Local Issues

Council Member Helena Brown: Ask Houston Council – Increase Senior Exemption!

Hi! This is Council Member Helena Brown.

It was my pleasure sharing an evening with the Kingwood Tea Party! I got goosebumps when I saw the crowded room rise in mass, and stand and say the pledge of allegiance! What a great group of patriots! Is there hope for the future, or what?!!!

I promised this information about the upcoming Budget vote this Wednesday morning.

Fixed Income Seniors are constantly being squeezed by higher costs, such as the drainage fee and higher water rates, and it concerns me that the City of Houston does not allow Senior Citizens the same exemption on their Property Taxes as Harris County.  This week,* two other Council Members and I have joined is proposing a Budget Amendment that would allow Seniors the tax break that they deserve.*

Now to garner support for this Amendment, *we need the Mayor and Other Council Members to hear your voice. *

*Please call the Mayor’s Office & City Council Members and ask them to support the Burks, Bradford, & Brown Amendment to Increase the Senior Exemption.*

  • Mayor’s Office
  • 832-393-1000
  • Council Member Dave Martin
  • 832-393-3008
  • Council Member Costello
  • 832.393.3014
  • Council Member Noriega
  • 832.393.3005
  • Council Member Christie
  • 832.393.3017

Together we can fight for fairness for our Seniors!

If you are able, support our re-election campaign with a small contribution by mailing a check to

Helena Brown Campaign
P.O.Box 430292
Houston, TX 77243

Or you could contribute online by visiting www.helenabrown.com

Please forward this message.

Thank you! God bless!

Helena

How Gov’t Regulations Began as Corporate Cronyism

Crony Capitalism is NOT Capitalism!

AEI Feb. 2013 Panel: Big Government and Big Food vs. Food Trucks, Foodies, and Farmers Markets – click here.

Earlier this year, KWTP attended a local Chamber Taste of the Town event where I met a couple who made the local areas Farmers Markets circuit. They explained to me how new regulations and fees were forcing them out of the market. They had to purchase expensive equipment they did not need for the produce and home-made soaps and lotions they produced. Then had to pay large fees to all three counties the FMs they attended were in. This was one of those small businesses that used to crop up and grow, hiring more Americans as they did so. But now, regulations and laws passed by our local and state governments at the behest of large dairies and farms intent on pushing little men businesses out of the market were strangling them into bankruptcy.

It is simply un-American and antithetical to the level playing field competition and free market ideology that made this nation great.

The vise is long, and a little boring to those who don’t care about the philosophy and history of current legislation, but given where our country is today, it is something every one of us needs to see. I urge you to follow the link and watch the video of this panel discussion.

And for the record, I have tried to get local media interested in the plight of some of our small farmers and businessmen at our local Farmers Markets to no avail BEFORE I ever found this link.

A Tradition of Sacrifice, from Yorktown to Ramadi by Leif Babin

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This entire article from the WSJ Online is a MUST READ this Memorial Day!

It was not the Declaration of Independence that gave us freedom but the Continental Army. America was born from conflict, delivered by soldiers willing to pay with their blood the tremendous cost of freedom.

The dead did not wish to be martyred. They no doubt longed to return to their homes and families. But they believed in the “glorious cause,” something far greater than themselves. Despite knowing the dangers before them, they followed Gen. Washington into the fray even when victory seemed hopeless and the cause all but lost.

Read the entire article at WSJ online.

Our Community & KWTP Sweeps Local School Board Elections

Congratulations to Heath Rushing and Angela Conrad, our two new Trustees as well as to the great incumbents we also supported: Charles Cunningham, Robert Sitton, Keith Lapeze, and Brent Engelage. We are looking forward to working with you to make Humble ISD schools even better!

Thank you to all who supported our efforts in electing 100% of of the Kingwood TEA Party Board’s recommendations. This includes our members who helped us block-walk and donated to our mail outs and emails as well as to all those who accepted our recommendations and helped us elect this fine group to continue improving our schools for our children! It was expensive, but worth it. Donations in preparation for our participation in the Houston mayor’s and city council races, as well as 2014 elections are gratefully welcomed.

And a HUGE thank you to all who worked so hard to get the truth about the Lone Star Bond issue out and especially to all who voted with us to make its rejection a reality.

Kingwood TEA Party congratulates and thanks every one of you who voted with us in this important election and to all of our great candidates, new and incumbent, who have stepped up to help make our local schools and community colleges even better!

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Why the Left Hates Families by Melanie Phillips: British Lefty Turned Truth-Seeker

Read this entire MUST READ Article: Why the Left Hates Families

A former progressive says…

From Zelda West-Meads of the marriage guidance counsellors Relate, I learned that, though many single mothers did a heroic job, it was the absence of the father that did such terrible damage to their children. So I described how fathers were vital to the emotional health of children. 

Fatherless families were also at least partly responsible for a national breakdown in authority and rising levels of crime.

My view was backed in 1992 when three influential social scientists with impeccable Left-wing pedigrees produced a damning report.

From their research, they concluded that children in fractured families tend to suffer more ill-health, do less well at school, are more likely to be unemployed, more prone to criminal behaviour and to repeat as adults the same cycle of unstable parenting.

But instead of welcoming this analysis as identifying a real problem, the Left turned on the authors, branding them as evil Right-wingers for being ‘against single mothers’…

Having experienced how the absence of proper fathering could screw up a child for life, I believed I was doing no more than stating the obvious when I deplored the explosion of lone parenting, female-headed households and mass fatherlessness.

But, to my amazement, at The Guardian, I found that over this and many other issues, I was branded as reactionary, authoritarian and, of course, Right-wing. 

The result was social ostracism. One of the mentors I had looked up to — a thoughtful person, independent-minded and intellectually curious, or so I had thought — simply walked off rather than talk to me about these issues.

All this was very painful. I was accosted angrily by someone I had previously thought of as a friend. 

‘How can you possibly say that family breakdown hurts children?’ he spat out at me.

‘The worst damage to a child is always done by the traditional nuclear family!’

I could only gaze at him, defeated by the stupendous shallowness of such an attitude.

The ones who were the most aggressive and offended, I noticed, were those who had walked out on their families or were cheating on their spouses.[Emphasis added. –rhl] This revealed another sad truth about the Left. What matters to them above all is that they are seen to be virtuous and compassionate. They simply cannot deal with the possibility that they might not be. [Emphasis added. –rhl]

They deal with any such suggestion not by facing up to any harm they may be doing, but by shutting down the argument altogether.

That’s because the banner behind which they march is not altruism, as they kid themselves. It is narcissism. [Emphasis added. –rhl]

It was increasingly clear that the Left, the movement whose goal was to create a better society, had lost the moral plot — and not just over the family. It embraced the doctrine that all lifestyles were equal and none could be deemed to be better than any other.

Read this entire MUST READ Article: Why the Left Hates Families

 

God and Guns by Kyle Scott

Dr. Kyle Scott, TheConservative Professor from 1070 AM radio

Click on image for bio.

Reprinted with author’s permission from Texas GOP Vote

Today is the National Day of Prayer and tomorrow is the opening day of the NRA Convention in Houston. Let me try to connect God and guns via Alexis de Tocqueville. Tocqueville wrote, “Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith.” This observation exposes the connection between a nation’s character and its ability to enjoy liberty. It also establishes the point that laws cannot establish the right character for enjoying liberty.

Laws become necessary when men are no longer able to govern themselves. Men cannot govern themselves when they lack the character—which is the knowledge of right from wrong that shapes our behavior—necessary to drive them to right action. But when we establish a law we lose a little bit of liberty because the government now tells us we cannot do something. When this occurs we enact laws to maintain peace and order so that whatever liberty was not given up under the new law can be maintained under the new law. The tradeoff between law and liberty is sometimes necessary—thus making it a reciprocal relationship—sometimes it is excessive. If we had the right character we would not need to make a trade in the first place.

This brings us to Tocqueville’s point: act in the right manner on your own and you will have all the liberty you could ever want, act badly—and bad acts come from bad character—and you will lose your liberty to a government that takes the authority of self-government from people who are not capable of having it. The laws can give us direction but they cannot make the bad man good, they cannot give us the right character. Character—the knowledge of right from wrong that shapes our behavior—must come through faith. We cannot look to the government to make us better people for the government is inevitably a flawed construction for it comes from a flawed people who we know are flawed because they need government. Government is the product from which it is also to be the solution. This makes it incomplete at best and contradictory at worst.

What Tocqueville means by this quote is that we should look inward and upward for solutions rather than to government. Tocqueville advocated small knit communities in which the family, church, and schools played a central role in character development and none of the three—church, family, schools—were entirely independent of the other. They worked in concert for the betterment of the individual’s character so that government constraint could be minimized. The individual—with the proper character—would be left to govern himself.

This brings us to guns; a tool to protect self-government. Guns, in the hands of those with the right character, maintain peace, balance, eliminate the need for government oversight, and create a strong bond among families and communities. But guns in the wrong hands can do some of the most heinous things. We cannot fix what is broken in the people who would use guns badly, we cannot make laws that would make them better people. Placing a ban on weapons will not make the bad people good or the good people safe. If we want to minimize violence we must look for solutions that tap into the core of the problem. We must reunite around family and community. We must return to faith. The problems we face are out of our hands whether we want to admit it or not. We should not stop trying to make the world around us better, but we should recognize our limitations. We do know that laws restricting guns would keep good people from protecting themselves from bad people. It would again turn our right of self-determination over to the government.

We need more faith not more laws.

Dr. Kyle Scott, The Conservative Professor teaches Constitution studies at U of H here in Houston. He is currently (May, 2013) also a candidate for Lone Star College Trustee, Pos. 2.

We Have Freedom OF Religion, NOT Freedom FROM Religion

by Gus Faris, Director, Kingwood TEA Party, Inc., Secretary – Director

[NOTE: Gus wrote this but he speaks for all of the KWTP Directors and Advisory Board Members in attendance. Thank you, Gus for so eloquently stating our outrage at Ms. Longnion’s misunderstanding of this important doctrine, and our disgust at the lack of a means to correct it right then and there.–rhl]

Thomas JeffersonLast week I had the good fortune to attend the Candidate Forum for Humble ISD at the James Eggers Instructional Service Center on Tuesday evening. I would like to report on a hugely egregious error. First, the format was horrible. Questions were asked blindly of individual candidates without input from the others or from the floor.

Bonnie Longnion was asked what she would do in education to comply with the separation of church and state issue. Bonnie fumbled with the question attempting to describe freedom from religion and never really giving an answer except for her emphatic closing comment that the two are separate. Personally, I wanted to scream out, “WE HAVE FREEDOM OF RELIGION, NOT FREEDOM FROM RELIGION!” But, the audience had no voice at that time.

It truly frustrates me when people try to change the meaning of words to suit their own desires and expect the rest of us to follow like sheep. One little change, interpret the word of as if it were from. That is how the atheists start the conversation. And then when it has been stated and described in those terms over and over, we start to believe that freedom of really means freedom from and religion must be shunned by government. Well, I’m not going along with it.

There are two mentions of religion in the Constitution:

  1. The first is Article 6, Section 3 of the Constitution, which states, “No religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States“.
  2. The second is a clause called the Establishment Clause in the First Amendment to the Constitution that states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

Many people have used Thomas Jefferson’s comment about the establishment clause when Jefferson wrote,

I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between Church & State,’ as affirmation of this separation. But the entire section reads,

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,‘ thus building a wall of separation between Church & State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.

‘When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.’

All these men are truly attesting to one single issue – that there is a place for both religion and government, but that neither has the right to establish or rule the other. Many of our Founding Fathers or their immediate ancestors had recently escaped the bonds of state founded and supported religion. While they recognized that religion and sound government were both necessary, they were well aware of the recent religious wars in Europe, they were eager to prevent anything like that from happening in the United States, and the easiest way to do that was to simply separate religious and political authority.

Go back to Jefferson’s comment above, he clearly believed that religion was between a man and his God. Government had no sway over religion. He also believed that the legitimate powers of government were action items only, not opinions, and certainly not opinions of what faith others should follow. He also believed that government should not prohibit the free exercise of religion.

George Washington went further in his farewell address of September, 1796. Washington called religion, as the source of morality, “a necessary spring of popular government.” John Adams claimed that statesmen “may plan and speculate for Liberty, but it is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand.

Government is clearly the set of rules by which we run our society. In order for those rules to be just, they must have a moral basis. Consequently, the government must be based on morals. Government does not give us morals. Religion gives us morals. God teaches us to recognize right and wrong. And it is with that moral teaching that we establish our government. Certainly good government is essentially entwined with religion in order to be endowed with moral guidance. But neither entity can rule the other. People must be free to seek God with their own conscious while those same people establish societal rules for the good of all the people being governed. Two separate paths entwined for individual freedom and establishment of a state. That is what the Constitution establishes.

That is what is meant by freedom OF religion. That is what is meant by separation of church and state. There is no basis for banning religion from the government. That is how Bonnie should have answered the question.

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The Kingwood TEA Party Advisory Board has published our recommendations based on interviews and discussions with many behind the scenes p3ople involved on a regular basis.

The KWTP Board proudly recommends Angela Conrad for Trustee, Pos. 3 to bring Humble Independent School District into the 21st Century!

2013 KWTP Lone Star College & HISD Trustees Recommendations

IMPORTANT – CONSERVATIVE VOTERS:
A Conservative Coalition is Possible if YOU VOTE!

Click on image to enlarge. Click here to download printable .pdf to take to polls.
Scroll Down for Important Information on Election Day Polling Places.

IMPORTANT: DOUBLE-CHECK VOTING LOCATION before  VOTING ON ELECTION DAY!

Find Your 5/11/13 Harris County Voting Location & Precinct

 

Meet the 2013 KWTP LSC Trustee Recommendations

Click here to download printable copy to take to the polls with you.

Scroll down for more information on the candidates and issues!

Dr. Kyle Scott, The Conservative Professor from 1070 AM radio

Vote for Kyle Scott for LSC Trustee.

MEET the CONSERVATIVE PROFESSOR, KYLE SCOTT.

Introducing Houston’s Conservative Professor from 1070 AM Radio: Dr. Kyle Scott.

Dr. Scott’s Bio

Links to Articles Kyle Scott Wrote or is quoted in:

College System Funding Options Available by Kyle Scott

Community Colleges Need to Return to Mission by Kyle Scott

Go Local by Kyle Scott

Give Me Liberty or Give Me Debt by Kyle Scott

Some Say Lone Star College Bond Not Needed, Chronicle article by Bryan Kirk, 4/25/13

Letters from LSC trustee candidate Kyle Scott published in the Tribune

 


Support Ron Trowbridge for LSC Trustee

Vote for Ron Trowbridge for LSC Trustee

MEET RON TROWBRIDGE* Former chief of staff to U. S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger

* Directed the Fulbright Program at the United States Information Agency

* Vice President at Hillsdale College

* Ph. D. in English from U of Michigan

* Tenured full professor

* Taught at Lone Star College, 2006-2012

* Presently Senior Fellow at Center for College Affordability and Productivity

Drafts Bill Concept for Legislature

Ron recently initiated and designed a proposal for a legislative bill that would help low-income community college students get a four-year college degree. The concept would eliminate the nightmare of wasted time and huge expense that community-college students have had to suffer in transferring course-credits to a four-year school and would enable these students to get a four-year college degree faster and cheaper.


 

Some Say Lone Star College Bond Not Needed

Dr. Kyle Scott - The Conservative Professor

The Lone Star College System’s $497.7 million bond referendum set for May 11 is meeting with some resistance from residents who believe the bond is not necessary.  The bond features a number of new projects to be constructed throughout the LSCS without raising taxes.

Kyle Scott, who is seeking a seat on the LSCS board of trustees, said he has several reasons for his opposition, part of which involves a January report issued by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, which projected lower enrollment numbers between 2013 and 2018 than the college system forecasts.

Robin’s Commentary: The report predicted a flat line in enrollments, the Chancellor said it in last year’s Report, AND Enrollment dropped last semester. KWTP agrees with Kyle Scott and Ron Trowbridge that the bond is NOT needed at this time. So at the very least is would be wise to wait and see if the record enrollment was population driven, or driven by the downturn in the economy that had many people enrolling to expand their marketability when unemployment went so high.

Read the whole article from April 25, 2013 by Bryan Kirk of the Chronicle online.