An Ownership Society Fosters Responsibility, Liberty, Prosperity
by Tom G. Plamer, Senior Fellow
Cato Institute    January 2004
As the American Founders knew and as generations of serious students of society have long known, an ownership society is a society of responsibility, liberty, and prosperity. A number of policy initiatives - including creation of personal retirement accounts, expansion of medical savings accounts, and school choice - have been proposed recently that seek to strengthen an "ownership society." Such initiatives build on a long and deep tradition. 
Read more: http://www.cato.org/research/articles/palmer-0401.html
 
Integrity
Accountability
Responsibility
Transparency in Government
Where State money comes from.
Read more >>> http://www.texasbudgetsource.com/state/where-the-money-comes-from/
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The EPA's Mess with Texas
By Ben Voth  January 30, 2011
As part of Obama's new political initiative to bypass a Congress that rejected his leadership in 2009 and 2010, he has announced executive orders to allow the federal government to restrict economic activity to fit legislative goals he apparently no longer believes he can win in political debate. One of the most important new targets in this new post-congressional agenda is Texas. The EPA is messing with Texas in ways that threaten to disrupt the biggest jobs-producer in the United States.
The EPA is moving to restrict Texas' ability to continue as the largest production base for natural gas in the nation. As the largest consumer and producer of natural gas, Texas provides an important alternative in energy production to the conventional fossil fuels of coal and oil. Those fuels have fallen into dire regulatory restrictions that Vice President Biden suggested should eventually lead to the end of coal production in the United States. Natural gas has emerged as an important transitional fuel to the green economy. Despite this, the Obama administration is moving to limit this component of Texas' economic boom. Read more >>  http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/01/the
_epas_mess_with_texas.html
Growing governments: How 'special districts' spread across Texas with limited oversight and accountability -- but with plenty of power to tax
Tuesday, Feb 15, 2011, 02:07PM CST   By Jennifer Peebles
The way some Texas politicians talk, you might think Texans don’t like government and don’t like taxes.
But Texans and Texas public officials keep creating more and more governments themselves, data show -- governments that keep piling on taxes. And as these small local government districts sprout up across the state, they have one thing in common: They are inconsistent at best in both their transparency and their accountability to their constituents.
The number of small “special” government districts that levy sales taxes has gone from five to 185 in the past two decades, state data show.
That’s on top of 1,700 districts that levy property taxes on residential or commercial property, along with hundreds of utility districts and management districts that exist as public entities and have certain authority over a public service or facility in their area.
"I just don't think we need these additional layers of government," said Denton County Commissioner Hugh Coleman, who has proposed a moratorium on the creation of special districts in his North Texas county.
Read more>>>> http://www.texaswatchdog.org/2011/02/growing-governments-how-special-districts-spread-across-Texas-power-to-tax/1297796531.story
Apostle Claver: BHO Comes to Texas. Laughs at Texas. Walks Out With $2 Million.
May 12, 2011
It’s an absolute outrage what took place on this past Tuesday in El Paso. President Obama took a campaign trip to the city to go after the Hispanic vote, make a play for the state of Texas, and had additional plans to bring a monetary treasure out of what is believed to be a “red” state.
I don’t have to go over the comments that he made within eye and ear shot of the border with Mexico. That has been fully covered by both the mainstream media and the commentators. What’s more important were his motives and how the leadership of Texas reacted. What’s more important is why the President could possibly be so bold to pull off what he did. It’s really telling about the strategy of the Dems and the weakening GOP in the Lone Star State.
Obama and his administration have declared all out war on the state of Texas. And, yet, he can come into the state and just rub it into the faces of every Republican elected official and party leader.
Read more>>
http://www.ragingelephants.org/2011/05/12/apostle-claver-bho-comes-to-texas-laughs-at-texas-walks-out-with-2-million/
Texas for Sale: New laws sell Texas to highest bidder
June 1, 2011 9:34 pm CT 
Terri Hall     San Antonio Transportation Policy Examiner
Texans thought they sent a message to politicians of all political stripes last November -- we’re fed-up with out of control taxation, debt, spending, and big government and politicians who proceed on that course do so at their own peril. While Governor Rick Perry tried to convince tea partiers and grassroots conservatives that he took up the mantle of limited government and low taxes by declaring certain pet issues as “emergency items” in the 82nd regular legislative session, there’s plenty of evidence that the Governor and the Legislature’s priorities don’t remotely resemble those of the electorate (the water rights war, making Texas the repository for the nation’s nuclear waste and the original ‘loser pays’ tort reform bill are just a few examples, many more to follow).
Continue reading on Examiner.com >> http://www.examiner.com/transportation-policy-in-san-antonio/texas-for-sale-new-laws-sell-texas-to-highest-bidder
Grassroots/Tea Party
Citizens Groups Expose Texas Leadership
The Austin Comprehensive Plan is Local
Agenda 21 in Disguise and the Council Defies the 3Es
David Simpson personal privilege speech.
(Full Version)
Voter Fraud is Real and Legislation was Needed
By George H. Rodriguez - May 31, 2011
Ricardo Pimentel wrote in his opinion piece in the San Antonio Express on May 24 that he feels that the state voter ID legislation is “a bogus solution for a pretend crisis”. Apparently he has never studied Texas history and heard about the “Duke of Duval County”, or about ballot box 13 and how Lyndon Johnson won his 1948 U.S. Senate race by 87 contested votes.
Pimentel does not feel that the potential for fraud is high enough to merit this legislation. Perhaps he can tell us how much fraud is enough to merit anti-voter fraud legislation?
He also argues that the poor and minorities are going to be hurt by this legislation. However, the fact is that political bosses have always preyed on the poor, less educated and minorities to manipulate their votes. Instead of attacking this legislation, he and other liberal Hispanics should see it as a way to protect the voting rights of the poor and minorities. It is a way for them to participate in fair and legitimate elections. Why should anyone fear showing proof of eligibility to vote?
In 2009, a group of citizens in Houston, the King Street Patriots, volunteered to work at some polls. They were shocked to observe election officials participate in voting irregularities. The officials often failed to check voters’ identification, or disregarded polling documentation requirements, and routinely accompanied voters to the voting booth and told them who they should or should not vote for, even going so far as to fully prepare the ballot, and make all selections.
Read more>>http://www.teaparty911.com/articles/voter
_fraud_real_texas_voter_id_was_needed.htm
Leaders did not meet the big challenges Texas faces
June 30th 2011 By Curt Olson
COlson@TexasBudgetSource.com
Republicans had an historic opportunity in the 82nd regular legislative session — and the special session that ended Wednesday afternoon.
With 101 members of the GOP Caucus, they could have systemically restructured priorities for state government.
They could have eliminated or paused agencies that did not perform a core function of government.
For example, the Commission on the Arts, Historical Commission and the Department of Rural Affairs — just for starters.
They also could have stood out among their peers nationwide as leaders of genuine government reform at a time when every level of government in every state must reinvent itself — for the sake of taxpayers.
Read more>> http://www.texasbudgetsource.com/2011/06/leaders-did-not-meet-the-big-challenges-texas-faces/
The EPA assault on Texas 
June 19, 2011 by J.E. Dyer

The necessary precondition for Texas’s unique economic success – a beacon in a deep recession – is energy. And the EPA is closing in for the kill.
This would be one thing if Texas were an outlier among the 50 states in terms of dirty air or an otherwise demonstrably imperiled environment. But the truth is closer to the opposite: the air in Texas has been getting cleaner; in the urban areas, much cleaner. And in spite of being by far the largest electric power producer of the 50 states, and heavily reliant on coal, Texas has been steadily reducing its emissions of the EPA’s least-favored compounds from coal combustion (e.g., sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxide). Its emissions of NOx and SO2 are substantially lower than the national average; Texas is ranked the 11th lowest in NOx emissions (.098 lb/mmBtu in 2009, versus a national average of .159 lb/mmBtu), and 24th in SO2 (.309 lb/mmBtu in 2009, versus a national average of .458 lb/mmBtu).
But the EPA isn’t really making the argument that Texas is an environmental pigsty. It’s not putting any data or findings behind that premise, at any rate. Instead, it is simply acting high-handedly, assuming an authority that nothing in written law confers on it, to pronounce Texas’s procedures in violation of EPA rules – even when there is no basis for making that claim. To put it bluntly, the EPA is making a power grab. Read more>> http://hotair.com/archives/2011/06/19/the-epa-assault-on-texas/
Texas' power provider closing units over EPA rule
By ANGELA K. BROWN - Associated Press | AP – Tue, Sep 13, FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) The largest power generator in Texas said Monday that unless its lawsuits prevent a new EPA rule from taking effect early next year, it will close a large section of one power plant, which could lead to rolling power outages in the summer.
Dallas-based Luminant filed one federal lawsuit Monday to remove Texas from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's new Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, which is to take effect Jan. 1. The company plans to file another suit later this week to try to block the rule completely, Luminant spokesman Allan Koenig said.
The rule requires Texas and 26 other states to reduce smokestack pollution causing smog and soot in downwind states — where it combines with other contaminants, making it impossible for those states to meet air quality standards. The new rule replaces a 2005 Bush administration proposal that a federal court rejected.
Under the EPA's initial proposal, Texas' power plants were required to address only summertime smog-forming pollution. But in July, the EPA announced Texas must reduce sulfur dioxide, responsible for acid rain and soot, and nitrogen oxides, which contribute to both smog and soot.
The only way Luminant can comply is by shutting down two of three units at one plant and making other changes, which will eliminate 500 jobs and reduce generating capacity by 1,300 megawatts, Koenig said. The company has already reduced emissions with some of its previous projects, he said.   Read more >>
http://news.yahoo.com/texas-power-provider-closing-units-over-epa-rule-140845289.html