where
the deep thinkers of the GOP are locked in a struggle to
show Hispanic voters that their basic core beliefs are those
of their conservative GOP political operatives throughout
Texas.
In short, Republican values are basically the same as
Hispanic values, whether you're a rock-ribbed conservative
or a Yella Dawg Democrat. Christian faith, respect for
authority and an abiding belief in the constitutional
principles of the United States of America, hard work,
thrift and family - it's all part of the same thing, no
matter where your ancestors originated, where you live and
work or where you got your education.
To get back to basics, the reality is this:
If 2010 is going to be a knife fight between alley cats,
2012 will be a full dress bayonet charge.
Consider the fact that conservative Christian churches,
especially in the southeast, were perilously close to losing
their tax-free not-for-profit 501(c)(3) IRS status in the last
couple of elections.
Why?
Electioneering for conservative candidates and politicking
conservative issues such as right to life and one man - one
woman marriage, anti-homosexual preaching and teaching and
fundraising for Republican candidates through the efforts of
such interest groups as the Moral Majority and Focus on the
Family movements extended to the pulpit, the Sunday school
class and the church bulletin.
Where the Democratic Party carried their message on the
internet, the Republican Party by and large carried their
message through the church.
Even the venerable Bob Jones University briefly lost its
tax-exempt status due to a policy banning interracial
couples living together on campus in South Carolina.
Enter the new strategy, a tactic of signing up special
interest Republican clubs under the provisions of 501(c)(4)
of the Internal Revenue Code.
To qualify, these organizations must be "civic leagues or
organizations not organized for profit but operated
exclusively for the promotion of social welfare, or local
associations of employees, the membership of which is
limited to the employees of a designated person or persons
in a particular municipality, and the net earning of which
are devoted exclusively to charitable, educational, or
recreational purposes."
Both 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) organizations may be run as not
for profits; neither one may benefit a private shareholder
or individual; both 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) organizations
are exempt from paying federal income tax, though state tax
exemption varies.
The difference is this.
Under the rules of the 501(c)(4) exemption, the clubs or
civic leagues may campaign and electioneer to their hearts'
content - as long as their core values are the same as those
of the candidates or the propositions they advocate.
The Brazos County Hispanics were impressed with the
presentation, according to Ms. Garza, who confirmed the next
morning in a telephone interview that they are seriously
considering making the move.
They don't want to move too fast because they have all been
involved in so-called solutions that led to dead ends when
volunteers showed up and found out there was no role for
them to play, no task to perform and no training available
by which to learn their new jobs.
Under the horizontal table of organization and equipment
used by the Hispanic Republican Clubs and GOP Is For
Me.com, cadre is in place and ready to start tasking
immediately when new recruits walk through the door, climb
on the bandwagon, respond to the blog or answer that phone
call. They're ready to do business and ask for the order
before they ever show up.
And so, though the outlook is cautious, but they are leaning
toward a new future in the Republican Party of Texas.
jim@downdirtyword.com
A group of Hispanic people in Bryan gathered last night at
Ninfa's Restaurant to discuss forming a Hispanic Republican
Club for Brazos County.
Through the offices of Paul Rieger, Brazos County Republican
Chairman, they had invited two savvy political operatives to
come and give a presentation about how they can organize
along guidelines set out by the Republican Party of Texas
and affiliate with GOP Is For Me.com.
It's an umbrella organization that offers the service of a
boutique advertising and marketing agency - for free. Not
one dime changes hands.
In return, Duke Machado, President of the Hispanic
Republican Club of McLennan County and Janet Jackson,
Training and Development Director of GOP Is For Me.com told
them, they get the legal services of some of the best
corporate lawyers to be found in Austin, Texas; the
expertise of a proven trainer who specializes in teaching
people how to become Precinct Chairmen of their party and
"get sent" to the State Repubican Convention to help choose
their District Committeemen and women; lists of registered
Repubican voters by precinct and zip code; free access to a
16-county website, blog and on-line radio and television
hook-up; and a total marketing plan that has been proven
effective in many election cycles.
"It almost sounds too good to be true," said Junior Leaguer
Tamara Garza, the newly-elected public relations
representative for the fledgling Brazos County Hispanic
organization. But she and her colleagues wound up agreeing.
There is no catch.
The key moment came when a mature gentleman who had been
elected the group's treasurer just moments before questioned
Mr. Machado about a proffered CD with all the forms for
incorporation, the training manuals and the Republican Party
rules already outlined on it.
He asked in icy tones, "Do we have to use your forms, your
system?"
There were many grim expressions on the faces of the people
at the table as he spoke.
Mr. Machado said with disarming candor, "No, you can do
whatever you wish; but what difference does it make? We got
all this material from the Republican Party of Texas in
Austin."
He quickly added that he had only something to give.
Nothing is for sale.
He and Ms. Jackson operate politically strictly as an
avocation. Mr. Machado is the sales manager for a local
Ford dealership. Ms. Jackson is a licensed ranch real
estate broker.
That broke the ice. The thaw was instant. Faces lit up.
Suddenly, the mood of the meeting lightened up.
The people around the table indicated by facial expression
and body language that they were suddenly receptive, ready
to work with the duo from the McLennan County organization
that exercises its influence from the far northern Johnson
County community of Burleson to all the counties involved in
Congressional District 17 and State Senatorial District 22.
They were all of a sudden ready to do business with the
people from Waco.
Why?
They've cleared the decks and gotten the paperwork done.
They followed instructions and suggestions from Austin where
the deep thinkers of the GOP are locked in a struggle to
show Hispanic voters that their basic core beliefs are those
of their conservative GOP political operatives throughout
Texas.
In short, Republican values are basically the same as
Hispanic values, whether you're a rock-ribbed conservative
or a Yella Dawg Democrat. Christian faith, respect for
authority and an abiding belief in the constitutional
principles of the United States of America, hard work,
thrift and family - it's all part of the same thing, no
matter where your ancestors originated, where you live and
work or where you got your education.
To get back to basics, the reality is this:
If 2010 is going to be a knife fight between alley cats,
2012 will be a full dress bayonet charge.
Consider the fact that conservative Christian churches,
especially in the southeast, were perilously close to losing
their tax-free not-for-profit 501(c)(3) IRS status in the last
couple of elections.
Why?
Electioneering for conservative candidates and politicking
conservative issues such as right to life and one man - one
woman marriage, anti-homosexual preaching and teaching and
fundraising for Republican candidates through the efforts of
such interest groups as the Moral Majority and Focus on the
Family movements extended to the pulpit, the Sunday school
class and the church bulletin.
Where the Democratic Party carried their message on the
internet, the Republican Party by and large carried their
message through the church.
Even the venerable Bob Jones University briefly lost its
tax-exempt status due to a policy banning interracial
couples living together on campus in South Carolina.
Enter the new strategy, a tactic of signing up special
interest Republican clubs under the provisions of 501(c)(4)
of the Internal Revenue Code.
To qualify, these organizations must be "civic leagues or
organizations not organized for profit but operated
exclusively for the promotion of social welfare, or local
associations of employees, the membership of which is
limited to the employees of a designated person or persons
in a particular municipality, and the net earning of which
are devoted exclusively to charitable, educational, or
recreational purposes."
Both 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) organizations may be run as not
for profits; neither one may benefit a private shareholder
or individual; both 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) organizations
are exempt from paying federal income tax, though state tax
exemption varies.
The difference is this.
Under the rules of the 501(c)(4) exemption, the clubs or
civic leagues may campaign and electioneer to their hearts'
content - as long as their core values are the same as those
of the candidates or the propositions they advocate.
The Brazos County Hispanics were impressed with the
presentation, according to Ms. Garza, who confirmed the next
morning in a telephone interview that they are seriously
considering making the move.
They don't want to move too fast because they have all been
involved in so-called solutions that led to dead ends when
volunteers showed up and found out there was no role for
them to play, no task to perform and no training available
by which to learn their new jobs.
Under the horizontal table of organization and equipment
used by the Hispanic Republican Clubs and GOP Is For
Me.com, cadre is in place and ready to start tasking
immediately when new recruits walk through the door, climb
on the bandwagon, respond to the blog or answer that phone
call. They're ready to do business and ask for the order
before they ever show up.
And so, though the outlook is cautious, but they are leaning
toward a new future in the Republican Party of Texas.
jim@downdirtyword.com
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Central Texas Groundswell Learns How To "Get Sent"
"We don't work with nobody didn't get sent." - South Chicago
Committeeman
By now, everyone has heard of that mythical moment when
President Barack Obama got his start in politics.
It's almost as famous in certain parts of Texas as Travis'
line in the sand at the Alamo.
The story goes that after he had graduated from Harvard Law,
he went down to the District Committeeman's office on the
night that august person did business there "back of the
yards" in South Chicago.
Now, anyone who is anyone goes to see the committeeman to
get anything done in Chicago. There are ways of doing
things, and this is how you get anything done - from fixing
a pothole to getting Cousin Hughie appointed to the police
academy.
The cigar chomper at the front desk asked him what he
wanted. Fair enough.
Naturally, that's how things are done in Chicagoland.
It was then and there that Mr. Obama volunteered his
services.
Volunteer? To do what?
Whatever they needed done.
The functionary disappeared into the back office.
Soon, he returned with the question.
"Who sent you?"
Why, no one sent him. He just wanted to get involved.
The man made another trip into the inner office.
This time, when he returned, he said, "We don't work with
nobody didn't get sent."
Famous last words?
No way.
Some people here in Texas want to help end Obama's
career in just the same way.
They want to "Get Sent."
There is a groundswell movement afoot here in Texas that
will put the lie to that sentiment - at least, this time
around.
The mission - dump Obama and Company, take back the U.S.
House of Representatives and the Senate of the United States
of America in 2012.
The immediate goal: Raid the Republican Party of Texas
State Convention Senate District Executive Committee Caucus,
to be held sometime between 11 a.m. on June 11 and the final
gavel at the Dallas Convention Center on June 12.
The problem to be addressed: There is a certain District
Committeeman, Chris DeCluitt of Waco, who, along with his
esteemed colleague Joe B. Hinton, McLennan County Republican
Chairman, insists that voters should cast their ballots for
State Senator Kip Averitt, even though Mr. Averitt has
announced that he is not seeking re-election due to health
problems.
If nominated, he will not run; if elected, he will not serve
- or some part of that famous double dicho once iterated by
Lyndon Johnson in 1968.
And then?
If Kip Averitt is nominated and still refuses to run for the
office, even though Burleson venture capital and insurance
broker Darren Yancy has made a good showing in the primary
election, it changes everything.
The County Chairmen will have a hand in nominating their own
candidate to fill the slot in State Senatorial District 22.
Problem: This means the Democratic County Chairmen will be
able to do the same thing.
Basically, the dynamic will result in a change from an
unopposed election to a very important political post - a
virtual Republican shoo-in - into a hotly contested partisan
knife fight at the worst of times for everyone concerned.
It's a census year. This means redistricting, the time when
gerrymandering the U.S. House of Representatives Districts,
rears its ugly head in the state legislatures across the
nation.
Thus was the system engineered by the Founding Fathers, the
old boys who drafted the U.S. Constitution at Independence
Hall, Philadelphia, September 17, 1787.
On that day, a Philadelphia woman is said to have asked none
other that Benjamin Franklin, a delegate to the
Constitutional Convention, "What kind of nation have you
given us, sir?"
Franklin is said to have replied to her, "A republic,
Madame, if we can keep it."
Now comes a road show nonpareil, at least, in that
department.
Speaking to a crowd of more than 100 Republican Party
faithful at Clifton's Church of Christ last night, Janet
Jackson of GOP Is For Me.com, a training and development
specialist whose day job is that of a ranch real estate
agent, explained to the folks that there is a little thing
called the Primary Convention, which will be held a half
hour after the polls close on March 2.
All you have to do to attend is prove you voted. How? Your
name is on a list kept by the election judge, that's how.
Once there, you let the temporary chairman of the convention
convene the meeting, then you cast your name or someone
else's in nomination for delegate to the Republican County
Convention at the Courthouse, to be held on March 20.
Apparently, there is a power vacuum and it's creating a
distinct draft. Often, she told her audience, the election
judges have to serve as delegates to the Precinct
Convention, even though it's not their job.
That will never do.
Her goal: To see to it that delegates from all of Bosque
County's 16 precincts show up at that County Convention in
the District Courtroom on that Saturday morning. There, the
delegates to the June State Convention will be chosen and
this will affect the choice of State Senatorial District
Committeemen - and women - in the Caucus to be held then.
Republican Party rules call for a man and a woman from each
of the 31 State Senate Districts to be chosen as members of
the Republican Party State Executive Committee.
That's how you get sent.
Any questions, you could start by dropping Janet Jackson an
e-mail at janet@gopisforme.com
Her phone: 254-709-1187.
No doubt she will be glad to explain it to you. She has
"scripts" for the Precinct Conventions. Just how do you do
it once you're there?
She has telephone call lists of the numbers of registered
Republican voters known to have voted in the latest
Republican Primary, complete with "scripts" of how to handle
the call, and information on early voting - all supplied by
the Republican Party of Texas.
When last seen, she was packing her car with her laptop and
Power Point Presentation gear, Republican handbooks and
other literature, and headed for the Bryan-College Station
area to organize a similar groundswell movement in Brazos
County tonight.
It seems there are many Hispanic people there who would like
to be Republicans and "get sent." They want to form a
Hispanic Republican Club just like the local Bosque County
Republican Club or the Hispanic Republican Club of McLennan
County.
It's just one of 16 counties she and Duke Machado of GOP Is
For Me.com have targeted in their quest to "get sent."
So far, they have been to a number of other counties on
similar missions in the 16 county area contiguous to
District 17.
Proposed bumper sticker: A stylized profile of the GOP
elephant logo emblazoned on day-glo red background with
bold letters beside it - GET SENT!
jim@downdirtyword.com
Committeeman
By now, everyone has heard of that mythical moment when
President Barack Obama got his start in politics.
It's almost as famous in certain parts of Texas as Travis'
line in the sand at the Alamo.
The story goes that after he had graduated from Harvard Law,
he went down to the District Committeeman's office on the
night that august person did business there "back of the
yards" in South Chicago.
Now, anyone who is anyone goes to see the committeeman to
get anything done in Chicago. There are ways of doing
things, and this is how you get anything done - from fixing
a pothole to getting Cousin Hughie appointed to the police
academy.
The cigar chomper at the front desk asked him what he
wanted. Fair enough.
Naturally, that's how things are done in Chicagoland.
It was then and there that Mr. Obama volunteered his
services.
Volunteer? To do what?
Whatever they needed done.
The functionary disappeared into the back office.
Soon, he returned with the question.
"Who sent you?"
Why, no one sent him. He just wanted to get involved.
The man made another trip into the inner office.
This time, when he returned, he said, "We don't work with
nobody didn't get sent."
Famous last words?
No way.
Some people here in Texas want to help end Obama's
career in just the same way.
They want to "Get Sent."
There is a groundswell movement afoot here in Texas that
will put the lie to that sentiment - at least, this time
around.
The mission - dump Obama and Company, take back the U.S.
House of Representatives and the Senate of the United States
of America in 2012.
The immediate goal: Raid the Republican Party of Texas
State Convention Senate District Executive Committee Caucus,
to be held sometime between 11 a.m. on June 11 and the final
gavel at the Dallas Convention Center on June 12.
The problem to be addressed: There is a certain District
Committeeman, Chris DeCluitt of Waco, who, along with his
esteemed colleague Joe B. Hinton, McLennan County Republican
Chairman, insists that voters should cast their ballots for
State Senator Kip Averitt, even though Mr. Averitt has
announced that he is not seeking re-election due to health
problems.
If nominated, he will not run; if elected, he will not serve
- or some part of that famous double dicho once iterated by
Lyndon Johnson in 1968.
And then?
If Kip Averitt is nominated and still refuses to run for the
office, even though Burleson venture capital and insurance
broker Darren Yancy has made a good showing in the primary
election, it changes everything.
The County Chairmen will have a hand in nominating their own
candidate to fill the slot in State Senatorial District 22.
Problem: This means the Democratic County Chairmen will be
able to do the same thing.
Basically, the dynamic will result in a change from an
unopposed election to a very important political post - a
virtual Republican shoo-in - into a hotly contested partisan
knife fight at the worst of times for everyone concerned.
It's a census year. This means redistricting, the time when
gerrymandering the U.S. House of Representatives Districts,
rears its ugly head in the state legislatures across the
nation.
Thus was the system engineered by the Founding Fathers, the
old boys who drafted the U.S. Constitution at Independence
Hall, Philadelphia, September 17, 1787.
On that day, a Philadelphia woman is said to have asked none
other that Benjamin Franklin, a delegate to the
Constitutional Convention, "What kind of nation have you
given us, sir?"
Franklin is said to have replied to her, "A republic,
Madame, if we can keep it."
Now comes a road show nonpareil, at least, in that
department.
Speaking to a crowd of more than 100 Republican Party
faithful at Clifton's Church of Christ last night, Janet
Jackson of GOP Is For Me.com, a training and development
specialist whose day job is that of a ranch real estate
agent, explained to the folks that there is a little thing
called the Primary Convention, which will be held a half
hour after the polls close on March 2.
All you have to do to attend is prove you voted. How? Your
name is on a list kept by the election judge, that's how.
Once there, you let the temporary chairman of the convention
convene the meeting, then you cast your name or someone
else's in nomination for delegate to the Republican County
Convention at the Courthouse, to be held on March 20.
Apparently, there is a power vacuum and it's creating a
distinct draft. Often, she told her audience, the election
judges have to serve as delegates to the Precinct
Convention, even though it's not their job.
That will never do.
Her goal: To see to it that delegates from all of Bosque
County's 16 precincts show up at that County Convention in
the District Courtroom on that Saturday morning. There, the
delegates to the June State Convention will be chosen and
this will affect the choice of State Senatorial District
Committeemen - and women - in the Caucus to be held then.
Republican Party rules call for a man and a woman from each
of the 31 State Senate Districts to be chosen as members of
the Republican Party State Executive Committee.
That's how you get sent.
Any questions, you could start by dropping Janet Jackson an
e-mail at janet@gopisforme.com
Her phone: 254-709-1187.
No doubt she will be glad to explain it to you. She has
"scripts" for the Precinct Conventions. Just how do you do
it once you're there?
She has telephone call lists of the numbers of registered
Republican voters known to have voted in the latest
Republican Primary, complete with "scripts" of how to handle
the call, and information on early voting - all supplied by
the Republican Party of Texas.
When last seen, she was packing her car with her laptop and
Power Point Presentation gear, Republican handbooks and
other literature, and headed for the Bryan-College Station
area to organize a similar groundswell movement in Brazos
County tonight.
It seems there are many Hispanic people there who would like
to be Republicans and "get sent." They want to form a
Hispanic Republican Club just like the local Bosque County
Republican Club or the Hispanic Republican Club of McLennan
County.
It's just one of 16 counties she and Duke Machado of GOP Is
For Me.com have targeted in their quest to "get sent."
So far, they have been to a number of other counties on
similar missions in the 16 county area contiguous to
District 17.
Proposed bumper sticker: A stylized profile of the GOP
elephant logo emblazoned on day-glo red background with
bold letters beside it - GET SENT!
jim@downdirtyword.com
Monday, February 15, 2010
Local Republican Operatives Decry Back Room Politics
"All politics is local." - Tip O'Neill, Boston Democrat, former Speaker of the U.S. House of RepresentativesDid you know that of 31 State Senatorial Districts - the lines along which the Texas Republican Party Executive Committee is organized - only 6 have a website to inform
voters of what's going on?
A local live wire operative in the grass roots voter revolt forming battle lines from Burleson to College Station-Bryan is highly aware of it.
She has deeply rooted ties to the Hispanic Republican elements, the TEA Parties, and invidivual County Republican Clubs. You can hear her speak to the Bosque County Republican Club Tuesday, February 16 at the Church of Christ at 7 p.m.
A ranch real estate broker, Janet Jackson sits behind a utilitarian zinc-topped desk reminiscent of a Paris bistro.
From her perch in a well-appointed corner office in the Bank of America building in downtown Clifton, she looks far away and into the future.
Her job is to make Republicans and those who would like to
become Republicans think about the ways to use the system to
their advantage.
"That's a good saying," she interjects, jotting it down on
her desktop blotter.
"It's a good system. Let's use the system; it's the only
one we've got."
She is a training and development coordinator for GOP is For
Me.com, a grass roots media operation willing to take on a
confusing set of conditions in the status quo of the local
State Republican Executive Committee, State Senatorial
District 22.
On this crisp and clear day in the brilliant sunshine of a
winter afternoon, she is reacting to the news that the
Republican Party's top honcho, Texas Republican Party
Chairman Cathy Adams of Dallas, refuses to endorse Burleson
venture capital and insurance broker Darren Yancy, the only
Republican candidate for State Senate who has stated he is
willing to serve if elected.
She decries the fact that Ms. Adams has changed her tune
from one of support voiced in the media on January 19 for
the Yancy candidacy in the face of a growing draft Averitt
movement spearheaded by Executive Committee member Chris
DeCluitt, a Waco attorney who is also a board member of the
Brazos River Authority.
Speaking directly to Ms. Adams through a blog announcement
on Gop Is For Me.com, she said, "Madame Chairman, do you
care to explain your stance on this situation? Surely you
realize we have a train wreck up here in the Waco area. It
would be very helpful to have some RPT support to sort
things out. Oh, I'm sorry, did I just say 'The Emperor has
no clothes - again!"
Senator Averitt made an announcement near the first of the
year that he will not seek the nomination of the Republican
Party for re-election, though his name is still on the
primary ballot and cannot be removed.
On that day in January, Ms. Adams told Waco reporters, "If
someone has filed as a Republican and is duly accepted and
registered with the state party as a Republican, then we're
going to do all we can to help those candidates..."
In a critical aside, she differed with the opinion advanced
by Mr. DeCluitt. "As far as an executive committee member
commenting, he has every freedom to speak his mind, but
that's not the position of the Republican Party of Texas."
Republican Party rules preclude a State or County Chairman
from commenting on a primary race. The fact that Mr. Yancy
is apparently unopposed is only apparent - and nothing more
- because if Senator Averitt should change his mind and let
others run his campaign while he recovers from the
unspecified health concerns that prompted his last minute
decision, then it would change the situation dramatically.
It's a solution advocated by former State Senator Joe Sibley
of Waco.
If he wins the nomination hands down, yet refuses to run in
the general election, then the County Republican Chairmen
would have a hand in picking a candidate to fill his shoes.
What's more, that would leave the door open for Democratic
County Chairmen to do the same.
It's a matter of party discipline, commented Ms. Jackson.
Though the Republican Party's rules are laid out in black
and white in the policy manual, there is still much
confusion on the issue.
She recounted the actions of former Johnson County
Republican Chairman Jon Fidler, a relative youngster of less
than 30, who early on in the campaign criticized other
chairmen for allowing other candidates in the primary race
to oppose Waco candidate Rob Curnock in his quest to unseat
incumbent District 17 U.S. Representative Chet Edwards in
the general election. Mr. Fidler told the media that such
candidacies are "detrimental to the Republican Party."
Mr. Fidler quickly dropped out of the race for Johnson
County Republican Chairman following that faux pas.
Planning the campaign and campaigning according to the plan
is something she has learned can be easily taught,
inculcated and turned to tremendous advantage.
"I've been through all these manuals from the top - from the
State Chairman to the Precinct Chairman - and it is
fantastic."
The route to success is a clearly marked trail.
Her goal is to train precinct chairmen how to use the
advantages of their state party apparatus to recruit
campaign workers, attract voters and win elections.
But she finds herself increasingly frustrated with the
attitudes of the District 22 State Republican Executive
Committee Member, Mr. De Cluitt.
She declared that she sent him an e-mail about plans to
train precinct chairmen.
"He e-mailed me back and said that the only thing a Precinct
chairman does is run the election...I'm sorry, but that is
what an election judge does. See, he doesn't really
understand, does he?"
Similarly, McLennan County Republican Chairman candidate
Will Jones has vowed to establish tight party discipline if
he is able to unseat the incumbent, Joe B. Hinton.
Said Jones, "Even Precinct Chairmen tell me they support
Chet Edwards."
He's talking about Republican Party Precinct Chairmen.
"This election is about getting rid of Chet Edwards."
If elected, he told Hispanic Republican Club of McLennan
County President Duke Machado in a GOP is For Me.com
interview, "I'm going to run a school for precinct chairmen
using the Texas Republican Party manual. If they won't study
with us, they aren't going to be precinct chairmen."
In a separate statement, Mr. Machado characterized the
behavior of Mr. Hinton and his allies as that of "...a
spoiled rotten child throwing a tantrum because he didn't
get the toy he wanted...
"I think everyone knows that Joe Hinton has a strong
potential to lose. I think a lot of people realize that."
As to the confict over the State Senate Primary, Mr. Machado
added, "...They don't want someone from outside of Waco
controlling McLennan County...That's just unacceptable in
their eyes..."
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Republican Primary A Referendum on Voter Beliefs
District 17 a Swing District on Border Security
When it comes to the number of illegal immigrants crossing
the border from Mexico each day, it comes down to who do you
believe?
Politicians such as Senator John McCain of Arizona put the
figure at around 15 to 20 million total population of
illegal aliens.
Border Patrol agents and such as groups as American
Resistance put the figure much, much higher - more than
twice as high - at around 42.5 million.
That means with an estimated increase in illegal aliens
since Jan 1 of this year, of close to to a half million new
immigrants - 449,052 - some experts have pegged illegal
immigrant population at about 43 million and growing by
10,000 per day for a yearly increase of more than 3.5
million.
Listen to the men who patrol the border. According to the
local union of Border Patrolmen who work the Tuscon area,
"There are currently 15 to 20 million illegal aliens in this
country by many estimates, but the real numbers could be
much higher and the numbers increase every day because our
borders are not secure (no matter what the politicians tell
you - don't believe them for a second)".
What to do?
The Repubican Primary for Congressional District 17 is
actually a referendum on who you wish to believe, just as
the General Election will be a referendum on what kind of
representation the people of the Brazos River Valley and the
path of the old Chisholm Trail from the Mexican border to
the midwest really want.
One thing for sure, it's a national security issue and there
is no dispute about that between the two candidates with
experience in that area - Chuck Wilson, a Waco business man
who served as a CIA station chief in war-torn African
republics, and Dave McIntyre a retired Army Colonel and
Ph.D. who until recently trained doctoral candidates in the
art and science of homeland security.
When refugees who are nearly naked, without food or water or
shelter, begin to flow over the borders of Zimbabwe, Darfur
or The Sudan, how do governments respond to the crisis?
They tromp down crops, slaughter cattle and foul water
supplies. Though the situation is not as dire in America,
the propblem is still at crisis proportions as the North
American Continent becomes nearly borderless in a relentless
onslaught on the American economy.
Asked what to do about the problem, Chuck Wilson said "We've
got plenty of laws on the books. All we need to do is start
enforcing them."
Most Mexican nationals aren't here to stay, he reasons.
They're here to work and make money. They send whatever
money they don't spend on actually living here on back to
Mexico and usually return there for a few months each year.
While they're gone, he says, why not make it hot for those
who are applying for a visa when they return?
What if one has skipped out on a hospital emergency room
bill? Left the scene of an accident in which one was an
uninsured motorist? Has a string of unpaid traffic tickets?
One of the main requirements of obtaining a visa to stay and
work in the U.S. is to guarantee to the Department of State
that one will not become a public charge, a welfare
recipient.
"That could be a reason to withold visa status," he
concluded in an interview with Hispanic Repubicn Club of
McLennan County President Duke Machado.
Queried on the matter, Dave McIntyre immediately began to
shake his head. Integral to the problem is the drug, illegal
alien, sex slave and weapons trade that crosses the border
every day, he says.
The culture is in crisis because local officials on the
American and Mexican sides of the border have been co-opted
by the hundreds upon hundreds of billions of dollars in
illicit profits, money that has to go somewhere and winds up
in the coffers of banks, housing developers, politicians,
judges, cops, and federal officers.
"We have to go after the corruption," he says.
Wilson has a similar attitude, but a different slant.
Though American officials don't say it, the govenment is
enjoying a windfall on taxes collected to support the Social
Security System, unemployment funds, welfare programs and
Medicare and Medicaid systems.
These workers can never use the funding withheld from their
pay because they are working on bogus social security
numbers, numbers they borrowed, bought or stole from
legitimate holders.
"It's kind of a back door way to bolster the system," he
said with a rueful smile.
Dr. McIntyre made an analogy to the Navy's dilemma on the
day of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.
As of 1939, the Navy had a hundred obsolete battleships and
cruisers.
They only had seven aircraft carriers because most of the
nation's resources had been "sunk, no pun intended", he
said, into the floating fortresses and not flat-topped
floating airports. Airplanes are expensive to build, test
and prove. The fuel they burn is highly refined and
difficult to transport safely.
Therefore, aircraft carriers were considered an adjunct to
battleship formations and task forces.
Following the destruction of the battle wagon Navy at Pear
Harbor, naval authorities began to re-think the role of
carrier battle groups.
By the time the war ended, the U.S. Navy had about 100
aircraft carriers of all sizes and all descriptions - some
built as "attack" carriers from the keel up, others modified
from the hulls of tankers and cruisers, but all of them
capable of launching deadly air strikes of fighter-bombers,
torpedo launching planes and reconnaisance aircraft when
properly protected by a picket of destroyers and submarines.
The goal, then, is to "build critical infrastructure" to
correct the poor performance of the government of securing
the nation's borders, a key constitutional role of the
Federal mission, according to Dr. McIntyre.
When it comes to the number of illegal immigrants crossing
the border from Mexico each day, it comes down to who do you
believe?
Politicians such as Senator John McCain of Arizona put the
figure at around 15 to 20 million total population of
illegal aliens.
Border Patrol agents and such as groups as American
Resistance put the figure much, much higher - more than
twice as high - at around 42.5 million.
That means with an estimated increase in illegal aliens
since Jan 1 of this year, of close to to a half million new
immigrants - 449,052 - some experts have pegged illegal
immigrant population at about 43 million and growing by
10,000 per day for a yearly increase of more than 3.5
million.
Listen to the men who patrol the border. According to the
local union of Border Patrolmen who work the Tuscon area,
"There are currently 15 to 20 million illegal aliens in this
country by many estimates, but the real numbers could be
much higher and the numbers increase every day because our
borders are not secure (no matter what the politicians tell
you - don't believe them for a second)".
What to do?
The Repubican Primary for Congressional District 17 is
actually a referendum on who you wish to believe, just as
the General Election will be a referendum on what kind of
representation the people of the Brazos River Valley and the
path of the old Chisholm Trail from the Mexican border to
the midwest really want.
One thing for sure, it's a national security issue and there
is no dispute about that between the two candidates with
experience in that area - Chuck Wilson, a Waco business man
who served as a CIA station chief in war-torn African
republics, and Dave McIntyre a retired Army Colonel and
Ph.D. who until recently trained doctoral candidates in the
art and science of homeland security.
When refugees who are nearly naked, without food or water or
shelter, begin to flow over the borders of Zimbabwe, Darfur
or The Sudan, how do governments respond to the crisis?
They tromp down crops, slaughter cattle and foul water
supplies. Though the situation is not as dire in America,
the propblem is still at crisis proportions as the North
American Continent becomes nearly borderless in a relentless
onslaught on the American economy.
Asked what to do about the problem, Chuck Wilson said "We've
got plenty of laws on the books. All we need to do is start
enforcing them."
Most Mexican nationals aren't here to stay, he reasons.
They're here to work and make money. They send whatever
money they don't spend on actually living here on back to
Mexico and usually return there for a few months each year.
While they're gone, he says, why not make it hot for those
who are applying for a visa when they return?
What if one has skipped out on a hospital emergency room
bill? Left the scene of an accident in which one was an
uninsured motorist? Has a string of unpaid traffic tickets?
One of the main requirements of obtaining a visa to stay and
work in the U.S. is to guarantee to the Department of State
that one will not become a public charge, a welfare
recipient.
"That could be a reason to withold visa status," he
concluded in an interview with Hispanic Repubicn Club of
McLennan County President Duke Machado.
Queried on the matter, Dave McIntyre immediately began to
shake his head. Integral to the problem is the drug, illegal
alien, sex slave and weapons trade that crosses the border
every day, he says.
The culture is in crisis because local officials on the
American and Mexican sides of the border have been co-opted
by the hundreds upon hundreds of billions of dollars in
illicit profits, money that has to go somewhere and winds up
in the coffers of banks, housing developers, politicians,
judges, cops, and federal officers.
"We have to go after the corruption," he says.
Wilson has a similar attitude, but a different slant.
Though American officials don't say it, the govenment is
enjoying a windfall on taxes collected to support the Social
Security System, unemployment funds, welfare programs and
Medicare and Medicaid systems.
These workers can never use the funding withheld from their
pay because they are working on bogus social security
numbers, numbers they borrowed, bought or stole from
legitimate holders.
"It's kind of a back door way to bolster the system," he
said with a rueful smile.
Dr. McIntyre made an analogy to the Navy's dilemma on the
day of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.
As of 1939, the Navy had a hundred obsolete battleships and
cruisers.
They only had seven aircraft carriers because most of the
nation's resources had been "sunk, no pun intended", he
said, into the floating fortresses and not flat-topped
floating airports. Airplanes are expensive to build, test
and prove. The fuel they burn is highly refined and
difficult to transport safely.
Therefore, aircraft carriers were considered an adjunct to
battleship formations and task forces.
Following the destruction of the battle wagon Navy at Pear
Harbor, naval authorities began to re-think the role of
carrier battle groups.
By the time the war ended, the U.S. Navy had about 100
aircraft carriers of all sizes and all descriptions - some
built as "attack" carriers from the keel up, others modified
from the hulls of tankers and cruisers, but all of them
capable of launching deadly air strikes of fighter-bombers,
torpedo launching planes and reconnaisance aircraft when
properly protected by a picket of destroyers and submarines.
The goal, then, is to "build critical infrastructure" to
correct the poor performance of the government of securing
the nation's borders, a key constitutional role of the
Federal mission, according to Dr. McIntyre.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
National Woes - Army anti-terror expert sees a need
To ask the right question - at the right time - is paramount
While talking to a dozen voters at a roadside barbecue stand
in the Waco suburb of China Spring, Dr. Dave McIntyre looked
up at the host, a Baylor doctoral candidate in statistical
math, and asked him what is the most important element in
one of his investigations.
The answer came in less than a heart beat.
You have to first pose the correct question, the inquiry
that will reveal the totality of the problem or phenomenon
you are studying.
You don't go and pursue the answers to dozens of questions.
You focus on one question at a time if you want to achieve
results.
A 30-year veteran of the Army, a Colonel who spent the last
half of his career teaching and writing about matters of
national security, anti-terror, border control, and drug
smuggling, the candidate in the Repubican Primary for
Congressional District 17 says the focus should be out-of-
control government spending and attacking a national debt
that will engulf and strangle the American economy - not if,
but when the prime rate rises from its present ground zero
level.
"The challenge is to develop moral courage."
He sees that as the difference between himself and a large
field of other candidates, one of whom is a former CIA
Station Chief with a lot of experience in African nations
emerging from brush fire wars of national liberation, Chuck
Wilson of Waco, another of whom is a retired petroleum
executive, a small business man and a Registered Nurse.
It's knowing the question before you take action to learn
the answer. That's the key.
"We've got to get the right question."
He thinks he has the right question.
The Baylor doctoral candidate explained that a young
research biologist came to him for a mathematical model that
would explain "basking" among turtles on the Brazos River.
They bask in the sunshine because, as cold-blooded reptiles,
they must somehow increase their blood temperature at will.
The goal, then, was to determine why they bask where they do
and when they do.
But there was a further, insurmountable problem facing the
mathematician. The biologist had supplied tons of
information about the logs where the turtles bask. There was
no doubt as to which logs turtles preferred because of their
angle of declination, their height above the water, their
shape and surface. But she had neglected to give him any
information about the logs eschewed by turtles in search of
a sun bath.
Part of the question, then, was to determine which logs
turtles find undesirable when it's time to warm their blood
and get started on their day.
At this point, Dr. McIntyre interjected a comment.
"Remember, now, we paid for all this."
The audience burst into merry laughter.
"There was no control information," the mathematician
concluded.
As a frustrating result, the statistical analysis was skewed
and flawed.
Dr. McIntyre agreed.
"Knowledge is power." He sees an out of control government
in a runaway mode with no one at the switch to curb
excessive spending and the addition of pork barrel items to
literally any appropriations bill that may come along.
Why?
Because the members of Congress have no really reliable
information by which to guide their decision-making process.
They have to bring home the bacon and they will do it any
way they can.
How to remedy the situation?
Change the culture - one member of Congress at a time.
"Our problem in America is not political; it's moral."
Item: He sees an "unremitting hostility" toward Christianity
in the American government. How does one remedy something
that admittedly emanates from the court system.
Transparency is the answer, according to the candidate.
Senators should have complete access to a judge's past
performance in court, his opinions and the way he has
treated people and their issues.
The key to destabilizing the American culture has been to
remove parental control in families and replace it with a
bureaucratic solution for every problem involving a couple's
progeny.
Other than that, "I think the government should be
respectful toward religion."
What about the problem of lawmakers passing bills they could
not have possibly had the time to read?
He says he assigns his doctoral students 100-page reading
assignments based on the amount of time it takes the average
person to read 25 pages at a page a minute followed by a
break of so many minutes between pages.
How long would you expect a person to take to read 1,000
pages, then?
"You're looking at a forty-hour work week."
And yet, complex bills such as the Patriot Act or the Health
Care Reform Act land on lawmakers' desks on any given day
and the leadership of their party expects them to vote on
the matter the next night, an impossibility if one expects
an understanding of the matter at the time the vote is cast.
And yet, it happens all the time.
"Our party has to do something that has never before been
done in history," he said. "Put the bills on the internet."
He wants to see all bills delivered to a website in "clean"
language, not chopped up into notes about how this language
will replace the existing language in this subsection of
that Article of whatever Title of the U.S. Code.
"Why in the world in the 21st century can't we have a clean
copy of the law?"
TEA Party enthusiasts in the throng readily agreed after
their experiences trying to interpret the Health Care Reform
Act and other measures that rankle their sensibilities.
It won't be an easy thing to accomplish, Dr. McIntyre added.
"All the power centers that exist now will be opposed to
this."
How to lower costs so that taxpayers can deal with the
enormous prices of items such as health care?
To lower the cost of apples, one needs to produce more
apples. Supply and demand is the only true control and
predicter of what an item is worth.
That's why trauma centers are built to accomodate casualties
in major disasters. Once the facilities are in place, they
may service the needs of more people at any given time.
He predicts a nuclear attack on American soil some time in
the future. When the time comes, the casualties will fill
every burn unit in the nation.
How does Obamacare stack up against that reality?
"It's not about health care; it's about redistribution." He
explained that the present legislation will not increase the
amount of aspirin by one unit. It will merely redistribute
the method of dispensing aspirin. To lower costs, provide
more health care resources.
That includes the training and certification of more doctors
- both general practitioners and specialists - and nurses.
Drug smuggling and border security and control?
We need to do what every other nation from Germany and
Czechoslovakia to Israel and Japan has already done.
"We need a 15-minute response time to any threat or breach."
How will that be done? Helicopters. A lot of helicopters.
"Border Patrol officials have done so much with so little
for so long," he declared, "they have trouble seeing their
way clear to any expansion of their forces whatsoever."
We're dealing with a 19th century bureaucracy that is trying
to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
Colombian drug lords now bring in $100 million loads of dope
on mini-submarines the size of two tour buses. Once the
mission is accomplished, they scuttle the subs and build
more of them. That's how lucrative the American market for
drugs really is.
"You would think when you're dealing with an item like that
- a minisub - that you would be talking about four or five
of them. That's not the case."
At any one time, there are as many as one hundred of these
mini-submarines in operation.
At the anti-drug task force's border intelligence center in
El Paso (EPIC), you will find DEA officials sitting at desks
next to Border Patrol agents and FBI officials who refuse to
share their information within earshot of BATFE cops.
Why? The big bust, the huge success, sets the pace for next
year's budget. They wouldn't dare let anyone get ahead of
them.
Drugs are a DEA problem. Human trafficking is an INS and
Border Patrol problem. Sex slavery is an FBI problem.
The solution?
Go after the corruption attendant with drug money and the
proceeds of organized crime - megabucks that have to go
somewhere.
Drug smugglers don't put their money in the bank; they buy
the bank. No one in the community says anything about the
violence and the corruption because, it's simple enough to
see, "They can't call the cops. They're illegal aliens.
"I saw it with the opium trade in the Burma Triangle.
Public officials from the military to the courts were bought
off within a matter of months. You're talking about
multibillions of dollars in cash flow."
It kind of made it hard to prosecute a war on behalf of a
nation like South Vietnam when its officials were making
billions of dollars in illicit drug money. After all, war
requires all of a man's attention, and it's hard to maintain
a focus when one is thinking about where that next block of
megacurrency is going - Switzerland or Hong Kong?
Hawaiian real estate or Los Angeles liquor distributorships?
On the American border, banks, courts, cops, county and
state governments and Federal agencies are co-opted by the
multibillion dollar onslaught of drugs.
"We've got to go after the corruption."
At one point, he looked point blank into the gathered voters
and said, "Congress has to grow a spine."
jim@downdirtyword.com
While talking to a dozen voters at a roadside barbecue stand
in the Waco suburb of China Spring, Dr. Dave McIntyre looked
up at the host, a Baylor doctoral candidate in statistical
math, and asked him what is the most important element in
one of his investigations.
The answer came in less than a heart beat.
You have to first pose the correct question, the inquiry
that will reveal the totality of the problem or phenomenon
you are studying.
You don't go and pursue the answers to dozens of questions.
You focus on one question at a time if you want to achieve
results.
A 30-year veteran of the Army, a Colonel who spent the last
half of his career teaching and writing about matters of
national security, anti-terror, border control, and drug
smuggling, the candidate in the Repubican Primary for
Congressional District 17 says the focus should be out-of-
control government spending and attacking a national debt
that will engulf and strangle the American economy - not if,
but when the prime rate rises from its present ground zero
level.
"The challenge is to develop moral courage."
He sees that as the difference between himself and a large
field of other candidates, one of whom is a former CIA
Station Chief with a lot of experience in African nations
emerging from brush fire wars of national liberation, Chuck
Wilson of Waco, another of whom is a retired petroleum
executive, a small business man and a Registered Nurse.
It's knowing the question before you take action to learn
the answer. That's the key.
"We've got to get the right question."
He thinks he has the right question.
The Baylor doctoral candidate explained that a young
research biologist came to him for a mathematical model that
would explain "basking" among turtles on the Brazos River.
They bask in the sunshine because, as cold-blooded reptiles,
they must somehow increase their blood temperature at will.
The goal, then, was to determine why they bask where they do
and when they do.
But there was a further, insurmountable problem facing the
mathematician. The biologist had supplied tons of
information about the logs where the turtles bask. There was
no doubt as to which logs turtles preferred because of their
angle of declination, their height above the water, their
shape and surface. But she had neglected to give him any
information about the logs eschewed by turtles in search of
a sun bath.
Part of the question, then, was to determine which logs
turtles find undesirable when it's time to warm their blood
and get started on their day.
At this point, Dr. McIntyre interjected a comment.
"Remember, now, we paid for all this."
The audience burst into merry laughter.
"There was no control information," the mathematician
concluded.
As a frustrating result, the statistical analysis was skewed
and flawed.
Dr. McIntyre agreed.
"Knowledge is power." He sees an out of control government
in a runaway mode with no one at the switch to curb
excessive spending and the addition of pork barrel items to
literally any appropriations bill that may come along.
Why?
Because the members of Congress have no really reliable
information by which to guide their decision-making process.
They have to bring home the bacon and they will do it any
way they can.
How to remedy the situation?
Change the culture - one member of Congress at a time.
"Our problem in America is not political; it's moral."
Item: He sees an "unremitting hostility" toward Christianity
in the American government. How does one remedy something
that admittedly emanates from the court system.
Transparency is the answer, according to the candidate.
Senators should have complete access to a judge's past
performance in court, his opinions and the way he has
treated people and their issues.
The key to destabilizing the American culture has been to
remove parental control in families and replace it with a
bureaucratic solution for every problem involving a couple's
progeny.
Other than that, "I think the government should be
respectful toward religion."
What about the problem of lawmakers passing bills they could
not have possibly had the time to read?
He says he assigns his doctoral students 100-page reading
assignments based on the amount of time it takes the average
person to read 25 pages at a page a minute followed by a
break of so many minutes between pages.
How long would you expect a person to take to read 1,000
pages, then?
"You're looking at a forty-hour work week."
And yet, complex bills such as the Patriot Act or the Health
Care Reform Act land on lawmakers' desks on any given day
and the leadership of their party expects them to vote on
the matter the next night, an impossibility if one expects
an understanding of the matter at the time the vote is cast.
And yet, it happens all the time.
"Our party has to do something that has never before been
done in history," he said. "Put the bills on the internet."
He wants to see all bills delivered to a website in "clean"
language, not chopped up into notes about how this language
will replace the existing language in this subsection of
that Article of whatever Title of the U.S. Code.
"Why in the world in the 21st century can't we have a clean
copy of the law?"
TEA Party enthusiasts in the throng readily agreed after
their experiences trying to interpret the Health Care Reform
Act and other measures that rankle their sensibilities.
It won't be an easy thing to accomplish, Dr. McIntyre added.
"All the power centers that exist now will be opposed to
this."
How to lower costs so that taxpayers can deal with the
enormous prices of items such as health care?
To lower the cost of apples, one needs to produce more
apples. Supply and demand is the only true control and
predicter of what an item is worth.
That's why trauma centers are built to accomodate casualties
in major disasters. Once the facilities are in place, they
may service the needs of more people at any given time.
He predicts a nuclear attack on American soil some time in
the future. When the time comes, the casualties will fill
every burn unit in the nation.
How does Obamacare stack up against that reality?
"It's not about health care; it's about redistribution." He
explained that the present legislation will not increase the
amount of aspirin by one unit. It will merely redistribute
the method of dispensing aspirin. To lower costs, provide
more health care resources.
That includes the training and certification of more doctors
- both general practitioners and specialists - and nurses.
Drug smuggling and border security and control?
We need to do what every other nation from Germany and
Czechoslovakia to Israel and Japan has already done.
"We need a 15-minute response time to any threat or breach."
How will that be done? Helicopters. A lot of helicopters.
"Border Patrol officials have done so much with so little
for so long," he declared, "they have trouble seeing their
way clear to any expansion of their forces whatsoever."
We're dealing with a 19th century bureaucracy that is trying
to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
Colombian drug lords now bring in $100 million loads of dope
on mini-submarines the size of two tour buses. Once the
mission is accomplished, they scuttle the subs and build
more of them. That's how lucrative the American market for
drugs really is.
"You would think when you're dealing with an item like that
- a minisub - that you would be talking about four or five
of them. That's not the case."
At any one time, there are as many as one hundred of these
mini-submarines in operation.
At the anti-drug task force's border intelligence center in
El Paso (EPIC), you will find DEA officials sitting at desks
next to Border Patrol agents and FBI officials who refuse to
share their information within earshot of BATFE cops.
Why? The big bust, the huge success, sets the pace for next
year's budget. They wouldn't dare let anyone get ahead of
them.
Drugs are a DEA problem. Human trafficking is an INS and
Border Patrol problem. Sex slavery is an FBI problem.
The solution?
Go after the corruption attendant with drug money and the
proceeds of organized crime - megabucks that have to go
somewhere.
Drug smugglers don't put their money in the bank; they buy
the bank. No one in the community says anything about the
violence and the corruption because, it's simple enough to
see, "They can't call the cops. They're illegal aliens.
"I saw it with the opium trade in the Burma Triangle.
Public officials from the military to the courts were bought
off within a matter of months. You're talking about
multibillions of dollars in cash flow."
It kind of made it hard to prosecute a war on behalf of a
nation like South Vietnam when its officials were making
billions of dollars in illicit drug money. After all, war
requires all of a man's attention, and it's hard to maintain
a focus when one is thinking about where that next block of
megacurrency is going - Switzerland or Hong Kong?
Hawaiian real estate or Los Angeles liquor distributorships?
On the American border, banks, courts, cops, county and
state governments and Federal agencies are co-opted by the
multibillion dollar onslaught of drugs.
"We've got to go after the corruption."
At one point, he looked point blank into the gathered voters
and said, "Congress has to grow a spine."
jim@downdirtyword.com
Friday, February 12, 2010
Basic Schism Between Pro and Anti-Gun Legal Foes
Opposition to the right of American citizens to keep and
bear arms is international in its scope, implacable, and the
subject of proposed United Nations treaties.
So far, the United States has withheld its approval of these
treaties. The U.S. Senate, when it has been asked for its
advise and consent on such matters, has kept silent on the
matter, allowing the measures to languish in committee from
one Congressional term to another.
The fundamental difference between American constitutional
law and United Nations international law is a fundamental
difference in the point of view the two entities take
between the basic God given right to self defense espoused
by American law, a Biblical concept outlined in the Talmud,
and the "human right to life" outlined in the United Nations
Charter, a complete departure which expects people to rely
upon the good offices of government to protect them.
And though it is a view taken by the liberal end of the
political spectrum that civilians need not own and bear arms
and ammunition, it is inevitably a windfall for fascistic or
totalitarian governments once that goal has been
accomplished.
A docile, unarmed population with no right to resist
governmental aggression or violence is much more easily
controlled, incarcerated, transported, enslaved or
exterminated.
A political ally of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,
Minneapolis law professor Barbara Frey wrote a special
report to the U.N. on "Prevention of Human Rights Abuses
With Small Arms" as the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human
Rights.
"International law does not support an international legal
obligation requiring States to permit access to a gun for
self-defence. The principle of self-defense does not negate
the due diligence responsibiity of States to keep weapons
out of the hands of those most likely to misuse them.
"Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations applies to
States acting in self-defence against armed attacks against
their State sovereignty. It does not apply to situatiions
of self-defence for individual persons," she wrote in her
report.
Furthermore, she concluded, "Self-defence is a widely
recognized, yet legally proscribed, exception to the
universal duty to respect the right to life of
others...Self-defence is sometimes designated as a 'right.'
There is inadequate legal support for such an
interpretation." She teaches law at the University of
Minnesota.
This fundamental schism between American legal theory and
the ideas propounded by international tribunals such as the
U.N. is further exacerbated by the views of a well-known
Chicago psychiatrist, Dr. Sarah Thompson, M.D.
She has proposed that those who must deal with the
irrational thinking of anti-gun forces should first
understand that there is a basically neurotic underpinning
to their fears, fears which drive and harden their
convictions.
"Extensive scholarly research demonstrates that the police
have no legal duty to protect you and that firearm ownership
is the most effective way to protect yourself and your
family. There is irrefutable evidence that victim
disarmament nearly always preceded genocide. Nonetheless,
the anti-gun folks insist, despite all evidence to the
contrary, that 'the police will protect you, 'this is a safe
neighborhood', and 'it can't happen here', where 'it' is
everything from mugging to mass murder."
Why do people persist in that kind of thinking despite all
evidence to the contrary?
As a doctor specializing in the study, diagnosis and
treatment of irrational thinking and behavior, she says it's
a combination of two well-known mental aberrations.
One of them is projection.
The way that works is an individual has normal homicidal
impulses, the kind of thoughts and feelings people have as a
matter of course and suppress because of the exigencies of
the social contract. Nevertheless, these feelings and
thoughts frighten them to such a degree that they "project"
their emotions onto those who do own firearms and develop an
irrational fear that their armed neighbors might use their
firearms on them if they feel the same way on some off day.
Though it makes no sense, it's still just as real to the
anti-gun forces who think this way.
Another is the very real emotional dynamic of denial.
Because one is faced with a grievous reality, they choose to
deny that there is any truth to what they are seeing. Next
time you are in the early stages of infection with a common
cold or flu virus, gauge your reactions. Maybe it's just
your imagination. The symptoms are probably a "sinus"
reaction or an "allergy." Within hours, certainly before a
day has passed, reality will disabuse you of this attitude
of denial.
"Anti-gun people who refuse to accept the reality of the
proven and very serious dangers of civilian disarmament are
using denial to protect themseles from the anxiety of
feeling helpless and vulnerable. Likewise, gun owners who
insist that 'the government will never confiscate my gun'
are also using denial to protect themselves from the anxiety
of contemplating being forcibly disarmed and rendered
helpless and vulnerable," wrote Dr. Thompson.
jim@downdirtyword.com
bear arms is international in its scope, implacable, and the
subject of proposed United Nations treaties.
So far, the United States has withheld its approval of these
treaties. The U.S. Senate, when it has been asked for its
advise and consent on such matters, has kept silent on the
matter, allowing the measures to languish in committee from
one Congressional term to another.
The fundamental difference between American constitutional
law and United Nations international law is a fundamental
difference in the point of view the two entities take
between the basic God given right to self defense espoused
by American law, a Biblical concept outlined in the Talmud,
and the "human right to life" outlined in the United Nations
Charter, a complete departure which expects people to rely
upon the good offices of government to protect them.
And though it is a view taken by the liberal end of the
political spectrum that civilians need not own and bear arms
and ammunition, it is inevitably a windfall for fascistic or
totalitarian governments once that goal has been
accomplished.
A docile, unarmed population with no right to resist
governmental aggression or violence is much more easily
controlled, incarcerated, transported, enslaved or
exterminated.
A political ally of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,
Minneapolis law professor Barbara Frey wrote a special
report to the U.N. on "Prevention of Human Rights Abuses
With Small Arms" as the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human
Rights.
"International law does not support an international legal
obligation requiring States to permit access to a gun for
self-defence. The principle of self-defense does not negate
the due diligence responsibiity of States to keep weapons
out of the hands of those most likely to misuse them.
"Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations applies to
States acting in self-defence against armed attacks against
their State sovereignty. It does not apply to situatiions
of self-defence for individual persons," she wrote in her
report.
Furthermore, she concluded, "Self-defence is a widely
recognized, yet legally proscribed, exception to the
universal duty to respect the right to life of
others...Self-defence is sometimes designated as a 'right.'
There is inadequate legal support for such an
interpretation." She teaches law at the University of
Minnesota.
This fundamental schism between American legal theory and
the ideas propounded by international tribunals such as the
U.N. is further exacerbated by the views of a well-known
Chicago psychiatrist, Dr. Sarah Thompson, M.D.
She has proposed that those who must deal with the
irrational thinking of anti-gun forces should first
understand that there is a basically neurotic underpinning
to their fears, fears which drive and harden their
convictions.
"Extensive scholarly research demonstrates that the police
have no legal duty to protect you and that firearm ownership
is the most effective way to protect yourself and your
family. There is irrefutable evidence that victim
disarmament nearly always preceded genocide. Nonetheless,
the anti-gun folks insist, despite all evidence to the
contrary, that 'the police will protect you, 'this is a safe
neighborhood', and 'it can't happen here', where 'it' is
everything from mugging to mass murder."
Why do people persist in that kind of thinking despite all
evidence to the contrary?
As a doctor specializing in the study, diagnosis and
treatment of irrational thinking and behavior, she says it's
a combination of two well-known mental aberrations.
One of them is projection.
The way that works is an individual has normal homicidal
impulses, the kind of thoughts and feelings people have as a
matter of course and suppress because of the exigencies of
the social contract. Nevertheless, these feelings and
thoughts frighten them to such a degree that they "project"
their emotions onto those who do own firearms and develop an
irrational fear that their armed neighbors might use their
firearms on them if they feel the same way on some off day.
Though it makes no sense, it's still just as real to the
anti-gun forces who think this way.
Another is the very real emotional dynamic of denial.
Because one is faced with a grievous reality, they choose to
deny that there is any truth to what they are seeing. Next
time you are in the early stages of infection with a common
cold or flu virus, gauge your reactions. Maybe it's just
your imagination. The symptoms are probably a "sinus"
reaction or an "allergy." Within hours, certainly before a
day has passed, reality will disabuse you of this attitude
of denial.
"Anti-gun people who refuse to accept the reality of the
proven and very serious dangers of civilian disarmament are
using denial to protect themseles from the anxiety of
feeling helpless and vulnerable. Likewise, gun owners who
insist that 'the government will never confiscate my gun'
are also using denial to protect themselves from the anxiety
of contemplating being forcibly disarmed and rendered
helpless and vulnerable," wrote Dr. Thompson.
jim@downdirtyword.com
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