Hugh Hewitt interviewed Senate minority leader John Boehner a few days ago, and could not get Boehner to commit to a rapid legislative agenda to repeal and reverse the democrat’s leftist legislative cramdown after the midterms in November. Boehner hemmed and hawed, sounding every bit like the establishment inside-the-beltway career politicians that got us into the dire economic mess that we’re in now.
We just lived through President Obama’s much-ballyhooed “Recovery Summer,” which was anything but. Unemployment remains close to 10% (higher when you factor in those who have stopped looking); the housing market remains weak; the auto industry is on life support (except for Ford); our trade deficit is bigger than ever; trillions of dollars of debt and unfunded commitments. It’s no wonder this has been more of a Recovery BUMMER of a summer.
But it could get worse. MUCH worse. I remember Rush talking about how the Democrats actually want the Republicans to regain control of Congress for the next couple of years so they can take the blame for the inevitable hard times ahead. It actually makes a lot of sense.
The national economy doesn’t turn on a dime. It often takes months, even years for government policies, regulations, and legislation to affect the national economy. The full impact of Obamacare will not be felt for at least two years, and woe be to the party in power when the doo-doo hits the fan.
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By Duane Rasmussen
We hear from some folks that one cannot blame our Socialist Democrat U.S. Rep. Solomon P. Ortiz for all the faults found within the Democratic Party or concerning President Obama’s actions or lack of action. Very probably true in one sense. Ortiz is certainly not directing the miserable show in D.C. that brings the congressional approval rating down to 11 percent and the president’s to 30-something.
Ortiz has played the Washington game very carefully in his all-too-long career at fleecing his constituents. He has always kept a low and moving target. In my many years of lobbying for First amendment issues, we called representatives like Ortiz, “tagalongs.” They never initiated any major legislation, never authored any meaningful legislation on their own, but only succeeded in signing onto bills as co-authors if the bills did not rock their boats. In Ortiz’s example, he even misses many major votes altogether with never explaining why to his constituents. He is enabling the socialists to succeed!
It is a wonder that never ends as to why Ortiz keeps winning elections. His real anchor appears to be the Hispanic vote that he woos at the exclusion of any other. And that is nothing but prejudice! He should not be involved in the so-called Hispanic Caucus. That involvement serves to divide the country and show that he prefers to align himself with a certain interest group, rather than with all Americans living in his district.
Voters in the Valley who continually return Ortiz to D.C. do not realize that they are continuing the subjugation of the Hispanic people for whom they have so much concern. If the Democrats, Ortiz and even Obama had so much concern for the Valley, they all would have led the Valley out of its poverty generations ago. But no, there is more power in keeping people down and subject to the masters in Washington who will dole out “rewards” just enough to keep the masses at bay.
In September, we will extend our campaign into “The Parade.”
Read along to defeat our slave-master.
More In Two Weeks
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By Greg and Judy Holloway
Austin Tea Party Patriots
Last year, we were not able to go to the 9/12 rally in Washington, DC, since Greg’s company held its annual retreat on the same day. We did not want to miss this year’s 8/28 “Restoring Honor” event, so we dug some airline and hotel points out of mothballs and made a trip of it with our 18-year old son.
Here’s a short journal of our trip for those of you who might be interested.
We left Austin very early Friday morning and (after the usual stop in another city that Bergstrom flyers are normally subjected to) arrived in DC around 1 pm. We met Lily and Jim from the Bastrop Tea Party at Reagan National Airport and then headed over to the Washington Hilton. When we arrived, our cabbie noted that “This is where Reagan was shot.” Oh great.
By John Barham
The second in a series of articles on Saudi Arabia and its place in the Middle East.
As a newly arrived expatriate in Saudi Arabia in 1978, I could not escape a feeling of newness. Owing to the construction that one encountered almost everywhere in Riyadh, the skyline of the city was distinguished by enormous cranes that were utilized in the raising of a modern city in the middle of an oasis surrounded by desert terrain.
Along with the erection of multi-storied office buildings and outsized shopping malls that would rival the dimensions of any in the United States, it seemed that practically overnight an infrastructure was being put into place, with super-highways and high-speed rail transportation taking form. Oil revenues were having a decided impact in a few years time, while previous centuries had tended to bypass the tribal people who inhabited the vast expanse of the Arabian Peninsula that was thought by most Europeans and Americans to be an arid wasteland.
To be fair, some in that majority want to postpone the ban, but I digress.
Healthy Communities of Brownsville spearheaded the plastic bag ban locally in Brownsville. They used their own survey to push their ban plastic bag agenda. The survey was not scientific by any stretch of the imagination. With their documentation in hand, they urged commissioners to support their draconian measure.
Reasonable people would focus on educating the public. Together with our elected leadership they imposed a forced radical agenda on the apathetic masses of Brownsville. Fortunately, the masses know stupid when they see it.
Slightly more than half (51%) of the respondents in the survey would like to see the ban repealed or postponed, while only 28 percent support the ban.
This was according to a poll conducted in the last couple of weeks by American Directions Group, which is a “political consulting firm specializing in voter engagement, issue advocacy, market research, commercial sales and government outreach.” I would assume this was a scientific poll based on their use a good-sized sample. This is unlike what BHC did when they stood around town asking people to participate in their unscientific survey.
I fully expect HCB to push back hard against this unwelcomed news. The organization will probably spend more money and effort on advertising the perils of plastic bags to keep pressure on the commission to not listen to the majority of voters. They may even call for the city to give out 3 reusable bags to each adult. It will be municipal welfare to protect our environment.
Banning plastic checkout bags is stupid considering the number of uses and reuses for plastic bags. Doesn’t the commission have anything better to do than to target grocery bags? I forgot they may raise our taxes by 7.63% over the effective tax rate?
Here is an information video on plastic bag recycling and reusing:
Phrenology was all the rage in the early 1800′s. It is considered pseudoscience now, but back in the day it was given serious consideration in the scientific community. The Edinburgh Phrenological Society was established in 1820. American phrenologists had their own scientific journal, the American Phrenology Journal. Many important and influential people believed that phrenology was an established science.
Many prominent public figures such as the Reverend Henry Ward Beecher (a college classmate and initial partner of Orson Fowler) promoted phrenology actively as a source of psychological insight and self-knowledge. British Prime Minister David Lloyd George was known to have a keen interest in the subject, once contriving a meeting with C.P. Snow after noticing that the author had “an interestingly shaped head.” (Source)
The idea that you can derive the essential nature of a person simply by feeling the bumps on his head is laughable today, but it was serious and weighty stuff back then. Fast forward 50 years and we will be just as dismissive of contemporary global warming alarmism.
Congressman Questioned Over Misuse Of Taxpayer Money on Trips Abroad; Farenthold Calls On Ortiz To Release Amounts He Pocketed From Government Funds
U.S Congressman Solomon Ortiz is being investigated in a far-reaching ethics probe involving the misuse of taxpayer money for trips around the world. The investigation revealed Monday by the Wall Street Journal implicates Ortiz and five other members of Congress.
An independent ethics board referred the charges to the House Ethics Committee after the Journal previously reported that some lawmakers regularly spend government travel funds on gifts, drinks and other personal expenses. Some Congressman said they kept excess funds, which the Journal noted could add up to more than $1,000 per trip. Others spent more than $15,000 on business class tickets to Europe.
Ortiz, who has taken numerous taxpayer funded trips to Europe, Libya and China, told the Journal it was a longstanding custom for lawmakers to keep extra money from the trips paid for by taxpayers. “You could never get many members traveling” if lawmakers weren’t allowed to keep leftover travel funds, Ortiz said.
Republican Congressional Candidate Blake Farenthold, who is challenging Ortiz for the District 27 seat, said in a press conference today that Ortiz’s arrogance is an example of why so many Americans are disillusioned with government. Farenthold said:
If Mr. Ortiz thinks members of Congress won’t travel abroad if they can’t keep their excess travel funds, then I think all incumbents should do Americans a favor and just stay at home.
Duro Bag Manufacturing Company, a local paper bag manufacturer, is threatening to leave the city if the commission continues with their ordinance to ban plastic and paper bags.
Duro employs about 150 people locally. They provide most of the paper bags locally and in the valley. If they leave, that may increase costs of paper bags for businesses in our region.
Duro is correct that the liberal commission effectively banned paper checkout bags within the city. The draconian law says,
Businesses are prohibited from providing plastic shopping bags as of January 1, 2011 excepting only plastic bags specifically provided to the customer at the point of sale for the purpose of transporting meat, fish, and poultry products. Businesses may instead provide only recyclable paper bags, reusable bags, or biodegradable plastic bags as checkout bags to their customers with or without charge. [Emphasis mine]
If paper bags were accepted under “reusable bags”, why the need to bring up “recyclable paper bags”? This implies a more general ban on paper bags, doesn’t it?
Apparently, being here illegally is no longer justifiable cause for deportation. ICE will no longer deport illegals simply because they are here illegally. They must also be violent criminals. Click here to read more about this at Investor’s Business Daily.
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Last month, the Cameron County Regional Mobility Authority (CCRMA) broke ground on a toll road that will essentially take over FM 511. They used millions of stimulus dollars to fund the project. Last time I check stimulus funding was taxpayer money. However, that is not enough for the CCRMA.
They will impose a toll on that road. Yay!
David Allex, chairman of the CCRMA and Governor Rick Perry appointee, told the Brownsville Herald,
Allex said the rumor that Brownsville residents will be taxed to pay for the toll road is a “total lie.”
I feel so much better. County residents who own vehicles do pay a big fee every year that goes into road maintenance. We are already being “taxed” by while they look for ways to impose toll roads throughout the city and the rest of the county.
I’ve often wondered why they want to build this West Parkway toll road to connect B&M Bridge along the old railroad line all the way to state highway 77.
Is it because HNTB is the architect of the Brownsville Sports Park where the toll road will meet? The CCRMA’s general engineering consultant is HNTB.
By John Barham
The first of a series of articles on Saudi Arabia and its position in the Middle East.
It was the late summer of 1978, and, after six weeks of traveling through Turkey and Iran, I had just returned to the university town in the South where I taught as a tenured associate professor of history. I had almost forgotten that I had passed through New York on the way home and had glanced at the higher education employment section in the New York Times and had, purely on a lark, forwarded my resume to an address in Houston that was soliciting faculty and administrative staff for King Saud University in Saudi Arabia.
Saw this on the City of Brownsville website today. Click on the image to view in a new window:
A workshop and a special meeting will be held on Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 5:45 P.M., and 6:00 P.M. in the Commission Chambers on the Second Floor of the Brownsville City Hall – Federal Building, located at 1001 East Elizabeth Street, Brownsville, Cameron County, Texas, 78520.
The entire PDF of the notice can be viewed here.
Not a good idea to raise taxes in the middle of the worst recession of the past 50 years.
I’m going to the meeting to let them know that I think it’s a stupid idea.
-Chris
