Read the fine print of the ballot language passed by Mayor Parker and a majority of City Council. It is misleading to a fault.

The city has added everything but the kitchen sink to the list of who it wants to protect when there is no problem for those listed. It is also backwards in that if you oppose this ordinance, you need to vote for denial. The attorney for opponents of the ordinance, Andy Taylor, comments, "What she (Parker) did is she flipped the language around in an effort to deceptively control a million voters."

The real purpose is to obscure the purpose of the Equal Rights ordinance, which gives special preference to sexual orientation, genetic information (whatever that is) and gender identity (which originally was transgender).

What it's about is allowing the city to oppress its citizens who believe in traditional family and who believe in faith based education.

Who will protect them if this turkey stays in effect?

So if the Obama deal goes through, the Iranians will get $150 billion or so in money due to unfrozen assets release. The Obama team has suggested the money would be spent to help the people.

NOT SO, already announced for their money: 100 Russian refueling aircraft and 150 Chinese J-10 fighter jets, both of which run contrary to the ten-year arms embargo embedded in the nuclear deal just signed. Also, Iran has scheduled ballistic missile tests, claiming the nuclear accord should not limit their testing of ballistic missiles. By the way, the missiles are designed to carry nuclear warheads.

Danielle Pletka, foreign policy expert and Vice President at the American Enterprise Institute, lays out how to make a bad deal better:

"A phased agreement linked to performance, an end to research and development on advanced centrifuges, a sharper reduction in operating centrifuges, shuttering the underground facility at Fordow and the Arak heavy water reactor, shipping out Iran's enriched uranium stockpile, anywhere-anytime inspections, and no lapse of Iran's obligation after 10-15 years."

"If Iran doesn't wish to sign on to a better deal, U.S. unilateral sanctions can still effectively limit even European cooperation with Iran. Bans on dollar transactions can constrain Iran's oil trade, and limit the $150 billion windfall now headed Tehran's way, and bans on weapons sales and ballistic missile work will certainly hinder Iran's conventional weapons efforts."

Having recently returned from California, your Editor can report he has seen the future of Obama's "clean" energy program. If your goal is gas lines and $2 more per gallon for gas, you will be very happy.

The Reason Foundation has reviewed the plan, and here are the highlights of their take: "It would be more accurate to say that, 'The Clean Power Plan is a centralized plan for electricity generation in the United States that is likely to harm public health, increase energy bills for households and businesses, destroy American jobs, and cause blackouts in communities across the country.' ...The White House asserts that the Clean Power Plan will, 'create tens of thousands of jobs.' This may be true, but it will also likely destroy hundreds of thousands of jobs... The EPA claims that these jobs will be created, 'while ensuring grid reliability." This is surely a joke, since the Clean Power Plan envisages a significant increase in the proportion of electricity supplied by 'renewable' power, much of which will come from intermittent sources such as solar and wind, which as the North American Electricity Reliability Corporation notes, tend to reduce grid reliability... The White House claims that the plan will, 'save the average American family nearly $85 on their annual energy bill in 2030, reducing enough energy to power 30 million homes, and save consumers a total of $155 billion from 2020 - 2030.' This assertion is based on the assumption that consumers will install energy saving devices because of the rule. In reality, the rule will almost certainly increase the cost of energy considerably over the next 15 years, and beyond, as a result of the massive increase in investment in costly 'renewable' generation that is required by the rule."

TCR Comment: If expensive and unreliable energy is your goal, you should pull for this Obama plan passing. Of course, its 1500 pages of rules and regulations probably won't be read in D.C. Why can't we just decontrol energy prices, and let them compete in the marketplace?

The first GOP debate of the 2016 election is history. Here is our take.

Winners:

Losers:

MIA:

Red, White & Blue featuring TCR Editor Gary Polland, liberal commentator David Jones and moderator Linda Lorelle on Fridays at 7:30 pm on PBS Houston Channel 8.1, replaying Saturdays at 6:30 p.m. on Channel 8.1, Mondays at 11:30 pm on Channel 8.2 and on the web at www.houstonpublicmedia.org.

Upcoming show:
08-28-15 - 2015 Houston Area Survey conducted by Dr. Stephen Klineberg.

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Gary Polland is a long-time conservative and Republican spokesman, fund-raiser, and leader who completed three terms as the Harris County Republican Chairman. During his three terms, Gary was described as the most successful county Chairman in America by Human Events - The National Conservative Weekly. He is in his sixteenth year of editing a newsletter dealing with key conservative and Republican issues. The last fourteen years he has edited Texas Conservative Review. As a public service for the last 12 years, Gary has published election guides for the GOP primary, general elections and city elections, all with the purpose of assisting conservative candidates. Gary is also in his 13th year of co-hosting Red, White and Blue on PBS Houston, longest running political talk show in Texas history. Gary is a practicing attorney and strategic consultant. He can be reached at (713) 621-6335.