Arlington Republican Club
News
Since 1975
January 2009
Next Meeting ---
Topic:
Tom Marshall, PhD, analyzes the 2008 election for us.
Location:
Cacharel Restaurant (7th floor of Brookhollow II), 2221 E.
Lamar Blvd., Arlington, TX 76006. For directions, please
go to http://www.cacharel.net/info.htm.
Date, Time, and
Details: Thursday, January 22,
2009
6:00 p.m.
Dinner
7:00 p.m. General Meeting
Dinner will be provided starting at 6:00 PM at a
cost of $15 per person. You need reservations to enjoy
dinner---please rsvp by noon Monday, January 19, 2009--by
calling the Arlington Republican Club Voice Mail Center at
(817) 740-5700 or by e-mailing arc@ArlingtonRepublicanClub.com with the
number of people eating. You do not need reservations to
enjoy just the program. Our friends at Cacharel
need to know how much food to prepare. We urge you to
have dinner at Cacharel; enjoy Arlington's best view and
support the Arlington Republican Club!
Children and visitors are welcome at Arlington Republican
Club events. Bring your friends!
Quote of the Month
---
"Oh.
My. God" ---House Republican Leader John Boehner,
after reading the provisions of the Democrat $825 billion
stimulus
bill
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1. President's
ReMARKs - Austin - First Day of the
Legislature
For the past several Texas
Legislative sessions I've enjoyed visiting the Capitol for the
first day of the legislature. It's neat to see the
Senate and House members sworn in. You can watch the
ceremonies from the galleries, and there are many overflow
rooms all over the capitol to watch on TV. Everyone in
the legislature is there, their staffs, and usually the
families. Before and after the swearing in, it's easy to
visit with any legislator you wish, just walk in their office
and introduce yourself. Meet their staffs, who are the
gatekeepers to the House or Senate members. Find out
which staffer to talk to. Who is the legislative
aide? Who is the appointment person? Who is the Chief of
Staff?
I went to a reception for North Richland
Hills representative Kelly Hancock in the Capitol and met his
gracious family, and discussed several issues. With our
own state representative Diane Patrick I was able to sit with
Diane for 20 minutes to discuss sthings like gambling and
education. Diane represents Arlington well! I also
went to dinner with state Rep Vicki Truitt and many of her
constituents and friends. This is an example of the kind
of fun and access you can have at the Capitol on the first
day! You don't need an appointment -you just drop
in!
Senator Brimer is of course no longer there
and I feel I don't have a representation in my district (SD 9)
anymore. Also to be missed is state rep Bill Zedler, but
I can assure you he'll be back in 2 years! Of course our
Senator Harris is still there providing Arlington with
excellent skilled experienced representation in the
Senate.
In the House, I witnessed the swearing in
of the new Speaker and am hopeful that conservatives will
still be a force in the House to keep taxes low, reform the
property appraisal system, protect tort reform and gun rights
and defend our borders.
In two years, you
may want to take a day off your schedules to visit the
Legislature. You'll see friends from home and run into
more in the hallways. It's a stress free day, and the
best thing is all the free food all the representative and
Senators have!
Mark R Hanson, 52, is an
optometrist, not a dentist, and is President of the Arlington
Republican Club.
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2. Legislative
Alert: First Ten Senate Bills to be Introduced by the
111th Congress
While the Senate was
in recess for the holidays, and the American people were busy
spending time with friends and family, tireless Senate
staffers were preparing legislation to be introduced by the
111th Congress. With supermajorities in both Houses and
White House control, the Democrats are salivating at the
possibility of passing some of their pet legislation.
You might want to sit down and take a deep breath
before you read the following list. Hopefully, some of
our GOP Senators can move some of this legislation more to the
center or stop it all together. Here are the bills that
are stacking up on Harry Reid's
desk:
S.1-American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
of 2009. This is the title of the stimulus
package. Although the Democrats are claiming they are
reaching out to Republicans for input on this one, you can bet
it will be heavy on spending and light on any meaningful tax
cuts. This will contain the infrastructure spending and
jobs program that Obama is seeking.
S.2-Middle
Class Opportunity Act of 2009. This is where several tax
reforms relating to education, the Alternative Minimum Tax and
child tax credits may appear. The Democrats might want
to sneak Card Check (eliminating the secret ballot in
elections that will unionize a given workplace) into this
piece of legislation.
S.3-Homeowner Protection
and Wall Street Accommodation Act of 2009. This is the
Democratic plan to put a temporary moratorium on home
foreclosures and rewrite existing loan contracts.
S.4-Comprehensive Health Reform Act of
2009. At this time, this bill is a big blank. It
could be comprised of Hillary Clinton's plan of mandatory,
universal care. It could include Obama's plan, which
would create a new federal health insurance bureaucracy, as
well as penalize small businesses. His plan would also
set new rules for parents and insurance
companies.
S.5---Cleaner, Greener, and Smarter
Act of 2009. This bill contains more environmental
regulations for American industry and the public in
general.
S.6-Restoring America's Power Act
of 2009. This bill is an attempt to reassure the
American people that the Democrats have a clue on foreign
policy. This bill will probably be a non-starter because
they don't want to infringe on Obama's role in foreign
affairs.
S.7-Education Opportunity Act of
2009. This bill is expected to go nowhere despite the
lobbying by the teacher's unions. The Democrats are not
on the same page when it comes to education. Just by
proudly proclaiming they are "Pro Education," the Democrats
find that is good politics. Therefore, they come up with
a "feel good" bill on education every
session.
S.8-Returning Government to the American
People Act. Aka Blame Bush Law. The purpose of
this little gem is to review and possibly pass laws that will
repeal some of the Bush-era regulatory reforms. EPA
regulations, as well as any regulation from the VA on down
could face review.
S.9-Stronger Economy, Stronger
Borders Act of 2009. This is the new name for the
"Comprehensive Immigration Reform," that will be back with a
vengeance.
S.10-Fiscal Responsibility Act of
2009. This is the majority's lip service to things such
as "pay-as-you-go," and deficit reduction that will likely go
nowhere.
As a fiscal conservative, I am for
saving time and money by taking all these bills and rolling
them into one giant bill called, "Big Government, Big
Spending, Left Wing Pandering, Union Payoff Act of
2009." Since that is not going to happen, I am going to
keep the contact information for the White House, Senate and
House handy. Therefore, when each individual bill comes
up for debate, I will either be on the phone or the computer
to make my opinions known. If enough of us do the same,
maybe just maybe we can put the brakes on some of these
Democratic bills.
Anne Coker is 4th Vice President of
The Arlington Republican Club and owns a business that markets
pre-employment assessments.
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3. Special Guest
Column: Eminent Domain by State Rep. Rob
Orr
Eminent domain is the power of the state (or
those to whom the power has been duly delegated) to take
private property for public use. Both the United States and
Texas constitutions require that the taking of private
property must be for a "public use", and that when an
authorized entity takes private property for a "public use"
that it must fairly compensate the owner for the property
taken. The exercise of this power is by its nature a
controversial action, given the fundamental nature of the
right of the people to own property, coupled with the need at
times of entities to take such property for public uses.
Over the years legislatures and courts have struggled to
properly balance these competing interests, focusing generally
on questions of what is an eligible "public use" and what
compensation is appropriate when property must be
taken.
After working on this issue for a number
of years, I am of the opinion that the primary solution to the
eminent domain controversies lies in passing legislation that
requires condemning entities to make a greater effort to
purchase property through a negotiated sale prior to filing a
condemnation petition. Such provisions would include
requirements that bona fide offers be made, that such offers
be made in good faith, and that all relevant information
regarding the offer and similar offers be disclosed, to name a
few. These changes should provide for the imposition of
meaningful consequences for failure to comply with their
requirements, perhaps through financial disincentives or
through the mandatory dismissal of a subsequent condemnation
suit. It is my hope that under such a system landowners
would be treated more fairly than they currently are, will
receive payments for their property that is more in line with
real world dealings, and will diminish the number of
condemnations that actually must take
place.
On January 5, I filed House Bill
4 that contains provisions that I believe will go a long way
towards remedying many of the problems that exist with the
current law regarding eminent domain. The bill contains
many of the provisions mentioned in the preceding paragraph,
along with a number of other reforms to the current
system.
I invite you to follow the
progress of House Bill 4 as it works its way through the
legislative process during the upcoming legislative session by
visiting the Texas House of Representatives web site's bill
tracking system located at:
http://www.house.state.tx.us/bills/welcome.php.
The
81st Session of the Texas Legislature will be Rep. Orr's third
term representing District 58. During the Interim he has
served as chairman of the House Committee on Land and Resource
Management and during the 80th Legislative Session he chaired
its Eminent Domain Subcommittee. He also serves as a member of
the Financial Institutions Committee, House Research
Organization, Republican Caucus Policy Committee, the Texas
Conservative Coalition and The Energy Council, a
national/international legislative organization that focuses
on policies regarding energy and the environment.
Rep. Rob Orr
represents District 58 in the Texas House of Representatives,
serving Bosque and Johnson
Counties.
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4. Coming
Events
February 26, ARC Meeting-Cacharel-Rev Dwight
McKissic
March
26, ARC Meeting-Cacharel-Local Candidate
Forum
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5. January and
February Birthdays
Jan.
13, Tom Price
Jan.
18, Dan McClure, Judge
Sherry Hill and Charles
McKinley
Jan. 19,
State Rep. Diane Patrick
Jan. 20, Judge
Terry Lewis
Jan. 21,
Carol Hensley
Jan.
23, Peter Morris
Jan. 30, Yvonne
Isaacs
Jan. 31, Mary
Laport
Feb. 1,
Brandon Hill
Feb. 6,
Teresa Moore
Feb. 8,
Priscilla Mathis and
Carl Oehler
Feb. 12,
Dale Attebery and Art
Berger
Feb. 13,
Bertha Westerman
Feb. 16, Andrew
Piel
Feb. 19, Gary
McGaw
Feb. 21, Walid
Joulani
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| Contact Information
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Voice
mail phone: 817-740-5700 (use to RSVP for dinner
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Pol.
adv. paid for by the Arlington Republican
Club | | |
