RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/texas-2014-candidates-for-congress-where-they-stand

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/texas-2014-candidates-for-congress-where-they-stand

PRIMARY HELD ON MARCH 4, 2014

Please note: Senator Cornyn (R) Incumbent won and probably faces Dr. David Alameel (D) unless there is a runoff for Democratic Candidate on May 27, 2014.

In District 4: Incumbent Ralph Hall (R) did not have a decisive victory over his Republican Challenger John Ratcliffe (R) and faces a runoff on May 27, 2014.

In District 36: David Stockman (R) left his seat to run against Senator Cornyn, and lost.

Dr.Brian Babin (R) – and Ben Streusand (R) will face a runoff on May 27, 2014.

Third parties- Independents and Libertarians have until June 2014 to file.

To see the actual voting records of all incumbents on other issues such as Foreign Policy, Second Amendment Issues, Homeland Security, and other issues as well as their rankings by special interest groups please use the links followed by two stars (**).

SENATE

Ted Cruz (R) Next election- 2018

John Cornyn (R ) Incumbent

http://www.johncornyn.com/

http://www.ontheissues.org/senate/john_cornyn.htm **

HOT BUTTON ISSUES

HEALTHCARE

http://www.johncornyn.com/issues/health-care/

Senator Cornyn has introduced the Healthcare Bureaucrats Elimination Act to protect access to Medicare for Texas seniors by repealing Obamacare’s unelected panel of government bureaucrats who are tasked with making decisions that could severely limit patient care.

Following the discovery of evidence that the IRS has been targeting Texans, Senator Cornyn also introduced the Keep the IRS Off Your Health Care Act, a bill that will prohibit the IRS from implementing or enforcing any provisions of Obamacare.

Senator Cornyn believes the Obamacare must be repealed and replaced. Texans deserve patient-centered reforms that lower costs and increase access – without bankrupting families and small businesses.

IMMIGRATION

http://www.johncornyn.com/issues/immigration/

While immigration reform begins at the border, it does not end there. Forty percent of those here illegally first arrived with a lawful visa but never left when it expired. Senator Cornyn believes a biometric entry-exit system should be implemented, and Texas employers must have a rock-solid way of verifying the status of workers they hire. He believes we must expand the number of visas we provide to include both those with advanced degrees in STEM-related fields, as well those working in labor-intensive industries like construction. And finally Senator Cornyn believes we must find a compassionate solution to deal with the more than 11 million people living here illegally, while still respecting the rule of law.

ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT

Burdensome, one-size-fits-all regulations from Washington threaten to hamstring Texas job creators and could lead to increased energy prices for consumers across the state. Senator Cornyn has been leading the fight in Congress against the EPA’s unilateral inclusion of Texas in a massive air quality program without allowing for adequate time for review or input from the state. And when the Fish and Wildlife Service threatened the West Texas economic boom by listing the tiny sand dune lizard as endangered, Senator Cornyn partnered with local and state officials to block the listing, potentially saving thousands of jobs. Senator Cornyn is also a leading supporter of the Keystone pipeline, which would carry crude to Texas’s Gulf Coast refineries and create tens of thousands of jobs in our state in the process.

Dr.David Alameel (D ) Challenger- Dentist

http://alameelforsenate.com/

HOT BUTTON ISSUES

IMMIGRATION

David Alameel supports the DREAM Act and comprehensive immigration reform that is both humane and respectful of our laws.

We can’t let a problem become a tragedy, especially for the hundreds of thousands of children born or raised in America who live in a twilight zone of uncertainty for themselves and their families.

We need to create:

A faster track toward a program of lawful work permits.
A responsible roadmap to citizenship for law abiding and hardworking people who have no criminal record and are only asking for a fair opportunity.

WOMEN’S RIGHTS

David Alameel believes in a woman’s right to choose and that politicians or the government should not interfere in these deeply personal decisions that should be made by a woman, with her family, her doctor and her God.

That is why Dr. Alameel will always fight to protect Roe v. Wade, which the Supreme Court set as the law of the land decades ago, from Washington politicians who are seeking to undermine the basic rights and freedoms of millions of Texas women.

Furthermore, in the United States Senate, Dr. Alameel will demand equal pay for equal work between men and women. In the 21st Century, there is no excuse for discrimination in the workplace or for U.S. Senators like John Cornyn who voted against the commonsense Lilly Ledbetter Act. David Alameel would be a proud vote in favor of this important legislation.”

JOBS AND ECONOMY

The super-rich and mega-corporations have rigged the system in their favor. They are pulling the strings of puppet politicians like John Cornyn and other Washington Republicans in favor of Wall Street – not hardworking Texas families.

We need to stop sending politicians to Washington who care more about the bottom line of CEOs on Wall Street than working families in Texas.

As Senator, David Alameel will advocate for:

Forcing big corporations and Wall Street executives to pay their fair share in taxes.
Creating good paying jobs in Texas that can’t be shipped overseas.
Taking big banks to court when they ruin our economy, not giving them another bailout.
Ending tax breaks for corporations that ship American jobs to places like China and India
Raising the minimum wage so families can work with dignity, put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads.
Extending unemployment insurance benefits to the long-term unemployed
Ensuring tough enforcement of equal pay laws which helps all of our families

U.S. CONGRESS

District 1:

Louie Gohmert (R ) Incumbent

http://www.gohmert.com/

Serving his fifth term in the United States House of Representatives, Congressman Louie Gohmert was first sworn in January 4, 2005
During these trying economic times, Rep. Gohmert is developing innovative solutions to jumpstart our economy and offering practical alternatives to the government’s bailout frenzy. His “Federal Income Tax Holiday” gained widespread national support from the grassroots level to national leaders, allowing taxpayers to decide how best to spend their hard-earned money
Louie serves on numerous House committees and subcommittees. He was recently named Vice Chair of the Judiciary subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security due to his extensive knowledge stemming from years in the court room.

He is also a veteran having served his country as Captain in the U.S. Army.

http://www.ontheissues.org/TX/Louie_Gohmert.htm **

http://gohmert.house.gov/

Shirley McKellar (D) Challenger http://www.votemckellar.com/

http://www.votemckellar.com/keyissuesm.html

District 2:

Ted Poe (R) Incumbent

http://www.tedpoe.com/issues/

http://www.tedpoe.com/

http://www.ontheissues.org/TX/Ted_Poe.htm **

HOT BUTTON ISSUES

ENERGY

I support an all-of-the above (not a none-from-below) energy policy that includes feasible alternative energies. The U.S. must take advantage of its own natural resources instead of relying on unstable Middle Eastern dictators.

I strongly support approving the permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline, which would bring approximately 750,000 barrels of oil from our stable neighbor and ally, Canada, right into southeast Texas. That’s almost as much oil as we import from Saudi Arabia. The Keystone Pipeline is estimated to create at least 20,000 immediate union and non-union jobs, which is needed in the Gulf area still hurting from the continuing “permitorium.”

HEALTHCARE

I opposed the government takeover of healthcare bill because it was unconstitutional, and I voted for its repeal last year. I believe our current healthcare system needs reform, but I do not support the “reform” that was passed. I believe in the doctor/patient relationship and that a patient must retain a choice in determining his/her doctor.

I voted against Obamacare and have voted repeatedly for its repeal.

IMMIGRATION

I support immigration – legal immigration. This country was built by immigrants, and our culture is rich with the contributions of many diverse backgrounds. The current immigration system is broken. There are millions living in the U.S. in the shadows. We don’t know who they are. That is very concerning. Those that want to come to the U.S. must have a reformed, streamlined system for them to proceed legally. I believe that many of those who come to the U.S. do not come here to get a free check from the U.S. or to stand behind their neighbors on an unemployment line. We must reform our broken immigration system to allow those who come here and contribute to our society to be able to do so within clear legal parameters that does not include a form of amnesty

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

I believe we must rethink the way that we provide foreign aid to countries. We currently provide aid to 157 countries, many of which hate the U.S. We don’t need to pay them to hate us; they’ll do it for free. Congress currently votes on foreign aid in one package – with an up or down vote on all 157 countries combined. I’ve introduced legislation to change this process and to require an up or down vote on each country. I think this would drastically change the amount of aid we provide. However, I do strongly support economic and military assistance to Israel and other allies, and I oppose any Middle East peace plan that weakens the security of Israel. Having had the opportunity to visit Israel personally, I understand the importance of a free and safe state of Israel. I also support foreign aid to our allies, who support us in the United Nations and other forums, in order to promote U.S. interests abroad, the U.S.’s overall security and our economic base for increased exports that lead to more jobs at home.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/07/keystone-xl-poll_n_4919025.html

A significant majority of Americans support building the Keystone XL pipeline, according to a ABC/Washington Post poll released Friday.

Despite relatively widespread concerns about its potential effects on the environment, 65 percent of Americans said the government should approve construction of the pipeline, which would carry oil from Canada to Texas. That is an increase over a June 2012 poll that found 59 percent supported its construction.

For many, economic factors outweigh the environmental hazards: 85 percent said they think the pipeline will create a significant number of jobs. Although 47 percent said they believe the pipeline would pose a significant risk to the environment, those who said it’s a risk are still split almost evenly on whether it should be approved.

Democrats who self-identify as liberals oppose the project by a 47 percent to 36 percent margin. But 51 percent of all Democrats polled said they think it should be approved. Support is even higher among Republicans, with 82 percent saying that the Keystone XL should be built.

An environmental report that the State Department issued in January found that the pipeline would not significantly increase greenhouse gas emissions, although another study has argued that the report downplays the pipeline’s potential impact.

http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/

WEAKNESS IS THE NEW STRENGTH

The progressive spin is that Putin’s invasion, as the Center for American Progress put it, is “an act of weakness, not strength — an act, as Kerry aptly characterized it, anachronistic in both moral and strategic terms… fundamentally mismatched to 21st century realities.”

In the upside down world of progressive soft power, invading another country is an act of weakness while being unable to do anything about it is an act of strength. Weakness is the new strength and strength is the new weakness.

Obama’s impotence makes him a world leader, while Putin’s potency makes him a 19th century relic.

The more Putin does, the more he shows that he’s another Sarah Palin or Mitt Romney, a déclassé bumpkin unfit for the modern 21st century realities of discussing foreign policy on Jay Leno and cracking wise about horses and bayonets.

SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS

Like ObamaCare, Obama’s massive budget proposal has all sorts of horrible things in it, but one of them is more horrible than the rest.

“That of the funds appropriated under title III of this Act, not less than $575,000,000 should be made available for family planning/reproductive health, including in areas where population growth threatens biodiversity or endangered species.”

It’s hard to misread this as anything except promoting birth control/abortion of humans to protect endangered species.

Eugenics: Obama Budget Promotes Abortion to Protect Endangered Species

SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS II

According to local Aleutian elders, 19 people have died since 1980 as a result of the impossible-to-navigate weather conditions during emergency evacuations.

During an August visit to Alaska, Jewell was told that building a road that connects King Cove and Cold Bay was vital. But in December, Jewell rejected the road saying it would jeopardize waterfowl in the refuge.

“She stood up in the gymnasium and told those kids, ‘I’ve listened to your stories, now I have to listen to the animals,”

Obama’s Interior Secretary to Dying Eskimos: “I’ve Listened to Your Stories, Now I Have to Listen to the Animals.”

http://www.thecommentator.com/article/4795/we_re_all_ashamed_of_obama_the_dunce_on_ukraine

Recent events in the Ukraine are just another reminder that Barack Obama’s naive and unrealistic view of world affairs is completely divorced from reality and wholly incompatible with any semblance of American global leadership.

So, let’s pause for a moment to process this. There are plenty of angles to consider, and we just want to be very careful and make sure that we’ve considered all aspects of what’s transpiring.

On Syria, North Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran and elsewhere, US foreign policy is more misguided than ever. Red lines don’t’ matter.

Power politics is a thing of the past. Can’t we all just get along?

If there was ever any doubt, it now seems clear that Obama truly believes he’s the smartest, most charismatic man in the world. Hence, his charisma and brains obviate the need for the United States to even have a foreign policy.

Leading from the front was never an option for the Obama administration, but – post-Libya — it doesn’t even look like Obama’s capable of leading from behind.

Teaser: Which multi-billion dollar industry just cannot afford to boycott Israel? Paradox: this industry calls for boycotts, but its life depends on it not doing so itself. Getting warmer?

http://www.thecommentator.com/article/4788/guess_which_industry_just_can_t_afford_to_boycott_israel

Plans to isolate Israel through boycotting may flounder or prosper. Call that a truism. Whether boycott prospers depends on one particular industry not joining the boycott. Call that a paradox. The more wholeheartedly this non-boycotting industry operates in Israel, and the more profitably, the better the boycott movement thrives.

Likely or not, call that a proposition. Could it be a valid one?

What possible business could promote and facilitate Israel – boycotting on the one hand while flouting the boycott on the other? The human rights business could.

As to it being a business, only look at the sustainability factors in favour of the civil society organization (or NGO) players: mountains of cheap capital on demand; global reach, well-connected stakeholders, media channels beating a path to their door, and a traded commodity for which the world has a gluttonous hunger. If those are not conditions in favour of big business what other conditions are there?

A club of Big Five NGOs tops the industry pyramid. The names are household: Amnesty International; Human Rights Watch; Christian Aid; Oxfam; Save the Children Fund. Nominally they, along with second-tier NGO entities, are autonomous, not-for-profit and apolitical. In real life they are none of those things.

There are not hundreds but thousands of second-tier entities, medium to small, a bewildering number of them operating in tiny Israel and the West Bank. They compete fiercely to supply human rights product, sometimes to the big five, sometimes to the UN and satellite Human Rights Council, or direct to people and entities that can turn Israeli ‘crimes against humanity’ to good account. They also compete for publicity and investor funding.

The base of the pyramid is made up of sources that put up money to keep it all together. They are billionaire private investors, Euro zone countries that practically fling money at NGOs; ecumenical coffers, flush Arab potentates and proverbial Joe public.

Even so, the structure would topple but for an independent clearing house – the UN and satellite agency, the Human Rights Council. Much like a farm co-operative they act as a buyer of last resort, but even more, as a marketer of human rights violations. And upon this clearing house, and upon the whole industry, jobs depend for tens of thousands.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/secretary-cohen-and-general-jones-on-trans-atlantic-turbulence-a-957336-druck.html

Revelations about NSA spying and an unequal sharing of military burdens has cast a recent shadow over the trans-Atlantic relationship. But NATO remains just as important as ever. It is time for all alliance members to recognize that fact.

During the course of more than three decades, in our public service and private capacities, we have regularly attended the Munich Security Conference, formerly known as Wehrkunde.

The Conference initially consisted of a small group of military experts from the United States, Canada and Western Europe who discussed issues involving the threat posed by the former Soviet Union. Today, the Conference includes representatives from the business, diplomatic and military communities from all of Europe, Russia and Asia who examine the new threats posed by terrorists, religious extremists, nuclear proliferation, cyber warfare and organized crime.

Although the US delegation to the Conference included 15 members of Congress and a joint appearance by Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel we detected the “brooding omnipresence” of a discontent for the United States that contained a whiff of anti-Americanism.

http://www.steynonline.com/6141/sock-appeal

I spent Monday in a somewhat cramped courtroom in Toronto, at the defamation trial of my old comrade in the battle against the “human rights” commissions, Ezra Levant. The National Post’s Joseph Brean reports:

A libel trial begins this morning in Toronto nearly six years after it was launched in the heat of Canada’s first online culture war.

Pitting a Regina lawyer against a nationally known television personality who describes himself as “one of Canada’s premier advocates of free expression,” Khurrum Awan v. Ezra Levant is one of several defamation suits that arose from the fight over hate speech bans in human rights law. But as one of the last to come to trial, it marks a kind of bookend on Canada’s noisy hate debate.

Spectators, including columnist Mark Steyn and famed hate case lawyer Barbara Kulaszka, packed the little courtroom on Toronto’s University Avenue. Witnesses are expected to include the participants, National Post reporter Brian Hutchinson, and prominent lawyer Julian Porter, who used to act for Maclean’s magazine.

Yes, it’s like a little 2008 time-warp. Here’s Joseph Brean’s follow-up story:

http://www.steynonline.com/6151/where-the-action-is

This column appears in the March 10th issue of National Review, but is especially timely in the week of all the pitching and wooing of CPAC:

People keep asking me whom I favor for the 2016 Republican nomination. I politely demur — and not just because it’s almost three years till Election Day, and at this stage in the 2008 cycle I’m not sure I’d ever heard of Barack Obama. As a resident of a New Hampshire township with more than 37 people, I don’t have to seek out presidential candidates; they’re there at the inn and the general store and the diner and the Grange. I’ve seen enough next-presidents-of-the-United-States for several lifetimes: Phil Gramm, Pete Wilson, Bob Dornan, Elizabeth Dole, Orrin Hatch, Gary Bauer, Lamar Alexander, Tom Tancredo, Tommy Thompson, Alan Keyes…

Would it have made any difference to the country had any of these fine upstanding fellows prevailed? Or would we be pretty much where we are anyway? Aside from a trade agreement here, a federal regulation there, I’d plump for the latter. You can’t have conservative government in a liberal culture, and that’s the position the Republican party is in. After the last election, I said that the billion dollars spent by the Romney campaign on robocalls and TV ads and whatnot had been entirely wasted, and the Electoral College breakdown would have been pretty much the same if they’d just tossed the dough into the Potomac and let it float out to sea. But imagine the use all that money and time could have been put to out there in the wider world. Liberals expend tremendous effort changing the culture. Conservatives expend tremendous effort changing elected officials every other November — and then are surprised that it doesn’t make much difference. Culture trumps politics — which is why, once the question’s been settled culturally, conservatives are reduced to playing catch-up, twisting themselves into pretzels to explain (including in the pages of this magazine) why gay marriage is really conservative after all, or why 30 million unskilled immigrants with a majority of births out of wedlock are “natural allies” of the Republican party.

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2014/03/07/desmond-tutu-climate-expert/?print=1

Noxious gasbag.

South Africa’s peace icon Desmond Tutu on Friday urged the United States to reject Canada’s Keystone XL pipeline, saying the “carbon bomb” would upend the US role fighting climate change.

“The verdict on whether to approve or reject the Keystone XL pipeline could, in just one stroke, confirm or condemn America’s prospects for climate leadership,” said the letter, released by the advocacy group Avaaz.

“This is a US policy decision that will have truly global significance. Keystone has been called the ‘fuse to the biggest carbon bomb on the planet,’” said the letter, timed for the final day of a public comment period on the pipeline.

In a time of turmoil all over the globe, a clergyman most noted for winning the Nobel Peace prize is babbling about the world’s greatest superpower needing to worry about “climate leadership.”

Whatever that is.

http://www.nationalreview.com/node/372793/print

Vladimir Putin is a lucky man. And he’s got three more years of luck to come.

He takes Crimea, and President Obama says it’s not in Russia’s interest, not even strategically clever. Indeed, it’s a sign of weakness.

Really? Crimea belonged to Moscow for 200 years. Russia conquered it 20 years before the U.S. acquired Louisiana. Lost it in the humiliation of the 1990s. Putin got it back in about three days without firing a shot.

Now Russia looms over the rest of eastern and southern Ukraine. Putin can take that anytime he wants — if he wants. He has already destabilized the nationalist government in Kiev. Ukraine is now truncated and on the life support of U.S. and European money (much of which — cash for gas — will end up in Putin’s treasury anyway).

Obama says Putin is on the wrong side of history and Secretary of State John Kerry says Putin’s is “really 19th-century behavior in the 21st century.”