NWARW Newsletter September 2011

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Northwest Austin Republican WomenEducation is Our Focus September 2011 Austin, TX

ToliveundertheAmericanConstitutionisthegreatest

politicalprivilegethatwaseveraccordedtothehumanrace.-PresidentCalvinCoolidge

Inside This Issue Dates to Remember

Justice Willett at September 12

Meeting

Ready for the Post-Labor Day Pivot

to Jobs? by Charlotte Hays

Official Call to the TFRW Convention

Letter from the President

Recommended Reading

NWARW Officers 2011-2012

Coming in October

Dates to Remember in September

Sept. 7 - Republican Presidential Primary

Debate, 7pm (MSNBC & CNBC)

Sept. 11 - 10th Anniversary of 9/11

Attacks (Patriot Day)

Sept. 12 - NWARW September Meeting

Sept. 15 - Deadline for Early

Registration for TFRW Convention ($165)

Sept. 15 - Deadline for members dues

to be received by TFRW to be selected

as TFRW Convention Delegate

Sept. 19 - TCRP Executive Committee

Meeting

Sept. 25 - CD-25 Candidate Forum &

Straw Poll

September Lunch Menu &RSVP

Our September meeting is on

Monday, September 12 at Dave &

Buster's, 9333 Research Blvd;

check-in is 11:15, meeting at 11:45.

Speaker: Texas Supreme Court

Justice Don Willett

Menu: Honey Mustard Chicken

Salad

Cost: $16

RSVP: Contact Murlene Johnston,

512-837-4414 or

[email protected] by

Thursday, September 8


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Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett toAddress NWARW September Meeting

Don Willett was appointed to the Supreme Court of Texas in August 2005 and elected to a fullterm in November 2006.

Before assuming the bench, Justice Willett was a Deputy Texas Attorney General, serving aschief legal adviser to Attorney General Greg Abbott on the complete array of major legal issuesconfronting Texas.

Before that, Justice Willett was Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Legal Policy at the U.S.Department of Justice, where he played a key role in the President's judicial selection andnominations process. He also supervised numerous cutting-edge civil and criminal justiceinitiatives, such as expediting U.S. citizenship for active-duty immigrant service members andcrafting the landmark PROTECT Act of 2003 to protect children from abduction and exploitation.Before joining the Justice Department, Willett served as Special Assistant to the President in theWhite House, providing legal counsel on religious liberty and other issues.

From 1996 to 2000, Justice Willett was Director of Research & Special Projects forthen-Governor Bush, and later was Domestic Policy & Special Projects Adviser to theBush-Cheney 2000 Presidential Campaign and Transition Team.

A native Texan, Justice Willett earned a triple-major BBA from Baylor University and his J.D.with honors along with an A.M. in political science from Duke University, where he was SeniorEditor of LAW & CONTEMPORARY PROBLEMS and Editor of the DUKE INTERNATIONAL &COMPARATIVE LAW ANNUAL. Following law and graduate school, he was a law clerk to JudgeJerre S. Williams of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. From 1993 to 1996, hepracticed employment/labor law in the Austin office of Haynes and Boone, L.L.P. and alsohandled significant pro bono matters for various nonprofit legal foundations.

Justice Willett was named Outstanding Young Alumnus of Baylor University in 2005 andinducted into the Forney Hall of Honor in 2007. In 2011, he received the 2011 Price DanielDistinguished Public Service Award. Justice Willett has also received the Faith and Integrity inLegal Services Award and the Austin Under 40 Award for Government and Public Affairs. JusticeWillett is a Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation, the Austin Bar Foundation, and is a member ofthe American Law Institute.

Justice Willett serves as Supreme Court Liaison to the Texas Center for Legal Ethics, the TaskForce to Ensure Judicial Readiness in Times of Emergency, the Grievance Oversight Committee,and the Texas Center for the Judiciary.

Justice Willett's wife, Tiffany, has served in the Texas Senate and also in the White House,where she was Education Director for the President's Commission on White House Fellowships.

She most recently worked for Texas CASA, which advocates for abused and neglected childrenin the court system. They have three young children: Jacob, Shane-David, and Genevieve.

Justice Willett's term ends December 31, 2012.

For more information about Justice Willett and the Texas SupremeCourt, please go to this website:

http://www.supreme.courts.state.tx.us/


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Ready For The Post-Labor Day Pivot To Jobs?by Charlotte Hays, Independent Womens Forum, August 29, 2011

http://iwf.org/inkwell/show/25399.html

Waiting for the post-Labor Day pivot to jobs?

If you're like me, you are awaiting President Obama's post-Labor Day jobs proposals not without sense of dread. The frustrating thing is that there are things that can be done to get us on the road trecovery-as opposed to "recovery." The bad news is that doing these things would require a presidentiaphilosophical conversion.

Lurita Doan, who writes frequently on matters affecting the federal government, says waiting for jocreation is beginning to remind her of Waiting for Godot:

In fact, considering Obama has no street creds in the area of job creation, and considering few ohis advisors have ever created jobs, and considering that two of the most powerful Democrats ithe House and the Senate represent the two states with the nation's highest unemployment, ithard to imagine the president will have an innovative, cohesive or potentially effective jocreation plan to roll out in his speech.

What, if the president could bring himself to do it, could be done? Doan's has five good prescription

including announcing a "drill, baby, drill" policy, and seeking advice from people who know about jocreation. The second would include getting advice from governors with proven job-creating recordSince Governor Rick Perry, who is running for president, is one of these governors, I am going to go ouon a limb and guess how the president might respond: ixnay.

Doan suggests one action the president is likely going to propose: extending the payroll tax cuts. BuDoan points out that these cuts must be accompanied by something the president likely won't proposeserious federal budget cuts, including the time people can collect unemployment benefits.

Meanwhile, two entrepreneurs, Edward Muller, CEO of GenOn Energy and Larry Limpleman, CEO of thPrincipal Financial Group, say in today's Wall Street Journal that "there is no hope of giving consumerrenewed confidence in America unless governments at all levels mount a vigorous effort to get rid orules that discourage entrepreneurs from launching and growing new businesses."

Among their proposals are reducing the capital gains tax, regular sunsets for regulations, and barriers tIPOs by permitting shareholders to opt out of Sarbanes-Oxley. Yeah, don't hold your breath.

An editorial today in the Wall Street Journal suggests that a moratorium on new EPA regulations thawill shut down 8 percent of all power generation in the United States would be a good idea. Mprediction: Not gonna happen.

It may be that we must reconcile ourselves to a deathly still economy for the near future. EntrepreneuJohn Mariotti argues in Forbes magazine that no recovery is possible under President Obama's policies.hope Mariotti is wrong about a double-dip recession, but his piece makes a lot of sense:

There will be no significant recovery in the United States of America while Barack Obama

President. The evidence is overwhelming: everything Obama has tried to fuel a recovery (withis Democratic allies in Congress) has failed. Statistics claiming jobs saved by the stimulupackage were mostly fiction, and cost American taxpayers about $275,000 each. Nearly 2-1/

million fewer Americans have jobs than before the stimulus.

Barack Obama has been President for 30 months-2-1/2 years. He spent the first year obsesse

with passing Obamacare, a program that doesn't create jobs, but might destroy a lot of them.

Find out more about the Independent Womens Forum online athttp://www.iwf.org


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OFFICIAL CALL

28th BIENNIAL TFRW CONVENTION - FORT WORTH, TEXAS

TEXAS FEDERATION OF REPUBLICAN WOMENOMNI HOTEL FORT WORTH

NOVEMBER 18 20 2011

________________________________________________________

To members of the Northwest Austin Republican Women:

As of September 1, we are eligible to send 2 delegates and 2 alternates to the convention inNovember. We will be electing delegates at our September 12 meeting. It will be imperative thaanyone wishing to be a delegate or alternate come prepared to register and pay the convention feat that meeting, as the early registration deadline is September 15 ($165).

If we have one or more new members join at our September meeting (or if we had any newmembers over the summer), we will be eligible to send one more delegate and one more alternate.

If you would like to attend the convention but it is not important to you to participate in votingyou are still more than welcome to come! It will be an exciting convention, kicking off with formeDefense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and filled with more speakers and workshops that you wonwant to miss.

We will have registration forms and flyers at our September meeting. You can also go tohttp://www.tfrw.org for more information.

________________________________________________________

TO ALL MEMBERS OF THE Texas Federation of Republican Women

In compliance with the Bylaws of the Texas Federation of Republican Women, the 28th BienniaConvention of said Federation will be held in Fort Worth, Texas at the Omni Hotel , Novembe18-20, 2011, for the purpose of the election of officers and for the transaction of such business amay properly come before this body.

The Fort Worth Host Committee has planned an incredible weekend filled with many activities.

Hotel reservations may be made by contacting the Fort Worth Omni Hotel at 800-843-6664. Theroom rate will be $159 per night.

When planning your departure time, remember the INSTALLATION LUNCHEON on Sunday. Itis important to show your support for the newly elected TFRW Officers! This final luncheonshould conclude by approximately 2:00 p.m.


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Letter from the President

On August 19, 2011, I lost my mother Lillian to a long struggle with ALS (Lou Gehrig'

disease). Her passing was not a shock, and we are assured she is in a better place

now. I am thankful to all the wonderful people who contacted me or prayed for me and

my family over the last few years.

You may have heard me say before that my mom's influence is the reason I am

involved in politics today. She served her country, our country, in so many ways. She

made a point of instilling in my siblings and me the importance of civic duty. Mom

would take us with her when she went to vote, and she would explain why and how she

was voting. My first memory of political involvement was by her side, championing the

causes that she believed were important - and my first political education was her

lecture about refusing to vote for tax increases! She was supportive of her local

pregnancy resource center, giving aid to women facing tough circumstances. Mom

volunteered as a Girl Scout leader and in our church's religious education program, andshe always had a dish ready for potluck fundraisers and aide, whether for church,

Scouts, or family friends.

My mom was also a Vietnam-era veteran of the United States Navy. She was one of

the first women trained in her field, and she served in the Pentagon and on base in

Spain (where she met my dad). Later, Mom supported the Paralyzed Veterans of

America - an organization that returned her support while she was ill.

The way I will remember and honor my mother will be to continue where she left off

Mom believed in education, and she always went to the voting booth armed withinformation. As Republican Women, we can do the same thing, helping our families

neighbors, and friends understand the issues facing our society, so they will go to the

voting booth prepared and informed.

The 2012 election cycle has already begun. Encourage your friends to join us this fa

and spring to hear directly from the candidates appearing on the ballot, and to meet

like-minded Republican Women from all over NW Travis County. My mom taught me

that involvement is not enough - we must speak out and stand up for what we believe

I. The unique opportunities ahead are just the beginning!

MicheleSamuelson


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InterestedinjoiningtheNorthwestAustinRepublican

Women?WomenANDmenarewelcome!

Duesare:

$24forActiveMembership$12forAssociateMembership

$36forSupportingMembership

Yourduesmaybepaidatthecheck-in

tableatoneofourmeetings,orby

sendingacheckpayableto

NWARWPAC

C/OCherriSpradling,12501Phoebe

Court,AustinTX78727-5126.

NWARW Officers 2011

Michele Samuelson, PresidentCarolyn Isbell, Vice President

Susan Friedrich, 1st VP/MembershipMelinda Field, 2nd VP/ProgramsPat Dollar, Recording Secretary

Tina Wheelock, Corresponding Secretary

Cherri Spradling, Treasurer/PAC Treasurer

NWARW Committee Chairmen 2011

Chris Sale, ChaplainGloria Heyl & Virginia Heyl, Awards

Murlene Johnston, By-LawsJoyce Melugin, Campaign Activities

Kathie Holliman, FundraisingBillie Jean Zinter, Legislative

Carolyn Isbell & Elaine Lehmann, Hospitality

Carol Gontko, Telephone

Recommended Reading for September

The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling ofAmerican CultureBy David Mamet

For the past thirty years, David Mamet has been a controversial anddefining force in theater and film, championing the most cherishedliberal values along the way. In some of the great movies and playsof our time, his characters have explored the ethics of the businessworld, embodied the struggles of the oppressed, and faced the flawsof the capitalist system.

But in recent years Mamet has had a change of heart. He realizedthat the so- called mainstream media outlets he relied on were irredeemably biased, peddling a hypocriticaland deeply flawed worldview. In 2008 he wrote a hugely controversial op-ed for The Village Voice, "Why I AmNo Longer a 'Brain- Dead Liberal,'" in which he methodically eviscerated liberal beliefs. Now he goes muchdeeper, employing his trademark intellectual force and vigor to take on all the key political and cultural issueof our times, from religion to political correctness to global warming. A sample:

The problems facing us, faced by all mankind engaged in Democracy, may seem complex, or indeedinsolvable, and we, in despair, may revert to a state of wish fulfillment-a state of "belief" in the power of thevarious experts presenting themselves as a cure for our indecision. But this is a sort of Stockholm SyndromeHere, the captives, unable to bear the anxiety occasioned by their powerlessness, suppress it by identifyingwith their captors. This is the essence of Leftist thought. It is a devolution from reason to "belief," in aneffort to stave off a feeling of powerlessness. And if government is Good, it is a logical elaboration that moregovernment power is Better. But the opposite is apparent both to anyone who has ever had to deal withGovernment and, I think, to any dispassionate observer. It is in sympathy with the first and in the hope ofenlarging the second group that I have written this book.

Mamet pulls no punches in his art or in his politics. And as a former liberal who woke up, he will win over an

entirely new audience of others who have grown irate over America's current direction.


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COMINGINOCTOBER

Guest Speaker Christi CraddickCandidate for Texas Railroad Commission

Save the Date, Spread the Word

October 3, 2011

Documents

NWARW Newsletter September 2011