The following story appeared a few weeks ago at SanAntonioLightning.com by Richard Griffing.  We are posting the story now since the craziness of Election Day is behind us. PLEASE follow this story because the message at the end affects you.

“YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK”
'The Ghost In The County Courthouse' /SAL POLITICAL SNITCH – Commentary by Richard Griffing

Original Link: http://sanantoniolightning.com/ghostcourt.html

Joe Solis: The commentary revolves around the e-mail posted below. It was sent to Bexar County District Clerk Managers and District Clerk Supervisors by Jacqueline Ibarra, Bexar County District Clerk's Office_, Division Chief-Civil Operations. The e-mail describes how employees of the county will get “administrative leave” for their “donations” to the United Way. 

Here is a copy of the original e-mail:

-----Original Message-----
From: Ibarra, Jacqueline
Sent: Tuesday, October 24, 2006 9:32 AM
To: District Clerk Managers; District Clerk Supervisors
Cc: Plate, Melissa; Abundis, Elva
Subject: United Way Incentives

Good Morning

On top of the 15-minute administrative leave for attending the United Way Presentation, Mrs. Montemayor has approved administrative leave for your donations. Below are added incentives:  

For your donation of                    Incentive - Administrative Leave

$5.00 - $9.99                                            15 minutes

$10.00 - $14.99                                        30 minutes

$15.00 - $19.99                                        1 hour and 15 minutes

$20.00- and above                                 1 hour and 45 minutes
(with or without payroll deduction)

Please pass this along to the employees. 
Please let me know if you have any questions. 

Jacqueline Ibarra
Bexar County District Clerk's Office
Division Chief-Civil Operations
jibarra@co.bexar.tx.us
(210) 335-2703

Joe Solis: Richard of the SanAntonioLightning.com asked Bexar County Commissioner Paul Elizondo about this. An approved recording of this phone interview can be found at the link below. It is a fascinating discussion because the commissioner simply does not understand what the big deal is. According to him, it is not really taxpayer money. Right? Listen….

http://sanantoniolightning.com/gohostcourt.mp3

Joe Solis Commentary: Don’t you love Bexar County politics? Give money to the United Way and your county leaders will give county employees “Incentive - Administrative Leave.” Consider these questions posed by Griffing of the Lightning:

1.) What gives county leaders the right to give employees “Incentive - Administrative Leave” subsidized by taxpayers if they give to the right charity? Why should the United Way have this amazing privilege?

2.) What constitutes “taxpayer” dollars? Who does this money belong to? After you hear the commissioner, it is obvious that they see these taxpayer dollars as part of their private stash that they can dole out. They seem to have this feeling that they work for IBM and not a public institution.

What is the purpose of this segment? Here is the big message.

Too many of our elected officials and government workers still believe taxpayer dollars belong to them. I have picked on a few local Democrats in the piece above. Let me expand this story to our own camp.

Look at how some of our own “Conservative Republicans” in Congress have behaved recently and it is obvious why we lost so many seats on Election Day. We are running massive deficits but we still have money for all kinds of local projects for those who are connected or who have the best lobbyists. 

Bexar County has endless organizations and institutions who love federal PORK. Our officials in Washington keep feeding it to them and these institutional leaders have become worse than crystal meth addicts. The San Antonio Current, a local liberal newsletter, has taken Dr. Ricardo Romo, president of UTSA, to task for his political activities in support of local Republicans this election year. They are right. These cozy relationships between local institutional leaders and our politicians in D.C. are improper, inappropriate and crass.  

Where is the ordinary taxpayer in this process?

You are supposed to send in your tax dollars and keep quiet. The politicians and the well-connected “leaders” know how to spend your money. Besides, it is really not your money. The money belongs to us-the taxpayers. It does not belong to the government.

We lost Congress because many of our elected officials have lost touch with us-- ordinary Texans. 

It is all about money to them. This is how they think:

Just dole it out to the district and they will come.  Send those checks to Bexar County so you will be loved by the masses.  Bring down those thick slabs of PORK.  Your values are not as important as those federal dollars.

The voters got it right on Election Day!  They threw us out because we have become corrupt, arrogant and out of touch with the taxpayers. 

Will our “conservative” leaders get it?

Based on what I have seen recently, we are going to be out of power for many years to come in Washington.

Why? They still don’t get it.

Our “House” cleaning has already started.

Let's do it right. Vote your values!

Peter 5:2: Be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care, serving as overseers—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve;

Mark 10:45: For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

Matthew 25:40: "Whatsoever you have done unto the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me."
 

Schuylar poses for a picture in front of the original Liberty Bell

First Lady Laura Bush Speaks At Event With now Former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum (PA)

While I enjoyed my overall experience in Pennsylvania for the RNC’s Get Out The Vote campaign, I learned several things NOT to do in campaigning.

1.) Do not ignore subordinates.

2.)Do not assume your superiors have a great deal of experience.

3.) Do not assume your phone lists are current, or that you are the only one calling off that list.

4.) Do not assume that just because your phone list says you are calling Republicans that you actually are.

5.) Do not assume that your polling location list is up to date.

The first rule of leadership is not to ignore those under you. You have to motivate your staff to work their butts off and praise them when they do! You also need to be receptive and encouraging when their days are not seemingly very productive even though they work hard. Unfortunately, this environment really did not exist in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania. It seemed leadership was in its own little world and would only venture into our world when a photo opportunity arose with various photographers and videographers. For all the seeming desire to get on TV or in print, they tried their hardest to say as little as they could to the media. I see this as poor leadership, not necessarily of their own making as they could have been following poor advice from their own superiors, but poor leadership existed nonetheless. Leaders are only as good as the subordinates who follow them. Furthermore, leaders stand shoulder to shoulder with their team, not lock themselves in their office avoiding those that make them what they are.

Now the ‘leadership style’ used by those in charge at Blue Bell, could be due in part, to a lack of experience. It is very important to remember that not everyone who is placed in leadership positions has the same experience as those who work under them. The Blue Bell office was run by two people who are still in college and only been in their positions during the last 2 years. There was also another issue resulting from this. These folks in turn placed their college buddies in charge of projects and activities, regardless of the several volunteers who were far better suited to lead such things. A good leader also knows how to mix things up, have people doing different tasks, not just the same thing for two weeks straight. A stagnant volunteer makes for a bored and unhappy volunteer, especially for those with more experience and a larger skill set.

The phone banks all over the state of Pennsylvania, from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia, had one HUGE problem. The lists were not current. I cannot tell you the number of dead people we were calling! Last I checked, my voter registration card said REPUBLICAN, not Democrat. Some had been dead for nearly 2 YEARS. Now, I expect better from any state Republican Party than to give phone lists that are as much as two years out of date. Another big problem along the lines of phone lists is that there were duplicates at all of the other phone bank centers across the state.  Some people were getting 3 to 5 calls per DAY because of this unnecessary error. Suffice it to say, many people were very, very tired of the calls and some were notably angry!

Another interesting tidbit I learned is that despite being told all those we were calling were Republicans, many were NOT! I cannot tell you the number of times we called people who said they were registered Democrats. It makes me wonder just where these lists really came from. I really became concerned that we were really aiding the wrong side with all our hard work. This led to many of us feeling quite discouraged in our efforts.

Yet another problem arose frequently during the last 3 days of the election. We found even the list of polling locations was woefully lacking in accurate information. We called countless people reminding of their polling location, just to find out that the information we were giving them was wrong! In a given hour, probably 100 people would be called, so that gives you an idea of how many callbacks would have to be made every time an error was found.

To wrap things up, the biggest problems we faced in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania (Montgomery County) were lack of experienced leadership and out of date phone bank lists. I guess you could say we learned more about what to do right in a campaign by seeing the wrong things that were done in a campaign. Of course, much of the above is Politics 101, at the High School level.
 

By John Merrifield,
Professor of Economics
Director, Entrepreneurial Conservatism Institute

November 27th, 2006

One of the critical challenges of entrepreneurial K-12 reform efforts is getting people to think outside the box created by the existing system. As we all know, ignorance is a much smaller problem than beliefs that are false. A lot of cause-effect assumptions are the result of decades of political control of schooling, public school uniformity, and giving much larger subsidies to users of the traditional neighborhood public school. Users of chartered schools get smaller subsidies, and private school users have to pay twice.

One assumption constantly asserted by school choice opponents is that race will play a major role in school selection. Race has been a smaller factor than is often asserted, and it will be a smaller factor in a free enterprise-driven system of competing schools of choice than it is in our current system. In parent surveys, student body composition ranks below academic issues. But our current system exaggerates the importance of race by eliminating most of the potential academic differences between schools that would be compelling reasons to prefer some schools over others. Because of uniformity in academic policies, race can easily become the highest ranking actual difference between the available schools, and thus the choice determinant.

Because church-run schools dominate existing private schooling options, many people see school choice through vouchers or tax credits as separation of church and state issues. But churches dominate private schooling now only because churches have huge advantages in performing the super-human feat of getting some people to pay for something that is already available for no additional charge beyond taxes that must be paid. Churches can cheaply offer something public schools cannot (religion), and they can use other sources of income to keep the tuition below the full cost of the schooling. Ending the public school monopoly on school taxes would expand secular private schooling much more than church-run school enrollments. Since many people currently use church-run schools despite the religion aspect, increased availability of secular choices might even shrink churches’ share of school enrollments.

Because existing private schools do not serve a very large share of the population, and few are profitable, it is often asserted/assumed that they cannot serve everyone. Supposedly, they ‘dump’ the hard to educate on the public school system, and keep the easy-to-educate rich kids. Indeed, the opposite is much closer to the truth. Chartered public schools and private schools specialize in alternative education and innovative methods effective with some kids often succeed where public schools have failed. Many children are sent to such schools by the public schools.

Because school choice programs of any kind are new and rare, they are often called experiments. Within the severe limitations imposed on the rare U.S. school choice programs, they are experiments. But none of them are experiments in market-driven schooling. The widespread delusion that choice expansion, however limited, creates a market experiment may be the most debilitating false assumption. Lackluster results of restriction-laden choice could slander market-driven school reform to the point where we give up on it before it actually receives a fair trial.
 

Posted on 11/20/2006 1:34:03 PM CST by SwinneySwitch

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1741663/posts

ICHTO President, Rahim Mashayi, left Tehran for Mexico City to discuss bilateral ties in tourism and cultural heritage. The president of Iran’s Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization (ICHTO) will discuss bilateral cooperation in cultural heritage and tourism with the Mexican counterparts.

Tehran, 20 November 2006 (CHN Foreign Desk) -- Iran and Mexico will sign cooperation agreement for developing cultural heritage and tourism interactions between the two countries.

The agreement will be signed in the Mexican capital during Mashayi’s visit to Mexico. During his visit, Rahim Mashayi will meet with Mexico’s ministers of tourism and culture to discuss the terms of cooperation in detail.

Announcing this news, Mohammad-Kazem Kholdi-Nasab, director of ICHTO’s International Department said: “The protocol of cooperation has already been submitted to the Mexican cultural heritage authorities and Mashayi’s visit to Mexico aims at expanding mutual cooperation between the two countries in different fields related to cultural heritage and tourism industry.”

History of cooperation in tourism-related fields between Iran and Mexico goes back to 7 years ago when the two countries decided to launch joint programs to improve their tourism industries. Iran is now intending to expand this cooperation further.

Mashayi who was accompanied by director of Iran’s National Museum, Mohammad Reza Kargar, left Tehran for Mexico City last night. They have both been invited to inaugurate the exhibition of 10,000 years of Persian art and civilization entitled “Iran, Symbol of Paradise” which had previously been postponed several times. The exhibition will soon open up to visitors in the Mexican capital, featuring about 400 Persian historical relics from the pre-Islamic period up to the Qajar dynastic era (1787-1921 AD).

Soudabeh Sadigh foreigndesk@chn.ir
 

Republican Women Carter Casteel: Outgoing Texas District 73 Representative Carter Casteel accepts a plaque honoring her service to the New Braunfels Republican Women. Casteel reminded members of the importance of ethics and, "If you don't run, you can't win."

Republican Women Installation of 2007-2008 Officers November, 2006: Toni Anne Dashiel, 1st Vice President Texas Federation of Republican Women installs NBRW 2007-2008 officers President Sami Devilliers, 1st Vice President Jennifer Lambert, 2nd Vice President Programs Suzanne Johnson, 3rd Vice President Membership Sandy Perry, 4th Vice President Campaign Activities Ruth Pharris, 5th Vice President Public Relations Stephanie Bascom, PAC treasurer Lynn Schwind, Secretary Marian Hicks, Chaplain Debbie Tucker, and recording secretary Ellen Lester.

Toni Anne Dashiel, 1st Vice President of the Texas Federation of Republican Women, spoke on the history of the National Federation of Republican Women prior to introducing the Officers for 2007-2008. New officers include President Sami Devilliers, 1st Vice President Jennifer Lambert, 2nd Vice President Programs Suzanne Johnson, 3rd Vice President Membership Sandy Perry, 4th Vice President Campaign Activities Ruth Pharris, 5th Vice President Public Relations Stephanie Bascom, PAC treasurer Lynn Schwind, Secretary Marian Hicks, Chaplain Debbie Tucker, and recording secretary Ellen Lester.

Former New Braunfels Mayor and NBRW Past President Jan Kennady presented a plaque to Representative Carter Casteel, noting her service to the club. Casteel spoke for several minutes about her loss in the March Republican Primary to Nathan Macias, who went on to win the District. She reminded members of the importance of ethics and, "If you don't run, you can't win."

There will be no December meeting due to the Annual Tour of Homes on December 2, 2006. For more information on the tour, check the NBRW website, www.nbrw.org.

Submitted by Beverly B. Nuckols, MD, 5th Vice President Public Relations 2005-2006.
 

Colin Kaufman

Andrew Huffmeyer

CORPUS CHRISTI - Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott applauded a guilty verdict handed down today in a Nueces County criminal fraud case that involved two men who diverted $400,000 from a dying man’s estate. A former accountant and attorney conspired to drain the estate of elderly coma victim Col. Arthur Wilson Carothers. His estate was valued at about $960,000. The victim had previously designated a church and university as the primary beneficiaries of his estate.

“The scope of this white-collar crime is unconscionable,” said Attorney-General Abbott. “These men worked together to clean out the trust fund of their elderly client while he was in a coma following a pedestrian accident.”

“I am pleased we are exposing the depths to which both of these men would stoop to enrich themselves, and the justice that is being served upon them because of this crime.”

Colin Kaufman, 59, a disbarred attorney, was found guilty of first-degree felony misapplication of fiduciary property and faces up to 99 years to life in prison. The sentencing phase of the trial continues today before visiting District Judge Joaquin Villarreal III.

As the case headed to trial this week, Andrew Huffmeyer, 56, a former certified public accountant, chose to plead guilty Monday to the identical charge in his role of helping Kaufman expend approximately $400,000 from the victim’s trust accounts. Huffmeyer will serve five years in prison for the crime but also testified in this week’s trial against co-conspirator Kaufman.  Both men have since lost their professional licenses.

Carothers, who had been a client of Huffmeyer’s before 2002, was hit by a truck and fell into a coma. As a result of the accident, Carothers also had to have a leg amputated. An attorney who drafted Carothers’ will and trust testified for the state that fees for the services the two purported to provide should not have exceeded $17,000.

The two conspired with others to blatantly defraud Carothers and his estate, running up exorbitant expenses. As part of this scheme, the two billed the estate $49,000 for a trip to the northeast to change a signature card for estate management purposes, typically a simple and inexpensive legality. They also worked with others to charge Carothers’ estate more than $260,000 for conferences that were usually held at Corpus Christi restaurants.

Evidence presented during the trial proved that Kaufman was disbarred by the State Bar of Texas due to his unethical and illegal actions in a federal bankruptcy case. Kaufman was ordered to pay back $214,000 to the trust in this bankruptcy and later was ordered to pay the State Bar more than $40,000 in restitution for the cost of litigating his law license.

Indiana University Foundation and the United Methodist Church of Mulberry, Indiana, were to be the primary beneficiaries of Carothers’ estate.

Assistant Attorneys-General David Glickler and Shane Attaway prosecuted this case, with assistance from Nueces County Assistant District Attorney George Schimmel. The Attorney General took the case at the request of Nueces County District Attorney Carlos Valdez.
 

This is a series by an anonymous political insider in Bexar County. The views of this author do not represent the views of South Texas Republicans. 

Another week closer to the great face off in December and Democrats are trying to coalesce around Zero, while Horrible is racking up the contributions. Oh, what a wonderful fate we have to look forward to very soon.

A fundraiser held for Ciro recently turned out to be a total flop. Reports are that less than 30 people turned out for the event at the La Tuna Restaurant downtown. The sadder tale is that very few elected officials showed up in support, except for Commissioner Chico Rodriguez, Ciro’s brother, and Commissioner Tommy Adkisson.

One of my friends who attended said she was disappointed that more people didn’t show up and that elected officials were conspicuously absent. That does not bode well. 

Let’s move to something else for now. .  

This week I would like to concentrate on the letter to the editor that failed State Rep. District 118 candidate Steve Salyer wrote to the South Texas Republican Newsletter. 

While he made some good points, he was way off base on others. His first statement that I disagree with is that he said Republicans are good, kind, honest and gentle people. Maybe at the grass roots, but the Republican leadership is vile, self-serving, arrogant and least of all, gentle.  

What is President Bush’s most often used phrase? “Bring it on!” Sounds like an in your face attitude, if you ask me. Now that the Democrats have swept in, he suddenly wants to work with Democrats. I guess we will now see his compassionate conservatism emerge.  Barf!

Then of course, there are Karl Rove, Tom Delay, Mark Foley, Donald Rumsfeld, Rush Limbaugh, Rick Perry, Tom Craddick and we can’t forget Henry “Horrible” Bonilla. These Republicans sound like members of the Taliban.

I do agree with his statement that many Republicans do think of 09 when they think of Republicans. Is it not surprising that one of our own congressional candidates for District 23 was from Alamo Heights and he got his behind trounced on the Democratic side?

And Salyer’s comment on the fact “it is not about big donors, or lobbyists, it is about the right set of moral values” made me laugh. He sounds like a Democrat.

He talks about being inclusive and tolerant as a Republican. I think he is confused or taking too much medication. What planet does he live on? Whom is he including in his big tent? Does that include gays, immigrants, people who live on minimum wage, Muslims, non-Christians--whom is he talking about here?  

Salyer goes on to say that the Democrats didn’t win, but that the Republicans lost it. There is some truth to that. If the Republicans hadn’t been so smug in their superior attitude, more Republicans may have won. He may be right about that to a point.

Rick Perry didn’t help the Republicans cause for sure and probably caused many disgusted Republicans to take it out on the Republican candidates farther down in the ballot.

But then again, George Antuna was a sure winner until he went nasty and ran those defamatory ads against Joe Farias. Not exactly, the sharpest political move ever made. Nelson Balido didn’t do much better trying the same tactics. Sounds like a Karl Rove strategy to me.

However, Salyer needs to remember that Bexar County is more Democratic than Republican. For years Democrats have crossed over because our leadership could never stay on message, much less have a message. As far as his statement, that we have 600 precinct chairs is ludicrous. Like the Republicans, we have no more participation from our precinct chairs that do Republicans.  We may have more than 100 on the books, but less than fifty who do anything other than gripe.

Last week I wrote about the candidates who complained that our party activists didn’t help them and left them to their own devises. We are as disorganized as Republicans appear to be.

I will point out that we did have a good crop of candidates on the ballot. Of course, that does not include Milton Fagin, Tim Ybarra, or the “testosterone” twins!

I will close by reminding the readers that your good, kind, honest and gentle candidate “Horrible” Bonilla is not a pillar of virtue. I mentioned last week about his corruption. I am still waiting for the documentation to surface about the amount of stock he owns with the companies that profiteer off the war. That ought to be fun reading. 

As I also said last week, this race is going to be brutal. Only time will tell.

And that’s the moderate view; I AM the Republicrat.