Fox News is reporting that the pilot involved in the plane crash in Austin, Texas, had deliberately targeted the IRS. “An NTSB official told Fox News that they are investigating this as an intentional act, and said it appears the pilot set his own house on fire and then got in his plane and flew it into the building,” reports Fox. The IRS has an office in the building.

An IRS employee saw the plane approach the office building in north Austin. “It looked like it was coming right in my window,” IRS Agent William Winnie told the Statesman.

Initial reports indicated the FBI has an office in the building. It later turned out not to be true. An FBI spokesman told Fox News that the FBI office in Austin is near where the plane crashed, but not in the same building.

Infowars has dispatched a team to the scene. Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com will report updates as they are received.

Update: CNN reports that a federal official claims the pilot had set his house on fire beforehand, stole the plane and crashed it intentionally. The FAA said the plane departed Georgetown Municipal Airport, north of Austin, about 9:40 a.m., and that the pilot did not file a flight plan.

The Internal Revenue Service in Dallas, Texas, told CNN that the building is a federal IRS outsourced building. It said 199 of its employees work there. The IRS said it thinks all employees are accounted for, but they are checking.

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Note: CNN has confirmed the validity of the suicide note.

“According to a federal official, the crash was intentional, and the pilot, Joseph Andrew Stack, had set fire to his own house before stealing a Cirrus SR22 single-engine plane from Georgetown Municipal Airport and crashing it into the Echelon Building,” reports Jordan Yerman for NowPublic.

Readers of Infowars.com have posted a link to the following anti-government screed, written by Mr. Stack. It increasingly looks like the Austin plane crash is a false flag attack.

The following WHOIS report details the site where the note was posted:

Registrant:
Embedded Art
925 E Hwy 80
287
San Marcos, TX 78666
US

Domain name: EMBEDDEDART.COM

Administrative Contact:
Stack, Joe dns.5.sgmail@dfgh.net
925 E Hwy 80
287
San Marcos, TX 78666
US
1.3215649879
Technical Contact:
Stack, Joe dns.5.sgmail@dfgh.net
925 E Hwy 80
287
San Marcos, TX 78666
US
1.3215649879

Prison Planet.com writes:

This is the now confirmed letter written by Austin plane crash pilot Joseph Andrew Stack, who is being named by officials as the perpetrator of a deliberate attack on a building in Austin which houses IRS offices. Stack was having problems with the IRS and in his letter writes about “totalitarian regimes” and taking on Big Brother.

This letter will undoubtedly by exploited by the establishment media and authorities to demonize Alex Jones, Ron Paul and his supporters, as well as Tea Party activists and 9/11 truthers.

The letter is reprinted in full below.

If you’re reading this, you’re no doubt asking yourself, “Why did this have to happen?”  The simple truth is that it is complicated and has been coming for a long time.  The writing process, started many months ago, was intended to be therapy in the face of the looming realization that there isn’t enough therapy in the world that can fix what is really broken.  Needless to say, this rant could fill volumes with example after example if I would let it.  I find the process of writing it frustrating, tedious, and probably pointless… especially given my gross inability to gracefully articulate my thoughts in light of the storm raging in my head.  Exactly what is therapeutic about that I’m not sure, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

We are all taught as children that without laws there would be no society, only anarchy.  Sadly, starting at early ages we in this country have been brainwashed to believe that, in return for our dedication and service, our government stands for justice for all.  We are further brainwashed to believe that there is freedom in this place, and that we should be ready to lay our lives down for the noble principals represented by its founding fathers.  Remember? One of these was “no taxation without representation”.  I have spent the total years of my adulthood unlearning that crap from only a few years of my childhood.  These days anyone who really stands up for that principal is promptly labeled a “crackpot”, traitor and worse.

While very few working people would say they haven’t had their fair share of taxes (as can I), in my lifetime I can say with a great degree of certainty that there has never been a politician cast a vote on any matter with the likes of me or my interests in mind.  Nor, for that matter, are they the least bit interested in me or anything I have to say.

Why is it that a handful of thugs and plunderers can commit unthinkable atrocities (and in the case of the GM executives, for scores of years) and when it’s time for their gravy train to crash under the weight of their gluttony and overwhelming stupidity, the force of the full federal government has no difficulty coming to their aid within days if not hours?  Yet at the same time, the joke we call the American medical system, including the drug and insurance companies, are murdering tens of thousands of people a year and stealing from the corpses and victims they cripple, and this country’s leaders don’t see this as important as bailing out a few of their vile, rich cronies.  Yet, the political “representatives” (thieves, liars, and self-serving scumbags is far more accurate) have endless time to sit around for year after year and debate the state of the “terrible health care problem”.  It’s clear they see no crisis as long as the dead people don’t get in the way of their corporate profits rolling in.

And justice? You’ve got to be kidding!

How can any rational individual explain that white elephant conundrum in the middle of our tax system and, indeed, our entire legal system?  Here we have a system that is, by far, too complicated for the brightest of the master scholars to understand.  Yet, it mercilessly “holds accountable” its victims, claiming that they’re responsible for fully complying with laws not even the experts understand.  The law “requires” a signature on the bottom of a tax filing; yet no one can say truthfully that they understand what they are signing; if that’s not “duress” than what is.  If this is not the measure of a totalitarian regime, nothing is.

How did I get here?

My introduction to the real American nightmare starts back in the early ‘80s.  Unfortunately after more than 16 years of school, somewhere along the line I picked up the absurd, pompous notion that I could read and understand plain English.  Some friends introduced me to a group of people who were having ‘tax code’ readings and discussions.  In particular, zeroed in on a section relating to the wonderful “exemptions” that make institutions like the vulgar, corrupt Catholic Church so incredibly wealthy.  We carefully studied the law (with the help of some of the “best”, high-paid, experienced tax lawyers in the business), and then began to do exactly what the “big boys” were doing (except that we weren’t steeling from our congregation or lying to the government about our massive profits in the name of God).  We took a great deal of care to make it all visible, following all of the rules, exactly the way the law said it was to be done.

The intent of this exercise and our efforts was to bring about a much-needed re-evaluation of the laws that allow the monsters of organized religion to make such a mockery of people who earn an honest living.  However, this is where I learned that there are two “interpretations” for every law; one for the very rich, and one for the rest of us… Oh, and the monsters are the very ones making and enforcing the laws; the inquisition is still alive and well today in this country.

That little lesson in patriotism cost me $40,000+, 10 years of my life, and set my retirement plans back to 0.  It made me realize for the first time that I live in a country with an ideology that is based on a total and complete lie.  It also made me realize, not only how naive I had been, but also the incredible stupidity of the American public; that they buy, hook, line, and sinker, the crap about their “freedom”… and that they continue to do so with eyes closed in the face of overwhelming evidence and all that keeps happening in front of them.

Before even having to make a shaky recovery from the sting of the first lesson on what justice really means in this country (around 1984 after making my way through engineering school and still another five years of “paying my dues”), I felt I finally had to take a chance of launching my dream of becoming an independent engineer.

On the subjects of engineers and dreams of independence, I should digress somewhat to say that I’m sure that I inherited the fascination for creative problem solving from my father.  I realized this at a very young age.

The significance of independence, however, came much later during my early years of college; at the age of 18 or 19 when I was living on my own as student in an apartment in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  My neighbor was an elderly retired woman (80+ seemed ancient to me at that age) who was the widowed wife of a retired steel worker.  Her husband had worked all his life in the steel mills of central Pennsylvania with promises from big business and the union that, for his 30 years of service, he would have a pension and medical care to look forward to in his retirement.  Instead he was one of the thousands who got nothing because the incompetent mill management and corrupt union (not to mention the government) raided their pension funds and stole their retirement.  All she had was social security to live on.

In retrospect, the situation was laughable because here I was living on peanut butter and bread (or Ritz crackers when I could afford to splurge) for months at a time.  When I got to know this poor figure and heard her story I felt worse for her plight than for my own (I, after all, I thought I had everything to in front of me).  I was genuinely appalled at one point, as we exchanged stories and commiserated with each other over our situations, when she in her grandmotherly fashion tried to convince me that I would be “healthier” eating cat food (like her) rather than trying to get all my substance from peanut butter and bread.  I couldn’t quite go there, but the impression was made.  I decided that I didn’t trust big business to take care of me, and that I would take responsibility for my own future and myself.

Return to the early ‘80s, and here I was off to a terrifying start as a ‘wet-behind-the-ears’ contract software engineer… and two years later, thanks to the fine backroom, midnight effort by the sleazy executives of Arthur Andersen (the very same folks who later brought us Enron and other such calamities) and an equally sleazy New York Senator (Patrick Moynihan), we saw the passage of 1986 tax reform act with its section 1706.

For you who are unfamiliar, here is the core text of the IRS Section 1706, defining the treatment of workers (such as contract engineers) for tax purposes. Visit this link for a conference committee report (http://www.synergistech.com/1706.shtml#ConferenceCommitteeReport) regarding the intended interpretation of Section 1706 and the relevant parts of Section 530, as amended. For information on how these laws affect technical services workers and their clients, read our discussion here (http://www.synergistech.com/ic-taxlaw.shtml).

SEC. 1706. TREATMENT OF CERTAIN TECHNICAL PERSONNEL.

(a) IN GENERAL – Section 530 of the Revenue Act of 1978 is amended by adding at the end thereof the following new subsection:

(d) EXCEPTION. – This section shall not apply in the case of an individual who pursuant to an arrangement between the taxpayer and another person, provides services for such other person as an engineer, designer, drafter, computer programmer, systems analyst, or other similarly skilled worker engaged in a similar line of work.

(b) EFFECTIVE DATE. – The amendment made by this section shall apply to remuneration paid and services rendered after December 31, 1986.

Note:

<!–[if !supportLists]–>
·     
<!–[endif]–>
“another person” is the client in the traditional job-shop relationship.

<!–[if !supportLists]–>
·     
<!–[endif]–>
“taxpayer” is the recruiter, broker, agency, or job shop.

<!–[if !supportLists]–>
·     
<!–[endif]–>
“individual”, “employee”, or “worker” is you.

Admittedly, you need to read the treatment to understand what it is saying but it’s not very complicated.  The bottom line is that they may as well have put my name right in the text of section (d).  Moreover, they could only have been more blunt if they would have came out and directly declared me a criminal and non-citizen slave.  Twenty years later, I still can’t believe my eyes.

During 1987, I spent close to $5000 of my ‘pocket change’, and at least 1000 hours of my time writing, printing, and mailing to any senator, congressman, governor, or slug that might listen; none did, and they universally treated me as if I was wasting their time.  I spent countless hours on the L.A. freeways driving to meetings and any and all of the disorganized professional groups who were attempting to mount a campaign against this atrocity.  This, only to discover that our efforts were being easily derailed by a few moles from the brokers who were just beginning to enjoy the windfall from the new declaration of their “freedom”.  Oh, and don’t forget, for all of the time I was spending on this, I was loosing income that I couldn’t bill clients.

After months of struggling it had clearly gotten to be a futile exercise.  The best we could get for all of our trouble is a pronouncement from an IRS mouthpiece that they weren’t going to enforce that provision (read harass engineers and scientists).  This immediately proved to be a lie, and the mere existence of the regulation began to have its impact on my bottom line; this, of course, was the intended effect.

Again, rewind my retirement plans back to 0 and shift them into idle.  If I had any sense, I clearly should have left abandoned engineering and never looked back.

Instead I got busy working 100-hour workweeks.  Then came the L.A. depression of the early 1990s.  Our leaders decided that they didn’t need the all of those extra Air Force bases they had in Southern California, so they were closed; just like that.  The result was economic devastation in the region that rivaled the widely publicized Texas S&L fiasco.  However, because the government caused it, no one gave a shit about all of the young families who lost their homes or street after street of boarded up houses abandoned to the wealthy loan companies who received government funds to “shore up” their windfall.  Again, I lost my retirement.

Years later, after weathering a divorce and the constant struggle trying to build some momentum with my business, I find myself once again beginning to finally pick up some speed.  Then came the .COM bust and the 911 nightmare.  Our leaders decided that all aircraft were grounded for what seemed like an eternity; and long after that, ‘special’ facilities like San Francisco were on security alert for months.  This made access to my customers prohibitively expensive.  Ironically, after what they had done the Government came to the aid of the airlines with billions of our tax dollars … as usual they left me to rot and die while they bailed out their rich, incompetent cronies WITH MY MONEY!  After these events, there went my business but not quite yet all of my retirement and savings.

By this time, I’m thinking that it might be good for a change.  Bye to California, I’ll try Austin for a while.  So I moved, only to find out that this is a place with a highly inflated sense of self-importance and where damn little real engineering work is done.  I’ve never experienced such a hard time finding work.  The rates are 1/3 of what I was earning before the crash, because pay rates here are fixed by the three or four large companies in the area who are in collusion to drive down prices and wages… and this happens because the justice department is all on the take and doesn’t give a fuck about serving anyone or anything but themselves and their rich buddies.

To survive, I was forced to cannibalize my savings and retirement, the last of which was a small IRA.  This came in a year with mammoth expenses and not a single dollar of income.  I filed no return that year thinking that because I didn’t have any income there was no need.  The sleazy government decided that they disagreed.  But they didn’t notify me in time for me to launch a legal objection so when I attempted to get a protest filed with the court I was told I was no longer entitled to due process because the time to file ran out.  Bend over for another $10,000 helping of justice.

So now we come to the present.  After my experience with the CPA world, following the business crash I swore that I’d never enter another accountant’s office again.  But here I am with a new marriage and a boatload of undocumented income, not to mention an expensive new business asset, a piano, which I had no idea how to handle.  After considerable thought I decided that it would be irresponsible NOT to get professional help; a very big mistake.

When we received the forms back I was very optimistic that they were in order.  I had taken all of the years information to Bill Ross, and he came back with results very similar to what I was expecting.  Except that he had neglected to include the contents of Sheryl’s unreported income; $12,700 worth of it. To make matters worse, Ross knew all along this was missing and I didn’t have a clue until he pointed it out in the middle of the audit.  By that time it had become brutally evident that he was representing himself and not me.

This left me stuck in the middle of this disaster trying to defend transactions that have no relationship to anything tax-related (at least the tax-related transactions were poorly documented).  Things I never knew anything about and things my wife had no clue would ever matter to anyone.  The end result is… well, just look around.

I remember reading about the stock market crash before the “great” depression and how there were wealthy bankers and businessmen jumping out of windows when they realized they screwed up and lost everything.  Isn’t it ironic how far we’ve come in 60 years in this country that they now know how to fix that little economic problem; they just steal from the middle class (who doesn’t have any say in it, elections are a joke) to cover their asses and it’s “business-as-usual”.  Now when the wealthy fuck up, the poor get to die for the mistakes… isn’t that a clever, tidy solution.

As government agencies go, the FAA is often justifiably referred to as a tombstone agency, though they are hardly alone.  The recent presidential puppet GW Bush and his cronies in their eight years certainly reinforced for all of us that this criticism rings equally true for all of the government.  Nothing changes unless there is a body count (unless it is in the interest of the wealthy sows at the government trough).  In a government full of hypocrites from top to bottom, life is as cheap as their lies and their self-serving laws.

I know I’m hardly the first one to decide I have had all I can stand.  It has always been a myth that people have stopped dying for their freedom in this country, and it isn’t limited to the blacks, and poor immigrants.  I know there have been countless before me and there are sure to be as many after.  But I also know that by not adding my body to the count, I insure nothing will change.  I choose to not keep looking over my shoulder at “big brother” while he strips my carcass, I choose not to ignore what is going on all around me, I choose not to pretend that business as usual won’t continue; I have just had enough.

I can only hope that the numbers quickly get too big to be white washed and ignored that the American zombies wake up and revolt; it will take nothing less.  I would only hope that by striking a nerve that stimulates the inevitable double standard, knee-jerk government reaction that results in more stupid draconian restrictions people wake up and begin to see the pompous political thugs and their mindless minions for what they are.  Sadly, though I spent my entire life trying to believe it wasn’t so, but violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer.  The cruel joke is that the really big chunks of shit at the top have known this all along and have been laughing, at and using this awareness against, fools like me all along.

I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different.  I am finally ready to stop this insanity.  Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let’s try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well.

The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.

The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.

Joe Stack (1956-2010)

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Corporate Media Smears Medina For Expressing View Shared By Majority Of Americans

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Friday, February 12, 2010

The attack dog corporate media, in cahoots with loathsome phony neo-con crybaby Glenn Beck, are once again attempting to manufacture reality by smearing Debra Medina for expressing a view shared by the vast majority of Americans in an effort to purge her from the Texas gubernatorial race.

Fox News blowhard Glenn Beck attempted to set up Medina on his radio show yesterday by asking her if she believed the U.S. government was involved in 9/11.

“I think some very good questions have been raised in that regard,” Medina said. “There are some very good arguments, and I think the American people have not seen all the evidence there, so I have not taken a position on that.”

Medina’s response was measured and even less vehement that than six of the ten 9/11 commissioners, who have all gone on the record to discuss how the government lied about the official story.

Furthermore, in merely refusing to completely accept the official version of events, Medina stands firmly with the majority of Americans. An October 2006 CBS/New York Times poll found that only 16% of Americans thought the government told the truth about 9/11 and the intelligence prior to the attacks. Medina is in agreement with no less than 84% of Americans who do not readily accept the official story as true.

Callers to 570 KLIF were unanimous in their response to the non-issue, agreeing that Medina’s answer was perfectly acceptable, accurate, and that they wouldn’t change their vote for her.

The following clip is astounding in the fact that it completely unveils how the establishment media has once again brazenly tried, but failed, to dictate reality by claiming that Medina’s campaign is now over, despite the fact that the vast majority of Texans completely agree with her position on 9/11.

Watch the clip.

However, Medina’s statements were immediately seized upon by a political establishment transparently desperate to derail her accelerating poll numbers as she closes in on globalist stooges Rick Perry and Kay Bailey Hutchinson.

All of a sudden, every viewpoint and every opinion of every individual Medina had talked to suddenly became attributed to her as the media aggressively tried to shift the debate away from the issues that have made her so popular in an attempt to tear her down. Beck subsequently expressed his desire to “french kiss” Rick Perry and the fix was in.

Medina has never even talked about 9/11 as part of her platform, but that didn’t stop Hutchinson and Perry operatives flooding Twitter with hoax controversies about her supposed mental instability for daring to say that Americans have the right to question their government.

Within an hour of her appearance on Beck’s show, robo-calls from the Perry and Hutchinson campaigns went out attacking Medina as a “9/11 truther”.

“Wow!! Isn’t that interesting,” wrote one respondent to an Austin-American Statesman story. “How was Mr. Perry’s team so ready to start a massive robo blitz with this new Truther news so quick? Looks like someone is getting scared, and that he had a little help from a friend.”

Indeed, for such calls to be launched so soon after Medina’s appearance, it’s blatant that Beck’s ambush journalism was carefully planned from the very beginning. Perry and Hutchinson were primed to capitalize upon the fake controversy before it even happened.

But unfortunately for the establishment, it seems like the people are not buying the hoax. Just like the KLIF callers, the majority of respondents to the Statesman story expressed their support for Medina and denounced the cheap shots pulled by Glenn Beck.

“Medina raised more than $50,000 yesterday. I doubt that she has “nullified herself”. Her popularity is actually soaring and Beck is receiving thousands of angry emails,” wrote one.

“I just donated $350 to her campaign,” added another, pointing out that Medina has never wavered from her campaign which is based on states’ rights, securing the border, gun owners’ rights and replacing the unconstitutional property tax – all issues which both Perry and Hutchinson have completely abandoned in favor of toadying up to the political elite that owns them.

“The real travesty is the hatchet job perpetrated by this reporter and the rest of the pack of corporate owned media running dogs who pose as journalists,” added another, highlighting the fact that a candidate in the mould of Medina poses a threat to both Democrats and Republicans across the country and the entire two party monopoly that Glenn Beck shills for on a routine basis.

“What Medina said is that there are unanswered questions posed to the government about 911,” states another. “This is 100% true and accurate. The 911 Commission’s report stated that the government withheld evidence and therefore the report was incomplete with unanswered questions.”

For taking a stance similar to six of the ten 9/11 Commissioners, who have all publicly stated that the official story surrounding the attacks is impossible, Medina is being witch hunted by the establishment in a savage McCarthyesque purge.

Medina was gaining on both Perry and Hutchinson at a rate of several points a week. The establishment was straining at the leash to find some mud to sling at her and since they could come up with nothing, they had to engineer a fake spectacle by way of the nationally despised slime ball turncoat Glenn Beck, the neo-con who poses as a libertarian, the man who supported the bailout under Bush and then claimed he had opposed it all along when Obama got in office, the man who ceaselesslycalls for more taxes on the American people while posing as a demagogue of the Tea Party movement which is supposed to stand against new taxes.

As little as seven months ago, Rick Perry and John Cornyn were being booed in Texas at Tea Party events. Now Perry has learned to don a cowboy hat and pretend to be a grass roots populist while selling out Texas’ very infrastructure to foreign companies that Texans will pay tolls to. The Tea Party movement has been hijacked by phony neo-cons like Sarah Palin who endorse Perry while the only real Constitutionalist in the race, Debra Medina, is the victim of an organized smear campaign.

Fine, if Republicans want to continue to pay rising property taxes and fees on toll roads to foreign-owned companies, if they want the border to continue to be wide open, then go ahead and and vote for Bilderberger Rick Perry – you deserve everything you get.

In the meantime, true Constitutionalists, true conservatives and true patriots will continue to support the people’s candidate – Debra Medina – redoubling our efforts in order to expose this entire farce for what it really is – an artificially engineered hatchet job conducted by one of the most loathsome, un-American, big government worshipping corporate media whores ever to open his big mouth – Glenn Beck – the man who fakes crying on demand for photo shoots and proclaims his love for America while selling out every single idea that made America great, the right to dissent, the right to question, and the right to exercise the liberties enshrined in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, all things that Debra Medina stands for, and all things that Perry and Hutchinson have abandoned.

“The most important political office is that of the private citizen”
Justice Louis D. Brandeis

Were it not clear before yesterday in the manner which Glenn Beck sandbagged and set a trap for surging Texas gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina who was rising in the polls and closing in on establishment insiders Rick Perry and Kay Bailey Hutchinson, it should be clear now that Glenn Beck is an inside job, an establishment status quo shill masquerading and posing as a revolutionary. His job is to obfuscate the truth, to serve as an outlet for the supremely misguided and ill informed in America, a master manipulator, a minister of disinformation and propaganda telling authorized truths as a card carrying member of America’s propaganda matrix.

Since I’m a SMU grad and I’m very disappointed in these ratings. I expected students at my Alma mater to recognize true liberty… Debra Medina is the ONLY choice, and owned the other 2 in the debates! What’s going on since I left?

By Elisabeth Brubaker
ebrubake@smu.edu

SMU Professor Dr. Rita Kirk held a focus group in Umphrey Lee Friday night to study the Republican reaction to the Belo debate. Kirk recruited 30 Republicans- both first time and repeat voters to participate in the focus group during the GOP Debate.

Kirk has been doing research for over 20 years. CNN first hired Kirk for the debates during the presidential election primaries. This past weekend she brought her research back to the Hilltop only one day after going to Ohio to dial test the President’s State of the Union address.

The focus groups are used to “dial test” a particular speech or event. Each participant is given a dial to record their perceptions of the candidates (or the President) at any moment throughout the speech or debate.

Kirk loves analyzing the data afterwards. During the candidates’ closing statements Kirk was able to see who did the best overall. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison had the highest rating with 73 out of 100. Governor Rick Perry got a 67 and Debra Medina got a 63.

Some participants offered their opinions of the dial testing and candidates after the debate. Watch the videos for their reactions.

(Editor’s note: Elisabeth Brubaker is a student assistant for Dr. Kirk’s research study.)

One participant said this about the “jeopardy” portion of the debate:

Another participant discussed how she reads the candidates.

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DALLAS—An obscure candidate with backing from the “tea party” movement threatens to deny a decisive victory to either Texas Gov. Rick Perry or Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in the battle for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in Texas.

Little-known Debra Medina made a splash two weeks ago in a televised debate. She criticized the governor for “painting a rosy picture that doesn’t exist” about the Texas economy and said her rivals’ “squabbling isn’t getting us anywhere.”

Mrs. Medina “stole the show,” said Harvey Kronberg, longtime editor of the Quorum Report newsletter in Austin.

Associated Press

Debra Medina

On Friday night, Mrs. Medina will try to prove that her debate showing was no fluke.

A nurse and former Republican Party leader in Wharton County, in south Texas, Mrs. Medina is running on a platform of small government, states’ rights, and the elimination of property taxes and gun-registration laws.

While she appeals to many of the same primary voters as Mr. Perry, she has been trying to tap into Texans‘ anti-incumbent fervor. Mr. Perry has been governor since 2000 and is seeking a third full term; Ms. Hutchison has served in Washington since 1993.

The winner of the March 2 primary is likely to face Bill White, the Democratic former mayor of Houston, in November.

A Rasmussen Reports poll of 831 likely Republican voters, taken three days after the Jan. 14 debate, gave Mrs. Medina 12% support, a jump from the 4% or so she had in earlier surveys. She appeared to have drawn new backing from undecided voters as well as from the Perry and Hutchison camps.

To be sure, Mrs. Medina remained far below Mr. Perry’s 43% and Ms. Hutchison’s 33% voter backing.

And though she has raised $100,000 since the Jan. 14 debate, according to her staff, bringing her total to more than $360,000, the establishment candidates have raised millions of dollars and have already started funding ad campaigns.

They also outpace her on the endorsement front. Sarah Palin is slated to campaign for Mr. Perry in Houston on Feb. 7, and last week former President George H.W. Bush came out for Ms. Hutchison.

Mrs. Medina said her goal was to win the primary, and that victory wasn’t out of reach. “I believe we are fighting the very same battle the Founding Fathers fought,” she said.

View Full Image

Associated Press

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, left, and U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison last week

Her current level of support wouldn’t be enough to win her a place on the November ballot, but it could keep the other candidates from receiving the 51% of the vote needed to avoid an April runoff.

“As long as Medina is in double figures, you have to figure that a runoff is pretty imminent,” said James R. Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project, a program at the University of Texas in Austin that does nonpartisan polling and research.

Spokeswomen for the Perry and Hutchison campaigns predicted their candidates would win outright on March 2.

Mrs. Medina is critical of both Mr. Perry and Ms. Hutchison, calling them “two sides of the same coin.” But she has reserved some of her sharpest jabs for the governor, whom she described in an interview as the “jumpy, fidgety frat boy sitting on stage with me two weeks ago.”

In response to Mrs. Medina’s remark, Catherine Frazier, a spokesman for the governor, said: “Under Gov. Perry’s leadership, Texas is the strongest state in the nation. If that is what she thinks about where Texas is headed, that’s unfortunate.”

Dr. Henson of the Texas Politics Project was among the political mavens who thought Mr. Perry would prevail in a runoff, because he was most likely to capture Mrs. Medina’s voters.

But others thought Ms. Hutchison would benefit from the extra campaign time a runoff would afford and from Mrs. Medina’s attacks on the governor, which the senator encouraged during the first debate.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if we see more fire coming in from Gov. Perry in the direction of Debra Medina,” said Ken Emanuelson, a leader of the tea-party movement in Dallas, which worked to ensure that she was included in both debates.

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AUSTIN — Gov. Rick Perry is far from having the Republican gubernatorial nomination sewn up, but a new poll indicates U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is in danger of having the bottom fall out of her campaign.

The political newsletter Rasmussen Reports released a survey of likely Republican primary voters showing Perry leading 44 percent to Hutchison’s 29 percent, with activist Debra Medina following at 16 percent.

Medina’s support has grown from the 12 percent she held in January, and the

publication said most of her gain appeared to be coming from Hutchison. Both of Medina’s gains in the polls occurred shortly after her participation in debates with Perry and Hutchison.

“Now that the people of Texas are watching and listening, we expect to accelerate drastically this next month in the polls,” Medina campaign manager Penny Langford Freeman said in a statement.

But without financial resources to keep her campaign on television with paid advertising, Medina is likely to fade between now and the March 2 election. A Texas Ethics Commission report filed this week showed Medina had just $68,483 available on Jan. 21.

War chests nearly equal

Perry and Hutchison had enough cash on hand to spend about $2 million a week. Perry pulled slightly ahead of Hutchison for the first time, reporting $10.4 million in the bank to her $10 million.

In the Rasmussen survey, Perry led among conservative Republicans by 18 percentage points, and Hutchison led by 11 percentage points among party moderates. Conservatives tend to dominate party primaries. Rasmussen said for Hutchison to win with current voter attitudes, half the primary voters would have to be moderates.

Both Perry and Hutchison’s spokespeople said the only poll they rely on is the one conducted on Election Day.

“The governor is going to continue traveling the state talking about his conservative record and his vision of the future,” said Perry spokesman Mark Miner.

Hutchison spokeswoman Jennifer Baker said Hutchison will continue to promote a “positive vision” for the state, but she said the poll also had bad news for Perry.

“It should be very troubling to a nine-year incumbent that he can’t get over 44 percent,” Baker said.

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“If there is no access to the small towns, it will change the face of the state.”
— Will Lowrance, Hillsboro Mayor MORE>>

It will connect to Interstate and other major highways. However, by design it will not provide easy, if any, access to the communities it passes by. It will not spur commercial development along its frontage like our Interstate Highways. There will be no frontage. There will be no opportunity for the owners of property it abuts to develop new or expanded businesses with access to the Corridor. Moreover, it has provisions in the plan and the law to place all possible traveler services on the corridor itself.

Every mile of Corridor will consume 146 acres of land. That’s property that will become state owned land – removed from county and school district tax rolls everywhere it extends.

“If it is done the way it’s proposed, it will hurt us eventually …”
— Carlos Vigil, Cooke County Community Development Director MORE>>

Communities with travel and tourism based economies will lose access to those travelers. If the Corridor is successful in attracting traffic away from existing highways communities will suffer significant economic loses.

“With a right-of-way approximately 1,200-feet-wide, the proposed corridor
could change the face of agriculture in Texas forever as it
swallows up thousands of production acres of farmland.”
— Juliet Briskin, Country World News (November 4, 2004) [link]

Where will they build the Corridor?

“The Trans Texas Corridor is a state of mind, not an alignment on a map.”
— Transportation Commissioner Ric Williamson
(March 25, 2003) [citation] [full text]

The plan adopted by the Texas Transportation Commission outlines 4,000 miles of Corridor to crisscross the entire state. Four of those Corridors have been identified by the Texas Department of Transportation as Priority Corridors to be constructed first (shown below in orange). No effort has been made by the state to identify the specific placement of the Corridors. There are however some known constraints. The Corridors do not directly connect large cities. In fact they go around major urban areas for three prime reasons: one, to keep traffic away from existing urban congestion; two, to keep vehicle air pollution out of urban areas; and three, to provide new routes for the transportation of hazardous materials. Topography will also be very important because of the high-speed rail component of the Corridor. It will be necessary that the Corridor be as straight and level as possible (no uphill or downhill grades or sharp turns).

Note: The Priority Routes alone total 4,000 miles;
the complete TTC Plan totals 8,000 miles.

How did the Trans-Texas Corridor get started?

“What started out as a campaign promise is now in the fast lane.”
— Rudy Koski, KVUE News, Austin (March 16, 2004)

In 2002 Governor Perry announced his Corridor vision and instructed TxDOT to prepare an action plan to build the Trans-Texas Corridor. Within six-months TxDOT had completed the plan and presented it to the Transportation Commission. Without any substantive discussion or debate and without public comment the Commission approved the plan as presented on June 27, 2002. [the plan]

“Once the Governor decided that this is where we needed to head,
he wanted to remove it from the political flow of the state,
he wanted it to become policy as opposed to politics,
and that was one of the reasons he asked us to move so fast,
and we’ve done an admirable job….”
— Transportation Commissioner Ric Williamson
(June 27, 2002) [full text]

“If this is the governor’s plan,
I’d like to have the governor come down and explain it to us.”
— Ed Janecka, Fayette County Judge MORE>>

“The Trans-Texas Corridor plan is not the product of transportation professionals, urban planners, sociologists and environmentalists hammering out affordable infrastructure to meet our 21st Century needs. Rather, it was hatched in a smoke-filled room where nobody worried about the needs of ordinary Texans.”
— Dick Kallerman, Transportation Issue Coordinator, Sierra Club Lone Star Chapter [more]

Since the plan was developed a series of state laws have been put into place drastically changing the highway construction and financing rules — giving the Texas Transportation Commission unprecedented authority and power. The most significant of these new laws is known as House Bill 3588. [HB-3588]

The Legislature “threw the door wide open . . . and we intend to use it.”
— Transportation Commissioner Robert L. Nichols
(Texas Good Roads Annual Meeting: June 30, 2003)

“It [HB-3588] gives us all of the authority and all of the power we need on a state level to move forward on the Trans-Texas Corridor, plus some.”
— Phillip Russell, Director, Texas Turnpike Authority Division
(August 20, 2003) [citation] [full text]

The Commission may acquire, in the name of the state, public or private real property as they determine to be necessary or convenient for the construction, enlargement or operation of the Trans Texas Corridor.

The Commission can lease or sell part of the property, for any purpose, including placing on the adjoining right-of-way a gas station, garage, store, hotel, restaurant, parking facility, railroad track, or billboard under terms they set. They can even lease it back to the original owner or any other public or private entity for unrelated commercial or industrial purposes.

“The Governor, the Texas Transportation Commission, the TxDOT, the administration — our staff — we are all committed to implementing this plan. We believe it is real.” — Commissioner Robert Nichols, Texas Transportation Commission (August 20, 2003) [citation] [full text]

If you’re thinking that this won’t happen for several years into the  future, you’re kidding yourself. The draft agenda for the Transportation Commission’s December 2004 meeting includes as item number 11, “Turnpike Project / Various Counties – Approve the selection of the best value proposal for the planning, development, acquisition, design, construction, financing, maintenance, and operation of the Oklahoma-Mexico priority element of the Trans-Texas Corridor system generally paralleling IH 35 (TTC-35); and authorize the department to execute a comprehensive development agreement with the chosen developer.” [link]

“. . . we are very aggressive, we’re very serious about it,
and we are going to move forward on it.”
— Phillip Russell, Director, Texas Turnpike Authority Division
(August 20, 2003) [citation] [full text]

It has been their plan for more than a year . . .

“Our goal is to award — our plan is to award and execute the CDA by late 2004. We stand committed to that schedule, and we’re going to work very hard to try to maintain that schedule.” — Edward Pensock, Director of Corridor Planning & Development, Texas Turnpike Authority Division (August 20, 2003) [citation] [full text]

“That’s our commitment to you, and that’s our promise.” — Edward Pensock, Director of Corridor Planning & Development, Texas Turnpike Authority Division (August 20, 2003) [citation] [full text]

“. . . I think you see that trend of a Governor and of a Commission and of a Department that’s going to be very aggressive moving forward. We don’t want any grass to grow under our feet, and so we will be moving very, very aggressively forward on this project. You know, the goal here really is, from the Governor and the Commission on down, is they want a contract executed — a developer selected and a contract executed next year. And they want to get down to the business of this as soon as possible.” — Phillip Russell, Director, Texas Turnpike Authority Division (August 20, 2003) [citation] [full text]

The official Trans-Texas Corridor Plan reads,

“. . . acquiring property for all components must begin as soon as possible.” [plan page 44]

“The truth is this is a 50-year plan with an emphasis on the first ten years to get moving
and to focus on the primary corridors as quickly as possible to relieve congestion and
move hazardous material out of our current urbanized areas.”
— Transportation Commissioner Ric Williamson
(June 27, 2002) [full text]

“. . . we are very aggressive, we’re very serious about it, and we are going to move forward on it.” — Phillip Russell, Director, Texas Turnpike Authority
(August 20, 2003) [citation] [full text]

“You can’t say the idea is a joke when you’ve got three international companies proposing
multibillion-dollar investments in the first piece.”
— Transportation Commissioner Ric Williamson
(July 4, 2004) [link]

If you take comfort in the lengthy environmental process and public hearings for a highway project of this massive size, you’re in for a rude awakening.  The Federal Highway Administration announced on March 16, 2004, that the first segment of the Trans Texas Corridor (Hillsboro to San Antonio) has been granted ‘experimental project’ status and construction can begin before the environmental study is complete. MORE>>

“Under the streamlined process, public hearings  would still be conducted,
but they would not have to be completed before work started.”
— Fort Worth Star-Telegram (March 16, 2004) MORE>>

“I think definitely the Trans-Texas Corridor project as a whole, and even any one corridor … potentially has enormous environmental impacts.”
— Ken Kramer, Sierra Club Lone Star Chapter MORE>>

There are hundreds of flaws in the plan that one journalist has called, “Perry’s Imperial Corridor.” There are so many problems its hard to know where to start.

Kay Bailey Hutchison

Debra Medina

Rick Perry

Watch Medina debate Gov. Perry and Sen. Hutchison online at http://texasdebates.org

The Texas Debates: Race for Governor on Thursday, January 14 at 7:00 p.m.