Letter to John Kuempel, State Rep HD 44

January 13, 2011

The Honorable John Kuempel

P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768

Dear Representative Kuempel,

Congratulations on your overwhelming win in the special election. Now that you have officially assumed your duties as our representative in HD 44 I urge you to recognize the massive budget shortfall Texas is faced with and the need to restructure the state budget. It is imperative that you and your colleagues act on the wishes of the vast majority of Texans, 70% plus, that want social services and education to be funded at or above existing levels. The state budget has already been cut to the bone and any further cuts will damage the health and future of this great state.

Education is not an expense, it is in fact an investment in the future of Texas as I’m sure you recognize given that your personal success and that of your employer could not have occurred without an educated work force. The new Caterpillar plant would not have been built in Seguin without access to an educated workforce. If we fail to invest in the future of Texas by not fully funding primary, secondary and university educations for all Texans you will suffer the shame for the rest of your life. I urge you to remember that your own children will be live in the future Texas that you, even now, are going to shape.

Sincerely,

What does Texas AG Greg Abbott think about human waste in our water?

The state of Texas and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality have refused to implement Clean Air Act protections against carbon pollution so the Environmental Protection Agency has taken up the task as is mandated by law. Despite a U.S. Supreme Court decision which requires the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate CO2 Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has sued the EPA in federal court to stop it from doing its job in Texas.

Mr. Abbott said in a radio interview today “It is the height of insanity to have the EPA regulate something emitted by all living things.” Does Greg Abbott believe that the Environmental Protection Agency shouldn’t protect our clean water from human waste because we all defecate?

Open letter to the Honorable Boyd Richie, Chair of the Texas Democratic Party

Social Security and by extension Medicare have often been called one of the three legs of the Democratic Party yet some in the media are reporting that our President is planning to call for cuts to those very programs in his State of the Union address. Let’s all be clear regardless of the findings of the Deficit Commission, Social Security and Medicare are not the cause of the deficit. We all know that Social Security is paid for by taxes dedicated directly to it and not out of the general fund. Social Security is not now and will not be in the next few decades in danger of default.

Considering the level of Democratic voter apathy in Texas due to the poor economy I believe it is incumbent the Democratic Party and our elected officials to show by word and deed that we intend to protect Social Security and Medicare from cuts. It is high time that the message of the Party and our elected officials focused on the moral issues of our day and one of those issues it protecting the weak and less fortunate among us. It is above all necessary that the Party return to its roots as the party of the people. If the leadership of the Democratic Party makes the mistake of accepting the conservative frame on this issue it will mean the end of the “social safety net” and the Democratic Party.

I urge you in your capacity as the leader of the Texas Democratic Party and spokesperson for Texas Democrats to use all your resources to insure support for Social Security and Medicare among the Democratic members of the Texas Congressional delegation. I also call on you to bring to the attention of the Democratic National Committee and the President the urgent need to protect Social Security and Medicare from cuts.

Sincerely,

My 7th grade daughter's letter to the editor

When me and my dad were driving back from school on Friday my Dad told me the terrible news that the House of Representatives failed to pass a bill that would help protect girls my age all over the world from being forced into marriages. As a seventh grader I can’t even imagine what is must be like for girls my age or younger to be forced to marry men as old as my dad and have their children soon after.

I don’t understand why after every member of the Senate voted to pass the International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act – S. 987 our local Congressman Lamar Smith voted against it. Mr. Smith claims to be “pro-life” but seems to think it’s “OK” for young girls to die when their bodies aren’t strong enough and ready to have a baby? Why doesn’t he care?

I later found out that some people lied and said that bill would have funded abortions, but anybody can read the bill, which is less than six pages long, and see that it’s not true. Lamar Smith was either too lazy to read the bill or he just doesn’t care about kids because we can’t vote.

Cheryl Patterson for State Representative HD 44

In the race to fill the Texas House seat left open by the untimely demise of Edmund Kuempel many of the candidates have expressed themselves in party talking points such as small government and cutting budgets. Only one candidate has come out strongly for protecting the future of District 44 and Texas by continuing to fund education fully, that candidate is Cheryl Dees Patterson.

Mrs. Patterson has been a classroom teacher and a principal so she understands the needs of our children who are the future of this state. Patterson is also a trustee of the Navarro ISD and therefore understands the realities of the budget constraints our schools already face. Cheryl is committed to Guadalupe, Wilson and Gonzales and that means investing in the children of the state because we have no future without them. I urge you to support Cheryl Dees Patterson by voting for her Tuesday December 14.

Tax breaks for Paris Hilton and Oprah Winfrey’s dog

Not content to continue giving tax breaks to millionaires like Lindsey Lohan and LeBron James now Senators Cornyn and Hutchison are holding up legislation to extend unemployment benefits to give tax breaks on inherited millions for people like Paris Hilton and Oprah Winfrey’s dog.

I find it hard to accept that the millions who have lost jobs due to the near crash of Wall Street banks aren’t more important than a celebrity’s dog. Why aren’t average Americans as important as the Wall Street bankers who wrecked our economy and then got bailed out so they could take home million dollar bonuses this year?

Senate Republicans do have principles, if you can call them that

I’ve often heard my liberal friends accuse Republicans of being unprincipled but the recent actions by Senate Republicans shows that just isn’t true. All 42 have taken the principled stand if that if tax breaks for millionaires aren’t renewed then no other legislation will be passed in the current lame duck session.

Since the verifiable reduction of both U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals isn’t nearly as important as millionaire tax breaks why should it be voted on first. Since extension of unemployment benefits for those put out of work by the near collapse of the banking system owned by millionaires isn’t as important as tax breaks for those same millionaires why should it be voted on first. Since food safety legislation that would correct the lax standards that have allowed the deaths of hundreds and sickening of thousands of Americans who ate food tainted in processing plants owned by millionaires isn’t nearly as important as tax breaks for said millionaires why should it be voted on first.

So of course my liberal friends are wrong about Republicans because they do have principles, millionaires deserve tax breaks more than Americans deserve national security or safe food and more than the unemployed deserve food on their plates.