Truth Squad

  • The Truth about Farouk's Plans For Texas

    Feb 10, 2010 -

    TO:  Texas Media Outlets

    FROM:  Vince Leibowitz, Campaign Director

               David Ocamb, Policy Director

               Farouk Shami for Governor Campaign

    RE:  The Truth about Farouk’s Plans For Texas

    ____________________________________________________________________  

    Following Monday night’s gubernatorial debate, some media coverage of the event falsely claimed that Farouk Shami had not provided details about his bold, new ideas for Texas. These same plans have been outlined on Farouk’s website for several weeks.

    Farouk Shami has presented detailed plans that show how he is going to tackle some of the most challenging problems Texas faces.  Critics are now claiming it cannot be done and refusing to address the actual plans, instead just saying “we cannot create new jobs” or “we cannot lower the cost of energy for Texas consumers.”  This same politics as usual combination of cynicism and inability to recognize that new ideas can exist is the reason our federal, state and local governments are failing and why the population as a whole is voting at far lower levels than 50 years ago, when we had leaders willing to “shoot for the moon.”    

    I.  How Farouk Shami Will Create 100,000 Jobs and Ensure Every Texan Who Wants to Work Will Have That Opportunity 

    In his post debate press conference, Mayor White addressed Farouk Shami’s 100,000 jobs guarantee by saying the state couldn’t hire that many people.  Only a career politician would assume the only way to create jobs is through the public payrolls.  Farouk Shami has created jobs as a private citizen and knows what the government can do to help put people to work today.             

    • Use the Texas Enterprise Fund to help small businesses grow, expand and hire new workers. Specifically, under Farouk’s plan, many of the jobs created will be green energy jobs. As part of Farouk’s plan to slash electricity costs, Farouk proposes giving every Texan access to solar panels for their homes. This would be accommodated by a simple statutory change requiring utility companies to provide financing for solar panels on a customer’s utility bill. This would naturally create a much greater demand for solar panels, thus creating jobs in the private sector.
    • Use our border with Mexico as an asset to attract new companies to move into Texas to build plants in clusters, with high paying capital intensive parts of the manufacturing process here and low wage low capital parts of the process in Mexico.  Taking into account shipping costs, this eliminates the benefits of outsourcing to China and India.
    • Use increased transportation funds to put people to work today repairing our roads and building new ones.
    • Give out of state corporations tax incentives to build facilities in socially disadvantaged areas and pay a living wage to put the poorest Texans to work.
    • Become the new Silicon Valley by being the world’s leader in the “green energy revolution.”  These jobs include: research, building transmission lines from west Texas to the major metropolitan areas, building solar panels and wind turbines, and operating solar and wind farms.  Plus, with all of this economic activity, every other industry will benefit as well.
    • Install broadband internet access statewide, enabling small businesses in rural areas to grow and farming and ranching to be more efficient and profitable. 

    The truth of the matter is any one of these items individually will provide over 100,000 jobs.  Estimates on rural broadband, for instance, say it will create 173,000 jobs (see plan for citation).  All it takes is an outsider’s perspective that refuses to acknowledge the political excuses and knows how to analyze a problem and solve it.   

    See Also: Green Energy Plan http://www.faroukforgovernor.com/page/green-energy-jobs; Economic Plan http://www.faroukforgovernor.com/page/economic-plan-for-texas; Rural Broadband Plan http://www.faroukforgovernor.com/page/rural-broadband; Secure Our Border Communities Plan http://www.faroukforgovernor.com/page/the-texas-border--warzone-or-asset-    

    II. How Farouk Shami Will Provide Affordable, Reliable and Clean Electricity and Even Eliminate Electric Bills Entirely For Some Families 

    During the debate, Mayor White revealed his ignorance on this issue by stating Texans wouldn’t want to rely on solar energy during a hot summer day.  Those hot summer days are actually the single best example of how this could eliminate people’s electricity costs.  Here’s how:  

    • Households would be allowed access to zero percent interest loans from the Retail Energy Providers (REP) to buy and install solar panels on their houses.
    • Those loans would be repaid by selling the energy produced back to the REP.
    • Once paid off, REP would be required to buy back excess energy from each house at 75% current selling level.  Net metering (the REP buying excess power from households) already takes place in Texas today, there is just no uniform regulation mandating they buy it and at what price they buy it.
    • Current selling level is not a flat rate.  It is far higher during “peak” hours (11AM to 6PM, when industrial and commercial use is the highest).
    • Thus, at times when residential use is the lowest (since families are at work and school), these houses would sell back energy to the grid at a cost far higher than they would buy it once they return home and the sun is no longer shining.
    • This would lead all households energy costs to dramatically go down and some households to even sell back enough energy to more than subsidize what they are using.
    • There would be numerous redundancies to ensure an adequate supply of power is always available, no matter what weather conditions we are experiencing.  Furthermore, through fully utilizing the potential of the competitive renewable energy zones in west Texas, we would be able to close the doors on all coal fired power plants. 

    See Also: Green Energy Plan http://www.faroukforgovernor.com/page/green-energy-jobs; Wikipedia Article on Net Metering http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_metering  

    Texans deserve a dialogue on how do we solve our problems and not merely the same political rhetoric and excuses on how we can’t.  If we don’t dream big, we will continue with the same failed leadership we’ve lived through over the past decade.  Special interests will try to stop us at every turn and Farouk Shami is the only candidate who is able to turn down their money and represent the people of Texas and not the special interests. 

  • Perry's Raids The Texas Enterprise Fund

    Jan 28, 2010 -

    The Dallas Morning News: Report Says Texas Enterprise Fund not creating jobs as promised.

    Farouk Shami says, "Once again, Rick Perry has shown Texas what failed leadership looks like. The Texas Enterprise Fund has been raided to provide benefits to corporations that are not delivering on the promise to bring jobs to Texas. We need to utilize the Texas Enterprise Fund (EF) to provide small grants to businesses employing 25 or fewer people that have a strong business plan and will be able to grow with the added capital, in addition to using the fund to close deals with large corporations. The small businessman is the backbone of the Texas economy."


  • Rick Perry scared to be held accountable for years of failed leadership

    Jan 25, 2010 -

    Governor Rick Perry announced he won’t seek the endorsements of the state’s newspapers. If we had the record of failed leadership that Perry has, we wouldn’t want to be held accountable, either. Farouk Shami believes the people of Texas deserve better and Shami is eager to sit with the editorial boards of the state’s newspapers and the people of Texas to talk about jobs, green energy and getting Texas back in the hands of the people and not career politicians.

    We urge our supporters to contact their newspaper editor and ask them to give the Shami campaign a call. We look forward to talking about an end to the status quo and politics as usual in this state. Rick Perry’s “Let them eat cake” attitude towards the people of Texas must be stopped. "We believe the voters have a right to have important issues discussed, so we have also challenged Bill White to debate us and sincerely hope he will take us up on our offer to debate anywhere at anytime over the issues that matter most to Texans."

  • Farouk's Statement on Massachusetts Election Results

    Jan 19, 2010 -

    "The American people, from Massachusetts to Texas, are fed up with politics as usual and want to see actual results and not the same old all talk and no action. They voted out the Republicans in 2006 and 2008 because they were fed up with how things were going and are voting out Democrats now because they haven't seen anything done to fix America's very real problems. My business would fail if I didn't fix problems on a daily basis. That's the difference between being a political insider and a businessman and that's the reason I'm the best candidate to bring about real change in Texas and help lead the Democratic Party to victory in November."

  • Farouk admires Hank Gilbert, that's all

    Jan 19, 2010 -

    There are some folks trying to insinuate something untoward because Farouk Shami donated money to the Hank Gilbert campaign. Farouk supports good democrats and is a supporter of Hank Gilbert. Farouk is proud to support the Gilbert campaign and is amending the filing with the ethics commission to include contributions to other candidates. Farouk also announced today that he is adopting Gilbert's LGBT policy and challenged all democratic candidates to do the same.

    Rumor mongering detracts from the real issues in this campaign.

  • Farouk Shami Thinks 5% Cut Across the Board is Too Late and Not Properly Targeted

    Jan 16, 2010 -

    "Once again, Governor Perry shows us how being a career politician puts you out of touch with reality. In business, we wouldn't wait six months into falling revenues to start cutting spending. In a mad scramble to seem like he's doing something he throws the baby out with the bathwater in ordering across the board cuts. As a self-made businessman, I know how to balance the books and how to curtail spending in strategic ways that still promote growth and find ways to generate revenue. Cut the fat, sure but broad strokes don't result in long term sound financial decisions. As governor, I'll work with the Comptroller and the Legislature to find ways to cut spending where appropriate and get Texas on the right track to financial stability."

  • Farouk's Official Statement On His Personal Religious Beliefs 1/11/2010

    Jan 12, 2010 -

     "I want to clarify what has been reported in the press concerning my religion. I was born in the land of Abraham, believing in Moses, Jesus and Mohammad, and believing in one God. I grew up with members of my family and friends practicing multiple faiths: Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. I was also educated at a Quaker school. All of these things contributes to my relationship with God. To say simply ‘I'm a Muslim’ or ‘I'm a Quaker’ is to ignore major parts of my faith. I know it seems complicated that I do not have a pat answer to questions about what religion I am, but without my exposure to many different cultures and religious beliefs I wouldn't be the person I am today.

    Although I'm not a member of any specific religious tradition, I do begin every day with prayer and meditation and have a strong personal relationship with God. I respect those who practice all faiths because I believe God gave us life to help one another, the poor, the sick and the oppressed. It is through God we can achieve peace, freedom and bring justice to the world. As Governor, I know, with God's help and guidance, I will be able to help every Texan have access to the American Dream just like I did—a good job, access to healthcare, and an excellent education for their children. That's why I feel called to run for office."