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I have heard from a reliable source that Sarah Palin may be coming to West Texas to support Governor Perry. We will know something soon.
If you even thought of voting for Kay Bailey Hutchison for governor, read this first. As one of our senators, she lacks the ability to see the long-term affects of her actions. Knowing this, would you want her in control of the Texas border, for example, or in a position to make decisions on our state economy? I don’t, and after you read this, I think you will agree.
Respectfully submitted,
Penny Crosson
Posted by Erick Erickson (Profile)
Friday, December 18th at 1:26PM EST
Kay Bailey Hutchison, much maligned for campaigning in Texas during the health care debate, boldly announced that she would go to Washington and stay there to fight health care and kill it dead.
Instead, today she accelerated it getting to the Senate floor in a bit of Senate gamesmanship.
Harry Reid decided to rush the Defense Appropriations bill to the floor of the Senate. He had an agreement from the Republicans to get it there quickly so it could be dispensed with and the health care debate could be accelerated.
After the Senate Democrats broke 200+ years of Senate rules interpretations last week to cut short the reading of Senator Sander’s amendment, the Senate Republicans backed out of their deal with the Democrats. The Senate GOP unanimously agreed to filibuster the Defense Appropriations bill thereby forcing the health care legislation to wait.
Even Olympia Snowe agreed.
But the Defense legislation had 1,719 earmark projects worth $7.6 billion in it, a good bit of it going to Texas.
So Kay Bailey Hutchison broke her word to the Senate GOP and voted with the Democrats, thereby ending any hope of obstructing Harry Reid’s intended vote on health care. Once Kay Bailey Hutchison jumped ship, Snowe and Collins followed.
Now we creep closer to a health care vote that may or may not accelerate socialism.
People Are Policy. What that means is this… if you want to change the law, if you want to change policy; you have to change the people that make the policy. The Precinct Executive is where policy will start
Call your PC. GOPtexas.com click on midland County
“On the day Copenhagen opened, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency claimed jurisdiction over the regulation of carbon emissions by declaring them an ‘endangerment’ to human health. Since we operate an overwhelmingly carbon-based economy, the EPA will be regulating practically everything. No institution that emits more than 250 tons of CO2 a year will fall outside EPA control. This means over a million building complexes, hospitals, plants, schools, businesses and similar enterprises. … Not since the creation of the Internal Revenue Service has a federal agency been given more intrusive power over every aspect of economic life. … Forget for a moment the economic effects of severe carbon chastity. There’s the matter of constitutional decency. If you want to revolutionize society — as will drastic carbon regulation and taxation in an energy economy that is 85 percent carbon-based — you do it through Congress reflecting popular will. Not by administrative fiat of EPA bureaucrats. Congress should not just resist this executive overreaching, but trump it: Amend existing clean air laws and restore their original intent by excluding CO2 from EPA control and reserving that power for Congress and future legislation. Do it now. Do it soon. Because Big Brother isn’t lurking in CIA cloak. He’s knocking on your door, smiling under an EPA cap.” –columnist Charles Krauthammer
By Jim Efstathiou Jr. and Daniel Whitten
Dec. 7 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declared carbon dioxide a health hazard today, paving the way for new regulation of emissions from sources such as power plants, factories, cars and trucks.
The decision lets the agency develop rules to govern heat- trapping pollution that many scientists say may lead to irreversible climate shifts. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said in Washington that the decision is “overwhelmingly” supported by science.
The move, on the opening day of an international climate summit in Copenhagen, arms President Barack Obama with new regulatory powers that could help forge consensus in efforts to curb global warming. Obama also gains standing when asking other nations to make commitments for a new global climate treaty, said Kevin Book, a Washington-based managing director for analysis firm ClearView Energy Partners LLC.
“It’s exactly what you would want to have in your bag on the way to Copenhagen,” Book said in an interview today. “You can’t go and argue for other nations to make changes if you haven’t made any yourself.”
Obama plans to visit Copenhagen at the close of the talks on Dec. 18, when other world leaders will be there, rather than this week as originally planned.
Autos, Factories
The EPA decision puts the U.S. on a path to finding “practical” solutions to climate change and giving businesses and investors certainty in investments geared toward clean- energy technology, Jackson said. The rules won’t burden small businesses, Jackson said.
“It also means that we arrive at the climate talks in Copenhagen with a clear demonstration of our commitment to facing this global challenge,” Jackson said.
The Washington-based America Petroleum Institute, which represents oil companies, said today the EPA rules will be “inefficient and excessively costly.” The National Petrochemical and Refiners Association, also based in Washington, said the proposed new rules are based on “selective science.”
“The implications of today’s action by EPA are far- reaching,” Charles Drevna, president of the refiners group, said in a statement. “This is yet another example of federal policy makers failing to consider the long-term consequences of a regulatory action.”
The first regulations under today’s finding will be made final in March and cover emissions from cars and trucks beginning with model year 2012, said David Doniger, policy director for the climate center of the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group based in New York. Automakers signed on to that plan, announced in May.
Best Available Controls
Starting “next spring,” stationary pollution sources such as factories and power plants must begin using the best available emissions control technology when they build new facilities or expand existing ones, Jackson said. The agency has said it would regulate only facilities that produce 25,000 tons of CO2 a year or more.
Jackson dismissed claims by skeptics of man’s contribution to global warming that recently disclosed private e-mails among scientists show a conspiracy to manipulate findings about climate change. Phil Jones, a professor and director of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, where the e-mails were stored on a computer, stepped aside temporarily last week pending a review.
Hacked E-Mails
“There is nothing in the hacked e-mails that undermines the science upon which this decision is based,” Jackson said. “We know that skeptics have and will continue to sow doubt about the science.”
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs announced on Dec. 4 that Obama will show up for the conclusion of the talks in Copenhagen, when about 100 heads of government are going, and help guide decisions. Earlier Obama had planned to stop by on Dec. 9. “There is progress toward a meaningful Copenhagen accord,” Gibbs said.
The U.S., the world’s second-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, is in the spotlight at the talks in part because lawmakers haven’t approved legislation to set a mandatory limit on carbon-dioxide gas that many scientists say could lead to dangerous climate shifts if left unchecked.
“To have this come out now is another concrete sign that the Obama administration is joining the fight on global warming,” Doniger said of EPA rules.
Chamber of Commerce
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s biggest business-lobbying group, says EPA regulation of carbon would be “burdensome” to businesses and hurt the economy. Chamber President Tom Donohue has said the Washington-based agency, whose top administrator is chosen by the White House, was basing its proposed finding on “shaky, cherry-picked data.”
The U.S. House passed legislation in June to cap carbon emissions and set up a market for the trading of pollution allowances. The Senate has yet to act.
A climate bill from Congress remains the best way for the U.S. to develop clean energy sources and fight global warming, Jackson said. Rules the EPA can enforce under the Clean Air Act complement Congress’s efforts, Jackson said.
The EPA move “hopefully encourages people in the Senate and House” to move forward with legislation,” U.S. Senator John Kerry, a Democrat from Massachusetts, said in an interview in Copenhagen where he is attending the climate summit. A bill better takes into account the needs of various parties, Kerry said.
Lack of Guidance
Lack of guidance from the Senate, the only U.S. body authorized to ratify treaties, left Obama’s negotiators in Denmark without firm guidelines on how to proceed.
The administration’s use of the EPA to regulate greenhouse gases under existing law provides a “primary catalyst” for Congress to act, Book said.
The EPA’s action today “cites the inevitability that we’ll be living in a carbon constrained world,” Richard Sandor, chairman of Climate Exchange Plc, owner of emissions markets in London and Chicago, said today in an interview.
To contact the reporters on this story: Jim Efstathiou Jr. in New York at jefstathiou@bloomberg.net. Daniel Whitten in Washington at dwhitten2@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: December 7, 2009 15:48 EST
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=email_en&sid=a6zu2IwpzrZs
12/8 We will have a training and discussion on Precincts in West Texas. 2nd Baptist Church Midland
Big Picture
Reelection Rates Over the Years
Few things in life are more predictable than the chances of an incumbent member of the U.S. House of Representatives winning reelection. With wide name recognition, and usually an insurmountable advantage in campaign cash, House incumbents typically have little trouble holding onto their seats—as this chart shows.
Senate races still overwhelmingly favor the incumbent, but not by as reliable a margin as House races. Big swings in the national mood can sometimes topple long time office-holders, as happened with the Reagan revolution in 1980. Even so, years like that are an exception.
What Can I do?
Daily:
Pray for our Nation.
Be an informed citizen.
Watch Fox News.
Don’t believe all you hear from any source.
Learn to gather news from sources other than Standard Media, go to Conservative internet sites.
Learn to be skeptical about Policymakers sound bites and ask informed friends or colleagues for their opinions.
Every week:
Learn who your tax spenders and tax raisers are. Who is spending your tax dollars?
Read up on government actions in your community, schools, Texas, or Federal level.
Talk to neighbors / co-workers about concerns.
Share your conservative beliefs with your family.
Attend local meetings: City Council, School Board, or County Commissioner Court.
Write Letters to the editor, asking probing questions to your community leaders.
Each Month:
Write a letter / email to a policymaker local, state, or federal.
Know who is running for office and what their Values and guiding Principles.
Join with other concerned citizens to make “We the People” a reality.
“The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.” – Plato 429-347 B.C.
Post from The Heritage Foundation on this, a most reverent of days, Veterans’ Day. It is a day during which we, as Americans, - all Americans, – should extend our deepest gratitude to the selfless people who serve in our military. They voluntarily go out into the world and perform their duty to preserve our rights and freedoms; because they do this well, you and I don’t have to do it here at home. Yet. If the current administration and Congress continue to eliminate our troops’ ability to defend us, and themselves, there may come a time when we will need to do the work our troops are currently doing. Pray it doesn’t happen soon.
Respectfully – and with deep gratitude to our troops, past, present and future,
Penny Crosson
Midland, Texas
Today, we at The Heritage Foundation will honor Veterans Day by pausing to remember those who sacrifice in defense of freedom for our country. Heritage honors all who serve past and present in the United States Armed Forces, their families, and all military retirees and veterans. We solemnly remember those fallen men and women who gave the last full measure of devotion and will also not forget those who have yet to come home and remain missing in action.
This national holiday warrants a diversion from discussing domestic priorities to take a closer look at what Congress and the White House are doing about many pressing defense issues.
Some policymakers seem want to keep defense and military issues out of the headlines, choosing instead to continue cutting the defense budget to fund domestic programs. This observation is based on actual outcomes from this year’s defense budget debate.
During the past few months, Congress and the President effectively shut down the purchase of next-generation equipment for the military. That includes: the Air Force’s F-22 fifth-generation fighter aircraft, the most sophisticated in the world; the Army’s ground vehicles designed to replace a combat fleet built in the 1970s and 80s; two types of helicopters-one which fulfills the unique duty of rescuing military personnel held behind enemy lines; and large cuts to the missile defense program designed to thwart the threat of long-range ballistic missiles from hitting U.S. shores and cities.
What’s likely next year? Jack Reed (D-RI), a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, recently opined that the Department of Defense should buckle up for some (more) “painful adjustments”-as if any more could be borne by those in uniform-and get ready to do the following:
- sacrifice defense dollars to pay for TARP, the stimulus bill, domestic programs and the federal debt;
- hand over another chunk of the defense budget to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) for civilian aid or “soft power” programs; and
- delay or cut weapons programs that are not “absolutely essential.”
Unfortunately, Congress set a horrible precedent, having given the President so many of his defense cuts during a time of war. That just makes more devastating cancellations likely in the coming years.
The problem is that, since they have no new weapons systems to slash, politicians will need to start eliminating equipment that today’s troops are using everyday. This includes replacements for tanks, trucks, ships and planes that are already worn out after nine years of consecutive warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In short, finding further “savings” in the defense budget would require cutting to the bone and hurting those in uniform. Having a world-class military and truly honoring those who serve requires policymakers to provide the same technologically-advanced equipment to defeat any enemy when necessary and protect those in harm’s way.
Providing the military just enough to barely get by is dangerous, and an outright dereliction of duty by federal policymakers whose first job is found in the preamble of the U.S. Constitution: to provide for the common defense of the American people.