What "Freedom's Truth" Really Said

In 2007, I helped set up a community blog, Travis Monitor, with the purpose to share the Republican and conservative perspective on events in Austin, Travis county, Texas and the nation. This blog has had several authors, and, as with many blogs and with the authors of the Federalist papers, a 'nom de plume' is used by most of us. I've gone under "Freedom's Truth".

I am Patrick McGuinness, an engineer at Freescale, a father of four, and Republican candidate for State Representative. On this blog, I've written on education, learning, energy, the economy, outsourcing, net neutrality, patriotism, political parties, Keynes and other topics. Even some quotes by George Washington, in particular one that is apropos:
“Truth will ultimately prevail where there is pains to bring it to light.” – George Washington

By digging around in the blog for a few snippets and twisting them out of context, my opponent has used some blog comments in a campaign ad that misleads voters about where I really stand. It's 'gotcha' negative politics.

For example, in reaction to Rep Alan Grayson, a Democratic Congressman who claimed the Republican health care plan was for people to 'die quickly', I had a response to that outrage that lamented, "4 million jobs lost and all the Democrats can do is piddle around with smears and lies about Republicans. Have they at long last no shame..." I said Rep Grayson deserved to be fired (voters will agree with me and do so next Tuesday), after calling him and his fellow Democrats "liars" and "unfit to govern". That latter phrase made it into a 30-second spot.

My sharp words for the Democrats in Congress under Nancy Pelosi have been taken out of context to imply a harsh view of all Democrats, but in fact it is the partisan left-leaning ideological approach of this Congress that I've lamented. In this campaign, I've heard many with even harsher judgement for this failed (and soon to be fired) Democratic Congress. I have been friendly and agreeable with some Democrats (not in Congress), even voted 1 or 2 in recent years, but it's the failures of Democratic politicians at the national level that has motivated me to run for office. We cannot afford the direction the liberal Democrats are taking the country, and I count my opponent, Democrat Mark Strama, endorser of Obama, among them for supporting many of the same flawed policies.

My opponent is painting a false picture of where I stand on the basis of a few snippets, but the internet has the best memory and you can be the judge of where I really stand and what I really said. I have put links below of the items he went to. Yet there are other posts more relevant to what I am about. Should I become State Representative, I earnestly will work with others for the betterment of Texas, and heated words - whether in 30-second ads or on blogs - will not be what counts. Our actions always speak louder than our words.

1) http://travismonitor.blogspot.com/2009/05/statesman-celebrates-stupidity-in-texas.html
I substituted "stupidity" for "moderation" to satirize the Austin-American Statesman for overusing the word 'moderate' and for lauding the 'moderate' trend in the statehouse in a news article. My opponent has taken a satirical rewrite of a Statesman article and treated a snippet as a serious viewpoint.

2) http://travismonitor.blogspot.com/2009/04/blue-dogs.html

Politicians in Congress who claimed to be 'blue dog Democrats' but supported Speaker Pelosi and the liberal agenda of the Democratic leadership were described as 'unprincipled hypocritical liars'. This statement was directed at politicians in Congress who claimed to be one thing but do another, and was falsely attributed by my opponent to represent my view of all Democrats.

3) http://travismonitor.blogspot.com/2009/06/gores-pseudo-science-now-unsafe-in.html

The phrase "Globaloney Warming Nonsense" was directed at Al Gore and his documentary, which was "riddled with falsehoods" as pointed out by many critics of Gore's film. My opponent incorrectly associates it with a view of overall global warming, but in fact, the key point is that Gore's work does not accurately reflect where the science is on global warming, as the links attest to.

4) http://travismonitor.blogspot.com/2007/01/friday-night-forums.html

I discussed why Pitts' candidacy against Speaker Craddick was a problem. For the state House to operate properly when there is a Republican majority, the Speaker should be supported by the majority of the Republican caucus. This was twisted by Strama into an endorsement of 'Craddick's divisive leadership' but is actually an endorsement of a House leadership that reflects the will of the majority in the House. Such leadership will be more stable than a leadership that is distrusted by most members of the majority party in the House.

5) Claim - "Renewable energy does nothing" http://travismonitor.blogspot.com/2009/12/renewable-energy-does-nothing.html

The phrase "Renewable energy does nothing" is the headline of a post that cites a critical
report from Germany on renewable energy incentives, which stated that:
"Renewable energies are thus among the most expensive GHG reduction measures. ...
There are much cheaper ways to reduce carbon dioxide emissions than subsidizing renewable energies. ...
In fact, since the establishment of the ETS in 2005, the EEG’s net climate effect has been equal to zero."

The headline summarized the conclusions of a German report, and Strama should study this German report to understand how his own energy proposals might not work.

6) In the May 20, 2009 post, I stated that there were some bad ideas in the session including "higher spending in many areas like SCHIP".
My opponently distorted this to claim that I said the CHIP program as a whole was a 'bad idea'. That does not reflect my view, and I never said it.
Given our looming budget shortfall that has been made larger by increased spending in the prior legislative cycle, my skepticism of increased spending "in many areas" was warranted. This is the quote in context:

"In the bad idea category: Draconian McCain-Feingold style dictation of political activist groups; a higher gas tax; a nanny-state smoking ban; higher spending in many areas like SCHIP; nothing on illegal immigration, including failing to even report on costs of it; diverting textbook funding and removing SBOE authority and accountability via elections; shutting down sovereignty claims."

UPDATE - 10/26: I have updated the above commentary with corrections and additional links. We should not forget that, while my opponent has hit me for a few partisan blog comments, the most partisan act of the past Texas House session was the Democrats' filibuster of the voter identification bill. I should add that I predicted KBH would stay in the U.S. Senate, and I predicted a Republican rebound 18 months ago, but added at the end "Republicans will have to earn it" which is what I hope to do.

- Patrick McGuinness aka Freedom's Truth