Welcome to the new home of the Republican Liberty Caucus of Texas.  We are a group within the Republican Party which seeks to promote the values of limited government, free enterprise and individual liberty.  We’re part of a growing nationwide organization with thousands of members and active chapters all over the country.  We are working locally and nationally and with other groups to work to return the Republican Party to its traditional, constitutional values.  We are a grassroots organization and we want you to join us and become part of making the Republican Party the great voice for the people and their rights which it ought to be.

We’ve been working on expanding the scope of our candidate endorsements before the November general election. One key step in that is getting a good candidate survey together so we can assess candidates around the state on key issues so we can make endorsements.

We now have a working draft of the survey ready to send out to candidates. Download the PDF version or the MS Word Version and check it out. Send any comments or suggestions to dave@fontcraft.com. Feel free to send copies to any candidates you think are worth considering.

Dave

The Texas Libertarian Party has become increasingly hostile to the Texas GOP and its candidates at the same time that the RLC is having great success moving the GOP in Texas in a more libertarian direction. The latest attempt to undermine our efforts comes in the form of this letter designed to undermine the efforts of Texas RLC members to try to discourage LP candidates from running against libertarian-leaning Republicans.

This is the letter which the Texas LP chairman recently sent out in their newsletter.

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Fellow Texas Libertarians,

As we continue our growth, our candidates become more susceptible to pleas from our opponents. The opposition wants us to drop off the ballot with promises that they will get elected and give us the policies we want.

Don’t believe it.

Pandering politicians have made a habit of insincere promises. For one example, ask Paul Petersen in Dallas. State Representative Dan Branch asked him to drop off the ballot in 2008 and promised to support our efforts for more reasonable ballot access and reform of the Texas Open Meetings act. Paul dropped out, Branch got elected, and ignored us. This is not an isolated incident.

WIth the Tea Party phenomenon, we have lots of Republicans asking us to support their campaigns because they are “Tea Party” Republicans. Unfortunately today’s Tea Party isn’t necessarily worth supporting. I recently had an op-ed piece printed in the Austin American Statesman that expresses these concerns. I heartily encourage Libertarians to build alliances with the Tea Party movement, but I certainly hope to do so in order to reclaim its original Libertarian principles. If the movement is at odds with our principles, I personally am not willing to sacrifice our principles for political gain.

November will soon be upon us. I do not promise overnight success, but I do expect significant growth that will alarm our opponents, grow our influence, attract more support and investment, and influence policy. That will only happen if we remain on the ballot. Without candidates on the ballot, we don’t have a product to offer to the voters.

Don’t fall for the promises of pandering politicians. Let’s keep the Libertarian product on the shelf.

Yours in Liberty,

Patrick J Dixon
Chair,
Libertarian Party of Texas

We haven’t done an updated map of how chapter development for the RLC is going since back in February of last year, so it’s high time we had a new map that gives a strong visual representation of how things are progressing. We’ve made a lot of progress in the last year, but we need to work on chartering unchartered states and developing contacts in the three states where we have no organization at all.

Let’s turn the whole map blue!

GovTrack, a civic project to keep tabs on those congresscritters has posted the text of H.R. 5741, the Universal National Service Act, as submitted by Representative Charles Rangel (NY-15) on 7/15/10. It has since been referred to the Subcommittee on Military Personnel where it will hopefully die a quick death. But what is H.R. 5741 you might ask? Well, remember when BHO was first talking about having a Civilian Corps as big and strong as the Military? You guessed it! This is the legislation which would draft you into forced servitude to such an entity. But don’t take my word for it! Read it yourself, particularly the opening paragraph

To require all persons in the United States between the ages of 18 and 42 to perform national service, either as a member of the uniformed services or in civilian service in furtherance of the national defense and homeland security, to authorize the induction of persons in the uniformed services during wartime to meet end-strength requirements of the uniformed services, and for other purposes.

Yes, that’s right. You will be REQUIRED to serve for two years in this entity towards whatever designs BHO has for us. It doesn’t matter if you love it or hate it. You will be required to do so. Well, at least if you are in that age category, which is quite substantive. This is nothing short of a civilian Draft, a topic to which Rangel is no stranger. He has long been a proponent of re-instituting the military, as evidenced by his re-introduction of this similar legislation. He’s already done it 3 other times – H.R. 163 in 2003, H.R. 4752 in 2006, H.R. 393 in 2007, and this latest iteration only a week and a half ago.

It should be noted that the first implementation in 2003 of this proposed legislation had a roll call of 2-402. Only 2 Representatives voted in favor of it… Jack Murtha and Pete Stark. Every other Representative voted against it. But that doesn’t mean anything to Rangel. He went on to bring the same war conscription legislation up again, 3 more times!

As the dissatisfactions of Americans with their national government grow, so does the likelihood of the breakup of the United States. I believe that most Americans can improve their well-being by ending the national government, that is, ending the Union. I believe that this goal should shape politics if politics is to do much good.

I don’t think Americans are going to be the first people in the modern era to initiate a large-scale anarchy. But Americans might conceivably move back to a federal form of government something like that under the Articles of Confederation. If so, the problem is how to proceed. Many Americans feel (and are) trapped and thwarted by government power.

I see two paths. Americans can do this either acting as individuals formed into a body politic of 300 million Americans or as 50 body politics organized by state. I think action by state has a better chance of success.

To act as one body, Americans would have to alter their Constitution. The divisions among Americans make this highly unlikely. Even if it were pursued, the results would be highly uncertain.

Yes, indeed. The key to success on a large scale is mobilization and activation. Individuals ranting and raving about wrongdoings are portrayed negatively in the public and only get a 10 second soundbyte on the evening news. They aren’t taken seriously and assisted in their dilemma. Why do so when they can be paraded about as a malicious Angry White Man or crazed Right Wing Fringer “bitterly clinging to their guns and religion” as the illustrious BHO would say. They don’t have much to say about their own dilemma because they are ignored by the larger system itself. Good luck trying to get your point across to a newsie. Even if you find a sympathetic ear, you can oh so easily have the entirety of your story demolished by editorial oversight. Far too many people with an ounce of power over something have an agenda to Lord it over everyone else. Just ask a Mall Cop.

Rozeff makes another good point that

A tax revolt that works from and through the state legislatures directly undermines the Union. It directly challenges the power of Congress to tax. That’s a far stronger political platform for restructuring the United States.

which is certainly true, but is a concept so far down the road to most Americans that they haven’t even thought that far ahead. Mostly, they are concerned with just trying to live their lives and minimize Government intrusion and tyranny into it, rather than proactively attempting to fix what is broken within it.

Outright secession is one political measure in a spectrum of possible actions by which one or more states stand up to the U.S. government. Nullification is another. Withdrawal from the banking system is another. A separate payments system at the state level is a fourth. Refusal to obey any of hundreds of U.S. directives is a fifth. The formation of alliances among states is another.

Rozeff makes some points of interest here and almost blows right by them. Secession is certainly an interesting topic of conversation these days. What with Governor Rick Perry making allusions to it (and being attributed to a lot more – wishful thinking on someone’s part) and more than just the local so-called rednecks (one of my local Border Patrol agents) riding around with ‘Secede’ stickers affixed to their vehicles. The topic has gotten to the level of interest in the mainstream that much of the opposition is scoffing at it as illegal. Well, we know what that means. As Gandhi stated, “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they attack you, then you win.” Well if this is true, then the Secessionists are probably transversing from stage 2 to stage 3…

Nullification is another topic worthy of discussion. These United States are a collective of 50 individual States (as well as some Protectorates and other Holdings which aren’t quite “states”) which incorporated a Federal Government to oversee a very specific and limited set of Powers. The U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights explicitly enumerate a finite list of Rights and privileges thereon. Now, the States authorized themselves an Out when it comes to laws that the Federal Government comes up with. Normally, the various states would be beholden to Federal laws, except whereby they are outside the scope of the explicitly delegated Powers of the Federal Government. Nullification is the Right of the state in question to nullify, or invalidate the Federal law because of it’s Unconstitutionality. This is a topic that most citizens don’t understand. However, it is something they really need to understand, because it goes to the heart of an overpowering and tyrannical Federal Government. When all legal means of redress are subverted, how does one seek satisfaction?

Next we have the topic of withdrawal from the banking system. This is yet again a difficult topic to discuss due to the vast majority of people’s misunderstanding of it. When you ask the man on the street about our banking system, he almost assuredly talks about saving and checking accounts. He thinks that the bank holds your money to loan to other people at higher interest so it makes money and can pay you smaller amounts of interest. This is a bald faced lie. Their are two types of banking prevalent to this conversation, Central Banking and Fractional Reserve Banking. The former is the macro system while the latter is the micro system. Central Banking in short, is ‘Money as Debt’ which is why we in America have a debt-based economy. It’s all about pushing debt around and debt management. You take on an amount of debt and pay it back with interest. That’s how money is made here. The problem with this is that the debt grows from interest and can never be paid back because their is not enough money in existence to pay it back. This eventually leads to bankruptcy of someone or something. On the large scale, the Federal Government doesn’t even print it’s own money! They buy it from the Federal Reserve through the issue of Bonds in the Bond Market. It is distributed in turn to the regional Federal Reserve branches and then to local banks in said regions.

Fractional Reserve Banking is where the real theft occurs. This is the kind of theft that the man on the street can wrap his head around because it doesn’t have an illustrious number of zeroes after it, boggling his mind. When I deposit $1,000 into a bank, they aren’t holding that money and loaning it to other people to make more money for me. Instead, through the miracle of Fractional Reserve Banking, they have just created more money out of thin air! Banking law allows the bank to loan out more money than they hold on deposit. That $1,000 in the vault means they get to issue “Lines of Credit” to everybody to the ratio of 10 to 1. There are several cartoons on YouTube which eloquently explain this better than I could.

Rozeff’s last 3 arguments are perhaps beyond the scope of this article, and quite a bit more in depth as to their requirements.

In short, the impending tides of  turbulence can bring on any number of effects if the citizenry of the nation unites under their respective States to do battle with the Monsters in the Swamp.

Today saw the first of several as yet unscheduled meetings to cover the issue of redistricting the borders of the various political districts in Texas. The populations in Congressional, Senatorial, Texas House, and State Board of Education districts will be enlarged significantly next year based on the final tally of the 2010 U.S. Census information. As such, we are in the public commentary phase whereby citizens are able to speak with the committee members of the Redistricting committee as to their wishes regarding potential changes to the existing borders. Many organizations and people will have agendas regarding how new borders will be drawn up. Here in Hidalgo county, it is particularly important that we reunify the region into closer regions.

Hidalgo County is currently a split Senate District across SD20 & SD27. It makes sense to reunify the county and place it in a contiguous Senate District based on commonality of its citizens.

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that Texas has seen a growth rate of 18.8% between the 2000 Census and July 1, 2009. Along that time, Hidalgo County has seen explosive growth outpacing that of the state, with a projected change of 31.8% from 569,463 to 750,714.

Additionally, of the 25 counties that outpaced the rate of growth of the State, only 4 of these counties are outside the I-35 corridor: Montgomery, Fort Bend, Brazoria, and Hidalgo. Of these 4 counties, Hidalgo is the only border county, assuring a swift and continued long term growth.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in White v. Regester established that State legislatures could deviate from the Ideal district population size by as much as 10%. The current Ideal population size based on Estimated 2009 population is 799,429. Collectively, Hidalgo County and Starr County have a total 2009 estimated population of 803,823 which equates to one half of one percent deviation from the Ideal population size. This is essentially a perfect District delineation across existing county lines. Furthermore, the inherent ethnic makeup is similar across both counties.

County                 Year       Hispanic               Anglo                    Black

Hidalgo                 2000       88.3%                    10.5%                    0.3%

Hidalgo                 2008       89.6%                    8.8%                      0.5%

Starr                      2000       97.5%                    0.3%                      0.1%

Starr                      2008       97.3%                    1%                          0.7%

The people of these two counties have more in common with each other than with others spread across the current SD20 and SD21. We both live on the border and share similar concerns, such as border violence, security, and the recent flooding of the Rio Grande river from excess rain during the beginning of the hurricane season. We face the same concerns here along the border and have more in common with each other than those 200+ miles away from us. It makes logistical sense to unify the region into a single Senate District. It will save money in Election costs, requiring less election workers, ballots, and precincts. Starr County is the poorest county in Texas while Hidalgo County is the 8^th poorest county. Why increase election costs by a far flung district?

Representation of this unified Senate District would be most welcome from it’s tax paying citizens.

The same equally applies towards the Congressional district borders. We have 3 separate and disparate regions that are vertically oriented, stretching from the valley to parts northward up to 250 miles away! What do the people of Laredo have in common with Mission? What do the people of McAllen have in common with Kleberg? What do the people of Harlingen have in common with Corpus Christi? It only makes sense that the regions along the border in an east-west orientation should be unified, as we are the communities of interest here. In McAllen, I have more in common with the people of Rio Grande City, Mission, Edinburg, PSJA, and Donna. I don’t need a Congressional Rep out of Laredo or Seguin representing me, as they have next to no idea as to what my needs are. Instead, I need a Rep from my region that knows what is important to me, such as border security issues, education, emergency services, Veteran’s Administration, and the recent flooding of the Rio Grande River from excess rain during the opening of the Texas Hurricane season. Flooding has risen to the extent that commercial trucking has been diverted all the way to El Paso area. What kind of impact does this have on the economic situation here in the valley? This is the sort of action item we need a regional STRONG representative for, not someone 200+ miles away.

The panel of committee members was a bit more extensive than I had expected. I’m glad to see that the Representatives from Central and North Texas, specifically Larry Phillips (R-52), Jim Jackson (R-115), Tryon D. Lewis (R-81), and Bryan Hughes (R-5) actually sought me out in the hallway prior to the beginning of the meeting, asking who I was and if I represented any group. This was behavior I had not expected, as in every other case of my personal interaction with Representatives in Texas, I always had to seek them out first, begging an audience. At no point did Representatives CLOSER to me geographically seek me out to converse. Specifically, my own House Representative Veronica Gonzales (D-41) and Ryan Guillen (D-31), Abel Herrero (D-34), Aaron Pena (D-40), Armando Martinez (D-39) and Eddie Lucio (D-38) merely passed me in the hallway as they entered the conference room, exhibiting no interest in my presence. Now, I don’t want to read too much into the letters after their names and the level of their politeness towards me prior to the meeting, but I certainly find it interesting to see that those Texas Representatives closest to me geographically completely ignored me, whereas those from Central or North Texas exhibited interest in my presence.

I didn’t have to wait too long once we were in public comments time before I was called to testify. In addition to my few minutes of speech, I also submitted written testimony into the record. I didn’t see anyone else do so, though there was one handwritten submission called out. It’s submitter did not speak, so I do not know the content of the message.

The end outcome of this event will be either 3 or 4 new Congressional seats next year, and some changes to existing borders across the state. In particular, Hidalgo county has seen explosive growth over the past decade.

Here are some pics.

Additionally, after the meeting stood in adjournment, Chairman Todd Hunter(R-32) approached me and thanked me for my participation and comments. I have a little feeling that he was surprised by the turnout of local Republicans to the meeting, expecting a strong contingent of local Democrats instead. This was not the case. Several people spoke regarding the issues surrounding redistricting, but most people were identified as Republicans. Much thanks to Chairman Hunter for the personal picture after the event!

The gallery is at http://rgvrlc.org/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=3779 for the rest of the photos.

In this video, I narrate my most recent article at CAIVN- Jack Hunter style.

Opponents of cannabis legalization worry that it will have a detrimental effect on society. That feeling is understandable, but citing a Cato study, I take a look at Portugal where all drugs were decriminalized in 2001.

Ten years later not only has Portugal avoided a nightmare of spiraling drug addiction, all signs indicate that drug use in Portugal has declined.

Take a look.

And please Digg it up. Don’t have a Digg account? Get one!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 24, 2010
CONTACT: Republican Liberty Caucus of Texas at 512-656-8011

Republican Liberty Caucus of Texas Calls on Party Leaders to Address Problems with Anti-Gay Platform Planks

AUSTIN, TX – At the state Republican convention earlier this month the Texas GOP abandoned the Republican tradition of respecting the Constitution and protecting individual liberty and privacy rights by adopting a platform which includes planks which propose an attack on the civil liberties of some of our citizens.

The platform advocates policies which would make it a felony to perform a same-sex marriage in Texas, which would re-criminalize sodomy and which would take away the rights of gay parents in custody cases. These proposals are contrary to the values of most Texans and go against the Republican tradition of standing up for individual liberty.

The Republican Liberty Caucus strongly opposes the Texas GOP platform’s anti-gay and anti-liberty planks. We call for the state party to take action to address this problem. While it may not be possible to repeal or change the party platform, the state leadership should issue a clear statement that the platform is non-binding and does not represent the core, shared beliefs of Texas Republicans or of our candidates.

In a year in which we are looking forward to extraordinary opportunities for a great slate of Republican candidates in Texas, it would be a terrible mistake to shackle them to a platform which will alienate many potential supporters. This platform will weaken the party at a time when a strong coalition of Republicans and independents is needed to stop the radical agenda of Democrats in both Austin and Washington.

“We need to focus on keeping the government out of our pocketbooks; especially in Texas,” said Texas RLC Chairman, Joey G. Dauben. “There are far more pressing problems for the GOP in our state to worry about. While I personally disagree with same-sex marriage from a Biblical perspective, marriage is a contract between individuals and God, not with the government. If we want government out of our wallets and our boardrooms, we should also keep government out of our churches and our bedrooms.”

The Republican Liberty Caucus believes that true conservative leaders should be dedicated to cutting government spending rather than wasting resources by advocating policies that open the state up to lawsuits and create conflict. We need to put aside divisive issues and focus on real problems. We should work to bring Texans together to protect the interests of our state and its people and to oppose the radical tax and spend agenda of the Democrats that is bankrupting our nation.

We call on the state party to send a clear message to voters that the this platform does not represent the highest ideals of our party and that as a party we support individual liberty and equal rights for all Texans.

–30—

The Republican Liberty Caucus of Texas advocates constitutionally limited government, individual liberty and traditional Republican values. It is part of a nationwide organization which shares those goals and has local organizations in almost every state. This year the RLC has endorsed hundreds of candidates nationwide, including Nikki Haley (SC), Rand Paul (KY), Pat Toomey (PA), Peter Schiff (CT), John Dennis (CA) and Mike Lee (UT).

For more information on the RLC of Texas see our website at www.rlctx.org. For information on the national RLC see www.rlc.org.

They call the legislation the “Democracy is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections Act,” but in actuality is a direct assault on participation in the political process.

We have the power to stop it.

But we must act quickly — today, now. It’s being introduced as I write this.

The bill is HR 5175 and they call the act “The Disclose Act.”

It will force groups like the Republican Liberty Caucus to report our members to the Federal Elections Commission (FEC).

As a grassroots, all-volunteer organization, we don’t have the staff to prepare such reports. By requiring us to spend time on reporting to the FEC, they are taking away from time we could be spending on promoting our candidates and our cause.

The government wants to create a list of all people who donate to all organizations who support political campaigns so they can post it on the Federal Elections Commission website.

This attack on free speech and liberty-oriented groups in particular must be stopped.

Please contact your member of Congress today and ask them to oppose HR 5175, which will be used as a tracking tool to stop liberty-minded groups like the Republican Liberty Caucus.

Thank you.

After a grueling Texas State Republican convention which ran more than 4 hours overtime, tired RLC members staggered into the Aloft Hotel in downtown Dallas to attend a special statewide meeting of the Republican Liberty Caucus of Texas. Most of the attendees were also convention delegates, but some had come in from around the state just to attend the meeting. The Austin, Dallas and Houston areas were most strongly represented among the group of over 30 RLC members who were in attendance. The purpose of the meeting was to reorganize the Texas RLC state board and recharter the state organization to address a peculiar situation where the state has a number of successful and active regional chapters but no functioning state board. In the three-hour meeting the attendees were able to elect provisional board members and executive officers, approve a set of bylaws, fill out a charter application and discuss various issues of concern for Liberty Republicans in Texas. The meeting was moderated by RLC National Chairman Dave Nalle who is a Texas resident and RLC national board member Dan Shiell. The overall mood was enthusiastic in the wake of the hard-won convention victory of Steve Munisteri, the new Chairman of the Texas GOP. Munisteri has a background of association with relatively pro-liberty leaders and campaigns, including having worked for Ron Paul, Fred Thompson, Jack Kemp and Ronald Reagan. He is expected to be much more friendly towards Liberty Republicans than his predecessor who was quite hostile and had even denied Debra Medina’s new advocacy organization a booth at the convention. Many of those attending the RLC meeting had been working hard at the convention to assure a Munisteri victory. The meeting agreed to elect officers and board members on a 60-day provisional basis to be confirmed or modified and approved in a teleconference to be held within that period. This will provide time for RLC members in chapters around the state to review the work of the representatives at the meeting and for additional board members to be selected. Joey Dauben of Ellis County was elected Chairman. Judson Vandiver of Dallas was elected Vice Chairman. Dave Nalle of Travis County was elected Secretary. Joe Petronis of Austin was elected Treasurer. Board members elected at the meeting included Jeff Larson (Houston), Summer Yen (Austin), Patricia Nalle (Manor), Dan Shiell (Dallas) and Stephen Schoppe (Austin). At a dinner gathering after the meeting, National RLC Chairman Dave Nalle commented that “After a convention where hostile party factions were at each others throats, being able to sit down with a group of real Liberty Republicans who so clearly shared the same objectives restored my faith in our movement and our efforts and the potential for achieving great victories for liberty in the Lonestar State.”