Brownsville Tea Party Association

Archive for the ‘Capitalism’ Category

How does it feel to know the Chinese, or some other country, is going to own a piece of the new civic center planned for Port Isabel? Yes, it’s true. The city got $4 million from the Feds, who are broke, so they got the funds from the Chicoms or some other country. That’s why every local, county and state government in the U.S. has got to stop expecting Big Brother to bail them out. Federal grants have to stop for anything but transportation, communication and defense needs. The cause of our economic downfall is us.

The British Press had some interesting comments on Der Fuehrer’s recent visit to London for the G-20 summit. Like an Egyptian Pharaoh, The Great Prevaricator entered London with “500 staff in tow, including 200 Secret Service agents, a team of six doctors, the White House chef and kitchen staff with the president’s own food and water,” Dale McFeatters commented. According to the Evening Standard, he also came with “35 vehicles in all, four speech writers and 13 teleprompters.” Air Force One was there and also the presidential helo along with a fleet of identical decoys to ferry him from Stansted airport to central London. His example of cutting back!

Again, from the London Daily Telegraph editor on foreign relations, we find that Obama has pretty much laid waste to our foreign relations. His animosity toward Great Britain is a poorly kept secret. Presumably it is because of Great Britain’s sins while ruling Kenya (1895-1963). Secretary of State Clinton has endorsed the demand of Argentine President Cristina Kirchner, a Hugo Chavez ally, for mediation of Argentina’s specious claim to the Falkland Islands, a British dependency since 1833. Obama does not seem to have any foreign leader with whom he has forged a strong personal relationship. The French, Germans, Poles, Czechs, Hondurans, Russians, Chinese and certainly Israelites have no warm thoughts for our illustrious leader. The editor writes that for the first time in a long time, the president of the U.S. is actually distrusted by his allies and not in the least feared by his adversaries. Part of his plan for the U.S.?

More In Two Weeks
By Duane A. Rasmussen

“When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion…

When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing…

When you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors…

When you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you…

When you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice…

You may know that your society is doomed.”

Ayn Rand

NOTE: The following is an email I received from JoAnn Fleming, a member of the Texas Tea Party Advisory Committee (TTPAC), which is composed of a group of Tea Party leaders from across Texas. The purpose of the TTPAC is to act as a sort of watchdog group and liaison between the Tea Party movement in Texas and the Texas Legislature, specifically the legsilators who make up the Texas Tea Party Caucus.

There has always been the very real possibility that the TTPAC would be co-opted by Republicans in the legislature, who would simply use the group to advance their agenda with little or no input from them. Ms. Fleming alludes to this in her email.

-Chris

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Patriots,
 
Please use the following as you see fit.  You have my permission to forward, to post, to print, to distribute to anybody or nobody.  This is my way of putting folks on notice that not everybody is ready to throw confetti at a celebratory parade for the 82nd session of the TX Legislature. 
 
While I was out of state from 5/23 – 5/31/11 due to my father’s illness, a 2011 TEA Party Caucus Legislative Update was circulated.  This was picked up and further circulated by some folks who surely must have had the best of intentions.  

One of the circulators stated, “I think we owe the Leadership of this State a pat on the back.  Call your State Rep. and tell them good job.  The media has been hammering them.”  

As Chair of the Tea Party Caucus Advisory Committee, it is my responsibility to keep plenty of daylight between what the TP Caucus (legislators & staff) says about the session and what the Advisory Committee believes the People of Texas must know before they give any pats on the back or re-elect anybody.
 
Now, to set the record straight:
 
1) True to our role as the
independent Advisory Committee to the TEA Party Caucus of the Texas Legislature, we re-emphasize that we are not an arm of the TEA Party Caucus. We are not political groupies or Republican Party cheerleaders.  While we respect and work with various statewide conservative organizations who have posted complimentary remarks about a “successful session,” the TEA Party Caucus Advisory Committee is not a “me too” group.  Our goal is to save our state from becoming California. .

Our goal is to advance Liberty, fiscal responsibility, adherence to the rule of law, election integrity, private property rights, and true transparency in a limited state government.  Period.  

This covers everything from the state budget to the 2nd and 10th Amendments to education reform/funding to sanctuary cities to eminent domain to redistricting. 
 
2) Our assessment of the 82nd Legislative Session is in progress.  It will be factual.  It will be hard-hitting.  It will not contain spin or give cover to protect any party, any politician, or any lame excuse for not getting the job done.  It will give credit where credit is due, but it will also place responsibility squarely and firmly on the shoulders of those who deserve to be called out.  We will hold all officials accountable for their actions or inaction. 

In today’s political climate, it is fashionable to use heated “fed up” rhetoric to bash the feds, bash the opposing political party, and pound the table to impress the conservative masses.   Trouble is — all that talk and no real action does not impress us. 

This legislative session was an opportunity for Texas to stand tall, stand proud, and lead the way.  Instead, we’ve had much of the same old game-playing, deal-making, “scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” business as usual.  That’s not what we voted for last March and November.  And that’s not what we will be voting for in March and November 2012.
 
3) Once the Special Session of the 82nd Legislative Session is over, many members of the TEA Party Advisory Committee have made a commitment to each other to continue our work.  We will offer recommendations for Legislature Interim Studies and will continue to press for true state government reforms as embodied in our Fourteen Point Plan.  We must get government back into a constitution-sized box at the state and federal level.  

On the road to doing that, we will incur the wrath of liberals, statists, progressives, party establishment types, status quo protectors, and the self-proclaimed ruling elite.  Fine with us. 

Let’s roll. 

JoAnn Fleming, Chair, Advisory Committee to the TX Legislature’s TEA Party Caucus

What good is having a super-majority House in the Texas Lege if our Republicans are going to ignore the Conservative mandate the voters sent them in November, and instead — behind the exceptionally failed “leadership” of Speaker Joe Straus — are going to vote for more government intrusion and more government regulation while diminishing personal freedoms and liberties?

In this case, I’m talking about the statewide smoking ban (as an amendment on Senate Bill 1811):

The Texas House tonight passed an amendment to create a statewide smoking ban.

The close vote, 73-66, came during debate on the enormous budget-related bill, Senate Bill 1811.

The amendment by Rep. Myra Crownover, R-Denton, was one of a few opposed by the measure’s House sponsor, Rep. Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, that actually passed.

The amendment would ban smoking in public places, which would include bars and restaurants because they are places where anyone would be welcome.

But some of Crownover’s tea party-leaning Republican colleagues fought her on the amendment because they believed it would infringe on rights of business owners.

No, we don’t believe it would infringe on the private property rights of business owners, we know that it infringes on the private property rights of business owners. What other legal activities is the House comfortable with prohibiting? What legal activity are they going to go after next?

Making sure that we find a good Conservative candidate to primary Ms. Crownover when she’s up for re-election should be one of the top priorities of Conservatives. Right along side of putting Speaker Straus out to pasture as well.

This still has to make it through the Senate, those Republicans haven’t shown much more of a Conservative backbone than their House counterparts.

UPDATE and Correction:  I was looking at the wrong record vote. My representative, Paul Workman (R-HD 47) voted NO to this freedom-robbing bill. Good for him. I originally posted that he voted in favor of it.

Business owners and a free market should be allowed to decide if smoking is permitted in a private business or not. If there is no market for a bar where smoking is permitted, then it will fail on it’s own without any government intrusion, as expressed by Rep. Jose Aliseda, R-Beeville, who succeeded in exempting pool halls:

“I am not a smoker, but I believe that a private business owner should have the right to choose their own business model.”

Well, at least we have at least one Conservative in the House GOP. In November 2012, we will look to add a bunch more Conservatives to the Texas Legislator (by kicking out a bunch of Republicans). Yeah, I’m talking about you, specifically Mr. Workman. I hope you enjoyed enriching all of your construction industry buddies and personal interests as best you could in your freshman session, because you are one-and-done, sir.

I heard that we’ve reached our debt limit. Monday is the last day. Somehow, Tim Geitner has “floated” some money around to keep the nation solvent until August. So I guess that means we can continue to kick this can down the road for a few more months. And then what?

Raising the debt limit will infuriate the Tea Party, but not raising the debt limit will . . .

What, exactly? What will happen if the debt limit stays where it is? Will millions lose their jobs, be thrown out of their homes, or what?

Someone credible (i.e., non-partisan, non-ideological) needs to explain the consequences of raising vs. not raising the debt limit. And this needs to happen yesterday.

By Kirk “Libertarian” Evans

DIVORCE AGREEMENT

Dear American liberals, leftists, social progressives, socialists, Marxists and Obama supporters, et al:

We have stuck together since the late 1950′s for the sake of the kids, but the whole of this latest election process has made me realize that I want a divorce. I know we tolerated each other for many years for the sake of future generations, but sadly, this relationship has clearly run its course.

Our two ideological sides of America cannot and will not ever agree on what is right for us all, so let’s just end it on friendly terms. We can smile and chalk it up to irreconcilable differences and go our own way.

Here is a model separation agreement:
Our two groups can equitably divide up the country by landmass each taking a similar portion. That will be the difficult part, but I am sure our two sides can come to a friendly agreement. After that, it should be relatively easy! Our respective representatives can effortlessly divide other assets since both sides have such distinct and disparate tastes.

We don’t like redistributive taxes so you can keep them. You are welcome to the liberal judges and the ACLU. Since you hate guns and war, we’ll take our firearms, the cops, the NRA and the military. We’ll take the nasty, smelly oil industry and you can go with wind, solar and biodiesel. You can keep Oprah, Michael Moore and Rosie O’Donnell. You are, however, responsible for finding a bio-diesel vehicle big enough to move all three of them.

We’ll keep capitalism, greedy corporations, pharmaceutical companies, Wal-Mart and Wall Street. You can have your beloved lifelong welfare dwellers, food stamps, homeless, homeboys, hippies, druggies and illegal aliens. We’ll keep the hot Alaskan hockey moms, greedy CEO’s and rednecks. We’ll keep the Bibles and give you NBC and Hollywood.

You can make nice with Iran and Palestine and we’ll retain the right to invade and hammer places that threaten us. You can have the peaceniks and war protesters. When our allies or our way of life are under assault, we’ll help provide them security.

We’ll keep our Judeo-Christian values. You are welcome to Islam, Scientology, Humanism, political correctness and Shirley McClain. You can also have the U.N. but we will no longer be paying the bill.

We’ll keep the SUV’s, pickup trucks and oversized luxury cars. You can take every Subaru station wagon you can find.

You can give everyone healthcare if you can find any practicing doctors.. We’ll continue to believe healthcare is a luxury and not a right. We’ll keep “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” and “The National Anthem.” I’m sure you’ll be happy to substitute “Imagine”, “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing”, “Kum Ba Ya” or “We Are the World”.

We’ll practice trickle down economics and you can continue to give trickle up poverty your best shot.

Since it often so offends you, we’ll keep our history, our name and our flag.

Would you agree to this? If so, please pass it along to other like-minded liberal and conservative patriots and if you do not agree, just hit delete. In the spirit of friendly parting, I’ll bet you answer which one of us will need whose help in 15 years.

Sincerely,

Patriots of the United States of America

P. S. Also, please take Ted Turner, Sean Penn, Martin Sheen, Barbara Streisand, & Jane Fonda with you.

P. S. S. And you won’t have to press 1 for English when you call our country.

I’m against state-sanctioned gambling in Texas for a number of reasons that I won’t get into now. Some of the more Libertarian-minded among us seem to think that opposing state-sanctioned gambling borders on the heretical. The thinking goes something like this: “Anyone who considers himself to be conservative and opposes state-sanctioned gambling is hypocritical and philosophically inconsistent.”

Well, I’m not an anarchist. As a conservative, I support public policies that promote ordered liberty. How does state-sanctioned gambling promote ordered liberty?

It doesn’t. State-sanctioned gambling promotes irresponsibility. Last I checked, irresponsibility was not a conservative virtue.

A collection of editorials and podcasts I listen to every day.

Investor’s Business Daily Editorials

• Illinois Taxes: How Blue Can You Get? - “Fiscal Policy: Unimpressed by data showing that businesses, jobs and people flee high-tax states, the Land of Lincoln opts to squeeze the last penny out of taxpayers with a whopping 75% income-tax increase.”
• Spinning The Data  - ”Jobs: The White House will spin the lower unemployment rate as a great triumph, but it’s because people are giving up. The time to get the federal behemoth off the backs of job-creators is now.”
•  The End Begins? - “The Road To Repeal: The campaign to rid the country of ObamaCare got off to a running start Friday when a procedural hurdle was easily cleared in the House. So far, so good for the new majority.”
•  The White House Daley Show - “Ethics: Republicans who plan to investigate the administration need to look into its handling of the Daley affair. Was Bill Daley brought in so that ex-White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel could become Chicago’s mayor?”

Laura Ingraham

• Sarah Palin says Obama is weakening America – January 07, 2011
• Newt Gingrich on the left’s attempt to limit speech – January 10, 2011

Mark Levin

• Podcast for show aired January 10, 2011

Received this as an email. Made a lot of sense to me, so I’m passing it along.

Chris

Earlier this decade, Michael Barone wrote a book entitled “Hard America, Soft America: Competition vs. Coddling and the Battle for America’s Future”. His premise was that we are becoming an America of Soft people demanding entitlements at other people’s expense, unwilling or unable to stand on our own and looking to the government instead of ourselves to provide our every need.

Read the rest of this entry »

Dear Fellow Conservatives:

Many of you have contacted me about the bipartisan tax deal reached between President Obama and Republican leaders. I’ve carefully reviewed the legislation and I wanted to explain to you why I cannot support it.

First, I do not want to see anyone’s taxes go up and I have been fighting for years to permanently extend all the tax rates. I disagree with the President that we cannot afford to extend these rates for everyone. It’s the people’s money and we should not raise taxes on hardworking American families.

But this bill does much more than simply extend tax rates.

For starters, it includes approximately $200 billion in new deficit spending and stimulus gimmicks. That’s a lot of money that will have to be borrowed from China and repaid by our children and grandchildren. If we’re going to increase spending on new programs, we must reduce other spending to pay for it.

The bill also only extends rates for two years. We don’t have a temporary economy so we shouldn’t have temporary tax rates. Individuals and businesses make decisions looking at the long-term and we’re not going to create jobs without giving people certainty as to what their taxes will be in future.

The bill also fails to extend all of the tax rates. It actually increases the death tax from its current rate of zero percent all the way up to 35 percent. One economic study shows that this tax increase alone will kill over 800,000 jobs over the next ten years.

Finally, the bill now includes dozens of earmarks for special interests, including ethanol subsidies, tax breaks for film and television producers, give aways for Puerto Rican rum manufacturers, favors for auto racing track owners, and a hand out for businesses in American Samoa.The President called Republicans “hostage takers” this week but he should be pointing his figure squarely at himself. We’ve known for years that these tax rates were going to expire but he did nothing about it until the last minute. Now Americans are being told they have to accept hundreds of billions in new spending and stimulus gimmicks, an increase the death tax, and a bunch of unnecessary earmarks or their taxes will go up.

I’m not going to be bullied into voting for things that will hurt our country because politicians in Washington ignored the problem until it was a crisis.

Many of you fought hard to elect new leaders to the Senate this year with the expectation that they would fight deficit spending, tax hikes, and backroom deals. I take that commitment very seriously and I’m prepared to vote against this bill even if I’m the only one in the Senate to do so.

I appreciate the efforts made by my party’s leaders to negotiate this deal but I believe Americans deserve much better. This deal should be rejected and then fixed. We can easily extend these tax rates without increasing spending once the new crop of Republican senators, including Pat Toomey, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Mike Lee, and Ron Johnson, are sworn in.

The President has already conceded that taxes cannot go up and we’ll have more Republicans in Congress in a few weeks to fight for a better deal.Thank you for supporting the principles of freedom and for your continued encouragement. I will continue to do my very best to be your voice in the United States Senate.

Respectfully,

Jim DeMint, U.S. Senator

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By Amy Eldred

Can each of us fire off an email to this guy please?  We just won this battle with the textbooks, just defeated another liberal on the SBOE with the victory of Charlie Garza in SBOE Dist. 1, and now we have a RINO pushing to revise!  Let treat Mr. Ratliff to some “tea” and remind him that Texans like traditional values and honest history taught to our kids.

Thanks for all you do.

Amy

—–

Thomas Ratliff, a newly elected SBOE member and a RINO, has stated that he would like to change the Social Studies standards. The new SBOE representative for district 9, Thomas Ratliff needs to hear from all of you who sent emails earlier this year, registered to testify and helped to shape the future classrooms of not only Texas but the nation in support of the excellent Social Studies Standards passed!

Tell Ratliff to leave our new standards ALONE!  Email thomas@thomasratliff.com

The new standards can be read here.  They include teaching our national heritage, American Exceptionalism and our place “in the grand history of human progress” (Donna Garner, retired teacher.)

Below is more from Donna:

Public schools have become so secularized that they make no mention of Christmas or Easter. Many think that their rights and responsibilities are assigned by government rather than endowed by God. They struggle with the truths enshrined in our Declaration of Independence and are unaware of the protections against abusive central governmental power woven into the fabric of our Constitution.

I am also convinced that the existing [new -- adopted by the SBOE in May 2010] Social Studies Standards go a long way toward restoring a degree of rigor to our public school offerings and toward engendering in youngsters a bit of pride in America. The World History standards include evidence that Biblical truth underlies the advance of western civilization along the path to Democratic Revolution.

If you find them to your liking, an email to our new SBOE member Thomas Ratliff might help him decide to leave them alone. Please share this information with your friends who might send an email and register their ideas with Mr. Ratliff.

Email thomas@thomasratliff.com

I’ve stated before that we should be careful what we wish for. Those of us who work in quasi-governmental jobs could wind up losing our jobs, benefits, and/or retirement pensions if we suddenly roll back 100 years of Progressivism in government.

Millions of Americans are addicted to the opiate of government. For some, it is a problem that spans generations. Simply removing the steady IV drip-drip-drip of subsidized health care, welfare, unemployment, retirement, and so on would be a huge shock to our system.

I’m not saying that it should not be done. We just need to be careful and realize that this is a long-term goal.

The Election’s Done; Now What?

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1. The Democrat party is no longer a party that patriotic Americans can trust or identify with.
2. In just two short years, the Democrat party has increased out national debt 44 percent, and it now stands at $13,000,000,000,000.
3. The Democrat party has governed against and in spite of the will of the American people.
4. The Obama Administration is composed of radicals, community agitators, environmental whackjobs, self-proclaimed marxists, terrorist sympathizers, alinsky-ites, anticapitalists, anti-Constitutionalists, and other assorted America-hating statists.
5. The Democrat party as a whole – not merely its leadership – is to blame for the serial assaults suffered by our sacred institutions, and the damage wrought may be irreversible.
6. The Democrat party and their willing accomplices in the national media sold the American people a bill of goods with Barack Obama, and we want our money (along with our national pride) BACK.
7. A radical Alinsky-inspired Democrat as President, unstoppable Democrat majorities in both Houses of Congress, numerous activist judges throughout the Judiciary, unelected bureaucrats beholden to an elite ruling class – There is no balance in government today. 
8. The prevailing political philosophy of today’s Democrat party is decidely un-American.
9. Every compromise with the Democrat majority in Congress has been harmful to our Constitutional republic.
10. Two years of Obamanomics proves that this is not the “change” we need or want.