Date: To be Determined (A date in 2006 might occur.)

Cost: Free (Bring all your friends!) 

Time: 7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.

Location: “Pig Stands Co” Restaurant, 1508 Broadway St., San Antonio, Texas 78215 (210-222-2794) 

We have chosen this restaurant to celebrate the millions of dollars of Federal Pork Congressman Bonilla has brought to South Texas. The famous “Pig Stands” pork sandwich will be served. Mixed salads and kosher meals will be provided upon request.

BONUS: Please join us for special V.I.P. reception at the Henry Bonilla Science Hall at the University of the Incarnate Word located 4301 Broadway, San Antonio, Texas 78209.

The reception will begin at 6:00 p.m. and end at 6:45 p.m.

Please click here for directions to the Henry Bonilla Science Hall (See building 6 in this pdf file)

We will thank Congressman Bonilla for providing the University of the Incarnate Word, a Roman Catholic institution, with $1,000,000 in Federal funds for a parking garage. On June 14, the San Antonio Business Journal reported that Congressman Bonilla will be providing “$100,000 for the Feik School of Pharmacy at the University of the Incarnate Word. The private university will use the funds to purchase equipment for the new pharmacy program.” This transfer of funds from your deficit-ridden government to this private institution will occur in 2007.

“San Antonio is slated to receive $1.4 million worth of federal funding for local projects under a bill approved by the Appropriations Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives,” according to the Business Journal.

Come see your federal income tax dollars hard at work at this private Roman Catholic University in San Antonio.

Schuylar will continue his work as IT/Media director for South Texas Republicans. He will also continue to work diligently with the newly launched clubs throughout the San Antonio area and South Texas. We are proud to announce that he is already working to bring back the Bexar County Rough Riders Political Education Series in the fall.

We congratulate Schuylar on his new appointment and wish him great success in helping spread our conservative message to every Texan and beyond.
 

She has been given many opportunities to give her side in free speech in an open forum, and when the meetings are over, most people believe toll roads are the least painful answer to our traffic woes.  Most consumers do not wish to be forced to pay a huge increase in the price of gas, which is the only other alternative. People want to have the choice to pay extra & go on the fast roads, or to pay nothing extra, and go on the present roads.

Choice is good. Jeff Wentworth said it best: “There is no highway fairy that will build these roads for free.”  Terri Hall’s bashing of public officials takes away from the message that we need to work together to find solutions and fast. 

Let’s not be another Austin, Texas, with terrible traffic problems that could have been avoided by proactivity and cooperation. 

In life we treat each other with respect and courtesy, and if we have differences we air our differences with respectful behavior.  I hope Terri comes to understand that you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. 

Cathy Cockrell - Newton
 

Benefiting the campaign of Judge Richard E. Price, 408th District Court

***

7:00 pm until the FIREWORKS are over

Children are welcome (under 14 complimentary)                   

Open bar and hors d'oeuvres

Please – share this email

Space is limited....

Pol. Adv. Paid for by Judge Richard E. Price Campaign in compliance with the voluntary limits of the Judicial Campaign Fairness Act 

---------------------------------------------------------------

Include me for the July 4th Celebration with Judge Price!

Please designate your category:

$1,500 Table of 8 to watch the fireworks**

$1,000 9 tickets to watch the fireworks **

$500 5 tickets to watch the fireworks **

$250 3 tickets to watch the fireworks **

$125 per person to watch the fireworks ** (** children under 14 years of age are complimentary)

No, I/we can not attend but would like to contribute to Judge Price's campaign in the amount of $  ____________

Please contact Melynda Gulley for event details or to RSVP at 210.828.9162 or melynda_gulley@sbcglobal.net

*State law requires us to use best efforts to collect and report the full name and address, principal occupation or job title, and full name of employer of individuals whose contributions equal or exceed $500 in a reporting period. Pol. adv. pd. by Judge Richard E. Price Campaign in compliance with the voluntary limits of the Judicial Campaign Fairness Act.
 

By Kimberly Johnson, USA TODAY- posted 6/27/2006 7:26 AM ET

RAMADI, Iraq — Maamoun Sami Rashid al-Awani, the governor of Anbar province, has survived 30 assassination attempts over the past year.

His house has been the target of mortar shells, machine gun fire and hand grenades. Last August, insurgents kidnapped his 13-year-old son, who was released after the governor paid a ransom. "When they kidnapped my son, he was in school, studying. Imagine, a child studying in school," he said.

In a recent attack, a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-packed car near al-Awani's convoy May 2, killing 10 bystanders and injuring the governor's U.S. Marine escorts.

He keeps coming back to work. His explanation: "There's nothing greater than serving my country."

Al-Awani, 49, and his fledgling government are under siege. He works out of a heavily fortified building, guarded by Marines in sandbagged emplacements and surrounded by a no-man's land of abandoned or war-scarred buildings. Locals who lived and worked around the center have abandoned their homes and businesses because of the nearly daily gun battles between U.S. Marines and insurgents. Marines guarding the building shoot 200 to 2,000 rounds of machine gun ammunition daily and have killed hundreds of insurgents in the past several months, according to Capt. Andrew Del Gaudio.

U.S. and Iraqi efforts to establish a working government in Anbar province, one of the most volatile regions in Iraq, have fallen short.

Al-Awani is Anbar's fourth governor in three years. The first governor, elected in 2003, abruptly resigned in July 2004 after four of his sons were kidnapped. The sons were returned. An interim governor filled in until the Provincial Governing Council appointed Raja Nawaf Farhan al-Mahalawi in January 2005. Al-Mahalawi was kidnapped and died in captivity when his captors engaged in a firefight with U.S. forces.

Al-Awani was elected afterward by his fellow provincial council members to assume the seat of governor.

During a recent interview, he sat behind an ornate desk in an office darkened by one of the city's frequent power outages. A window near his desk was broken from a mortar attack.

Al-Awani said his inspiration comes from the sentiment in President John F. Kennedy's quote: "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."

Establishing an effective government in Anbar and other parts of Iraq is a key part of the U.S. strategy to defeat the insurgency.

Anbar, which stretches from west of Baghdad to the Syrian border, is among the most turbulent regions in the country and the hardest to pacify. It's in the Sunni heartland and has become a haven for al-Qaeda fighters and other insurgents.

Iraqi and coalition forces were attacked in Anbar an average of 22 times a day from February to May, according to Pentagon statistics.

Anbar province, which has a population of 1.4 million people, is second only to Baghdad in insurgent violence. Baghdad's population is 6 million and averaged 29 attacks per day during the same time.

Anbar is a largely tribal region where people place a premium on blood ties and distrust outsiders, says Phebe Marr, an Iraq expert who wrote The Modern History of Iraq.

Saddam Hussein drew on the region to staff the top levels of his intelligence and military organizations. He paid off tribal leaders and poured money into the area, particularly in the 1990s when he fought off a Shiite uprising and began relying more on a close circle of advisers.

Anbar "got roads. They got money. They got power," Marr said. "Their kids went into the army. They got jobs.

"You've got to think of it as the most pampered province in all of Iraq," Marr said. After the fall of Saddam, "I would expect them to be sullen and hostile."

Insurgents have gotten a foothold in the vast region and have been hard to dislodge. The region is "effectively a war zone," said Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The regional government cannot function normally, he said. "There's no way it could."

Army Lt. Col. John Nagl, author of Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam, said progress is being made in establishing a capable government.

"I believe Anbar will be the last province of Iraq to come under full government control," said Nagl, who was in Anbar in 2003 and 2004 and is now at the Pentagon.

At least 20 Marines protect al-Awani when he travels in Ramadi. At least two Marine platoons, about 80 men, secure his office at the provincial center. He has hired 50 bodyguards for his home.

When Al-Awani travels outside Ramadi he does so aboard U.S. military helicopters or vehicles and never without U.S. protection.

When he's in Ramadi, Anbar's capital, he typically goes into the office every day. His commute begins midmorning, although he varies his routine to throw off assassins.

His Marine escort of about six armored Humvees arrives outside his sprawling compound and waits for the governor to emerge.

The Humvees move back and forth while they wait, giving potential attackers a moving target. Gunners in Humvee turrets keep watch for rocket-propelled grenades or small-arms fire.

When al-Awani gets in his vehicle, the convoy speeds through Ramadi's streets, firing smoke grenades and flares if local drivers get too close.

Once the convoy arrives at his office, the governor and Marines have to sprint into the building from the parking lot to evade insurgent sniper fire that often comes from nearby buildings.

After arriving at his office, al-Awani often meets with provincial council members, business leaders and his U.S. military advisers.

Iraqis risk their lives just by entering the building. "They are watching the people go inside," al-Awani said of insurgents hiding in the gutted office buildings surrounding the government center.

Less than half of the 60 workers at the Provincial Government Center show up for work on average, and two have been killed, al-Awani said.

Members of the government's legislative body aren't showing up for meetings. Initially, the council had about 40 members, but now about two-dozen participate, said Marine Col. Frank Corte, who advises the governor. "Right now, security is the big issue," said Corte, a Reserve officer who is a Republican state representative from San Antonio.

In March, al-Awani received a letter from an insurgent group threatening his family and anyone associated with his office, he said. Some of his fellow tribesmen and leaders in cities throughout Anbar tip him off when they hear of plans to target him, he said.

Marines escorting the governor always expect an attack. "It's a lot on your shoulders," said Marine Cpl. Jonathan Nelson, 21, of Brooklyn, N.Y. "If he dies, we'll just be over here longer."

A U.S. military statement said the car bombing May 2 was the 29th attack on the governor. More recently, a would-be assassin fired at his house from a motor scooter. The governor's travel schedule is varied so as not to set a pattern.

The Marine escorts assume every movement outside their base is tracked by insurgents, according to Gunner Jonathan Rabert.

"Their prize is the governor," he said. "If he was killed, what then for Ramadi?"

Al-Awani said he has no intention of quitting. After the suicide car bombing on his convoy May 2, Marines "asked me where I wanted to go. I said, 'To the government center.' "
 

By John Merrifield,
Professor of Economics
Director, Entrepreneurial Conservatism Institute (This is the new think tank established by South Texas Republicans.)

June 3, 2006

Decades of experience demonstrates that changing the K-12 system’s central commands or the people empowered to implement them, changes very little. Political control of schooling policies invariably yields unsatisfactory results because of:

1.) Unintended Consequences (May 22 Newsletter); 2.) The Lawmaking Process; 3.) Resistance to Change; 4.) Debilitating Uniformity; and 5.) Information and Incentive Deficiencies. The lawmaking process is the subject of this piece.

There is intense disagreement over just how to deliver on the public education promise of a high level of opportunity for every child, and what it means in terms of curriculum, textbook, and course content. The political process means the formation of a policy acceptable to a majority coalition. The majority coalition then imposes that compromise solution on everyone. Such a partial consensus approach, by its very nature, gives almost no one the services they would purchase for themselves, and forces many families to accept schooling they strongly object to. 

Though leadership can and should move public opinion, the lawmaking process must satisfy public opinion. An opinion poll will never reveal demand for something that doesn’t exist yet. As Henry Ford said, "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses." It takes the lure of profit, and the fear of losing business to innovative new firms to drive the experimentation and innovation to foster the relentless product and productivity improvements we see in most of our economy, but not K-12 education. Fortunately, Henry Ford did not have to build a majority coalition to launch the automobile industry. Who would have sided with him over the employees and owners of all the industries related to horses and buggies?  Fortunately, initial, high price sales to wealthy, early adopters are enough to drive innovation and launch countless transformation processes.

As the education reform debates of many countries continue to demonstrate, the political process exhausts all potential means of developing ‘faster horses’ before alternatives to horses get serious consideration. Hope triumphs over experience long after ‘common sense’ approaches have already failed repeatedly. For example, higher teacher salaries, smaller class sizes, and general increases in K-12 spending have repeatedly failed to deliver significant improvements in learning. It’s not that such approaches can’t work. It’s just that inherent limitations of the political process have kept them from yielding the results ‘common sense’ says we should expect. That record of repeated, costly futility to make ‘common sense’ remedies work is a key indictment of political control.

We need genuine leadership to recognize the inherent limitations of the political process. To break this costly cycle of frustration, limit the government role to referee, information provider, and unbiased subsidizer, which means that a child’s tuition subsidy does not depend on who owns the school the parents choose.
 

He is a determined voice for individual freedom and one of the few Constitutionalists left out there today. He is one of the most committed politicians I have ever come across, when it comes to the Second Amendment. And his love for this state and respect for its history are truly inspiring. He is also a tireless advocate for all veterans.  But the best thing, if you met him at a coffee shop and just started talking... you would never guess that he was a politician. 

Jerry and his wife Jennifer, reside in Austin, and have four children. His son Travis, also a graduate of Texas A&M, now serves on active duty as a U.S. Marine attack helicopter pilot.

The Texas GOP is truly blessed with a plethora of great talent and leadership, but I think that we'll need a strong leader like Jerry Patterson as our Governor in the future.  He's a rare breed, indeed.
 

KILLEEN – Texas First Lady Anita Perry and Arkansas First Lady Janet Huckabee today celebrated a wall raising with the Fort Hood Area Habitat for Humanity as part of the First Families Building Homes Across America program, the newest initiative of Habitat for Humanity’s Women Build program. The First Families national initiative is a two-year program in which governors’ spouses and other local and statewide leaders work with Habitat for Humanity and women volunteers to construct new homes in partnership with families in need. 

“This is an inspiring initiative that is aiding people not only in our community and across Texas, but positively changing lives throughout the nation,” Perry said. “I am proud to be a supporter of a program that gives back hope to families in need of a helping hand.”

Joining the first lady at the celebration were the Bennett family, who are future Habitat home owners, City of Killeen Mayor Tim Hancock, Habitat for Humanity officials, area dignitaries, as well as representatives from the United Way of the Greater Fort Hood Area, and Lowe’s. The home, built in partnership with the Bennett Family, has been made possible by grants from Lowe’s, the national underwriter for Habitat’s Women Build program, the Seawell Elam Foundation, the United Way of the Greater Fort Hood Area, and the City of Killeen HOME program. 

“For the Bennett family and many other families in Texas, this is a wonderful way to take part in building a life and a home, as well as becoming part of the community in which they live,” Mrs. Perry said.

The First Families program, which began in May, consists of Habitat Women Build houses.  Women Build recruits women volunteers, giving them the opportunity to learn construction skills and help maintain affordable homes for families in need. More than 800 Habitat homes have been built by women crews since 1991. The Bennett home will be the second Women Build home taken on by the Fort Hood Area Habitat for Humanity.

“Women Build empowers women by giving them an opportunity to learn important skills not readily gained in the workplace or at home, and to help families at the same time,” Perry said. “I commend the Fort Hood Area Habitat for Humanity for their dedication in bringing a community together and for their commitment to creating a better home for Fort Hood area families.”

The Fort Hood Area Habitat for Humanity is an ecumenical housing ministry that builds homes for low-income families. For more information about Fort Hood Area Habitat for Humanity, call 254-680-4007 or visit www.geocities.com/fhahfh. 
 

My mother was a very active member of the Republican Party in Erie County, New York, and served on Eisenhower’s staff during WWII in Europe as a WAAC and a WAC.

I look at his picture on your newsletter and can only think that, like me, there is no way this man could have continued to associate himself with the Republican Party today. In my day, and in Eisenhower’s day, the Republican Party was fiscally conservative and socially responsible. The Republican Party today is neither. It is the party of big government for the sake of cronies and large corporations. It is spending our grandchildren’s futures with the deficit they will have to pay, environmental destruction, lack of educational achievement, world opinion, and class disparity. It is a nation that is not compassionately conservative, but mercilessly malicious about those who might be less fortunate or even totally helpless.

I will leave you with this quote from President Eisenhower;

"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes that you can do these things. Among them are a few Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or businessman from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."

--President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1952
 

Well, it’s official. TxDOT has approved its first public-private partnership concession agreement with a foreign-owned company to build, operate, and maintain the southern leg of Hwy 130 as a toll road. They weren’t kidding when they said “Texas is Open for Business.”

Here’s how an ad for the lucrative sweetheart monopolies should read:

Texas is for sale to the highest bidder.

Public infrastructure that belongs to Texans can be yours for the taking. You, too, can get in on the toll road slush fund. All sweetheart deals are negotiated in secret. The public doesn’t know a thing until after the deal is signed. So no messy public input. The icing? We grant 50-year monopolies over our public highways, complete with non-compete agreements so there are no other efficient alternatives, and we even offer concession agreements where you can lease PUBLIC right of way to whatever gas stations, hotels, and businesses you want without competition. C’mon partners, learn the Texas way…it’s taking the country by storm. Foreign companies preferred. American companies need not apply. Get your piece of the pie before it’s all gone!

For more information, contact Transportation Chairman and “Sell Out” Extraordinaire, Ric Williamson.

Read about the deal here

“You’ve already voted on tolls”

Then, parroting the Governor’s talking points, Terrell McCombs is out there claiming the public already voted on these toll roads in 2001. Let’s look again at what the public voted on:

Mobility Fund/Toll Equity Act of 2001 that appeared on the November 6, 2001, ballot-

“The constitutional amendment creating the Texas Mobility Fund and authorizing grants and loans of money and issuance of obligations for financing the construction, reconstruction, acquisition, operation, and expansion of state highways, turnpikes, toll roads, toll bridges, and other mobility projects.” The voters passed this with 67% of the vote, and it was sold to them as allowing TxDOT to borrow future gas tax revenues in order to speed up highway projects (versus simply pay as you go funding).

I don’t see a thing about selling Texas infrastructure and key trade routes to foreign companies, nor is there any mention of tolling existing highways and right of way, nor mention of 50 year monopolies, nor mention of widespread privatizing of our limited PUBLIC highways, and certainly no mention of the Trans Texas Corridor now dubbed the NAFTA superhighway. I don’t see where the public voted to toll 281, 1604, I-35, Wurzbach Parkway, Bandera Rd., and soon to be I-10.

No, Mr. McCombs, the public has had NO SAY, NO VOTE, and NO CHOICE in the matter of toll roads. An unelected bureaucracy appointed by our Governor decided for us that the Transportation Commission would pass a Minute Order December 18, 2003, ordering all new improvements in Texas be studied for tolls. It’s like Ronald Reagan’s famous statement about Congress & taxes: if it moves, tax it! Well in Texas it’s: “if it’s congested, don’t solve it, tax it.”

That’s not what WE THE PEOPLE want. We’re NOT going to tolerate this elitist, cavalier “we know best” attitude. We’re Texans and we’re in the midst of a taxpayer revolt! We’ll get our vote one way or the other, and we’ll take November 7!

Get informed, get involved, and get government back in the hands of the PEOPLE: http://www.SATollParty.com.
 

It has been a relatively interesting week to say the least. It seems that the column I wrote two weeks ago on Genie Wright’s rumored egregious behavior against her political opponent has hit a raw nerve.

Wright, the Republican nominee for County Court-At-Law who is challenging incumbent Democratic Judge Monica Guererro, refuses to defend her actions and enlisted a professional lackey to play surrogate for last week’s weak response.

The surrogate is apparently paid to do her dirty work. And who is this Robert Colunga III that has to stand up for her? In his article defending Wright last week, he did not deny that Genie Wright instigated the situation in question.

Two weeks ago I wrote, “There is a persistent rumor a floating that Republican Genie Wright, teacher turned lawyer, is responsible for working behind the scenes to agitate a supposed lover’s spat with a former roommate of the Judge. Word is that the ploy may back fire on Wright.”

Now instead of Wright addressing the specific allegation, Robert Colunga defends Wright, but goes off on tangents and bunny trails and never addresses the egregious behavior.

Case in point, I address the question to Colunga, what does Guerrero’s former Bailiff have to do with anything? It has nothing to do with Wright, unless she was responsible for that unrelated incident as well.  

The allegation is about Wright instigating rumor about the supposed lover’s spat and ensuring that the quarrel ended up with media attention. Word is that she used her legal contacts to create the furor. It is amazing that she is bragging that she used her legal skills and the system to inflame the personal/sexual life of a sitting judge.

Why isn’t Wright confirming or denying the allegations instead of Robert Colunga III? Just thought I would pose the question.

It was ok when Wright manipulated others to brutally malign Judge Monica Guerrero and implied all sorts of improprieties. Where did she get her tactics, Karl Rove?

So much for, “I am woman, hear me roar.” More like a wounded pussycat if you ask me. And this woman wants to wear judicial robes. Oh puh-leese!

Apparently the race between incumbent Probate Judge Tom Rickoff and his Democratic challenger, Barbara Scherf-Zeldes is getting some attention from Republicans now that we mentioned it. It could be a boost for the soft-spoken probate attorney. 

According to professionals who work along side her, both Democrat and Republican, she is an excellent mediator. She was appointed by Probate Courts as Administrator, Attorney Ad Litem and Guardian Ad Litem.

Currently, she is the In-House counsel for the San Antonio Firefighters as well as the San Antonio Police Officers. On top of that she is the Chair for the Community Relations Council and Secretary for the Board of Trustees for Congregation Agudas Achim. Not a bad resume.

Both parties believe, and rightly so, that if you are going to run under the Party’s banner, like Rickoff, at least give some sort of lip service to the Party. Even Congressman Henry Cuellar gives lip service to the Democrats while he cavorts with the Republicans.

So now it appears that the Bexar County Democratic Party is slowly getting its act together with organizational meetings and upgrading the Party’s website. Having checked the website out, I notice that the Party now has a new section called BCDP News. It has posted numerous articles written by “The Democrat.” While certainly not the quality of the Republicrat, all you can say is “boring.”

Hope you enjoyed my movie critique of the new Al Gore movie, “Inconvenient Truth,” in last week’s edition of the South Texas Republican Newsletter. The critique was fun, the movie wasn’t.

The Republicrat is all things to all readers. It is about politics, movies and sometimes fashion.  

That’s the moderate viewpoint. I AM the Republicrat.

Comments from Joe Solis/Founder and Director of South Texas Republicans:

I would now like to address the ongoing Republicrat debate focused on candidate Genie Wright and what she did or didn’t do in reference to Judge Monica Guerrero’s personal life. Let me be very clear. We must have the highest standards for all of our candidates and elected officials. There should be zero tolerance for behavior that would be considered to be unethical by the bar association. We have reached the “Tipping point” on this issue. 

Republican candidate Genie Wright must now step forward and deny these charges in a notarized letter. It is critical that we know that she had absolutely no involvement in the recent legal affairs that involved the personal life of Monica Guerrero, an elected judge. We also want her to deny that she has been boasting of her involvement in this matter to local grassroots Republicans.

8,000 – 12,000 readers will view this specific section due to the interest in this ongoing debate. I’m enclosing these comments in this edition of the Republicrat because I want all of our readers to know that we are not blind partisans. Honesty, character and integrity are the foundation of our judicial system. We have no room for unethical candidates or officials in any party.

We look forward to hearing from Mrs. Genie Wright.