Talk:Michael McCaul

Houston National Cemetary Controversy
It seems the Houston National Cemetery controversy has been characterized by the text written in: "Tenure."

As I recall the incident was when the director of the Houston National Cemetery was accused of censoring invocations and closing the chapel. http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/VA-accused-of-censoring-religious-speech-at-2082330.php#page-2

This was after

Eventually a lawsuit was settled not "admitting any liability fault" with the cemetery director. http://blog.chron.com/armedsources/2011/09/text-of-proposed-settlement-in-houston-national-cemetery-lawsuit/

Soon afterwards the director of the cemetery was transferred to another cemetery. http://blog.chron.com/armedsources/2011/12/houston-national-cemetery-director-to-transfer-after-cesnorship-allegations/

McCaul did play a part in this as I seem to recall him being involved with Poe or some of the other congressmen in the area investigating the affair from congress, but if so this paragraph should read to say what he actually did, and what statements he made like a reformulation of what I can find on the news:

U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Houston) told KHOU 11 News he supported Congressman Poe’s call for Ocasio’s termination.

"This is shocking," he said. "[It is] really abhorrent to our veterans that they can’t have a proper military burial and not refer to God or Jesus Christ."

To

McCaul supported the movement to fire the head of Houston National Cemetery after a lawsuit and accusations of censorship of prayers. He said, "This is shocking. [It is] really abhorrent to our veterans that they can’t have a proper military burial and not refer to God or Jesus Christ."

The local news was abundant with articles about the event but the three articles cited as references in this section are lacking.

The first article cited, the "Rock Beyond Belief" site, the author quotes McCaul (presumably from the KHOU article) but doesn't even link to it. But the "Rock" author doesn't say anything McCaul has actually done "to make Christian prayers at all American military funerals mandatory" af Freikorp wrote. The "Rock" article seems to be more sarcastic commentary in tone than an attempt at news with the concluding reference to the completely unrelated group Westboro Baptist Church. http://rockbeyondbelief.com/2011/08/05/tx-congressmen-to-force-christian-prayer-over-my-dead-body/

The second source, the AlertNet article doesn't quote McCaul or link to anything that even mentions McCaul except the prior "RockBeyondBelief" article. http://www.alternet.org/world/152143/texas_legislators_and_christian_groups_fight_to_insert_god_into_vets%27_funerals_--_against_families%27_wishes/?page=entire

The third article cited doesn't even mention McCaul! http://www.patheos.com/blogs/wildhunt/2011/08/the-fight-for-christian-prayers-at-non-christian-veteran-burial-services.html

Since the current account is misleadingly cited and uncharacteristic of what actually happened, shortly in the future I will edit the page in order to clarify the event with appropriate sources. I am putting this notice in the Talk section in order to give a period of public comment. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Astros2000 (talk • contribs) 04:49, 24 April 2012 (UTC)


 * Regarding your concerns, firstly the "Rock" article is not required to link to the KHOU article, so I don't understand why you are complaining about that. The tone of the article is also completely irrelevant, it either is a reliable source or it is not; the author's attitude or tone itself has no say on whether the reference can be used or not. True, the "Rock" article does not say exactly what McCaul did to make the prayers mandatory, and the Alternet source does not quote him, but they are not required to. They say he did something, which is more than enough to be included as per wikipedia's verifiability, not truth guideline. The third reference though does not mention McCaul, and I agree accordingly it should not be used, I must have confused it with something else, my bad.


 * I have now reworded the paragraph to simply quote AlterNet. It can no longer be regarded as misleading because it is simply reporting what AlterNet has reported. You are, of course, more than welcome to expand the section using references that may contradict alternet.


 * In the future please sign at the end of your posts on talk pages by typing 4 ~ 's at the end of your post. I look forward to expanding this section with you; I'm very happy to see any proposals you make. Thanks for contacting me on my talk page about this. Freikorp (talk) 05:27, 24 April 2012 (UTC)

RNC Hacked into by Russians
On Sept 14, 2016, McCaul stated to Wolf Blitzer on CNN that the RNC had been hacked by Russians. I suggest this fact be included in the article as his role seems to be elevated with the first release of this national security information. As a result of this announcement, the twitterverse exploded https://twitter.com/search?q=rnc+hacked+by+russians&ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5EsearchWikipietime (talk) 22:23, 14 September 2016 (UTC)

Inaccurate History of McCaul's district omits redistricting
The part about how McCaul got into Congress is inaccurate. McCaul was the FIRST representative elected after the district was redrawn to create several Republican districts where there had originally been a district representing Austin. I don't know how to present the facts in a NPOV after the special redistricting, which was not at all neutral, but you can ask any of the voters who live there. The district was not "thought to be so heavily Republican", but rather the voters were selected to make certain that it was so heavily Republican. This involved stretching the district all the way to Houston (and later adding more Houston to keep McCaul safe when the district starting tilting a bit). As it stands now the article is totally partisan, not neutral. Shanen (talk) 17:10, 17 May 2017 (UTC)

citation request for residence in WLH?
Some editor in November 2013 tagged a sentence in the "Personal life" section with a "cite needed". The sentence describes the Congressman as living in West Lake Hills. This is easy to verify through public records (though posting a link to such a record that includes his address would be a BLP violation). Can I remove the tag? 136.62.254.174 (talk) 19:27, 23 February 2018 (UTC)