Progressive Wishes For The New Year

My friend and fellow Texas progressive, David Van Os, has written an interesting new post on his blog called Notes From A Texas Patriot. He called it his New Year Wish List. I thought it was excellent, so I am reposting it here (with his blessing):

Ten days into the year 2013 (and 19 days into a new era if the ancient Mayans were correct), and here is my wish list. What’s yours?

GREED: That greed be universally denounced and treated as a vice not a virtue, and taught as such in our schools including our schools of business, economics, and law.

WORKER RIGHTS: That the rights to worker self-organization, concerted activity for mutual aid and protection, and collective bargaining be recognized as universal human and civil rights, and taught as such in our schools in core academic subjects.

BILL OF RIGHTS: That the wars against the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th, 9th, 10th, and 14th Amendments masquerading under the so-called “war on drugs” and “war on terror” come to a swift end; with all anti-Bill of Rights laws such as the Patriot Act and the detention sections of the National Defense Authorization Act repealed, all laws against private possession and use of natural plants that grow out of the ground repealed, all persons imprisoned under all such laws released, and all criminal convictions and liabilities under such laws dissolved and expunged.

BILL OF RIGHTS: That in all other respects the Bill of Rights be restored in all aspects of our society, and taught as a core academic subject from the earliest years of schooling.

RULE OF LAW: That George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, and all other applicable members of their administration, be criminally prosecuted for their crimes against humanity, the United States Constitution, United States laws, State laws, and international laws and treaties.

GET THE HOGS OUT OF THE TROUGH: That public roads belong exclusively to the public and private interests not be allowed to profit off their use by the public.

PRIVATE PROPERTY & HOGS OUT OF THE TROUGH: That private property never be forcibly taken from the owner by eminent domain for use by private for-profit interests.

RIGHT TO MARRIAGE: That the right to civil marriage be recognized as a universal human and civil right.

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT: That capital punishment be abolished due to the inherent imperfection of human judgment and the inherent cruelty of state-sponsored killing; with exceptions for willful genocide and willful mass murder based on direct proof from multiple sources.

FAIR TAXATION: That people with lower incomes never be taxed at higher rates than people with higher incomes.

CORPORATE PERSONHOOD: That the judicial error falsely elevating corporations to the status of persons under the 14th Amendment be reversed and/or corrected.

STEWARDS OF THE EARTH: That it be universally recognized that we are stewards of the natural earth, that we must treat it with care and respect, and that such be taught on an equal priority with all other academic courses from the earliest years of schooling.

THE PEOPLE UNITED: That grassroots Democrats and grassroots Republicans realize they usually have more in common with each other than the power elites, who seek to divide and conquer, want them to realize.

THE POWER OF BANKERS: That the power to control the nation’s money supply and the power to dictate interest rates be taken away from the organization of private banks known as the Federal Reserve Board.

MONOPOLIES: That the vigorous enforcement of antitrust laws be restored. As it is said in Article 1, Section 27 of the Texas Constitution: “monopolies are contrary to the genius of a free government, and shall never be allowed”

REGULATING FIREARMS: That Article 1, Section 23 of the Texas Constitution be a model for the authority of government to enact reasonable regulation of the wearing and use of firearms: “RIGHT TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS: Every citizen shall have the right to keep and bear arms for the lawful defense of himself or the State; but the Legislature shall have the power, by law, to regulate the wearing of arms, with a view to prevent crime.”

COUNTING VOTES: That the counting of votes in a democracy never be contracted out to private companies, that all voting systems include tangible paper ballots that can be counted manually and visually, that all counting be done in the presence of observers for all interested parties, and that the desire of media organizations for speedy news stories never be given priority over the accurate counting of every vote.

THE FALSE CULT OF THE MARKET: That the false cult of “free market” economics collapse into the dustbin of history where it belongs.

Respectfully,

David Van Os

Thank You Rachel & David Van Os For Your Service To Your Party And Your State

I wasn't planning on posting anything tonight because I'm pretty beat after spending seven hours in the airport and taking two plane rides home. But I read something on another blog that I thought was uncalled for -- a blog I normally respect and regularly read. That blogger felt the need to take a couple of shots at David and Rachel Van Os. It wasn't enough that the blogger's own candidate beat Rachel for the party chairmanship, but that blogger felt the need to rub it in.

The statements that offended me were that David felt he was the only progressive in Texas, and that he had his wife Rachel run for party chair so he could make a speech to the convention. Neither of those statements are true. David spoke to nominate Rachel for the party chair position because the person who was supposed to nominate her was unable to attend. That person was Hank Gilbert (another Democrat that I highly respect).

And David knows that there are a lot of good progressives in the state party, and he reaches out to them on a regular basis -- not for his own self-gratification, but for the good of the party and the state. I regularly repost many of his intelligent and well written posts here on this blog. And having met and talked with David several times, I have to say that he respects other Democrats and never gives the impression that he thinks he is better or more special than anyone else.

I met Rachel for the first time at this convention, and I was impressed. I found her to not only be very nice, but also a progressive who is passionate about the future of her party and state. She and David believe the party needs to change and become a more dynamic party that offers real choices. I totally agree, and I have said that many times on this blog (both before Rachel ran for party chair and after).

In summation, let me say that I consider Rachel and David Van Os to be friends and good progressives. The Texas Democratic Party is better because they are in it.

Van Os Speaks Out On "Occupy Wall Street"

Noted Texas progressive and activist David Van Os has spoken out now about the Occupy Wall Street movement, and as usual, what he has to say is well worth reading. Here is what he has to say:

The young people who started and grew the Occupy Wall Street movement have given their country and the world an incredible gift. We should all thank them a million, billion, trillion times. I’ve participated in Occupy Austin several times at the Austin City Hall Plaza where the Austin branch of Occupy Wall Street has its nerve center. It is inspiring to experience people of all backgrounds coming together through their natural human rights to speak freely and assemble in public places because they hold common grievances against an unresponsive political-economic system and have decided in common that enough is enough. It is especially inspiring to experience the horizontal decision-making processes of the movement, showcasing full participatory democracy without ego-tripping leaders or control hierarchies.

The right to revolutionary change is deeply rooted in the American psyche. For example, the Bill of Rights of the Texas Constitution (Article 1, Sec. 2, TEXAS CONSTITUTION) states that “all political power is inherent in the people”, and that the people have “at all times the inalienable right to alter, reform or abolish their government in such manner as they may think expedient.” This inalienable right is subject only to “the preservation of a republican form of government”, i.e., self-government by the people. Various other state constitutions contain similar confirmations of the inherent sovereignty of the people.

Respectfully, I submit that the articulated mission statements, demands, and goals of the movement need to call for change of a more revolutionary nature. The movement should demand not reform of the established order, but its downfall. I submit the demands should deliver a message that the entire oligarchy controlling the unresponsive political-economic system has to be peacefully removed and replaced to give the people a fresh new start. Listed below are some demands that I suggest. (My endnotes are simply commentaries. They are not part of the demands themselves. A mass movement’s demands must be basic and plain. The final details evolve in the people’s ongoing self-government of the movement in response to the fluidity of situations.)

1. That every member of the U.S. Congress resign and new elections be held in every state and district, with open access to the ballot and equal access to free airtime on broadcast media.[1]
2. That every director and officer of every Wall Street bank permanently resign.
3. That every Wall Street bank’s charter to do business be revoked.
4. That the banks be broken up in order to get new charters.
5. That the new charters place strict caps on executive compensation.
6. That every corporate charter be amended to prohibit corporate contributions to political parties and candidates.[2]
7. That the old usury laws be restored: absolutely no interest greater than 10% per annum can ever be charged on any transaction.
8. That the Federal Reserve Board be abolished and no individual private bank or group of private banks ever again be given a monopoly over the issuance and control of the nation’s currency.
9. That the president and vice president resign and the replacement elections take place through a speedy election process that reduces the influence of money. [3]

In other words: Replace the government, Break up Wall Street, Disarm the bankers, End the power of money in politics, End corporate contributions, and End the Fed.

A mass movement’s demands must be continuously repeated and the mass occupation and peaceful street action and guerilla theater must continue, grow, and escalate until the demands are met. The established order will not fall overnight. But if we stay true to ourselves and resolve ourselves to fight till hell freezes over and then on the ice, it will fall.

Power to the people.
Revolution now.
OCCUPY AMERICA.

Respectfully,

David Van Os
Texas Patriot

[1] Here is an example of how the election process could be opened up. Candidates run in open primaries so that the political parties would not control ballot access. No monetary filing fees. Each candidate who can present 250 signatures of support to run for a House district or 1,000 signatures to run statewide for a Senate seat gets on the ballot. Each candidate on the ballot gets an equal amount of free airtime on every FCC-licensed broadcast carrier that broadcasts in the election district. No single change would diminish the influence of money more than free equal access to free airtime. Current members of Congress would be able to run for the new Congress so that the voters would have the opportunity to elect them again if the voters choose to do so.

[2]This is a simpler way to overturn Citizens United than amending the U.S. Constitution. Every state has laws governing how corporations get chartered and what the requirements are for getting chartered. It is a matter of state law that the Supreme Court can’t touch. This change is simple, but would require legislation in every state. But amending the Constitution would also require demanding it in at least ¾ of the states, and passing simple-majority legislation is procedurally easier in every state than passing a resolution to amend the U.S. Constitution. Nationwide state-focused action would focus and grow the Occupy movement even more. From the occupation of Wall Street, to the occupation of America.

[3]For example, with each political party selecting its nominee either through all primaries being held on the same day in the states where the party has ballot status, or through a national convention; with each candidate in the nominations races given an equal amount of free broadcast media airtime on FCC-licensed carriers in each state; and with each general election nominee of each party given an equal amount of free broadcast media airtime on FCC-licensed carriers in each state where the party has ballot standing.

A Bit Of Snark From David Van Os

The great Texas progressive, David Van Os (pictured above), has unleashed a bit of snark on Big Oil. As usual, I reprint his words here:

Poor Exxon-Mobil.

It is forced against its will to raise gasoline prices to nearly $4 per gallon. It has no choice. It has to raise the price to consumers in order to cover its costs.

Oops, there’s a slight flaw in that explanation. Exxon-Mobil made 10.7 billion dollars profit in the first quarter of 2011.

Wait; there is a better explanation. Exxon-Mobil didn’t raise the price of gasoline. The price raised itself!

Some outside force seems to have taken over the necessary computer keyboards, entered the computer programs, and inserted higher prices.

It must be the work of the awesomely powerful, invisible, mysterious force known as The Market. Though none can see it, The Market is a universal force, all around us, inside us and outside us, ever present, ever flowing, always beneficent if not interfered with.

An elite order of noble servants of the people known as the CEO Knights preserves a closely guarded secret knowledge, handed down from master to apprentice over many generations, which teaches how to keep The Market flowing freely, because if permitted to flow freely it will always protect the weak and helpless and preserve justice and democracy in our world.

This must be one of the occasions when the evil cave dwellers known as Liberals have interfered with the free flow of The Market and thus provoked it into irrational anger, by which it raised the price of gasoline. But we know we can count on the noble CEO Knights to continue to protect us through their continual sacrifices. As an example of their sacrifices, the leading masters of the CEO Knights are traumatizing themselves by accepting ever more millions of dollars in average annual compensation.

We owe them our greatest appreciation for agreeing to the fearsome responsibility to accept and guard our resources in their personal accounts. Now, we all need to transfer all the rest of our money and assets to the great and noble order of the CEO Knights in order to enable them to free The Market and thus save us from these high gasoline prices and other ravages caused by interference with The Market’s freedom.

David Van Os

Van Os On "The Divine Right Of Greed"

The great Texas progressive, David Van Os, has written another missive which, as usual, is deserving of a wide readership. Toward that end, I reprint it here:

Most of the income of the super-rich is in capital gains such as stock transactions. Capital gains are taxed at a 15% rate, while most wages and salaries are taxed at rates of at least 30%.

Does it make you feel good to know that while you struggle to pay your taxes the super-rich make out like bandits in paying only half of your tax rate or less? Does it make you feel good to know that most of them don’t even pay that minimal rate, but instead spend large sums on accountants and lawyers to find all the loopholes that you can’t afford to pay $300-per-hour accountants and lawyers to find for you? Does it make you feel good to know that those who can afford the most pay the least and those who can afford the least pay the most?

Would it make you feel even better to know that, as reported by Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz (“Of the 1%, by the 1%, and for the 1%”, Vanity Fair, May 2011), the wealthiest 1% of Americans now rake in 28% of the income and own 40% of the wealth and property?

America is not broke. There are enormous amounts of money and resources in our society. But the super-rich are hoarding their fortunes, and government tax laws written by the 1% for the 1% have institutionalized a divine right of greed.

Bank of America was gifted with 45 billion dollars in taxpayer funded bailout money in 2009. Did Bank of America learn any lessons? You be the judge. Bank of America paid no taxes for tax year 2009 because it reported a net loss on its tax return. In 2010 its CEO received compensation worth 10.1 million dollars, including bonuses. Does a corporation that has that kind of money available to pay to one employee sound like a company that is strapped for cash?

Medieval monks taught that greed is a deadly sin. For 30 years, since the false saint Ronald preached the false doctrine that greed is a glorious virtue, the America of checks and balances that our American founders envisioned has been sinking under the weight of greed.

I don’t buy the false libertarian crap that idealizes greed as a high manifestation of American freedom. Freedom to avoid sharing responsibility for the common good is not an American ideal. Among the very purposes of the founding of the government of the United States of America, as set forth in the Preamble to the Constitution, are to form a more perfect Union and to promote the general Welfare. “Form a more perfect Union” means uniting for the common good. “Promote the general Welfare” means we are all in this together.

Stiglitz writes similarly in the Vanity Fair article, “Of all the costs imposed on our society by the top 1 percent, perhaps the greatest is this: the erosion of our sense of identity, in which fair play, equality of opportunity, and a sense of community are so important.”

Greed may be a vice that we cannot hope to eradicate from the human condition. However, that does not mean that as a society we are helpless before the ravaging effects of greed. Just as through our governments we seek to enact and enforce just laws to protect our society from violence, we also have the power and the right to enact and enforce just laws to hold greed in check.

At the top of the political tower, the corporate-political complex of today exists primarily to protect the false divine right of greed. Most of the members of the U.S. Congress are part of the 1% and they do whatever it takes to protect the power, wealth, greed, and hoarding of the 1%, while throwing enough bones to the 99% to keep us fooled and pacified. If you aren’t mad as hell about it, you ought to be.

David Van Os
Texas Patriot

Fight ‘em till hell freezes over, then fight ‘em on the ice, then win.

Van Os Says It's Time To Fight

The great progressive Texan, David Van Os, has spoken out on the political chicanery in Wisconsin. Since I agree with every word he has written, I have reposted his words here. Enjoy.

As I type this on my keyboard my fingers are almost numb with anger. Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin and his Republican state senators, acting without a quorum, have just enacted laws abolishing public worker collective bargaining. Their action exemplifies the Right-Wing mentality that Ronald Reagan popularized in American political life 30 years ago, the mentality of raw power for the sake of power, the mentality that asserts “we will do whatever we want whenever we want however we want and we will get away with it because we can”. The Wisconsin anti-worker legislation has nothing to do with budgets or money. It is all about power and disempowerment.

It is all about the desire of every anti-labor corporate CEO to stamp out unionization simply because a worker who has a union is a human being not a serf, and the anti-labor corporate CEOs want serfs not human beings in their workplaces. Walker and his Republican buddies in the Wisconsin legislature are not public servants; they are mere employees of the corporate CEOs whose bidding they serve. They are the lowest form of life imaginable, vile parodies of humanity whose greatest joy is in trampling out human freedom and the human spirit, whose evil hidden purpose in public life is to destroy the democracy dream for which our noble forebears audaciously declared independence from the mightiest empire in the 18th century world, and which patriots of every generation since have sacrificed all they had to nurture and preserve.

I do not know about you but I am so sick and tired, so exhausted to the depths of my soul over the lies and crimes and power-lust of the Right-Wing traitors to the American democracy dream, the frauds and power-grabbing and hypocrisy that we have been enduring and suffering for the last 30 years, that my soul cannot take, WILL NOT TAKE it any more.

Ever since Reagan busted PATCO in 1981 with his ruthless action of firing the striking air traffic controllers and barring them from re-employment for life, and the AFL-CIO responded by shrinking from a confrontation with Saint Ronald, organized labor has been on a long steady decline and corporate power has been on a long steady rise. As a result, working class living standards are in full- scale deterioration, economic injustice and inequality are rampant and rising, the ultra-wealthy are getting wealthier, and democracy is losing its power to check and balance the power of greed.

There is no doubt in my mind that millions of American citizens are just as soul-tired of the 30-year long Right-Wing power grab as I am. I hope each of you who is reading these words of mine is as fed up with it as I am. It has to end and it is time to bring it to an end.

There are inspiring signs that in this new PATCO moment organized labor will not repeat the PATCO mistake, and this time is rising to the challenge and will continue to rise to the challenge. There are inspiring indications that large segments of the American community of commonality are joining hands with labor in opposition, protest, and resistance. Word tonight is that at least part of the Wisconsin AFL-CIO and its affiliated unions have called a general strike. Word tonight is that the Wisconsin statehouse is full of protestors awaiting Thursday morning’s confrontation. Word tonight is that the largest rally in the history of Indiana is about to erupt at the Indiana statehouse. Word is that people are rising and rallying all over America in growing and spreading revolt. Yes, revolt is the correct word. This is much bigger than any political party, it has already dwarfed the phony-populist tea party, and it has barely started. Long overdue revolution is coming in America. The people are rising. It is joyous. Join it. Make a sign and hit the streets. Fight the Right-Wing power grabbers. Fight ‘em till hell freezes over. Then fight ‘em on the ice. We shall overcome.

David Van Os

A New Missive From David Van Os

One of Texas' leading progressives, David Van Os, has penned a new missive.   I liked it a lot and repost it here for everyone to read:


The 2010 election turned on the failure of the Democratically controlled White House, Senate, and House of Representatives collectively to do anything big, bold, visionary, or even just different for working class Americans. When a political party claims to stand for the people, but in fact uses the power of government and legislation to bail out the Wall Street robber barons from the disastrous fruits of their own misdeeds, while imposing no serious accountability or consequences; while at the same time the taxpayers who provided the bailout money for the Wall Street royalty get to eat the crumbs and pay 30% interest for the privilege, people can and do see through the hypocrisy, and can and do use their political behavior to punish the party and politicians who had the majority power to fight for the people but conspired with the banker oligarchy instead. When a political party claims to be delivering universal health care but in fact bequeaths to the greedy insurance corporations a huge bailout and unprecedented profit-seeking monopoly power, people can and do see through the spin, and can and do use their political choices to reject the lie and reject the specter of corporate monopoly control over their very freedom to purchase or not purchase a corporate retail product. For some the political choice was to vote for the opposition party and for others the political choice was to abstain from casting a vote at all, but the motivation and effect were the same.

Operationally, the hustlers who hijacked the old Democratic Party rely on tactics devoid of substance and wonder why voters don’t seem to resonate with them. No matter how brilliant their tactics may be in terms of political technology and technique, if a political party is not delivering for the people, then the voters aren’t going to deliver election victories to that party.

The more we grassroots Democrats stay in denial and insist on defending politicians who betrayed our reasons for putting them in office, the lower our party will fall. The more we let the politicians we supported continue to simper and whine about how a party that won the White House with the biggest electoral margin in the last 6 elections and simultaneously won super-majorities in both chambers of Congress – giving it one of the most powerful political majorities in the national government in many decades – just couldn’t get anything done because of those terrible old mean and nasty Republicans, the further we will fall. The more we tell ourselves it is just a matter of better tactics and technologies for getting votes out for our candidates without delivering real, live actions and leadership that motivate the voters to want to vote for our candidates, the further we will devolve into hollow shells of form without substance.

Make no mistake, the GOP will fail too. Boehner and McConnell will no more deliver on the promises to their newfound base than Obama has done for his. But this inevitability provides no cause for celebration. If Democratic leaders, politicians, and strategists continue to think the people are stupid and don’t see through phony spin; if Democratic leaders, politicians, and strategists continue to think the party’s decline is a mere matter of tactics; if Democratic leaders, politicians, and strategists continue to appease and accommodate the greedy banker and corporate oligarchies, the ravenous military-industrial complex, the false Cult of the Market, and the looming totalitarian internal security police state; if they fail to wake up and rediscover their old historical role of standing and fighting for the rights and liberties of working people, family farmers, civil servants, shop-holders and small businesses; then the people will not turn to the ancient and historically noble Democratic party at the inevitable next pendulum swing, but instead will turn elsewhere to fill the vacuum. Our greatest concern should be the nature of what may fill a vacuum left open by failure of the Democratic Party to reclaim its roots. It would be supreme folly to presume that the history of the Weimar Republic cannot repeat itself.

David Van Os, Texas Patriot
Fight ‘em till hell freezes over, then fight ‘em on the ice.

David Van Os On "Mosque Saga"

I have posted before about how I think the right-wing rage on the muslim community center being built a few blocks from where the twin towers once stood is nothing more than an issue of religious freedom. And religious freedom, like other freedoms, is not something you can have just a little bit of -- you either have it or you don't.

The fact is that most right-wingers, while they proclaim their love for the Constitution and for religious freedom, do not really love either. There idea of political freedom is to demonize anyone who disagrees with them, and for religious freedom is to have the "freedom" to force there own religion on everyone else.

You cannot have religious freedom where you can change or censor whatever "offends" you. That's not freedom. True religious freedom gives ALL religions equal rights, and that includes the right of muslims to build a community center anywhere the law would allow another religion (like christianity) to build one -- regardless of who is offended.

Yesterday, I received the following missive from the great Texas progressive, David Van Os. I thought it was good enough to pass it on to my readers (and I agree with every word of it). Here is what Mr. Van Os had to say:

The feaux-news New York City mosque saga is a mountain out of a molehill, but it is also very frightening to see once again how vicious, dishonest, and tyrannical the phony journalistic and political forces of darkness are in modern America, and how weak, waffly, and whimpering the institutional Democrats are. Instead of standing up for the Constitution with conviction, passion, and righteous anger at the evil distortions, the Beltway Dems run in terror once again. (Big surprise.) The very simple fact of the matter is that under the Constitution which the right-wing terrorists claim to love but actually hate, law-abiding people have the perfect right to erect a structure for their religious group on their private property. Those who are making an issue out of it do NOT love our Constitution and those like Harry Reid who are kow-towing to the right wing terrorists should be ashamed of themselves. Respectfully, David Van Os

David Van Os On Texas Democratic Chaimanship

The other day I wrote a post on the current Texas Democratic Party chairman Boyd Richie (pictured above). The point of my post was that Richie has been utterly ineffective as chairman and the state party needs a new chairman. The Democratic Party doesn't hold a single statewide post in the state of Texas -- that's 0 for 29 if you're keeping score. And yet I still hear people talking about what a good chairman Richie has been. Frankly, I'm at a loss to understand their thinking on this.

Fortunately, the state party will again vote for a chairman at it's convention over the next two days. The good news is that there is a candidate running against Richie. He is Michael Barnes. Is he the answer for Texas Democrats? I don't know. What I do know is that he couldn't be any worse than the current chairman. I plan to vote for Barnes, and I urge other delegates to the state convention to do the same.

I just learned today that one of the states leading progressive Democrats, David Van Os, agrees with me on this matter. Here is what Mr. Van Os has to say:

Many of you reading this message will be delegates to the Texas Democratic Party State Convention that opens tomorrow in Corpus Christi. You will have the opportunity to make a badly needed change in the election for state party chairman that will take place on Saturday. I will be eagerly casting my delegate vote for Michael Barnes for state party chairman and respectfully urge you to do the same. Michael met with me recently during a visit he made to San Antonio. I liked what I learned about him. Michael knows that Republican control of all 29 of the statewide elective offices in Texas state government, as it has existed since 1998, is intolerably detrimental to the economic conditions, health, education, and welfare of the vast majority of Texans. He knows that incumbent party chairman Boyd Richie refuses to acknowledge any accountability for the party's failure to win statewide on his watch, but to the contrary, is full of excuses. Michael knows that if something isn't working it needs to be changed. Michael has vision and a winner's attitude. He knows that the people of Texas need relief from Republican Corporate rule and "wait until next time" is not a satisfactory response from the Texas Democratic Party leadership. Michael knows that unelected mercenary consultants are making the strategic decisions behind the scenes and the skills and insights of grassroots Democrats are ignored. Michael knows that to be true to its professed values the Texas Democratic Party has to be governed democratically from the bottom up. He knows that going 0 for 29 in the statewide offices is failure, not success. Michael knows that Texas Democrats have to stop rewarding failure with re-election of the same officers and more contracts for the same consultants. Please let me share some background history and facts with you that you may find relevant. Twelve years ago in 1998, the Texas Corporate Republican Party came out of that year's general election holding all 29 statewide offices in the Executive and Judicial branches of State government. (The executive branch offices are Governor, Attorney General, Comptroller, Land Commissioner, Agriculture Commissioner, and the three Railroad Commissioners; the judicial branch offices are the nine Justices on the Texas Supreme Court and the nine Judges on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals) As the Democratic Party's candidate against incumbent Republican corporate-loving Texas Supreme Court Justice Greg Abbott that year, I experienced the 1998 wipeout very personally. A few days after the election, I predicted on my website that with Republicans now owning 29 of 29 statewide offices the people of Texas would be subject to the iron grip of corporate power to a worse degree than at any previous time in the state's history. Reviewing the history of the past 12 years, was I wrong or right? Have millions of Texans lost ground compared to 1998, or have they not? For the last 12 years I have continually believed and advocated that the first priority of the Texas Democratic Party should be to win back the statewide offices with hard-driving populist campaigns showing, and meaning it, the will to fight back on behalf of the people of Texas against the domination of our state by undemocratic aristocracies of the rich and powerful. In my opinion, by defaulting on the statewide offices the Texas Democratic Party defaults on its historical mission to give the people an equal voice with the powerful. In contrast, the leaders (actually, the unelected consultants like Matt Angle of the Texas Democratic Trust who are the true strategic decision makers) of the Texas Democratic Party have primarily concentrated on trying to win seats in the Texas House of Representatives each election. They usually "target" about 10 to 15 Texas house districts, apply cleverly crafted lip service to the statewide races and the other 100 or so contested legislative races, and then proclaim victory if they win a handful of their "targeted" house districts while staying 0 for 29 in the elections for the far more powerful, more widely impacting, statewide offices. With all due respect to the members of the Texas House, and there are certainly many members whom I greatly respect, winning a majority solely in one of the two chambers of the legislative branch of government, while continuing to forfeit the executive and judicial branches, which together possess far greater power to improve the lives of Texas' people and protect the people's Constitutional rights,does not constitute turning Texas blue. Over the next two and one-half days, incumbent party chairman Boyd Richie will be loudly proclaiming his dedication to the mission of winning statewide offices. Do not waste one second listening to him. He says this every election year. He has never meant it sincerely and does not mean it now. During the election campaign season of 2006, most of us on the statewide ticket (which included me as candidate for Texas Attorney General) knew that the state party staff and chairman (Boyd Richie) had a defeatist attitude about the statewide races that projected itself to the public and the media to the great detriment of our candidacies. We were close to the situation and it was obvious to all of us. Most of us, maybe all of us, voiced our concern about this to Boyd and/or the party staff. In response, Boyd repeatedly denied any defeatism. If you asked him about this during 2006, he denied it to you too. Well now, here is a direct quote from Boyd's recent interview with Reeve Hamilton of the Texas Tribune, wherein Boyd's objective was to deny accountability for the 2006 defeats: "Frankly when I became chairman in 2006, our statewide candidates had already been nominated. I had nothing to do with recruitment, or how they got to be nominees. Those campaigns were doomed from the beginning." A lot of you put in many passionate volunteer hours in support of the 2006 statewide candidates. You believed in that ticket. You fought for it and sweated for it. You probably believed that your state party shared your belief and your enthusiasm. After all, the state chairman told you so, right? But the truth is, as he now confesses when it suits him to do so, the state chairman had a defeatist attitude about that ticket. Do you call that leadership? I don't. You may remember my last-minute run for state party chair against Boyd at the 2008 state Democratic convention. On the very eve of the convention I decided to make that run when I read Boyd's quote in the Burnt Orange Report that as far as trying to carry Texas for the Democratic presidential ticket, the presidential campaign would "take care of itself". This was proof to me that nothing had changed - there was to be no serious attempt by the Texas Democratic Party to win Texas statewide. I publicly confronted Boyd over the statement. His response was that the quote had been garbled and did not accurately express his meaning. That response of his was pure bull. After I promised in my speech to the convention that if elected chair my first order of business would be to fly to Chicago to press the Obama campaign to make a serious effort in Texas, Boyd took the podium and proclaimed how hard he would work to carry Texas statewide. He did not mean a word of it. Usually when somebody evades something that means they have something to evade. Here is what Boyd also said in the recent Texas Tribune interview: "This year is the first year that I've had the opportunity to have any input about recruitment." Come again, Boyd? Were you not party chair in 2008 and had you not served as party chair since 2006? Really, how much more transparent can you be in your attempt to deny accountability? What do you say now to the candidates who carried the party's banner in the statewide races of 2008? Indeed, Boyd should hardly be bragging about his recruitment efforts for 2010. For the first time in many elections, there is no Democratic candidate for the major office of Comptroller of Public Accounts. To make matters worse, Boyd has repeatedly emphasized the importance, in his outlook, of the upcoming decennial redistricting. One would think that since he places such a priority on redistricting he would have certainly fielded a candidate for Comptroller, since the Comptroller holds one of the five seats on the Legislative Redistricting Board. This is the excuse the Texas Tribune reports out of Boyd's mouth: "That was a seat that we took very seriously," he says, "and I'm very disappointed that we weren't able to recruit somebody." Did you know that Boyd Richie was trying to recruit a Democrat to run for Comptroller? Did he put any word out about it in your community, or your county, or your Democratic club or organization? Of course not! The real translation of Boyd's statement is, "we asked a few people within our insider circle." Is that good enough for you? And the deeper meaning is a recurrence of the continuing theme: Whatever goes wrong is never my failing. It is somebody else's: the pre-doomed candidates whom I didn't recruit in 2006, the possible candidates for Comptroller who wouldn't step up and run in 2010, and 2008 doesn't matter because even though I had been chairman since 2006 I had no opportunity to participate in recruiting candidates for 2008. Under Chairman Richie, Texas Democrats have not only had failure, but even worse, evasion of accountability. Michael Barnes knows what the problem is and he won't make excuses if he fails to deliver. It is time for a CHANGE. If you are a delegate to the Texas Democratic Convention, I respectfully urge you to vote for MICHAEL BARNES for state party chairman on Saturday.

Thank you for your consideration of my point of view. Sincerely, David Van Os