Friday, October 16, 2009
POLL: 83% Say Congress Should Post Bills Online For All To Read Before Voting On Them
Subject: txt 1st hcare reps crpt 1st othr -
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds only six percent (6%) of voters disagree with this approach while 10% are not sure.
Of those who favor posting congressional bills in their final form on the Internet, 64% say they should be available to the public two weeks or more before Congress votes and 29% favor posting bills one week before a vote. Just four percent (4%) think three days before a congressional vote is soon enough. [which is the current 72-hours proposal - good enough for three percent of us]
Here there is no partisan disagreement: eighty-five percent (85%) of Republicans, 76% of Democrats and 92% of voters not affiliated with either party favor such postings. [but it won't be done anyway]
Right now, Republicans in the House are trying to force a vote on a measure that would require that pending bills be posted online for three days before that chamber votes on them.
Democrat party leaders are fighting the bill which they view as a GOP 'delaying tactic', despite these results suggesting that an overwhelming majority of voters consider such procedures as little more than common sense.
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Senate Democrats use tricks to pull a fast one on health care reform
Subject: txt 1st hcare -
The Associated Press is reporting that a group of Senate Democrats intend to slide a fast one by the American taxpayer. The Senators hope to win quick approval of a bill that will boost Medicare payments to doctors by hundreds of billions of dollars and will try to do so by using a legislative ploy that all but eliminates public discussion over the issue.
The significance of this tactic is that the Baucus Health Reform bill was drafted with the provision that there would be cuts to Medicare payments to doctors. That is a primary reason that the Congressional Budget Office found that the bill would reduce the deficit. Of course, there were other reasons to consider carefully the assumptions that the CBO used to give the Baucus Bill a pass, but the cuts in payments should always be suspect since Congressmen routinely include this promise in bills to meet budget constraints and later cut that provision after the bill passes and public scrutiny and opposition dies down.
The fact that the Senate is jumping the gun and trying to boost these payments should be seen as a sop to the medical profession. Senate Democrats must realize they will need to "buy off" doctors to get the bill passes. They are buying off, or co-opting, the opposition with our dollars.
Leaders in this effort include Senate Majority leader Harry Reid and Debbie Stabenow (Michigan). A spokesman for Reid disclosed that this ploy was developed in consultation with the House Democrats and the White House. This seems to have the signature of Rahm Emanuel-who knows quite well how to manipulate the levers of power in Congress and knows all the tricks in the book.
A commendation should go to 
for at least publicizing this stunt. Where is the rest of the media? Where is the promise of transparency we were promised in 2008?
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"DEMAND TRANSPARENCY - POST BILL ON WEB "
Senate-Reid: http://reid.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm
YOUR Senator: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
or: Speed Message them with your personal distribution list...
and as always, pass it on...
contact-template
House Demcrats Go Nuclear on Obamacare
Subject: txt 1st hcare -
House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) held a hearing this morning to certify that H.R. 3200 -- the main House Obamacare bill which was the subject of all the town hall rage in August -- has met all requirements to pass as a “budget reconciliation” measure.
Under reconciliation, the bill can be passed by a simple majority vote in the Senate -- just 51 votes -- and will be given preferential treatment on the House floor as well. The Dems have apparently invoked the “nuclear option” to shut out Republicans and ensure the bill is passed before the end of the year.
The bill certified for “reconciliation” is the Ways & Means version of H.R. 3200 that was passed out of committee before the August break, and before it was read aloud at town hall meetings across the country and blasted by voters across the country.
It contains all of the horrors previously exposed: federal funding of abortion, coverage for illegal aliens, comparative effectiveness, healthcare rationing, deep cuts to Medicare. Everything the American people overwhelmingly reject.
No amendments were allowed at the hearing and no debate. Rangel told Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.), the ranking Republican on the committee, that he would not have preferred to do it this way, but leadership -- i.e., Speaker Pelosi -- forced his hand.
While the media cameras are focused on Harry Reid’s office door, the House of Representatives has made it possible for H.R. 3200 to pass the Senate with 51 votes. It is still possible that Senator Reid won’t choose to use reconciliation in the Senate, but the odds against it are infinitesimal.
H.R. 3200 could see a floor vote in the next two weeks, or the first week of November. If it passes, the House it goes to the Senate and can pass there with 51 votes.
READ MORE
[Then >
"NO RECONCILIATION - DEMAND TRANSPARENCY"
House-Pelosi: http://speaker.house.gov/contact/
YOUR Congressman: https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml
or: Speed Message them with your personal distribution list...
and as always, pass it on...
contact-template
Russia warns US on missile defense
Subject: txt intl nsec -
Moscow - A top Russian diplomat suggested Thursday that the U.S. should not talk with non-NATO nations about a prospective missile shield, Russian news agencies reported. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov's remarks appeared to reflect concern over the idea that Western-leaning neighbors such as Ukraine or Georgia, Russia's foe in a war last year, could potentially host U.S. missile defense facilities...
[that was the whole idea]
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Obama loosens missile technology controls to China
Subject: txt nsec intl -
President Obama recently shifted authority for approving sales to China of missile and space technology from the White House to the Commerce Department -- a move critics say will loosen export controls and potentially benefit Chinese missile development.
The president issued a little-noticed "presidential determination" Sept. 29 that delegated authority for determining whether missile and space exports should be approved for China to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke...
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U.S. reverses stance on treaty to regulate arms trade
Subject: txt nsec intl owg -
The United States reversed policy on Wednesday and said it would back launching talks on a treaty to regulate arms sales as long as the talks operated by consensus, a stance critics said gave every nation a veto.
The decision, announced in a statement released by the U.S. State Department, overturns the position of former President George W. Bush's administration, which had opposed such a treaty on the grounds that national controls were better.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the United States would support the talks as long as the negotiating forum, the so-called Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty, "operates under the rules of consensus decision-making." [snip]
[Right. Like the EUNuchs have followed that rule in their forced-implementation of the EU Constitution aka Lisbon 'treaty'? {"Ireland {'s refusal} cannot speak for the EU"}
Another chip away at our sovereignty.]
The proposed treaty is opposed by the U.S. think tank Heritage Foundation, which said last month that it would not restrict the access of "dictators and terrorists" to arms but would be used to reduce the ability of democracies such as Israel to defend their people...
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Turkey: 32 suspects arrested in plots on Israeli, US targets
Subject: txt gwot -
As if to send out a much-needed reminder of the mutual security interests between Ankara and Jerusalem following an apparent downturn in relations, it was reported Thursday that Turkish authorities had arrested 32 suspected al-Qaida terrorists on suspicion of planning attacks on NATO, US and Israeli targets.
According to a report by the state-run agency Anatolian, which was cited by Reuters, the suspects were caught in raids in eight provinces.
Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon praised the arrests and said they proved Ankara's commitment to the war on terror...
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'Syrian long-range missiles in Lebanon'
Subject: txt gwot israel -
Syria has transferred nearly a quarter of its long- and medium-range missile arsenal to Hizbullah, the Kuwaiti al Jarida reported on Thursday.
According to the report, security sources in Jerusalem told the paper that the missiles, now held by Hizbullah, could hit every part of Israel.
Iranian and Syrian officers were reportedly training the Hizbullah operatives in using the new missiles and in operating early warning systems intended to alert the group of Israeli jets.
[The consequences of perceived weakness - aggression. Is there any questions as to where all this is leading?]
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They didn' lynch just Limbaugh
Subject: txt bdd vals libs bbro sclm -
A liberal media lynch mob dragged Rush's dream out into the public square and hung it by the neck until it was dead while the likes of Sharpton and Jackson laughed and cheered...
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So Much for the Post-Racial America
So Much for the Post-Racial America
I'm hunkered down on some projects and just heard about the phony attacks on Rush by the race-hustlers extraordinaire, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. I know Rush has big shoulders and he'll handle it just fine. But everytime one of these stories comes up, which is all too often, I can't help but think it says a lot more about us than whoever happens to be in the cross-hairs.
Why do Sharpton and Jackson have careers? Why aren't they shown the door for serial racism and dishonesty? Why does anyone give a damn what they say? Why does the press treat them like they matter when they're a walking, talking parodies?
Rush treats people in the Martin Luther King aspiration that the content of one's character is what matters, not the color of one's skin. Yet, in the media narrative, he's somehow the one who's got a race issue — and the guys who trade on race, live and breathe it 24/7, are held up as our public conscience. The Left calls this "progress." I call it perversion.
There's only one way this nonsense ever goes away: When we say "enough!" and tell the race-baiters their time is up. It's too much of an industry, so it probably won't happen tomorrow. But the Sixties ideal is crashing and burning before our very eyes, and I think it'll take a lot of its warped obsessions down with it.
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Liberty on the Line
Since when is wanting to buy a football team a matter for the House floor?
When Sheila Jackson Lee took the floor of the House this week to criticize Rush Limbaugh in an attempt to block his bid for purchasing the NFL's St. Louis Rams, I wasn't the only one confused as to the appropriateness of the venue. Even Congresswoman Lee stated, "This is not a government issue." Then why was she wasting taxpayer time and money discussing an explicitly private-sector matter?
Because liberals love nothing more than involving themselves into arenas in which they have no knowledge, while desperately wanting to appear righteous. But I wasn't overly concerned with her choice of venue. I was frightened by her choice of words... [snip]
When a government representative can stand on the floor of our most respected chamber and use phrases like "not the kind of owner the NFL needs," "standards of integrity," and "do the right thing" when discussing a private citizen, a shiver runs down my spine. T
If Limbaugh isn't an acceptable "kind of owner," then who is exactly?
Is it the place of a public employee to judge what "kind of owner" a business should have? Also, to what "standards of integrity" is she referring? Limbaugh has never committed a crime. He pays his taxes fully. He gives mountains more to charity than President Obama or nearly all Democrats. What question of integrity?
If a private citizen can't say what he wants and spend his own money how he wants, while not breaking any rules, our nation's founders would not recognize their creation. Maybe the "right thing" Ms. Lee is searching for is for the NFL to have owners that don't lean "right."
The reality is that it's not a big jump from Ms. Lee's position in the House to a legislator saying that a teacher who doesn't believe in unionization is "not the kind of educator our schools need."
Or a doctor who doesn't agree with single payer healthcare is described as "not the kind of physician our hospitals need."
Or a small business owner who speaks out against exorbitant corporate taxes is deemed "not the kind of entrepreneur our economy needs."
Or...
Suddenly, the "standards of integrity" and the ones doing "the right thing" are distinguished by a distant and relativistic judge.
Once again, this is not the liberty our founders intended.
[More, Recommended > ]
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Special Report: The Left's Character Assassination Campaign Against Rush Limbaugh
Subject: txt extra othr msm bias action - libs -
Vicious personal attacks, distortions of his quotes, outright lies and fabrications.
Those are the three major tactics the Left has deployed in its campaign of character assassination, Media Research Center's Tim Graham illustrates in a brand-new special report: "A Rush to Ruin: The Left’s Character Assassination Campaign Against Rush Limbaugh."
You can click here for the PDF version.
[Again: not a particular fan of 'Rushbo' {as not a fan of fighting fire with napalm} - but what we've just witnessed isn't just anathema to free speech but a danger to us all. If you feel otherwise or are simple unaware of what just transpired, please scan the PDF {lots of quotes, images} before dismissing this as a trivial tiff between mediaites - it's an ominous example of our self-professed professional media as political weapon - Recommended]
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Dollar to Hit 50 Yen, Cease as Reserve, Sumitomo Says
Subject: txt mny -
Tokyo - The dollar may drop to 50 yen next year and eventually lose its role as the global reserve currency, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp.’s chief strategist said, citing trading patterns and a likely double dip in the U.S. economy. ''The U.S. economy will deteriorate into 2011 as the effects of excess consumption and the financial bubble linger,'' said Daisuke Uno at Sumitomo Mitsui, a unit of Japan’s third- biggest bank.
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First hard stimulus data finds only 30,000 jobs 'saved or created'
Subject: txt mny -
The first direct stimulus reports showed that stimulus contracts saved or created just 30,083 jobs, prompting more Republican criticism of the $787 billion package. The data posted Thursday was the result of the government's initial attempt at counting actual stimulus jobs.
Obama administration officials said it exceeded their projections... [?]
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Former CBO Chief Calls Obama Administration Fiscal Policies ‘Laughable’
Subject: txt mny -
A former congressional budget chief called the Obama administration’s claims to fiscal responsibility ''hypocritical'' and ''laughable,'' noting in particular the mounting unemployment numbers (9.8 percent nationwide) despite the $787-billion stimulus plan enacted in February that he said was poorly designed... [ya think?]
''A minority (under $300 billion) of the near trillion-dollar bill cut taxes, and very little cut marginal tax rates,'' ... ''The result was no real improvement in economic incentives.''
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[I.e., they're all about safety nets {which they control} instead of job creation.]
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Endangering People to Protect Fish
CALIFORNIA
A major food supplier to the nation and the world faces threats from those who seek to limit California's Central Valley farmland water supply
California, the nation's largest producer of fruits, nuts, vegetables, livestock and dairy products, ranks fifth in the world as a supplier of food and agricultural commodities. The state provides more than half of the nation's fruits, nuts and vegetables using more than 25% of California's landmass for agricultural production. The Central Valley accounts for more than half of that area.
Yet, this vibrant industry and major food supplier to the nation and the world faces threats from recent, accelerated efforts by Left wing politicians, government agencies, and extremist environmental groups who seek to limit the Central Valley farmland water supply.
Using claims of questionable veracity and arguing for protection of endangered species, they are, in truth, part of a carefully orchestrated attempt to control the nation's food supply. If they succeed, our economy, civil liberties, the American way of life and national security would be dramatically weakened... [snip]
The most wide-ranging environmental law in the United States, the Endangered Species Act (ESA) was instituted in 1973 to "protect imperiled species from extinction as a consequence of economic growth and development and inadequate conservation."
It has provided the foundation for federal government intrusion in the Central Valley. No other government mission overrules the ESA's objective of protecting endangered species. It can even close military bases and training facilities. A 1982 ESA amendment went so far as to block economic considerations from being taken into account when designating a threatened or endangered species.
A series of court orders in the late 1990s and early 2000s essentially ruled the ESA a mandate to place a designated plant or animal species above human needs.
These judicial interpretations have handed the federal government a vehicle to control private, state and local property. The ESA enables the U.S. government to prohibit property owners from using their own land with no reimbursement provided for its disuse and reduced value.
Instead, the government's overriding responsibility is to protect a species, while the landowner is saddled with unproductive property subject to 'customary taxation'. ESA 'violations' carry steep fines in excess of $50,000 and imprisonment of up to one year. Rewards are issued to individuals who report violators... [snip]
Conclusion
For nearly 20 years, California's water availability has been precariously tied to decisions made by bureaucrats and politicians using the power of the Endangered Species Act. The effects of the far-reaching ESA could ultimately lead to the destruction of one of the most fertile valleys in the world, the reduction of the nation's food supply and greater dependence on foreign food sources that don't meet high U.S. food standards.
The use of this overriding legislation that mandates federal control of our nation's land and water is representative of the overall trend in this country of increased government intrusion into the lives of its citizens.
That a statutory decree exists that can override human suffering in the service of preserving animal habitats is a serious indictment of our government's commitment to preserve liberty and the American way of life.
[More, including the "Role of Nancy Pelosi", Highly Recommended > ]
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Poll: Mexicans say Mexican-Americans Owe Loyalty to Mexico Over U.S.
Subject: txt immig -
Nearly 70 percent of Mexicans surveyed said that Mexican-Americans – including those born in the United States – owe their primary loyalty to Mexico, not the U.S., according to a Zogby poll commissioned by the Center for Immigration Studies.
When asked ''Should the primary loyalty of Mexican-Americans be to Mexico or to the U.S.?'' 68.8 percent of respondents in Mexico said that it should be to Mexico...
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POLL: Most Say U.S. Government Policies Encourage Illegal Immigration
Subject: txt immig -
U.S. voters want aggressive action to restrict illegal immigration, but they don’t think immigrants should bear the brunt of the enforcement efforts on their own. Most say the federal government and those hiring illegal immigrants also need to be brought into the discussion.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 56% say the policies of the federal government encourage people to enter the United States illegally. Only 27% disagree, and 17% are not sure.
Republicans and unaffiliated voters overwhelmingly believe that federal policies encourage illegal immigration. Thirty-two percent (32%) of Democrats agree, but 41% do not...READ MORE
FLASHBACK:
Beware of Ideological Teamism
"Ideological teamism" refers to people's desire to belong to a team representing that they want to believe, which corrupts their judgment in determining what to believe... "
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