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MUST SEE VIDEO: Quantitative Easing Explained

The Surprising Moral Case For Free Enterprise

Free Enterprise is based on those needing jobs, goods, or services freely contracting with others to purchase those items or services at a mutually agreeable price. It is a win – win situation for both parties. Not so when the government gets involved and burdens some participants with arduous regulations dictating which products or services must be utilized, and/or placing taxes or minimum wage regulations into the mix.

A good video summary of Arthur Brooks’ book, The Road to Freedom, with five two-minute segments.

Policies based on the Moral Case for Freedom:

Tax Reform:

In 2011 46% of households had zero or negative federal income tax liability.

In 2010, 60% of families received more from the government than they paid in taxes.

Individual and corporate tax compliance costs $163 billion, more than $500 per person.

The U.S. top combined corporate tax rate is the highest in the industrialized world.

“Tax reform is a great opportunity to make a fairer system that will encourage economic growth and unleash the creative power of the American people. ”— Chad Hill, AEI

Entitlements:

Most seniors have withdrawn more from Social Security and Medicare than they paid in.

The Medicare hospital care fund has been running a deficit since 2008.

Social Security will be insolvent in 2036.

The U.S. currently spends 9.9% of its GDP on entitlements.

The Social Security system still leaves almost 10% of seniors in poverty.

“People need a hand up, not a hand out. All policy direction should be to empower individuals to run their own lives.”— Rupert Murdoch, founder, chairman and CEO, News Corporation

Job Creation

We are experiencing the longest high-unemployment streak since the Great Depression.

The real unemployment rate is 10.4% when discouraged workers are counted.

18% of young Americans said they delayed marriage due to job worries or unemployment, and 23% delayed starting a family.

“We can spark an economic recovery by unleashing the job-creating power of business, especially small entrepreneurial businesses, which fuel economic and job growth quickly and efficiently.”— Charles Schwab, founder and chairman, Charles Schwab Corporation

Economic Growth

While average economic growth from 1950-2000 was 3.6%, from 2000 to 2010, economic growth fell to 1.7%.

To lower our deficit to 5% of GDP, we need to achieve a year-on-year 4% growth rate.

Every 1% of additional growth today will double real incomes 72 years from now.

“I grew up with great values and tremendous opportunities … I want my three kids and other’s people’s children to have the same opportunities that I had.”— Joe Ricketts, founder and former CEO, TD Ameritrade

National Debt

U.S. debt is 100% of annual GDP, which most economists characterize as an unsustainable level.

In 2011, the U.S. borrowed about $4,152 for every person in America, totaling $1.3 trillion.

Servicing the national debt will cost $1 trillion per year by 2023 under current policy.

Closing the spending gap through increased revenues over 25 years would require a 56% tax hike.

“For far too long, short-sighted politicians have paid for today’s promises with tomorrow’s prosperity. If Congress doesn’t take serious action to reign in federal spending, our generation will be heirs to a legacy of higher taxes, more debt, and fewer opportunities.”— Fara Klein, Brown University

Here is Arthur Brooks’ video on the Surprising Case for the Morality of Free Markets.

The Power Grab at the RNC and This Election

Morton Blackwell’s three recent letters on the unprecedented power grab at the RNC can be found at this link to the Red State blog.

Jim’s and my views are remarkably similar to Mr. Blackwell’s. At this dire time, we cannot allow ourselves to be distracted by an issue which is meaningless until the election of 2016. We have two short months to work to elect Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. Romney is certainly not my first or second choice for the Oval Office, however, even the thought of President Obama in office for another four years is not acceptable and would mean the end of Individual liberty and the American experiment begun 236 years ago. The government takeover of the private sector as exemplified by the health care and automobile industries is just the tip of the iceberg as far as this President’s socialist policies are concerned. He is an ardent proponent of statist government over individual rights and freedoms–a philosophy which has proven disastrous to the freedom and lives of individuals in every place and time it has been tried.

We must unite to elect Romney in spite of the vitriol and voter fraud that they will bring against us during the next 60 days. Grassroots conservatives of all bents, TEA Party, 9-12, Libertarians, Ron Paul supporters as well as Republicans must work together to remove this current President from office. Then, and only then, should we tackle the ill-timed and ill-advised power grab that took place last week in Tampa at the RNC. We must be American Statesmen and patriots united in the common cause of Liberty during these next two months to begin the process of healing our economy and rediscovering the power of the individual that is our birthright. Purchased with the blood of our ancestors and Founding Fathers, freedom will not long remain in America if we continue to equate The extremism of Obama with Romney’s weaknesses. To do this is simply unacceptable to our future and the future of our children and grandchildren. It would be like equating the evil of a mass murderer with that of a petty thief. There is an unfathomable degree of difference between the two.

Once we remove Obama from the White House, then we can work together on restoring the vision of an America in which individuals are free to pursue their dreams in a landscape unmarked by an overweening government that insists on robbing Peter to pay Paul and on creating winners over losers to win reelection by way of back room deals instead of legislating for the good of all.

I hope to be fighting for a conservative victory with all of my grassroots brethren over the course of the next two months, rather than capsizing suddenly into the slime and mire of a socialist state by refusing to slow the progress of the progressivism with which we are threatened. Join me in this fight for liberty today, and we will continue to work together to keep the Republican Party open to the renewal of the nascent grassroots revival of constitutionalism and liberty afterwards. Fail, and it will not matter…

I pledge my life and the future of my children and their children to see today’s fight through to November. Will you join me?

Robin Lennon
Kingwood TEA Party, Inc.
President & Founder
robin@kingwoodteaparty.com

Bill Whittle: Why Don’t You Mind My Own Business?

Another hard hitting piece by Bill Whittle from Pj Media and Declaration Entertainment…

Participate & Vote 2012 Primary & TRP Convention

Information and links for Harris & Montgomery Counties’ Senate District Conventions, Primaries, and the Texas State Republican Convention can be found below.

This year our Primary begins with the Senate District Conventions:

4/21/12 Harris County Senate District Conventions

All Who Are Going to Vote in TX Republican Primary & Runoffs may attend.

Complete Harris County Senate District Convention Info

• WHAT: 2012 Harris County SENATE DISTRICT CONVENTIONS Senate Districts 4, 6, 7, 11, 13, 15, 17, 18
• DATE: Saturday, April 21, 2012
• TIME: Registration Begins: 8:00 AM; Call To Order: 10:00 AM
• WHERE:Grace Community Church [MAP]
• ADDRESS: 14505 Gulf Freeway, Houston, TX 77034 (Near 1-45 South & E. Beltway 8)
• WHO CAN ATTEND: ANYONE wishing to participate as a delegate to the Senate District Convention can attend on April 21st. They will sign an oath claiming Republican Party affiliation in order to participate. By claiming party affiliation at the convention you will not be able to vote in another party’s Primary or Run-off election.
• Each Senatorial District will be electing their Delegates and Alternates to the State Convention.

LUNCH RESERVATIONS (Optional)

• COST – ONLINE: $10 each for Advance Purchase
• COST at DOOR: $15 each if purchased day of the Convention (Box lunch includes sandwich, chips, cookie, bottled water)
• BUY LUNCH ONLINE HERE

CONVENTION DONATION – $10 (or more) for Convention Facility Fee

• DONATE ONLINE HERE (Can also donate at the Convention]
• Note From Robin: This suggested voluntary donation is to help cover Convention Facility rental & support expenses. The HCRP Precinct Chairs (with Grassroots’ activists’ support) recently voted to eliminate the Pay-to-Speak system which has covered convention costs for the last 18 years. Candidates paid $500 – $5000 to speak at the Convention. HCRP is moving to promote a freer and more open dialogue between candidates and voters.

RESOLUTIONS Deadline for Resolution submissions is Tues., 4/10/12.

• Since there will not be precinct conventions before the Senatorial District Convention, it is advised to submit your Resolutions directly to your Senate District’s Resolutions Committee in advance of the Senatorial District Convention.
• If you do not know your Senate District number or if redistricting has changed it, lookup your voter registration and make note of your State Sen. number and send your Resolutions to the email address for your Senate District. Please make sure to include with your Resolutions your Name, Address and Precinct number. Deadline for Resolution submissions will be Tuesday, April 10, 2012.
• Senate District 4: sd4@harriscountygop.com
• Senate District 6: sd6@harriscountygop.com
• Senate District 7: sd7@hharriscountygop.com
• Senate District 11: sd11@harriscountygop.com
• Senate District 13: sd13@harriscountygop.com
• Senate District 15: sd15@harriscountygop.com
• Senate District 17: sd17@harriscountygop.com
• Senate District 18: sd18@harriscountygop.com

2012 MONTGOMERY COUNTY SENATE DISTRICT INFO

WHAT: 2012 Montgomery Co.
DATE: Saturday, April 21, 2012
WHEN: Committees beg in 8:30 a.m.; Convention begins 11:30 a.m
WHERE: Conroe High School MAP
ADDRESS: 3200 West Davis Street, Conroe, TX 77304

Registration is ONLINE and IT’S EASY

• Register for Senate District Convention
• Submit Resolutions
• Sign Up to show interest in attending State Convention

Lone Star College – Kingwood

View LSCS Locations in a larger map

Campus Map

1. FTC — Fitness Center
2. CLB — Classroom Building B
3. SFA — Student Center/Fine Arts
4. CLA — Classroom Building A
5. LIB — Library
6. ADM — Administration Building
7. HSB — Health Science Building
8. COT — Temporary Buildings
9. Tennis Court
10. Baseball Field
11. New Music Instructional Building (Under Construction)
12. New Student-Conference Center (Under Construction)

Protected: 2012 4th of July Parade Pix: Ted Cruz and the Kingwood TEA Party

Reading List: Global Warming

GLOBAL WARMING

Deep Hot Biosphere by Thomas Gold – on Amazon here

$17.46 paperback; $9.99 Kindle

This book sets forth a set of truly controversial and astonishing theories: First, it proposes that below the surface of the earth is a biosphere of greater mass and volume than the biosphere the total sum of living things on our planet’s continents and in its oceans. Second, it proposes that the inhabitants of this subterranean biosphere are not plants or animals as we know them, but heat-loving bacteria that survive on a diet consisting solely of hydrocarbons that is, natural gas and petroleum. And third and perhaps most heretically, the book advances the stunning idea that most hydrocarbons on Earth are not the byproduct of biological debris (“fossil fuels”), but were a common constituent of the materials from which the earth itself was formed some 4.5 billion years ago. The implications are astounding. The theory proposes answers to often-asked questions: Is the deep hot biosphere where life originated, and do Mars and other seemingly barren planets contain deep biospheres? Even more provocatively, is it possible that there is an enormous store of hydrocarbons upwelling from deep within the earth that can provide us with abundant supplies of gas and petroleum? However far-fetched these ideas seem, they are supported by a growing body of evidence, and by the indisputable stature and seriousness Gold brings to any scientific debate. In this book we see a brilliant and boldly original thinker, increasingly a rarity in modern science, as he develops potentially revolutionary ideas about how our world works.

Thomas Gold is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and an Emeritus Professor of Physics at Cornell University. Regarded as one of the most creative and wide-ranging scientists of his generation, he has taught at Cambridge University and Harvard, and for 20 years was the Director of the Cornell Center for Radiophysics and Space Research.

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Global Warming, REALLY? by Greg Parker on Amazon here
(KWTP recommended candidate for Railroad Commission)
$15.00 paperback; $8.99 Kindle

Middle class Americans are under assault. Never have the hard working men and women of America been taken advantage of with the level of arrogance and obvious deceit we are witnessing today. Never has one issue been exaggerated more or forced upon the public with such a vicious and escalating fervor. Never have we seen these levels of hyperbole, lies and predictions of doom. Who can we trust? What is the truth? The American people yearn for someone other than biased scientists or complicit media pundits to give them the clear facts about this complex issue. In his new book, Global Warming…Really? Gregory E. Parker explores the answers to this issue by blending common sense with a basic scientific look at global warming. He delivers a balanced, powerful and comprehensive look at the global warming alarmist movement and the lies which surround it. In, Global Warming…Really? Parker will reveal why these activists hurt their own cause by not practicing what they preach; the true motivation behind carbon taxation and why the money generated serves a more nefarious purpose than merely saving the planet; why the new Green economy will destroy jobs not create them and is more of a friend to organized labor than it is to the free market economy that built America. His unique perspective will expose how Global Warming Alarmists use lies and false promises to minimize the impact this issue will have on minority communities.

Commissioner Gregory Parker was elected to the Comal County Commissioners Court on November 2, 2004 and again in November 2008, where he became the first African American and the youngest person to win election as a county commissioner in Comal County. Commissioner Parker has spoken out frequently on a variety of national issues to include; eminent domain, education and cap and trade, just to name a few. Commissioner Parker is a member of the International Association for Energy Economics, the United States Association for Energy Economics, the American Society for Public Administration, Section on Environmental and Natural Resource Administration and the Texas Oil & Gas Association. Commissioner Parker is an adjunct professor of government at Concordia University.

Commissioner Parker holds a Bachelors of Business Administration, a Masters of Public Administration and is completing his Ph.D. in Public Policy and Administration. Commissioner Parker has also completed open courseware from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Energy Economics, Econometrics, Public Economics, Environmental Economics and Government Responses to Market Failure, Climate Change: Economics, Science, and Policy, Sustainable Energy.

Clayton Liotta Political Cartoons

Added – 8/19/12:  Laughter is the best medicine, but sometimes today’s political cartoons cut so close to the nerve, they hurt.

From Dick Morris’s site: Clayton Liotta’s political cartoons.

A Study in Contrasts: 1984 and 2012 – Morning or Mourning in America

Morning in America 1984 vs. Mourning in America 2011. I know which one I am working for. How about you?