Van Os for Texas Attorney General :: In David's Own Words

ELECT THE PEOPLE'S LAWYER: David Van Os, Democrat for Texas Attorney General

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Monday, February 12, 2007

Dare to Believe and Dare to Win

A good friend of mine lamented, "Even a politician with the very best intentions has to compromise integrity to the almighty dollar."

This is what the elitists of the Consultant & Donor Party WANT us to think.

It is NOT necessary to compromise integrity for the almighty dollar. I reject that premise.

Let us together reject the premise that the exercise of self-government has to entail inevitably the compromise of integrity. Let us all reject it, dear friends. Every moment in which we accept the premise that loss of integrity is inevitable, another citizen gives up on democracy because he or she cannot find reason to hope that the ideals of honest citizen self-government are achievable.

It was not fatalism or cynicism that motivated the revolutionaries of 1776 to believe in the impossible hope of defeating the Empire of Great Britain. They took on such a logically impossible venture because they were inflamed with their incredible twin vision of government by the consent of the governed, in a society that existed to further the universal rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They accepted impossible odds because they believed in their dream, not just as a dream, but as achievable reality.

What do we owe both our legacy and our posterity, if not to discard cynicism, and to offer our hearts to dream that monumental dream, and to believe in its possibilities the way uncounted numbers of quiet unsung patriots down through the years have dreamed and believed?

Dare to dream it. Dare to believe in it. Dare to speak for it. Dare to fight for it. Dare to achieve it.

posted by snarko! at 10:26 AM |

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Open Letter to Nassar of Texas Blue

[also published on Texas Blue, in response to On Running Races and Pointing Fingers]

Mr. Nassar,

You are so obsessed with trashing me it seems you are not capable of hearing anything that is contrary to your formula.

The state rep candidates you mention were some of the targeted races. So of course they would have a different perspective.

That is just one example of how you mix up all the metaphors and comparators to support your objective.

Another example of how you mix up contexts is trashing me because I didn't jump in everybody's face at a rally bugging them for money. Ordinary people are thoroughly turned off with politicians hitting them up for money every time they turn around. Sure, I told people who talked to me at rallies, when they said they wished they could contribute more, "that's OK, don't worry about it, I'm not here to ask you for money, I'm here to fight the robber barons for you."

And sure, when wannabe political operative snobs like you came up to me to cross-examine me about how could I expect to win without more money, I said things like, "I'd like to raise more money but I'll win without it if I have to."

And when people asked me to rate myself as to my chances to win, I declined to do so. I might have even said, it's not about winning, it's about fighting. Why would I say that?

Because you for sure can't win if you don't fight. And because, Democrats need to stop being oddsmakers in relation to themselves. Nobody ever goes into a fight knowing for sure if they're going to win or not. Worrying about winning makes you too cautious. Like a basketball team that starts watching the scoreboard instead of focusing on making the shots. You fight the fight, one move at a time, one step at a time, one day at a time. Ask any sports coach.

The culture of defeatism that you, Mr. Nassar, and the consultants and bean-counters that you aspire to be one of, keep ramming down Democrats' throats is a philosophy that is afraid to win because it is afraid to fight unless you think you can control the outcome in advance with your bean counting. Trust me, Mr. Nassar, the ordinary people out there, outside the tiny little political operative box that you operate in, are fed up and disgusted with that whole attitude of elitist control. They see and they know the political world is run as an insiders private clique. I've been out there, Mr. Nassar; I've listened and I've heard. Have you? I don't think so.

Buddy, you haven't come close to walking in my moccasins, and I have earned the right to be heard. You have come nowhere near earning the chips to put me down. Not even close.

The real deal is this. You don't like me because I reject the formulae and scripts of the political operatives that you aspire to be one of someday when you grow up. It threatens your career ladder plans. Admit it.

Admit it, or come out from behind your keyboard and debate me publicly. I'll come to Denton to do it. Well, are you ready?

David Van Os

HEAR MORE ON THE TOPIC IN THE DVO INTERVIEW ON TEXAS BLUE >>

posted by snarko! at 1:35 PM |

Monday, November 06, 2006

Fighting for Texans

The first meeting of this campaign's steering committee was on March 12, 2005 in my wife Rachel's and my living room. Twenty long months have passed. During that time Rachel and I have met personally with thousands of our fellow Texans who once were strangers and now are friends. During that time a remarkable statewide network of grassroots volunteers and supporters has carried the message of this campaign to every nook and cranny of our magnificent state. It has been an amazing and exciting journey.

My 254-county courthouse-to-courthouse whistlestop tour reconfirmed much that I already believed about my state. It reconfirmed for me that the average Texan is still one of the friendliest people on the earth, who will give his neighbor the shirt off his back in a heartbeat in a time of need. It reconfirmed for me that the average Texan believes in the promises of the founders of Texas, and wants government of, by and for the people instead of government of, by and for big money and big business.

It also confirmed for me that the average Texan knows things are off track in our political-governmental system and wants it back on track. It confirmed for me that the average Texan is not happy about living under a reign of greed. It confirmed for me that the average Texan wants to protect democracy and civil liberty. It confirmed for me that the average Texan believes the Constitution should be honored not ignored. It confirmed for me that the average Texan thinks our forebears meant exactly what they said when they declared to the world that government exists only by the consent of the governed.

It also confirmed for me that the average Texan does not want to rip up hundreds of thousands of acres of beautiful, fertile, private Texas land so that greedy European companies can make billions of dollars from collecting tolls on a Trans-Texas Corridor. It confirmed for me that the average Texan does not like government taking private property without the owner's consent unless there is an especially good reason, and helping private corporations make large amounts of money is not a good enough reason.

The Framers of the Texas Constitution intended for the Attorney General to do and be many things besides a collection agency for child support. The Attorney General of Texas is supposed to be the people's champion. The Texas Constitution declares that the Attorney General is supposed to do everything necessary and proper to prevent any private corporation from exercising any power not authorized by law. The Attorney General is supposed to be the people's first line of defense to protect their rights and liberties, to fight for them as individuals, consumers, taxpayers, homeowners, and property owners.

Thus in my first month in office I'm going to issue investigative subpoenas to the Big Oil companies to get to the truth about their claim that they are just bystanders to making 3 billion dollars per month profits while millions of Texans at $3.00 per gallon could not afford the cost of gasoline. Thus I'm going to reorganize the Attorney General's office to create a People's Watchdog Division to utilize our Texas antitrust laws and consumer protection laws aggressively on behalf of the people.

The present Attorney General doesn't lift a finger because he is part of the clique that runs Texas government of, by and for the power grabbers and robber barons. If you the citizen think the present Attorney General is fighting for you against Big Oil robber barons, Big Insurance robber barons, greedy toll profiteers, greedy utility barons, credit sharks, water profiteers, and anti-Constitution power grabbers, then you should vote for him. If you don't see anybody fighting for you against the robber barons and power grabbers, I recommend that you vote for me. It's the Attorney General's job to fight them on the people's behalf, and I will fight them.

The Texas Constitution requires the Attorney General to do everything necessary and proper to prevent and restrain any private corporation from demanding or collecting any species of tolls not authorized by law. I say the Trans-Texas Corridor is unconstitutional because of the massive abuse of eminent domain and the massive profits the European hogs want to make at the Texas trough. That is why I am going to use every legal means available to me as Attorney General to bring it to a halt.

The present Attorney General utilizes child support enforcement as a source of collection statistics for his press releases. He only cares about statistics, not about individuals. I'm going to revamp the child support enforcement system to change such a perverted value system. On my watch the child support program will stop treating people as statistics and come back to treating them as people.

To learn more about where I stand on specific topics and issues, check out my summary of positions on the front page of my campaign website. To learn about the sworn pledges I made to my fellow Texans in the affidavit I filed in the public records of every courthouse, you can read the affidavit at my campaign website.

Most importantly, I'm a fighter and a winner. I know that a loser thinks about losing but a winner thinks about winning. I know that "can't" never could and never will achieve anything. I know that we the people will never whip the power grabbers and robber barons into shape if we sit around coming up with excuses not to fight them.

In this political season, I want to remind my fellow Texans that the corporate robber barons and political power grabbers are not beating us up as Democrats or as Republicans or as Libertarians or Independents, but as human beings and as Texans. I'm proud to be a Democrat and a nominee of the Democratic Party, but my message is not just for Democrats, it is for every Texan regardless of political affiliation. We the people, all of us together, have got to take our government back for the people, for all the people. I am pledged and determined to fight the robber barons and power grabbers that have afflicted us with a reign of greed. I'm going to fight them on behalf of all my fellow Texans. I'm going to fight 'em till hell freezes over; then I've going to fight 'em on the ice. Thank you for joining me in the fight.

posted by snarko! at 12:40 PM |

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