The Next Meeting of Texas County Republicans will be at 7PM Tuesday, August 21 at The Lion’s Den on US 63 north of Houston. The meeting will be preceded by a pot luck supper at 6PM.

 

The Texas County Republican Women will meet at noon, Saturday, August 18, 2007 at the home of Alicia Swindell. The ladies are asked to bring items for auction to the meeting. The address is 16710 BB Highway (Boiling Springs Road) on the left side, 4-1/2  miles west of U.S. 63. Note: date is changed to 3^rd Saturday

 

Governor Matt Blunt Signed Into Law a host of bills passed by the legislature, vetoed one bill and made some announcements last month. Here is a brief summary compiled from the governor’s news releases:

• The Missouri HealthNet, a bill to provide better health care for low income Missourians and replace the failing Medicaid system. Participants may now choose a central point of contact for health care.
• A bill to protect the jobs, wages and benefits of those who were sent to fight the War on Terror.
• Create a student loan program for animal agriculture to provide more veterinarians for large animals.
• Expand student loan forgiveness for nurses by having them work in defined areas of need.
• A bill to promote cooperation between faith-based groups and the Department of Social Services.
• Improve health care for infants and allow newborns’ blood samples to be used in genetic research.
• “Castle Doctrine” legislation that ensures law-abiding citizens will not be punished when they use    

      force to defend themselves from attacks in their own home or vehicle.

• A bill to protect the rights and the dignity of victims of sexual assault and domestic violence.
• A bill to allow the formation of captive insurance companies in the state allowing businesses to self-

      insure reducing administrative costs and add up to $10 million to state revenues from taxes and fees.

• A bill to enact important provisions to protect home buyers from unlawful title insurance schemes.
• A bill to allow pharmacists to administer vaccinations and help manage medication increases.
• Make Alternatives to Abortion Program permanent and keep Planned Parenthood out of classrooms.
• Close loop holes in Drunk Driving law that let some avoid conviction due to alcohol testing method.
• Announced that the Children’s Trust Fund Board of Directors awarded over $1.5 million for fiscal year 2008 to 58 community-based child abuse prevention grantees located throughout Missouri.
• The Missouri Community Service Commission has been approved to receive $1,991,476 to place 334 Americorps volunteers in Missouri over the next year to help local communities.
• An executive order issued to launch the Missouri Accountability Portal (MAP), a free Internet site that provides data about state spending and is listed by category, by vendor or by contract. Log on to http://mapyourtaxes.mo.gov and see how much money was spent and what it was spent for.
• A bill naming the Department of Agriculture building in honor of Dr. George Washington Carver.
• The Hunting Heritage Protection Areas Act that preserves certain natural resource areas.
• Vetoed; a tax-credit bill that was loaded with excessive spending. The governor said he is prepared to summon a special session if legislative leaders are willing to pass a more restrained bill that will achieve the good objectives of the bill. The vetoed bill would have spent an estimated $200 million in excess of Quality Jobs reauthorization plus unknown expenses that could cost even more.

 

State Senator Chuck Purgason (R- Caulfield) told Agriculture Director Katie Smith during a hearing at the Capitol that he doesn’t care much for the mandate that all gasoline sold in Missouri must contain at least 10 percent ethanol. He said that ethanol raises the cost of corn, which has raised the cost of feed which is driving dairy farmers out of business. Smith said she understands his concerns but feels that once it becomes more common to use ethanol by-products such as Dried Distillers Grains and solubles (DDGS) for livestock feed the market will sort things out. DDGS is touted as a high nutrient feed for livestock. (Missourinet.com)

 

Two State Senators, Bill Stouffer (R-Napton) and Neal Onge (R-Ballwin) would like voter approval for a sales tax increase with the money going to transportation projects. At a Jefferson City Transportation Funding Summit, Director Pete Rahn warned that additional money will be needed to compensate for fewer dollars available at the state level and fewer transportation dollars from the federal government which is having states take more responsibility for building and maintaining their roads. (MissouriNet.com)  May be a hard sell.

 

If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it is free. (P. J. O’Rourke)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Page Two, August, 2007

 

Good News is Coming from Iraq although this hasn’t caused a change of heart among the Democrats. The Times Online reports Al Qaeda is facing rebellion within its ranks. Dozens of its low-level members are daring to become informants for the U.S. military in a hostile Baghdad neighborhood. And evidence is also emerging that other ethnic forces formerly friendly to Al Qaeda are denying them sanctuary they need to operate.  The Washington Times reports that U.S. forces have brokered an agreement between Sunni and Shiite tribal leaders in Taji, Iraq, to join forces against Al Qaeda and other extremists, which represents the extension of a policy implemented in Anbar province that has transformed the security situation there. Tribal leaders have agreed to use members of more than 25 local tribes to protect the area around Taji from Sunni and Shiite extremists. What is most significant is that tribal forces approached the U.S. forces to initiate this agreement. The reports indicate that the increased number of U.S. forces has made the locals feel it is less dangerous for them to turn toward us. The Washington Times also reports, to the chagrin to naysayers, that U.S. soldiers walking through Sunni villages are now greeted warmly, shaking hands and kissing their cheeks where month ago they were shooting at them. (The condensation of an article by David Limbaugh in TownHall.com)

 

Every Presidential Candidate has a Plan to overhaul U.S. health care according to Robin Toner in a recent New York Times article. But, one has to ask, is it really important to know the details of their plans? Even if the next president’s party has a majority in both houses of Congress, his plan as he conceived it, will not become law.  All the president can do is submit his plan to Congress for consideration. The House and the Senate must send the president’s plan to committee for discussion, compromise and approval. Then, if each body passes its version of the bill, the two versions must then go to conference where they try to reach consensus. Expect more changes to be made. One can be assured that the final version of any bill that goes to the president for signature will have many details and provisions that were not part of the president’s plan. Consider instead, how each party approaches the subject, not what each candidate proposes. (Editor’s comment)

 

Secure the Border, Halt Runaway Spending and don’t stop there. Congressman Roy Blunt (R-MO) Republican Whip says that is what he hears when he leaves Washington. And although conservatives face a “new reality” in Capitol Hill he believes it is possible to lay the groundwork for a new revolution by focusing on key initiatives. Give individuals, not government bureaucrats, control over healthcare. When the government pays the bill, the government makes the rules. The existing Medicare system offers proof that universal coverage does not work. The payment doctors receive under the existing system often does not correspond with actual costs of service but instead flows from the dictates of government. Blunt favors a law that would combine tax deduction with tax credit for individual health insurance, He acknowledges that efforts to curtail the size of government often meet with frustration but he believes some measure of success is possible. He believes no new program should be launched before existing programs are identified that can be eliminated. Energy independence is a must, so we must utilize our natural resources. And we can’t reduce our dependence on foreign sources when we refuse to tap into our own supplies. Blunt called for accelerated domestic fossil fuel production, oil and gas production and new nuclear power plants. (CNS News)

 

The Democrats’ Brand of Racism was evident at a Democratic presidential debate held at Howard University. There was a uniformity of the messages communicated to a mostly black audience. Every problem: black unemployment, education, crime, AIDS…had one answer, more government programs and spending. It is as if blacks do not exist as individuals. I wonder how many young black Howard University students were present to watch their elders endorse Senator Clinton’s dismissal of black responsibility for their own lives. The damage caused by irresponsible sexual behavior goes beyond the pain and suffering of sexually transmitted diseases. It touches every aspect of the quality of one’s life. Single parent homes are most likely to be poor. It is reasonable to trace the preponderance of problems that are tearing up black life in our inner cities today to irresponsible sexual behavior. (A condensation of an article by Star Parker in TownHall.com)

 

Robert Novak Reports Fred Thompson may not officially announce his presidential candidacy until September, although an “exploratory” committee may soon be unveiled. In the mean time his campaign is quietly organizing its first Washington fund-raiser at the Marriott hotel the last week in July. (TownHall.com)

 

 

Question:  Which, if any, of the presidential hopefuls do you think act “Presidential?”

 

 

 

 

 

Page Three, August 2007

Hillary Would Lose in 2008

The following is an article by Phil Brennan as published by NewsMax.com

 

Roger Stone is one of America’s most noted political strategists with a career stretching back to his days working for Nixon’s campaign and later as a political strategist for Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984.  He offers a surprising assessment of the political landscape. He says that if Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic nomination, the Republicans will see a huge turnout on election day and will keep the White House.

 

He also sees Fred Thompson as a serious candidate who could emerge to be the GOP’s Reagan. He notes the GOP must offer a clear ideological choice next year so voters will know why they are voting Republican. Noting the sorry state of the GOP, Stone said it would be normal to expect the next president to be a Democrat. And it will be unless they nominate Hillary.

 

What are Hillary Clinton’s chances of winning the Democratic nomination?  She’s certainly a competitive candidate based on the huge sums of money she has and the intensity of her base within the party, but I also think she hasn’t jelled in the way Bill and Hillary thought she would. She has not had an easy march or coronation for the nomination based on the great reverence in the party for the Clintons….at least for Bill.

 

She’s now on her tenth position on the war in Iraq and she can’t lay claim to being an early opponent of the war as other candidates can. She probably gets upstaged by Edwards, who has been profound in his constant apologies and admissions of a mistake in voting for the war. This puts more pressure on her and it’s a problem with the far left base of her party. It remains to be seen whether that discontent is enough to support a candidate such as Barak Obama or Al Gore to stop her from being nominated.

 

If Al Gore gets in would he be a sure thing? Nothing in politics is a sure thing, but I think Gore brings issues and talents and firepower in terms of both people and money to the race that certainly matches hers if it doesn’t exceed it. The celebrity quality that she has, he also has and by the way Barak Obama also has.

 

Larry Sabato, (from the political science department at the University of Virginia) says that she has too much baggage. She could walk away with the nomination and then go down to a crashing defeat in the general election. You know there will be some discontent within her own party if she is nominated. This was not foreseeable two years ago. She doesn’t test well with centrists, who think she is a liberal, with moderates who think she is a liberal, with independents who think she is a liberal, because they tilt conservative. She is very polarizing and thus beatable.

 

She is energizing and maybe even motivating for Republicans who are dispirited and unhappy with their leadership. They’re not really energized unless it is to stop Hillary, in which case they will pour out. She is the most beatable because of her polarizing nature. I don’t know anyone who hates Barak Obama and he seems more likeable on the stump. He could be tough in November.

 

Don’t wise men and women in the party understand this? Yes, but it’s not up to them. The days when cooler heads ruled the party died in the 1950s. Now it’s up to the primary voters. There are too many primaries and delegates aren’t selected by party bosses anymore. And to the extent they can, the party bosses are in her pocket. She is leading among the super delegates…those who are the party bosses and members of Congress.

 

Turning to the Republicans, the Fred Thompson thing seems to be very interesting. I think he has great potential. He can certainly perform as a candidate. He is very talented, very articulate, very convincing. He knows what to say in terms of issues. He’s a good solid conservative, He proved that in eight years in the Senate but a campaign run by a committee will not succeed, particularly starting late and it can’t make any mistakes. He has to hit the ground running. His poll numbers right now are good, but if they don’t improve or if they fall back, he’s done. I like Thompson. I think he’d make a great candidate and a great president. He is inspiring. I think he can motivate millions of American. Now it remains to be seen if he can put together a campaign that can win. So far he’s got a bunch of bureaucrats. (Continued on the following page)

 

 

Think about it, Ronald Reagan was elected on much the same ideas as Barry Goldwater was defeated. (Thomas Sowell)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Page Four, August 2007

 

Hillary Would Lose in 2008 continued from page three.

 

Is there any chance that the Republicans will be able to regain control of Congress in 2008? It would be difficult in the current atmosphere. We’re down by that much. It’s up to the Republicans to make the election break away and become more competitive. I expect the Democrats in this election to pull out a lead and hold a lead through most of the campaign. It’s up to the Republican candidate to come from behind to win this by laying out a stark ideological choice for the American people. I’m not one of those who say the guy in the middle wins. The guy who makes the most sense wins. Reagan proved that.

 

With the right Republican candidate, the right timing and the Democratic Party doing damage to itself as they always seem to do when the opportunity confronts them, the GOP may pull it off _____________________________________________________________________________________

 

Straight Talk

What the war on terror is really all about

By Jimmy L. Cash, Brigadier General, USAF, retired

 

The current battle we are engaged in is much bigger than just Iraq. What happens in the next year will affect this country and how our kids and grandkids live throughout their lifetime and beyond. Radical Islam has been attacking the West since the seventh century. They have been defeated in the past and decimated to the point of taking hundreds of years to recover. But, they can never be totally defeated. Their birth rates are so far beyond civilized world rates that they recover and try to dominate again.

 

There are eight terror-sponsoring countries that make up the grand threat to the West. Two, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, just need firm pressure from the West to make major reforms. They need to decide who they are really going to support and commit to that support. The answer is simple. They will support who they think will hang in there until the end, and win. We aren’t sending good signals in that direction now.

 

The other six, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria, North Korea and Libya will require regime change or a major policy shift. Now lets look more closely.

 

Afghanistan and Iraq have both had regime changes, but are fueled by outsiders from Syria and Iran. We have scared Gaddafi’s pants off, and he has given up his quest for nuclear weapons, so I don’t think Libya is a threat. North Korea (the non-Islamic threat) can be handled diplomatically by buying them off. They are starving. That leaves Syria and Iran. Syria is like a frightened puppy. Without the support of Iran they will join the stronger side. So where does that leave us? Sooner or later we will be forced to confront Iran, and it had better be before they get nuclear capability.

 

In 1989 I served as a Command Director inside the Cheyenne Mountain complex located near Colorado Springs, Colorado for almost three years. My job there was to observe (through classified means) every missile shot anywhere in the world and assess if it was a threat to the U.S. or Canada. If any shot was threatening to either nation I had only minutes to advise the president, as he had only minutes to respond. I watched Iran and Iraq shoot missiles at each other every day, and all day long for months. They killed hundred of thousands of their people. Know why? They were fighting for control of the Middle East and the enormous supply of oil.

 

At that time, they were preoccupied with their internal problems and could care less about toppling the West. Oil prices were fairly stable and we could not see an immediate threat. Well, the worst part of what we have done as a nation in Iraq is to do away with the military capability of one of those nations. Now, Iran has a clear field to dominate the Middle East, since Iraq is no longer a threat to them. They have turned their attention to the only other threat to their dominance, the United States. They are convinced they will win, because the United States is so divided, and the Democrats (who now control Congress and may control the presidency in 2008) have openly said we are pulling out. (Continued on the following page)

 

If we forget what we have done we will forget who we are. (Ronald Reagan, Farewell address)

 

 

 

 

 

Page Five, August 2007

 

Straight Talk (Continued from Page Four)

 

Do you have any idea what will happen if the entire Middle East turns their support to Iran, which they will obviously do if we pull out? It is not only the price of oil we will have to worry about, but the availability. I personally would vote for a presidential candidate who did what JFK did with the space program….declare a goal to bring this country total energy independence in a decade.

 

Yes, it is about oil. The economy of this country will totally die if the Middle East supply of oil is cut off. It will not be recession. It will be a depression that will make 1929 look like the “good old days.”

 

The bottom line is simple. If Iran is forced to fall in line, the fighting in Iraq will end overnight, and the nightmare will be over. One way or another, Iran must be forced to join modern times and the global community. It will mean real war…if so, now is the time, before we face a nuclear Iran with the capacity to destroy Israel and begin a new ice age. I urge you to read “End Game” by two of our best Middle East experts, American patriots and retired military generals, Paul Vallely and Tom McInerney. (sometimes seen on the Fox News channel) They are our finest and totally honest in their assessment of why victory in the Middle East is so important and how it can be won. Proceeds for the book go to a memorial fund for our fallen soldiers who served the country during the war on terror. You can find the books by going to the internet through Stand-up America at www.ospreyradio.us or www.righttalk.com.

 

On the other hand we have several very angry retired generals today, who evidently have not achieved their lofty goals and insist on ranting and raving about the war. They are wrong, and doing their country great harm by giving a certain political party reason to use them as experts to back their anti-war claims.

 

You may be one of those who believe nothing could ever be terrible enough to support our going to war, If that is the case I should stop here, as that level of thinking approaches mental disability. The human race is a war-like population, and if a country is not willing to protect itself, it deserves the consequences.

 

Now my last comments will get to the nerve. They will be on politics. I am not a Republican. And George Bush has made enough mistakes as President to insure my feelings about him for the rest of my life. BUT, the Democratic Party has moved so far left, they have made me support those farther to the right. I am a conservative who totally supports the Constitution of this country. The only difference between the United States and the South American third-world dictators is our constitution.

 

This Republic (note I did not say Democracy) is the longest standing the world has ever known, but it is vulnerable. It would take so little to change it through economic upheaval. There was a time when politicians could disagree, but still work together. We are past that time, and the first step toward the downfall of our form of government. I think many view Bush-hating as payback time. The Republicans hated the Clintons and now the Democrats hate Bush. So, both parties are willing to do anything for political dominance to include lying and always taking the opposite stand just for the same of being opposed. Just how good is that for our country?

 

In my lifetime, after serving in uniform for presidents Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan and Bush I have a pretty good feel for which party supported our military. And let me assure you times were best under the Republicans. Service under Jimmy Carter was devastating for all branches of the military. And Ronald Reagan was truly a salvation. You can listen to foolish people like John Murtha, Nancy Pelosi, Michael Moore, John Kerry, Harry Reid, Russ Feingold, Hillary Clinton, Ted Kennedy and the fools in Hollywood. If you do, your conclusions will be totally wrong.

 

The reason that I write, appear on talk shows and do everything I can do to denounce those people is simple. They are putting their thirst for political power and quest for victory in 2008 above what is best for this country. I cannot abide that. If we elect Hillary Clinton and a Democrat controlled congress and they allow Iran to take control of the Middle East, refuse development of nuclear energy, and refuse to allow drilling for new oil, the good life in the USA will be over. (Thanks to Bob Green for providing this article)

 

A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against its government. (Edward Abbey)

 

 

 

 

Page Six, August 2007

 

TAKING AMERICA FOR GRANTED…..

The condensation of an article by Thomas Sowell

 

“We all have a tendency to take for granted what we are used to, and to regard it as somehow natural or automatic…and to be unduly impressed by what is unusual. Too many Americans take the United States for granted and are too easily impressed by what people in other countries say or do.

 

That is especially true of the intelligentsia, and dangerously true of those Supreme Court justices who cite foreign laws when making decisions about American law.

 

There is nothing automatic about the way of life achieved in this country. It is very unusual among nations of the world today and rarer than a four leaf clover in the long view of history.

 

It didn’t just happen. People made it happen…and they and those who came after that paid a price in blood and treasure to create and preserve this nation that we now take for granted. More important, this country’s survival is not automatic. What we will do will determine that. Too many Americans today are not only unconcerned about what it will take to preserve this country but are busy dismantling the things that make America,

 

Our national motto, “E Pluribus Unum”…from many, one…has been turned upside down as educators, activists and politicians strive to fragment the American population into separate racial, social, linguistic and ideological blocs. Some are gung ho for generic “change”…without the slightest concern that the change might be for the worse, even in a world where most nations that are different are also worse off. Most are worse economically and many are much worse off in terms of despotism, corruption and bloodshed.

 

History is full of nations and even civilizations that have fallen from the heights to destitution and disintegration. The Roman Empire is a classic example, but the great ancient Chinese dynasties, the Ottoman Empire and many others have met the same fate. These were not just political “changes.” They were historic catastrophes from which whole peoples did not recover for centuries. It has been estimated that it was a thousand years before Europeans again achieved the high standard of living that they had in Roman times. The Dark Ages were called dark for a reason.

 

Today, whole classes of people get their jollies and puff themselves up by denigrating and denouncing American society. Such people are a major influence in our media, in our educational system and among all sorts of vocal activists. Nothing illustrates their power to distort reality like the way they seize upon slavery to denounce American society.

 

Slavery was cancerous but does anybody regard cancer in the United States as an evil peculiar to American society? It is a worldwide affliction and so was slavery. Both the enslavers and the enslaved have included people on every inhabited continent…people of every race, color and creed. More Europeans were enslaved and taken to North Africa by Barbary Coast pirates alone than there were African slaves taken to the United States and to the colonies from which it was formed.

 

Yet, throughout our educational system, our media, and in politics, slavery is incessantly presented as if it were something peculiar to black and white Americans. What was peculiar about the United States that it was the first country in which slavery was under attack from the moment the country was created.

 

What was peculiar about Western civilization was that it was the first civilization to destroy slavery, not only within its own country but in other countries of the world as well.

 

Reality has been stood on its head so that a relative handful of people can feel puffed up or gain notoriety and power. Whatever they gain, the rest of us have everything to lose.”

Send comments and subscriptions to THE COMMENTARY, PO Box 126, Mountain Grove, MO 65711. Subscriptions by mail are $10 per year.

 It is free on line at www.texascountyrepublicans.org or free as an e-mail if requested. Lee Hutcheson, Editor.

The Texas County y is a publication of the Texas County Republican Committee, Kevin, McGowen, Chairman