Houston Area Liberty Campaign

HALC member “TrinityTexas77″ shot videos of many of the speakers at this event. This is the video for former Texas Republican gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina. Videos for other speakers will follow soon. Please share but give Miss Trinity credit… Enjoy!

By Sonia Azad via ABC local

HOUSTON (KTRK) – It’s a fight over a neighborhood in southeast Houston that’s been there more than 50 years. Some people are battling historic preservation.

Several residents had signed the petition for historic designation and now there’s a large effort to get those signatures retracted. The neighborhood is the Glenbrook Valley subdivision near the Gulf Freeway and Airport with about 1,200 homes. But now residents, some of them who lived there for decades, are divided.

Joe and Leticia Ablaza have lived in the neighborhood for about 12 years.

“It’s an awesome neighborhood, quiet,” she said. “Our neighbors are very friendly. Everyone seems to get along up until recently.”

That’s because of a petition circulated by the cvic association that would make their neighborhood a historic district. Apparently a number of people who signed that petition didn’t understand what they were signing.

“‘Can you sign the petition?’” Secondino Vazquez was asked. “And I said,’Yeah.’ It sounded like a good idea.”

Vazquez has lived in the neighborhood since 1994, but speaks limited English. He says he was practically forced to sign the petition and promised the city would beautify the neighborhood by shutting down sketchy nearby hotels and motels. Vazquez says he didn’t know anything about the preservation ordinance that he signed off on.

“No one was ever given a copy of the ordinance,” said Ablaza.

When Glenbrook Valley’s application for historical designation was approved with 51 percent support thanks to those petitions, the Ablazas got involved.

“We went down to the city and asked for an open records request,” she said.

They say the discrepancies they found were unbelievable.

“We got people who have deceased, people who have moved, a lot of Read the rest of this entry »

Dear Friend,

If you ever wondered whether the big government agenda is alive and well in Texas, you need look no further than this morning’s Austin American Statesman.  “Conservative, Republican” State Senator Steve Ogden is calling for a state-wide property tax.  And other “conservative Republicans” rather than decrying this socialist agenda, are quoted in the article either advocating the policy or saying we need to consider it as a possible option.

Consider it, like Hell, I say!  We better get in this fight and we better get all in NOW!

With Republicans like these, Texas doesn’t need to wait on President Obama and the Democrats to destroy us, our Republican leaders are doing it single handedly.

Want proof?  Look at the 2008 U.S. Economic Index, page 11 shows Texas is now ranked 31 having fallen from the 8th spot in 1999.  That’s under “conservative Republican” leadership!  Thanks to these sorts of policies, Texas now labors under nearly the largest state government (second only to New York) with the largest amount of state regulation (second only to Louisiana).  Read it for yourself, see page 34 of the study.

Read the rest of this entry »

[An important message from We Texans]

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September 3, 2010

Dear  Friend,

I have some important information and some really great news to share with you.  I hope that after reading this update that you will consider giving to WeTexans.   We are going full speed ahead with the agenda we all had during the primary – we “lost a battle” but we have not “lost the War” – not by a long shot. This is evidenced by calls from folks who are willing to do TV commercials with us (you will be surprised!), and calls from other campaigns and/or their supporter or staff wanting our endorsement.  It is also evidenced by the fact that so many legislators are willing to visit with me about our property tax agenda.  I have been surprised and pleased at the responses I have been getting.  However, we all know that elected officials can’t always be trusted to do what they say they will do, so I keep beating the pavement, knowing you’ve got my back! Thank You!

I continue to travel across the state carrying our message. As you know gas and other travel incidentals are expensive these days so please, if you still consider our work worthwhile, consider giving anything you can.  $5.00 helps more than you know.  And my thanks to all of you who have been so generous in the past!

I was also surprised to learn that I had been named as one of the Top Influential Texans by www.politicsmagazine.com.  Although I was pretty far down on the list I did make it.  When I saw my name I thought that should really say WeTexans instead.  I was thinking that this time last year almost no one knew me, the WeTexans slogan or anything about us and our liberty movement.  So we have come quite a ways in 12 months time – from an unknown grass roots movement to being sought out by legislators, the media, and having been designated as “influential”!

Read the rest of this entry »

Jason Chen: Gizmodo

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals just decided that it was legal for the police to put a GPS tracking device on your car, sitting in your driveway, on your property. Here’s how to protect yourself.

Matt’s post about the decision explains in depth about the ruling. To quickly summarize, the supreme court had said before that police can look through things that anyone in the public could come across, meaning, your driveway is freely accessible to the public, hence, the cops can look through it. The 9th circuit court now says that cops can shove a GPS locator onto your car, because the area is publicly accessible and you have no reasonable expectation of privacy there. Then said cops can use the GPS track you. Without a warrant.

(Updated above text to improve clarity.)

How do you stop this without combing over the underside—or perhaps even inside—of your car and finding the GPS tracker? With technology. Read the rest of this entry »

I heartily agree with this writer. No city, state or federal agency should have the authority to ban a private act in a privately-owned business.

If an employee does not like that policy at that business, then even in this economy, you might be able to find employment elsewhere. There are many places of employment that have set their own smoking/non-smoking policies, so you should be able to find something to your liking.

If you’re a customer to a business that allows employees or other customers to smoke and you don’t like that, “vote” with your wallet. Take your money elsewhere. That company is NOT in business to make you happy like a spouse/significant other, child or parent would do, they’re there to sell you a product or service. Period. They only want your money. Your being happy/not happy is a side-effect of their business environment, not the sole source of your happiness/unhappiness.

Also, as far as smoking bans in bars and clubs go, it kind of goes without saying, smoking and drinking go hand-in-hand. Whether you agree or not, they are both still lawful activities. That is, unless you agree with the only public official that ever banned smoking nationally.

Here is the most successful anti-smoking campaign. Ever. Quit smoking or go to jail.

Before you assume that I’m a chain smoker or have had no dealings with smokers, I assure you, I’m not. I’m a non-smoker. My father passed away from prostate cancer and emphesema when I was 17 yrs old, in my senior year of high school. I also dated and married my spouse, who was a 1/4 pack-a-day smoker before I met my spouse. I have worked for smokers in two different offices. I just chose to protect myself by my own means, rather than having the government do it for me. If I don’t like the environment in a workplace, restaurant or other facility I utilize, I take my business elsewhere.
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[From The Daily Paul.com, story here.]

(These 2 links go together so I thought I would post them together. Please take some time and read and watch. Eye opening.)

“In the past decade, public smoking bans in America have become increasingly commonplace; governmental efforts to institute such bans often prove successful, primarily because the majority of Americans do not smoke. In other words, the majority can only gain from such legislation. Supporters reason that they should not have to inhale second-hand smoke every time they patronize the local bar. This argument is seemingly sound; most ban backers this author has encountered do indeed provide this justification when endeavoring to legitimize their views. Once effective counterarguments are rendered, however, supporters often change the foundation in which their ban advocacy initially appeared to be rooted. They then contend that employers have a responsibility to provide a smoke-free environment for their employees. Neither justification is well-reasoned. Moreover, it is unambiguous that public smoking bans are incompatible with private property rights.
Read the rest of this entry »

[Source: Sacramento Bee article]

It was every businessperson’s nightmare.

Arriving at Harv’s Metro Car Wash in midtown Wednesday afternoon were two dark-suited IRS agents demanding payment of delinquent taxes. “They were deadly serious, very aggressive, very condescending,” says Harv’s owner, Aaron Zeff.

The really odd part of this: The letter that was hand-delivered to Zeff’s on-site manager showed the amount of money owed to the feds was … 4 cents.

Inexplicably, penalties and taxes accruing on the debt – stemming from the 2006 tax year – were listed as $202.31, leaving Harv’s with an obligation of $202.35.

Zeff, who also owns local parking lots and is the president of the Midtown Business Association, finds the situation a bit comical.
Read the rest of this entry »

This is a very interesting cartoon from 1948.  Still very relevant today and is especially chilling in parts, especially when they talk about how the ISM just wants to divide & conquer by playing the race, age, sex, religion and party cards…

Pay close attention to some of the comments.  Many give a good plan of action for righting the direction we’re headed…  and follow the parallels for today’s political climate.