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June 2006
Speech to Republican Party of Texas Convention by Greg Abbott
Greg Abbott Attorney General of Texas Speech to Republican Party of Texas Convention June 2, 2006
It is an honor to be your Attorney General.
For the past four years…we’ve worked to protect your children, to protect your families, to protect your values, and to protect your future.
We have beaten back challenges to the Pledge of Allegiance, to the Ten Commandments, and to the sanctity of marriage.
When an atheist challenged the ability of school children to pledge allegiance to One Nation Under God, we filed the lead brief in the USSC on behalf of all 50 states. And we won.
When an atheist asked a federal court to tear down the Ten Commandments Monument on the Texas Capitol Grounds…
The response: “Not on my watch� I personally argued the case to the United States Supreme court. And we won.
A clear message was sent to liberal activists…Don’t Mess with Texas.
When a Massachusetts court ruling threatened traditional marriage across the nation, we all sprang into action.
And today, the Texas Constitution is clear: marriage is between one man and one woman.
It doesn’t matter what the Clintons and Kennedys do on the East Coast; it doesn’t matter what the liberals do on the Left Coast; on the Gulf Coast, our children proudly say the Pledge of Allegiance each morning, the Ten Commandments still stand on the Texas Capital grounds, and marriage will always be between one man and one woman.
In addition to protecting our values, we work every day to make Texas safer for our children and our families.
I believe that all children are innocent, and that their innocence must be protected.
To protect our children, we arrest child predators who violate their parole, and we track down predators who surf the internet looking for a child to assault.
Altogether, we’ve arrested more than 400 child predators, putting them behind bars, making Texas safer for our children.
We are sending a message to the pedophiles, predators, and child pornographers who threaten our children: we are watching you, we will find you, we will put you behind bars.
Part of protecting our children means ensuring that they have food on their tables, clothes on their backs, and the bare essentials they need to grow up with dignity.
For many Texas children, child support is the only answer.
To help those children, we have collected a record-breaking $5 billion in child support during the past 3 years.
Protecting Texans also means securing our borders.
Everyone knows that the Federal Government is supposed to protect our borders. But they aren’t getting the job done and we’re getting tired of waiting.
Catch and release may be fine for fishing, but it’s no way to stop illegal immigration.
In the Attorney General’s office, we are attacking this problem by cracking down on criminals who make and sell fake IDs and driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants.
We have already shut down illegal operations in Houston, Dallas, and Austin—but we’re not through.
We will keep working to stem the tide of illegal immigration for one simple reason: our families and our children cannot truly be safe until our border is secure.
Another crime that has been ignored for far too long is voter fraud.
We’re working to change that. In less than a year, we have launched prosecutions or investigations of voter fraud in more than 30 counties across the state. We’ve dealt with allegations ranging from people voting for dead people, to illegal aliens being registered to vote.
You have fought hard to win elections across this state. You deserve to have fair elections. We will continue cleaning up voter fraud. We will ensure that every vote counts…and that every vote that is counted is legal.
Whether it’s a granite monument on the Capitol grounds, or school children saying the pledge.
Whether it’s a safer neighborhood, or a more secure ballot box.
Whether it’s one more predator off the street, or living in a state that recognizes the importance of traditional values.
Texans have a lot to be proud of…
You, the conservative leaders and activists of Texas, have made this state greater, safer, and stronger by electing Republicans.
We are grateful for all you have done. We need you to continue working to ensure that you are represented by officials who not only share your values and ideals, but who will defend your values and ideals.
As long as I am your Attorney General, you can count on me to do just that.
Thank you, and God Bless.
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Nomination Speech by Scott Jameson for U.S. Senate
Speech: Scott Jameson, Libertarian Party Nominee, US Senate, June 10 to LPT Convention in Houston
My opponent this November would have us build the Great Wall of Hate. And have it done at an unknown cost. Instead of protecting the lives, property, and security of the U.S. from the inevitable forces of nature by building a great seawall around a key port, she would have us use a wall to protect us from that which can be controlled with good policy and good leadership. Once again, our current senior Senator from Texas has failed to take responsibility for failed and missing immigration policies — she instead blames our immigration and border problems on the lack of massive physical barriers. What I propose we do is to have easily accessible immigration crossing points and a clear application policy and procedure to determine as quickly as possible for each individual their status as a foreign national within our borders. All may apply, without fear of retribution, to enter, take residence, vacation, or seek work. Unlike my opponent, I do not support making 12 million people in this country into retroactive felons. I do not own stock in private Texas prisons! And Libertarians will not make them pay back income tax — a tax we strongly oppose assessing against even current U.S. Citizens.
On a personal note, I have sold my crossbow and bought a Glock 19C. I didn’t bring it with me to this libertarian state convention. I thought if I had to bring it this weekend, I was a member of the wrong party.
I will run a strong media campaign to highlight that the Libertarian Party’s candidate for U.S. Senate from Texas does not support building the Great Wall of Hate along our borders. I believe that reason, equal respect and treatment of all people, and adherence to the U.S. Constitution, should be the basis for our immigration and border policy. And of course I would be a strict financial conservative for both monetary and budgetary policy. Texas is ready for a leader in the U.S. Senate. I would appreciate your nomination today, and look forward to running an open and active campaign against Kay Hutchison. I would like to take questions now.
Question 1
What is your availability for running an active campaign?
Answer 1
I left my job with the UT system a year ago and now I am a computer security consultant and an active Realtor. I work seven days a week, and travel for work frequently. I can adjust the income possibilities and priorities to allow for an active campaign. Also, I would like to coordinate as much as possible with our candidate for Texas Governor.
Question 2
Are you currently involved in any litigation?
Answer 2
No.
Question 3
What is your position on gun control?
Answer 3
I used to think that electronic trigger locks would be a good idea — a compromise between safety and accessibility. However, now I think that the most important thing for gun safety is education. For example, if you have a gun in your house, your kids should know about it, where it is, what it is for, and that it is not a toy — they should know not to ever pick it up.
Comment from a delegate
Mr. Jameson has run for U.S. Senate for us before. His name recognition would be an asset to us. Also, he has the top hits for his name on the web search engines. We could wish that he would update his website more frequently, perhaps he will when he gets the nomination. Scott is an accessible, honest and likable candidate, and I intend to vote for him to be our candidate.
Question 4
What do you think about abolishing the U.S. Central Bank?
Answer 4
Fiat money cannot be supported by both taxes and an arbitrary money supply growth policy. We should eliminate income taxes, and make significant congressional policy and law changes about how this country intrinsically supports, borrows, lends, and gives away its currency at a global level.
Question 5
What is a specific example of an immigration policy that you think should be changed?
Answer 5
I have a great friend who came to America from Ireland after he won a visa in a lottery. In a scene that makes me think about the movie Titanic, he said that actually he took the visa “pre-approval” from a friend of his while they celebrated at bar, and then he got on a plane to New York the next day. I think that a lottery is a bad way to determine who gets to come to America.
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Judy Baker, Libertarian Party Nominee for Lieutenant Governor, Speech
Judy Baker, the Libertarian Party nominee for lieutenant governor of Texas, addressed the party’s convention last weekend in Houston. The party provided this excerpt from her remarks:
Martin Luther King said: “Cowardice asks the question: is it safe? Expediency asks the question: is it political? Vanity asks the question: is it popular?
But conscience asks the question: is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor political, nor popular - but one must take it simply because it is right.”
This is the way I try to live my life and this is the way I will run my campaign for Lt. Governor. I would appreciate your vote for my nomination.
When asked for my Issues I said that Education was what I was most interested, and that I believe that we cannot do away with TEA, but that we could work and repealing unjust laws such as the the “Safe School Act” of 1995. I also said that I believe that school vouchers were not the solution because if the government held the purse stings they would dictate what private education could teach, and that I was researching other alternatives for promoting legislation to return the right to make education decisions to the individual citizens.
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Libertarian Party of Texas Nominee for Governor James Werner, Speech
James Werner, the Libertarian Party nominee for governor of Texas, addressed the party’s state convention last weekend in Houston. The party provided these excerpts from his speech:
As libertarians we traffic in grand ideas. We have thought long and deeply about the issues and we have arrived at carefully crafted positions. Our political heritage spans the gamut from the left to the right, yet we have evolved politically to encompass the best of the entire political spectrum—and we have learned to value liberty above all else.
And yet as my campaign begins, it is not simply ideas for which I will fight. Rather, it is for the people whose lives our ideas will change.
My campaign will be waged on behalf of the young man who paces an eight-by-four foot prison cell in Huntsville this evening because his drug of choice was not on the list of those approved by the State of Texas.
My campaign is dedicated to the entrepreneur who last year looked to the future with hope and expectation, but this year is consumed with fear and uncertainty. And he finds himself in this position because of the shattering burden of the largest business tax increase in the history of our state. And let us not forget that this tax increase was levied by a Republican legislature and a Republican Governor.
I take my message to the people on behalf of the one-third of Texas school children who fail to graduate from high school—a statistic that should make even the most cynical politician blush.
And the light of my campaign will shine upon the immigrant who shares a tiny apartment with six others while working sixteen hours a day to put food on the table for his family.
People have complained in the past (and rightly so) that no viable alternatives exist to the political status quo. This year, we will prove those people wrong.
Make no mistake about it—I am the only pro-immigrant candidate on the ballot for Texas Governor. I am the only pro-business, fiscal conservative on the ballot for Texas Governor. I am the only candidate who calls for an end to the cruel and increasingly destructive “war on drugsâ€?. And I am the only candidate who unashamedly calls for equal rights for all Texans, regardless of their race, creed, color, or sexual orientation.
This year, people who share these ideals have a candidate who truly represents them. The Libertarian Party is the party of the mainstream—but we are also the party of the disenfranchised, the disillusioned, and the dispossessed. All Texans now have a place to turn, and a political party that will jealously guard their civil rights, their property and their very lives.
With your support, I will bring this message to the people of Texas. I will explain our positions forcefully and lucidly. And I will make you proud to have selected me as your candidate for governor of the Great State of Texas.
Thank you, God bless you, and I look forward to seeing you on the campaign trail!
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Maria Luisa Alvarado at Democratic convention
Maria Luisa Alvarado, the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor, addressed the Democratic state convention on June 10 in Fort Worth. These are her prepared remarks.
Honored guests, fellow democrats, my dear Texans: I am Maria Luisa Alvarado, your nominee for Lt. Governor, reporting for duty. I am grateful for the privilege to be with all of you today before we go forth to do our utmost in the next few months to return our state government back into service for its people. I believe my nomination was a signal that the people of Texas are ready for a change from the “leave everyone behind� ideology of the Republican Leadership. My nomination is also proof that one does not have to be a millionaire, a lawyer, or have connections in high places to run for political office.
Still most of you here today hardly know about me. I am just an ordinary citizen like millions of other citizens in Texas. In short, I am a native Texan from San Antonio. By the time I was born, my father had served in WWII, he had been a POW; I had seven older brothers and one older sister. By the time I graduated from high school, I had a total of three sisters and eight brothers, four brothers of whom had already served in Vietnam. While growing up, I attended schools in the Edgewood Independent School District. After graduating from Memorial High School, I served six years in the Air Force, returned home to attend college and joined the Air National Guard. I was conferred a degree in Sociology from the University of Texas at San Antonio, and retired from the Air Guard in 1997.
Fast forward to today and the fact is that Texas voters granted me two statewide victories thus far this year. Over the past few months, I listened to our fellow citizens. They seem to think, and I wholeheartedly agree, that we have a few problems in Texas. We have problems with funding public education, problems providing health care to needy children, problems with border security, and we are center stage on the issue of immigration. How does a nation so richly blessed turn its back on any people, first and foremost its own people?
I suggest that our biggest problem in Texas is that we have too many Republicans in elected office. This November, once all Democratic candidates prevail, our problems in Texas will be much easier to resolve.
As you may have heard, we have a low-voter turnout in Texas. Hispanics are not the only people not voting; we have a problem with all sorts of people not voting in Texas: they are over-worked, educated, middle income, and yes – even guys named Kinky.
One objective of my campaign has been to engage those voters that have not shown up to vote. Based on this past November election, approximately 10 million registered voters did not show up. If we did not register another person for this election, any significant number of those 10 million non-voters could change the outcome of our election in November, but only if they show up.
My plan is to ask everyone to help me accomplish this get-out-the-vote objective by pledging to get 5 voters that have never voted out to vote in November. On July 1, I will begin my Voter Pledge Tour. The tour will take 10 weeks and I will visit any venue where non-voters will lend an ear. I hope to meet up with you when I am in your area because you will help tremendously by getting your own five non-voters out to vote. Now, once we get these new voters to the polls, they must be informed. We must encourage them to vote Democratic up and down the ballot: we will have no candidate left behind. Tell them about how David Van Os is taking on the oil companies as Attorney General; about VaLinda Hathcox’s plan to audit the Land Commissioner’s Office to find our Public School Fund monies; about the value of Dale Henry’s experience with oil and gas in the office of Railroad Commissioner; about how Fred Head will be a State Comptroller that provides the legislature with a full account of our state treasury and not wait until it serves a personal agenda; tell them about how as Ag Commissioner, Hank Gilbert knows what end of a cow does what. OK. That’s bit simplistic, but when they come up you’ll get the whole picture from each of them.
By coming together on our most common denominator as Texas Democrats, we will take Texas back and do the right things for the good of ALL our citizens. We are in this fight together and no one candidate or person can win this alone. There is no ONE knight in shining armor in the Democratic Party. Turn to your left and turn to your right, and there you will find all the knights-in-shining-armor we need to win big in November.
In early 2005, I found myself with one of two choices for what role I would play in the future of this place I call home, Texas. The easy choice was to let someone else with more money, experience, and connections take up the task of challenging elected officials that have forgotten that they are elected by and accountable to the citizens that get out and vote. I chose to seek the office for Lt. Governor. My conviction for seeking this office became stronger, more necessary, and urgent after this past special session when state leaders failed ALL Texans. Again. They tout their broken promises as promises kept and believe that ordinary citizens can’t tell the difference. I am Maria Luisa Alvarado. I am an ordinary citizen, and I am not buying it. Are you?
Our state government leaders must represent all Texans. They must support and keep promises for a strong economy, fair taxation, quality public education, teacher pay-raises, health care for needy children, and a core of human values that do not deny any citizen the right to life, liberty, and justice. We can no longer afford to support the best interests of already obscenely profitable corporations. It’s not payback time. It’s take back time. As your newly elected lieutenant governor, the Senate agenda will reflect the needs of one Texas, for all.
I don’t give speeches. I have conversations with you. I want to dialogue. That’s the kind of state representative I want to be for the state of Texas. That’s the kind of leader that other state representatives will also be willing to follow.
I am not here for any personal agenda. I am here because I care about the future of Texas. And I care enough to work as hard as I can to get out there and get those 10 Million registered voters that are not participating in our democracy. Now, maybe that’s why the Republican National Committee has sent out an email solicitation requesting donations for my opponent. My opponent who’s already a millionaire by his own right, who already has millions of dollars in his own campaign treasury. So, maybe it’s just a matter of his afraid of those of those 10 million registered voters that are going to show up to vote. It’s not even a David and Goliath situation. It’s more like Maria against David and Goliath.
I am not going to rest until November 7 at 7 o’clock when the polls close. For those of you here from Houston, on November 7th that’s where I will be from 7 to 7 at the polls working with you to get out the vote. Then we will celebrate. Between now and then, whether you are pulling me or pushing me, I am running with you and I am not going to give so don’t give up on me either. Thank you.
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Chris Bell at the Democratic convention
Chris Bell
A Speech to the Texas Democratic Convention
Fort Worth, TX
June 08, 2006
When I started out on the campaign trail early last year, I sat down with Ann Richards to get her advice. I figured that it would be easier to follow in her footsteps if she shared her wisdom with me. She told me something that has come back to me time and time again. She said that running for Governor would be the best education I would ever get about Texas. I had no idea just how right Governor Richards would be.
Let me tell you, over the past year and a half, I have earned a PhD in Texas. And I’ve learned things about our great state that no pollster can tell you.
From the skyscraper canyons of Houston, to the red moonscapes of West Texas, from the bright heat of the Coastal Bend, to the green shade in the Hill Country, the character of Texas and its people is still as great as it was when I had the privilege of growing up here.
This is still Texas, by God, and we’re still Texans, and there’s nothing we can’t do. We think big, we dream bigger, and we reach as high as the Texas sky.
We each hold this vision of the true Texas in our hearts, where Rick Perry and Carole Strayhorn have never even bothered to look. I am running for Governor because the Texas that is in our hearts is not the Texas we see around us.
Texas is poised to blow the doors off the rest of the country as the best place to work and raise a family. But we can’t do better than California and New York if our schools are competing with Mississippi and Arkansas, and we’re importing our ethics from Washington.
Improving our schools must be the ultimate task of our leaders every day and not just an election year sideshow or something we do just because the Supreme Court made us do it. Rick Perry and Carole Strayhorn have made careers out of doing nothing unless it serves their political ambition. In an election year, you can always find some politician who will talk about education. But this year is different.
Texans are talking to the politicians. And they’re saying that they’re fed up with partisan, egotistical, and ethically challenged people in charge of our money and our schools. And we need a governor who will risk his political ambitions to fight for an education revolution.
We want a governor that stands and fights for what he believes and doesn’t change positions or political parties every time the wind changes direction. If you give me the bully pulpit and a veto pen, I will lead a “New Texas Revolution.� This requires nothing more radical than common sense, but in our state capitol, it requires nothing less than a revolution.
Texas is a big state with big dreams. And right now we need big changes, because this is a future worth fighting for.
You say you want a revolution? How about this? As Governor, I will make building the best public school system in the country my top priority. I am calling for a “moon shot� for public schools. Within 10 years, Texas can have the best schools in the country. Why?
Every business in America will want to move to Texas to hire our kids. Having the best public schools in the country will be the best economic development program that Texas has ever seen.
It would be a revolution to free our schools from the endless cycle of crisis funding. Real accountability means giving our schools the resources they need to lower class sizes, to put technology in the classroom, and to offer a tough curriculum that teaches our kids something more important than how to take another standardized test.
The first battle of the revolution must be to stop treating teachers like glorified test monitors and to start paying them the professional salaries they deserve. We need to get teacher pay up to the national average and then give them the authority to run their own classrooms.
And the next battle in the revolution is to eliminate the state’s over-reliance on high-stakes testing once and for all. After visiting schools and talking with students and teachers all around this state, I can tell you that the tail of the TAKS test is wagging the dog.
Principals have lost control of their schools to remote-control education from Austin. Teachers have lost control of their classrooms, and are leaving the profession in droves. Kids are losing months out of every year, and falling behind. Why?
It’s the tyranny of the TAKS test. Preparing for college should be more important than preparing for yet another standardized test. These tests were supposed to raise standards, but college readiness is down, and our dropout rate leads the nation. We started out to leave no child behind, and we’ve lost a generation.
I remember in particular one high-school classroom in McAllen. I asked the students in this senior government class how much time they had spent preparing for the TAKS test.
Blank stares. The question made no sense to them. Finally, one student raised his hand.
He said, “All of our time is spent on TAKS.�
The principal who had accompanied me to the classroom jumped in & told me that “these are the children of TAKS – their entire school careers have revolved around the TAKS test.�
How did this happen? And for that matter, how did we end up in first place in dropouts , teen pregnancy , and kids without health insurance?
On issue after issue —education, health care, and stem cell research—Rick Perry is a miserable failure as Governor, and Texas falls further behind the rest of the country.
When Rick Perry is forced to explain why our great state has fallen to last place in so many categories, he just smiles into the camera and says, “I’m proud of Texas. How about you?�
I’ve got to say, Rick, we’re all proud of Texas. We just don’t like what you’re doing to it.
I have seen a New Mainstream growing in Texas that rejects the empty rhetoric and failed politics of the status quo in our capitol. Exactly one week ago, on a stage much like this one, Rick Perry showed that he has no idea what the New Mainstream is. The New Mainstream doesn’t have anything to do with labels like “liberal� and “conservative.� The New Mainstream knows we can’t keep dividing people. We’re all in this together, and we’d better start acting like it.
It comes as a rude shock to people in our state capitol that The New Mainstream doesn’t spend a minute worrying about insider politics. They’ve got bigger problems.
The New Mainstream is a Mom in San Antonio, exhausted when she starts that last load of laundry before she goes to bed. She prays she’s doing a good job as a mother and that her kids are getting a real education.
The New Mainstream is a dad in Laredo rushing to the emergency room, cradling his little boy in his arms, worrying about two things: Dear God, please let him be OK… And Dear God, how am I ever going to pay for this?
The New Mainstream is a friend of mine in Houston, ashamed to tell me that he put his kids in private school because he wanted them to learn something more than how to take yet another standardized test.
The New Mainstream is a college student in Austin who told me that tuition bills were getting so expensive that he couldn’t afford to buy all his textbooks.
The New Mainstream is the teacher in Houston whose paycheck has shrunk, whose job has become a mockery of her dreams, and who has to give out textbooks that still say Ann Richards is Governor. After the mess Rick Perry has made of things, I bet she goes to bed every night wishing that Ann Richards really were still governor.
This is what’s going on in Texas, which is why I am making a pact with the parents of Texas. The moms and dads of Texas get up every day to do the best job they can as parents, and they deserve a Governor who will do the same for them. Now, that would be a revolution!
It would be revolution to have a Governor who understands that budgets are moral documents. If we fully fund the Children’s Health Insurance Program, Texas will gain almost a billion dollars in federal matching funds, but more importantly, we’ll stop paying a human price we simply can’t afford.
It would be a revolution to stop talking about banning stem cell research and to start funding it.
When Jesus healed the lepers, he didn’t call a pollster. I believe God gives us the tools of science and technology to help our fellow man.
We cannot let politics stand in the way of curing disease and healing the sick. It’s the right thing to do. And now is the time to do it.
Stem cell research is more than just an idea to me. It’s personal. A few years ago, I lost my mother to Parkinson’s. And after a grueling battle with breast cancer, my wife is in remission and cancer free.
This is a cynical age, and I hate it when politicians exploit personal tragedies to score points on the ol’ Oprah-meter. But after watching the people I have loved the most in my life fight these battles, I will do absolutely anything I can to keep others from having to go through the same.
What kind of son would I be if I didn’t demand progress into research that could spare other families what mine went through? And what kind of husband would I be if I didn’t wear this pink wrist band wherever I go? I think everybody knows what it means, and the band isn’t coming off until we start fighting for the future and funding stem cell research right here in Texas.
When we win this revolution, we can have the best schools, and a health care system that heals the sick and research that finds cures for diseases.
This is a future worth fighting for, my friends. But before we change Texas, we have to change ourselves.
We have to take a page from one of my favorite philosophers—UT football coach Mack Brown. After the Rose Bowl, he said the most important thing he taught the Longhorns wasn’t the zone read. Coach Brown said that to become national champions, the Longhorns had to learn to win again.
After getting shut out for the last decade, we’ve got to learn to win again, too. Because Texas needs us to lead again. We’re not going to win if we sell out to the lesser of Two Republicans.
Someone once said that Carole Strayhorn is Rick Perry in a skirt. I say that Carole Strayhorn and Rick Perry are two sleeves of the same empty suit.
When Carole Strayhorn left the Democratic Party 20 years ago and became a republican, Rick Perry followed her. And When Rick Perry has had a bad idea, Carole Strayhorn has backed him up, putting lipstick on the pig time after time after time.
Whether it’s privatizing the Medicaid call centers , deregulating college tuition , building toll-roads , cutting children’s health insurance , promoting private-school vouchers , or gutting the Texas Tomorrow Fund, Carole Strayhorn helped Rick Perry perpetuate his reign of error as long as it suited her political plans.
She is nothing more than a politician in search of a parade. And now she’s trying to be our buddy. You know what? We don’t need a Carole-Come-Lately. We need a leader to stand up today and tomorrow and the day after that, no matter which way the political winds are blowing.
You know, I’m just a dad from Houston, but almost exactly two years ago tonight, I stood up to Tom DeLay. And today is the last day of his reign of corruption.
We did that together. We won because we were right, because he was wrong, and because we stuck together.
We won because we had the guts to fight. We didn’t cut & run. We didn’t sell out. Instead, we made a stand. And we won.
Together—right here, right now—we can do it again.
To win, all we all need to do is stick together. United, we can make the Lone Star shine again and restore the greatness of Texas.
Join me in this quest. By winning the New Texas Revolution, we can have the best schools. We will cure disease and heal the sick. We will restore ethics to our government.
We will be true to the Texas that’s in our hearts. And we will build the Texas that’s in our dreams. Thank you and God Bless Texas.
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LTC (Ret.) Brian Birdwell at GOP convention
Comments as Prepared for the
Republican Party of Texas State Convention
June 2, 2006
Copyright © LTC (Ret.) Brian Birdwell
Good Morning/Afternoon,
It’s great to be back in The Holy Land. My thanks to Chairman Benkiser and her staff for tendering Mel and me an invitation to be with you today. In the 1990-1991 1st gulf war, I was part of 7th Corps which deployed to theater from Europe. Our mission as the largest armored formation since WWII was to destroy Saddam’s Republican Guard divisions, which we did exceedingly well. When I returned from Germany, my brother Wade and I were eating at The Mexican Inn in downtown Ft Worth and he asked me what was my toughest experience in the war? I told him that without a doubt, given the 7th Corps mission of destroying the Divisions of the Republican Guard; it was being ordered to kill my fellow Republicans. (Pause) Looking to assuage the heaviness of my heart, he replied, Brian, that’s ok, they may have been republicans, but they weren’t conservatives. Pause
Speaking of Wade, let me say some special hellos to the Tarrant County delegation of which he is a part, as well as the Jefferson and Hood County delegations.
At CGSC, we are taught that you must be three things when you are giving a briefing or presentation to a GO or large group. They are the standard rules of engagement for any public speaking. Be good, be brief, and be gone.
Our nation is not just engaged in serious business, but deadly serious business. We are at war with two cultures, one foreign and one domestic, both of which pose major threats to the existence of our nation as we know it. While I have made light of a tough mission in the first gulf war, the toughest mission the Lord would give my family and me was on the morning of Sep 11th when we as a nation would have to finally acknowledge the culture of terror which had been at war with us for decades and to which we would finally respond and no longer tolerate the despotism that foments it.
First, I would love to tell you the Birdwell’s 9-11 story started out with an act of heroism or valor on my part. It did not. I was simply coming out of the men’s restroom, returning to the office where I had been watching the events at the World Trade Center in New York unfold. I had had my morning Coke around 7 and it was now approximately 9:35, so I stepped out to go to the rest room. I told Sandy and Cheryl I would be back momentarily. Those would be the last words I would speak to my two coworkers. I was about 7-8 steps out of the restroom in front of the elevators in the newly renovated wedge on the second floor when AA flight 77 slammed into the Pentagon between the 4th and 5th corridors at the 1st and 2nd floor level. As you look at this picture (1st slide), I want you to clearly understand what a miracle it is for me to be with you today. This picture was taken by Officer Mike Garcia of the Pentagon police dept a few minutes after the crash. The large X indicates the impact point of the nose of the fuselage at first and second floor level. You can see the oval shaped arc of the fuselage at the point of penetration just above the X. The portion of the building to the right of the vertical line would collapse about 30 minutes later. The circled window is mine and the window just to the right is my boss’s office where Sandy, Cheryl and I were watching the TV and where their remains would be recovered. (2nd slide) The second slide shows the Pentagon a few days after the attack. My office window is still circled on the left and the window to the right at the hinge of the collapsed area was what I was a few yards behind inside the corridor about to turn, returning to my office through the crash site. I did not survive being 15-20 yards from the impact point of an 80 ton 757 traveling at 530 MPH with 3,000 gallons of jet fuel because the Army made me the toughest soldier in the Pentagon or even because I am a Texan, but because my Lord and Savior is as tough as they come. In an instant I went from a well-lit hallway, fully aware of my surroundings to an earthly hell of fire, intense heat, choking black smoke, pain and disorientation. In those first few moments, which seemed to last an eternity, I experienced the pain, both physical and emotional of dying a ghastly burning death. I was burned on 60-65% of my body on my back, legs, face, neck, and arms with the latter accounting for 40% being third degree burns requiring complete grafting. My arms are completely grafted from fingertip to arm pit. My facial areas to include eye sockets, forehead and ears have been reconstructed, as well as my hands. My most life threatening injury was the inhalation injury. My lungs were burned due to the heat and aerosolized jet fuel in them. Because of the blistering and gathering of fluid in my lungs, I was in fact beginning to drown. I was disoriented and unable to navigate my way out due to the loss of lighting combined with the black smoke. I cannot put in words the abject panic that captures your heart when you not only experience death in such a horrible manner, but the helplessness of not being able to escape to safety. I knew I was facing the finality of my life and when I crossed the threshold between the survival instinct and accepting my death, I screamed Jesus I’m coming to see you. I surrendered and collapsed to the floor and waited to die. I thought about Mel and Matt and how that morning would be my last to speak to them. In that moment that I gave up, the turmoil, pain, and panic was now filled with silence and the peace of knowing I would soon be in eternity with Christ. As I lay in the corridor waiting for the Lord to call me home, expecting to hear the words well done thou good and faithful servant, ALL I GOT WAS MORE WELL DONE. (Pause) There would still be many more tough moments.
Inside the emergency room at Georgetown University Hospital, it was like a battle drill, lots of activity, voice commands, energy and intensity, but no chaos. Dr Williams told me that he would shortly put me under general anesthesia, so I knew in my heart I was speaking my last words. I told Dr Williams I wished to do two things. I asked MAJ John Collison, who had ridden with me to the hospital to take the wedding ring off my finger and give it to Mel and tell her that I loved her. Jewelry is normally cut off burn survivors since gold melts near 800 degrees, but I didn’t want the ring destroyed. When the nurse removed it to give it to John, it was like running an overdone hot dog through something of a smaller diameter except the hot dog was my blackened fingers. Since most of the skin was already gone, when the ring was pulled off, it showed exposed bone and blood was streaming everywhere. I don’t recall it hurting; not because of the morphine shot I was given at the Pentagon, but because I was concentrating on the dignity of what I knew was my immanent death. I then asked for the hospital chaplain to say a final prayer acknowledging God’s sovereignty in my life and accepting his will for me should I awake or not from the anesthesia. After Chaplain Cirrilo lead that prayer I then told Dr Williams, not from the strength of a soldier, but with faith in my Savior, “lets get on with it� resting in the comfort of Christ’s command of my life.
Mel would arrive at Georgetown and the staff would guardedly tell her what to expect. While I was unconscious in ICU, she could only see me for a few seconds to keep the area sterile, and that I would not look anything like what I did when I left that morning. No words were truer when she came in and saw what was her husband.
LTG Peake, the Surgeon General of the Army, would visit in the early morning hours of the 12th and strongly encourage Mel to get Matt up to see me. Mel would very wisely process this advice. That my chances of survival were very poor and that Matt needed to say goodbye to his father before I passed. Matt would make that visit and it would be wonderful yet solemnly mournful as we said goodbye to each other without speaking a word.
Because of the trach tube in my throat with the respirator tube connected to it, I had no air passing over my vocal cords so I was unable to speak, leaving me in the silence of my own thoughts. I would spend long days and nights counting the seconds and minutes of intense pain with only my silent plea for the Lord’s mercy through death. I wanted my physical suffering and Mel and Matt’s emotional agony of watching me slowly die to be finished.
Dr Jang telling Mel that he had decided to use sterile larvae, also known as maggots. They were needed to eat the infection and dead tissue that were putting me at great risk of amputation of both arms. Dr Jang would have them FEDEXd to DC from the Univ. of Cal Irvine Medical Center and for three days I would consider the small pieces of rice, those nasty maggots, crawling on me a great improvement to how I looked prior to their application. With great respect for the memory of Ronald Reagan, we all know that California has the best maggots in the nation. (Pause)
Worst of all would be the debridment process the burn survivor experiences. The daily agonizing cleansing bath in a large stainless steel tub or tank where you are placed in a solution of water, iodine and either a mild bleach, chlorine, or some type of antiseptic. The sting is like when as a kid, you had a cut on your hand and your mom put rubbing alcohol on it. But since nearly your entire body is an open wound, the intensity of the pain is absolutely excruciating. Then exponentially increase the pain when the nurses take a washrag to your open wounds. With my inability to speak, only the Lord could hear me scream.
All the while Mel was with me the entire way. She was living her marriage vows with incredible rigor. She was my advocate, and like all military spouses, the strongest lady I know.
I would be hospitalized at the Washington Hospital Center for 92 days, I had my 39th operation just a year ago, I would be in ICU for 26 days, on the respirator for 24 days, the ghastly tank sessions, the infections threatening amputation, the maggots and grueling physical therapy that would make a professional athlete look forward to two-a-days in the Texas heat.
There was one day that was far tougher for our visitors than it was for us. On Sep 13th, Mel would get a call on her cell phone from a secret service agent requesting permission for President and Mrs. Bush to visit us at the WHC that day. That’s a funny story you need to have her tell. They would come to the hospital, both very gracious and genuine. At the time I was prepared for surgery with just sterile towels over my arms, portions of my head and legs. President Bush would come to the foot of my bed and render the salute out of respect for a wounded service-member and as he held his salute for me as I tried to return it, he would look at my horrific injuries in plain view (3rd slide). He would drop his salute and then step to the side of my bed, champion me and promise me, and you, that the culture of terrorism that bred, recruited, trained, deployed and financed this vile act, and so many before SEP 11th would no longer be tolerated.
We have taken the offensive in the war on terror for good reason. You don’t need to have spent time at the school for advanced military studies to know that defense may win Super bowls in the NFL but in warfare or political competition, it only gets you casualties without any corresponding accomplishments. Offense is one of the 8 principals of war, defense is not. Just as we have gone on offense to give the people of the Middle East a better choice than despotism and Islamofacism, we as a party must continue to stay on offense to give Texas and our nation a better choice than liberalism. Look, when it comes to national security, we know that the C in DNC stands for capitulation. If we quit the war on terror or the principles of our conservative cause, we will be no different than our Democrat friends and we will continue to tolerate the mosquitoes that come out of the jihadist swamp, instead of solving the strategic problem by draining the swamp which produces them. Our opponents believe there is choice in this battle, between taking casualties or not. That is a false choice. The true choice is what are we going to achieve while we are taking those casualties? Just as we have had casualties in the war on terror changing the culture of despotism and offering two nations the best choice of liberty, we have taken them domestically in elected office while defeating liberalism and offering Texans and Americans the best choice of conservatism. Next week Rep Delay becomes the latest casualty in the war on the conservative cause, but not a casualty by the authority of those living in his apportioned district. If we abandoned the fight in the war on terror, every casualty we called a sacrifice will simply and shamefully become a waste. Similarly, we cannot let the sacrifice of Rep Delay and the conservative principles for which he fought, be wasted. If we quit now we will affirm to the national Republican leadership that the conservative cause or a conservative leader is not worth the fight and that it only takes a single Democrat District Attorney in a blue county of the most populous red state to cause us to say…we quit. And if we quit, we will not only invite continued persecution under the guise of lawful prosecution from, Mr. Earle, you will tell every federal judge who prefers the concept of the consent of the appointed rather than the consent of the governed that you won’t fight to insure that the word supreme remains the adjective of court, rather than seeing Supreme becoming the noun. If you are not willing to take the casualties that will come in this fight, then you are prepared to define citizenship as no longer having the rigor of responsibility, but the convenience of physical presence within our borders. And whatever rigor or lack there of is required for citizenship, the standards for casting ballots won’t be far behind. If you doubt that wisdom, ask yourself how many lives lost to terrorism since the American Embassy in Iran was taken in NOV of 1979 would still be with us had we responded to the Ayatollah both swiftly and with great lethality, that instead of being concerned with not making him mad, we would have been better served insuring he learned never to make us mad. I know Texans are not averse to a fight and I don’t believe Texans or most Americans are casualty averse, rather I believe we are waste averse. The great Americans on Flight 93 knew what was at stake both personally and for citizens whom they did not know. They understood the true meaning of the words within our national anthem that most of us just routinely sing without thought. Those heroes didn’t call the state dept. for a dialog, nor did they call the UN for a Security Council resolution. They understood that what had the best chance of making and keeping them free was a perilous fight. And that is what is required of us. We must be perilously engaged in the fight against liberalism and we must take swift and lethal action at the ballot box in our respective counties.
Winston Churchill gave us the best advice in the most difficult of times. “Never Give in! Never, Never, Never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense!� Fortunately, God Blessed you in this convention hall, our party and in particular Texas with an abundance of honor and good sense.
See you on the objective.
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Fred Head at Texas Democratic Party convention
Fred Head
Democratic nominee, state comptroller
Texas Democratic Party convention
Fort Worth
June 10, 2006
You can clearly see why Marsha speaks for me and our family.
Now, I’m as serious as a funeral about what I’m doing and I don’t smile very much so you’ll excuse me for that. Maybe I’ll get to where I’ll learn how to do that before long. I’ve been accused of being a little bit too serious. But this is all very serious to me.
I wanna talk to you about a couple of things today. I wanna talk to you about telling the truth! An I wanna talk to you about winning an election. I’m planning on winning an election in November.
Now…we don’t…we don’t have much time to get up here and talk. In fact, they told us they were going to turn the mike off if we went over ten minutes and I’m, I’m not sure if that’s a good idea, but uh what I wanna do, I wanna tell all of you how much I appreciate what you’re doing. Every one of you that are here today are a vital part of what’s gonna happen in the fall and if you’ll do your job at the local level, it’ll work.
But this business about trickling down from the top does not work. It’s got to start at the local level.
People have lost hope! Lots of people have lost hope! We’ve gotta giv‘em hope again, ladies and gentlemen to get ‘em back to the polls. This is the time we can do it! You’re the ones that are gonna do it!
Now, in my speeches across Texas I’ve been saying, “Texans love a good fight! Especially if there’s an underdog who’s standing up for what’s right!� That’s what we’ve got! We’ve got a buncha underdogs, but, but it’s time for a change in Austin! What we’ve got down there is a buncha lapdogs, ladies and gentlemen…lapdogs for the influence peddlers, lapdogs for the special interests…lapdogs for the influence peddlers and lobbyists. And we’ve gotta get rid of these people! And the only way we are gonna do it is take our campaign across Texas.
Now, the little bus you saw out there is, I think, gonna be a real good symbol of what’s wrong now and how we are gonna get it changed.
They’ve gone down and spent a Special Session and said, “Okay, we’ve got it all fixed.� That’s not true! You know it’s not true. Education’s not fixed. The tax system is not fixed…
When I’m Comptroller of Public Accounts, we’re gonna wind up having a working relationship with the Appraisal Districts where we can make sure everybody’s taxes are fair. We’re gonna reinstitute performance auditing where we can see what schools and agencies are doing. We’re gonna cut out all the waste.
Now, talking about what the Comptroller’s Office does is not very sexy, so I’m not gonna spend much time on that, but I wanna tell ya about this. I wanna tell ya that I have an opponent…and I wanna be sure nobody under..misunderstands this…I don’t intend to be mean or unkind to my opponent, but I believe my opponent’s life experiences and actions are a fair subject for you folks in this room and all the people of Texas to consider when you’re deciding whether or not to vote for me or to vote for her.
Now, I believe it’s unprecedented, ladies and gentlemen, to have a candidate for a state wide office in the state of Texas who has written and sold a trashy romance novel that glorifies premarital sex and arouses sexual desires.
I’m for the First Amendment. I believe in freedom of speech. I believe in you being able to write what you want to. But, I don’t think that’s a qualification for serving as a state wide officer in Texas.
This woman, Susan Combs, has been a hypocrite and two-faced, and a major flip flopper to use the Republican language. So I want you to know that, and I want you to tell that story all across Texas. Cause I’m gonna tell it, ladies and gentlemen. That’s part of the truth about her.
Now, you would think that your governor, your Republican governor, would know about that. In fact here’s this little book right here called “The Perfect Match.� (Book entitled “A Perfect Match� by Susan Combs held up and shown to the crowd by Fred Head). And, and Mrs. Susan Combs in 1990, my opponent wrote this book. Now, she was only forty-five years old at the time, so I’m not sure that she was mature enough to know that she was really making a serious mistake by doing it. But there’s some other interesting questions. Uh, I think it would be nice to know how many more she wrote. Whether she wrote any more in assumed names. Whether or not she’s got some that were published in other areas that we don’t know about. I think this sort of thing is what we need to find out about these people that are on the other side. And I think you’ve gotta tell that story.
Now, I told you I wanted to talk to you about truth. The truth is, as I’m telling you about her, she’s been in a public office now for a long time, eight years as Agriculture Commissioner. She hasn’t tended to her job there, but she’s had time in her previous life to write this trashy novel. We need to get rid of this lady! We need to get rid of all those kind of folks!
And this is the kind of hypocrisy, ladies and gentlemen, that you’re seeing in the Republican Party. On all of the issues, they tell the public what they want the public to hear because they think it’s popular and then they go and do what helps the special interests, the influence peddlers, and their big money friends. And that’s why we’ve got to prevail…to change the situation in Austin.
Now, I invite all of you candidates who have a Republican opponent to confront this candidate and say, “Susan Combs is running on your ticket. Are you for Susan Combs?� You need to do that. You need to pin the candidate down. If they’re for Susan Combs, you got a lot of ammo, ladies and gentlemen. A lot of ammo. And you need to use it because this is the kind of stuff that they’ve used against us for years and we’ve let ‘em get away with it. Let’s stop that. Let’s don’t let them do that anymore.
Now, I’m sure that…if we had more time to do this, we could talk about some other things that are really important.
Thank you very much. I want you to go out and help us win this election in November. And let’s tell the truth about all of these Republican candidates. If we’ll do that, we’ll bring home the victory.
Thank you! God bless you! And God bless Texas! Thank you!
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Senator Leticia Van de Putte, before the Texas Senate Democratic Convention
The following are the prepared remarks of Senator Leticia Van de Putte, before the Texas Senate Democratic Convention
Thank you very much for that kind introduction. I am so pleased that the New Mexico Secretary of State is here.
Obviously, the Texas Senate Democrats are fond of New Mexico. We were there for so long; I was beginning to wonder if we were going to have to switch to New Mexico license plates. It’s a real shame that the most recent Democratic Governor who Texans have enjoyed is…Bill Richardson of New Mexico. Thank you again for your state’s wonderful hospitality during our temporary exile.
I think there are only about 5 Republicans living in Albuquerque, and all of them were at our hotel picking on us every day.
Have you ever wondered if Republicans would have anything at all to talk about if they ran out of people to pick on?
Hey Republicans, falling behind in the polls? Let’s pick on people. People we don’t like. People who can’t hire lobbyists.
Desperate to change the subject from a failed foreign policy, Republicans? Let’s outlaw gay marriage. Never mind that we’re outlawing something that’s already illegal. Never mind that if Republicans really wanted to strengthen families they would make sure children have available health insurance and a quality education, that families have safe and affordable housing, that we have clean air and water, and that our streets are safe from predators.
Still behind in the polls, Republicans? Let’s build a wall on the border, let’s send in the troops, and let’s scapegoat the immigrants. Never mind that if the Republicans truly believed there was a problem they might think about enforcing laws already on the books before committing over-extended troops to a mission for which they have no training. Never mind that until the Bush administration advances a sane, rational, and compassionate foreign policy, Bush’s wall won’t work!
I guess if all that hasn’t done the trick and you’re still behind in the polls, you could change the subject by proclaiming that whoever leaked national security secrets to the press will be fired — until it comes out that the people who leaked ‘em work for you…and it probably doesn’t help that your chief standard-bearer Tom DeLay had to resign in disgrace under the cloud of criminal charges does it?
I would have some serious policy suggestions for my Republican friends on how to improve in the polls, except that if they followed those suggestions…they’d all be Democrats.
Because Democrats believe that the policies we pursue are for all the people, not just so a rich corporate buddy can get no-bid government contract.
Democrats believe that when you cut taxes it cannot be at the expense of public education and health care, and when you raise taxes it cannot be at the expense of small business and middle class families.
Democrats believe that when you choose to invest in people – through affordable health insurance and quality education – you’re laying a solid foundation that helps sustain the strongest possible families, and the healthiest possible economy.
Democrats believe that you can BOTH build the economy AND protect the environment.
And Democrats believe in the things that bring us together as one strong state and one strong nation, by celebrating our diversity…by protecting our freedoms…by raising our families out of poverty…and by respecting our privacy by trusting women and families to make their own family planning choices.
Afterall ladies, how can we trust the government in our bedrooms when we already know that we can’t trust a Republican not to leak a top secret file, we can’t leave a Republican Congressman alone for one minute with a corrupt lobbyist, and we can’t even trust Dick Cheney even for one day with a shotgun?
The vision of Texas Democrats is clear. Texans deserve a state and nation that offer all people the opportunity to succeed, fulfill their dreams and utilize their talents for themselves, their families, and their communities. And if those fundamental Democratic principles sound familiar to you, they should: you wrote ‘em. They’re in the preamble to the Texas Democratic Party Platform that we wrote and approved at this convention two years ago. I was proud to have co-chaired the working platform committee that expresses those principles. We – you and I – were right when we expressed them two years ago, and as long as Texas Democrats continue to fight for those principles we…can…not…fail. Friends, that is what true public service is all about, and that is what Texas Democrats are all about.
Thank you very much.
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Barbara Ann Radnofsky Address to State Democratic Convention
Barbara Ann Radnofsky
Democratic Nominee for the U.S. Senate, Texas
Address to State Democratic Convention
June 10, 2006
Our Fathers and Grandfathers Understood Sacrifice & Trust
Barbara Ann Radnofsky
My parents raised me to believe that we are here on earth due to service and sacrifice of others; we stand on the shoulders of others.
I’m the granddaughter of a WWI veteran who served as the commander of his American Legion post, and the daughter of a WW II prisoner of war.
When my father’s B-17 was shot down over Nazi Germany, flak pierced his flak jacket and his parachute sprang open inside the plane.
As he lay bleeding on the floor of the plane, his bombardier took off his own parachute, strapped it to my father, and threw him out of the plane on a static line.
The bombardier went on to receive the Silver Star his heroism years later.
I know I am here because of the bravery and sacrifice of others.
My Grandfather was a great man, a boxer before the war when he was injured in his navy service, and then a postal worker who proudly served as Commander of his American Legion Post.
My father and grandfather knew what it was to Trust the man next to you.
When the Nazis came to my father’s POW camp, they mustered the men, officers from the air forces. They announced: all the Jews will step forward. To a man, everyone stepped forward. They risked their life to save their fellow man.
Today you will hear from statewide candidates, men and women who have stepped forward. They deserve our respect and support. They are courageous and trustworthy. We are like you: mothers, fathers, teachers, ranchers, judges, lawyers, public servants, wives, husbands, children, grandchildren. And we love Texas.
Your state wide slate has courage and optimism Your state wide slate counts among our heroes a great man now gone on to his reward Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, a loyal democrat who flew combat missions, succeeded in business and in all levels of elected leadership and brought us economic prosperity. He knew and revered this country’s democratic leadership in the early 1960s.
When Pres. Kennedy set goals for the nation, he united this country and caused great things to happen for Texans and the US. When he said we will put a man on the moon, that’s what we did: ordinary people working together in extraordinary times.
And we know we did not get here on our own. I had brave men and women in uniform who saved my father’s life and a government which made college possible for my dad on the GI bill so he could become a NASA scientist, his dream of public service.
And a government provided good schools and teachers so I can contribute. I had a work study grant in college and I can thank my grandparents and my parents and my teachers and the government for helping me get where I am.
After 9-11, the people of this country lined up to give blood. They stayed in line long after they were told no more blood was needed or storable. They wanted to give of themselves. The leadership of this state and country missed the opportunity to call on the moral, good Americans who are willing to give of ourselves.
And I can thank the grassroots of Texas for getting me past the primary and the runoff with sixty percent of the vote. Thank you.
People are ready to trust. Do Texans trust our state wide elected officials, every one of them an elected republican, who brag what they’ve done when:
Texas is forced by federal law which my opponent voted for to be a net donor of our federal gas tax dollars. Yes, Texas taxpayers subsidize the rest of our country with our gas tax dollars as gasoline exceeds three dollars a gallon.
Do we trust our state wide elected officials when:
Texas ranks last in federal bring home the bacon dollars. Last, while the federal government forgot about Hurricane Rita and its effects and we can’t get our fair share of hurricane reimbursement dollars.
Texas ranks last in keeping kids in school. Last, while my opponent voted for massive cuts in educational programs which would help keep Texas schoolchildren from dropping out and given them loans. Massive cuts that would have provided vocational programs for students who aren’t college bound and are ready to be vibrant members of society, not burdens.
Texas ranks last in uninsured adults and children by percentage. Last, while my opponent rubberstamped failed administration policies 95.6 percent of the time.
Do Texans trust our state’s senior senator who:
A. Calls perjury a mere technicality? Such a person should renounce perjury or resign.
B. Ignores letters and phone calls from her constituents and from non partisan groups for debate and issue discussion? Such a person should return her phone calls and come out from hiding and debate the issues.
C. Served as the hostess for Tom Delay’s lobbying project which provided lists as to which cronies would be hired for lobbying jobs to buy favors and votes. Such a person should renounce her embrace of lobbying abuses and sell out to special interests.
D. And, in this day of three dollar a gallon gasoline, do we trust a senior senator who took more oil lobby campaign cash than any other congressperson and then votes for wasting our tax dollars on subsidizing Alaskan bridges to nowhere and subsidies for her big oil company contributors and record, obscenely subsidized profits? And when she advocates US oil dependence on foreign places like corrupt Azerbaijan, where her big contributors hold energy leases? Such a person should give back her nearly 2 million dollars taken in energy lobby money, give up her Enron money, give back her Exxon money, and she should give back her tribal money while she’s at it.
E. Do we trust a Senator who runs for a third full term, after she was elected in 1994 by making a solemn contract with America, and repeating that solemn contract, that she would serve a maximum of two terms. Do we trust her? In her announced third term try, such a person should be held to her word. She gave her word to the voters and she broke it. Come November we will hold her to her word. This is the end.
F. Do we trust a senator who justifies the occupation of Iraq “for the credibility of America� and who promises “this war is going to last a long time�. Do we trust her with our national security? A senator who has deserted our veterans and turned her back on needed VA facilities, including a VA hospital south of San Antonio. These are the military personnel who risked their lives so that we may live free.
Towards the end of the War when Nazi Germany was in disarray, my father and several buddies stole a wood burning jeep, German uniforms and left the POW camp.
You don’t have to go far back in history to recognize that a country’s survival depends on energy independence. We’d cut off Germany’s fuel and she converted many vehicles to burn wood. Using my father’s knowledge of German and the stolen German uniforms, they made their way to Allied lines and when they got to Allied lines they traded that Jeep for a plane ride to England, where they got themselves promptly arrested and put in jail, the safest place to be at the end of the war if you were in England and wearing a German army uniform.
And after getting out of jail and reporting back to his unit, my father was sent stateside to hospital. My big burly dad who weighed 210 pounds when I knew him, had been machined gunned as he descended and still had the bullets and flak in his back, my big burly dad weighed 135 pounds after the war and when he got to the hospital, knowing a little bit about my father, it won’t surprise you to know that he left, in search of his childhood sweetheart, my mother.
But when they went to get married, they found out that they couldn’t, because after all he had been through he was too young to be married without his mother’s permission.
Those were the men and women…. Those were the teenagers …. Who saved the world for democracy. Ordinary children in extraordinary times saved the world and we Americans can step forward and do it again. Ordinary men and women in extraordinary times, who saved this world for democracy; they were and are my heroes.
My husband and I grew up at a time when government leadership meant something and mutual goals were achieved by hard work and sacrifice. That is how Texas know-how put a man on the moon.
People believed that good could come. They trusted their leaders. Why do Texans trust Radnofsky v Hutchison on leadership: We’ve posted where we stand on the issues at www.radnofsky.com, in an issues chart with more footnotes than a church organ, and in more than 400 appearances statewide as I’ve called for:
A VA hospital south of San Antonio
Pay as you go spending and a balanced budget
An independent ethics commission with subpoena power to truly stop our corrupt politicians wasting our taxpayer dollars
Public financing of campaigns
Passage of the Social Security Fairness Act to protect our educators, police officers, firefighters and other heroes
A national energy policy focusing on energy independence
Real health care reform including coverage for preventive care
Withdrawal from the occupation of Iraq
An end to foreign ownership of our ports. Use the U.S. Merchant Marine for port security combined with
A comprehensive immigration and border security plan that targets illegal trade, including the drug trade, instead of targeting legal trade and wasting billions of our taxpayer dollars, unfairly burdening Texas taxpayers and
A rational, respectful plan to target zero abortions and
A debate for goodness sake A debate on the issues of the day… issues which affect every day of our lives, our children’s lives, our grandchildren’s lives
This is doable. Believe.
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Lt. Gov. Dewhurst convention speech
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst
Republican Party of Texas
Convention Speech
June 2, 2006
San Antonio, TX
Thank you for that warm welcome. My fellow Republicans…I’m DELIGHTED to be here with you as your Lt. Governor and your Republican nominee for 4 more years. I appreciate the trust and support each of you has placed in me.
I can’t tell you how much I appreciate EACH of you and all you do for Texas. You’re the men and women who helped put a Republican in EVERY statewide office in Texas.
And you’re the men and women who will help KEEP Texas and the United States on the right track to freedom, prosperity, liberty and opportunity.
Since I was with you last, I have crisscrossed Texas continually visiting large cities and small towns, talking with grass-roots activists, business men and women, school teachers and elected officials. In my meetings with the grass-roots – you! - I often hear, “Thank you, thank you for promoting a pro-growth, pro-family agenda. Thank you for keeping our taxes low.”
But I also hear some frustrations. Which surprises me, but I listen. Carefully. And in almost every case, at the end of each meeting…after seemingly hours of questions and my answers…the group told me, “I didn’t know that. I didn’t realize that. David, you need to better explain what you and the legislature have accomplished.â€? Folks …I’m here to do just that today.
I’ll give you an example – the budget. For too long, the Democrat-led legislature just increased what the agencies spent the previous year… by inflation and new spending requests.
But all of that changed in January, 2003…when Tom Craddick became Speaker…and I became Lt. Governor…and we faced a $10 billion revenue shortfall. Within months of taking office, we asked all state agencies to cut 7% from their 2003 appropriations, and for the 2004 - 2005 budget, we started the legislative process with an additional 12.5% cut. For the 2006 -2007 budget, we started the process with an additional 5% cut, and for the next 2007 Regular Session, Speaker Craddick and I have agreed upon asking all state agencies, with the exception of public education, higher education, and prisons to start the budget process with a 10% cut from their current budgets.
By continuing to tighten the belt and focus funding on essential services, we have held down increases in our General Revenue budget over the last six years to less than 2% per year, well below inflation. And that’s important… because it’s your money. Again, the big increases you have heard are almost exclusively federal highway dollars and federal Medicaid reimbursements, and do not reflect state taxes.
As a result of our conservatively holding our General Revenue increases to the minimum, we have added 240,000 new jobs the last 12 months, and enjoyed 19 non-interrupted months of employment gain.
But all this, and more, could not have happened without my two partners. Let me compliment two long time friends…Governor Rick Perry…and Speaker Tom Craddick. Now you can’t imagine three more different styles in getting to the same goal and I often think life would be SO much easier “IF” they just did it MY way…BUT THE POINT IS…we’ve had a hugely successful four years.
I compliment Governor Perry, Speaker Craddick, the Senate, and the House - and all of you - who BELIEVE as we all do and who want to see a pro-growth, pro-family agenda for the State of Texas.
The success story of the last four years is a story that began with each of you here in this room…and many others who came before us.
Without you, we could not have passed the Defense of Marriage Act. Without you, we could not have passed the “Women’s Right to Know Act”. Without you, we could not have passed the Prenatal Protection Act and the Parental Consent Act. Without you, we could not have required our students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance to the United States of America with the words “under God.” Nor could we have passed legislation allowing for a moment of silence in our schools to pray or reflect.
Without you, we could not have lowered medical malpractice rates to make healthcare more accessible…and more affordable for hardworking families and seniors on fixed incomes. Without you, we could not have passed tort reform legislation— the MODEL for the country.
Without you, we could not have been able to continue to strengthen the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens to carry concealed firearms for self-protection … to extend the term for a concealed handgun license from 4 to 5 years and reduce - by half! - its cost for senior citizens.
Without you, we could not have been able pass landmark eminent domain legislation that protects private property rights from government interference and lays the framework for a constitutional amendment. As a landowner and rancher, like many of you, I don’t want government devaluing my land through over-reaching regulations, or telling me how to manage my property.
Without you, we would not have passed congressional redistricting… in which the Texas Legislature worked to better reflect and represent the beliefs of Texans by providing true representation in Washington by putting more Republicans in congressional seats to address the tough decisions that face our nation.
You can see clearly that so much has been accomplished because of the hard work of you in this room. But you and I both know so much more remains to be done.
First, we must hold on to ALL of these huge gains we have made in recent years. And don’t kid yourselves for one second. The Democrats are chomping at the bit to get themselves back into power, in any shape, form or fashion. We could see all these conservative ideals wiped out in JUST a few months…if the Democrats have their way. I could go on and on but what I’d RATHER talk about is our future.
I clearly see a future where our Texas economy is continuing to grow. Where if you work hard you WILL succeed. A future where our children receive a world-class education. We are well on our way to building that future thanks to the great success of the recent Special Session where we lowered your local school property taxes by 1/3 in 2008 and improved our schools, plus provided a multi-billion dollar net tax cut to you - Texas taxpayers - and ended Robin Hood on part of the new money the Texas Supreme Court required. In 2008, Robin Hood is cut 80% as a result of this bill!
I want to thank Senator Florence Shapiro, Senator Steve Ogden, Speaker Tom Craddick and the Members for making this Special Session so successful. The report card I’ve repeatedly heard…from knowledgeable people who follow the subject…is that our school finance solution is the best answer to improving our public schools which the legislature has passed in decades.
And I’ll tell you why. For the first time, we set our sights on excellence in education.
That is why the school reform package does not simply throw money at the problems in our public schools.
Past experience has taught us that money alone simply does not solve problems. For the first time ever, we have real world academic and financial accountability and transparency – taxpayers know what is going on in our public schools.
Yes, we put more money directly into the classrooms where it belongs…we gave teachers a much needed pay raise while at the same time raising standards and requiring an additional year of math and science. And we funded a high school program to lower drop outs and better prepare high schools for college.
In addition, we have put in place a real world incentive program. $300 million by 2008 to reward our good teachers in schools who work together and raise performance. As you know, incentive-based plans have worked forever in the business world, and we’re seeing incentives work in school districts around the county.
In addition to improving public education this Special Session, I wanted to give significant and long-term property tax relief for homeowners. This is important for so many reasons, not just because driving down property tax rates is a huge economic multiplier for our economy - but more importantly - we simply cannot allow hard-working families to be taxed out of their homes. A nice home with good schools in a friendly neighborhood is the American Dream…and should be affordable right here in Texas.
That is why I’m so pleased that we reduced local school property taxes by 1/3 in 2008. We went even further by dedicating future revenue increases to further buy-down local school property tax rates.
But as you know there is still more to be done. For years I’ve wanted to lower the cap on appraisal increases. As you know, to lower the 10% appraisal cap requires a constitutional amendment, which means a 2/3 vote in each house of the legislature. And we’re not going to be able to do that without your help.
But here is the fascinating thing. We’ve effectively lowered the cap on appraisal increases… and no one is talking about it. By reducing the roll-back rate we reduced by 1/3 the amount revenues can grow from appraisal increases without a vote of the people. That’s huge! Over a third reduction! You get to keep more of your hard earned money in your pocket!
We also have to get something done about illegal immigration right here in our home state. Illegal immigration touches so many areas of our lives…from business, health care, public schools, public safety, and more. Illegal immigration costs you money. The bottom line: we have to have a safe and secure border. I support Governor Perry and his recent efforts to clamp down with additional funds and resources along the Rio Grande.
I began today expressing my thanks for all that you do for our party and our state. If you are like me, you see an exciting future for our state. A future of hope, prosperity, and excitement. We can only get there by working together and staying true to our core beliefs.
In Texas we pride ourselves on our “can-do” attitude, our belief that if you THINK you CAN SUCCEED - you WILL. That’s the spirit that helped Texas gain its independence more than a century and a half ago and it’s the spirit that’s helped millions of hardworking businesses and families succeed in Texas. I see that spirit in each of you. You believe in the goodness of America and the goals and the future of our Texas Republican Party.
As Lieutenant Governor, I’m DETERMINED to leave Texas a better place for the children of tomorrow.
On the horizon, I can clearly see it now that our BEST days TRULY are in front of us.
Thank you for all you do for our state and our party. It’s an honor to serve as your Lt. Governor. May God Bless you, and May God Bless the great state of Texas!
Permalink | | Categories: Politics
Gov. Perry’s remarks at the state GOP convention
Gov. Rick Perry spoke Friday June 2 to the state Republican convention in San Antonio. His actual remarks diverged slightly from what appears below. He was introduced by his wife, Anita.
Thank you, Anita. Serving as your governor is eclipsed only by the honor of being husband to my first love, and your First Lady, Anita Perry, and father to Griffin and Sydney. Chairman Benkiser, my fellow officeholders and candidates, delegates and alternates, builders of the strongest Republican state in America: I am proud to stand before you as your nominee to be Governor of the great state of Texas for four more years.
This is the ninth time I’ve had the honor of addressing a state Republican convention since you first asked me to run for Agriculture Commissioner in 1990. Back then, the Democrats didn’t take us too seriously. Now they know the most serious mistake you can make is underestimating grassroots Republicans.
The fact that I am here with you again… now seeking a second full term as governor… is extremely frustrating for our liberal friends. Just look at what the last four years brought them.
We have redrawn their gerrymandered districts, kicked the personal injury trial lawyers out of our doctor’s offices, overcome a deficit by cutting spending, invested more in jobs, challenged the status quo in education, defended our border, defended traditional marriage, defended unborn children and delivered the largest tax cut in Texas history. If you were a liberal, you’d be mad too!
But Texans understand that anger is not an agenda for our future. Texas and America were not founded by cranks who said “we can’t�, but optimists who said “we can.�
We have a party built from the grassroots up…standing on the shoulders of great leaders like Lincoln and Reagan…and offering an optimistic vision for the future.
Today, I cannot help but be reminded of the last time we gathered together…on these very grounds…when the news spread that America had lost one of our greatest presidents, Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan put every future election in perspective when he asked the question:… Are you better off today than you were four years ago?
That is the central question of this election. With jobs at an all-time high, a top-ranked business climate, college enrollment and student test scores climbing, frivolous lawsuits dropping, teacher pay on the way up, property taxes on the way down, and school finance solved by this Republican majority… the answer is clear: Texans are better off today because Republicans have led for the last four years.
If you doubt whether conservatives are making a difference and winning the debate on ideas, consider the fact the other side cannot even admit what they are.
They have to run around calling themselves progressives, or “the new mainstream� or moderates because it sells a lot better than being called a left-leaning liberal.
How many major candidates do you expect will stand up at the other side’s convention next week and say they are proud to be a liberal? But as sure as I stand before you today, I am proud to be a conservative.
And I am proud of what we have done, together.
Our families are better off because we have made a difference where it matters most: protecting the lives of our most vulnerable citizens…unborn children. We passed a parental notification law that has helped reduce the teen abortion rate by 26 percent. Because life and death decisions should not be made by children… I felt compelled to sign legislation requiring parental consent for a minor to get an abortion.
And what was the response of the critics? Did they express one word of concern for life? Of course not…. they were more concerned that I signed that law in a religious school gymnasium. Seldom does their bias against pro-life people of faith get summed up so succinctly by one event.
We also protected family by standing up for the principle that marriage is a sacred union between one man and one woman. And by putting it in the Constitution with a 76 percent mandate, you put it out of the reach of judicial activists.
If anyone doubts whether a judiciary run amok affects our families, consider the Kelo decision saying private property can be condemned by government to benefit private profit-making pursuits. I really disagree. The family homestead should not be taken away to build one more strip mall. That’s why I was proud to sign legislation preventing the use of eminent domain for private economic development projects.
(pause)
Our schools are better off too because of Republican leadership. We’ve raised standards, strengthened accountability and soon, 65 percent of your tax dollars will go directly to the classroom, not the bureaucracy.
Our economy is better off because we have invested in jobs. Since 2003, Texas has gained 580,000 net new jobs. More Texans than ever are earning their own paycheck, relying on themselves instead of government.
And taxpayers are better off because the Republican leaders you sent to Austin did something that few in this country thought possible:… when Texas faced a record $10 billion shortfall in 2003, we balanced our budget without raising taxes, and cut state spending for the first time since World War II.
Our record of conservative leadership is one that Texans can be proud of. And no accomplishment will have a more significant impact than school finance reform.
Republicans promised a historic property tax cut, new taxpayer protections, fairness for employers and better pay for teachers… and we delivered. And because we stood by our principles, we did it while lowering the net tax burden on Texans by nearly $7 billion.
Over the next three years, homeowners and businesses will save $15.7 billion on school property taxes… enough to lower rates by 33 percent. Texans can count on sustained relief in the future because they will have more authority to stop local tax increases… and the most significant protections against rising appraisals ever adopted in Texas.
We lowered the amount local school boards can raise your tax rate. If they want more of your money, they have to ask your permission at the ballot box. And if appraisal creep results in school districts getting more money than what’s been authorized… they must give it back unless voters say otherwise.
Our schools will improve because we increased math and science instruction… raised teacher pay by $2,000… and created the largest merit pay program in America because excellence should not be rewarded the same as mediocrity.
Performance pay for teachers is the most systemic change to education in decades. Teachers who go above the call…who make an impact on a child that will be felt for the rest of their lives…can make up to $10,000 more for their dedication. Opponents have said bringing free market principles to the classroom will be divisive. For once I actually agree with the critics. It will divide the union bosses from the teachers they used to represent. Because while the unions hate competition, thousands of teachers will benefit from it.
(pause)
Let me say something about the Republican philosophy on taxes:… our cause is not to dismantle government, but to make it work at a price taxpayers can afford. We have never argued that all taxes should be abolished… but they should be low, they should be fair, and conducive to growth.
Some have said we shouldn’t have created a reformed business tax at a low rate because future politicians may raise that rate. But my friends, that’s not an argument against reforming taxes…it’s an argument against electing a Democrat Majority!
Ronald Reagan didn’t argue for abolishing the personal income tax, he argued for cutting the rate. He knew the war against communism could not be fought on private donations.
My argument is this: if you are going to tax certain activity in Texas, do it fairly and broadly so more pay a share, and many pay less. That’s what we have done. We got rid of corporate loopholes that allowed multi-billion dollar corporations to pay less than small businesses. We replaced the franchise tax with a low-rate business tax that costs employers less every time they create a job, invest in health insurance or fund worker pensions. We exempted our smallest businesses that earn less than $300,000 a year, as well as all sole proprietors and partnerships owned by natural persons. And we cut school property taxes for employers by 33 percent…meaning a great many will enjoy a lower net tax burden than what they pay today.
One business activity, however, we refused to exempt: employers will not be able to deduct payroll expenditures for illegal workers.
Some critics now say we cut property taxes too much because government will have less money to spend. But to me, the best time to stop wasteful spending is before government gets your money.
I am proud that, as governor, I have vetoed $2.5 billion in proposed spending… nearly 6 times as much as the last four governors combined. But I could have done even more if legislators didn’t play a shell game where wasteful spending gets lumped in with wise spending.
For instance, entire university budgets are now captured in one line-item…leaving a governor the choice of vetoing an entire university to get at wasteful spending. Over time this practice has worsened, to the point of jeopardizing a governor’s constitutional authority. But beyond that, there is a simple principle at work that legislators should adhere to: the taxpayers who pay the bill should be able to look at every item on the receipt! Tell legislators to open the books and make every expenditure withstand the light of day!
(long pause)
Today, I believe the greatest threat to our future is a porous and unsecured border.
(pause)
Let me put this in clear terms:…the debate on immigration reform is meaningless until the federal government secures our southern border.
There is no such thing as homeland security without border security. Our 1,200 mile border with Mexico is viewed as a prime point of entry by terrorist organizations, criminal gangs and drug traffickers. We know this based on intelligence and based on apprehensions. Yet, despite this growing threat, the Department of Homeland Security has decided to cut funding for Texas by 31 percent. And at the same time, our federal government continues to release individuals who enter this country who are not of Mexican descent, asking them to appear at a deportation hearing several weeks later. They might as well play the Southwest Airlines jingle when they are released, because… “ding�… they are now free to move about the country.
That is why Texas is not waiting on Washington to act. Six months before the president announced National Guard soldiers would help secure the border, Texas had already made that decision.
We are leveraging the National Guard’s unique capabilities to support local law enforcement. With millions of dollars from my office, we have substantially increased investigators and patrols along the border. We have created a new Border Security Operations Center to coordinate intelligence and assets in an 80,000 square mile region.
I authorized the use of state trooper strike teams, covert surveillance units, canine tracking teams, DPS helicopters, and the Texas Civil Air Patrol to help border sheriffs and police stop illegal activity. And I will ask the legislature to dedicate $100 million to fund these border security initiatives until the federal government starts enforcing our sovereign border with Mexico.
In addition… with the voluntary participation of private landowners… we will begin posting surveillance cameras at criminal hotspots and along common routes used to illegally enter this country. Landowners will be able to monitor and defend their property from those who might endanger their families. We will make the video feed available to state, local and federal law enforcement agencies so that they can respond swiftly and appropriately as needed. And we will post this video on the Internet, in real time, so that concerned Americans can help protect our nation through online neighborhood watch programs.
As a nation of immigrants, we welcome those who contribute to our society, pay taxes and arrive here lawfully. Allowing those who break the rules to get legal status ahead of those who follow them is wrong, and is why I oppose amnesty.
In addition…for the first time in our history… Texas will start requiring every Medicaid applicant to verify that they are in the country legally in order to receive benefits.
(long pause)
The tremendous progress of the past four years was not based on destiny, but a decision…a decision the people of Texas made when they chose limited government and unlimited opportunity. Some stand lurking in the shadows, ready to unravel our record of success in order to act on a recipe for failure.
They place their faith in government at the exclusion of all else. They tip their hat to fiscal restraint while making spending promises that add up to the single largest government expansion in state history. And they advocate the elimination of educational accountability because they believe it is more important that a child feel good about a diploma than be able to read it.
So when they look at our progress, they get angry…and they never miss an opportunity to complain and criticize.
We all know the kind. They’re on the playgrounds of every grade school in America… pouting on the sidelines while the players take the field.
But the race is not to the chronic complainer or the shrillest critic… it is to the principled leader.
Texans aren’t looking for an act…they are looking for action. And it is hard to take action when you don’t know what you believe. Anyone who is willing to change positions on abortion, school choice and their own pay raise cannot be trusted with your future.
My principal opponent has been specific about only one aspect of his school finance plan: that despite a record $8.2 billion surplus, he believes we must raise taxes. I appreciate his Walter Mondale-like honesty…I just think he is wrong.
Failing to offer ideas is not leadership…nor is asking the taxpayers to bail you out just because you can’t say no to a single big spending special interest group.
Leadership is about offering specific proposals even when you face criticism…fighting for what you believe in…and delivering on your promises.
My friends, I have weathered my share of criticism from elitists, liberals and opportunists. But more importantly, I have always fought for what I believe in and delivered on my promises.
And the results are adding up: the largest school property tax cut in state history…sweeping lawsuit reforms…a renewed focus on classroom excellence…and the passage of new laws that protect life.
My fellow Texans, there will only be one conservative leader on the ballot this November… only one candidate who stands firm regardless of popularity’s shifting winds. Others may try to campaign to the right. I will always govern based on what I believe is right.
And when we are successful, you can be confident of this: I will build consensus when I can, but if standing firm on conservative principles means there’s going to be a fight, I say bring it on!
That’s why you elected me, and that’s why we will win again this November! Thank you, God bless you, and God bless the great state of Texas.
Permalink | | Categories: Politics
Michael Williams, GOP Texas Convention
Commissioner Michael Williams
Remarks before the Republican Party of Texas Convention 2006
June 2, 2006
I am honored and pleased to be here. More importantly, I am pleased that you are here.
I have been coming to Republican Party of Texas state conventions for twenty-two years — since 1984. In that 1984 convention I was a lowly foot soldier working for the reelection of my friend Ernie Angelo as national committeeman. In 1998 Chairman Weddington asked me to chair the platform committee. I read that platform. I have read every platform since. In 2000 she asked me to chair the convention itself.
Your energy, your optimism, your idealism and your courage brings me back convention after convention. Your unyielding commitment to conservative principles fills my spirit. Your faith in grassroots conservative activism gives me strength. (Recognize David Barton)
Beginning with the Reagan revolution, much like the Israelites in the Old Testament, America left Egypt. We rejected the bondage of liberalism. We’ve refused to be afraid to honor the role of faith in our politics.
We have had our Red Sea experience. Liberty has triumphed. The Berlin wall has fallen. The Soviet Empire has crumbled. Iraqis are voting. Tax rates have been cut. Welfare has been reformed. The unborn is better protected. There will be a ban on gay marraige. Roberts and Alito joining Scalia and Thomas will forever change the judiciary.
Government has even gotten smaller - in some places.
At the Railroad Commission during my tenure we cut the size of government by 16%. Our general revenue budget has increased less than 3% annually, which is less than the rate of inflation. I refused to take the pay raise passed by the legislature.
Harnessing technology, more of our customers are getting online rather than standing in line.
We’re doing more things better, faster and cheaper.
Real conservative leadership can restrain the growth of government.
Yes, there are still challenges before us.
Let’s debate them vigorously. But let’s not act like those early grumblers who even after walking on dry land lost solidarity with their leaders.
Thanks to President Bush and Governor Perry large portions of our conservative agenda have been accomplished. We are grateful for their leadership.
This afternoon I’d like to address our assignment in the continued advance of liberty.
Every day I work hard to make America more energy secure.
Getting rid of unnecessary regulations that hurt domestic production;
Promoting energy diversification and the development of new transportation fuels like propane, ethanol, biomass and coals to liquids;
Leading the state effort to bring FutureGen, the first near zero emission power plant in the world, to Texas. Carbon capture and storage can reduce so-called global warming and increase enhanced oil recovery; and
Making sure Texas taxpayers aren’t left with the bill for plugging abandoned wells and cleaning up old production sites.
But as a former state and federal prosecutor I’m tempted to get back into criminal prosecution when I listen to Hillary Clinton and other Democrats talk energy.
The indictment reads.
Count One - supporting higher energy taxes and increased regulations. Since 1993, a majority of house and senate Congressional Democrats have voted for higher gas taxes at least 17 times.
Count Two - supporting a new windfall profits tax. Apparently, news of President Carter’s ill-fated, ill-conceived energy plan didn’t make the Arkansas newspapers. Yesterday’s mistakes will not resolve today’s challenges.
Count Three - blocking new domestic production. Democrats have opposed drilling in the ANWR for more than a decade. ANWR would supply enough oil for generations. Every car in Texas could be fueled for 9 years, Nevada 226 years and DC 1,710 years.
Count Four - repeatedly obstructing sound energy legislation calling for more refineries, nuclear facilities and advanced energy research. But just last week Senator Clinton laid out her own energy plan.
Maybe she is counting on voting “For” a comprehensive energy plan after she voted “Against” it.
Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, as to counts one through four of the indictment are the Democrats innocent or guilty?
GUILTY!!
In this age of terror no nation is secure having wide open borders with millions of illegal aliens crossing at will. Neither can it succeed without a policy of principled immigration.
On immigration, leadership demands that we do first things first.
Doing first things first means foremost and first that we control and enforce the border.
America is more than just a country. America is an idea.
Anyone can become an American irrespective of their bloodlines, birthplace or former soil.
What binds us are ideals that move us beyond our backgrounds, lift us above our interests and open us to greater possibilities.
But coming to America is more than simply finding work. Coming to America means embracing America’s values, America’s culture and America’s language - English.
And coming to America means first - coming here legally.
My friends, every day we taste liberty’s sweet nectar. We savor free speech, free and fair elections, an independent judiciary and the rule of law. We know others thirst for the same.
President Bush has made ending the genocide in Sudan a high priority where more than 400,000 have been murdered and another 2 million driven from their homes since 2003. Thousands die every month from starvation and disease.
Ending the genocide, providing international peacekeeping forces and bringing the guilty to justice have been routinely frustrated by the Russians who sell arms to Sudan and the Chinese who buy their oil.
I have urged the state’s pension funds for teachers and public employees to craft a careful strategy to divest from nine, mostly Russian and Chinese, companies doing business in Sudan. They provide negligible benefit to the vast majority of Sudanese people.
Please support the Sudan plank in our party platform. Sign up and join my online prayer circle for Sudan. Give to the food and relief organizations.
[You can find more information on my webpage www.michaellwilliams.com http://www.michaellwilliams.com/ .]
My friends, Canaan is well within reach.
May we continue the journey.
Permalink | | Categories: Politics
Congressman Lamar Smith at GOP convention
We Are Among Friends
Congressman Lamar Smith
Republican State Convention
June 2, 2006
It’s a pleasure to welcome so many Texas Republicans to San Antonio!
This city played a starring role in the Texas Revolution. And many years later, it contributed significantly to the Republican Revolution that turned Texas from blue to red!
When I was Bexar County Party Chairman, long ago and far away, I could only dream that San Antonio and Texas would become Republican strongholds.
But we kept working and today, I can welcome you to a Republican county!
And I want to welcome you to a great state convention that is the result of many months of hard work by hundreds of people who have handled thousands of details.
So, let me introduce the other members of the Convention Host Committee:
* Entertainment Chairman Loyce McCarter
* Prayer Rally Chairmen David Grothe and Cathy Halford
* Registration Chairman Freida Wright
* Page Chairman Esther Wilson
* Sergeants at Arms Chairman Derrill Swick
* SREC Members from the San Antonio area Genny Hensz, Curt Nelson, Shirley Thompson, Kim Hesley, John Larrison, Dawn Lothringer and Robert Peden.
And Bexar County Party Chairman Richard Langlois, Vice Chairman Carol Van de Walle, Executive Director Marian Stanko and Communications Director Steve Heinrich.
Thank you all very much.
While you are here, I encourage you to take advantage of all that San Antonio has to offer.
You are in the midst of Texas history.
The Alamo, the Cradle of Texas Liberty, is only a couple of blocks away. The River Walk is close by.
And the spirit of San Antonio surrounds you everywhere you go.
In 1836, as Davy Crockett rode into San Antonio a few miles from where we sit, he stopped on a nearby hill overlooking the Alamo and wrote his daughter what would be his last letter.
He said, “Do not be uneasy about me. I am among my friends.”
That’s the way I feel today: It’s good to be with friends.
Even though we may feel “uneasy” at times, just as those early Texians eventually prevailed — so will we.
But this is going to be a tough year politically.
The other side is energized, and they oppose everything that the President and our Republican Congress are working to do.
We must take our ideas directly to the American people.
They agree that we need to promote our goals of individual freedom, economic growth, and a secure homeland.
Whenever you encounter those who are “uneasy,” remind them there is good news we can share.
The economy continues to grow at a record pace, five million new jobs have been created in the last three years, inflation and unemployment are low, and over 100 million taxpayers have saved an average of $1,900 every year because of Republican federal tax relief initiatives.
And, remember, we have two new Supreme Court justices who will uphold the Constitution, not impose their personal preferences on the American people.
And, although we are still at war, it is a war that matters.
In America, we are blessed to have the freedom that others only dream about.
But for Davy Crockett, William B. Travis, Juan Seguin, Jose Navarro and the other Texians, and for us now, freedom is never free. It must be nourished and protected, sometimes at great cost in lives.
But we will not surrender to terrorists — that only empowers them.
We will fight them today so we can enjoy a better tomorrow.
The war on terror really begins here at home.
Those who would do us harm respect no borders.
Potential terrorists and thousands of others continue to enter our country illegally every day.
More than 20 percent of all Federal prisoners are illegal immigrants convicted of serious crimes.
Those who come to work illegally depress Americans’ wages and use government benefits at the expense of taxpayers.
Promising citizenship -the greatest honor our country can bestow- to illegal immigrants is amnesty and that will only encourage more illegal immigration.
Of course, our hearts go out to those who want to come to America for the right reasons.
We are the freest and most prosperous country in the world.
We are great because of the contributions of legal immigrants, both present and past.
But no nation can survive without secure borders.
We must know who is entering our country and why.
That is the responsibility of the Federal government and much more remains to be done.
Republican friends, we’re the party of the people, the party of the American worker, and the party of the family.
We’re the party of economic growth, more jobs, secure borders, and enduring values.
We know the difference between a positive agenda and obstructionism.
Our goals are worthy because our cause is great.
Let me give you some examples:
Which party can best provide national security?
The party that wants to surrender in the war on terror and wants to give amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants — or the party that wants to stop terrorism and secure our borders?
Which party can best protect traditional values?
The party that attacks the family unit that has thrived for 2,000 years — or the party that defends it?
Which party can best achieve energy independence?
The party that wants to limit exploration and development —or the party that
wants to encourage exploration and the development of new energy sources?
Which party can provide the best education for our children?
The party that favors the interests of teacher unions over the interests of students — or the party that wants to leave no child behind?
More than anything, Republicans are motivated by the phrase, “One nation, under God.”
We know we’re helped by a Supreme Being who guards and guides us.
We don’t think that a non-denominational prayer at a high school football game is unconstitutional.
Voluntary prayer was not unconstitutional for the first 200 years of the Republic, and it should not be unconstitutional now.
These are some of the values Republicans share and that most Americans believe in, too.
But this year the Democratic Party seems motivated more by personal animosity than by a desire to do what’s best for our country.
And they are organized and well-funded.
Frankly, to win elections, we are simply going to have to outwork and outsmart the opposition.
That means giving up Saturdays to campaign door-to-door and volunteer at campaign headquarters.
It means financially supporting candidates in close races across the state and country.
And it means going on the offensive and taking credit for what the Republican Party has accomplished – generating economic growth, creating new jobs, securing the homeland, and protecting values.
It’s not going to be easy, but, with your help, it can be done!
Let me end by quoting Frank Tolbert, a noted Texas historian, who once said: “Every Texan has two homes – his own and San Antonio.”
I hope you enjoy your stay here and take back to your other Texas home new ideas, renewed enthusiasm, and a commitment to elect Republican candidates in November.
Thank you all for what you have already done for Texas, for our country, for our party, and for our candidates!
And, most importantly, thank you for what you will do in the coming months to help us achieve victories next November.
Permalink | | Categories: Politics
Susan Combs’ 2006 Republican State Convention Remarks
Susan Combs’ remarks at the 2006 state Republican convention:
It’s great to be Texan and Republican and truly wonderful to see 14,000 staunch conservative Republicans here — we have reason to be proud because Texas, as it should be, has the largest state Republican convention in the country
And each delegate, each precinct chair, has a special, unique and irreplaceable part in our grassroots effort
You know that grassroots are the lifeblood of all successful campaigns. We couldn’t do it without you. Thank you for all that you do.
I’m so glad to be back here in San Antonio — my home for years — 21 years later it’s an honor to be returning to San Antonio with our great leadership team — Governor Perry, Lt Governor Dewhurst and Speaker Craddick — and our entire Republican statewide team
We are here today as a majority party, entrusted with the Legislature and every statewide office. We are led by our president George W. Bush
But we should never stray from understanding what makes us Republicans and what makes us conservatives. First and foremost — it is our values.
We took those values and put them to work at the Agriculture Department — where we did something unheard of– we didn’t just stay within our budget…we found ways to save money…and then we returned it to the treasury … $2 million of it.
Making government leaner, more efficient, cheaper and yet also– making government more responsive — that’s what we do in Texas as Republicans, and as conservatives. Those are conservative values.
My pledge to you is that we will streamline the Comptroller’s Office in the same way we did at the Ag Department
In government, we must do more with less — just as typical families often do.
I want to lead the way and help small businesses and risk taking Texans create more good paying jobs for Texas families — in big cities and in small towns.
We worked hard to bring jobs to small town Texas — and the impact of those jobs is enormous
We helped create over 6400 jobs since I took on the responsibility for rural economic development. That’s enough jobs to fill a city the size of Mexia.
For those of you keeping score, that’s 40 jobs that I cut at the agency and over 6000 jobs we helped create — and for rural Texas that is unprecedented. Equivalent to about sixty thousand jobs in Houston or Dallas
We did it once and we can do it again for Texans and for their families and their children.
Our children are our future and how they eat is important as well
Statewide, policymakers are coming together to see that our children are healthy when they are at school
Now even see that Bill Clinton has leapt onto the kid food bandwagon — what a surprise
Never knew that Bill Clinton and I had so much in common —
He’s tall but I’m taller
He almost had a heart attack…and he almost gave me one when he was our president…. A number of times
But seriously – I’m proud of what we’ve done to give our kids a better start in life with healthier foods in schools
We owe the next generation the very best and the healthiest start they can have.
While I am talking about how much I enjoy working for our Texas families – let me also talk about my own family
My husband Joe and I have been married for over 31 years — very lucky to have him – we have three fine sons — glad to have them working and out of the nest. Glad to have my son home from military service and I am blessed to have such a loving and supportive family
I am also blessed with my family because they love the ranch and our ranching heritage
And of course, the future needs of all of our families must be recognized and so…
I begin work each day with a simple philosophy –
It’s your money and not the government’s.
Let me tell you my plan for being your next comptroller
First
We need to make sure your tax dollars are being used wisely — And until we compare spending patterns across agencies, we can’t know if they are being innovative and efficient – let alone tight fisted with your hard earned dollars.
And you know government bureaucracy can make the simplest task seem complex.
Right now our state agencies speak about so many different financial languages – they can’t even compare what they do –trying to analyze government spending between state agencies is like trying to translate French and Swahili into Italian and Chinese
I’ll teach them to speak English — and then we can find out, which agency is doing the best with your tax dollars and put every agency on the diet they need.
I will find ways to cut costs, to do more with less and find savings in state government through efficiencies….
Second — we have to harness our purchasing power
I’ll spearhead a savings drive by the state by looking for ways for Texas to coordinate and consolidate our spending power.
If General Motors and Ford, two major competitors, can save money by combining their buying power, why can’t we as a state?
Of course — we’re a big state — and we have a lot of economic muscle to flex. I’ll lean hard on those who want to sell us anything from pencils to paint to pickups … to get the best deal for taxpayers.
We need to run Texas like a business — and saving and stretching every tax dollar will be my top priority — when government forgets whose money it is, government makes mistakes.
Third — my theory on taxes is pretty simple.
Low, low, low. — for those taxes that you do have to pay.
I want to make it easier to pay and harder to cheat.
We have technology to let you know what you owe and make it easy for you to pay…. If online payments work for your local bank, it can work for Texas.
Harder to cheat is pretty easy to understand for those who owe taxes — whether its property taxes or sales taxes — to cheat the honest taxpayer should be a crime … and I’ll go after the deadbeats to make sure they don’t cheat you, our school kids, and our entire state.
Right now there are 1.8 billion dollars of delinquent taxes owed to the comptroller’s office — that is not being collected. That number has gone up by 100 million dollars in the last two years.
I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen in the future.
Fourth — we must be secure in our homes
I ranch in a county bordering Mexico — people come across my ranch all the time – carrying drugs or weapons — they’re part of criminal gangs stretching across Mexico and Central America.
We don’t feel safe on our own ranch anymore, and that’s a shame because it is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. And a place that means so much to me in my family’s history.
There are those who say that we cannot secure our borders. They’re wrong. It will take iron will and a new aggressiveness from our federal government. It will take steadfast resolve from leaders at every level to secure our border. I will be part of that iron resolve and I believe we can and must do more to secure our borders.
Last — let me tell you about my core principles for holding state office and how I will run the agency — there are several of these principles
First — you won’t have to ask if special interests run my office. The public interest is my only concern and it is to the public interest that I dedicate my efforts.
You won’t have to ask if I can work and play well with others — I learned how to do that in kindergarten — and I look forward to working with Texas’ great leadership.
You won’t have to look hard to find me — I’ll have an open door policy and I’ll be accessible. I know that the comptroller’s office is your office.
You won’t have to ask if the numbers or projections coming out of that office are accurate — they will be
You won’t have to ask if I’m saving and stretching every one of your tax dollars — my daddy always said that when it came to spending money — we had to be as tight as the bark on the tree — I’m going to do just that — we’ll be innovative and careful.
And one more thing- you won’t have to ask if I am a Republican. I’m Susan Combs and I am proud to be a Republican — and that isn’t going to change.
With your help — your enthusiasm and your vote — I want to be the best comptroller the state has ever seen.
And I am going to hand out thousands of new combs — they’re cheap but useful — you’ll also be glad to know that as a serious fiscal conservative, I’ve cut my printing costs on these combs in half … my name is only on one side …
I love you all and look forward to serving as your comptroller. Thank you so much for the work that you do. Thank you for the opportunity to serve the greatest state in the country … Texas.
