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Support of Our Armed Forces

Restoring American Sovereignty and Leadership > Domestic > Support of Our Armed Forces
We support the armed forces. We recommend modernizing and maintaining the equipment and weapons for the safety and effectiveness of our armed forces. While we support a continued policy of an overwhelmingly strong military, we also support fiscal sanity: we demand termination of wasteful or ineffective equipment and weapons programs. We demand that displaced military personnel have their votes counted. We support construction of a Texas veterans museum.We encourage all Americans to support the brave and patriotic men and women of our armed forces. They should be paid a wage sufficient to prevent them from ever needing food stamps and that encourages retention. We strongly recommend that all our armed forces remain commanded only by the Commander-in-Chief and his subordinate commanders; upgrading, modernizing and maintaining the equipment, weapons, and vehicles for the safety, efficiency and effectiveness of our armed forces; the continuation of the all volunteer armed forces, the recruitment and advancement of military personnel based on the needs of the military and the qualifications of the person; disqualification of homosexuals from military service; immediate discharge of HIV positive individuals; separation of men and women in basic training; exclusion of women from ground and submarine combat roles; provision of full military honors for burial of veterans; restoration of all veteran benefits without an offset for disability pay; health and disability benefits equal to active military for national guard and reserves; passage of a "new" G.I Bill that fully funds expanded educational scholarship opportunities for honorably separated Veterans; restoration of full lifetime health benefits to retired military and their families; and assurance that military and civilian voters displaced by their service be afforded full opportunity for their votes to be counted; and the expeditious construction of a Veterans Museum in Texas.

This is a terrible, unfocused plank that is a grab bag of random wishes and left-wing government expansionism.

Wages are an economic issue in every industry, including the military. If wages are too low, they will show up in poor recruitment and retention numbers. Given good recruiting numbers, there is little evidence of insufficient wages.

There is no credible movement to:

  • Reassign commandment of the armed forces away from the President.
  • Move away from a volunteer force.
  • Recruit to fill ranks with unqualified people.

The issue of women in combat roles is an internal issue for the military and does not deserve mention here. If it comes down to it, women may decline to serve in the military if they do not want a combat role.

These are in fact left-wing and remarkably expensive policies:

  • Removing disability pay offset: A lack of an offset for other disability pay is unfair: you collect twice for one disability!
  • Full health benefits for National Guard and reservists: U.S. health benefits are typically a function of employment. National Guard and reservists do not work when they are not on duty, so it makes little sense to extend health coverage to off-duty times.
  • Lifetime health benefits: Just like with any other employer-sponsored health plan, military health plan should terminate upon end of employment.

It is counterproductive and pointless to have a witch hunt for homosexuals.

There is zero evidence that the military is mishandling HIV.

Separation of men and women in basic training is counterproductive. They will have to work together in the field. Why create artificial barriers?

The G.I. Bill provision is accomplished. The current bill pays up to $47,556 in educational benefits over a maximum of 36 months.

This plank is wordy. For example:

  • "Upgrading" and "modernizing" are the same thing.
  • Vehicles are a type of equipment.
  • Something that is safe and efficient is also effective.
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Rural and Volunteer Fire Departments

Strengthening the Economy > Government Spending > Rural and Volunteer Fire Departments
We urge Congress to overturn the rules of the U. S. Department of Labor restricting volunteerism by paid firefighters and emergency medical technician personnel.
(plank deleted)

The Department of Labor in 2002 determined that EMTs and fire fighters may volunteer for a volunteer fire department (VFD). The problem is only when the professional is employed by a VFD and wants to volunteer time to the same VFD. This creates unique compliance problems with the Fair Labor Standards Act (source).

This is probably too narrow of a circumstance to belong in a state platform document. However, if it is meritous, it must be corrected to challenge ambiguity in the FLSA.

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Right To Keep and Bear Arms

Promoting Individual Freedom and Personal Safety > Individual Freedom > Right To Keep and Bear Arms
We support a fundamental right to bear arms. We oppose gun ownership monitoring and unusual taxation or regulation of guns and ammunition. We support stiff penalties for felonies committed with firearms. We believe the Texas Legislature should: - Allow concealed handgun license (CHL) holders to carry concealed weapons in colleges and universities. - Prevent employers from prohibiting CHL holders from storing their concealed handgun in their vehicle. - Protect property owners who allow concealed weapons from civil liability.We urge the Legislature and Congress to repeal all laws that infringe on the right to bear arms, and to reject any monitoring of gun ownership, and all excessive taxation or regulation of guns and ammunition. We support a ten-year minimum mandatory sentence without parole for felonies committed with firearms. Stiff penalties should be enacted for frivolous lawsuits against legitimate firearms manufacturers. All gun owners are responsible for safely storing and operating firearms. We believe the Legislature should enact legislation: allowing: Concealed Handgun License holders to carry concealed weapons on publicly owned institutions of learning; and, preventing employers from prohibiting Concealed Handgun License holders from storing their concealed handgun in their vehicle while on a company parking area, and removing civil liability from property owners who do not prevent Concealed Handgun License holders from carrying on their premises. We believe that FFL holders should be free from harassment, and license revocations and denials against firearm dealers based on violations consisting of largely inconsequential recordkeeping errors and encourages the ATF to consider lesser gradation of sanctions for such errors.

Frivolous lawsuits are a general tort reform measure and do not belong here. That notwithstanding, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act was signed by President Bush in 2005.

"All gun owners are responsible for safely storing and operating firearms." This is a common sense, obvious statement that does not belong in a platform.

The idea that a person should be free from harrassment and not inundated by red tape is a general issue of proper governance and is not unique to firearms-related issues.

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Private Education

Educating Our Children > Private Education
Parents have the fundamental right and responsibility for educating their children, and the state should not have power to force any parent or guardian to send their children to public school. Parents or guardians may choose to educate their children in private school without government interference of any kind. Home education is legally recognized as private education. We urge the Legislature to require cities and counties to exempt private school students from daytime curfew ordinances. WeWe urge the Legislature to require University Interscholastic League (UIL) to open participation to private schoolsstudents who do not attend public school.

There is no credible movement to force public schooling on those who make other reasonable choices.

On "Home education is legally recognized as private education.": the platform is not where you interpret law, even if that's true.

Daytime curfiew is handled elsewhere.

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Stem Cell Research

Strengthening Families, Protecting Life and Promoting Health > Protecting Innocent Human Life > Stem Cell Research
We oppose using human embryos for medical research. We encourage stem cell research using non-embryo cell sources.We oppose any legislation that would allow for the creation and/or killing of human embryos for medical research. We encourage stem cell research using cells from umbilical cords, from adults, and from any other means which does not kill human embryos. We oppose any state funding of research that destroys/kills human embryos. We encourage the adoption of existing embryos. We call for legislation to withhold state and/or federal funding from institutions that engage in scientific research involving the killing of human embryos or human cloning.

The plank is internally redundant. If you oppose a practice, then of course you oppose funding for the practice!

Embryo adoption is really just embryo donation, already a common practice. And it's of questionable practicality for dealing with surplus embryos. As of 2006, CBS reported 400,000 surplus embryos (link). As of August 2009, only 207 had been handled under this program (source). That is only one twentieth of one percent, or 0.05%. This should not be in a platform document.

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State Bar Requirements

Preserving American Freedom > Reforming the Judicial System > State Bar Requirements
Attorneys who obtain their law degree through learning by electronic means or U.S. mail, from an accredited school of law, should be allowed to take the Texas Bar Exam.
(plank deleted)

It is true that Texas does not recognize J.D. degrees from "correspondence or online based law schools". See item 2 under General Questions of the Texas Board of Law Examiners's Frequently Asked Questions.

However, the legal community must handle this issue itself. This is neither a pressing issue nor does it have partisan relevance.

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Random plank

Strengthening Families, Protecting Life and Promoting Health > Protecting Innocent Human Life > RU 486
We urge the FDA to rescind approval of the physically dangerous RU-486 and oppose limiting the manufacturers' and distributors' liability.
Reason:

RU-486 has valid uses besides harming fetuses, and the evidence on harm to women is sketchy. Our Right to Life plank is fully covers harm to fetuses; this plank is therefore redundant.

incorrect, redundant

Problems

Show problem parts of the platform:
Platforms promote principles and policies. Planks must not push particular polymorphic political proposals, including bills.about a specific bill (6)
Parts of these were recently implemented.accomplished (11)
Parts of these only promote limited religious viewpoints.advances religious doctrine (8)
Too many positions already overwhelm voters. We cannot add more without a plan to cut ballot complexity.another elected office (6)
The GOP should not be a virulent, anti-homosexual crusade.anti-homosexual crusade (6)
These destroy useful customs or start us down slippery slopes.bad precedent (17)
Cliches belong on the playground, not in serious platforms.cliche (5)
These contradict other planks.contradictory (13)
These simply go too far, overshooting a rational remedy.extreme (25)
These have factual errors.incorrect (11)
These planks advanced contemporary liberal causes or expand government.leftist (22)
These planks require belief in something that is untrue.misinformed (18)
These are not appropriate for a platform document.misuse of platform (6)
These planks have minor punctuation or grammatical errors.needs copyedit (8)
These problems were fixed before the 2008 platform was published.no longer relevant (3)
"Black helicopters" and paranoid conspiracy have no place in our party.paranoid (15)
Parts of these do nothing useful.pointless (61)
These proposals would make our kids stupider.reduces education quality (3)
These planks are internally redundant or repeat other parts of the platform.redundant (41)
These planks should propose a more general solution.too specific (6)
These planks are unclear or unfocused.vague (19)
Puffy prose, hackneyed phrases, and obscure words create pinheaded, unfocused, and inaccessible platforms. Platforms must be simple and direct.wordy (47)

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