"Republicans Come Out Swinging At Forum" -- WHOtv.com

[LizF]

They do mention RP and his forum, but only to say this:
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"One candidate, who wanted to attend the event was Ron Paul. However, organizers did not invite Paul, who has spent little time in Iowa and finishes near the bottom of the polls.

Paul found a way to get hundreds of Iowans to notice him after the forum with free food. He held his own event in the next room after the forum ended."

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Link:
http://www.whotv.com/Global/story.asp?S=6733453

[Wyurm]

I am feeling a huge amount of jealousy

[ForLibertyFight]

hahah they envy us

[buffalokid777]

We are gonna make these dirtbags pay...

Everytime they try to censor us.....

It's gonna blow up in their face.......

If you think any pro war sellout can beat hillary...think again...

Ron Paul is the ONLY republican candidate who can beat hillary and her communist agenda.....

[Terribliz]

Yeah, the free food was the only reason they were there. :rolleyes:

[Rocky Mtn Liberty Lover]

Maybe they showed up because they are over-taxed and can't afford their own food.

[Roxi]

People should be emailing, calling and writing this who tv:

the issue is not that RP is finishing at the bottom of the polls -- which is in itself debatable-- the issue is that there are invited candidates who were able to appear at the forum who do not have the fundraising, the polling, the grassroots support, or the TAX RECORD that RP has.

this was a tax forum for iowans but by not inviting the "taxpayers best friend" --http://www.ntu.org/main/press_release.php?PressID=599&org_name=NTU -- The Iowans for tax relief have shown themselves to be a sham.

The decision maker in not inviting RP is Ed Failor. He is an advisor to the McCain campaign.

All of these issues were left out of your article, which only shows that the reporter that wrote this piece and the people who allowed it to get to print have no journalistic integrity.

word of you inability to report news to your readers is disseminating quickly on the internet. Your utter failure will be widely reported.


Here is the link to their contact page: http://www.whotv.com/Global/story.asp?S=283048&nav=menu100_10_8

[sandersondavis]

We are gonna make these dirtbags pay...

Everytime they try to censor us.....

It's gonna blow up in their face.......

If you think any pro war sellout can beat hillary...think again...

Ron Paul is the ONLY republican candidate who can beat hillary and her communist agenda.....

Forget about it! It's not productive to even think about it. Use you time, energy, and talents to get out on the street and civilly and politely spread the word about Ron Paul and his message of freedom.

Want to get even with the doubters? Set a goal to get one hundred bumper stickers in the hands of people that will actually put them on their cars and do that in the next thirty days. Then go out and bust that goal! That will do far more good than any amount of bitchin' and whining.

AND it will arm you with a quiet confidence, for you will know, really know, deep down inside, that Ron Paul can and WILL WIN! Now, go kick some ass.

[LibertyEagle]

I think that's good advice sandersondavis. We need to keep our eyes on the prize. Spreading Ron Paul's message and getting him elected.

[beermotor]

Maybe they showed up because they are over-taxed and can't afford their own food.


hahaha... OWNED.

[mconder]

I sure people came from all over the country for the free food.

[nayjevin]

(attempt at) EXHAUSTIVE APPROACH TO EMAILS/ PHONE CALLS TO AUTHORS/REPORTERS (http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=5095)

[bulloncoins]

They did a hit piece on Ron Paul this morning on the front page of the Houston Chronicle.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4935311.html


Local GOP on the Hill push own spending wish lists
Paul, Culberson defend earmarks for area projects


By BENNETT ROTH
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau

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SELECT CONGRESSIONAL EARMARKS
Rep. Ron Paul

Rep. John Culberson

Rep. Nick Lampson

Rep. Michael McCaul

Rep. Gene Green

Rep. Kevin Brady

Rep. Al Green

Rep. Ted Poe
WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Lake Jackson, the Libertarian-leaning contender for the Republican presidential nomination, long has waged war on the widespread federal spending he views as outside constitutional boundaries.

But the congressman, who often votes against spending bills, including funds for the Iraq war, leads the Houston-area delegation in the number of earmarks, or special funding requests, that he is seeking for his district. He is trying to nab public money for 65 projects, such as marketing wild shrimp and renovating the old movie theater in Edna that closed in 1977 — neither of which is envisioned in the Constitution as an essential government function.

Paul's zeal for government spending is hardly unique. Despite pledges by leaders of both parties to crack down on the practice of slipping home-state projects into larger funding legislation, Houston-area lawmakers have submitted wish lists for several hundred earmarks, including money for a suburban arts museum, zoo programs, highway landscaping, and medical and transportation projects.

What's different this year is that, in response to mounting criticism of earmarks, the House approved several reforms, including forcing appropriators to list all earmarks and their sponsors before lawmakers vote on spending bills. Also, the House Democratic leadership has pledged to cut by half the number of earmarks, which exceeded 15,000 in 2005.

Of the staffs for the Houston area's nine House members, only the office of Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, would not reveal its earmark-request list, which had to be submitted earlier this year to the Appropriations Committee.

As Republicans continue to portray Democrats as the "tax and spend" party, U.S. Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston, who has the slogan "protecting our pocketbooks and our quality of life" at the top of his congressional Web site, is asking for more than $1 billion in earmarks for next fiscal year — compared with about $400 million from Paul.

A member of the Appropriations Committee, which parcels out earmarks, Culberson is seeking funds for a variety of programs, including equipment for institutions in the Texas Medical Center, money for landscaping on Houston freeways and grants for a Civil War battlefield-preservation program.

And, as Democrats criticize the Bush administration for creating a federal budget deficit after President Clinton posted a surplus, Rep. Gene Green, D-Houston, has asked for 38 projects worth a total of about $287 million, including a half-million dollars for the Houston Zoo and $125 million for Metro's light rail.

Green also is seeking $3 million for the Battleship Texas restoration project, which previously has received funds and was singled out several years ago as an unnecessary federal expenditure by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., another GOP presidential contender.


Wants money returned
Paul defended his support of earmarks, which also include numerous water and highway projects in his Gulf Coast district, saying that, although he does not like the current budget process, he wants money returned to his district as funding is doled out nationwide.

"I don't think they should take our money in the first place," he said. "But if they take it, I think we should ask for it back."

The way it works in Paul's office is that local groups and officials from his district make pitches to him for federal funding. The congressman passes along those recommendations to the Appropriations Committee as earmark requests. Paul said he tries to treat everyone equally and rejects few requests. He said it would be unfair "for me to close the door and say this is a bunch of junk."

But in the end, Paul said, he would likely vote against the spending bills even if they included earmarks he sought.

This month in his weekly column, Paul expressed his philosophy about his opposition to proposed federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.

"Our founding fathers devised a system of governance that limited federal activity very narrowly," he wrote. "When Washington does something it does so at the direct expense of taxpayers."

Paul's support of at least one earmark, the renovation of Edna Theater, was greeted skeptically by a part-owner of the theater, Edna Mayor Joe Hermes. He noted that the congressman often voted against spending bills even when they contained projects for his district.

"Which doesn't make real good sense," Hermes said. The owners have been hoping to convert the shuttered theater, which opened in 1949, into a place the chamber of commerce could use.

"I hope he will not keep to the same pattern as he has in the past and make an effort to see that it actually happens," Hermes said of Paul.


Should agencies decide?
Culberson, who represents much of west Houston and west Harris County, said earmarks allow members of Congress, rather than federal agencies, to dictate where some of those federal dollars are sent.

Without earmarks, Culberson said, "you've simply transferred the spending decision from an elected representative to an unelected, unaccountable federal bureaucrat who will spend every dime without any input, visibility or accountability."

But Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a fiscal watchdog group, said federal agencies are more likely than House members to determine the most meritorious projects across the nation. He said earmarks often are rewarded to projects championed by powerful members of Congress or used to help politically vulnerable members.

Last week, the House approved a spending measure covering the Interior Department. The bill included a substantial reduction in earmarks, to 321 from about 1,000 in the 2005 budget, according to an analysis by Taxpayers for Common Sense.

Regardless, the new Democratic House leadership flexed its political muscle, giving 60 percent of the legislation's earmarks to Democratic lawmakers, including U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, a member of the Appropriations Committee. Edwards received $100,000 for the preservation of the Granbury Historic Opera House, half a million dollars for the water storage tank in Grandview, and another $500,000 for a wastewater improvement system in Hillsboro.

U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands, who sits on the influential Ways and Means Committee, secured a $500,000 earmark for land acquisition in Big Thicket National Preserve.

Two Texas Democrats who won seats previously held by Republicans, and so are considered vulnerable in the next election, also received earmarks. U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson, D-Stafford, who won the seat previously held by former GOP Majority Leader Tom DeLay, received a half-million dollars for a wastewater project in Richmond, and Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, D-San Antonio, secured $166,666 for the San Antonio water system.

Green, who represents much of east and north Harris County, said he was disappointed he did not get water grants he was seeking for his district, but that he understood the political reasoning used in doling out earmarks.

He said that, when the GOP was in control, they "helped their marginal members. We'll take care of ours."

Some conservatives, such as Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., have refused to request earmarks and regularly challenge the projects as unnecessary during House debate on spending bills. Last week, for example, Flake objected to a $231,000 earmark in the financial services spending bill that had been secured by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., for the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association, a think tank.


'Still out of control'
"Earmarking was way out of control. It is still out of control," Flake said.

Some lawmakers, including Culberson and Brady, have posted earmarks requests on their government Web sites.

Brady is seeking 15 earmarks, including $1.15 million for the Texas Institute of Geonomic Medicine in College Station, which the congressman said would create 5,000 research jobs in Texas.

Rep. Ted Poe, R-Humble, has proposed 21 earmarks, including more than a half-million dollars for construction of a fine arts museum in Spring. Rep. Mike McCaul, R-Austin, has asked for funding for 38 local projects, including $750,000 for a ladder truck for the Prairie View Volunteer Fire Department.

Rep. Al Green, D-Houston, has proposed 31 earmarks, including $3.5 million for the Bayland Park Community Aquatic Center. Lampson is asking for 45 earmarks for local programs, such as a $2 million expansion of the Sugar Land airport and $1 million for Texas Chiropractic College's clinical training program.

Chronicle reporter Michelle Mittelstadt contributed to this report.

bennett.roth@chron.com

[nayjevin]

They did a hit piece on Ron Paul this morning on the front page of the Houston Chronicle.

My aunt in Houston sent me this article. Here was my response to her:


I suppose you already know that this 'earmark' practice is widespread -- but also that Ron Paul includes these earmarks as Insurance. Then he votes against the bill. If it passes anyway, at least some spending comes back to his constituents (who pay into the funding congress is appropriating). It's his way of 'balancing' an unconstitutional appropriation by bringing back some of the tax revenue used to fund it, to the people he is elected to represent.

I think it's the best he can do in a corrupt system.

[bulloncoins]

My aunt in Houston sent me this article. Here was my response to her:

Please do not take offense, but that sounds like what you would expect any candidate to say in the same situation. Earmarks have become such a dirty term for those who have fought against pork for so long now to little avail.

I am sure they had to dig hard for an angle to hurt him today considering his showing in Iowa, of which there was no mention at all.

I think there has to be a better way to attack this article. We just need to figure out what that is.

Travis

[nayjevin]

np I'd welcome a better way! I wouldn't post it if I couldn't learn from it.