Check out what activists in West Texas are saying about the La Entrada trade route. Big Bend is one of the few areas of the country that is still “wild”, that is unless La Entrada finishes that off!

La Entrada Al Pacifico Facts

La Entrada Al Pacifico is a trade corridor being proposed by a handful of politically connected citizens of Midland-Odessa, the Midland Odessa Transportation Alliance (MOTRAN).
MOTRAN’s original plan envisions US 67 through the Big Bend as a divided, four-lane NAFTA truck highway from Presidio, through Marfa and Alpine, to Fort Stockton (and on to Midland.)
Founded in part by Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick’s wife Nadine, MOTRAN sees Midland-Odessa as a U. S. transportation hub, regardless of the consequences for other West Texans.
Since 1992 MOTRAN has received close to $34 million in taxpayer money, and has secured both state and federal designation of the La Entrada trade corridor under Governor and President Bush.
TXDOT is currently engaged in a feasibility study, funded through MOTRAN’s efforts, to forecast freight volumes, traffic, and specific routing of the proposed trade corridor.

Texans are opposing the La Entrada Al Pacifico trade corridor in record numbers because:
Building La Entrada Al Pacifico forces Texas taxpayers to subsidize the importation of foreign goods into the United States (as well as Midland’s economic expansion.)
The route will send numerous diesel trucks through one of America’s last large, wild regions.
The geography of the Big Bend makes its roads inherently inefficient for truck transport.
The Big Bend’s tourism and its economy will suffer accordingly as the region’s highly regarded beauty and serenity give way to pollution and congestion.
A rail line runs parallel to a good deal of the proposed route; Numerous single trucks crossing the border will create a security nightmare as they become untraceable once inside the United States.
In the words of a Midland high school counselor at TXDOT’s Midland public meeting, who was quoting his students, La Entrada Al Pacifico will create a “drug superhighway” between Ojinaga, Mexico and Midland-Odessa, Texas.
Continuing expansion of Mexico’s west coast ports and existing U. S. points of entry like El Paso and Laredo raise serious questions about La Entrada Al Pacifico’s necessity.

For more information and resources:
www.stopthetrucks.org - Comprehensive roundup of La Entrada information.
www.revivacollective.org - Alpine artist’s collective fighting La Entrada.
bigbendletters@yahoo.com - Writing letters to raise awareness of and oppose La Entrada

Government of, by and for the people can only exist if citizens make their voices heard:
U.S. Senators
Kay Bailey Hutchison U. S. Senate; Washington, D.C. 20510 http://hutchison.senate.gov/contact.html
John Cornyn 512 Hart SOB; Washington, D.C. 20510 http://cornyn.senate.gov/public/
U.S. Representative Dist. 23
Ciro D. Rodriguez 2458 Rayburn House OB; Washington, D.C. 20515 http://www.rodriguez.house.gov/
Texas State Senate Dist. 19
Carlos Uresti 2530 SW Military Dr Ste103; San AntonioTX 78224 http://www.uresti.senate.state.tx.us/
Texas House of Reps. Dist. 74
Pete Gallego P.O. Box 777; Alpine, TX 79831 http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/dist74/gallego.htm
To find your own state and federal representatives’ contact info, enter your address at:
http://www.senate.state.tx.us/75r/senate/members.htm#FYI

Texas Department of Transportation - La Entrada Al Pacifico Study Coordinator
Peggy Thurin, P.E. tpp_txdot-leap@dot.state.tx.us (Note underscore after “tpp”) or 1-800/517-4652

“Beware of false prophets. They come to you disguised as sheep, but in their hearts they are vicious wolves.” Matthew 7:15

That pretty much sums up how we feel about the bulk of the statewide propositions put on the ballot by our legislature.

We have lost trust in our state government led by a Governor we would have recalled if Texans had the right to statewide recall.

Independents got together last weekend to discuss the amendments. Below are the results of that discussion, including links to pieces written by friends in the anti-toll movement.

For a full list with pro and con arguments, read the League of Women Voters handbook on the propositions here.

PROPOSITIONS 1 & 2:

We do not have recommendations on these two amendments.

PROPOSITION 3: on Appraisals

We were split on this amendment, however, it appears to be a small step forward.

Despite the fact that 10% appears to be scary, all of our calculations indicate that although the appraised value will be more at the end of a time, the amount of tax the taxpayer pays will be less. A real estate agent and a financial accountant, amongst us, agreed we should vote for this one.

PROPOSITION 4: on $1 billion for facilities

Unanimously NO.

This is a “Christmas Tree” ornament bill. You can’t really tell where all the money is going, nor what for. Besides that, part of these funds are for new high security prisons “if needed”. According to Arlan Foster, President of AFSCME Council 7 — the 4,000 member union for correctional officers — they cannot safely manage the prisons we currently have. Over-crowding is a problem brought on by poor decisions by the legislature, to warehouse people with alcohol and substance abuse problems, who learn in prison how to become real criminals. The proliferation of prisons, and the move to “privatize” them is yet another scam of this administration. Just say NO!

PROPOSITION 5

Most of us said NO, simply because removing downtown properties in rural areas from the tax base (whether it’s for the purpose of revitalization or something else), places too much burden on the fewer taxpayers in rural areas. Tax abatements to big corporations. have run amok. Give us little guys a break!

PROPOSITION 6

Most of us said YES. This would make tax reporting a bit simpler (something we should encourage), and benefit realtors, farmers and small business owners who use vehicles for business purposes.

PROPOSITION 7

Most of us said NO. This proposition on eminent domain appears to help those who may have their land seized, but the proposition is so ambiguous we cannot really say what it will or won’t do to help landowners. Given that we cannot trust what the state will do with potential land seizures for the Corridor and tollways, we could only conclude this proposition should be defeated. Land values are often a smaller part of the cost concerns for the little guys — it’s the cost of relocation that will harm us — and the disruption in our way of life, we’re concerned about the most.

PROPOSITION 8

2/3rds of us said NO. This probably contains some decent clean up provisions, but has some backward thinking. Such as a provision that prohibits borrowers from rolling unsecured debt into a secured home equity loan. This “protection” of the poor, actually limits one of their best options — to reduce their interest rate paid (say 18%) to say 8% at a secured loan!

PROPOSITION 9

Near Unanimous said YES. To assist totally disabled veterans in keeping their homes.

PROPOSITION 10

Unanimous YES. This is just a clean up amendment to remove reference to the inspector of hides and animals, which no longer exists!

PROPOSITION 11

Unanimous YES. Requiring the legislature to record their votes (and to put them online!) on legislation is about as basic a political reform as we can imagine. Unfortunately, it doesn’t cover all votes, like votes in committees, second readings and amendments. But it’s a good start.

PROPOSITION 12

Unanimous NO. Do you really want to give TxDOT more money, while under the current cloud of corruption? Hell no. Also, read what Sal Costello wrote about this one.

PROPOSITION 13

Near Unanimous NO. Although we sympathize with victims of domestic violence, we stand behind the constitutional right to bail.

PROPOSITION 14

Near unanimous YES. Allowing a judge to finish his or her term if they reach retirement age during their term, serves the taxpayers well.

PROPOSITION 15

Near unanimous NO. Haven’t we all had close friends or family members die from cancer? And we all admire Lance Armstrong. But this is a huge amount of money — $3 billion! Money for research of any disease has not historically been the function of state government, and we don’t think it should be. Also, would this money be better spent on prevention?

PROPOSITION 16

We do not have a position on this at this time and invite our members & friends to send in comments about this proposition.

Bastrop LodgingBastrop Lodging

If you’re coming to the Bastrop Training Conference/Retreat, “The Future is Independent” above are places in Bastrop to stay.

We appreciate all the survey feedback we received for our next conference retreat in Bastrop, Oct. 13-14, “The Future is Independent”. Much of the last conference dealt with issues. This conference is focused on “how to” get things done!

If you have been around for a long time, or just joined our Impeach Perry effort, this event is for you to learn how to build the independent & impeachment movements in your community. This includes supporting or working to defeat candidates in the 2008 election. Remember all Texas House and Congressional seats are up next year. Some State Senate seats are up, as well as US Senate, John Cornyn’s seat. So, it’s not just a presidential election year!

Please note that by popular request, we are including a panel focused on “apolitical” organizing loosely referred to as “local coordination”. This panel is for those of you who are not electorally focused people, who want to work WITH local officials to slow down, mitigate or otherwise hold accountable decisions being made on your behalf regarding the use of resources in your area, whether that be infrastructure (road & bridges), water or the so-called “animal tagging” plans of the state of Texas.

If you are attending, please send a reservation to Marie Day at Marie.Day@shell.com or call her at 361-772-8306. There will be a $15 registration fee. This will cover your food and materials for the entire day on Saturday! The BBQ is going to be great - brisket, sausage and more donated by Arlan Foster, President of AFSCME Council 7. We’ll even have pecan pie! So come early and stay late and get to know your fellow independent minded friends.

The event is being held at the brand new beautiful Bastrop Library conference room on Saturday. This full conference facility comes with kitchen, overhead projector and TV/DVD. The BBQ is at Bastrop State Park — the great piney woods! And Sunday’s strategy session will be at Aqua Water’s Board Room (where we met the last time). You can stay anywhere in Bastrop because it’s all close to where we’re meeting. If you want to stay at the Loblolly Pines Village, rooms are available for $60-65. Call 512-321-2499. The Bastrop Holiday Inn and Comfort Inns are the nicest places to stay in Bastrop. See the list of places to stay below, which includes camp grounds (no more cabins are available). If any of you good Bastrop area folks can offer a free space for someone, please let us know by calling me at the number below.

Below is our conference agenda. If you have something to offer any of the panels, please feel free to offer your services by sending a note to: ljcurtis@indytexans.org.

The Future is Independent!
Bastrop Library, 1100 Church

10 Welcome Coffee, Danish & Donuts

10:30 Who Ya Gonna Call? — Deal Busters! How to use initiative, referendum and recall!

* OD Atwell, Citizens for Responsible Government, Victoria
* Linda Curtis, Independent Texans

11:30 How to Petition: Led by those who worked the HOT Rodeo booth

* Jesse Mills, Corsicana
* Big Bad Bob Wilson, Hewitt
* Jeff Harper, Ft. Worth

12:15 Lunch Break

1:00 Fundraising: this will be a round table discussion to talk about our collective fundraising experiences led by Terri Williams, Texas Motor Cycle Rights Association & Linda Curtis, Independent Texans.

1:45 Local Coordination to Stop the Corridor, Bad Water Deals, NAIS (Animal Tagging)

* Judith McGeary, Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance on NAIS (Animal Tagging)
* John Long, Seguin (on the Corridor)
* Marie Day, Lavaca County (on Water)

3:00 Running a Successful Meeting, Working the Media, Using the Internet

* Margie Raborn, Ron Paul campaign
* Agnes Voges, Blackland Coalition
* Justin Rosales, former Dallas Council
candidate

4:30 Running for Political Office: Do’s and Don’ts, Wills and Won’ts

* Arlan Foster, Liberty County
* Julia Soto Cabrera, Dallas
* Paty Jacob, Bastrop
* Jerry Pikulinski, Arlington

6:00 Adjourn for BBQ

Sunday, Oct. 14, 10-2 Strategy Meeting
Aqua Water Board Room, 415 Old Austin Hwy.

Topics:

I. Statewide Propositions in November — Will we actively work to defeat or pass any of them and which ones and why. Led by Marie Day.

II. What’s our plan for the Presidential Race? A roundtable discussion

III. Discussion on Local Campaigns: Linda Curtis

* How to defeat Rep. Mike Krusee
* How to defeat Rep. Edmund Kuempel
* How to get in on the scramble for Delisi’s seat in Bell County
* What about the race against Sen. Kim Brimer of Ft. Worth?
* What about the race against Sen. Mike Jackson of Galveston?

I hope to see y’all in the piney woods of Bastrop next weekend!

Linda Curtis
Independent Texans
http://IndyTexans.org
email me at: ljcurtis@indytexans.org
512-535-0989
PO Box 14294
Austin, TX 78761

ODE TO THE GOVERNOR

Debonair, Millionaire, Governor GoodHair
seems to be totally unaware
that Texas has spoken,
“Our trust in him is broken.”
His plans for corridors and private toll roads
brought us up to Austin by the busloads!
There will be no animal tagging-
no HPV vaccines which we find abhorring.
The sale of the Texas Lottery
is nothing short of tomfoolery!
Lottery funds are for our children and education
certainly NOT for the Macquarie Corporation!
You vetoed HB1892 … and raped SB792.
You’ve sold us all out! It’s True-It’s True!
Resorting to threats and blackmail?
Go do your worst. You won’t prevail.
Not since we fought off Spain before
have Texans stood so tall, so together, and more.
The future for you holds a dramatic event.
We SEE your breach of trust has fraudulent intent!
So, wear your crown. Go make a speech.
We will investigate the word IMPEACH!

Many have asked how does a petition for impeachment work. Since we do not have the right to recall state officials (only municipal), this is a very good question. The Texas House has the right to pass a proclamation for impeachment with a majority of House members. If and when that happens, the State Senate must hold an impeachment trial. This is the same process that’s used at the federal level.

The impeachment petition on our front page will be sent to Texas House members asking them to heed the call for Rick Perry and his transportation commissioner, Ric Williamson’s impeachments. Please get all your friends, family, co-workers and folks you know in your community to sign online and to print out the petition and take it to those not online. There must be a popular call for impeachment — and we believe our House members, those who really want to represent Texans, will heed the call. — Linda Curtis, Independent Texans

Thanks to you all for your comments and we hope others will keep chiming in on why they’d like see ol’ Rick Perry get on down his toll roads.

I recently met with Presidential candidate and Congressman Dennis Kucinich. We had a one-on-one 90 minute discussion that focused on the growing corruption story in Texas surrounding the Trans-Texas Corridor and freeway-to-tollway schemes of the Perry administration. Kucinich is a longtime fighter, who put his political career on the line at a very young age as the “boy mayor” of Cleveland back in the 1970’s, when the local fat cats wanted to privatize the city’s power company. Just today, Kucinich released this statement I want to share with you. If you like what Dennis has to say, please — before this Saturday, Sept. 8 — cast a “preference” for him on the Texas Democratic Party e-straw poll at their web site at: txdemocrats.org. And, of course, let me know what you think about this. Linda Curtis, Independent Texans

The Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC 35) and the privatization of public assets:

Statement by Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH),
candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States
September 5, 2007

Almost thirty years ago, as mayor of the City of Cleveland, I confronted the money, the power, and the arrogance of private corporate interests seeking to rob our citizens of one of their most valuable public assets: a municipal electric system that provided low-cost power to much of the city, Muny Light. As I observe the political machinations regarding the Trans-Texas Corridor and related attempts to turn publicly financed highways into privately controlled profit centers for giant corporations, I find the similarities chilling.

In Cleveland, despite unprecedented political and financial pressure from the investor-owned electric utility, its banking allies, powerful law firms, and other willing accomplices in the city’s leadership, the public interest prevailed. It was an historic fight, but it had to be fought and won, whatever the price. And the price was high: The banks refused to refinance a paltry $15 million in credit to the city, forcing Cleveland into fiscal default. Our ability to finance major public improvement projects suffered. We reluctantly had to ask voters to dig into their pockets to support a tax increase, and they did. And a year later, I was defeated for reelection by a candidate heavily financed by those same interests who had failed to blackmail and coerce us into submission.

What I see here in Texas is the latest incarnation of that same public-good vs. private- gain struggle, and I want you to know that I’ve never shied away from a fight when the public interest is at stake.

Special interests have controlled government and dictated public policies far too long. The fault certainly lies with the White House, but the responsibility also rests with members of Congress, Democrat and Republican, who have supported those policies, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, which facilitated the outsourcing of millions of American jobs overseas. Now we’re talking about a “NAFTA Superhighway” through Texas and the heartland of the United States – another corporate grab..

What’s happening in Texas with TTC 35 and the efforts of the Governor to turn public highways into private toll roads is a national issue. The same push for privatization is quietly being advanced in two dozen other states. Americans have a right to know what’s going on, and as a Democratic candidate for President, I have no reservations about telling them and supporting them as they fight against the corporate takeover of America. Unlike other candidates, I am not funded by those corporate interests. I owe them no loyalty, and they have no influence over me or my policies.

Schemes like those being hatched in Texas and other states demand the highest levels of public scrutiny and public exposure. I will use every resource at my disposal to ensure that that happens. I don’t hear any other candidate saying that.

Whether you’re a Democrat, an Independent, or a disenchanted Republican, I hope you will support me so we can take on this fight together. And win.

I was there when Rep. Brian McCall (R-Plano) endorsed Rep. Jim Pitts (R-Waxahachie) for Speaker of the Texas House last March. The anti-Craddick revolt, I believe, is part of the seismic shift in Texas politics created by the caveman style politics of the Perry administration — and it’s lawful reaction to it. That’s when 1.3 million Texans voted independent for one of two independent candidates for Governor –

Strayhorn & Kinky. (We won’t let that “split” happen again!) In any case — the Texas electorate is still restless. We think that this situation spells for an “anything can happen” political environment over the next two years before the next legislative session. It could help the Impeach Perry movement — if our legislators listen up. Meanwhile, we need to take care of some business — the removal of Perry allies in next year’s election campaigns. Who do you want to see “get on down” Perry’s toll roads — and don’t forget to tell us how you feel (and why you feel!) about tricky Rick himself. — Linda Curtis, Independent Texans.