Posted on 09/09/2006 12:29:31 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
The Democratic candidate for state attorney general pledged on the steps of the McLennan County Courthouse Friday to oppose the Trans-Texas Corridor if he’s elected in November.
After a 30-minute speech in which he blasted incumbent Texas Attorney General Greg Abbot and other state Republican leaders, David Van Os put his pledge on record at the McLennan County Clerk’s office in the form of a sworn affidavit. In the affidavit, he promised to “use every legal means available to me by (the office of attorney general) to halt and/or invalidate the unconstitutional and illegal . . . Trans-Texas Corridor.”
It was the 171st time Van Os has given such a speech and filed the affidavit at a county clerk’s office this year as Van Os has traveled across the state on a “whistle-stop tour.” If elected, he said he plans to investigate the activities of large oil and insurance companies for possible antitrust violations.
Van Os repeatedly hammered the $7 billion Trans-Texas Corridor project, which he said is illegal because it would use the power of eminent domain to enrich private companies that would build and operate the tollway.
Van Os also said Abbott, who has served as Texas attorney general since December 2002, has served the interests of the Republican leadership rather than Texas citizens.
“The incumbent attorney general down there right now is part of the silk-stocking social clique that is running our government as if it were their private club,” Van Os told a crowd of about 15 supporters. “We the people have got to knock down the doors to that private club.”
Daniel Hodge, Abbott’s campaign director, declined to respond to Van Os’s comments. Abbott is focusing on his job rather than engaging in politics, Hodge said.
“Greg Abbott is seeking re-election so he can continue arresting child sex predators, protecting families and cracking down on criminals who defraud tax payers,” Hodge said.
(September 9, 2006)—Corrridor.Watch.org co-founder David Stall speaks at a public meeting about the controversial Trans Texas Corridor project Saturday evening in Marlin.
The meeting is from 6:30 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. Saturday at Marlin High School.
The Texas Department of Transportation signed a contract in April 2005 with the Cintra-Zachry consortium for planning on the project, the most ambitious highway construction effort since the Eisenhower administration launched the effort to build an interstate highway system.
The $184 billion plan ultimately calls for a 4,000-mile network of transportation corridors that would crisscross the state with separate highway lanes for passenger vehicles and trucks, passenger rail, freight rain, commuter rail and dedicated utility zones.
Designers envision a corridor with six separate passenger vehicle lanes and four commercial truck lanes; two high speed passenger rail lines, two freight rain lines and two commuter rail lines and a utility zone that will accommodate water, electric, natural gas, petroleum, fiber optic and telecommunications lines.
Cintra, which is an international design and development firm, and the San Antonio-based Zachry Construction Corporation, have agreed to provide $7.2 billion for construction of the first six segments of the project, the governor’s office said.
Cintra will spend $6 billion to build a four-lane toll road on the corridor and will pay the state $1.2 billion in return for the exclusive rights to operate the toll road for 50 years.
The meeting Saturday, organized by Independent Texans, is intended to be a follow up to the series of public meetings organized earlier this summer by the Texas Department of Transportation.
TxDOT held 50 hearings on the project around the state to give residents a chance to ask questions and register opinions about the Interstate 35 leg of the massive transportation project.
Opponents turned out in substantial numbers at many of the hearings in Central Texas.
Linda Curtis, the founder of Independent Texans, will also talk about solutions and changes that would give residents a chance vote on such major projects in the future.
The 10-mile-wide study area for the Central Texas leg of the project runs generally along and slightly east of Interstate 35, state transportation officials announced in April as they released a 4,000-page draft environmental impact study that identifies the study area.
The report narrows the study area from Gainesville to Laredo, close to Interstate 35 and metropolitan areas north of San Antonio, but centered on Interstate 35 from south of San Antonio to Laredo.
Click Here For Interactive Map Of Proposed Corridor Route
Click Here For Trans-Texas Corridor Web Site
Click Here For Background Information On The Trans-Texas Corridor
Click Here For An Opposing Point Of View From Corridor Watch
Trans-Texas Corridor PING!
Van Os told a crowd of about 15 supporters.
Greg Abbott will win in a landslide.
BTTT
bump.
Sometimes you have to put a warm body up just in case or to fill a line on the ballot...... I don't believe the ol' boy has been elected to anything of consequence, maybe a county or precinct chairman of the Dem party.
David Van Os with daughters
Maya and Leya July 4, 2005
"Designers envision a corridor with six separate passenger vehicle lanes and four commercial truck lanes; two high speed passenger rail lines, two freight rain lines and two commuter rail lines and a utility zone that will accommodate water, electric, natural gas, petroleum, fiber optic and telecommunications lines."
And I guess we know who pays for the destruction of my country?
I think the concept is excellent--an American Autobahn for the 21st century stretching from Mexico to Canada. I'd like to see the same thing done to I-80, I-81 and I-5.
It's called progress.
"In the affidavit, he promised to “use every legal means available to me by (the office of attorney general) to halt and/or invalidate the unconstitutional and illegal . . . Trans-Texas Corridor.”
Illegal? How can this guy be running for Attorney General? Perhaps he should read chapter 227 of the Texas Transportation Code entitled...Trans-Texas Corridor. You would think a lawyer would know how to read statutes...
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