SOME NEWS AND COMMENTS FOR CONSERVATIVE
MISSOURIANS TO THINK ABOUT
Published monthly since 1996 May
2008
Vol 13 Number 5
The Next Meeting
of Texas County Republicans will be
The Next Meeting
of the Texas County Federation of Republican Women will start at
Ron Paul
Supporters Attempted to influence the caucus in many of
Ron Paul supporters implied they are seeking a court
order to overturn the rules requiring delegates to vote for the winner of the
state’s primary on the first ballot. In the Missouri Primary election February
5, John McCain received the most votes with 33.0 percent of the total. Ron Paul
received 4.5 percent. The bottom line is that the movement caused divisiveness
among conservative voters, benefiting only Democrats.
May Activities in
Texas County: The Clown Days Street Fair May 2 and 3 on
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Commissioner
District 1 |
John
Casey |
Republican Candidates |
Commissioner
District 2 |
Linda
Garrett |
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Sharon
Rees |
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Sheriff |
Wes
Ellison |
Assessor |
Lynn
Cheek |
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Steve
Lawhead |
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Debbie
James |
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Matt
Thompson |
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June Activity in
Silent Auction
Items are
needed for Lincoln Day. Bring donations to the License Office in
Big Dividends from
Lawsuit Reform Four
years ago the budget was a disaster, education funding had been cut and the
state had lost 34,000 jobs. But one of the biggest challenges was personal
injury lawyers chasing doctors out of the state. Before litigation reform in
2005 Missouri doctors and businesses often found themselves a victim of
venue-shopping, a tactic personal injury lawyers used to get cases heard in
high-dollar jurisdictions like Kansas City and St. Louis regardless of whether
there was a logical reason for the case to be tried there. The legislation
changed the unfair practice of requiring a defendant found as little as one
percent at fault to have to pay the entire judgment. Now defendants are only
forced to pay all damages if they are more than 50 percent at fault. Between
2005 and 2006 total claims against
Every day is a gift. That is why
they call it the present
Page Two, May 2008
Barack Obama Explains
why he doesn’t wear a flag pin or put his hand over his heart when the National
Anthem is played: “As I’ve said about the flag pin, I don’t want to be
perceived as taking sides. There are a lot of people in the world to whom the
American flag is a symbol of oppression. And the anthem itself conveys a
war-like message. You know, the bombs bursting in air and all, It should be swapped for something less parochial and less
bellicose. I like the song ‘I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing.’ If that were
our anthem I might salute it.” By
saying he doesn’t want to take sides does that mean he is unwilling to uphold
the Constitution?....That he is ashamed to be an
American? ….When he says he doesn’t like the words of the National Anthem that
mention ‘Bombs bursting in Air,’ doesn’t he know those words referred to
British bombs being fired on an American fort in
Who is “Bobby” Jindal?
Rush Limbaugh describes him as the next Ronald Reagan and would like to see him
become the Republican Vice Presidential candidate. Piyush “Bobby” Jindal was born in
In
1991, at age 20, he graduated from
Jindal
was elected to Congress as a Republican from the
On
issues, he consistently voted with the Republican Party on all abortion related
legislation. He opposes using taxpayer money to fund embryonic stem cell
research and supported both a constitutional amendment banning flag burning and
the Real ID Act of 2005. In 2006 Jindal sponsored the
Deep Ocean Energy Resources Act (HR 4761), a bill to eliminate the moratorium
on offshore oil and gas drilling over the
The Federal Reserve was in an awkward
position last month during the Bear
Stearns financial crisis because there were two empty seats on its seven-member
Board of Governors and one governor was not available to vote. This was a
problem because the votes of five governors are required to exercise an
economic rescue. Two new nominees and a hold over have been waiting for Senate
confirmation for over a year. There are also ten nominees for the appellate
courts with seven vacancies deemed emergencies. The Securities and Exchange
Commission has only three of five commissioners. The National Labor Relations
Board has three empty seats and can only handle cases that have no issues. The
Democrat-controlled Senate is simply waiting for a Democrat president to send
his appointees. (Jewish World
Review by John Fund)
In 2006 Americans Voted for Change and elected a majority of Democrats in both houses of
Congress. Boy did we get change. A year and a half ago Consumer confidence was
at a 2 ½ year high. Regular gasoline cost $2.19 a gallon and unemployment was
at a 4.5 percent. Now consumer confidence has plummeted, gasoline is $3.50 a
gallon and unemployment is up 10 percent to 5 percent. And American households
have seen stock and mutual fund losses of $2.3 trillion and one percent of
American homes are in foreclosure. And
guess who wants to raise taxes?
Happiness is felt by making other
people happy.
Page Three, May, 2008
Obama’s Anger
By Ed Kaitz as published by
American Thinker
“The anger is real. It is powerful, and
to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only
serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.” Barack Obama
Back
in the 1980s I was on a plane flying out of New Orleans and sitting next to me
was a rather interesting and, according to Barack Obama, unusual black man. Friendly, gregarious and wise
beyond his years, we immediately hit nit off. I had been working on Vietnamese
commercial fishing boats in southern
In
Bayou country I lived on boats and double wide trailers, like the Vietnamese
refugees. When they arrived in
While
I had been fishing my new black friend had been working as a prison
psychologist in
His
answer floored me. “We are owed and they were not. They were hungry and we
think we are owed.” This has allowed me to slice through the rhetoric regarding
race relations that Democrats shovel our way during an election. He said, “It’s
crushing us, and as long as we think we are owed we are going nowhere.”
A
good case for this theory is Katrina. Obama, Jesse
Jackson, Al Sharpton and assorted white apologists
express anger and outrage over the federal response to the Katrina disaster.
But where were the Vietnamese “leaders expressing
their anger?” The Vietnamese comprise a substantial part of the
After
leaving the fishing boats, I attended graduate school and to help pay the bills
I got a job teaching expository writing to minority students. What I witnessed
was horrifying. The students were encouraged to write essays attacking the
white establishment from every conceivable angle. Of the hundreds of papers I
read, not one was an original contribution to the problem of black mobility
that strayed from the party line.
The
irony of it is that it was the “white establishment” who managed to get them
into the college and pay their tuition. Instead of being encouraged to study
international affairs, classical or modern languages, philosophy or art, most
students became ethnic studies or sociology majors that allowed them to remain
in disciplines whose orientations justified their existence at the university.
In short, it became a vicious cycle.
One
student, in a fit of despair wandered into my office one Friday afternoon and
asked if I could help him. I asked him about his plans that evening, and he
told me he usually attended parties on Friday and Saturday nights. I told him if
he would meet me at the university library at
Nothing I could say or do or show him could match the firepower of his support system favoring anger. I was sad to hear this student had dropped out of school the following semester.
During
my time teaching in the writing program, I watched Asians get transformed via
Leftist doublespeak from “minorities” to
“model minorities” to “they’re not minorities” in precise
rhythm to their fortunes in business and education. Asians were minorities only
when they were struggling. (Continued on Page Four)
Every solution breeds new problems
Page Four, May 2008
Obama’s Anger continued
from Page Three
To
suggest that intact families and a philosophy of self-reliance could lead to
success would undermine the entire establishment.
Eric
Hoffer said: “You do not win the weak by sharing your
wealth with them; it will but infect them with greed and resentment. You can
win the weak only by sharing your pride, hope or hatred with them.”
Eric
Hoffer also said:
“Vehemence is the expression of a blind effort to support and uphold something
that can never stand on its own.”
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Two Michelles
& Shame vs Pride
By Michelle Malkin, a
columnist who happens to be Asian
Like
Michelle Obama, I am a “woman of color.” Like
Michelle Obama, I am a working mother of two young
children. Like Michelle Obama, I am a member of the
13th generation of Americans born since the founding of our great
nation.
Unlike
Michelle Obama, I can’t keep track of the number of
times I’ve been proud – really proud – of my country since I was born and
privileged to live in it. At a recent speech in
Mrs.
Obama’s statement was met with warm applause from
other Barack supporters who apparently have been
devoid of pride in their country. Or maybe it was just a Pavlovian
response to the word “change.” What a sad, empty, narcissistic, ungrateful,
unthinking lot.
I
am just seven years younger than Mrs. Obama. We’ve
grown up and lived in the same era. And yet her self-absorbed attitude is
completely foreign to me. Since when was now the only time the American people
have been “hungry for change?” Barack is not the center of the universe. The Obamas did not invent “change” any more than Hillary
invented “leadership” of John McCain invented “straight talk.” We were both
adults when the Berlin Wall fell, Michelle. That was earth-shattering change.
We’ve lived through two decades of peaceful, if contentious elections under the
rule of law which have rbough about “change” and
upheaval, both good and bad. We were adults through several launches of space
shuttles. As adults we have witnessed and benefited from dizzyingly rapid advances
in technology, communications, science and medicine pioneered by
American entrepreneurs who yearned for change.
If American ingenuity, a robust constitutional
republic and the fall of communism doesn’t do it for you, hon,
then how about American heroism and sacrifice? How about Memorial Day? Veterans
Day? Every Independence Day. Has she never
attended a welcome-home ceremony for troops?
Every
naturalization ceremony I’ve attended, where hundreds of new Americans raised
their hands to swear an oath of allegiance to this land of liberty, has been a
moment of pride for me. So have the awesome displays of American compassion at
home and around the world. When Americans rallied to help victims of the 2004
Tsunami in
Michelle
Obama has achieved enormous professional success,
political influence and personal acclaim in
A diplomat thinks twice before saying nothing.
Page Five, May 2008
Obama dissected
From an e-mail making the rounds
He
says he could be a uniter and bring us together. His
hope must be that no one will put the pieces together.
Random Thoughts by Thomas Sowell
The
way to get people’s votes is to say that all their problems are caused by other
people, and that you will stop those other people from giving them trouble.
But, if you really want to help, then you can tell them the truth and risk
losing their votes.
There
is no question that Barack Obama
is a clever and glib fellow. There is also no question that some of the most
foolish, dangerous and horrific things done around the world in the past
hundred years have been done by clever glib fellows.
Some
who people have gone ballistic when a prominent Republican is found to belong
to an all-male social club are full of excuses for why Barack
Obama remained a member of a racist, anti-American
church for 20 years.
Most
of the problems of this country are not nearly as bad as the “solutions,”
especially the solutions that politicians come up with during election years.
Triumph is just “umph” added to try.
Page Six, May 2008
Food for thought
By syndicated
columnist Charley Reese. (With added
comments by the editor)
Politicians are the only people in the
world who create problems and then campaign against them. Have you ever
wondered why, if both Democrats and Republicans are against deficits, that we
have deficits? Have you ever wondered why if all politicians are against
inflation and high taxes, we have inflation and high taxes? (They only say those things because it is
politic to say so.)
You and I don’t propose a federal
budget. The president does. You and I don’t have the Constitutional authority
to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does. You and I don’t
write the tax code. Congress does. You and I don’t set fiscal policy. Congress
does. You and I don’t control monetary policy. The Federal Reserve Bank does.
One hundred senators, 435 congressmen,
one president and nine Supreme Court justices…545 human beings out of the 300
million…are directly, legally, morally and individually responsible for the
domestic problems that plague this country. I exclude the members of the
Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In
1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide sound currency to a
federally chartered but private central bank.
I excluded all the special interests and
lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no
ability to coerce a senator, a congressman or a president to do one cotton-pickin’ thing. I don’t care if they offer a politician one
million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it.
No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator’s responsibility to
determine how he votes.
Those 545 human beings spend much of
their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They
cooperate in this con game regardless of party. What separates a politician
from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being
would have the gall of a Speaker who stands up and criticizes George W. Bush
for creating deficits. The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force
the Congress to accept it. The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the
land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives or originating
and approving appropriations and taxes. (Place
the blame where it belongs.)
Who is the Speaker of the House? She is the
leader of the majority party. She and fellow Democrats, not the president, can
approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over
his veto.
It seems inconceivable to me that a
nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted…by present
facts…of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can’t think of a single domestic
problem, from an unfair tax code to defense overruns, that
is not traceable directly to those 545 people.
When you fully grasp the plain truth that
545 people exercise power of the federal government, then it must follow that
what exists is what they want. If the tax code is unfair it is because they
want it unfair. If the budget is in the red it is because they want it in the
red. There are no insoluble government problems. Do not let these 545 people
shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish;
to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom
they give the power to regulate and from whome they
can take the power.
Above all, do not let them con you into
the belief that there exist disembodied mystical forces like “the economy,”
“inflation” or “politics” that prevent them from doing what they take an oath
to do. Those 545 people and they alone, are responsible. They and they alone
have the power. They and they alone should be held accountable by the people
who are their bosses….provided…the voters have the gumption to manage their own
employees. We should vote them out of office and clean up their mess. (The opinion of the author is undoubtedly
shared by many. Unfortunately, his suggestion is easier said than done. The
replacements might not be any better, but we would, at least, have their
attention.)
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THE COMMENTARY,
The Texas County Commentary is a publication of the Texas County Republican Committee, Kevin McGowen, Chairman