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From the monthly archives:
September 2009
Matt Cover of cnsnews.com reports regarding the Democrats’ latest move to silence opposition to their Government Run Health Care plan.
(CNSNews.com) – Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said the recent gag order imposed by Medicare on insurance companies participating in its Advantage program shows that President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats are desperate to pass their health care overhaul legislation.
McConnell, speaking on a conference call Monday, said the Medicare gag order showed that Democrats are “willing to employ any tactic to try to quiet the voices of dissent.” McConnell said their “desperation” is illustrated by the way Democrats are trying to “shut up critics of the bill.”
McConnell was referring to a Sept. 21 statement released by the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) – a division of the Department of Health and Human Services – directing companies that participate in the Medicare Advantage program to cease all communication with beneficiaries dealing with the administration’s planned cuts to the Advantage program.
That order was instigated by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) after he discovered that insurance giant Humana, which is headquartered in McConnell’s home state of Kentucky, had sent its Medicare Advantage customers a mailing that warned them of the possible benefit reductions that might occur if the program’s funding were cut.
Please read the entire article here:
Medicare ‘Gag Order’ A Sign That Obama, Democrats Are Desperate on Health Care, Republican Leader Says
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The Senate Finance Committee voted against the Government-Run Public Option Insurance Plan by a vote of 15-8.
Five of the committee’s Democrats, including Chairman Max Baucus, voted with all 10 committee Republicans to defeat the measure.
You can read more information about the vote and the measure here:
Key Senate Committee Votes Against Government-Run Health Insurance Plan
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WASHINGTON –A key Senate panel is expected to take up the most contentious issue of the health care reform debate as lawmakers go back to work Tuesday on President Obama’s top domestic priority.
The Senate Finance Committee is likely to consider whether the government should offer its own health insurance plan in competition with private carriers. A public option is the top goal for liberals, but it has no Republican support and moderate Democrats say the Senate will never go along.
Tuesday’s Senate debate is expected to pit Democratic liberals against party moderates.
Although the public plan isn’t expected to get a majority of the panel, supporters say at least they’ll know where everybody stands.
Finance Chairman Max Baucus is already in the hot seat — accused of being lukewarm, if not downright hostile to the government option.
Two liberal groups are launching a hard-hitting television and Internet ad featuring a young father from Montana. Bing Perrine, 26, in need of a heart operation, uninsured and deeply in debt, looks straight into the camera and asks Baucus: “Whose side are you on?”
The ad is sponsored by Democracy for America and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, who say Baucus is too cozy with insurance and health care interests that have contributed to his campaigns and oppose the public option.
Source:
Public Plan Debate to Pit Democrat vs Democrat
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OK, after all the horrific Obama “key appointment malfunctions” I think we have found a winner to take the proverbial cake.
The alleged crimes of Mr Obama’s choice for “Safe School Czar”, Kevin Jennings, were exposed in a Washington Times Editorial and a Fox News story, both of which are linked below.
The source for these allegations is apparently is Mr Jennings himself, in a book he authored in 1994 and an audio tape of a talk he delivered in 2000. In them, the following story emerges:
A 15 year-old student sought counsel from Mr. Jennings in his capacity as a school teacher. He told of meeting an older man in a bus station men’s room and subsequently accompanying him to his home that evening where he engaged in homosexual acts. Instead of reporting the incident as required by law of an adult in such position of trust and authority, Mr Jennings allegedly encouraged the relationship despite the fact it seems to have been a clear case of statutory rape.
In the links below you will find the Washington Times editorial in full as well as the Fox News story, a Human Events article and an Atlas Shrugs Blog article each providing insight into Mr Jennings history and qualifications for the powerful post to which he has been appointed. In them you will learn that Mr. Jennings is the homosexual founder of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). You will also get some interesting insight to the mission and methods of this organization.
When you are finished, you may wish to ask yourself this question: Do you want this man to be in charge of school safety for our nation?
EDITORIAL: At the president’s pleasure
Did “Safe School Czar” Encourage Statutory Rape?
Kevin Jennings — Unsafe for America’s Schools
This next article contains very disturbing information:
OBAMA APPOINTEE KEVIN JENNINGS
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The Federal Government should not be involved in the education of our children. Liberty’s Army predicts that this will not be the last time that the Federal Government tries to involve itself in the education of our children. It certainly is not the first nor the most recent. Remember President Bush and “No Child Left Behind”?
Fox News reports that President Obama would like to do away with summer vacation. This is a trial balloon, the tip of the iceberg for the Obama Administration’s involvement in the education of our nation’s children.
Obama says American kids spend too little time in school, putting them at a disadvantage with other students around the globe.
“Now, I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas,” the president said earlier this year. “Not with Malia and Sasha, not in my family, and probably not in yours. But the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom.”
The president, who has a sixth-grader and a third-grader, wants schools to add time to classes, to stay open late and to let kids in on weekends so they have a safe place to go.
“Our school calendar is based upon the agrarian economy and not too many of our kids are working the fields today,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.
Fifth-grader Nakany Camara is of two minds. She likes the four-week summer program at her school, Brookhaven Elementary School in Rockville, Md. Nakany enjoys seeing her friends there and thinks summer school helped boost her grades from two Cs to the honor roll.
But she doesn’t want a longer school day. “I would walk straight out the door,” she said.
Domonique Toombs felt the same way when she learned she would stay for an extra three hours each day in sixth grade at Boston’s Clarence R. Edwards Middle School.
“I was like, `Wow, are you serious?”‘ she said. “That’s three more hours I won’t be able to chill with my friends after school.”
Her school is part of a 3-year-old state initiative to add 300 hours of school time in nearly two dozen schools. Early results are positive. Even reluctant Domonique, who just started ninth grade, feels differently now. “I’ve learned a lot,” she said.
Does Obama want every kid to do these things? School until dinnertime? Summer school? And what about the idea that kids today are overscheduled and need more time to play?
Obama and Duncan say kids in the United States need more school because kids in other nations have more school.
“Young people in other countries are going to school 25, 30 percent longer than our students here,” Duncan told the AP. “I want to just level the playing field.”
While it is true that kids in many other countries have more school days, it’s not true they all spend more time in school.
Kids in the U.S. spend more hours in school (1,146 instructional hours per year) than do kids in the Asian countries that persistently outscore the U.S. on math and science tests — Singapore (903), Taiwan (1,050), Japan (1,005) and Hong Kong (1,013). That is despite the fact that Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong have longer school years (190 to 201 days) than does the U.S. (180 days).
Regardless, there is a strong case for adding time to the school day.
Researcher Tom Loveless of the Brookings Institution looked at math scores in countries that added math instruction time. Scores rose significantly, especially in countries that added minutes to the day, rather than days to the year.
“Ten minutes sounds trivial to a school day, but don’t forget, these math periods in the U.S. average 45 minutes,” Loveless said. “Percentage-wise, that’s a pretty healthy increase.”
In the U.S., there are many examples of gains when time is added to the school day.
Charter schools are known for having longer school days or weeks or years. For example, kids in the KIPP network of 82 charter schools across the country go to school from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., more than three hours longer than the typical day. They go to school every other Saturday and for three weeks in the summer. KIPP eighth-grade classes exceed their school district averages on state tests.
In Massachusetts’ expanded learning time initiative, early results indicate that kids in some schools do better on state tests than do kids at regular public schools. The extra time, which schools can add as hours or days, is for three things: core academics — kids struggling in English, for example, get an extra English class; more time for teachers; and enrichment time for kids.
Regular public schools are adding time, too, though it is optional and not usually part of the regular school day. Their calendar is pretty much set in stone. Most states set the minimum number of school days at 180 days, though a few require 175 to 179 days.
Several schools are going year-round by shortening summer vacation and lengthening other breaks.
Many schools are going beyond the traditional summer school model, in which schools give remedial help to kids who flunked or fell behind.
Summer is a crucial time for kids, especially poorer kids, because poverty is linked to problems that interfere with learning, such as hunger and less involvement by their parents.
That makes poor children almost totally dependent on their learning experience at school, said Karl Alexander, a sociology professor at Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins University, home of the National Center for Summer Learning.
Disadvantaged kids, on the whole, make no progress in the summer, Alexander said. Some studies suggest they actually fall back. Wealthier kids have parents who read to them, have strong language skills and go to great lengths to give them learning opportunities such as computers, summer camp, vacations, music lessons, or playing on sports teams.
“If your parents are high school dropouts with low literacy levels and reading for pleasure is not hard-wired, it’s hard to be a good role model for your children, even if you really want to be,” Alexander said.
Extra time is not cheap. The Massachusetts program costs an extra $1,300 per student, or 12 percent to 15 percent more than regular per-student spending, said Jennifer Davis, a founder of the program. It received more than $17.5 million from the state Legislature last year.
The Montgomery County, Md., summer program, which includes Brookhaven, received $1.6 million in federal stimulus dollars to operate this year and next, but it runs for only 20 days.
Aside from improving academic performance, Education Secretary Duncan has a vision of schools as the heart of the community. Duncan, who was Chicago’s schools chief, grew up studying alongside poor kids on the city’s South Side as part of the tutoring program his mother still runs.
“Those hours from 3 o’clock to 7 o’clock are times of high anxiety for parents,” Duncan said. “They want their children safe. Families are working one and two and three jobs now to make ends meet and to keep food on the table.”
Source:
Obama Proposes Longer School Day, Shorter Summer Vacation
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Bank Pulls Back From Acorn Work
Already facing the loss of federal government funding, the community-organizing group Acorn also has run afoul of one of its big corporate partners, Bank of America Corp.
In response to questions from The Wall Street Journal, a spokesman for the banking company said it has “suspended current commitments” to Acorn Housing, an affiliated group, and “will not enter into any further agreements with Acorn or any of its affiliates,” pending assessments by the bank of the organization’s operations.
Katherine Kersten: Worst trouble with ACORN is at the polls
ACORN was once the darling of Democrats for its support of every item on the left-wing wish list. Suddenly, its employees can hardly find a Democrat who will answer their phone calls. When the U.S. Senate voted on Sept. 14 to cut off federal housing dollars for ACORN, the tally was a lopsided 83-7.
ACORN’s foibles may seem largely irrelevant here in Minnesota, where the organization has so far been able to keep its nose relatively clean.
But ACORN does have a special place in its heart for at least one prominent Minnesota politician. Last year, it showered praise on Al Franken, endorsing his run for the U.S. Senate. Franken returned the esteem: “I’m thrilled and honored to receive this endorsement,” he gushed in a press release. He added that he was “more motivated than ever to work with ACORN.”
Defendants in ACORN Suit Could Be Protected by Constitution
The courts should vindicate the First Amendment rights of the reporters and media outlets involved in breaking the ACORN scandal wide open. And they should strike down the oppressive and absurd Maryland law that makes it a crime to record someone’s conversation without their knowledge.
ACORN and two of its workers caught on those now-famous tapes have sued those reporting on their chicanery for millions of dollars. The bad news is that the Maryland law at issue definitely outlaws the taping and airing of that footage, but the good news is that the law should be declared unconstitutional in this case. And so the fight begins.
The intrepid duo of independent reporters James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles, working undercover, caught ACORN workers in Baltimore and other locations across the country on tape, talking about these workers’ willingness to help the undercover pair engage in tax fraud, housing fraud, prostitution, and even smuggling in underage girls from abroad to be prostitutes in a brothel that would be obtained with ACORN’s help. The news Web site BigGovernment.com, launched by media innovator Andrew Breitbart, broke the story nationwide, and other media outlets quickly picked up on the story.
These tapes are so incriminating that they created a national backlash against ACORN, with the Congress voting overwhelmingly to terminate federal money to ACORN and the U.S. Census telling ACORN that the group would have no role in the 2010 census. It was a devastating and potentially fatal blow against ACORN, which is already under investigation in 19 states, where at least 30 ACORN workers have pleaded guilty to crimes.
But there’s a problem. Maryland has a shockingly-broad law that makes it a crime—a felony, if fact—to record someone’s conversation without their knowledge. It then makes it a separate crime to disclose that conversation to a third party if the person disclosing knew or had reason to know that the conversation was illegally recorded.
Although the Baltimore prosecutor hasn’t filed charges, ACORN and the two workers caught on tape advising the reporters on how to carry out the underage sexual exploitation scheme have had the audacity to sue the reporters and Breitbart.com. They can do this because § 10–410 of the same Maryland wiretapping law also gives private parties the right to personally sue those who record or disclose such conversations.
So ACORN and these two workers, instead of being mortified for engaging in these shameful and disgusting conversations, are suing those reporting on them to the tune of two million dollars.
This, despite the fact that in a desperate damage-control stunt, ACORN’s CEO Bertha Lewis recently praised the reporters for bringing these facts to light, so that ACORN could clean its house. The hypocrisy and audacity here are so profound that it shocks the conscience.This Maryland statute is insane. But it’s not only ridiculous, it could also be unconstitutional as applied to these defendants.
Obama’s Top Aide Gaspard Tied to ACORN
Patrick Gaspard, considered one of the most powerful figures in the Obama White House, is a “longtime ACORN operative” and former union official, according to a report posted Monday on the American Spectator’s online blog.
Gaspard’s name recently surfaced as the official President Obama dispatched to urge beleaguered New York Gov. David Paterson not to run for another term. Paterson insists he’ll continue to run for governor even without Obama’s support.
Gaspard has extensive ties to organized labor and community-organizing groups. One measure of his influence in the White House: He holds the same “political affairs director” title that belonged to Karl Rove during the Bush administration.
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Ernest Christian and Betty Jo Christian of Investors Business Daily are reporting that, “The controversial tax that both Obama and Baucus would impose on people who do not buy health insurance appears to be a “direct tax” on persons that is unlawful under Article 1, Section 2, of the Constitution.”
Without regard to one’s views about the health care legislation promoted by President Obama and currently being redrafted by Sen. Max Baucus, everyone is entitled to expect that the task will be carried out with competence and integrity — also with dignity and a high regard for the intelligence of the American people.
Further, even if everyone agreed that the proposed federal interventions in health care were consistent with “best medical practice” and produced the best possible medical care at the least price, all these federal actions would still have to meet constitutional standards.
The controversial tax that both Obama and Baucus would impose on people who do not buy health insurance appears to be a “direct tax” on persons that is unlawful under Article 1, Section 2, of the Constitution, which requires that “direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States … according to their Numbers . .. .”
In addition, Art. 1, Sec. 9, says: “No capitation, or other direct Tax, shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or Enumeration herein before directed to be taken … .”
The only exception to the constitutional prohibition against unapportioned direct taxes is for the federal income tax, which was authorized by the 16th Amendment — but the direct tax on the uninsured is not an income tax.
Sen. Baucus claims that the tax on the uninsured is an “indirect” excise tax — like the federal gasoline tax — that does not have to be apportioned. But Sen. Baucus appears to be in error. An excise tax is a tax on a “thing” (such as a commodity or a license). That is why an excise tax is classified as “indirect.”
People who choose not to buy insurance are not things.
They are people. And the tax is imposed directly on them in exactly the same way as a direct income tax, except that in this instance, the tax amount does not depend on the size of the person’s income.
This constitutional defect in one of the linchpin elements of the health care legislation was not brought to light for public discussion by either the White House or the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.
Instead, it was exposed a few days ago by Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, one of the few people in this rapidly deteriorating health care drama who are conducting themselves with a high degree of intelligence and regard for the integrity of the Constitution and our basic civic institutions.
Source:
Is Obama’s Tax On Health Care Constitutional?
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If conservatives are serious about retaking congress in 2010, we had better ACT quickly and effectively. This will happen only if we find a way to unite in action, and do it fast.
True, “We The People” are all stirred up, angry and frightened. This seems to be the ideal time to make our voices heard. However, we all seem to march to the beat of our own drum. Our voices sound more like a cacophony of a million rusty hinged doors of junkyard cars closing independently in a random rhythm, than the precise chord of a disciplined, harmonious choir with everyone doing their part.
Too many of us are depending on a national political party to save our country in the 2010 elections. In many cases it is the Republican party being relied upon. This is the same party whose arrogance and lack of clear values got us into this mess in the first place. Others depend upon the Libertarian Party or the Independent Party.
I am sorry but this gives me NO comfort. This WILL NOT get the job done!
For the most part political parties are run by political hacks with personal agendas and ulterior motives that are not necessarily in line with the needs of our country. This is evidenced best by the Republican party’s nomination of Bob Dole in 1996 and John McCain in 2008 because “it was their turn”. As a result of the Dole nomination we enjoyed a second four years of Bill Clinton, with the accompanying scandals, impeachment hearings and serious damage to the Office of the Presidency itself.
The McCain nomination has given us the disastrous past nine months of Barack Obama (with only 39 more to go). The GOP made the decisions to back Dole and McCain based upon some obscure political protocol that gave no thought to who could really win or who would actually be best for the country.
We cannot delegate the fate of the United States of America to any one political party. Like it or not, the fate of our beloved country lies in the hands of “We The People”, just as it did in the time of the American Revolution. This is not the time for patriots to hide themselves in complacency. Either we unite and sing together in a single harmonious chorus or our liberty perishes. It really is as simple as that.
The 2010 elections are just over one year from now. We should ALREADY have a united strategy! We should already have chosen target house and senate seats where we have a realistic chance to replace treacherous, self serving incumbents with true lovers of the USA, its constitution and liberties. We should have already vetted and chosen candidates to unite behind for each of those seats.
We must discard political boundaries, for who is elected in North Carolina is just as important to someone living in Texas as the representative sent to Washington from the home district.
We must discard political stereotypes and political labels. There are clear thinking, courageous patriots in the GOP, the Libertarian Party, The Independent Party and yes, in the Democratic Party as well.
We must put on hold personal political ideologies that divide us and focus on the things we all agree upon. In some cases we will feel so strongly about these issues that it will actually be painful to set them aside, even temporarily.
We must forget about selfish territorial interests and “pork” we can argue about that later. We must forget about political debts and focus on saving the country. We must be willing to think outside the box and elect people who are not insiders and have no political experience.
What is critical at this point is saving the United States of America and our Constitution. We need to focus on that issue! I believe our agenda must be very simple: We must re-enthrone our constitution and redefine the role and size of our federal government. We must put that federal government firmly back in the place in which our founders created it. It must return to the role of servant of the people and the sovereign states, NOT the master.
We are going to have to dig deep into our pockets at a time when we can ill afford it. We must financially support candidates across the USA.
This raises some basic questions:
How do we organize? Does the organization already exist that we can fall in with and trust to put aside the politics and help us vet the candidates? One that we can trust to use our hard earned money wisely? One that we can trust to resist temptation for personal gain and private agendas and pursue the fully disclosed and agreed upon agenda of “We The People”?
If this organization does not currently exist how on earth do we create one quickly and soundly enough to get the job done in 2010?
If you care about this country, We would like to have your suggestions. Tell us which existing organizations we might be able to trust to pursue our agenda of re-enthroning our constitution and redefining the role and size of the federal government.
I suspect there is no single organization that conservatives will agree can be entrusted with this mission. If that is the case, then I suggest that the following approach be adopted:
Establish a volunteer governing board of proven conservative patriots who have NO connection to either The Trilateral Commission, The Council on Foreign Relations or the Bilderberg Group.
I suggest that the first three board members be organized from among clear thinking and influential conservatives at least two of which are NOT Washington “insiders”; people like Thomas Sowell and Glenn Beck. The third member might be a proven conservative elected official such as Michele Bachmann or Jason Chaffetz. The first three members will then choose an additional four to six members, consulting with conservative organizations such as The Heritage Foundation, The Cato institute, etc.
This board of Trustees would
- Recruit volunteer staff
- Hire staff with specific expertise as necessary
- Develop overall project strategy
- Target specific house and senate seats
- Vet candidates to back
- Oversee the raising and allocation of campaign funds
There is not a lot of time for those of us who love the America we inherited from our founders to act to take our country back. Please give us your feedback and suggestions. If patriots lack the passion and commitment to step forward and join the debate, the fight is lost already, before we begin.
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