Clear Lake Tea Party “WISH LIST”

Two office rooms, to carry out our campaign plans through November 2012. (Total cost, all inclusive, is $350 a month which equals $116.67 a month each, for 3 donors.)

• Computers, with no less then Windows XP, or Mac.
• Scanner/Fax/Printer
• Filing cabinet
• Tables and/or computer desks
• Chairs
• Gift Cards from Sam’s, Office Depot, Staples, etc., for office supplies. (Ink, printer paper, phones, etc.)
• Books for CLTP lending library

Please see a CLTP Board member for questions or details.

CLTP Election Plan - 2012

The Clear Lake Tea Party’s plan for the 2012 election is a very simple one:

√ Work for Tea Party Candidates and increase Conservative Precinct Chair numbers!
We need your help to do just that!

√ Our goals are to operate a campaign satellite for Tea Party candidates that are running
in local, state, and national races and fill vacant Precinct Chair positions.

√ Please review the CLTP “Wish List” and help where you can. 

Also, we are in the process of building a volunteer data base:

√ Please sign up to help Take Back America!

Your Action Required Immediately

Dear Clear Lake Tea Party Members:

All around us, states are taking action to deal with the high financial and security costs of illegal immigrants.  Texas is sitting in the shadow of states like South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Maryland, and now Louisiana!

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal signed two pieces of legislation into law on Thursday, July 7th that will require and encourage businesses to use E-Verify.  HB342 requires all state and local contractors to use E-Verify, while HB646 requires all private businesses to verify the legal status of their new hires by providing employers that use it a safe harbor against sanctions. Louisiana becomes the sixth state to pass E-Verify since the Supreme Court ruled in favor of state enforcement of E-Verify earlier this year. Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina and Indiana have also passed E-Verify bills. Plus, Virginia passed legislation earlier this year.

Here we sit in Texas not only without E-Verify to cut off the magnet of jobs to illegal immigrants, but the TX legislature's regular and special sessions ended with a failure to pass a simple anti-sanctuary cities law!   House and Senate leadership played games and ran out the clock on this important issue because they were under pressure from business special interests who want cheap labor. This is unacceptable! 

Help us move Governor Perry to take action by doing two things starting today:

1) Call and/or fax his office today.  Tell Governor Perry's staff that you want Texas to end sanctuary cities and mandate the use of the E-Verify system to ensure Texas jobs go to citizens and legal immigrants.  Tell them we cannot afford illegal immigrants accessing social services like Medicaid!

Phone: (512) 463-1782 or (512) 463-2000 Fax:(512) 463-1849  

2) Will you help us reach 2,000 signatures to send a message to Governor Perry?  This letter is going out across the State of Texas.

If you share our frustration with Texas' inaction on illegal immigration, please consider SPREADING THE WORD and endorsing the letter below:

AN OPEN LETTER TO TEXAS GOVERNOR RICK PERRY

June 30, 2011

The Honorable James Richard 'Rick' Perry
Governor of the State of Texas
State Insurance Building
1100 San Jacinto
Austin, Texas 78701

Governor Perry:

We write to express, in the strongest possible terms, our disappointment over the outcome of the regular and special sessions of the 82nd Legislature, in which every single one of the dozens of common-sense immigration reform bills died.

As you are most likely aware, the overwhelming body of polling data shows that Texans are extremely concerned about the effects of unchecked illegal immigration on our state.  A recent University of Texas / Texas Tribune poll of 800 registered voters in Texas found the following:

Texas voters consider illegal immigration to be the most important problem facing the State of Texas, with the lack of border security ranking a close second.[1]  

Fully 87% of Texas voters, including 71% of Hispanic voters, support the passage of a law requiring employers to verify immigration status for their employees, with 70% of Texas voters 'strongly supporting' such a law.[2]

Roughly 69% of Texas voters oppose 'sanctuary city' policies which prevent the enforcement of immigration laws.[3]
Despite an overwhelming consensus among voters on the need for urgent action on illegal immigration, the Texas State Legislature blocked all bills filed in the regular and special sessions relating to employment verification,[4] sanctuary cities, [5] cost reporting[6] state licensing,[7] or any other common-sense immigration reform policies.  The vast majority of immigration-related bills filed in the State Legislature were prevented from even receiving a committee hearing, much less a floor vote.[8]

Although we do not necessarily hold you completely responsible for the inexcusable actions of the House and Senate members during the regular and special sessions, the ball is now squarely in your court. It is solely within your power as Governor to call the legislature into session and demand that they complete the important work that they promised their constituents they would do.

Further, you have the inherent power, as the Chief Executive of the State of Texas, to issue one or more executive orders[9] to address illegal immigration, if you only choose to do so.  You have the inherent executive power, for example, to issue an executive order requiring the use of E-Verify for all state employees and by all state contractors, following the examples set by the governors of Florida,[10] Virginia,[11] Idaho,[12] Rhode Island[13] and Minnesota.[14]

It is a point of pride for many Texans that our Governor is receiving a great deal of attention as a potential contender for President of the United States. Your bold conservative message has clearly struck a chord within the hearts of many Americans.  That said, the American people are hungry for a statesman whose bold words are followed up with bold action.

All eyes are on you, Governor.  Please don't let Texas down.

Sincerely,

THE UNDERSIGNED (CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE LETTER) 

  

JoAnn Fleming, Executive Director (volunteer) Grassroots America - We the People 
www.gawtp.com (903) 894-7204 home office or (903) 360-2858 cell

Ron Paul won't run for reelection to the House Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0711/58792.html#ixzz1RyK3X36h

It's all or nothing for the congressman from Texas:

After serving almost 24 years in the U.S. House of Representatives, Congressman Ron Paul told The Facts this morning he will not be seeking another term for the District 14 seat.

Paul, 75, will instead focus on his quest for the presidency in 2012.  “I felt it was better that I concentrate on one election,” Paul said. “It’s about that time when I should change tactics.”

His announcement will give enough time for anyone with aspirations for his seat to think about running, he said.  Paul didn’t want to wait for filing in the 2012 primary to let people know he wasn’t seeking reelection.  “I didn’t want to hold off until in December,” he said. “I thought it shouldn’t be any later than now.”

The Truth about the 82nd Texas Legislature

By Katrina Pierson

The supermajority of Republicans in the Texas legislature could not seem to make quorum twice in the week prior to the end of the special session to take up the people’s business. Strangely enough, there were 126 members on the roll call, but the House Speaker adjourned for lack of quorum and the members went home. What we have witnessed is how the special interest pulls the strings of politicians, and how the people have become but a mere thorn in the side of the establishment. They don’t like us, and they don’t want us watching. Now, I know why.

I arrived in Austin on Sunday, June 26^th for our monthly Tea Party Caucus Advisory Board meeting in the Senate conference room. After much discussion about the next steps for the movement in Texas, we read through the pending legislation that sat upon our House and Senate. Curiously, the Sanctuary Cities bill still sat in the House State Affairs Committee held to die by Chairman Byron Cook (R – Corsicana) who “holds a special place in his heart for illegal’s”. So, we knew on arrival that the Sanctuary Cities bill was dead. Although Governor tagged this bill as one of his emergency items, this bill died in the Senate in the regular session and was killed by the House in the special session.

Monday, as we prepared to tour the Capitol looking for friends of the movement and doing interviews, we participated in a press conference that highlighted the dangers that we warned the freshman legislators prior to the election of the Texas Speaker of the House have come to pass.

Patiently, we waited to hear when the committee was going to meet to discuss the TSA legislation. By this time, surely the bill would be acceptable since just the day before, a ninety five year old woman dying from cancer had to remove her adult diaper for a TSA search at an airport. Perhaps if she had just worn a burka she would have been ushered on through the check point.

Back and forth through the house (H.B. 41) and senate (S.B. 29) the TSA bill went. Texas had the opportunity to secure the fourth amendment for the citizens of America, not just Texans. We all know that when this bill was first brought to the floor in the senate by Senator Dan Patrick, the Lt. Governor, David Dewhurst, worked diligently against the legislation by seeking a letter from the TSA issuing the threat to suspend all flights in Texas. David Dewhurst began to use the letter that he requested to peel off the votes for the bill quietly behind Senator Patrick’s back. When David Dewhurst allowed the bill to come to a vote he knew that he successfully pulled enough votes for it to ultimately fail.

Lt. Governor David Dewhurst killed the bill in the Senate in the regular session, and then in a press conference leading into the special session, Lt. Gov.  David Dewhurst made the attempt to take credit for the nationally popular legislation. He claimed that there were people in the legislature that tried to stall and run the clock out. And it was David Dewhurst who is guilty of his own allegations. He spoke of principles that are obviously just words to the three kings of Texas:

Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse, Governor Perry was caught on film in New Orleans during a book signing for his book “Fed Up”, ironically,  when he made the claim that they did not have the votes to pass the TSA bill and that there was not enough time left to get it done. However, that video went viral. Governor Perry added the TSA legislation to the special session less than 24 hours of the video hitting the internet. I sat down with the Governor that Tuesday, and he said that he added the legislation because he was informed that they had the votes, not because of the video. You decide.

The house passed a watered down version of H.B. 41 with at least 100 co-authors. Once it was sent to the senate, S.B. 29 (there is that Lt. Governor David Dewhurst again) things got more sticky. Rep. David Simpson passionately carried the legislation and was upset about the watered down version, but upon working the Attorney General,  he accepted the new language to keep the bill viable.

Tuesday morning, as I entered the House chamber at 9:00am it was empty. The Senate was doing the people’s business and the House was scheduled to gavel in at 2:00pm. Why were the Texas legislators not at work. Simple, it was one of those stalling tactics that Lt. Governor David Dewhurst was guilty of doing himself. The house could have gaveled in at 9:00am and voted to suspend the rules to get the work done, but Joe Straus chose not to.

That evening, around 5:45pm everything fell apart. The budget (S.B. 1) did NOT pass. Perhaps real Conservatives in the House tried to hold the budget hostage until the TSA legislation passed? Immediately, a meeting of the Republican Caucus was called, and ironically, so was the Criminal Jurisprudence meeting for the TSA bill. In order for TSA to pass at this point, it still had to go through two more readings before they could take a vote. “There is not enough time” the house claimed. But, they failed to mention that when the Senate sent the TSA bill to the House, the messenger was refused and the bill was sent back, causing further delay.

All of the sudden, the motion to reconsider S.B. 1 was made by Rep. Phil King, so all of the Republicans were called back to the floor to vote. And when they arrived, Chair Rep. Pete Gallego went into the Criminal Jurisprudence meeting and because the Republicans left to vote, they were not there and in that second he canceled the meeting. This is where the bill was ultimately killed. Sadly, Rep. Gallego could have called the Criminal Jurisprudence meeting that evening, but he didn't. Note, Rep. Gallego was appointed by House Speaker Joe Straus.

In order to keep the bill alive, they will now have to vote to suspend a constitutional rule, requiring 4/5 of the vote instead of the normal 2/3. In other words, this would have required 120 votes to pass the bill.

Wednesday,  the House gaveled in at 10:00am with silly resolutions. For example, they spent time talking about honoring a man who had died but had perfect attendance for 60 years at rotary club. Seriously, this is your tax dollars at work folks.

When they finally decided to take up actual business, I could feel the treacherous demise of the TSA legislation. Rep David Simpson boldly stepped up to the mic to defend the fourth amendment for all Americans, and he took shot after shot by Democrats. Rep. Joseph Deshotel (D-Beaumont) actually said that they passed the TSA legislation that, “Terrorists would start using old white ladies and put C4 in their adult diapers”. No kidding. In the end, Republicans tried to cover the Houses tail by blaming the Senate. Rep. Simpson stood strong and vote after vote, the rules were suspended to allow the second reading but failed to achieve the 4/5 vote to get to the third. Twenty-six members were absent that day. Nine were excused.

In the final hour of the last day of the special session. Rep. Simpson stepped out on the house floor to speak from privilege. And when he spoke, he uncovered all the lies and tricks that the three kings of Texas used to fool Texans and shed some light on what Governor Perry was going to attempt to take credit for on the national scene. 

The house adjourned sine die. Money talks! So Texans, once again, got the short end of the stick!

Texas Leadership Fails Us

June 30, 2011

Congratulations South Carolina!  Texas Sits in Your Shadow… a Texas Legislative Update – the People’s Unfinished Business

By JoAnn Fleming

Governor Nikki Haley signs Illegal Immigration Reform Law

This is what principled leadership looks like!  Click on this link to see the bill signing news conference:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMZikpA3_8U

While the leadership of the Texas House and Senate played political games to run out the special session clock, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley signed an immigration reform law Monday (06/27/11), establishing a $1.3 million illegal enforcement unit for the state.

The South Carolina law, the latest immigration reform measure to pass state legislatures around the nation, requires employers to use the federal E-Verify system to check employees’ and job applicants’ citizenship status.  It also establishes a team of immigration police aimed at enforcing the new law. The unit will have 12 full-time officers.

Governor Nikki Haley has proven her talk by her walk.  The South Carolina legislature and Governor Haley got the job done, and they got the job done in a non-border state. 

Texas Leadership Fails to Get the Job Done
 
In our border state of Texas, with a super-majority of Republicans in the House, a majority in the Senate, Republican Lt. Governor David Dewhurst, and Republican Governor Rick Perry, our state leadership could not manage simple anti-sanctuary city legislation – legislation that did not include E-verify, another much-needed reform measure. 

In January, Governor Perry made anti-sanctuary city legislation an emergency item for the Texas legislature.  The legislature failed to get the job done in the 82nd regular session.  With strong urging from the grassroots, Governor Perry put it back on the special session call.  The special session ended yesterday in yet another failure simply because House Speaker Joe Straus, State Affairs Committee Chairman Byron Cook, and his committee members purposefully kept the bill bottled up in committee for two weeks after the TX Senate passed the legislation!   In spite of valiant efforts by a small group of conservatives in the TX House and Senate, the Republican leadership has failed yet again to protect Texas and failed to uphold the rule of law.

And if that’s not bad enough…

The TX legislature also failed to pass the Fourth Amendment-defending TSA anti-groping bill along with anti-Sharia law legislation and scores of other bills dealing with illegal immigration and its heavy toll on Texas.  Why did most of these bills fail to make it out of committee with the GOP-controlled branches of executive and legislative state government?  Political games, special interests, cowardice, and a lack of leadership... 

Simply filing bills and talking big won't fool the People of Texas.  Texans don't need, don't want, and don't deserve the games being played by establishment Republicans.  The truth is -- in Texas, most of our GOP leadership marches to the tune of special business interests who put their love of cheap labor above the safety, security, and financial well-being of Texas citizens and legal immigrants.

Texas taxpayers cannot afford to be a social safety net for all who want to come here illegally to access taxpayer-funded services.  These services and jobs should go to citizens and legal immigrants – period.  The People’s reasonable expectation that our elected leaders would take the oath of office seriously and uphold the rule of law has once again been ignored by our state leadership.

Will Governor Rick Perry Step Up?

The Texas anti-sanctuary cities legislation was a limited first step to deal with the flood of illegal aliens coming into Texas. Our leaders failed to move this one small step forward while law enforcement officers, citizens, and legal immigrants continue to die at the hands of illegals, while private property is plundered, while the cost of social services continues to explode, and while certain cities may well indeed harbor serious threats to national security.

Will Governor Perry – who has served as governor of this border state for ten years – step up and call the Texas Legislature back into another special session to get anti-sanctuary city, E-verify, and Fourth Amendment, liberty-defending legislation passed?  Or, in view of the legislature’s failures, will he lead by signing an executive order to get the job done for Texas?  Perry has a history of signing executive orders for matters far less important than these fundamental “rule of law” issues.

What We Have Asked Governor Perry to Do:

This week the white horse was saddled up and placed right in front of Governor Rick Perry by Texas grassroots constitutional conservatives.  In a meeting with Governor Perry on Tuesday, June 28, 2011 – one day before sine die of the special session – we directly asked him, begged him, to step up to do the right thing by calling another special session in a few weeks or by issuing an executive order.   Media reports say Perry doesn’t seem compelled to make any more attempts to resolve the People’s unfinished business…as he left the state for yet another trip to California – the second trip to the nation’s most populous state in less than three weeks. 
Meanwhile, grassroots leaders across Texas and the nation are waiting to see what Governor Perry does.   Texas is sitting in the shadow of South Carolina, Alabama, and many other states whose leadership has boldly stood up for the rule of law. 

South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley proved this week that she doesn't just talk.  She leads the charge.  Texas has its share of big talkers, but rhetorical bravado delivered with fist-pounding anger directed toward Washington won't save Texas from becoming California, and it won’t save our country.  We want principled leadership.  We need courage in action.  We deserve results.

TX Budget Success? Fairy Tales, the Medicaid Credit Card & Formula One Racing

Texas lawmakers dealt with the budget shortfall and balanced the budget with no new taxes and no tax increases, but $12 billion of the cuts were the one-time federal stimulus funds used to balance the 2010-2011 biennium budget.  The 2012-2013 budget is balanced with some other cuts, tax payment speed ups, accounting gimmicks, and an estimated $4.6 billion charge to a “Medicaid credit card.”  In other words, Texas has a planned budget shortfall for 2013 when legislators will once again raid the Rainy Day Fund (the People's Savings Account).  If kicking the can down the road and delaying tough decisions is wrong in Washington, DC, what makes it right for Texas?

The legislature left many commonsense spending cuts on the table.  Texas Republican leadership refused to champion and push for sensible cost-cutting measures offered by conservative legislators in both the House and the Senate, for example – pay cuts for statewide officials and state employees (not teachers) who make $60,000 and above; and a hiring freeze for all state agencies (excluding law enforcement, corrections, and the court system).  Texas still has many overlapping, duplicated departments, agencies, and programs (twenty-three plus agencies alone that manage natural resources).   If waste is wrong in Washington, DC, why isn’t it equally wrong for Texas?

The legislature and Governor Perry also approved $25 million for Formula One Race track funding for the billionaire promoter and special interests in Austin.  No matter how many times we got this pork stripped out of the budget by the few conservatives in the House and Senate, it always rose from the dead in conference committee and stayed in the budget.  Our Republican Comptroller and other state leaders deeply desired this project and arm-twisted to bring it back to life. If crony capitalism and pork are wrong in Washington, DC, what makes them right for Texas?

The State of Texas has no business serving as an investment banker or venture capitalist for entertainment venues.  Leveraging tax dollars for private special interests is not a core constitutional responsibility of state government.  It’s just plain wrong.

Does Texas have True Constitutional Conservative “Walk the Talk” Leadership?

Right now, the jury is out in Texas, but patience is wearing thin – blisteringly, painfully thin.  Our governor has a new book entitled, Fed Up! Our Fight to Save America from Washington.  It’s a good book, written at the right time.  Like Governor Perry’s likeable Texas drawl, his swagger, and his animated protests against Big DC Government, it’s red meat for the conservative masses, but back here in Texas, we’re fed up with continued inaction on the issue of illegal immigration and a state government desperately in need of structural reforms to reduce unsustainable spending, eliminate waste, simplify school funding, reduce debt, and end transportation funding diversions.

Constitutional conservative Independents, Republicans, Reagan Democrats, TEA Parties, 912s, and other grassroots groups should be very careful not to prematurely jump on any Presidential candidate's (or potential candidate’s) train.  Doing so may have you riding a slow train to disappointment or one that goes off the rails once folks check to see what actually fuels that engine.  It could prove to be a lot of hot air…

The burning question remains – will Governor Rick Perry step up?   Will he stand up for the rule of law and for Texas citizens and legal immigrants?  Or is Rick Perry satisfied to sit in the shadow of South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley?   His white horse is saddled up and waiting.

____________________________________________________________________________

JoAnn Fleming serves as Chairman of the TEA Party Caucus Advisory Committee for the Texas State Legislature.  She is the full-time volunteer Executive Director of Grassroots America – We the People of Tyler/Smith County, Texas, (www.gawtp.com) and is a former county commissioner.  She is a subject matter consultant in local government public policy development, Performance Management, Organizational Development, Teambuilding, Small Business Consulting, Political Campaign Management/Strategy, and Grassroots Activist Training.  A leader in the conservative movement for nineteen years, she has served on twenty local government boards, committees, and task forces.  JoAnn is a regional public speaker and a guest political analyst/commentator for Tyler/Smith County local media.  Contact:  jafleming3@juno.com or 903.894.7204