Dems uncomfortable when their own tactics used against them
So, this morning comes a note from "Think Progress".... a website which contributes to neither thought, nor progress... The article whines about a report from The Politico. Says the amazingly accurately initialed TP:This morning, Politico reported that Democratic members of Congress are increasingly being harassed by “angry, sign-carrying mobs and disruptive behavior†at local town halls. For example, in one incident, right-wing protesters surrounded Rep. Tim Bishop (D-NY) and forced police officers to have to escort him to his car for safety. This growing phenomenon is often [...]
Health Care Reform: Abortion Funding and Mandates Still on the Table (Promoted From TCR:Iowa)
(Originally posted on The Conservative Reader: Iowa) If you don't already know, we are thoroughly Pro Life here at the The Conservative Reader. From the moment of conception, the rights of every American should extend to even those that are still in the womb, despite the inconvenience they may pose to their mother.
We are also opposed to the current effort in Congress to foist a complex, expensive, invasive and industry-busting piece of legislation in the name of saving lives and improving the health of Americans. We are not opposed to ensuring that all Americans have access to health-care, but this bill, in whatever form it has taken thus far, is not in the best interest America. More on that in the next few days.
Worse yet, is that such a bill, in the name of saving lives, may end up funneling more and more money to take lives... innocent lives at that.
The following is a piece provided by Jenifer Bowen (appeared in the Facebook group page for Iowa Right To Life):
There is a battle going on in the Congress over Health Care reform and they, meaning the U.S. Representatives and U.S. Senators, are under heavy pressure to strike a deal and get it done before the summer recess in August. Our concern is a "deal" that would allow for funding and mandates in the bill. There are millions of dollars at stake, and the abortion industry is working hard to get their hands on what they see as a gold mine of tax funding. Their goal includes mandating abortion as health care and having their mandates funded. The good news is that there are many leaders in congress with a conscience that want health care reform, but do not agree with mandating or funding abortion with taxpayer's money. However, the pressure from President Obama and the Democrat leadership is mounting, as they want abortion as part of Health Care Reform. This is bad news since it comes down to heavy political pressures on each representative. This is when your voice really counts. This [...]
Health Care Reform Without GOP?
Tom Harkin, Senator from Iowa, proclaimed Wednesday that Congress can proceed and pass Health Care Reform without the help of Republicans, or rather, despite Republican opposition.
While a more detailed examination of the bill that passed its first major hurdle in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will be forthcoming here, it seems to be worth the time to examine Harkin's statement as it strikes as a bellweather for our nation's future.
This is more than a review of the strictly partisan victory Democrats have achieved in Congress, with the 60 votes needed in the Senate to defeat most Republican efforts at stopping or at least slowing actions by Democrats that might normally be nuanced with even the threat of filibuster. It is about even more than the arrogance of those who hold sway in the Federal Legislature, Administration and perhaps in the next few years, the Judiciary.
It's about why a bi-partisan effort is sometimes, perhaps often, critical for real success.
Understanding this concept is essential to good government. Failing to understand it is what leads to the chaos we currently think of as government.
Neither of the major parties has [...]
Palin: “Cap and Tax” Is a Dead End
She’s not wasting time. With just under two weeks left before Alaska Governor Sarah Palin gives the reigns over to her Lt. Governor, Sean Parnell, we see the gloves come off regarding President Obama's cap and trade tax energy plan.
Hay Fields in Vermont
Ah, Vermont--"The Anything Goes State". I know it used to be known as "The Green Mountain State", but its new moniker is much more appropriate. I saw this article a couple of weeks ago in The Wall Street Journal and forgot to comment. Apparently, according to the Journal, dairy farmers in Vermont are being offered $135 an acre if they will harvest their hay before June 2 or after July 17 in order to allow birds that nest in hay fields, like meadow larks and bob-o-links, an opportunity to build nests and hatch and raise their young undisturbed by haybines and balers.
I wish I were making this up, but I'm not. I grew up on the other side of Lake Champlain from Vermont on a dairy farm. Hay for dairy cattle has little nutritional value before June 2 or after July 17. In order for a farmer to maximize dairy production through the use of high quality feed, they must [...]
The Learning Curve
Last week I opined that our Rookie President and his administration were in over their heads–that basically they were, in effect, clueless. Last week end President Obama apparently agreed with me, suggesting that distributing the alleged stimulus was not as...President Obama, Day #…..
Ah, who cares?
As disappointed as I was about the outcome of the last general election, I thought I'd take a few months off from writing and spend it observing this new global (dare I say, Intergalactic?) phenomenon that is our new President. Today is July 6, and I fear that he is almost exactly what I thought he would be last summer, that is to say, pathetic.
Having said this, I have to confess that the reason I took some time from writing was that I wanted to be objective in my assessment of this man (as opposed to self-styled Deity). So many conservatives have been lambasted precisely because they wouldn't give President Obama a chance. Not that he needed one, but we DO have to be fair. And I was secretly praying that his rhetoric was merely that and he was pandering to his ultra-liberal base and that, being a man of reason and logic, he was a closet conservative and would instinctively do the right thing. No such luck!
I've waited five and a half months for him to do something, anything, good for the country. So far, here's what President Obama has accomplished:
- He's spent $1.2 trillion (that's $1,200,000,000,000) of succeeding generations' money on absolutely nothing of any consequence
- He's flown around the world numerous times at taxpayer's expense, all the while chiding the taxpayers to tighten up their belts and pay for his largesse
- He's been on television almost every day whining about the failed policies of "the last eight years" and gathering support for his socialist agenda.
How Independent Are We?
Two hundred and thirty-three years ago, the men of the Second Continental Congress made a bold gesture as they sought to uncleave themselves from their ties with Great Britain. A gesture intended to convey that they were serious about the war that was already raging on the American Continent. A gesture intended to tell the world, and perhaps garner the support of other countries, that the American Colonies could not and would not continue to live under the yolk of a tyrannical King and Parliament.
A gesture that could cost them all, and indeed did cost some, their lives and their properties.
The Declaration of Independence was written primarily to formalize the decision to separate the colonies from British rule. It also sought to communicate the importance of concepts of liberty that were lacking in the current arrangement with the Britsh Monarchy. Subjected to Britain's control though they were, equal to other British Subjects living in the homeland they were not. Even in attempts to seek the kind of autonomy eventually considered standard within the British Empire were at that time brushed aside... self-government was not in the best interest of Britain at that time.
Many know that the original Jeffersonian draft of the Declaration included a statement that could not be agreed upon by the 13 "free and independent states"... that is, regarding slavery. Incredible that the words "...all men are created equal..." would remain in a document that could not hold the words:
"He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivatng [sic] and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of INFIDEL powers, is the warfare of the CHRISTIAN king of Great Britain. Determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought and sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce." (Washington State University Web Site: Original Draft of The Declaration of Independence)But these and more words were removed by a Congress that was unwilling to do the right thing, as it would have an impact on the economy of some southern states. So our beginnings were not perfect. We moved forward tolerating [...]
Energy Leninism? Or Just Plain Leninism?
As goes Energy, so goes the country.
“The worse, the better,†Vladimir Lenin is said to have observed. What Lenin meant was that the worse social conditions became in Russia, the more likely he and the Bolsheviks could foment a communist revolution. President Barrack Obama’s White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel recently updated Lenin’s maxim, saying, “Never allow a crisis to go to waste.â€Last Friday, the Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives took those maxims to heart when they pushed through their 1,200-page American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) Act by a vote 219 to 212. The bill is supposed to address the twin crises of economic recession and climate change by creating millions of new “green†jobs. Instead of an old-fashioned Soviet-style five-year plan, ACES can be thought of as 50-year plan to radically transform how Americans produce and use energy.…Well, look, Ron Bailey, this entire administration seems to me to emulate the tactics of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, in all things, not just energy… and in my view we’ve not seen nearly the worst of it yet. (A Depressing thought as we come to July 4th, isn’t it?) So why should Energy be any different? Energy, after all, is the key to our country and it’s prosperity. Which of course was why I raised such holy hell when the first thing Obama did upon being sworn in was to reverse President Bush’s sign off on offshore drilling. That action is the major reason oil prices have better than doubled in the last 6 months. The question that Ron asks, though, seems to me pertinent:
Will Americans tolerate such sweeping interventions into their lives and workplaces? … The 1994 mid-term election became a referendum on [...]
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