The Republican Club of Sun City NEWSLETTER

June 2012 Everett Schmidt, Editor Sun City Texas

DIRECTOR OF FT. HOOD U.S.O. TO ADDRESS CLUB

Robin Crouse, Director of the USO at Ft. Hood, will address the club during its diner meeting scheduled for Thursday, June 7 in the ballroom of the Social Center at Sun City. The services provided by the USO at Ft. Hood – along with some human interest stories – will be her main topic of discussion.

The USO is a private, non-profit organization whose mission is to support the troops by providing morale, welfare and recreation-type services to more than 40,000 service members and their families.

The Social Period, Dinner and Program. A social period will begin at 6:00 PM. The dinner will begin at 6:30 PM, and will be followed by the program. The dinner will consist of grilled chicken breast, buttered potatoes, green beans, salad and trimmings.

Cost. Cost is $16 per person. Checks made out to The Republican Club of Sun City should be mailed to: The Republican Club of Sun City, Attention: Treasurer, 1530 Sun City Blvd., Suite 120, Box 227, Georgetown, TX 78633.

THE DEADLINE FOR PAYMENT IS FRIDAY, JUNE 1

Club treasurer Dorothy Carlyle has set up a special collection box on her front porch at 173 Whispering Wind for individuals wishing to hand-deliver payments, provided delivery is made by the Friday deadline. For information about reservations, contact Dorothy at 864-0353 or dcarlyle@suddenlink.net

CLUB WILL NOT MEET IN JULY AND AUGUST

Following a practice of long standing, the club will not meet during the months of July and August. After the summer break, club meetings will resume on Thursday, September 20 – which is approximately one month before the beginning of the early voting period for the crucial November general election.

OTHER CLUB NEWS

When club meetings resume after the summer break, a series of steps to elect next year’s officers will begin. The club president appoints a Nominating Committee by September; the Nominating Committee gives its report to the membership during the October meeting; the membership votes on next year’s officers during the November meeting.

During the club’s May meeting club president Harlow Fisher urged the membership to contact a current officer if they would like to be considered for an officer position.

Club treasurer Dorothy Carlyle estimates the number of attendees at the May meeting was 126.

POSSIBLE DEWHURST EXIT SPARKS POLITICKING

The state Senate must elect a replacement from among its own members to fill the role – that of presiding officer – played by Lt. Governor David Dewhurst should he be elected as U. S. Senator or resign before the end of his term ending in 2015. Already, there are reports of politicking going on – not only among Republicans only but between Republicans and Democrats. The situation will remind the observer of the politicking going on between both parties at the time a new Speaker of the House was being considered several years ago.

The situation involving a replacement in the Senate is complicated. The Austin American-Statesman describes some of the complications which would surface should Dewhurst resign:

The lieutenant governor is a statewide elected official who also serves as presiding officer of the Texas Senate, setting the chamber’s agenda and choosing committee chairs, who can advance or kill legislation. The post is held by Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, who is running for the U. S. Senate. If he leaves before his term as lieutenant governor is up in 2015, senators would choose a successor to serve the remainder of the term. Still unsettled, however, is whether the current Senate, which has 19 Republicans and 12 Democrats, or the 2013 Senate, which is likely to have a different partisan split after the November election, would choose its new leader – and whether it would do so by secret or public ballot. If Dewhurst were to resign shortly after the election, the current Senate would elect his successor; if he resigns after the new Senate convenes in 2013, the membership would be different. Those decisions could help determine whether the (presumably) Republican majority would have the upper hand. And that could factor into whether the chosen senator is conservative or more moderate.

ROMNEY SPEAKS AT WORLD’S LARGEST CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY Insights Into His Belief System Provided

On May 12, Mitt Romney, a Mormon, delivered a commencement speech to 6,000 graduates of Liberty University, the largest Christian University in the world, an institution founded by the late Jerry Falwell, a fundamentalist and political activist.

The fact that Romney, upon invitation, spoke at such an important occasion may have caused some eyebrows to be raised, that being said because of the conflicting articles of faith between Mormons and evangelicals. But, according to columnist Cal Thomas, “Romney’s reception at Liberty University is a sign [evangelicals] are slowly warming to the idea of him as president.”

Because religion and race are likely to emerge as contentious factors as the political season wears on, the reader may find the facts presented below about the Mormon faith to be timely – especially because they are presented in the context of politics.

According to columnist Kevin Williamson, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the largest religious organization in the United States after the Catholic Church, the Southern Baptist Convention, and the United Methodist Church. The Baptists and Methodists are in decline, while the number of Catholics and Mormons is growing, “with Mormons adding to their number 2.5 times the Roman rate of redemption.”

Williams reports that, “One in five Americans declares that they would not vote for a Mormon presidential candidate – even if that candidate were a member of their own party.” But it should be noted that Americans have indicated they will not vote for candidates on the basis of other religions, on race and on gender: Seven percent say they would not vote for a Catholic; nine percent would oppose a Jew; five percent would oppose a black; and six percent would oppose a female.

But no other religious group inspires the widespread hostility of voters as does the Mormon faith: A whopping 22 percent would oppose a Mormon.

And racism may become an even larger issue that it already is as the election day approaches. Williamson contends that the “taint of racism still hangs upon the Mormon Church, which did not fully incorporate black members into its ranks until 1979.” He describes a stunning irony which can surface during the coming presidential election: “Mitt Romney will have to answer some uncomfortable questions about sitting in a racist church when he was 31 years old; maddeningly, he’ll have to do so while standing next to Barack Obama, who belonged to a racist church until doing so became politically inconvenient.”

Given the uncertainty about – if not downright hostility toward – Romney’s Mormonism which exists with many Americans, his appearance before such audiences as those at Liberty University may serve Romney well, particularly if the beliefs he conveys are consistent with traditional values.

Indeed, Dennis Prager, talk-show host and columnist, said Romney’s Liberty University speech was important, “not only because it seems to have closed the gap between Romney and evangelical Christians, but also because it spelled out major themes in Mitt Romney’s understanding of America.”

Prager, in a recent op-ed column, quotes some of the statements Romney made at Liberty University and then elaborates on them. Following is a sampling of Romney’s quoted statements followed by Prager’s elaborations on them:

ROMNEY: “You know who you are. And you know whom you will serve. Not all colleges instill that kind of confidence . . .”

PRAGER: What Romney is asking is this: If one is not morally accountable to God, to whom or what is one morally accountable? Most universities will respond: to one’s conscience. But those who adhere to Judeo- Christian values do not trust the conscience alone. What Nazi or Communist mass murderer was not at peace

with his conscience?

ROMNEY: “Central to America’s rise to global leadership is our Judeo-Christian tradition . . . “

PRAGER: Exactly right. Every free country on earth was formed by Christianity or shaped by a Christian country that imposed it (India and Japan, for example). And the freest of them all, America, has been the most Judeo-based Christian country in the world.

ROMNEY: “The American culture promotes personal responsibility, the dignity of work, the value of education, the merit of service, devotion to a purpose greater than self, and, at the foundation, the pre-eminence of the family.”

PRAGER: And each one of these values has been under siege by the left. The left undermines personal responsibility by excusing the irresponsibility of all but white Christian males; undermines the dignity of work with ever-increasing entitlements; shifts “the merit of service” from individuals and communal institutions to the state; and weakens the family by strengthening people’s reliance on the government, and by removing all stigmas to unwed motherhood.

ROMNEY: “From the beginning, this nation trusted in God, not man.”

PRAGER: This is why one of the mottos of this country is “In God We Trust.” This is the heart of the cultural civil war in which America is now engaged. Do human rights come from the Creator or from men?

ROMNEY: “People of different faiths, like yours and mine, sometimes wonder where we can meet in common purpose, when there are so many differences in creed and theology.”

PRAGER: A very significant statement – a major Mormon figure stating that mainstream Christians and Mormons have “different faiths.” But even more important is his truly American realization that all Americans, of every faith (including Islam, one might add), and even those who have no formal religion, “can meet in common purpose.” And that purpose is living by and promulgating the American value system: “Liberty,” “In God We Trust,” and “E Pluribus Unum.”

MEMBERS OF CONGRESS KEEP GETTING RICHER While Other Americans Get Poorer

The following news article appeared in the February issue of Middle American News. It is reproduced below in a slightly edited version:

Members of Congress are getting richer while the incomes of the people they govern are stagnant or in decline.

The median net worth of a member of Congress has nearly tripled in the last 25 years while the net worth of the average American family fell slightly, according to an analysis of financial by the left-leaning Washington Post.

The Post found that from 1984 to 2009, the median net worth of a member of the House of Representatives more than doubled from $280,000 to $725,000 in inflation-adjusted 2009 dollars, excluding home equity. During the same period, the median net worth of an American family fell from $20,648 to $20,500.

One reason members of Congress get rich is their access to financially significant information unavailable to average Americans. Policy analyst Peter Schweizer of the Hoover Institution points out in his new book, “Throw Them All Out,” that members of Congress are free to buy and sell stocks in companies whose financial fortunes can be dramatically influenced or even directly determined by laws and policies enacted by Congress.

Schweizer reports that some members routinely engage in what amounts to a form of “insider trading” that allows them to profit from investment activity that he says “would send the rest of us to prison.”

Sen. John Kerry, D-MA, for example, chairman of the health subcommittee of the larger Senate Finance Committee, benefited when the federal government limited Medicare reimbursements for a drug made by the pharmaceutical company Amgen. Just a week before the federal announcements, Kerry’s wife’s shares of Amgen, valued between $500,000 and $1 million, were unloaded.

Members of Congress currently earn about $174,000 a year in salary, thanks to automatic cost of living adjustments that go into effect unless members vote to limit their own salaries.

THE LAWLESSNESS OF THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION

Receiving virtually no exposure in the major news media was the news that 9 State Attorneys General – including Texas’ Greg Abbott – issue a “Memo” detailing examples of an increasingly overreaching federal government. They used the descriptive phrase, “violations of law,” making their “Memo” newsworthy.

Of particular importance is the fact that the “violations” referred to were instigated by administrative agencies; I. e., bureaucrats. The contempt these bureaucrats have for the law and the American citizen is illustrated by a statement made by EPA Administrator Al Armendariz who described the EPA “philosophy” of enforcement as follows: “kind of like how the Romans used to, you know, conquer villages in the Mediterranean. They’d go into a little Turkish town somewhere, they’d find the first five guys they saw and they’d crucify them. Then, you know, that town was really easy to manage for the next few years.”

The following sampling “violations” cited by the Attorneys General represent but the tip of the iceberg in comparison with violations by the Justice Department, the EPA and other agencies:

• In South Carolina, the National Relations Board tried to tell Boeing, a private company, where it could or could not locate a new manufacturing plant, and also threatened to sue the state for guaranteeing a secret ballot in union elections. The NLRB backed down after a high-profile battle.
• The Health and Human Services Agency mandated religious employers, including Catholic, Baptist and Jewish schools, churches and hospitals, to provide all their employees with medical devices prohibited by their religions.
• In Oklahoma, the EPA imposed its own federal plan, illegally usurping Oklahoma’s authority in the Clean Air Act to determine the state’s plan to deal with sources of emissions. The federal plan, which goes beyond the authority granted in the Clean Air Act, will result in a $2 billion cost to install technology and a permanent increase of 15-20 percent in electricity costs, and the Obama Administration is fighting Oklahoma’s appeal in court.
• In Arizona, another violation is that Obama’s Department of Justice has granted “reservation status” to a 54-acre plot in Glendale, where the Tohono O’Odham Nation plans to build a casino. This means the Obama Administration is forcing a family-oriented town, against its will, to become another Las Vegas.
• Obama made four appointments to important federal positions (NLRB and CFPB) which he dishonestly called “recess appointments” in order to evade Senate confirmation hearings on leftwing nominees. Obama ignored the fact that the Senate was not in recess.
• Also noted: Obama pressured Congress to pass the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare), using procedural shenanigans, against the will of the majority of Americans.

  The “procedural shenanigans” referred to in the last citation refers to the fact that ObamaCare was passed by the Senate using a maneuver known as “reconciliation,” which is allowed only for measures that will reduce the deficit. The procedure enables legislation to be passed with a simple majority instead of the 60 votes normally required. A lie was told. It was to the effect that the legislation would lower the deficit by $143 billion in its first 10 years, but current figures show that it will actually add $54 billion.

  NOTES ON THE PASSING SCENE

  Entire County Switches to GOP. All elected officials in Throckmorton County have switched from being Democrats to being Republicans. This means that the county will now have Republican primary elections after years of holding Democratic-only primaries.

  Local Tea Party to Sponsor Free Vacation Liberty School. Dave Schumacher, a founder of the Wilco Tea Party, announced that the Williamson County Tea Party Movement and the Centex 9/12 Project will sponsor a Vacation Liberty School from June 25 to June 29 at the Grace Episcopal Church in Georgetown. The school is free to participants.

  The school is a week-long, half-day program designed for children of ages 8 to 13. Its mission is to educate, enlighten and excite kids about the beliefs, fundamentals and principles on which this country was founded; and to empower them with the knowledge and will to preserve these ideas and liberties for our nation.

  Contact Dave Schumacher for information.