Texas Republican Introduces Bill To Tighten Border Security

BY TODD J. GILLMAN
The Dallas Morning News, Posted on Wed, Oct. 05, 2005

Click To Read This Article In Its Entirety

Commentary by South Texas Republicans:

A few months ago, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison was the guest speaker at the 85th anniversary luncheon hosted by the Bexar County Republican Women. Senator Hutchison made some very strong comments about our disastrous illegal immigration situation. Our senior senator said that our current crisis is not going to subside unless we take serious and tough action.

Most conservatives believe that the guest worker bill sponsored by Senator Cornyn was DEAD on ARRIVAL when it was presented, with great fanfare, several months ago. The bill requires that illegal immigrants register and voluntarily agree to return to their country of origin after a few years. (That will happen when Paris Hilton decides to become a nun in southern Italy.) Unfortunately, nobody has had the courage to tell the noble junior senator that his immigration bill is as dead as disco with his political base.   

We believe Senator Hutchison will slowly OWN the immigration issue as a result of her new Get Tough attitude. Why? She speaks with truth, conviction and passion when she eloquently articulates why our failures to deal with this disaster will only bring on more heartache for our strained social services, law enforcement and our frustrated citizens.
 

South Texas Republicans encourages Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison to remain the primary leader on the immigration issue in Texas.  She is the key person in our state, in our opinion, who can flex her political muscle and make something happen. Many of our Republican leaders in Congress have failed miserably over the past 10 years to rein in this problem. Their glowing and glorious record of ineffectiveness was clearly demonstrated on 9/11. They speak with no credibility in 2005 as they scream crisis.

The reality is that an iron fist in a velvet glove is what we need now.  Senator Hutchison, it is show time. Go for it!  Your leadership on this issue will make you even more attractive when you consider a White House run in 2008.
 

A Hammer Blow: The indictment of Tom Delay may not be the start of a conservative crack-up; but it could mark a realignment.

Today the conservative movement is in turmoil. Different types of conservatives are at each others throats. Everybody is hurling opprobrium at the president. The loudest howls are coming from small-government conservatives who are furious with Mr. Bushs loose spending. But business conservatives are furious about his love affair with the religious right and traditional conservatives are furious about his commitment of blood and treasure to the Iraq war. 

The conservative movement, rooted in the South and west, has been deeply hostile to Washington, DC. But electoral success has created a Washington-based establishment, which spends its time doling out goodies to its buddies and expanding federal power.  

The bigger a political party gets, the bigger the tensions. Politics is the art of managing these tensions- something Mr. Bushs team did brilliantly until this year.

But Mr. Bushs recent problems do raise one important possibility: that of realignment on the right. The fact that the Bush machine is running out of steam makes it much less likely that he will be able to determine his successor. This creates opportunities for very different sorts of conservatives who are waiting in the wings.

A conservative crack-up may be going too far; but a conservative realignment is definitely in the works
 

Hi Joe, I don't think that airing concerns about fellow Republicans and about the County Party and attacking them in a public forum is helpful, especially if the media gets wind of it. As one of your readers, this is not what I like to read.

This message is an important one because it brings up a relevant question: What constitutes a good Republican? Is a loyal Republican an individual who consistently praises and glorifies their elected officials, even when they do wrong? 

In our opinion, the loyal conservative is the individual who follows the example of our founding fathers. The American patriot will stand up and speak the truth when he/she feels our values have been violated. Will we lose some friends in high places? Probably.

A strong and vibrant political party does not consist of weaklings who are reluctant and afraid to voice their opinions about the representatives who work for us. We keep the party strong by staying focused on the values that unite us.

We are a free nation because General George Washington and Thomas Jefferson stood up and spoke the truth about the absurdities and abuse of King George III. The golden words of the Declaration of Independence were reinforced with bullets and courage. Our garrison consists of voters, grassroots supporters and individual campaign donors. We do have influence.

We would like to thank the reader who sent us this letter. South Texas Republicans will continue to advocate for the values of our party.  Please use the delete button when you are upset with us.

F.Y.I. Members of the media have been newsletter subscribers for approximately 2 years. We stand behind all of our statements and our reporting. If you think reading critical commentary about Republicans is painful, try writing them and sending them out to the world.
 

Who Is Afraid Of The Big Bad Wolf? By Tina Benkiser, Chairman Of The Republican Party Of Texas

He is a small man with a big ego and an even bigger grudge. His personal and political vendettas are becoming legendary, and that is obviously fine with him as he allows left-wing producers to film his exploits as he attempts to criminalize politics and destroy his political enemies.

Although Earle will not destroy our family with his political terrorism, he is accomplishing some of his goals:

If you take out the leader, you can destroy the morale of the troops and leave them in disarray. Congressman Tom DeLay is the one the most respected and effective leaders the U.S. Congress has ever known; thus, he became the target. Under Republican rules, everyone knew that if Earle could get an indictment, he could force Congressman DeLay to step down as Majority Leader, without regard to his innocence. By the way, Democrats have no such rules. Thus, instead of protecting law and order, Earle has perverted it for political gain.

In three years and multiple grand juries, he was able to announce only one trumped up charge on the final day of the sixth (if I havent lost count) grand jury. After attorneys questioned the validity of the indictment, he appealed to a seventh grand jury, which refused to re-indict the Congressman. In desperation, Earle hurriedly impaneled yet another grand jury to do his bidding. Yet, read either indictment they make broad accusations against the Congressman but fail to state any conduct supporting the accusations. And, everyone knows the old saying that anyone who can spell DA can get a ham sandwich indicted in Texas.

There is an even broader danger than destruction of an individual or a party here the perversion of our American justice system. Earles actions are resulting in the abuse of the very justice system that he has been sworn to and paid by Texans tax dollars to protect.

One could certainly argue that he has selectively prosecuted cases against political foes for power for years. Lets take a brief look at the last 15 years. Everyone will remember Earles rush to indict then State Treasurer Kay Bailey Hutchinson, only to have his case thrown out by the judge. At or about the same time, Democrat Gary Mauro was apparently running the Clinton campaign in Texas out of the Land Commissioners Office, yet Earle failed to take action for more than a year.

Not long thereafter, when the corrupt Democrat Attorney General Dan Morales was abusing his office and trying to steal more than half a billion dollars of the States tobacco settlements, Earle did nothing. It was not until Senator John Cornyn investigated and turned over his evidence to the federal authorities that Dan Morales was indicted, convicted and sent to prison no thanks to Earle.

Moreover, Earle has publicly announced investigations into several Republican legislators just prior to an election while ignoring Democrats doing the same thing. He never moved forward, but the damage had been done.

Even worse, there have been many leaks surrounding Earles numerous grand juries even though the law requires that information to be kept confidential. Further, Earle recently spoke publicly at a Democrat fundraiser about this investigation.

Equally alarming,  Earle indicted corporations such as Sears, Cracker Barrel, Questerra and Diversified Collection Services, then  dropped  the charges against these corporations in exchange for their making five and six figure contributions to his pet political project abuse of power at best, extortion at worse.

As if it couldnt get worse, it has now been revealed that Ronnie Earle has given left-wing movie producers extraordinary access to him, his staff, and his investigation for the past two years for purposes of making a movie called The Big Buy. That begs the question, how much does it cost to abuse and pervert justice?

Bottom-line, Ronnie Earle is the one that needs to be investigated. I think a full and complete investigation of Earle and his office to determine whether or not there has been selective prosecution, prosecutorial misconduct, jury tampering and abuse of office is in order. Given his conduct, Earles resignation is the only way to ensure that true justice prevails.

Keep up the fight,

Bobby Eberle

-----
Robert R. Eberle, Ph.D.
President and CEO, GOPUSA

Dear GOPUSA Friends,

Im writing to ask for your help and support.

Since 1976, when I was inspired by Ronald Reagan to become a Republican precinct chairman, I have strived to faithfully and effectively represent the people who entrusted me to serve. And in the last decade as an elected leader in the House of Representatives, I have worked to forward our conservative values and principles through legislation considered in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Its no secret that on top of the deep sense of responsibility I have for advancing the interests of our nation, I have also worked diligently to help elect fellow Republicans. Without a unified team of conservative leaders, many of the remarkable changes weve seen in government would have never occurred. Without Republican majorities, we would never have ended a generational welfare system, reduced overbearing tax rates, or created an economic environment for small businesses to flourish.

Now, as you may know, Ronnie Earle, a viciously partisan District Attorney in Travis County, is running a kangaroo court to manufacture indictments against me. Earles indictments are the product of a pre-meditated campaign of political retribution and intimidation.

My defense in this case will not be technical or legalistic: it will be categorical and absolute. Let me be clear, I have broken no law, no regulation, and no rule of the House. But I need your help to continue to fight these baseless charges.

Over the last decade, Republicans have worked to help change our nation. We have accomplished great things and we have made history. We have fought and won many battles together to make our community safer, stronger -- and we will fight and win many more.

The battle before us today is being waged against me by the Democrat Party, their friends in liberal attack groups like MoveOn.org and, in this latest chapter, an out of control DA.

I will need your help to win this battle. Please visit my Website www.tomdelay.com/toolkit.html for information on how you can help me with the resources Ill need. Thank you, and God bless.

Sincerely,


Tom Delay,
Member of Congress
 

Thursday, October 6, 2005 12:01 a.m. EDT

The headline lately is that conservatives are stiffing the president. They're in uproar over Ms. Miers, in rebellion over spending, critical over cronyism. But the real story continues to be that the president feels so free to stiff conservatives. The White House is not full of stupid people. They knew conservatives would be disappointed that the president chose his lawyer for the high court. They knew conservatives would eventually awaken over spending. They knew someone would tag them on putting friends in high places. They knew conservatives would not like the big-government impulses revealed in the response to Hurricane Katrina. The headline is not that this White House endlessly bows to the right but that it is not at all afraid of the right. Why? This strikes me as the most interesting question.

Here are some maybes. Maybe the president has simply concluded he has no more elections to face and no longer needs his own troops to wage the ground war and contribute money. Maybe with no more elections to face he's indulging a desire to show them who's boss. Maybe he has concluded he has a deep and unwavering strain of support within the party that, come what may, will stick with him no matter what. Maybe he isn't all that conservative a fellow, or at least all that conservative in the old, usual ways, and has been waiting for someone to notice. Maybe he has decided the era of hoping for small government is over. Maybe he is a big-government Republican who has a shrewder and more deeply informed sense of the right than his father did, but who ultimately sees the right not as a thing he is of but a thing he must appease, defy, please or manipulate. Maybe after five years he is fully revealing himself. Maybe he is unveiling a new path that he has not fully articulated--he'll call the shots from his gut and leave the commentary to the eggheads. Maybe he's totally blowing it with his base, and in so doing endangering the present meaning and future prospects of his party.

I hate to be right about something so wrong, but as predicted, tolls are coming to a road near you. Bandera Rd (Hwy 16) from 410 to 1604, the interchange at 281 & Wurzbach Pkwy, and tolling all the main lanes on I-35 leaving nothing but frontage road as the non-toll lanes are three of the new toll projects added to the Alamo RMA's (our local tolling authority) toll plans. TxDOT plans to charge you $1 just to use the interchange on Wurzbach! Can anyone recall voting on this? Did anyone vote to toll 281 or 1604 either? Amazing what a runaway bureaucracy tries to get away with, eh? Had enough? Get engaged in the fight!

Unless you work to stop this fraud, waste, and abuse under the Transportation Department's banner of a new statewide "mobility toll tax," the family budget will be crushed under the weight of tolls and the already high gas prices! See how gas prices are already affecting driving habits: www.aarp.org/bulletin.

LAWSUIT FILED AGAINST GOVERNOR, TXDOT, & MPOS!

On October 5, the Texas Legal Foundation (TLF) filed suit on behalf of People for Efficient Transportation, Inc. (the legal arm of the Texas Toll Party) against Governor Rick Perry, the Texas Department of Transportation, Capitol Area Metropolitan Transportation Organization (CAMPO) (www.campotexas.org), and the San Antonio-Bexar County Metropolitan Transportation Organization (SAMPO) (www.sametroplan.org).

Former Texas Supreme Court Justice Steven W. Smith, who is TLF's president & general counsel, said: The purpose of the lawsuit is to make these local public entities more accountable to the voters.

David Rogers, TLF's policy director, said: This lawsuit is exactly what the Texas Legal Foundation was chartered to do. A supermajority of Texans oppose tolls on taxpayer-funded highways, and want government to be accountable for toll decisions, but those desires have been ignored by government.

Smith added: Even though olls show that more than 80% of central Texans oppose the governor's toll-tax plan, CAMPO and SAMPO have repeatedly chosen to endorse that fundamentally flawed plan.

In the suit, People for Efficient Transportation, the plaintiff, makes the following legal allegations: (1) Neither the governor nor the Texas Department of Transportation has authority under Texas law to create special districts like CAMPO and SAMPO; (2) Legislators serving on the CAMPO and SAMPO boards violate the separation of powers provision of the Texas Constitution; and (3) neither CAMPO nor SAMPO have authority under Texas law to appropriate the tens of millions of dollars they spend each year.

The plaintiff, TLF and others will pressure the Legislature to pass legislation that, in addition to fixing the constitutional flaws raised in the suit, makes those entities more accountable to the Texans they serve.

The Texas Legal Foundation is a nonprofit corporation chartered to advocate conservative public policy positions that are held by a majority of Texas citizens but that have not been implemented by the government."

Key Action Items: Go to our web site (http://www.TexasTollParty.com) and get informed, sign the online petition, and tell 7 friends to do the same! Also, ask the State Auditor, John Keel, to investigate TxDOT's fraud, waste, and abuse on their online web form: http://www.sao.state.tx.us/SIU.
 

I discovered that nobody paid any attention to you when you were a volunteer and said, I think we ought to do this and I think we ought to do that. Even if youre supposed to be the campaign manager, youre a volunteer. So I started socking it to em for money. When somebody pays you, they do listen to what you say. They may not do it, but at least they listen.

We are Americans First

Alicia Rodriguez, President Cordially invites you to our General Membership Meeting Luncheon Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month

Guest Speakers: Mr. Robert Sanchez-Candidate for Congressman 20th CD joined by Mr. Joe Solis-State Republican Executive Committeeman Senate District 26, Republican Party of Texas 

Topics: The heart of the City and an Update and The Future of the Republican Party

Saturday, October 15th at Don Pedro Mexican Restaurant, 1526 S.W. Military Drive, 210-922-3511

1:00 P.M.  Social

1:30  3:00 P.M. - Program

Please, RSVP by October 14, 2005

$16.00 with RSVP; $18.00 w/o RSVP, at door

Marlyn 496-5024 Jane 691-9695 Alicia 682-3569                

Marlynfeliciano2005@yahoo.com
 

New:  Susan Combs for Comptroller Bexar County Grassroots Meeting

Hosted by Joe Solis, Susan Combs Bexar County Co-Chair and

Liz Rudd, Bexar County Susan Combs Grassroots Coordinator.

When:  October 19th, 2005 (6:30 p.m.  8:00 p.m.)

Where:  Mama Margie's (210) 561-0400, 9950 W Ih 10 , San Antonio , TX 78230-2238

Cost:  FREE (Everybody who is interested in the Combs for Comptroller Campaign is encouraged to attend. Live music after the meeting.)

SAVE THE DATE:  San Antonio Fundraising Reception for Susan Combs, Candidate for Comptroller

When:  Monday, November 14th from 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Details:  Please contact Sarah at 512-327-3345 or sarah@susancombs.com

For political or non-official inquiries:
Friends of Susan Combs Committee
P.O. Box 160956
Austin, Texas 78716
Ph: 512-327-3345
Fax: 512-328-2194
www.susancombs.com

Children Are Our Future

Discussing the Importance of Child Nutrition with the First Lady

IN FEBRUARY, the First Lady, Laura Bush, was very gracious to host me for lunch in the private residence of the White House. Her long-standing devotion to children and emphasis on reading are well known. She also is interested in a number of other topics related to children. We discussed nutrition, and I presented her with a wide array of materials which she was eager to pass on to her staff. As a mother of twins, Mrs. Bush understands the importance of good nutrition for all children.

TEXAS HAS MADE TREMENDOUS STRIDES in the last year in our schools, as we combat the epidemic of childhood obesity. Further, Texas has received significant and widespread national attention because of our leadership in this area. I was able to discuss this issue with Pat Robertson on the 700 Club. He is very knowledgeable about the topic and very enthusiastic about our work in Texas. Reader's Digest in April named my program in schools the Best School Lunch Fix and said we are among Americas 100 best ideas and innovations. This is, of course, welcome news to our adults as we try to work together to craft solutions for our children.
 

He will be learning a great deal from the best conservative minds in the country such as Vice-President Dick Cheney, U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, and Senators Mitch McConnell and George Allen. There will be hands-on sessions from grassroots activism to cutting edge media strategies. There will also be national TV, radio, and newspaper reporters covering the entire conference.

While there, Schuylar expects to:

1.) Recruit nationally recognized speakers for our Rough Riders of Bexar County Educational Series

2.) Build new relationships with national conservative organizations and individuals for South Texas Republicans, P.A.C.

3.) Utilize these contacts to gain support in terms of resources and finances for the P.A.C., and our South Texas Candidates at the state and federal levels

4.) Demonstrate the strength of the Republican Party in South Texas at the grassroots level

The costs to attend this event will be about $1,400. The package to attend all 3 conference days (including the Presidential and Reagan dinners) and gain admittance to the exhibit halls/book signings, will cost $425. The hotel room on location (Omni Shoreham in D.C.) will cost $555 (plus tax) for all 3 nights. Roundtrip airfare is expected to run about $400 (plus tax).

Ideally, he would like the funds available before November 1st, 2005. This would allow for plenty of time planning arrival and transportation while in our nations capitol.

It would take only 28 people giving $50, 14 people giving $100, 7 people giving $200. Of course any amount you can give will put him that much closer to his goal.

Checks can be made out to Schuylar Crist, and mailed to:

9570 Autumn Shade

San Antonio, Texas

78254

You may also reach Schuylar by phone at (210) 663-6093 or via e-mail at skyskyrider@hotmail.com

To find out more about the conference, go to cpac.org
 

The following clubs will be holding important events and South Texas Republicans encourages participation by local activists:            

Do you have event information?
You can reach Schuylar either by phone at (210) 663-6093 or via e-mail: skyskyrider@hotmail.com

Click here to view the calendar for details on these and other events