Agenda 21 and Rising Cost of Living

This morning, we read this piece from Stanley Kurtz:

A year ago, I published Spreading the Wealth: How Obama Is Robbing the Suburbs to Pay for the Cities. There I described the president’s second-term plan to press a transformative “regionalist” agenda on the country. Early but unmistakable signs indicate that Obama’s regionalist push is well underway.

....

The new HUD rule is really about changing the way Americans live. It is part of a broader suite of initiatives designed to block suburban development, press Americans into hyper-dense cities, and force us out of our cars. Government-mandated ethnic and racial diversification plays a role in this scheme, yet the broader goal is forced “economic integration.” The ultimate vision is to make all neighborhoods more or less alike, turning traditional cities into ultra-dense Manhattans, while making suburbs look more like cities do now. In this centrally-planned utopia, steadily increasing numbers will live cheek-by-jowl in “stack and pack” high-rises close to public transportation, while automobiles fall into relative disuse.

....

[discussing one such example in the San Francisco Bay Area]

In effect, by preventing the development of new suburbs, and reducing traditional single-family home development in existing suburbs, Plan Bay Area will squeeze 30 years worth of in-migrating population into a few small urban enclaves, and force most new businesses into the same tight quarters. The result will be a steep increase in the Bay Area’s already out-of-control housing prices. This will hit the poor and middle class the hardest. [emphasis ours]

 This got us thinking about some of our recent efforts locally and at the state level.  One common denominator all this crap shares is that the policies we're fighting increase cost of living.  That's true whether the proposed policies emanate from your local city council, Washington, or the United Nations.

And that's how you fight it.  Americans are too apathetic to learn about some obscure policy coming out of the U.N.  But if you tell them "project 'x' is going to cost you $300 per year, project 'y' is going to cost you $500, and project 'z' is going to cost you $200" then they'll care about that tangible $1000.

Cost of living is a tangible mechanism to fight land-use central planning, whether the central planners are your local city council, the United Nations, or anyone in between.

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Rafael Cruz's concise summary of why Marxism is Bad

Last night, at Freedomworks' event in Salt Lake City, Rafael Cruz explained the devastation Fidel Castro wrought in Cuba and the eery similarities he sees between Castro and Barack Obama:



Highlights:

• In the late 1950's, a young and charismatic leader rose up in Cuba chanting 'Hope and Change'; his name was Fidel Castro.

• "In 1959, I went back to Cuba and got the shock of my life; that same man who had been talking about 'Hope and Change' was now talking about how the rich were evil, about how they oppressed the people, and about the need to redistribute the wealth."

• Castro reduced everyone's salary to the lowest common denomenator.

• "Within a few years of graduating from college I had my own business in Oil and Gas exploration."

• In 1976, he was "shocked again" when he saw the U.S. government implementing socialist policies.
• Became very active in Reagan's campaign.

• "There is no place to go, this is the bastion of freedom in the world."

•  The creepiest thing Obama has done is his willingness to govern by executive order.
• That's exactly what Castro did
• Author's note: This is the issue on which Ted Cruz sold us on his candidacy.

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The Original #HailSatan Incident (with Ashley's testimony)

Yesterday, we obviously made a splash with the video of the pro-abortion supporter saying 'Hail Satan;' the video had a lot of background noise, and yesterday we said:

For the record: They've been doing this all day, this is just the first time we caught it on video.

Well guess what, it turns out we have video of the original incident.

So here's the full story, as best we can recall: Around 3 pm, we got up from posting this video and went downstairs by the area near the committee room.  Arriving on the second floor of the capitol extension, we met up with our friend D.J, who was watching women testify with LetTexasSpeak.com.  At that time LTS was broadcasting from a corner on the second floor.

Ashley joined us 20 minutes later, around 3:30.  We continued to listen to the women testify until there were too many people in the corner.  At that point, DPS asked us to move outside, which was when Ashley decided to speak.  We're not sure what time DPS asked us to move, but we were already outside by 4:05 pm when we decided to not watch Glenn Beck because we thought Stu was guest hosting.

20-30 minutes later, Ashley got up to speak.  As you can tell, her testimony is VERY powerful.  The crowd was transfixed, including the pro-abortion people.



As Ashley spoke, a few of the pro-abortion people started saying 'hail Satan' at random.  The first time we heard it was at 3:35 of this second video.  By 5:15, they're chanting it in unison, VERY creepily:



(Author's note: Ashley asked us to point out that she misspoke when she said abortion kills 1.3 people in the United States each year; she meant to say 1.3 million.)

The video posted yesterday took place around 6:30 pm.  This took place around 4:30.  The pro-abortion people were intermittently chanting "hail satan" throughout.

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We met Ashley last summer, when the President was in town; to see the footage of the Barack Obama supporter who verbally accosted her that time, click here.

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Senator Ted Cruz: #STAND4LIFE

Senator Ted Cruz gives a compelling address at National Right to Life:



Highlights:

•  The Declaration of Independence puts life first for a reason.

• Led the fight to defend Parental notification in front of the Supreme Court and won unanimously.

• Basically, he's kicked Planned Parenthood's butt multiple times in Court.

• Dems Gosnell counter-resolution condemned 'unsanitary health care conditions."

• "The U.S. Senate under Harry Reid has no interest whatsoever in even knowing what's going on."

• "The Obama administration with much fanfare repealed the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy, yet sadly that seems to be their policy when it comes to late-term abortions."

• "When Rand Paul stood up to filibuster Barack Obama's drone policy, and when we stood up beside him, we were filibustering to protect the sanctity of unborn life from arbitrary government destruction; when Austin Democrats stood together in their filibuster, they were filibustering the ability to carry out late term abortions, to protect the ability to take unborn lives."

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On Immigration and Syria: An Open Letter to Congressman Roger Williams

Dear Congressman Williams,

It's been an interesting few months.  We've had our agreements.  We've also had multiple disagreements.

I'm writing today on two topics: Immigration and Syria.

On immigration, I expect you to vote against ANY bill out of the United States' House.  Any bill the House passes will be a Trojan horse for Amnesty in conference committee.  Do not vote for ANY bill related to immigration between now and the end of the 113th Congress.

On Syria, I encourage you oppose any military intervention in Syria that President Obama and Senator McCain might advocate.  Unfortunately, following his record in Libya, I doubt this President will ask Congress for permission.  In that event, I expect you to IMMEDIATELY move to de-fund this action.  Nothing good can come out of military intervention in Syria (at least at this time).  As Sarah Palin said last week, let Allah sort it out.

As I told you during the campaign last year, we're not going to agree on every issue.  That's fine.  If you do the right thing on immigration and Syria, however, I can overlook A LOT of other areas of disagreement.

You'll be in my prayers.

James 4:17

Sincerely,
Adam Cahn
Austin, TX
June, 19 2013

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Don't Tax My Credit Union

This will come as a 'shock,' but the same Obama administration that expanded TARP, re-appointed Bernanke, and gave us the Dodd-Frank big bank protection racket, now wants to tax independent credit unions out of existence:



Highlights:

• 96 million Americans use credit unions.

• 40% of Americans are credit union members.

• Only 6% of all financial assets in the United States are in credit unions.

Take action here.

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FEMA's Politicized Decisionmaking Blesses Texas (in Disguise)

"²⁰ But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive."
Genesis 50:20

It's official; the federal government has told West, TX to pound sand:



This is disgraceful, but not surprising.  Given his track record, it's predictable that FEMA under Barack Obama would do something like this.  But there's a bigger lesson.

Texans should take this incident as a parable about Washington.

Federal 'assistance', under either party, is a trap.  Money from Washington ALWAYS comes with strings.  Avoiding those strings is more important than whatever pittance might eventually get through the bureaucracy.

FEMA's decision allows West to rebuild without interference from Washington.  Instead of bureaucrats, our churches and civic organizations will take the lead.  Instead of conforming to some arbitrary standard set 1500 miles away, we can do it right.

Obviously, it sucks that Washington gets to keep our money.  But so what?!?  Does anyone actually think they're going to get anything back once the money goes down the Washington D.C. rathole?!?  This is a great debate point, but it doesn't help rebuild West.  Groveling at the feet of Washington D.C. can only make the problem worse.

Step aside Washington; the private sector will rebuild West, TX.

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Author's Note: Personally, we think the $10 million West needs to rebuild its roads would be an appropriate use of the rainy day fund.

Author's Note II: West says they need $90 million total; I'd bet if we band together and keep the government out of things, we can do it for a fraction of that.

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The Hollow Mayor: Updates on Julian Castro

A great new site has one stop shopping for Barack Obama's chosen Texas crony, San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro; among the "highlights":

• Castro's 15% increase in the homicide rate 

• Castro's city has 37% of schools failing. 

• Castro's roach infested public housing.

In addition, today's San Antonio Express-News details the roll-out of Castro's pre-K initiative:

In what the mayor recently described as a “Herculean effort,” 20 members of the city's staff have been on a learning curve to become educational experts while developing the program. They were trained on the job by educational consultants at taxpayers' expense, but it was City Manager Sheryl Sculley and her staff, not educators, who built Pre-K 4 SA. 

After a nationwide search costing $175,000, a CEO was recruited from Harlandale ISD at an annual salary of $176,000. The job requirements specified “a master's with a focus in early childhood education, preferably a doctoral degree, and a proven record of achieving excellence,” along with other experience and skills not present in the person selected. She has a master's in educational psychology and supervision, and served Harlandale as a principal for 23 years and as head of curriculum and instruction for nine years. 

Since Pre-K 4 SA's success will be measured by third-grade STARR scores in reading and math, we are interested in the academic performance of children educated under the leadership of the new CEO. The 2012 report of third-grade performance on the STARR in Harlandale shows that 33 percent failed to attain a satisfactory reading level and 43 percent failed in math.

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/commentary/article/Pre-K-4-SA-promises-empty-so-far-4587637.php#ixzz2VqZm1KPy

 Finally, this surprisingly honest piece from Al Jazeera (yeah, that Al Jazeera) takes the cake:

Given the parallels between the lives of Castro and Obama, it would seem impossible for Obama not to have noticed the two-term mayor. Like the president, Castro earned a degree from Harvard Law School. Like Obama, Castro is the son of a single mother. And like Obama, some of Castro's relationships can be seen as a challenge to mainstream political thought.

Obama's personal connection with Jeremiah Wright, his former pastor, and his more tangential connection with William Ayers, a 1960s radical with whom Obama served on two foundation boards, have drawn vehement criticism from some conservatives.

For Castro, however, it is his mother - a leading figure of Texas' La Raza Unida party, a nationalist Mexican-American movement that seeks equal rights for Latinos, who could become a lightning rod. 

For Julian and Joaquin, both sons of Texas, statements like the ones their mother made in an interview with the New York Times Magazine, attacking one of the greatest sources of San Antonio pride - the Alamo and the battle for Texan independence - could prove problematic in their ability to sell themselves as Mexican-Americans. 

Rosie Castro said "the ‘heroes’ of the Alamo were a bunch of drunks and crooks and slave-holding imperialists who conquered land that didn’t belong to them", potentially a major contributing factor to conservative criticisms of her two sons.

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Update: To say nothing of his ongoing campaign finance scandal.

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Obama v. Texas in One Chart

Need we say anything else?!?

(h/t WILLISMS)

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Peter Schiff DEMOLISHES Larry Kudlow

With all due respect Larry Kudlow, you probably shouldn't have gotten out of bed this morning:



Highlights:

• Ben Bernanke is not Paul Volcker and President Obama is no Ronald Reagan
• Personal Note: That's the understatement of the year!
• Everything they've done since 2008 has made the situation worse.
• This decline in Gold is a buying opportunity.

• The money printing will continue and the inflation is there; anyone who shops knows that.

• Who cares what the government says in their doctored numbers?!? 

• For the record: This David Goldman character is a moron.

• With all due respect to Larry Kudlow, none of this stuff has materialized...YET!!!

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BREAKING NEWS: Rick Perry Caves on Obamacare

Sigh:

Governor Rick Perry reverses position on Medicaid Expansion
by,
Abe Rill Phuelez
April, 1st 2013

Austin, TX -- Citing a need to 'embrace political moderation' and fear of 'being called mean by Democrats,' Texas Governor Rick Perry today reversed his position on expanding Medicaid under the 2010 Federal Health Care Law.

"In 2012, Mitt Romney decisively won independents and the results speak for themselves.  Texans should embrace political moderation to achieve similar results," Perry said.  "As Governor, I fear being called mean by Democrats so much that I would rather expand a bankrupt Medicaid program."

Medicaid expansion will split Texas Republicans.  Representative David Simpson and Senator Donna Campbell issued a joint statement calling the move 'heartbreaking and inexplicable.'  Texas House Speaker Joe Straus, by contrast, hailed Perry's decision as "the best news I've heard all session."

Battleground Texas Reacts

Jeremy Bird, President Obama's handpicked choice to rebuild Texas Democrats, echoed Straus' sentiments.

"Battleground Texas is ecstatic Governor Perry has joined the tradition of former Virginia state senator John Chichester and former Colorado Governor Bill Owens by preemptively expanding government" said Bird. "As we recently made clear, Battleground Texas does not yet posses the resources we need to win.  Medicaid expansion is the taxpayer financed slush fund of Battleground Texas' dreams."

Former George W. Bush speechwriter Mark McKinnon called the move 'a strategic milestone' for Democrats.  "The long-term objective of the Democrat party is subvert traditional American virtues of individual sovereignty and self-reliance and to replace them with a spirit of fear and dependence on Caesar.  Any system that traps another million souls in a substandard health-care system is a slam dunk win for Texas Democrats."

Julian Castro salivates

San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, the political figure most widely expected to benefit from Medicaid expansion, issued the following statement:

"I am delighted Governor Perry chose to reject common-sense Medicaid reforms like Federal block granting in favor of the mother of all payola schemes for Texas Democrats.  Socialized medicine will allow me to establish a protection racket for a statewide run in a way that felony corporate contributions never could.  Medicaid expansion will be Julian Castro's personal Tammany Hall.

Tea Party activists were too busy fighting among themselves to comment.

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Comptroller Susan Combs: John Galt is Alive and Well and He's Living in Texas

Great CPAC panel featuring Texas Comptroller Susan Combs: Has Atlas Shrugged?!? Business in Obama's America:

Highlights:

• Technology has altered the pace of change.
• Overwhelms Centralized Bureaucracy

• Small Businesses innovate 11x faster than Big Businesses.

• Under Obama, fewer small businesses have been formed and more have failed than at any time in 40 years.

• Big business and big labor can navigate big government; small business cannot.

• We spend more money on education than any other country for worse results.

• Susan Combs:
• "John Galt is alive and well and he's living in Texas."
• Some parts of the Federal government (like the EPA) just don't like successful people.
• Texas has a diversified economy.
• We love to sue the federal government in Texas
• Big government is not your friend if you're a risk taker.

• Jeanette Prenger
• Her current Health Care bill is $21,000 per month; under Obamacare it will go up to $58,000.

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Texas Tribune: Battleground Texas Reveals Their Weaknesses

The Texas Tribune had an interview yesterday with Jeremy Bird, the director of Battleground Texas.  In the interview, Bird tips his hand on strategy.  Some highlights:

Dems plan to boost turnout (and, even though they don't say it out loud, fraud):

Bird contends that Republicans' confidence is based on elections in which only about half of the state has turned out to vote. “We’ll see what happens when we start to get 60 or 65 or 70 percent turnout. It’s going to look very different,”

 This is a point conservatives would do well to heed.  The Obama campaign made it a priority to register marginal voters and get them to the polls.  There's no reason to believe they couldn't make headway with a similar effort in Texas.  The caution to Democrats, however, is that this is a double-edged sword.  There are dozens (if not hundreds) of people who don't vote in every Church across this state.

Bird reveals their timetable:

Part of the reason that [the Obama campaign] won Florida in 2012 is that we had had a grassroots program running for six years with all the components — digital, communications, field, data, analytics — all of them put together into a 21st century modern campaign that worked for people's votes.

Six years from today would mean that Democrats intend to compete statewide around 2018.  That's not impossible, but it does mean there's plenty of time between now and then for events to intervene.  Personally, we think the global economy will collapse before Battleground Texas has time to execute this plan; when that happens, it will reshuffle the deck of domestic politics in a way Battleground Texas doesn't anticipate.

The specifics of how they plan to boost turnout:

We have to do that here. And it can’t just happen in one part of the state; it has to happen across the state. We need to touch places where we’re getting 25 percent of the vote and get 32 percent of the vote. It’s not necessarily about winning all those places, but we have to compete there. And then we have to have higher turnout in places that have already gone blue.

The point about going from 25 percent to 32 percent in hostile territory is an interesting one Cahnman's Musings had not thought about.  That's a good strategy in a vacuum.  However, like we said earlier, it's a strategy that cuts both ways.  We live in Austin, and there is an untapped pool of potential conservative voters right here.  Both sides are going to work overtime to boost turnout.

Then, almost as an afterthought, Bird lets the cat out of the bag:

In order to do this right, we’re going to have to raise the money, the grassroots money to do it and then ultimately transition that into a 21st century campaign with real organizers in neighborhoods working for every single vote.

If you only take one point away from this post, make it this one: the left doesn't (yet) have the money to pull this off.  The ONLY WAY they will get the money they need is if Republicans expand state government for them.  That's how the left took over Colorado.  That's why School Choice and Medicaid are such important fights.  The left will only acquire the resources necessary to swing Texas if Republicans give them a bigger government from which to siphon money.

Finally, Bird closes out with a cryptic (and bizarre) statement:

There are millions of kids in this state who are currently being denied access to health insurance because of the current governor.

We have no idea what Bird's talking about, but our educated guess is that he's talking about Rick Perry's refusal to expand Medicaid under Obamacare. That's bizarre; Medicaid is a failed program that exploits the vulnerable.  If Battleground Texas wants to make expanding substandard Health Care their central argument, go for it!

Bottom line: The Left intends to get more of their people to the polls than they have in the past (which will also make fraud easier).  Cahnman's Musings expects them to pull that off.  What the left cannot control, however, is turnout on our side.  There are plenty of untapped potential Conservative voters in this state; Cahnman's Musings goes to Church with hundreds of them.  The challenge for conservatives in Texas will be to increase engagement among folks who already agree with us but don't necessarily vote.

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UPDATE: California Welfare Scam Parody

Three months ago, we brought you this shocking video of a Calfornia Welfare recipient; while everything she says in the original video is true, it turns out that that interview was the companion piece to this hilarious parody:

Welcome to America in Barack Obama's second term

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By Popular Demand: Governor Rick Perry -- CPAC 2013

Governor Perry gave a barnburner of a speech today in Washington where he also tipped his hand about the coming fight in Texas over Medicaid:

Highlights:

• Releasing dangerous foreign nationals into the United States and blaming the sequester was a 'federally sponsored jailbreak.'

• "There's nothing free that comes from Washington."
• Me: Amen to that!!!

• "All we have is a promise from a Federal Government that apparently can't afford to lock up dangerous criminals."

• After repeating his unwavering opposition to expanding Medicaid under Obamacare, Governor Perry then laid out his alternative in more detail than I've heard before:
• Patient-Centered Reforms
• Flexibility for States to Innovate
• Higher co-pays for Medicaid services to discourage overconsumption
• Asset tests for Medicaid benefits.
• HSA's for the poor.

•  "We care about the Health of our citizens more than Washington."

• On Economic Growth: "It just so happens that balanced budgets and one of the lowest tax and spending burdens in the nation corresponds with our #1 ranking when it comes to jobs created."

• We don't believe growing government grows the economy.

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Texas Employers Need to Promote Economic Literacy

One criticism I often hear about Texas recruiting businesses in California is that we don't want a bunch of liberals moving here and voting in liberal policies.  That's true, but Texas also needs capital.  The easiest capital to recruit is in Blue States.  That means the capital Texas needs is often accompanied by an economically-illiterate work force.  To help maintain Texas' economic climate, Texas employers owe it to themselves to increase their employees' economic literacy.

In 2012, Mitt Romney won the overwhelming support of small business owners; unfortunately, Obama won small business employees.  If employees of small businesses voted the same way as small business owners, Mitt Romney would be President.  When employer taxes went up at the beginning of the year, that tax increase was voted in by their own employees.

Left-wing politics takes hold when 'the Rich' are seen as some distant entity.  It's a lot harder to demonize someone if you know them personally.  For Texas employers, that means your employees will be less likely to vote in bad tax and regulatory policies if they see you being hurt, as opposed to some Wall St. fat cat.

Many employers will object that they don't have the time or they don't need another responsibility.  That's fine, no one expects you to teach Phd. level dissertations; just the basics on government spending, taxation, and regulatory policy.  Cahnman's Musings will roll out some ideas to help Texas employers accomplish this task in a cost-effective and efficient manner in the coming weeks.

Texas' business climate isn't an accident.  It is the result of prudent decision making over the past decade.  As a result, Texas has become an attractive location for capital fleeing hostile regimes.  While that capital is a very good thing, an economically-illiterate workforce often accompanies it.  Texas employers owe it to their bottom line to help sever this link.

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Was George W. Bush ever Governor of Texas?!?

Michael Quinn Sullivan might be a dirty Aggie, but so is the Governor of Texas; speaking of Governors of Texas:

I was at the Capitol this afternoon, standing in the Rotunda waiting for someone. A woman (wearing a big "Support Public Schools" button) was beside me, and asked (to no one in particular) why there was a picture of George W. Bush hanging there and not a picture of Barack Obama. "These are Texas governors. Bush was governor," I explained. "No he wasn't," she said definitively. Ok. — at Texas State Capitol.

GREAT moments in Public Education!!!

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