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Texas Home School Coalition PAC
A statewide political action committee serving home schoolers for more than 20 years
February 28, 2009
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In This Issue
Around Texas
Presidential News
National News
Miscellaneous
Driver Education and Teen Safety
Around Texas

Texas Gov. Rick Perry Touts Abortion Opposition at Austin Rally

Gov. Rick Perry greeted several hundred anti-abortion activists rallying outside the Capitol by promising to prevent embryonic stem cell research in Texas and touting his record for passing more restrictions on the procedure than any previous Texas governor.

 

Stimulus Funds Throw Wrench into Capitol Works

Passage of a $787 billion stimulus package by the Democrat-controlled Congress has thrown the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature off-kilter.

 

$16 Billion Stimulus Windfall Dividing Texas Legislature

Texas lawmakers, given a $16 billion windfall from the federal stimulus bill, are forming two camps.

 

Texas Should Beware Strings in Stimulus

by Dallas Morning News Editors

Readers of this page know that we have not supported the Obama stimulus plan, largely because we didn't agree that some parts are the best way to revive the economy.

 

Texas Lawmakers' Reactions Follow Party Lines

Reaction from some Texas lawmakers to President Barack Obama's speech Tuesday was divided along partisan lines, with Democrats hailing his economic plan and Republicans concerned about rising debt.

 

Straus Doesn't Take Stand on Ultrasound Bill

A bill requiring women seeking an abortion to first get an ultrasound got a big push Tuesday from three top Texas Republicans - but GOP House Speaker Joe Straus didn't take a stand.

 

Child Protective Services Seeks More Funding to Improve Services

Debbie Pendergrass flops down on the bedroom carpet with two sisters rescued by Child Protective Services from violence and drug abuse. The CPS worker, the one constant in the girls' move through three foster homes in two years, scans for any hint of fresh psychic wounds.

 

Poll Shows No Clear Favorite for Kay Bailey Hutchison's Senate Seat

The race for Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison's U.S. Senate seat will likely be close should the seat become available soon, according to a poll released Wednesday by a North Carolina firm.

 

Perry's Pandering to the Far Right

by Lisa Falkenberg

Let me save Gov. Rick Perry some money on glossy mailers. In a gubernatorial contest against fellow Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, Perry is, hands down, the Right candidate. Make that Far Right. Righter by the day, it seems.

 

Perry's Camp Digs for Dirt on Kay Bailey Hutchison at Dallas City Hall

A political operative working for Gov. Rick Perry has asked Dallas City Hall for numerous documents concerning Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, a signal that the campaign for governor could include personal attacks.

 

Mayor Takes Responsibility for Idea to Pay Homebuyer Debt

Mayor Bill White accepted responsibility for the widely disparaged plan for using public funds to pay some home buyers' personal debts, saying he was not clear on the details and that the idea should have been reviewed more thoroughly.

 

Defending Spending, and a Tea Party

by Michael Quinn Sullivan

Can your elected officials defend what they spend? Do they even ever have to? Of course not, because the spending is all too often hidden from view. 

 

Signs Point to Democrat Tom Schieffer Announcing Bid for Texas Governor Monday

Fort Worth Democrat Tom Schieffer, who has served as U.S. ambassador to Japan and Australia, is all but certain to run for governor and will announce the formation of an exploratory committee Monday in Austin.

 

Everyman's Fight for Freedom

by Tim Lambert

I sometimes meet members of the Texas Home School Coalition Association who say that they support THSC because we work hard to protect parental rights and the freedom to home school so they can focus on other things. While I appreciate the kindness of their comments, the reality is that no one person or group alone can effectively defend the freedom of parents to direct the education and upbringing of their children.

 
Read more State News....
Presidential News
 

Obama's State Of The Union Address

by Gary Bauer

President Barack Obama will give his first State of the Union Address tonight before a joint session of Congress. In the speech, he is expected to lay out his priorities for the government and the course on which he intends to steer our ship of state. In recent days the administration has sent plenty of signals that it intends to take a hard lurch to the Left.

 

Obama's Supine Diplomacy

by Charles Krauthammer

The Biden prophecy has come to pass. Our wacky veep, momentarily inspired, predicted in October that "it will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama." Biden probably had in mind an eve-of-the-apocalypse drama like the Cuban missile crisis. Instead, Obama's challenges have come in smaller bites. Some are deliberate threats to U.S. interests, others mere probes to ascertain whether the new president has any spine.

 

Scoring Obama's First Address to Congress

by Newt Gingrich

For those of us planning on keeping track of the big government, big spending proposals in President Obama's first address to Congress tonight, here's the key: Start with $3.6 trillion. Add from there.

 

Budget Busters And Broken Promises

by Gary Bauer

President Obama delivered his economic address last night and, once again, reiterated his desire to reach bi-partisan common ground where it could be found. He also said he was serious about fiscal responsibility, wisely spending your tax dollars and cutting the deficit.

 

It's Obama Spreading Panic

by Dick Morris

Ultimately, all recessions and depressions resolve themselves into crises of confidence. The instant, global, 24/7 communications of today make them ever more so. President Obama, in his pursuit of liberal big-government spending, has totally neglected the role of the president of the United States in reversing global panic. To the contrary, his every remark and the constant preoccupation of his Cabinet is to heighten the sense of crisis and to escalate the predictions of doom if we do not do as they tell us and raise spending now and taxes later.

 
National News
 

Despite Obama's Campaign Promises, Spending Bill Is Packed with Earmarks

During the 2008 presidential campaign, candidates Barack Obama and John McCain fought vigorously over who would be toughest on congressional earmarks.

 

U.S. Clears Path to Bank Takeovers

The Obama administration yesterday revamped the terms of its emergency aid to troubled financial firms, setting a course that could culminate with the government nationalizing some of the country's largest banks by taking a controlling ownership stake.

 

Outlook Grim for Budget's Costly Initiatives

A new report reveals how difficult it will be for President Obama to increase spending on health care, energy and education while cutting the deficit in half.

 

Boxer Seeks to Ratify U.N. Treaty That May Erode U.S. Rights

Sen. Barbara Boxer is urging the U.S. to ratify a United Nations measure meant to expand the rights of children, a move critics are calling a gross assault on parental rights that could rob the U.S. of sovereignty.

 
Miscellaneous
 

An 87-Year-Old's Economic Survival Guide

by Chuck Norris

An old Spanish proverb says, "An ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy." I believe that value holds, in or out of a recession. And seeing as my 87-year-old mother lived through the Great Depression, I think her value (and that of those like her) will increase through these tough economic times because her insider wisdom can help us all.

 
 
 
 
 
Driver Education and Teen Safety
 

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Tim Lambert

Next Tuesday, March 3, the Public Education Committee in the Texas House will hold a hearing on HB 339, which is authored by State Representative Larry Phillips. This bill is designed to address teen driver safety and includes almost everyone's ideas about how improve it. One of the ideas it contains is a suggestion of Pat Barrett of Driver Ed in a Box®. His idea is that the state would be required to publicly post on an annual basis the teen crash rates of every entity that offers driver education. This would allow the public to examine each school or program and see what kind of record their graduates have. This would be similar to public schools being rated on the performance of their students.

We support this because in 1995 Texas passed a law allowing parents to teach their children to drive using a program approved by DPS (Department of Public Safety). Before it was even implemented, leaders in both the Texas House and Senate tried to repeal the law, and it was the home school community that killed that effort. In almost every legislative session since then, the commercial driving school lobby has sought to make it more difficult for parents to teach their children to drive, and the Texas home school community has killed each and every attempt.
 
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