Lewisville City Council Member John Gorena thinks America is at war for natural gas— Because he is an idiot. Here is a recent semi-literate comment he made for a Lewisville Leader story:
A big reason why our country is at war is for energy (gas/oil) - to protect our supplier source. Therefore, an emphasis on getting our country off of the dependency of foreign countries for energy should be a priority. Our soldiers are in harm's way for gas/oil. The drilling towers are temporary and the monetary benefits are good for people who lease their gas rights and it contributes to the energy needs of this country. Everyone needs to do their part."
It's something he has said before, at the City Council retreat this past February. I'm lucky I didn't have a drink in my mouth when he said it, or I would have sprayed my camera.
The United States produces the vast majority of its natural gas needs domestically, and imports only a fraction of its usage, mostly from North America. Natural gas is not gasoline, is generally not used for motor fuel, and cannot replace oil. All of this has been explained to him before.
Here is that comment from the Council retreat session on Oil and Gas (Full session video here):
This is a perfect example of why John Gorena just doesn't have the intellect for the job of City Councilman. He latches on to these ignorant ideas from talk radio or wingnut websites, or whatever, and substitutes these bits of idiocy where he should instead be using his brain to process the actual facts of the issue. Gorena was opposed to reasonable gas drilling restrictions, and would have allowed potentially dangerous and property-value-draining gas drilling and production operations to be a lot closer to homes.
Update 5/6/2013 - 9:20 p.m.: Tonight the Lewisville City Council voted unanimously to approve the proposal that Councilman Ferguson was making in this video. In addition, the Council established an Oil and Gas Advisory Board. To his credit, Gorena did not make a stink, or grandstand on this issue tonight.
Lewisville residents are urged to be vigilant about solicitations for financial services, even when they seem to come from clergy. A reader sent us a copy of an email they received this morning purporting to be from Pastor David Rollins of "First United Baptist Church" - a non-existent Lewisville church, urging Lewisville Christians to use a company called "Christian Mortgage" to refinance their mortgages. The full text of the email is listed after this article.
The emailer claims to be a local pastor, and also claims to be on the board of the company, which purportedly only lends to Christians, and therefore has lower rates. (Because Christians are supposedly foreclosed on less) LTJ doesn't normally take spam seriously, but because this particular one used religion and an extremely local angle, we decided to investigate.
Screenshot 1/28/2013 of the firstunitedbaptistchurch.org fake church website
The website for the fake church included in the "pastor's" signature has no phone number or address, but is set up to look like a church website, complete with service times, and fake names of staff members. The site even contains a picture, supposedly of Pastor Rollins, but in actuality, lifted from another website where the picture has a different name associated with it. An email to "Rollins" went unanswered, but did not bounce.
The Christian Mortgage website prompts the user for some basic information about the mortgage refinance sought, then delivers that information to various mortgage lenders. LTJ signed up, (without providing any overly personal information, aside from name and address) and received a fairly quick callback from a company called Broker Match, that then turned around and had Quicken Loans contact us. We asked the representative from Quicken Loans whether they offered Christian loans, but they didn't bite, instead pretending that the connection was breaking up, but offering instead that they have the best rates, and they could try to get us qualified. Two other companies called us this evening about their refinance programs, but neither seemed to be aware, or would admit they knew anything about the Christian Mortgage company.
Blue helmets and white UN vehicles are standard issue for City employees now, as the United Nations has just completed its physical takeover of Lewisville, Texas. The city of 95,290 in Southern Denton County had been a home rule municipality under Texas law, incorporated in 1925, but today it begins a new era under the control of the United Nations.
The takeover began Tuesday morning, when a black helicopter landed in the middle of Church street in front of City Hall. UN officials delivered a resolution to the City Secretary, signed by the UN High Commission on Sustainability, claiming the city as the rightful property of "the Citizens of the World", duly conveyed by implicit action of the City Council in accordance with the insidious terms of Agenda 21.
It is time to correct a glaring error committed by the various right wingers who refer to themselves as members of the “Tea Party” political faction. The real Tea Party members objected to arbitrary taxation by the English Crown, to be collected and paid to said Crown. The current claimants, to my understanding, want to eliminate taxes collected by our own government for programs for our own citizens that they don’t approve of, i.e. Medicare, Medicaid, Aid to Dependent Children, etc. These imposters should not be allowed to assume the identities of true patriots. They give no thought to the good of the less fortunate, just to themselves.
A much more appropriate, descriptive title would be “Norquistians”. It makes much more sense for, after all, their deity is Grover Norquist, he of the threatening, sneering smirk.
There is not one whit of humanity or compassion amongst the whole bellowing herd of Norquistians. No thought of the plights of tens of thousands of Medicaid recipients who would be turned out of nursing homes if the program is defunded. A similar predicament would be visited upon thousands of children in foster care.
Back in December of 2006 - almost five years ago, WhosPlayin ran a story about a racist property owner in Katy, TX who objected to an Islamic group building a community center and mosque on land they purchased next to his. Basically what happened is that this guy had some of his cattle on the land belonging to the Islamic Association, and when the group asked him to remove his cattle, he got it twisted in his head that they were asking him to leave his own land.
In a despicable attempt at retribution for the transgression that this racist guy later admitted he was confused about, he decided to start having pig races on Friday nights right next door to the property. Muslims don't eat pork because their religion deems it to be unclean, but they are not offended by the animal itself.
In addition to being a bad neighbor, this man started a website using the same domain name as the association, except with .net instead of .com. The website disparaged Muslims and equated them with terrorists. Five years later, the website now redirects to a despicable anti-Islam website which I will not link here.
So far, I have not mentioned the racist's name, or provided links to any of the websites in question. This thing is five years old, and I had JUST archived the post to remove it from the blog. But I just saw a piece of pure stupidity from Lewisville Councilman John Gorena that made the old story topical again.
Here's what John Gorena posted on his Facebook on September 12th, five years after the story happened:
U.S. Representative Michael Burgess (R, Lewisville) introduced a bill yesterday (H.R. 852) to allow the sale of War Bonds to finance military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other places.
War bonds, which pay interest, would be a way to show support for troops while also paying for conflicts without having to raise taxes or add to the national debt, said Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas, who introduced the United States War Bonds Act of 2011 on Tuesday.
So, let me take a moment to explain to Michael Burgess what a bond means. A bond is a debt instrument. When you sell a bond, you are borrowing money that you have to pay back with tax dollars. Therefore, selling war bonds or treasury bonds or any other bond DOES add to the national debt, and it does require repayment from taxes. If you need additional tutorial about how your government borrows money, I recommend this short article from the Association of Young Americans.
If you want to earmark some bonds specifically for war, as a marketing tool for Fox News viewers who would rather buy gold at hyper-inflated prices than invest in treasury bonds, bills and notes, then by all means, lets sell the same debt instrument with a different name stamped on it.
But lets be honest with the citizens about what it is. War is expensive, and the price must be paid back by the citizens. The best fiscally responsible policy is to avoid rushing into foolish wars of choice like Iraq. And the best way to keep our children from paying for these wars decades from now is to collect the appropriate amount of tax from those citizens who can most afford it. But hey, that takes courage and sacrifice today. That's too risky for today's something-for-nothing Republican politicians. They'd rather tell you what they think you want to hear than what you need to hear.
“I am disappointed that the Obama Administration has refused to offer Texans the needed disaster declaration and assistance. Tropical Storm Hermine caused eight deaths, widespread flooding leading to more than 100 high water rescues, over 100 residences were destroyed and thousands of citizens were without water and electricity. This storm left behind a disaster – there is no doubt, and it is the responsibility of the federal government to aid the state and counties in clean-up and repairing the damage the storm caused. The fact that the federal government sent $18 million in social security checks to dead people but refuses to help Texas with the damage caused by Tropical Storm Hermine is outrageous.”
(emphasis ours)
Today in a statement released to the press, Burgess' opponent in the November election, Democrat Neil Durrance of Denton slammed Burgess for being one of only 37 Congressmen who voted against the very funding that FEMA uses to provide disaster relief, if the declaration had been made. The Homeland Security Funding Bill (H.R. 2892) passed with almost 92% support.
Durrance said Burgess’ stance is hypocritical because the incumbent Congressman voted against the very aid funding that would help North Texans.
Burgess voted against $2 billion in funding for FEMA disaster relief, $844 million to operate FEMA, $200 million for FEMA’s Emergency Food and Shelter National Board Program, and against $330 million in funding for Emergency Management Performance Grants for state and local government disaster mitigation and preparedness programs.
Congressman Michael Burgess (R, Lewisville) is not stupid; he just hopes his voters are. In an official email blast sent today to constituents, Burgess plays at a classic Republican game: Misrepresent the other side and offer a false choice. Burgess writes to ostensibly ask his constituents to complete a one-question "survey" to see whether they want to extend the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts.
But before giving the link to the "survey", Burgess drops a bunch of statistics from right-wing organizations like the Heritage Foundation, spelling out the doom and gloom scenario if the tax cuts are not extended, citing "average" amounts of tax increase. Averages are not useful when skewed with data from millionaires and billionaires.
The survey, once you click through, allows only two choices:
- I favor allowing the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts to expire.
Burgess, in his zeal to protect his REAL constituents - the doctors and executives who donate to his campaign, conveniently leaves out the third option, which is the option favored by the Democratic majority:
- Extend the Bush tax cuts for the middle class, and let them expire for those earning over $250,000 per year.
Instead, Burgess and the rest of the Republicans are going to hold your tax cuts hostage in order to help the wealthy, so they won't have to bear the burden of a marginal tax rate going from 35% to 39.6% in the top bracket. Republicans like Burgess don't actually care if YOUR tax cuts expire. They're betting they can kill any Democratically led extension of the tax cuts for the middle class, and make it look like Democrats are against extending them.
If Republicans really cared about the middle class, they could pass an extension right now by cooperating with Democrats to do what is right for the country. Republicans enjoy the Tea Party railing on deficits now - something Republicans liked to say "don't matter" when they were in control. But when it comes down to it, and they have the chance to keep the deficit from growing, it takes a back seat to satisfying their true base, the Plutocracy. The Republican plan would double the nation's deficit in just 10 years.
The question for you, voter, is this: Are you stupid enough to believe him? Do you really think he gives a shit about you? If he did, why would he insult your intelligence with such an intellectually dishonest "survey"?
Congressman Joe Barton (R, Ennis), previous winner of the Texas Dim Bulb Award, gets another one for being a complete dip-shit today. Joe Barton doesn’t have the sense that God gave a mule. I’d be astonished if Barton’s IQ surpassed 90. Today, Dopey Joe apologized to poor BP for President Obama’s audacity in asking them to start setting aside money for a $20 Billion fund to pay claims for the Gulf spill damage. Overall, it was a bad day for Joe Barton, who just opens his mouth and spews whatever his two functioning neurons manage to fire up in any given moment. He was condemned by members of his own party, including a shot by Michael Burgess (R, Lewisville). But hey, keep it up Republicans. Show the voters your true colors, and who you truly work for. Joe Barton works for British Petroleum, and any other monied interest who will kick a few bucks into his campaign. NO APOLOGIES TO CRIMINALS, JOE! Your Texas citizenship is revoked. Pack your shit and move to Alabama.
The Rick Perry campaign, apparently frustrated that the media has thus far been unwilling to pick up on their demonstrably false narrative about challenger Bill White's personal investments, tried a stunt today and failed. The Perry campaign called a press conference at the Travis County DEMOCRATIC Party Headquarters, where they attempted to once again share the lie that somehow Bill White profited from Hurricane Rita. (Bill White invested in a company a year AFTER Rita, based on their performance during Rita).
Whatever it was that the Perry campaign was trying to share was drowned out by the crowd of Bill White supporters calling Rick Perry a chicken for so far refusing to debate White. One person even showed up in a chicken suit. This is so absurd, it has to be seen to be believed:
![Open in new window](javascript:CaricaFoto("http://lewisvilletexan.com/xoops/uploads/img4a77b7cfa2b5a.jpg");)
![Open in new window](javascript:CaricaFoto("http://lewisvilletexan.com/xoops/uploads/avatars/cavt4f772363a03f4.jpg");)
![Open in new window](javascript:CaricaFoto("http://lewisvilletexan.com/xoops/uploads/img51075aec01daf.jpg");)
![Open in new window](javascript:CaricaFoto("http://lewisvilletexan.com/xoops/uploads/img50c4fb0890ccf.jpg");)
![Open in new window](javascript:CaricaFoto("http://lewisvilletexan.com/xoops/uploads/photos/250.jpg");)
![Open in new window](javascript:CaricaFoto("http://www.whosplayin.com/xoops/uploads/photos/647.jpg");)
![Open in new window](javascript:CaricaFoto("http://www.whosplayin.com/xoops/uploads/photos/235.jpg");)
![Open in new window](javascript:CaricaFoto("http://www.whosplayin.com/xoops/uploads/img4d6efae69e3b4.png");)
![Open in new window](javascript:CaricaFoto("http://www.whosplayin.com/xoops/uploads/img4d6efecf732a0.jpg");)
![Open in new window](javascript:CaricaFoto("http://www.whosplayin.com/xoops/uploads/img4c60c9292ab5c.jpg");)
![Open in new window](javascript:CaricaFoto("http://www.whosplayin.com/xoops/uploads/img4c0bb92443bfb.jpg");)
![Open in new window](javascript:CaricaFoto("http://www.whosplayin.com/xoops/uploads/img4a77b7cfa2b5a.jpg");)
![Open in new window](javascript:CaricaFoto("http://www.whosplayin.com/xoops/uploads/img4c1ade4610872.jpg");)
![Open in new window](javascript:CaricaFoto("http://www.whosplayin.com/xoops/uploads/img4c0bb924a6a1e.jpg");)
![Open in new window](javascript:CaricaFoto("http://www.whosplayin.com/xoops/uploads/img4c0bb9243cea2.jpg");)
