The Texas 18th District Blog

SJL frequently doesn’t understand the full consequence of her votes for her constituency and for our fellow Americans:

When she voted:

She voted for:

The 900-1400 Forest Fires ravaging Northern California right now with taxpayers footing the bill for over 20,000 firefighters on the job. 

California is running on a deficiet trying to deal with this problem and Feds are sending help. That’s your and my tax money too, because SJL voted that way.

I talked to my brother near San Jose this morning and he confirmed that most of Northern California’s population who aren’t running from fires, abandoning homes and trying to save posessions, are chocking on the smoke and ash:

Again this year, right now Americans in California are losing Homes, Businesses, and their lives in and around our Nations Forests because local politicians were influenced by misguided environmentalists.

Left winged thought seems to always play on utopian fantasies. We need to form our policies in line with nature and how it plays out with more wisdom than what has been expressed in the past.

As Texans in Houston, we need to be proud of our Congressional Representatives and know that they not only hold our local best interests in mind but those of the State of Texas and the Nation well in hand. After which, comes the rest of the world!

That’s not what we have right now. If you want to change that… Retire Sheila Jackson Lee by voting John Faulk into office this November.

Let’s take care of Houston First, but let’s understand what the rest of the country is dealing with when we vote through our congresperson.

Superfund Sites in Congressional District 18, Texas

If you’d like to follow “real time” Environmental Issues, you can select an “Environmental Update” link from John Faulk’s “Government Direct” website links below:

Engineer2  

Ken

Sheila Jackson-Lee is at it again, looking for ways to be a one-woman state department. She has introduced a bill in Congress to combat the problem of “statelessness,” or people around the world who aren’t citizens of a country. What the United States has to do with this is beyond me, and certainly with all the problems people in Houston are having this summer SJL could find better things to do with her time, like maybe push for more oil drilling to save her constituents money at the pump. But that’s asking a lot from her.

It is possible as well that this could be a back-door attempt to force the United States into an international posture where it has to accept illegal immigrants if they claim they have no “state.” She has certainly done everything else possible to keep the floodgates open.

It is my understanding that many of Sheila Jackson Lee’s constituents are upset with her lack of standing up for them as Metro tears down their homes. I received the following open letter and petition asking SLJ to step down from the subcommittee on Transportation under Homeland Security.

One more example of how this is going to be SJL’s last year in Congress!

I hope we can help with a SJL surprise retirement party come November 5, 2008!!!:

To: The Honorable Sheila Jackson Lee

From: Constituents of the 18th District & Other Discontent Voters

Date: June 10, 2008

Subj: Request for Your Recusal from Federal Transportation Committee

We the people, YOUR CONSTITUENTS, of the 18th Congressional District who put our trust  in your political abilities to champion the welfare of those you represent,  have to ask that you recuse yourself from Chair of the Committee on Homeland Security (Subcommittee on Transportation). We are sorely disappointed with your performance at this juncture with respect to transportation. As a woman, a mother and member of (1) Children’s Caucus; (2) Human Rights; (3) Labor & Working Families; (4) Missing & Exploited Children; (5) Urban Caucus; (6) Victim’s Rights; (7) Children & Families Task Force; (8) Faith & Values in Politics, we find it unconscionable that you would support, yet push for funding, which would destroy predominant minority neighborhoods and place children in eminent danger of Light Rail.

Surely you are not blind to the adult statistics of Light Rail in Houston, therefore how can you look in the mirror as a woman who gave birth to children of your own, yet care nothing for the lives of other young children? How can you so willingly wish to see the destruction of neighborhoods of those who voted you into office and entrusted you with our welfare? How can you represent “Faith & Values in Politics” when your current behavior (pushing for funding of corridors running on streets) that were not in the contract/referendum of 2003?

What does this teach our young political hopefuls? It speaks loudly stating that contracts mean nothing, they are to be broken when it is to serve the well-off. After your October ‘07 Town Hall Meeting, we actually BELIEVED you were going to “champion” saving our children, homes, neighborhoods, businesses and that you were, as you stated, “going to stay in contact with us”. We believed in you so much so, that we began a “Thank You Letter” campaign, which was circulating, and being readied for mailing to you. We no longer feel this way about you.

We then were disappointed with your statements made at the groundbreaking ceremony on Beekman @ Griggs where you stated, “some will just have to sacrifice”. You and our Mayor White seem to be reading from the same script as you have both “echoed” this same sentiment when it relates to the children, homes, neighborhoods, businesses of: MacGregor Place, MacGregor Trails (both bordered/threatened by MLK SE alignment; (2) University (Wheeler, parts of which are not now, nor ever have been supported by bus service, yet is being touted as “will improve riders hip”—all threatened by destruction as witnessed by Downtown Houston which has yet to recover to an economic engine.  How is this possible when none has been needed there to date? (3) Richmond (placing all homeowners/businesses out as witnessed by what happened on Main; (4) Northside — more schools, ergo more children at risk; (5) Harrisburg (the most Historical Hispanic area within the city) putting children, homes and businesses in peril.

Why is it the ‘03 Referendum (streets named thereupon in the contract) is not being honored? It is what was presented to the VOTERS, and IT is what passed. METRO is supposed to be about smart, rapid transit, not the destruction of neighborhoods nor redevelopment of it to a dense, younger tax base of residents that are yet to be discovered. Why don’t  you concentrate on METRO moving working people in from the outlying areas such as Spring, Katy, Pearland, Conroe, Kingwood—actual commuter rail; i.e. Dallas? This is a worthy goal to ease traffic off Houston freeways, outlying highways and stop focusing on displacing (”by sacrifice”, to use your words) homeowners, businesses and the inevitable injury of life lost of a child and/or parent.

Our faith in your political abilities is rapidly declining. We no longer respect your actions at this time, therefore; have no need for your representation of us since you are not listening to your constituency. Our support of you, our current Mayor, and any other elected officials in future political actions will no longer be available to you if you don’t exercise your influence to STOP LIGHT RAIL FROM DECIMATING HOME OWNERS, NEIGHBORHOODS, BUSINESSES along all current proposed routes (which were NOT on the ‘03 “CONTRACT WITH THE CITIZENS).

Sincerely,18th District Constituents* & Other Discontent Voters

  cc:
  Mary Peters, Secretary of Transportation
  Sherry Little, FTA Administrator/DC HQ
  Amber Ontiveros, FTA Civil Rights Officer/DC HQ
  Representative Daniel Lungren, Transportation Committee Member
  Representative Eleanor Norton, Transportation Committee Member
  Representative Gus Bilirakis, Transportation Committee Member
  Representative Paul Broun, Transportation Committee Member
  Representative Virginia Brown-Waite, Transportation Committee Member
  Representative Yvette Clarke, Transportation Committee Member
  Representative Peter DeFazio, Transportation Committee Member
  Representative Peter King, Transportation Committee Member
  Representative Edward Markey, Transportation Committee Member
  Representative Ed Perlmutter, Transportation Committee Member
  Representative Bennie Thompson, Transportation Committee Member
  State Senator Rodney Ellis
  Representative Al Green
  Representative Sylvester Turner
  Representative Harold Dutton
  Representative Garnet Coleman
  Mayor Bill White

I think the American public would appreciate presidential candidates that weren’t chasing each other around flipping pancakes or waffles up each other’s panties.  In fact, reflecting on the seriousness of this time and space, I bet the whole world would appreciate a little more maturity out of us Americans.

We all know where we are here. Our realities have changed severely in a short period of time. The whole world’s has. These times take reflective and reconstructive thought and changes of view for all of us.

You don’t dignify yourselves nor respect the American public chasing each other around in a world arena playing “patty-cake” and beating each over the head with a “Waffle Iron”.

In case you guys missed it… the DOW dropped 350 points yesterday, crude oil made a new all time intraday high over $140/bbl and GM was hammered down to a 53 year low, while American Presidental Candidates were slapping each other around with waffle irons after a Supreme Court Ruling on 2nd Ammendment Rights.

LOL

ZenGardener

As long as the folks in this Faulk For Congress Blog tolerate me here, the “Stark Truth” series will attempt to post/expose behind the scene games played out by any party against the other in a nefarious manner.

Obama has a monster campaign fund raising machine running. Federal Campaign Expenditure Limitations apply only to recipiants of the public campaign funding which does not come out of tax revenue.

There are no limits on campaign expenditure when you turn Federal Campaign Contributions down.

Did he make that clear to everyone?

The reason he didn’t go the full mile there was that he felt he could outraise McCain’s campaign funding where that the “public funding” would be overun by such an extent he could disreguard it completely.

Surely he didn’t think that the American public wouldn’t call that for what it was. You can cancel out all benevelant pretense there. The tax payer isn’t even involved.

This (The Stark Truth Series) will be a bipatisan ”watchdog” series that will “rip any candidate’s rear end” when there is even a scent of having falsely represented themself to the American public.

That’s the Stark Truth,

Engineer2

Sheila,

This is a desperate call for you to pay attention to your local Houston constituancy!

It seems as though you have abandoned us. We need representation right here at home, in Houston.

Forget Hillary and Obama both! We need you here, in Houston. We need you to refocus on primary National and Local Issues, not the presidential election (Hillary)!

We need a congressional representative who is attuned to both local and national issues.

There are more pressing issues right here at home… you need to drop international issues and not only play internationally and in the US, but right here at home, in Houston Texas.  Bring it on home. Let us help you pass a Bill… that 2 decade history looks pretty bleak. The American people are fed up with ineffective Congressional Representatives and we are going to vote them out this year.

PREDITORY LENDING PRACTICES STILL PREVAIL!

When is Congress going to “buck up” and act on this problem?

When are you going to come back home and deal where we need you to deal, where the country needs you to deal? Where Houstonians and Texans need you.

Why isn’t Congress dealing with predatory lending practices yet?

You bet I’m mad tonight!

Today, after lending our car to my daughter-in-law for 2 days, they decided to go shopping for a new vehicle, so that they can haul 4 kids (2 adopted) around. My daughter-in-law isn’t employed and my son-in-law there (God bless him) is a hard working man (a welder) working 7 12s right now (only while it lasts).

Today, with their credit ranking they went out and bought a “new” used truck that could meet their needs at a gawd awful 18% interest rate, right here in Houston!. I could have slapped both of them up side the head for making that deal, which should have been an illegal play by a lender.

When are you and Congress going to stand up and get our economy back in order?

When are you and Congress going to deal with these kind of predatory lending practices, Sheila Jackson Lee?

Sheila Jackson Lee; Did you know that GM (General Motors) hit a 53 year low in the stock market today? 

Please Refocus Sometime Soon!

Engineer2

Congress has been vowing to take actions that it believes will reverse runaway crude, gasoline, diesel, natural gas and heating oil prices.

Late breaking news this afternoon on CNBC reports that Congress has passed one of the 9 (energy cost) bills before them right now. Early indications are that they have passed a bill requiring the CFTC (U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission) to curb speculation in the energy markets!

This will be timely legislation, as crude oil prices hit an all time trading interim high today, over $140/bbl.

The news is slow coming across the wires right now, but we will follow it here.

Ken

Today’s Historic Supreme Court 5-4 ruling struck down the District of Columbia’s 32 year old ban on handguns under Second Amendment rights.

Writing for the majority, Justice Antonin Scalia said that an individual right to bear arms is supported by “the historical narrative” both before and after the Second Amendment was adopted. Scalia further stated: The Constitution does not permit “the absolute prohibition of handguns held and used for self-defense in the home”.

This is a “landmark decision” because the court had not conclusively interpreted the Second Amendment since its ratification in 1791.

The 2nd Amendment Reads:

“A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

Political comments were swift in coming:

John McCain (press release):

Today’s decision is a landmark victory for Second Amendment freedom in the United States. For this first time in the history of our Republic, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed that the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms was and is an individual right as intended by our Founding Fathers. I applaud this decision as well as the overturning of the District of Columbia’s ban on handguns and limitations on the ability to use firearms for self-defense.

Barack Obama:

“Today’s ruling, the first clear statement on this issue in 127 years, will provide much-needed guidance to local jurisdictions across the country.”

House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio:

“”In the most significant victory for the Second Amendment in recent memory, the Supreme Court today reaffirmed our citizens’ constitutional right to keep and bear arms…This decision should send a clear message to opponents of the Second Amendment. The Constitution plainly guarantees the solemn right to keep and bear arms, and the whims of politically correct bureaucrats cannot take it away.”

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas:

“The nation’s top court made the correct decision by reaffirming one of our founding principles, the right of individuals to keep and bear arms. This historic ruling has implications far beyond the District of Columbia.”

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas:

“Today’s ruling is a major victory for the rights of all Americans to protect themselves and their families. The Supreme Court sent a clear message to local, state, and federal governments that this individual right cannot be unreasonably infringed.”

I believe either Barack misquoted himself or the press did. He probably meant to say “217 years” instead of “127 years”. The Supreme Court has not really attempted clarifying the 2nd Ammendment since its ratification in 1791. 2008-1791=217 years, not 127. Obama and his campaign members may want to check their history or math there.

American Citizens in Chicago, New York, Houston and across America need to have full legal rights to protect our homes, families and children, especially in bleaker economic times when home invasions are occurring at an accelerated pace. 

Ken

Today, the Supreme Court summarily banned, by judicial decree, sentencing child rapists to death. Now the most despicable of criminals can thank the Robed Enforcers of European Sophistication that they will not be given a punishment befitting of their crimes. Everyone knew the four liberal justices would rule in favor of the rapists, but people were waiting for how Justice Kennedy, the “swing” vote, would come down. I had a sense beforehand.

I wrote a paper on Kennedy for my Constitutional Law class, and during my research I learned that Kennedy is conservative in his jurisprudence on some issues, liberal on others. Criminal punishment, specifically the 8th Amendment’s ban on “cruel and unusual punishment” is one of his liberal ones.

Just exactly what the 8th Amendment means seems to have been settled in 1958. That year, in the Supreme Court case “Trop v. Dulles”, Chief Justice Earl Warren rejected the argument that if the writers of the Constitution didn’t think a punishment was “cruel and unusual” (they allowed it in their time), it was Constitutional. Warren argued, in a phrase that is now among the most infamous for judicial conservatives, that cruel and unusual punishment must be judged by “the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society.” Since then, the Supreme Court has pretty much stuck to that as a rule: Does the punishment violate the values of contemporary society? The problem is, the Supreme Court decides what society’s values are, and in that it is often inept.

Justice Kennedy seems to relish the job, and even takes it a step further, becoming the classic philosopher-king.

His opinions on the 8th Amendment ponder at length the philosophical and moral consequences of sentencing someone to death. You might remember his opinion in “Roper v. Simmons” striking down the death penalty for juveniles because, in his words, the murderer was not able “to attain a mature understanding of his own humanity.”

Once Kennedy concludes that applying the death penalty is somehow philosophically wrong, he decides that there is a “national consensus” against it. Of course, the logic he employs always enables him to arrive at that conclusion. If the majority of states allow the death penalty for a particular crime but a few have moved away from it, he declares that society is moving away from the death penalty. If most states don’t execute for a certain crime but a few have started to, he declares that society as a whole doesn’t want the death penalty for that crime.

Then, as any dictator would, he issues a decree stating that, henceforth, since he is the arbiter of societal values and has “decided” that people don’t want the death penalty for (in this case) child rapists, all citizens of the United States must obey his will.

Maybe Kennedy forgot a little thing called the American Revolution, which we fought to free ourselves from people like him.

Will Bill Clinton endorse Obama?

He Hasn’t yet.

What are your thoughts?

Ken

Yesterday it was reported that “American Consumer Confidence” dropped to a 15yr low from 58% to 50%. We all need to understand that we are in “Dire Straits” right now, the “consumer” is tapped out. There is no more borrowing against home equity to buy an SUV. 50% of 70% of the economy is saying;

“Hey I am not going to spend in the foreseeable future, I am tapped out. I can’t afford a vacation this year for my family. I can barely afford gas and food for my family. The “Secret Service” doesn’t pay for my gas at the pump.”

Mortgage foreclosures, bankrupsys and the likes aren’t hard to understand. This effect is rippling throughout all of “American Life” including local municipalities’ tax revenue funding, affecting law enforcement, public safety, our schools and much more. That’s already a done deal, it just hasn’t started being reported in the news yet. Don’t worry, it will be on your local channels soon, stay tuned to your TV.

A number of arguments are going to spill over from our economic community into our local news media. There will be a great deal of finger pointing etc, but when you look behind the scenes, the Democrat led Congress have blocked virtually every alternate energy bill they could from more drilling for domestic cleaner oil to nuclear power for several years now. Recently we had the first request for a new nuclear power plant in 30 years and they were greeted with a 42 month “red tape” federal approval menace. There will most likely be questions raised along the lines of whether the Pelosi led Democrat Congress has acted in the best interest of the American Public, or whether they were making a political play against the Bush administration. 

It’s not just the economic and energy problems we are faced with here. On top of those issues Israel’s military is practice running long range attacks having to refuel planes 3X while in the air to demonstrate that an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities are not only feasible but most probably inevitable. Israel’s delegates are saying that “A nuclear empowered Iran can not be tolerated”. Personally, I take Israel real serious at that level.

If consumer sentiment has dropped that low…believe me we are going to see record setting marks next month! There is absolutely NOTHING IN THE PIPELINE TO TURN THAT AROUND right now.

Companies such as Dow Chemical are announcing 25% rate hikes with $300 Trucking and $600 Rail rate hike adjustments. UAI is cutting 950 pilots in the next year.

The Fed has their hands tied. They can saber rattle but they can’t raise rates with this sudden inflation burden on business and individuals as it stands.

On top of this mess; Obama is proposing raising taxes at several points and has only had 1 single bill passed as Senator so far.

The whole economic community is locked up and on guard right now until after the election.

Someone, anyone; please get a grip here, somewhere!

ZenGardener