Now blogging at http://futureofthehcrp.org/wordpress/

Have fun!

Homeless man killed on UH campus

A man apparently sleeping on the bench of a bus stop was shot to death Friday night on the campus of the University of Houston.

Well that was senseless... and on the campus to boot! :(

Obama drops charges against Cole Bombing planner

FAIL!!! I don't understand why he's doing this, and it really is the wrong message...

Guess he needed someone to join his administration that didn't have tax problems :/

Lawmaker: Stimulus giving Metro $180 million for rail

WASHINGTON — Houston Metro is due to receive as much as $180 million over the next 12 months from a huge economic stimulus bill to help jump-start construction of two light rail lines, a House committee chairman said Wednesday.

The long-delayed rail lines on the city’s north and southeast sides are a “very high-rated project,” said Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., who heads the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The project, he said, is ready to go and has cleared all but one step of a federal review.

“I will work with the Houston (congressional) delegation and with the Federal Transit Administration to process this project along,” Oberstar told the Houston Chronicle.

Asked if Metro’s overall request for $410 million from the economic stimulus bill had been realistic, Oberstar replied, “I should think so.”

But the veteran lawmaker said the final amount of stimulus money for Metro would depend on action by the Senate and a House-Senate conference committee. Oberstar expects to sit on the conference committee.

If the transit portion of the stimulus package “stays at the $12 billion level (set by his committee), this would be a project in very good standing,” he said. The Senate was debating the bill Wednesday.

Oberstar’s comments followed an hourlong, closed-door meeting with a delegation that included Frank J. Wilson, the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s president and CEO, and Democratic Reps. Al Green and Sheila Jackson Lee. Also present were Houston Metro board members Burt Ballanfant. George DeMontrond and Jimmy Stewart, and Houston City Council member Sue Lovell.

Pork Pork Pork Pork Pork and bad Pork at that...

Best Comment to the article:

And just how is pumping $180 MILLION into a bloated, inefficient, corrupt, non-responsive NGO such as Metro going to 'stimulate the economy'???

Metro already receives US$850 MILLION in tax revenues and manages only US$35 MILLION in revenue.

By that standard, Metro will generate a measely US$7.4 MILLION additional revenue - nothing short of criminal.

I've complained about Houston's horrible mass transit before, and avoid using the services, nor would want to...

The Metro system is of terrible ill-repute here, pouring money into it won't make it better. It will simply reward the mismanagement... There are better places for this money instead of giving it to the politically well connected.

Double Axis

The Meaning of Sarah Palin

Pretty good read for either side of the aisle... I wouldn't completely agree with the analysis... but there was this part:

In American politics, the distinction between populism and elitism is further subdivided into cultural and economic populism and elitism. And for at least the last forty years, the two parties have broken down distinctly along this double axis. The Republican party has been the party of cultural populism and economic elitism, and the Democrats have been the party of cultural elitism and economic populism. Republicans tend to identify with the traditional values, unabashedly patriotic, anti-cosmopolitan, non-nuanced Joe Sixpack, even as they pursue an economic policy that aims at elite investor-driven growth. Democrats identify with the mistreated, underpaid, overworked, crushed-by-the-corporation “people against the powerful,” but tend to look down on those people’s religion, education, and way of life. Republicans tend to believe the dynamism of the market is for the best but that cultural change can be dangerously disruptive; Democrats tend to believe dynamic social change stretches the boundaries of inclusion for the better but that economic dynamism is often ruinous and unjust.

Both economic and cultural populism are politically potent, but in America, unlike in Europe, cultural populism has always been much more powerful. Americans do not resent the success of others, but they do resent arrogance, and especially intellectual arrogance. Even the poor in our country tend to be moved more by cultural than by economic appeals. It was this sense, this feeling, that Sarah Palin channeled so effectively. Her appearance on the scene unleashed populist energies that McCain had not tapped, and she both fed them and fed off them. She spent the bulk of her time at Republican rallies assailing the cultural radicalism of Barack Obama and his latte-sipping followers, who, she occasionally suggested, were not part of the “the real America” she saw in the adoring throngs standing before her. Palin channeled these cultural energies more by what she was than by what she said or did, which contributed mightily to the odd disjunction between her professional resume and her campaign presence and impact.

I still like her a lot, and do hope the Palin derangement syndrome will die eventually.

Titanus Giganteus

Houston Picture

Titanus Giganteus speciman from the Houston Musuem of Natural Science

Isn't it cute?!

Outreach

Two new local outreach to different communities have popped up based in Houston:

RagingElephants.org towards the African American community

Conservador Alliance towards the Hispanic community


While I warn against Group and Identity politics... "Vote for us because you're in this group"... The Republicans are supposed to be a party of individuals, and if you're an individual in one of these communities that agree with them, then you should be voting with them.

Outreach has been sorely needed, and I do recommend you give these groups your support.

Wow... the population of the US is only 300 million though... and the workforce only a part of that... I guess she's adding up all the alternate universes!

If Palin had said something like this...

Help Wanted

BREITBART: The true face of Hollywood

Sometimes I just don't get the Republican Party.

Back in 2004, a smart, good-looking moderate Republican Hispanic ran for Congress. At the time Victor Elizalde was just under 40 years old and working as an executive at a big-time Hollywood studio. As an ethnic minority, a family man and a rare open conservative in an industry dominated by liberals, Mr. Elizalde represented hope and change for the Republican Party.

Yet because he was running for Henry A. Waxman´s safe seat, Mr. Elizalde got no support from the Republican Party . In fact, no one in the party´s leadership took notice of him. As a result Mr. Waxman trounced Mr. Elizalde with 71 percent of the vote.

This has been a problem in Houston too...

This last election the Republicans let Al Green run unopposed... And then there was John Faulk vs. Sheila Jackson Lee.. She won with 77% of the vote. Funding according to Washington Post shows Sheila had $451,427 to Faulk's $37,020... Many who live in her district tell me it's possible for her to be taken down with enough effort. The County GOP had no interest and ceded it to her. Even if Faulk could not win, it's not a bad idea to at least help turn the tide against her for future elections.

If the Local GOP won't do this, new apparatuses need to come in and help support these candidates.


Btw... John Faulk himself has moved on to hosting a radio show on KCHN 8-9:00 AM weekday mornings before Claver's show. He talks about politics, finances, and riding tricycles. Check it out, you can stream it. http://kchnradio.com/

Protectionism

'Buy American' Rider Sparks Trade Debate

Proponents of expanding the "Buy American" provisions enacted during the Great Depression, including steel and iron manufacturers and labor unions, argue that it is the only way to ensure that the stimulus creates jobs at home and not overseas.

Opponents, including some of the biggest blue-chip names in American industry, say it amounts to a declaration of war against free trade. That, they say, could spark retaliation from abroad against U.S. companies and exacerbate the global financial crisis.

The provisions also confront President Obama with his first test on trade policy. He must weigh the potential consequences of U.S. protectionism against the appealing slogan of "Buy American" and the jobs argument.

The protectionist stipulations in this "stimulus" is reason alone to tank it. Democrats want to ignore history (Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act) and spark off a trade war. I can understand why it's tempting, but it's been a disaster when time it's been done before, especially to the party that begins it.

It's the economic equivalence of Mutually Assured Destruction - We pull the trigger to nuke, and everyone else nukes us back. 

More...

In time of crisis, looking to U.S. with wariness and hope

Whether the issue was the recent bailout for the American auto industry or provisions favoring U.S. steel producers in the stimulus package now being debated on Capitol Hill, overseas observers warned that any move toward protectionism would have serious consequences for Washington and the rest of the world.

"We must not allow market forces to be completely distorted," Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, warned in a speech on Wednesday. "For instance, I am very wary of seeing subsidies injected into the U.S. auto industry. That could lead to distortion and protectionism."

By the weekend, as word of the "Buy American" proposal spread through Davos, the tone had become sharper.

"It's extremely preoccupying that one of the first acts of the new Obama administration could be a measure that is clearly protectionist and a distortion of competition," said Anne-Marie Idrac, the French trade minister.

She said it was a "very bad sign that goes against" earlier statements opposing protectionism by the leaders of the world's 20 largest economies.

Love affair between Canada and President Obama appears to be coming to an end

EU attacks 'Buy American' clause


Though, to his credit, the President seems to want the pernicious stipulations pulled
Obama Wants "Buy American" Out Of Stimulus Bill

Edit:

President Obama to water down 'Buy American' plan after EU trade war threat

They've been yanked

Data

Claver has a post with data on the Texas political situation shifts over the yeah, and some of the personalities involved. It shows the work that needs to be done, and what some of the problems are. It's good to go look.

http://apostleclaver.blogspot.com/2009/01/update-dont-care.html

It's worth mentioning that Benkiser was deservedly defeated as national party co-chair. As has been said about her before, failure does not deserve promotion. We also recieved Michael Steele as Chairman, who had the most popularity and is very media savvy... If only other sectors could be changed as this.

Hungry Hungry Hippos

Oh yes, and I'm loving these Baby Hippos from Zooborns http://www.zooborns.typepad.com/zooborns/hippo/



Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

The Future of the Harris County GOP

Plus check out The Future of the Harris County GOP

Aaron has a post there giving out his own frustrations with the local Harris County GOP... There are a lot of us feeling similar ways... Hopefully the grassroots can fill up and fix many of the problems...

H-TOWN REPRESENT!!!

http://www.pressconnects.com/article/20090201/OPINION01/902010344/1005/OPINION

New York's Charles Rangel and five other Democratic members of the House enjoyed a trip to the Caribbean sponsored in part by Citigroup (see above) in November - after Congress had approved the $700 bailout for financial firms (including Citigroup).

The members no doubt will object to the terms "junket," but that shoe fits. The National Legal and Policy Center, a watchdog group, has asked Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to investigate the Nov. 6-9 excursion to the island of St. Maarten.

It was called the Caribbean Multi-Cultural Business Conference, but "the primary purpose ... for most participants appeared to be to take a vacation," said the NLPC. And not only was the timing lousy, but "corporate sponsorship of such an event was banned by House rules adopted on March 1, 2007, in response to the (lobbyist Jack) Abramoff scandal," the group pointed out.

Joining Rangel on that trip were Donald Payne of New Jersey, Sheila Jackson-Lee of Texas, Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick of Michigan, Bennie Thompson of Mississippi and Donna Christenson, delegate from the U.S. Virgin Islands.

If they haven't already, they should reimburse the taxpayers for all expenses related to that trip - and from their own funds, not from another taxpayer pocket.

Hey! A Local Celebrity was there!