Joining these national figures speaking at CPAC is a dedicated group of Texans including Governor Rick Perry, Senator John Cornyn and US Senate candidate Ted Cruz, you can catch them and other Texans at the speaking times below.

• Governor Rick Perry- Spoke Thursday at 1:20 pm EST
• Anita MonCrief, Tea Party Activist, speaks on the “A New Voice Panel- Solutions to Battling Race & Class in Politics” at 1:30 pm EST Friday
• Catherine Engelbrecht, President of King Street Patriots, speaks at “Will the 2012 Elections Be Tainted by Voter Fraud” at 10:15 am EST Saturday.
• Melissa Clouthier, Blogger, speaks at “Social Media Mastery” at 10:45 am EST Saturday
• Senator John Cornyn speaks at 3:05 pm EST Saturday
• Ted Cruz, US Senate Candidate, speaks at “Right for the Future: 2012 Conservative Candidates” at 3:30 pm EST Saturday.

You can watch these Texans speak at CPAC live online at www.cpac2012.conservative.org and on CSPAN and don’t forget to follow the conversation on twitter with the #CPAC hashtag.  Read more below to learn about the uninvited guests planning on crashing the party….

Occupy DC protesters and labor union protesters plan on having a presence at CPAC as well.  Lachlan Markay with The Foundry reported the following;

The “Occupy DC” protest group is planning to disrupt the upcoming Conservative Political Action Conference using a range of potentially illegal tactics that could even include violence against participants, Scribe has learned.

The planned disruptions at CPAC come only days after U.S. Park Police raided Occupiers’ tent cities at McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C., confiscating a number of tents, and prohibiting Occupiers from camping out there any longer.

During a Thursday meeting at McPherson Square, until Saturday the epicenter of the protests, Occupiers brainstormed tactics for shutting down or disrupting the conference, according to a source who was present at the meeting.

The protesters suggested pulling fire alarms in the hotel where the conference will take place, screaming “fire” during conference activities, “glitter-bombing” participants, cutting electrical power, and barricading entrances to the hotel, according to the source, who requested anonymity.

“Speakers will be physically assaulted, not just verbally confronted,” the source told Scribe in an email. Two Occupiers, who the source also identified as members of the New Black Panther Party, “said they would be disappointed if they didn’t get arrested and planned to ‘make it count.’”

The source quoted another protester as saying, “Mitt [Romney] has Secret Service now, but [Newt] Gingrich and [Andrew] Breitbart don’t,” seemingly suggesting that the latter two would not be as heavily guarded.

Protesters planned to conduct most of these activities on Saturday, the last day of the conference, so as not to overlap with the recently announced protests by labor groups on Thursday and Friday.

Maybe some of our Occupy Austin friends will leave City Hall and join the DC Occupiers.  But probably not since Occupy Austin is too busy protesting the City of Austin’s power washing habits while costing the city well over a million dollars, to take up such a trivial cause as protesting a conservative gathering of 10,000 activists and three presidential candidates.

It turns out that now the 2nd Amendment Foundation will lead the appeal of a U.S. District Court decision that upheld the State of Illinois’s ban on legally carrying a concealed weapon.  Thanks to Rahm Emanuel and the City of Chicago now the 2nd Amendment Foundation has even more funds to help fight this key case defending our right to keep and bear arms.

Illinois is the only state in the union that outright bans a law abiding citizen from carrying a concealed weapon.  Below is a map that lays out the varied laws of the states regarding concealed carry.  Before carrying in another state do your own research on the laws of the land.

Thank God I live in Texas where our elected officials respect and embrace the 2nd amendment!

Thanks to Rahm’s attempted gun grabbing overstep, the City of Chicago is now funding the next round of litigation defending our right to keep and bear arms.  Thanks Rahm!

The Republican women that make up the membership of the Texas Federation of Republican Women is over 11,000 ladies strong with 163 local clubs across the state.  TFRW is the second largest Republican women’s federation in the nation and in the last election cycle TFRW members logged over 850,000 hours working on campaigns.  You can be assured that thousands of these campaign hours will be spent advancing the Ted Cruz campaign.  TFRW is undeniably the most powerful political organization in Texas today.

Karen Townsend, the immediate past President of the Memorial West Republican Women’s Club, blogged her reasons for supporting Ted Cruz as a Republican Women leader, in short, because he is a “Happy Warrior.”

Ted Cruz, though, grabbed me. He captured my attention with the first speech I heard him deliver.  He is a compelling candidate – he inspires the audience.  In times like this, we need some real inspiration.  We are a nation mired in despair and anger.  We need someone fresh who will inspire us all.  Most importantly, we need someone who will inspire us as Republicans to be happy warriors.  Ted Cruz is a happy warrior.

Will you join Karen and 200 plus other Republican Women in supporting Ted Cruz?

Note:  These are individual endorsements.  The Texas Federation of Republican Women does not and cannot endorse in a Republican primary, and current TFRW club Presidents and Campaign Activities Chairs are not permitted to endorse.

* I work for the Ted Cruz campaign and am very biased, but can 200 plus Republican Women be wrong?

Crockett Keller defended his CHL radio ad to Glenn Beck,

“That was somewhat of a tongue-in-cheek jab at some of my liberal neighbors,“ he explained regarding his stance against ”socialist liberals” and those who voted for Obama. “You understand, I put this ad on a small, local country music station that has less about a less than a 50 mile radius. You know, I was pretty much speaking to my neighbors. That’s somewhat expanded, I think.”

“I have approximately 10 hours to try to instill some form of knowledge into a person where they can make a life and death decision in split second. When you carry a weapon to defend yourself … you have a scant few seconds to decide whether not this warrants using deadly force or otherwise. … Now, they [liberal voters] had over a year and a half to vet who they voted for president. Now how can I take 10 hours and try to teach them a life and death decision in just a few seconds in just a few seconds when they screwed it up after a year and a half?”

You can listen to the whole radio interview with Glenn Beck and Crockett Keller here.  Listen to Crockett Keller’s radio ad here.

Crockett Keller is now being investigated by the Texas Department of Public Safety.  To become a CHL instructor in Texas, you must be licensed by the DPS and be up to their standards to teach the class.  Previously the DPS stated that,

“The Department became aware of the statements in question yesterday and has begun an investigation into the matter. The Department will take appropriate administrative action based on the findings from the investigation.”

Stay tuned for more information on the DPS’s investigation of Crockett Keller.

Ted is the obvious choice to take on the Obama agenda because he’s spent a lifetime standing up and fighting for conservative values. He is the only proven conservative in the Senate race. We can always count on him to stand up for U.S. sovereignty, the Constitution, and traditional values. Join Republican Women across the state and urge conservatives to support Ted!

Though TFRW by-laws prohibit many statewide officers from endorsing in primaries, of the officers who are allowed to endorse and intend on endorsing, half are formally supporting Ted Cruz. These Republican Women are part of the growing conservative movement uniting behind our campaign.  Ted was recently profiled on the cover of National Review, and the story mentioned the Kerr County Republican Women Candidates Forum that Ted participated in and won.

Here are a few more testimonials from TFRW leaders:

“Rarely does a candidate come along I get so excited about supporting. He is exactly the kind of conservative we should be uniting behind. He can articulate conservative principles, has a compelling personal story, and is the best candidate to stop the Obama agenda.”

-Sherry Peterson, TFRW Deputy President for Region V

“Ted’s record has shown that he actually is a conservative. He won’t compromise with liberals, and will not only vote the right way in the Senate, but will really help advance the conservative cause. We need him in the Senate to truly cut spending, limit the size of government, and get our nation back on the road to fiscal sanity.”

-Barbara Larson, TFRW Vice President for Legislation

Ted’s campaign has tremendous momentum and support, with endorsements from nearly all the conservative leaders in Texas and nationally, and he needs your help to keep it going. Will you please join the Republican Women who are endorsing Ted Cruz today?

Now that a budget agreement has been reached between the House and the Senate this is the last piece of the puzzle, to decided how the money that has been appropriated gets distributed to the schools.  This is not a Republican vs Democrat issue, more so a rural vs suburban vs urban, or rich vs poor issue that cuts across party lines.

As noted previously ESPN’s award-winning news-magazine program E:60 did an undercover report on illegal cockfighting in Texas high lighting Representative Wayne Christian’s bill, HB 1043, that would close the loopholes in the cockfighting laws in Texas.  Below is the video from ESPN.

The day after the ESPN story aired the bill passed the Texas House, it is still awaiting action in the Senate.

In other cockfighting related news, a couple months ago a man attending a cockfight was actually killed by one of of the birds with a knife attached to its leg.

]]> http://www.redstate.com/jonmcclellan/2011/05/20/video-espn%e2%80%99s-e60-undercover-texas-cockfighting-investigation/ http://www.redstate.com/jonmcclellan/2011/05/19/noodling-bill-passes-txlege/ Representative Wayne Christian and former Rep. Joe Nixon extend one last call for action regarding the conservative “Nixon Texas House Map” that is fair, legal and elects more Republicans to the Texas House for the next decade.

To watch Rep. Christian’s video alert click here.

The final Nixon Map that needs your support is “Plan H212 REP. CAIN STATEWIDE SUBSTITUTE CSHB 150.”  Rep. Erwin Cain has filed this map as an amendment to the House Redistricting Committee’s map CSHB 150 that will be voted on this Wedensday April 27th.

Please call your State Representative and ask them to support the “Nixon Map” as filed by Rep. Cain and to follow Rep. Cain’s lead on the House floor.

Time is of the essence here, we have less than 48 hours to influence the direction Texas will take for the next decade!

To view the map go to http://gis1.tlc.state.tx.us.

Click on “select plans,” and select “base plan.”

Select “Plan H212 REP. CAIN STATEWIDE SUBSTITUTE CSHB 150.”