5th Day of Christmas

On the 5th day of Christmas Pete Olson gave to me:
No name I.D.,
Poll-tested words,
Three months in Fort Bend,
More homophobia we're tired of,
And bags full of D.C. money!

4th Day of Christmas

My apologies to all of Santa's little helpers who missed me yesterday.

On the 4th day of Christmas Pete Olson gave to me:
Poll-tested words,
Three months in Fort Bend,
More homophobia we're tired of,
And bags full of D.C. money!

3rd Day of Christmas

On the 3rd day of Christmas Pete Olson gave to me:
Three months in Fort Bend,
More homophobia we're tired of,
And bags full of D.C. money!

2nd Day of Christmas

On the 2nd day of Christmas Pete Olson gave to me:
More homophobia we're tired of,
And bags full of D.C. money!

You've got questions? Shelley's the answer.

A news article posted today by our friends at KHOU asks the question: What's wrong with the Fort Bend GOP? The piece goes on to attack the Fort Bend Republican establishment, pretty much declaring it a shadow of its former self.

While I disagree with the general tone of the piece, many of the points raised are true. The cohesive unit that once was, is no longer. And the sad fact is that the people who are suffering from this the most are us, the citizens of the county and District 22. We're the ones who've been stuck with the His Accidency from Beaumont, the guy with nothing but his own interests and political gain in mind.

But what's at stake is more than just Fort Bend County -- it's the entire district. And since we as Fort Bend County residents are all trying to solve the Lampson Problem, perhaps we should broaden our horizons.

I think the answer isn't in Fort Bend County, but in Harris County. We should stop looking at the good ole boys, and start looking to an experienced, committed woman for leadership.

That's right, the answer is Shelley Sekula Gibbs.

She's the type of person who can pull together a fractured county, or even more importantly, a fractured district. She's the type of person who can send Nick Lampson back to the refineries of Beaumont. She's the type of person who can lead us for years to come.

But she can't do it by herself. It's up to us to support her through this process and vote her into office. It's going to take people power to fight the Pete Olson and Nick Lampson political machines.

I'm up to the job. Are you?

1st Day of Christmas

On the 1st Day of Christmas Pete Olson gave to me, bags full of D.C. money!

Give Your Saturday to Shelley

Shelley needs your help for her Petition Drive!

When: Saturday, December 15, 2007, 9:30 a.m.
What: Petition Drive for Dr. Shelley Sekula Gibbs for Congress
Where: Dr. Shelley Sekula Gibbs for Congress Campaign Headquarters, 1001 Pineloch Drive, Suite 650 – Houston, TX 77062
Why: To Help Gather Signatures for Dr. Shelley Sekula Gibbs’ Candidate Filing Petition.

Defeating Nick Lampson will require all of our support. I hope everyone can make it.

-Joel

Half-Witted Criticism from Half-Empty Minds

It's come to my attention that our friends at the liberal Half Empty blog, in addition to fawning over the discredited global warming alarmism of Al Gore (not the dopey Gore, but the doughy one), have taken to attacking our fearless leader and the next Congresswoman from CD-22, Shelley Sekula Gibbs.

In a smug and misleading posting entitled "Sekula Gibbs Touts Racist Islamophobic Blog," this guy named Hal at Half Empty (just sounds like a Democratic blog, doesn't it?) not only tramples on one man's First Amendment rights, but also equates every questionable view he holds with Shelley Sekula Gibbs, simply because she links to an article on his Web site.

Shelley quoted the Rhymes with Right blog on her Web site to bring attention to a piece Rhymes with Right had written about Shelley raising grassroots cash while Nick Lampson was bathing in out-of-state special interest money (I know, I'm starting to confuse him with Pete Olson too).

Sure enough, Democrat bloggers fearful of a Sekula Gibbs victory in 2008 (it's inevitable) sought to discredit Shelley and affiliate her with views she clearly does not hold, using a handful of isolated postings from the Rhymes with Right site to create the illusion that Shelley Sekula Gibbs was somehow racist.

Link to a news article on someone's Web site and you're a racist? That's Democratic logic for you.

I can assure you that Shelley Sekula Gibbs is not racist, homophobic, bigoted or unkind to any of God's creatures. She was, in fact, married to someone of a different race than her, the late Sylvan Rodriguez, and she currently counts amongst her supporters people of different races, religions and orientations.

To throw around the label "racist" without any proof or supporting evidence is reckless and irresponsible. This is one of the many dirty tricks I expect to see Fort Bend Democrats pulling in the months ahead. What a shame.

-Joel

Results of the Candidate Forum in Sugar Land

A friend of mine just returned from today's Sugar Land Candidate Forum and wanted me to pass on the following information to my loyal readers. My comments are in parenthesis.

First of all, Shelley Sekula Gibbs hit the ball out of the park. (I don't think this surprises anyone.) A natural leader, she spoke about her true conservative credentials and her 100 percent rating from National Right to Life. (Another stellar showing from a true class act. Can anyone even compete with this woman?)

Alan "Doogie" Steinberg had a surprisingly good performance. He was a refreshing change of pace and was surprisingly well spoken.

Robert Talton also had a good showing.

Dean Hrbacek sucked.

Pete Olson pecked like a chicken at the podium and was wooden, bland and forgettable.

Jim Squier was a snoozer. People were literally dozing in their seats as he spoke.

John Manlove was okay.

Rowley ... huh? Who is this guy?

Brian Klock talked about his experiences in the Navy and made Pete Olson's military career seem like he was dropping fries at McDonald's. (Poor Pete, does anyone even like this guy?) .....

Anyway, looks like another victory for Shelley. This race is hers to lose.

-Joel

Shelley's Getting Noticed, and So is the Carpetbagger Blog

I want to comment on some things being discussed on a rival CD-22 blog, CD22 Watcher.

While this is by and large a good site and I agree with many of the things being said on it, I do take offense at some of the personal shots being leveled against me in a recent post. With an overall dismissive tone, the CD22 Watcher posters, whoever the hell they are, have implied that I'm childish and not "real" enough for them. Don't you guys know not to hassle the Hosh!

Well, I assure you guys that I'm for real, and you can bet your ass that Shelley Sekula Gibbs is for real, and come March she's going to clobber all these other people running in CD-22 and we're going to send her back to Washington. Hear that, Pete Olson?

Now that we've discussed the issues we disagree on, I think we can all agree that the current guy we're stuck with, Nick Lampson, is in business for himself and has little to nothing to do with the people of this district. We're just the folks he has to deal with every couple of years come election time. He's the Accidental Congressman, who scored a fluke victory due to circumstance, and he's been galavanting around flashing that snide grin of his ever since.

We don't need that guy. We don't need MoveOn.org and George Soros money polluting our political process. We don't need any more liberal hypocrisy.

We need someone honest, genuine and sincere. Someone with the talent, support and experience to do our district, and our country, proud. Someone who cares about others, not about self.

Who can do these things better than Shelley Sekula Gibbs (no hyphen)?

Who is more caring and compassionate than a doctor who has helped Southeast Texans for more than 28 years? Shelley cares for the unborn too, having co-sponsored the Fetal Pain Bill while in Congress and having gotten a 100 percent rating from the National Right to Life.

Who is better equipped to be our Congresswoman than someone who has already served in Congress and who has, as an elected official, saved the people she represents hundreds of thousands of tax dollars?

And as CD22 Watcher noted, who has the financial support necessary to compete with the elitist carpetbagging twosome of Nick Lampson and Pete Olson? None other than Shelley Sekula Gibbs, that's who. (You heard me right, Jake, P.O. is indeed an elitist carpetbagger).

When you add it all up and put all the pieces together, the choice for CD-22 is simple, it's a no-brainer: Shelley Sekula Gibbs. We sent her once, let's send her again.

I encourage you all to read Shelley's biography. It's a touching account of one woman's rise from obscurity in Floresville, Tx., and ascension to the halls of Congress. It wouldn't surprise me if they made a movie out of it someday. Seriously.

What a woman.

-Joel

Creating a Smaller, More Responsive Government

Today I'd like to discuss Shelley's stance on one of the most important issues facing our great Nation, the size and scope of government.

As Shelley so astutely puts it in her smaller government issue brief, "We need real spending reform in Washington. ... Elect me, and I'll fight for the programs that matter most, and work to cut those that are wasteful."

She's right, we do need spending reform. But that's only one part of smaller government. It goes beyond cutting wasteful programs. We can do more. What about intrusive legislation? Government is infringing on so many of our civil liberties, and the next member of Congress from our district can play a role in stemming the tide of governmental interference.

It's more than spending reform, ending these "bridges to nowhere" (thanks Ted Stevens), and cutting all the 11th hour earmark nonsense. When one thinks about the tenets of small government, one of the most basic and obvious is less legislation, fewer laws.

That's one of the things the libertarians have right. Allow me to quote Ron Paul. Though he specifically refers to "racists" in this passage, the smaller government characteristics he's espousing are the same:

"It is the federal government that most divides us by race, class, religion, and gender. Through its taxes, restrictive regulations, corporate subsidies, racial set-asides, and welfare programs, government plays far too large a role in determining who succeeds and who fails. Government 'benevolence' crowds out genuine goodwill by institutionalizing group thinking, thus making each group suspicious ... This leads to resentment and hostility among us.

"Racism is simply an ugly form of collectivism, the mindset that views humans strictly as members of groups rather than as individuals. ... By encouraging Americans to adopt a group mentality, the advocates of so-called 'diversity' actually perpetuate racism.
The true antidote to racism is liberty. Liberty means having a limited, constitutional government devoted to the protection of individual rights rather than group claims."

Well said, Ron. There are many "isms" that you could substitute in here. Americans are more than the groups we belong to, and a healthy dose of liberty would benefit us all. We don't need pork barrell spending, and we certainly don't need invasive legislation that creates division among us, that tells us how to live and that enters our personal lives.

Smaller government is one of the fundamental needs of this country. Ron Paul gets it, and Shelley Sekula Gibbs damn sure gets it.

I'm not so sure Nick Lampson does. Maybe it's all that polluted Beaumont air he breathes.

-Joel

Four Ways You Can Make A Difference in Our Community Today!

Hello, fellow CD-22 watchers. I wanted to briefly share with you four important steps you can take today to make a difference for Shelley Sekula Gibbs and for the surrounding communities. We all play a vital role in the political process, and we must work tirelessly if we expect to defeat liberal Democrat Nick Lampson in 2008.

1. Contribute Now: As we know, waging a political campaign to compete with a well-funded (George Soros, MoveOn.org) politician such as Nick Lampson requires your financial support. You can help Shelley in her quest for Congress by donating here: https://www.completecampaigns.com/public.asp?name=SekulaGibbs&page=1.


2. Volunteer Now: Shelley's strength has always been People Power, and with that in mind, this is your chance to jump on board with a winner and volunteer to help Shelley and her campaign out. You can get yard signs, make phone calls, even walk your neighborhood for Shelley. We need you! https://www.completecampaigns.com/public.asp?name=SekulaGibbs&page=4


3. Tell a Friend: E-mail a friend to let them know how important this race is and what Shelley has to offer the people of CD-22: http://sekulagibbs.sitebuilder.completecampaigns.com/sbcc/tellafriend.php.


4. Join the Mailing List: Want to know about the latest happenings in Shelley's race to win CD-22? Get all the latest info by joining Shelley's mailing list. Your privacy will be respected, and your name won't be given to anyone. Don't forget to tell a friend, and you can always unsubscribe later: http://sekulagibbs.sitebuilder.completecampaigns.com/sbcc/subscribe.php.

Thanks to all of you. I'll be back later with more.

-Joel

In Defense of Shelley Sekula Gibbs

It seems some of my friends out in cyberspace think I haven't done a good enough job of communicating Shelley's accomplishments to you, my loyal readers. I'm happy you care enough to chime in. I thank you all for posting and I do value your comments.

This is for my friend Jake (and Jake, Pete Olson is the carpetbagger in this race, but I'll get more into that at a later date). Thanks for adding your thoughts, Jake.

As far as listing Shelley's accomplishments goes, I don't have nearly enough space to do it. But I'll try and come up with a couple of bullet points for you Pete Olson supporters out there, so you know who you're up against. I'll post some more of Shelley's greatest hits later.

I think it's important first to consider the fact that Shelley Sekula Gibbs is a winner who has already served ably in Congress. Even with all the post-DeLay fallout of last year, she won the special election of 2006 and finished out DeLay's term. She has already built a rapport with other members of Congress and served into the beginning of this year. She even had to deal with old DeLay staffers trying to make things difficult for her, and she still was fighting for our interests! (Clean the trash out, Shelley! Send 'em home if they don't want to get on board with a winner!)

She also had one hell of a showing in the general election of 2006, even though she was a write-in candidate who was not on the ballot. Think about that for a few seconds, in the post-DeLay era, she was able to deliver a tremendous showing as a write-in, meaning that people literally had to key in (correctly) 18 characters to vote for her, 19 if you count the hyphen in her last name! (I think she has since dropped the hyphen, but let's not make a big deal out of it.)

We love you Shelley, hyphen or no hyphen!

Shelley has proven that she's willing to walk through walls for the people of Congressional District 22, and she will continue to when we send her back to Congress.

Nick Lampson, you're a bozo. We got our eyes on you, buddy. Back to Beaumont you go!

Another Also-Ran ... Dean Who?

And another person I've been hearing a lot about lately is this Dean Her... Dean Hur... Dean Who-is-this-guy-bacek character.

Seriously, when was the last time Dean Hrbacek won an election in CD22? In the '90s? Come on. And who can say his last name anyway. There's not even any vowels in it.

Move on over, Deano Machino, Shelley's a-comin' through!

Join the SSG Movement!!!!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and ate plenty of turkey (but not too much, gluttony is sinful). I had a good holiday myself, thinking about the biggest turkey in Congressional District 22, Pete Olson.

But enough about P.O. (short for P.O. Box, which is all he has in this district as far as I'm concerned). Today I'd like to talk about Shelley Sekula-Gibbs and the support she's getting in CD-22 and across America.

If you haven't visited the SSG Web site, let me encourage you to. It can be found at http://sekula-gibbsforcongress.com/. One of the best places on the site to learn about Shelley is the "Media Releases" section. I've got it bookmarked!

Now, don't let all those silly spelling errors distract you (I'm going to have to talk to Shelley about fixing those, don't you worry), the campaign has a lot going on and Shelley's got a lot to say.

Here is one of my favorite releases: Sekula Gibbs Proves She Is The Republican Candidte To Beat In TX 22. Guess who we've got supporting us? That's right, none other than John O'neil of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth fame! We are goint to Swift Boat Nick Lampson and Pete Olson and anybody else who gets in Shelley's way. Torpedoes everywhere! Who knows, John may even write another book: Unfit for Command 2: Swift Boat Veterans for CD-22! Hey, you never know.

One more and then I've got to run. This one is recent:
First Block Walk Nets Tremendous Support. That's right, we just had our first block walk in CD-22 and it was a huge, and I mean huge, success! We collected more than 250 signatures to get Shelley on the ballot. That's right, there are already more than 250 Shelley supporters throughout District 22, and that number grows by the day.

Like Shelley said, “With this kind of response I wouldn’t be surprised if we collected 5000 signatures!” And so we shall, Shelley. And so we shall!

Word of the Day

car·pet·bag·ger/ˈkɑrpɪtˌbægər/
–noun

1. U.S. History. a Northerner who went to the South after the Civil War and became active in Republican politics, esp. so as to profiteer from the unsettled social and political conditions of the area during Reconstruction.

2. any opportunistic or exploitive outsider: Our bus company has served this town for years, but now the new one run by carpetbaggers from the city is stealing our business.
[Origin: 1865–70, Americanism; carpetbag + -er1; so called because they came South carrying their belongings in carpetbags]

—Related forms: car·pet·bag·ger·y, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Welcome to the Carpetbagger Blog!

This is the inaugural edition of the Carpetbagger Blog. The Carpetbagger Blog represents all the people of Texas' 22nd Congressional District. I'm here for you guys, blogging about the issues you care about!

The purpose of this blog is to share with you all the importance of re-electing Shelley Sekula-Gibbs to the U.S. Congress and of not letting this ridiculous fellow Pete Olson come in from Washington and steal Shelley's seat with his money and connections. Who is this guy anyway?

You see, Shelley is a fifth generation Texan who has already ably served us in Congress, whereas Pete Olson is a LIFELONG BELTWAY RESIDENT who moved into the district at the last minute just to run for this Congressional seat, which as we know, belongs to Shelley.

Pete Olson did not (1.) Purchase his house, (2.) Register to vote in the district, or (3.) Register to drive in Texas until AUGUST 2007!!! We deserve better! We deserve Shelley!

I'll be back with more later. Re-elect Shelley Sekula-Gibbs in CD22!!!!!

-Joel