Cornyn Social Security plan 'goofy,' Kirk tells E. Texans

TYLER - Mining for votes in the Democratic strongholds of East Texas, Senate candidate Ron Kirk said Saturday that rival Republican John Cornyn's "goofy" plan to reform social security would put the retirement savings of the nation's seniors at risk.

"I've lost a whole lot of money in the stock market during this downturn," Mr. Kirk told a group of seniors in Tyler. "It makes no sense to say that we're going to take $3 trillion out of the Social Security trust fund for this retirement scheme. ...You don't get to roll back the clock and make more money."

Mr. Cornyn, the state attorney general, favors overhauling Social Security by setting up individual retirement accounts that would allow participants to invest some of their money in the stock market.

The plan, Mr. Cornyn has said, would still guarantee participants cost of living increases.

"For younger workers, unless we do something, Social Security will be bankrupt," Mr. Cornyn said Saturday. "We have to give younger people the chance to get wealthy by doing something other than simply participating in a government-run program."

Mr. Cornyn was in Dallas on Saturday, where the state chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Publications recognized him for his efforts to improve access for Spanish-speakers who need help from the attorney general's office.

Mr. Kirk does not favor overhauling Social Security to allow for investing in the stock market. He said citizens should have greater access to individual retirement accounts and 401(k) plans.

He also told seniors that he would work toward an affordable prescription drug program and access to quality health care.

Mr. Kirk was in East Texas on as part of his "Common Sense Express" tour. With the area considered by many as vital to his election, Mr. Kirk hopes to strike a chord with East Texas working families frustrated with the economy and fearful of the stock market.

The former Dallas mayor said Mr. Cornyn would put partisan interest ahead of the interest of most Texans. "He'll do what [President Bush's adviser] Karl Rove tells him to do and sit over there with the other Republicans," he said.

Mr. Kirk hopes to become the first black elected to the Senate from Texas, and some say East Texas may be vital. Some East Texans concede that his chances may be hampered by the area's reputation for racial intolerance, which they also say is changing.

"He's bringing together a cross-section of people together and showing that a qualified person can carry East Texas," said retired Bowie County Judge Ed Miller. "The percentage of bigots has only decreased, and that's what Texas needs."

Palestine resident Glen Sellers, 60, said it would take hard work for Mr. Kirk to win the area over.

"It will all come down to turnout," said Mr. Sellers, who is white. "Minorities will have to turn out and vote."

Supporters of Mr. Kirk's lashed out at Mr. Cornyn at a stop in Pittsburg over legislative redistricting earlier this year that was required after the last census. Barry Telford, D-DeKalb, said "John Cornyn was chairman over the redistricting process and was part of the vote to rape East Texas."

New political maps drawn by the Republican-dominated Legislative Redistricting Board created strong districts for the GOP and left some Democrats feeling cheated out of representation.

"We were concerned about protecting the voting of Texans," Mr. Cornyn responded Saturday. "We were not concerned about protecting the rights of incumbents."

You think maybe Caption Kirk and Clintoon get along pretty well. Let us never forget this speech:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/566577/posts

Clinton calls terror a U.S. debt to past

| November 8, 2001 | Joseph Curl

Posted on 11/08/2001 8:52 AM Pacific by concerned about politics

Clinton calls terror a U.S. debt to past
Bill Clinton, the former president, said yesterday that terror has existed in America for hundreds of years and the nation is "paying a price today" for its past of slavery and for looking "the other way when a significant number of native Americans were dispossessed and killed."

"Here in the United States, we were founded as a nation that practiced slavery, and slaves quite frequently were killed even though they were innocent," said Mr. Clinton in a speech to nearly 1,000 students at Georgetown University's ornate Gaston Hall.

"This country once looked the other way when a significant number of native Americans were dispossessed and killed to get their land or their mineral rights or because they were thought of as less than fully human.

"And we are still paying a price today," said Mr. Clinton, who was invited to address the students by the university's School of Foreign Service.

Mr. Clinton, wearing a gray suit and orange tie, arrived 45 minutes late for the event...

Barry Telford, D-DeKalb, said "John Cornyn was chairman over the redistricting process and was part of the vote to rape East Texas."

What about raping Dallas for millions, Mr. Telford?

http://www.dallasarena.com/v020822kirk.htm

AUSTIN -- A lucrative corporate board appointment for Ron Kirk's wife, which raised questions while Kirk was mayor of Dallas, is being resurrected as an issue in Kirk's race for the U.S. Senate.
Matrice Ellis Kirk served only 13 months on the board of Chancellor Broadcasting Co. and resigned in February 1997, after Tom Hicks, the Dallas businessman who appointed her to the board, became involved in negotiations with her husband and other city officials for a new sports arena.
But Matrice Kirk kept her stock options and cashed in more than $275,000 worth through a successor company last year, according to income tax information released by her husband's senatorial campaign last week. . . .
The Kirks have denied any impropriety in Matrice Kirk's part-time service on the board of Chancellor, which later became part of Clear Channel Communications Inc. And Justin Lonon, a spokesman for the Kirk campaign, said on Monday that she was well-qualified for the appointment. . . .
Hicks in 1999 told the Dallas Morning News that he gave Matrice Kirk the board seat because of her gender and race -- the Kirks are black -- and because her family was having "trouble adjusting without her income."

Kirk/Hicks connection....

http://www.reporter-news.com/1998/texas/ethics0607.html

http://www.reporter-news.com/1998/texsports/hicks0622.html

http://www.mayorkirk.com/features/features0306.shtml

http://www.reporter-news.com/1998/texas/ethics0607.html

http://www.mayorkirk.com/features/features.shtml

Barry Telford, D-DeKalb, said "John Cornyn was chairman over the redistricting process and was part of the vote to rape East Texas."

What about raping Dallas for millions, Mr. Telford?

Amazing. Thanks for the info and the links. I sent Barry Telford an e-mail about his comment in this article. (Here's his e-mail address if you want to send him your note there): barry.telford@house.state.tx.us

Dear Representative Telford:

In the article that appears in the Dallas Morning News today (Cornyn Social Security plan 'goofy,' Kirk tells E. Texans http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/763929/posts ), you are quoted as stating this:

Did you really say that? How harsh to say that of Mr. Cornyn, whom I shall vote for this November for Texas Senate.

I take it that you support Ron Kirk? If so, did you realize that he has ties to some very shady folks? I'm talking Terrorists, sir. See this article regarding Kirk and please let me know your reaction:

Ron Kirk, Texas Race-Baiter
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/763027/posts

PS: Here is an excerpt from this article:

Sadly, affiliations with radicals such as [Barbara] Lee and the CLW are nothing new for Kirk. The Senate hopeful received embarrassing publicity last June when the Austin Review revealed the Kirk campaign's employment of a radical anti-Israel activist with ties to militant Islamic figures such as American-Taliban John Walker Lindh. Kirk employed Steven L. Hyland, a former University of Texas Middle Eastern Studies student, on his campaign payroll through mid June of this year.

A June 23, 1995 editorial by Hyland in UT's Daily Texan newspaper reveals the radical extent of this individual's beliefs. In an editorial about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict Hyland wrote "The U.S. government labels Hizbollah and Islamic Jihad as terrorist organizations, but they are really freedom fighters defending their rights in Lebanon and Palestine." Elsewhere Hyland described Israel's policies as "Nazi-like" and blamed them, not Palestinian terrorist organizations, for suicide bombings in Jerusalem. The Review further reports that Hyland is a personal friend of American-Taliban John Walker Lindh. He befriended Lindh in 1998 while studying abroad in Yemen and was interviewed by the media regularly during the latter's recent court proceedings.

Before publication in June, reporters from the Review attempted to contact Kirk's office to determine what role Hyland played in the campaign, including the shaping of their positions on the Middle East and the War on Terror. One call was even transferred to Hyland, who immediately hung up the phone. Kirk's campaign never replied to requests for a statement. Several weeks later the Austin American Statesman quoted portions of an email sent by Kirk fundraiser Lane Luskey in response to complaints over Hyland. Despite Kirk's unresponsiveness to interview requests by the Review, Luskey dismissed the Hyland story as a "smear campaign." His email told supporters that Hyland had been asked to leave the campaign. This however was not true. According to the Statesman, "Hyland quit and was not fired." A Kirk spokesman eventually conceded that Luskey's email had not been "factually accurate" about Hyland, though the campaign never gave an explanation about the radical Israel-hater's employment. Amazingly Kirk still wonders how anyone could dare question his strength on defense issues!

Embarrassing affiliations with radicals such as Lee, Hyland and the CLW, rather than chance incidents, appear to be an ongoing pattern with the Democrat. The Austin Review reported that the former Dallas official took multiple donations to his 1995 mayoral bid from persons affiliated with radical Islamic organizations. Several Kirk donors are involved with the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), a radical organization that protested a Los Angeles billboard criticizing Osama bin Laden after the 1998 U.S. embassy attacks. One CAIR official hosted an August 1995 dinner in Kirk's honor along side former Democrat congressman and ex-Holy Land Foundation (HLF) lobbyist John Bryant.

The Review also reported, and ethics reports confirm, Kirk's receipt of a $500 donation from 'Ishan Elashyi' dated April 24, 1995. For the past year Elashyi has been at the center of a federal investigations involving the illegal export of computer equipment to terrorist states. The Bureau of Export Administration (BXA), which enforces national security and anti-terrorism related export controls, placed an export ban against the Richardson-based Infocom and Tetrabal corporations. Elashyi, who was specifically named in the order, runs Tetrabal and works for Infocom. According to Attorney General John Ashcroft at a press conference on the investigation, "Infocom, like the Holy Land Foundation, received much of its early money from Mousa Abu Marzook, a top Hamas official who, the U.S. courts have determined, was directly involved in terrorism."

For the record, the HLF is a U.S. based non-profit organization run by Elashyi's brother. The government shut it down for terrorist connections last December. President Bush stated that funds raised through the HLF were "used by Hamas to support schools and indoctrinate children to grow up into suicide bombers."

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