Cross posted at TexasKos
Joe Barton - "Earth Killer"
Joe Barton - "Toxic Texan"
Joe Barton - "Smokey Joe"
Joe Barton - "Clean Air Villain of the Month"
Joe Barton - "JoeZone"
Joe Barton - "Internet Invader"
Do I need to say more?
Joe Barton was elected in 1984 to serve the residents of US Congressional District Six. Even before his election, Joe Barton was bought and paid for by big industry (TXI). After being elected, he has mortgaged himself out to just about every oil and gas company (except CITGO) and the telecom industry for contributions to support his 20 year assault on America.
I had the privilege of working behind the scenes on the 2004 race against Barton and immediately discovered his extreme hubris that comes with being a corrupt career politician. In a town hall meeting in Arlington, I had the opportunity to ask Barton a few questions after my experience in Iraq. He called me the guy in the "Army costume" when I finally got called on. Army costume? - Folks, it wasn't Halloween.
At the next town hall meeting he had survey results of a poll that he apparently did in the district - things like: should Congress be involved in cases like Terry Schiavo, increased fines for entertainers that commit lewd acts, and investigating the steroid problems in baseball. These were the major concerns for his campaign trip to his district in 2004? Give me a break! He also stacked the audience with "Keep DFW Strong" people and would not even acknowledge me, even though my hand was in the air the entire time during his question session.
We are slowly approaching the one year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. I hope all Texans remember that Joe Barton was one of only 11 members of Congress to vote against funding for Katrina survivors. So 524 other members of Congress were wrong? I think not.
Feeling the bite at the pump this summer when you are trying to go on a vacation with your family? Thank Joe Barton and his cronies for authoring the most miserable piece of legislation in recent history - The Energy Bill - or as it is more affectionately known as "The Piñata of Perks." The bill completely caters to big oil and gas but does nothing for the ordinary, average American taxpayer to help with their energy costs. His solutions - drill in the AWR for oil, ease permitting for building oil refineries, rolling back EPA/Clean Air Act standards for large polluters. Even if we find all the oil that is left on Earth tomorrow, we don't have the refinery capability. Even if we decide to build new refineries, it takes on average 3-5 years to complete one and for it to actually affect the market. This is a band-aid over a gaping flesh wound and very short-sighted. Not to mention the huge environmental impact building hundreds of new refineries would do for Global Warming....and we know how much he cares about the environment!
Dear Al,
Please mail Representative Joe Barton, (R-TX) a copy of An Inconvenient Truth so he understand that Global Warming is real and not just made up by steroid shooting baseball players that have "wardrobe malfunctions" on TV. You also might want to include a second copy for his buddy Tom, who I hear is going to spending a lot of time watching TV in a very small room very soon.
Thank you in advance and I hope that now you will consider running in '08 since you are a movie star now. You know all those Hollywood liberals are all the same - you would feel right at home.
Sincerely,
The World
What America needs is investments in renewable energy sources - solar, hydro, wind. We need to give incentives for homeowners that install these technologies in their households. The government should give tax breaks to companies that invest and utilize renewable energy sources. I digress...
One last note before I sign off my rant here and continue to wonder why our current Democratic leadership has not targeted Joe Barton for extinction just like he has targeted so many issues facing American society; the Internet. See it goes back to Al again...
P.S. Did I mention Joe Barton is trying to destroy your creation?
Anyway, Joe Barton recently introduced legislation (H.R. 5252) that would gut Net Neutrality-called COPE for short. This piece of ___ (fill in word here) would make our Internet a pay for play entity and allow our ISPs to degrade services and restrict content. Barton's Energy and Commerce Committee passed the bill through the House and it was in the Senate today for a vote. If you called your Senators, we thank you.
If you haven't come over to our website yet, I invite you to come in and see what we are all about. If you haven't donated to a political campaign yet this season, consider mine. PayPal, ActBlue, and all other major credit cards can all be accepted through our site. The ol' fashion way too....mailing address is there too. If we get 2000 people to donated $5 a month until the election, it will fund our entire campaign. 2000 people in a district of 660,000 people should not be hard - tell a friend. And even if you don't live in the district, you can donate too - especially since this is a national race. We need your help to take back 06 in '06!
We have had so many great things happening for the campaign over the last month due to the hard work of people like you. Keep checking back to our website, the secrets will be revealed as soon as we receive the go ahead. We will have YearlyKos stuff up shortly. Here is my podcast from the convention floor or you can check out my Air America spot here.
In other news Joe Barton has finally updated his (link intentionally left out) website. Good news I guess for the misguided souls that actually believe this guy is representing their needs in Washington. He has completely re-formatted the site because we highlighted that the site had not been updated since 2000 or possibly before. We forced him to add National Security and Immigration to his Issues page. He now has a Constituent Services button, even though he doesn't follow through with the requests. More and more Republicans have contacted me about his lack of response when they contact him for help. I am not even in office yet and people are calling me for help - it is pathetic! I can speak from experience on this...but that is for another day. Joe finally put some of that $1.7 million to good use and updated his site. It still sucks and ours is much better, but at least it gives the appearance he actually gives a damn.
Thanks for taking the time to read this monster post, I was here a few days ago with my thoughts on Grassroots vs. Establishment campaigns - I hope you caught that one. Please visit our website and get to know us and get involved.
Support Our Troops, Send A Veteran To Congress!
David T. Harris
Veteran, Citizen, Leader