December 2010
29 posts
Refurbished: new and improved???
Today I was on the Washington Post website and saw some Google ads that made me giggle (well, if I giggled at ads, they would). Here they are – one on top of the other:
Ads by Google
Speaker Joe Straus A tested, conservative leader Learn more and take action Conservatives4JoeStraus.com
Laptops Sold for $33.33 Today: All HP Laptops are Sold for up to 98% Off. Buy Yours Today?
Does anyone...
When is a government promise not a promise?
I often talk about how good policies in Texas have helped create a prosperous state.
The Lone Star State is #1 in job creation, business relocation and we are the stop state for Fortune 500 Companies. That doesn’t mean Texas lawmakers have not made mistakes.
In 2007, Sen. Bob Duncan (R-Lubbock) and Rep. Vickie Truitt (R-Keller) sponosred legislation which allowed Texas government...
Struggling City Stops Paying Its Bills, Abandons...
It was in the New York Times – a struggling small city on the outskirts of Mobile was warned for years that if it did nothing, its pension fund would run out of money by 2009. Right on schedule, its fund ran dry.
Then Prichard did something that pension experts say they have never seen before: it stopped sending monthly pension checks to its 150 retired workers.
Is this a sign of things to come...
Houston loses over $1 million a day
This news from Bob Lemer, president of CPA, Citizens for Public Accountability:
According to the City of Houston’s independently audited “Statement of Activities” (equivalent to a “Statement of Earnings and Retained Earnings” in the private sector) on page 17 of the City’s 2010 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report:
The City of Houston incurred a negative...
Texodus: Texas wins thanks to good fiscal...
The Lone Star State is scooping up more than just our congressional seats — some $846 million in personal income shifted from New York to Texas in an eight-year period during the last decade, according to an analysis of IRS tax returns.
Texas, which has no state or local income taxes and an enviably low cost of living, has been steadily poaching New Yorkers since the ’90s, according...
US Cities face financial collapse
Recent news accounts have claimed that $2 trillion debt threatens 100 US cities and that overdrawn American cities could face financial collapse.
This is no surprise to us at Americans for Prosperity. We have long warned of local government overspending. Five years ago, we published a booklet KEEPING TEXAS COMPETITIVE: PROSPERITY IN THE LONE STAR STATE in which we revealed that local governments...
Urge your Rep to Support a Conservative Texas...
The race for Texas House Speaker is the most important vote any legislator will take. The Speaker determines the committee assignments, chairmen of committees, and sets the agenda. While some claim the race is over, more State Reps are pledging to support a conservative Speaker.
Lt. Governor David Dewhurst presides over the Senate and the House Speaker presides over the Texas House.
With...
Help Shape Our Legislative Agenda
AFP is the leading taxpayer advocacy group in Texas, and we’re always looking for opportunities for our activists to impact the size and spending power of their elected officials.
That’s why we’re asking YOU to help us shape our Legislative Agenda for the upcoming 2011 Session. We’ve identified a number of key issues we’ll want to weigh in on, and we want to know...
Give AFP a Gift this Holiday Season!
With the holiday season upon us, and the New Year quickly approaching, we have the opportunity to look back and celebrate the accomplishments we’ve made together this year. Thanks to your generous commitments of time, energy and money, AFP launched the most successful grassroots effort of our organization to date: the November is Coming project.
Together we phone banked, block walked,...
"First Things First" Rally set for 1-11-11
Calling all Texas Tea Partiers — conservative and Tea Party groups from across the state of Texas will come together on the steps of the Texas Capitol on Jan. 11, 2011 to be a united voice for a conservative legislative agenda in Texas.
The rally is set for 1-3 p.m. on the south steps of the State Capitol. Organizers ask that you wear RED to the rally. More details are still being nailed...
Tell Congress to Stop the FCC's takeover of the...
It’s an eerie echo of last year’s health care debate. Another Christmas Eve, another sixth of the economy taken over by Washington. President Obama’s FCC is obsessed with regulating the Internet. They made it official last week when they announced the agenda for their December 21st meeting.
Congress must step in and do what the American people asked for in this election: stop...
Join the Virtual March on Washington to stop...
We knew the unions wouldn’t let the lame duck session pass by without extracting some big payback for all the time, effort, and money they put into creating the Democratic congressional majority. They are now pushing a bill to force unionization of state and local police, paramedics, and firefighters.
Click here to join our Virtual March on Washington and tell Congress “No union...
Join the Lame Duck Hunt!
The lame duck session of Congress continues into December, and we need your help to send them the following messages:
These are the first votes of the 2012 cycle and public anger is not going away.
You have no right to raise taxes on any American while the economy remains weak and after class-warfare, tax-the-rich ideas were decisively rejected in a national election.
It’s wrong...
Two in Dist. 44 Race Pledge to Defend the American...
John Kuempel & Myrna McLeroy are two of 10 candidates in the District 44 special election to fill the seat left by State Rep. Edmund Kuemple when he passed away in November.
Both recently signed AFP’s Defending the American Dream Pledge, in which they promised to “support spending limits tied to population growth plus inflation with voter approval, or legislative supermajority...
Two More Reasons Texas is No. 1
A new report from the Brookings Institute shows that Austin, Dallas, San Antonio, and Houston dominate the top 15 cities in the U.S. leading the way out of the economic recession.
Also, USAA and Military.com released a study this week showing that Waco is the No. 1 city for military retirees in the U.S. Austin took the No. 3 spot, followed by College Station at No. 4 and San Angelo as the No. 6...
Texas Tea Party Highlight
The North Houston Tea Party Patriots have launched a new organization called the Tea Party Education Foundation (teapartyEd). The goal of the foundation is to reintroduce the original intent and values of our Founding Fathers to the public — namely, a unique system of government based on the rights of the individual, not the rights of a federal government.
There has been a trend in...
News from around the 'Net
Below are this week’s highlights from some of the top blogs we follow here at AFP-Texas. AFPF Policy Advisor Lou Ann Anderson writes on her blog EstateOfDenial.com about the successful tea party-style effort bringing reform to the Arizona probate system: AZ grassroots probate reform highlighted
The eyes of Texas are on UT’s central administration which has grown 65% since 2001! Mark...
WatchUnhappy 40th Birthday to the EPA
Join the webcast of AFP's Hot Air Tour -- LIVE...
When the United Nations Climate Change Conference meets in Cancun, Mexico, this week, Americans for Prosperity will be there to expose the high cost of environmental alarmism.
In Texas, AFP will host a live Webcast viewing event in Austin on Thursday, Dec. 2nd at 6:30 p.m. We’ll have free food, soft drinks and a birthday cake for the EPA along with a special “don’t mess with...
Race for Texas House Speaker Update
AFP-Texas has called for fiscal conservative leadership in the Texas House of Representatives. We consistently focus on free market issues and condemn any efforts to divert the discussion from the important issues facing our state. With Republicans holding almost 2/3 of the House seats, we encourage the Republican caucus vote to ensure leadership unencumbered by last session’s process where...
Earmark Reform Fails in the Senate
Aided by a handful Republicans, Democrats in the U.S. Senate were able to defeat an earmark reform measure that would have created a two-year moratorium on setting aside our tax dollars as earmarks for lawmakers’ pet projects.
The measure was defeated 39-56, with eight R’s voting against the bill, and seven D’s supporting it.
Republicans who voted against the bill include:...
Sen. Hutchison weighs in on ObamaCare
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) weighed in this week on the 1099 reporting requirements laid out in ObamaCare, which would be an enormous burden to small businesses.
“The last thing we need is a bigger government created to try to go into the small businesses and see if they are complying with a $600 requirement for every transaction that they would take.” — Sen. Kay Bailey...
Green Jobs are Destroying California
California officials acknowledged last Thursday that the state faces $20 billion deficits every year from now to 2016. At the same time, California’s state Treasurer entered bond markets to sell some $14 billion in “revenue anticipation notes” over the next two weeks. Worst of all, economic sanity lost out in what may have been the most important election on Nov. 2 — and,...
Journalism Prof Threatened Over Open Records Flap
Our friends at the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas (FOIFT) have written about Tarleton State University’s threatening to fire a journalism professor who instructed his pupils on how to file an open records request with the University. We think the Texas A&M University System should exempt journalism professors who have a legitimate reason to teach their students how to access...
EEK! It's gloom and doom in the Arctic Ocean…
The Arctic Ocean is warming up, icebergs are growing scarcer, and in some places, the seals are finding the water too hot, according to a report to the Commerce Department yesterday from Consulafft, at Bergen, Norway:
“Reports from fishermen, seal hunters and explorers all point to a radical change in climate conditions and hitherto unheard-of temperatures in the Arctic zone. Exploration...
Texas Lowers its Dropout Rates
A new report out this week indicates Texas has made some of the strongest progress in the nation to reduce so-called “dropout factories.” You may recall that during the gubernatorial campaign, Democratic challenger Bill White blasted Gov. Rick Perry for masking the extent of the dropout problem, which is that roughly 3 in 10 high school students in Texas fail to graduate in four...
Higher Ed Employment Shatters the Cap
Higher education institutions in Texas busted their legislatively-mandated employment cap by an average of 8.6% this fiscal year. The percentage increase since 2001 was a stunning 28%. The UT System Administration grew a shocking 66% since 2001. UT employs almost 86,000 people and represents 54% of the higher education workforce, and 28% of the state workforce.
We may all agree that education...
News from around the 'Net
Below are this week’s highlights from some of the top blogs we follow here at AFP-Texas. AFPF Policy Advisor Lou Ann Anderson writes on her blog EstateOfDenial.com about the difficulty of holding probate judges accountable in Texas: Tarrant, Williamson Counties highlight Texans’ challenge for ‘justice’
Mark Lisheron reports at TexasWatchdog.com about more wasteful...