Issues
Posted December 12th, 2011 by Julie
12 December 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Kathleen Thompson
info@bettergrapevine.org
Term Limits Petition Circulating in Grapevine
Young parents, professionals, and grandparents from across the partisan political spectrum are signing and circulating petitions for term limits in Grapevine. Citing a lack of accountability and transparency, this coalition of Grapevine voters is working to remove entrenched council members who are no longer accountable to residents.
“Incumbents have won every city council election in Grapevine for the past 30 years. With that kind of record, city council members have no pressure to vote on principle. They know they’ll be re-elected regardless of their actions. There is no accountability, and nobody is listening to the citizens,” said Julie McCarty of the NE Tarrant Tea Party.
Nearly two-dozen of Grapevine’s neighboring cities govern with term limits including Southlake, Lewisville, Bedford, Carrollton, Trophy Club, and Irving.
The petition language asks registered Grapevine voters:
Should the Grapevine City Charter be Amended to State:
Each person duly elected to the position of Mayor or Council Member shall be
allowed to hold any one position for a limit of three (3) consecutive, full three-year
terms per position. This provision shall apply to all elections held subsequent to
the adoption of this Charter Amendment.
“In neighboring cities, transparency and accountability in government are top priorities. They open their books so taxpayers can see exactly where their money is going. Why not in Grapevine?” asked recent City Council candidate Kathleen Thompson. Grapevine residents deserve citizen legislators, not career politicians, who will put the community and city employees before themselves.
Voters wanting to sign the petition should visit www.bettergrapevine.org.
###
Posted November 1st, 2011 by Konni
Calling all Patriots!
Educate! Motivate! Activate! Empower! Advance Liberty!
This is no time to sit back, slow down, or let up!
We are “can do” Americans!
Saturday November 12 ~ Announcing a new training event:
Where: Lakeview Church of the Nazarene, 10818 University Blvd., two miles from the Loop 323 intersection in Tyler.
Check-in: 9 AM; training will begin promptly at 9:30 AM & conclude at 4 PM.
Registration is $25 per activist; includes training materials, facility rental & boxed lunch.
Pre-registration is strongly encouraged. This is a regionally advertised event!
Go to this site to register now: https://secure.americanmajority.org/np/clients/am/eventRegistration.jsp?event=249
Training Topics:
- The System: We break down the Progressives’ rise and how their efforts over the past 100 years have built the system we now face. We take a deeper look at that system and explore areas of reinforcement within government than can be broken down and exploited to bring about a more transparent and accountable system. – Raz Shafer, American Majority
- Grassroots Organizing for Freedom: Maximize the impact of your group and individual members. Learn ideas and practical steps to engage your community and organize coalitions of volunteers. – Raz Shafer, American Majority
- Central Planning of the Economy: Identifying crony capitalism & combating Government invasion into the private sector – Ken Emanuelson, Grassroots Texans/Reagan Coalition/Dallas TEA Party
- Texas Budget Boondoggle, the Rule of Law & You: Hard-hitting presentation ends state budget fairy tales & sets forth the real solution to overspending in Texas. JoAnn Fleming, GAWTP volunteer executive director & Chairman of the TEA Party Caucus Advisory Committee to the TX Legislature.
- Fighting for Local Victories: How to combat oppressive government intrusion on the local level, such as Agenda 21. – Katrina Pierson, Garland TEA Party, National TEA Party Review Magazine, TEA Party Caucus Advisory Committee to the TX Legislature
- Modern Technology in Today’s Elections: The Left has outmaneuvered the Right by using technology to influence elections. It’s time we turn that around. – Matt Armstrong, Political Gravity
Do not wait! Register now! https://secure.americanmajority.org/np/clients/am/eventRegistration.jsp?event=249
Posted October 24th, 2011 by Konni
By MerryLynn Gerstenschlager. Texas Eagle Forum VP and Education Liaison
Had anyone told me that I would end up spending the bulk of my time during the most recent Texas Legislative Session and Special Session lobbying on Turkish charter schools, technically known as Harmony charter schools, I would have laughed at them.
However, this turned out to be no laughing matter and by the end of the Special Session, the legislature had called for an investigation of all charter schools by the House General Investigating and Ethics Committee.
The forthcoming investigation was precipitated by Texas Eagle Forum’s and Peyton Wolcott’s (Publisher – Public Ed Commentary) unsuccessful efforts to amend legislation that will now allow certain charter schools to use the $25 billion dollar Permanent School Fund (PSF) to guarantee new construction bonds. Public schools already enjoy this privilege. The PSF is also known as the Children’s Textbook Fund.
Peyton Wolcott’s research provided outstanding information throughout session. Upon learning that there are 36 Harmony charter campuses in Texas and that their operators are mostly Turkish men who have been educated and previously employed in Turkey, we dubbed the Harmony charter schools “Turkish charter schools.” We began to scrutinize them in the context of this legislation. Harmony is overseen by the Cosmos Foundation, a non-profit organization that has received a quarter of a billion dollars in Texas taxpayer dollars in the past three years. Note that there are 156 Harmony-related charter schools in the U.S.
Harmony refers to their schools as “charter” as well as “public” schools. On February 1, 2011, “Harmony Public Schools” organized the “Bond Financing for Charter Schools” luncheon at the Austin Omni Hotel. Among the speakers was former Counselor to President George W. Bush, Karen Hughes, who welcomed guests “on behalf of Harmony Public Schools” to talk “about innovative ways to finance school facilities.” Harmony had hired Hughes through Burson-Marsteller, the prestigious marketing firm, to kick off Harmony’s efforts to pass this legislation.
Harmony was scheduled to open a new School of Political Science in Austin in August of 2011. Because Harmony schools emphasize Turkish culture and also take Texas elected officials on free trips to Turkey, we contemplated how American government and the U.S. Constitution might be taught in this school. And with so many Texas teachers looking for work, we wondered why Cosmos has brought 1,300 teachers here from Turkey on H1-B visas?
We were concerned that five members of the Senate Education Committee had accepted a collective total of $15,000, and that seven members of the House Public Education Committee had accepted a collective total of $11,500 in campaign funds from the Texas Charter School Association (TCSA). The TCSA had hired 11 lobbyists to push for this legislation. Among these lobbyists were former State Representative Diane Delisi and former State Senator Kyle Janek. One of the PSF charter school guarantee bills had to pass out of these committees to take on a life in the House and Senate.
The focus on Turkish influence in Texas schools was emphasized when the Senate passed Senate Resolution 85 honoring the Turkish imam Fethullah Gulen. Gulen was given asylum in Pennsylvania in 1997 when he was driven out of Turkey by his own government for trying to reinstate a caliphate in this secular nation. Since then, Gulen lives here in self-imposed exile, even though he has been exonerated in Turkey.
In order to protect the $25 billion Children’s Textbook Fund, Texas Eagle Forum and Peyton Wolcott began to lobby that the following fiduciary duty-of-care amendments be placed in the legislation:
Posted September 27th, 2011 by Konni
Good Morning,
I am contacting you on behalf of CLEAN Resources. CLEAN Resources is a group of concerned citizens, small businesses, and other Texans who represent more than 70,000 jobs in the Barnett Shale. We are a non-profit organization that focuses on education. We advocate for the development of American energy resources, especially shale gas, as a way to lead this country down the path of energy security, national security, better air quality, economic progress and a cleaner environment.
On Thursday, September 29, 2011, the EPA is hosting a public hearing at Arlington City Hall. The EPA is considering additional restrictions on the oil and gas operations by proposing further regulations on air quality standards. These new regulations will impact job creation and economic development in North Texas.
- The hearing is from 9:00 am until 8:00 pm. Please feel free to come to any portion of the hearing that is convenient for you.
- There will be opportunities for citizens to speak at the hearing regarding this issue. If you are interested, you may register to speak at the hearing by contacting Joan C. Rogers at (919) 541-4487 or rogers.joanc@epa.gov. Also, you may sign up to speak in person on Thursday at the hearing.
- Public comments will be accepted through October 24, 2011. When you submit your comments, identify them by Docket ID number: EPA-HQ-OAR-2010-0505.
- You can submit written comments by doing any of the following:
- online at the Federal rulemaking portal – www.regulations.gov
- by email to A-and-R-Docket@epamail.epa.gov
- by FAX at 202-566-9744
- by postal service (include 2 copies) to: Docket ID number EPA-HQ-OAR-2010-0505, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20460
- If you mail comments, please mail an additional copy to: The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, OMB, Attn.: Desk Officer for EPA, 725 17th St. NW, Washington, DC 20503
I have attached a flyer here that contains more information about the EPA public hearing on Thurdsay.
CLEAN Resources wants to encourage as many supporters as possible to join us in speaking out at this public hearing. It will be highly beneficial to have supporters at the hearing throughout the day to demonstrate to the EPA that we support drilling in the Barnett Shale and oppose unneeded additional regulations that will harm this vital economic sector.
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me anytime at (817) 583-4292 or chelsea@cleanresources.org.
Thank you so much for your support.
Best,
Chelsea Bacher
CLEAN Resources (817) 583-4292chelsea@cleanresources.org
Posted September 27th, 2011 by Konni
Have you recently heard your city leaders talking about a “sustainability plan” for your community, or mentioning something called “Smart Growth”? Take a minute to do a quick experiment. Open a browser window on your computer and search using the following three word phrase: “Carrollton Sustainability Plan”. Chances are you will see page after page, each mentioning multi-million dollar grants and the words “green” and “sustainable”. Now try a second search. This time remove the word “Carrollton”, and search on the two word phrase, “Sustainability Plan”.
Surprised at the results?
To learn more and to find out how to resist this UN Agenda, please join this Webinar with John Marler on Wednesday, September 28th at 7:00 PM (CST). The webinar is estimated to run until 9:00p.m. (CST)
John’s Presentation Will Include:
Background
Key Events of Agenda 21
The Program
ICLEI – Int’l Council for Local Environmental Initiatives
Education- Deliberate Dumbing Down of America
Smart Meters – Technocracy invading our Homes
Competing Philosophies
What We Can Do
Q&A
WEBINAR INSTRUCTIONS:
Please sign in 15 minutes before the webinar. It is a 2 step process:
1. Log into FreeScreenSharing – to see John’s presentation – 1st go to www.freescreensharing.com. 2nd You will see 3 boxes: Get Started/Host a Meeting / Join a Meeting. In the Pink Join a Meeting box please fill in:
Name: Your name – first or first and last (your choice) – others will see your name
Email: type in your real email address
Meeting ID: 409-212-584
Then click “Join Meeting”
An Installer message will appear on your screen – Click “RUN” when the popup window appears to run the FreeScreenSharing software. Next, a downloading popup window will appear – should only take 30 seconds to load – (depending on your computer speed)
Once complete you will see the Meeting room – You will see a list of participants on the left (you will not see your own name but everyone else in the room). There is a chat window where you can type a message.
2. Log into Free- Conference call – for Audio of this meeting
Dial 559-546-1200 prompt will ask for your Meeting ID enter: 409212584# (make sure you hit the #) (sometimes it will ask you for your name – if requested just state your name so others can hear who is entering the call)
You will then join the Conference call and be able to hear the audio for this Webinar.
Please keep phone line clear for Presenter. If you have a question type it into chat box on left. Please note that unless presenter is watching the chat box – your question may go unanswered – just remember to ask it again during Q&A.
Posted August 17th, 2011 by Konni
Good Afternoon Everyone,
Liberty Central is excited to serve as an Ambassador-at-Large to our grassroots friends. We are continually meeting with conservative leaders and coalition groups, as well as our conservative champions on the Hill to provide a dialogue between grassroots and D.C. This also enables us to report to you about the current hot topics inside the Beltway:
When Congress returns from recess, the RSC (Republican Study Committee) will add a growth component to its Cut, Cap, Balance initiative. This will address the tax code, regulations, and energy.
The House Energy & Commerce Committee is developing ideas for spending cuts, as its Chairman, Fred Upton, was just appointed to the deficit ‘Super Committee.’ All Committee reports are due October 14.
Rumors are circulating that Congress is considering a tax increase on commercial aviation on two fronts: an increase in airline ticket taxes, and implementing a user tax on aircraft take-offs & landings.
Rep. Stephen Fincher recently introduced H. Res. 98, stating the FDA should ‘give the greatest weight in making critical policy decisions to readily available hard science data . . . and avoid paternalistic policy decisions that are not ground in hard science.’ The resolution aims to address the rising trend in the FDA to rely on ‘soft’ science and speculation to drastically increase its regulatory power.
Next week, the administration is heading down to South America to assist Brazil in creating energy jobs and developing the country’s oil and gas resources. Meanwhile, the administration continues to push regulations that kill American jobs and increase American energy prices. Today, gas prices are on average 84 cents higher than at this time last year. Earlier this year, the 2nd largest shallow water driller filed for bankruptcy due to lack of drilling permits. However, last week a federal judge threw out Obama rules to slow down drilling – reinstating the expedited oil and gas drilling under Bush.
Katy E. Blackwell
Liberty Central, Inc.
Posted August 17th, 2011 by Fred
…The discussion, “What happened to our Manufacturing Base and why we have lost millions and millions of private sector jobs”. Cannot be found anywhere in the American political dialogue. The losses our economy have suffered have not only impacted our GDP, national employment and have placed America at risk.
Government policies under both parties have cost America millions and millions of jobs.
Free Trade is an oxymoron. There is no Free Trade. Not one agreement the United States has signed since GATT in 1947 has been anywhere near close to Free, or fair, or created any equal trading partners. In every instance our trading partners ecomomy and standard of living has increased while ours has steadily declined.
See the entire story HERE from Melody one of our local members and writer of a fantastic blog called Perfection Under a Red Umbrella.
Posted August 11th, 2011 by Konni
Liberty Central is excited to serve as an Ambassador-at-Large to our grassroots friends. We are continually meeting with conservative leaders and coalition groups, as well as our conservative champions on the Hill to provide a dialogue between grassroots and D.C. This also enables us to report to you about the current hot topics inside the Beltway:
Today, Congressional Leadership announced appointments for the new ‘Super Committee’ – here is the list:
House Republicans: Jeb Hensarling of Texas, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp of Michigan and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton of Michigan.
Senate Republicans: Jon Kyl of Arizona, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Rob Portman of Ohio.
Senate Democrats: John Kerry of Massachusetts, Max Baucus of Montana, and Patty Murray of Washington
As of 1:00 EDT, Nancy Pelosi has not announced House Democrat appointments.
When Congress returns on September 6, the House will take up appropriations for financial services, commerce, justice, HUD & transportation. Note that the House was taken up 6 appropriation bills, while the Senate has only completed one.
The Main Street Fairness Act, (HR 2701 & S 1452) has been brought back from the dead by John Conyers & Dick Durbin. The legislation lets states impose sales taxes on interstate commercial activity in a multistate ‘tax compact.’ This means internet retailers, regardless of their physical location, would be required to collect and remit sales tax to any and all states where a buyer resides.
Finally, Fitch indicates a credit report rating later this month.
Katy E. Blackwell
Liberty Central, Inc.
Posted August 7th, 2011 by Konni
by: John Alaniz
Temple, Texas
The Republican Party is experiencing an ideological battle that is beginning to play out in full view of the public. The distinguishing characteristics are simple. On one side there is a belief that the Republican Party should widen its gates to be more inclusive. The concept driving this view is that a broader base of voters possibly could deliver higher winning percentages. The other side rejects the concept of watering down “principles” and “values” in a futile attempt to attract voters.
The Tea Party movement pushed back on those in the Republican Party who espoused the “wide gate” philosophy; and in 2010, it was the Tea Party movement that melded together with the conservatives and managed to deliver the major advances for the Republican Party. The “narrow gate” concept of staying true to “principles” and “values” must be our highest priority.
Some think this is a tool to discriminate. As a Hispanic, it’s what attracted me. Substantiating this belief is a passage that I think of often when I hear the call to widen the gate. Matthew 7:13 says, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
“Only a few find it.” Does this sound discouraging? Not for me because I know this: “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.” (Proverbs 14:34)
Knowing our country is founded on Judeo-Christian principles, it is easy for me to understand why America is an exceptional nation. Even though the odds were insurmountable, it was a few fierce patriots who defeated the British in our Revolutionary War. It was a few courageous fighters who defeated Santa Anna in the battle for Texas. It was “righteousness” that gave us the victories. It is “righteousness” that will restore our nation.
The Tea Party movement may be a small contingent of Americans, but I contend they will prevail because we believe America is worth fighting for. We also believe America is worth dying for. Therefore, we will not bow down to entrenched power and money but instead will make principles and values our highest priorities. In doing so, we know victories will surely follow.
Posted August 3rd, 2011 by Konni
Liberty Central is excited to serve as an Ambassador-at-Large to our grassroots friends. We are continually meeting with conservative leaders and coalition groups, as well as our conservative champions on the Hill to provide a dialogue between grassroots and D.C. This also enables us to report to you about the current hot topics inside the Beltway.
As you know, Congress is now in summer recess. This week’s update provides an overview of what’s on the radar in September:
- Both Houses of Congress must take up the Balanced Budget Amendment (BBA). However, leadership will decide which BBA comes to the floor for a vote, and the actual language of the measure is still unknown. Many conservative proponents argue that Congress must send a strong and specific amendment to the states, while others assert that a ‘watered-down’ version is more likely to get the necessary votes from the Democrats.
- The next government shutdown battle is on the horizon as the current budget expires at the end of our fiscal year — September 30. Currently in summer recess, Congress will have about one month to settle the next ‘crisis’ by either passing a budget or yet another continuing resolution. The Budget Control Act just ‘simplified’ the budget process; however, reports that Congress is not required to vote for continued government operations are false.
- Also in September, the current extension of the bill to fund highways and public transportation will expire. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-FL) aims for a long-term extension which stays within the receipts of the Highway Trust Fund, and within the framework of the Ryan Budget. If accomplished, this will eliminate the current mandates (i.e., bike paths, graffiti removal, etc.) and allow the states to decide on how the funds are used within their borders.
Katy E. Blackwell
Liberty Central, Inc.
