At TCR, we have been interviewing and evaluating candidates for fourteen years. Over that time, there are a handful of candidates that basically blew us away. James Lloyd is the latest.
James is running to represent most of solidly Republican west Houston. James is a lifelong resident of District 7. A Rice and University of Texas graduate, an outstanding attorney who has a strong conservative pedigree as his father is Court of Appeals Judge Russell Lloyd.
James has been heavily involved in the Houston community, helping lead the young conservative organization, Maverick PAC, and the legal conservative group, The Federalist Society.
James believes that one of the most Republican districts in the nation should be represented by a conservative, energetic, and Generation Y leader during a time when many feel that many GOP members of Congress have lost their way.
James is running against John Culberson who has served in elected office for around 29 years. While in Washington, he was what the liberal media calls "grown in office." To conservatives, it means he has forgotten his roots. His conservative (not big business) ratings have been in decline for years. For example, his Club for Growth score was a dismal 60%, his last three Freedom Works ratings are 59%, 57%, and 70% and are mediocre at best, Heritage Action rates him as number 9 in the Texas delegation based on conservative votes (there are 8 Republicans in the Texas delegation who are more conservative).
Also, it was recently revealed, Culberson lives in Virginia, essentially full-time, so in essence he has become a representative of Washington to Houston! Given where he lives, it's stunning he has missed more votes than 409 congressional members. This terrible voting record shows he really is just going through the motions.
Also, Culberson voted for the terrible omnibus spending bill that funds Planned Parenthood, Obamacare, Obama's illegal amnesty, and other offensive liberal programs.
It's past time for a new conservative voice for Congressional District 7. James Lloyd will be a hard working, energetic, principled conservative who will work to overturn the Washington big government party.
If We Are Not A Melting Pot, We Will Cease To Be One Nation
As we watch the massive legal "refugee" and illegal immigration into America, it is important to remember that assimilation was always the secret of America's immigration success.
Part of our problem is the present "policy" of the U.S. to give preference to the interests of low-wage employees, in other words, low-skilled people. This is unfortunate because what we bring in often ends up taxing our safety net and competing with citizens. One solution is to follow the example of Western countries like Australia and admit skilled, higher-wage immigrants. It makes no sense to allow in large numbers of low-skilled immigrants when many of our citizens in that area cannot find jobs they can live on. The best educated and skilled immigrants are more likely to be tax payers than tax users, and can more easily assimilate into our melting pot.
Failing to make our new immigrants Americanized resulted in terrorist attacks in Boston and San Bernardino.
"This Deal Is Getting Worse All The Time", Iran, Of Course
You all remember Lando Calrissian in The Empire Strikes Back, he made a deal with the Empire, and they did not keep it, so he finally concluded, "This deal is getting worse all the time." Very much like Obama's deal with Iran. So let's review the latest news:
- On January 12, 2016, Iran seized two U.S. Navy boats and held our soldiers as hostages. They are now released, but what you don't know is Iran stole communications gear and equipment and held our sailors in captivity and humiliated them. Obama's response: nada. Failure to respond ensures further escalating attacks.
- In December 2015, the Iranian leader ordered the Iranian military to expedite its missile program.
- In October and November 2015, Iran test-fired a nuclear capable ballistic missile in violation of the U.N. Security Council, which prohibited such launches, and we did nothing to speak of.
- The U.S. announced tighter visa restrictions to cut down on radicals entering the U.S., and Iran was included until the leadership complained and the Obama administration, through the Secretary of State, said it didn't apply to the leading state sponsor of terrorism!
- Iran has not accounted for its past nuclear activities, nor has it allowed outside inspections of its nuclear facilities. No surprise.
- The core of the Arak reactor has not been removed and filled with concrete. They also failed to reduce the centrifuges spinning enriched uranium at Natanz from 19500 to 5060 as agreed nor has the ones at Fodor been reduced to 1000. No matter, the Obama administration has still pulled the sanctions!
For A Successful GOP Future, We Need To Figure Out What United The U.S., Not What Divided Us
As we are entering primary season in Texas, a friendly reminder: A conservative Republican who votes with us or agrees with us on 90% plus of the issues is a friend, not a fellow traveler Democrat.
We need to spend time talking about what unites, not what divides us.
Next President's Second Task By Bruce Bialosky, Contributing Editor
Many people do not understand the inability of the Republicans to accomplish more in Washington. They can certainly put a stall on many of President Obama's appointments, especially judges who will outlast this president's term, but the president has too much power. If we look forward to the next president, who will be a Republican -- short of a fit of stupidity -- that person will have a lot to do and it is clear what their second task will be.
The obvious first task is to review all of Mr. Obama's executive orders, many of which are lawless, and cancel or reverse them. That is so obvious that it is not a consideration for the first duty. Thus, the first job of the new president must be to propose a comprehensive plan to get us out of these financial doldrums and move our economy forward. Then they should start to dismantle all these agencies being used by Obama to grow government and kill off the private sector. One and two go hand-in-hand because we will never totally unleash this economy without accomplishing both.
Many of these entities go back to the 1930s. They were brought in by Roosevelt (FDR) and never dismantled despite being anachronistic. There have been many entities which added to the alphabet soup of the federal government (SEC, FCC, FTC etc.) since then, with or without Republican complicity. The EPA was fashioned under Nixon but the CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) was handed to us by Obama. They are mostly agencies in search of a raison d'etre.
In the hands of President Obama, these agencies have been stacked with left-wing government wonks seeking to further his goals because he could never get Congress to further expand the massive government. A perfect example of accomplishing this mission is the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), established by the National Labor Relations Act of 1935. In addition to lawlessly making recess appointments to the Board and having them overturned by the Supreme Court, the activities of the Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon were invalidated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Get the idea about how much Mr. Obama wanted this agency to do his bidding?
They finally accomplished his main goal when the NLRB handed down one of its biggest rulings of President Obama's tenure, stating that companies can be held responsible for labor violations committed by their contractors. This is so significantly famous because it also makes franchisors (McDonald's, Subway) responsible for the decisions and employees of the franchisees despite having no involvement in that practice. This overturned the NLRB's own 30-year-old precedent establish after the 1982 Third Circuit Court of Appeals' landmark ruling in NLRB v Browning-Ferris Industries, and then codified by the NLRB in two decisions in 1984.
Their justification for this change, which was done 3-2 along partisan lines, is that they could and they did. When you have a mission to accomplish something, then damn precedent and law and go full speed ahead. That is why it is so imperative to not just rein in agencies like this, but to defund and dismantle them. Republicans for too long have gone along with the existence of these organizations that have taken over the day-to-day operation of the government and interpret the laws in the way that most suits their political agenda - think the FCC and Net Neutrality.
This dismantling has been done at the federal level. In the 1990s when John Kasich was chair of the Budget Committee in the House of Representatives, he terminated about 100 agencies and bureaus as part of balancing the budget. Subsequent to that being done, for many years I asked people if they could name any of those agencies or bureaus or whether they missed them. When they said no, I suggested we do another 100.
In an overlooked part of a recent interview, Mr. Obama made a fascinating statement. He said that we, the American people, are asking too much of the government. I am not quite sure which people he is speaking to, but it certainly is not the people I know. There are certainly many instances of crony capitalism where so-called capitalists either take advantage of government (think Solyndra, Elon Musk) or ask the government to protect it from competition (the explosion of licenses for businesses like interior decorators).
What we do not focus on is that government does too many things and thus because of that they do very few things well. They have gotten so astray from their core mission that they are discombobulated regarding the matters they do. When Obama and his cohorts suggested the federal government get even deeper into health care they did not analyze whether what they were already doing was properly operating. They just forged ahead. If they had just looked at the dysfunction of the VA they would have actually scaled back government's involvement in the health care system. Yet some call for government to take control of the entire system. They look at the concept and not the outcomes.
People find the government overly intrusive. The only ones who don't are the people living on OPM (other people's money). The next president has to work with Congress to dismantle this intrusive and destructive ever-expanding government. That is what the Republican candidates should be addressing on the campaign trial. Not blabbering about each other or others' matters.
This election is about the economy, the size of government and national security. Focus, please.
Bruce Bialosky is the founder of the Republican Jewish Coalition of California and a former Presidential appointee. You can contact Bruce at bruce@bialosky.biz.
TCR on the Air
Red, White & Blue featuring TCR Editor Gary Polland and liberal commentator David Jones on Fridays at 7:30 pm on PBS Houston Channel 8, replaying Saturdays at 6:30 p.m. on Channel 8, Mondays at 11:30 pm on Channel 8.2 and on the web at www.houstonpublicmedia.org.
Upcoming show:
01-25-16 - Iowa Caucus Preview.
About Your Editor
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 13 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 14th 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.
|