endlesschatter

Basically I guess it’s okay for the listed countries to allow for invaders to enter into their realm and squat without incrimination or fear of being arrested.
It’s pretty sad that those that believe it’s okay to enter this country illegally, and profiling is such an evil thing are being profiled everyday. If any of them get pulled over by a police person (being PC here), the officer will look at their license and address and be more than willing to talk to them in hopes of being able to either arrest them or fine them (this country has turned it’s back on the Mayberry concept where the police here to assist). If the person pulled over is non English speaking, they will get a free pass.
I would guarantee the countries stating they think us watching our boarders have stringent laws of their own… passports get stamped for a reason and visas issued for a cause. Try to immigrate into Turkey and see what happens, Panama is already going crazy over people walking through their country.
10 nations join Mexican opposition to Arizona law, politician says – CNN.com

10 nations join Mexican opposition to Arizona law, politician says
By the CNN Wire Staff
July 21, 2010 1:53 p.m. EDT

* Arizona’s SB 1070 requires proof of residency from anyone being investigated for a crime
* Opponents say the law is discriminatory and can lead to racial profiling
* Supporters say it is an effort to curb massive illegal immigration
* The Justice Department has filed suit against the law

(CNN) — Mexico has received the support of parliamentary leaders from 10 nations in opposition to Arizona’s controversial new immigration law, the Mexican Senate president said Wednesday.

Mexico and the other nations signed a declaration expressing their “strong condemnation and profound rejection of the law,” said Senate President Carlos Navarrete Ruiz.

The Arizona law, which is scheduled to go into effect later this month, requires anyone being investigated by police for a possible crime to provide proof of legal residency.

Opponents say the measure is discriminatory and invites racial profiling, but supporters say it’s necessary to curb the flood of illegal immigrants in the border state.

The U.S. Justice Department filed suit against the law, SB 1070, this month on the ground that Arizona is usurping federal authority to control the border and enforce immigration law.

The federal suit has drawn opposition from some members of Congress. On Wednesday, 81 senators and representatives filed an amicus brief disputing the Justice Department contention that the law is unconstitutional.

Mexico has been a vocal opponent of the law since the Arizona legislature passed it in April.

Speaking at a news conference Wednesday, Navarrete said Mexico received support from Uruguay, Panama, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guatemala, Cuba, Turkey, Senegal, Micronesia and Ghana.

Mexico also received backing from the Parliamentary Assembly of the European Council, Navarrete said, according to the state-run Notimex news agency.

The declarations of support came at the three-day Third World Conference of Parliamentary Presidents, which ended Wednesday in Geneva, Switzerland.

Even the island group that comprises Micronesia has immigration restrictions and requirements, who are they trying to fool?

July 21st, 2010 | Tags: Government and Politics, idiots | Category: Government and Politics, Open | Leave a comment

Normally I wouldn’t post a chainmail, but this is pretty true…

I definitely agree with this solution and it could happen if enough people get behind it.

THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!!!!!

A friend sent this along to me. I can’t think of a reason to disagree.

I am sending this to virtually everybody on my e-mail list and that includes conservatives, liberals, and everybody in between. Even though we disagree on a number of issues, I count all of you as friends. My friend and neighbor wants to promote a “Congressional Reform Act of 2010″.. It would contain eight provisions, all of which would probably be strongly endorsed by those who drafted the Constitution and the Bill of Rights..

I know many of you will say, “this is impossible”. Let me remind you, Congress has the lowest approval of any entity in Government, now is the time when Americans will join together to reform Congress – the entity that represents us.

We need to get a Senator to introduce this bill in the US Senate and a Representative to introduce a similar bill in the US House. These people will become American heros

Thanks,

A Fellow American

***********************************

Congressional Reform Act of 2010

1. Term Limits: 12 years only, one of the possible options below.

A. Two Six year Senate terms
B. Six Two year House terms
C. One Six year Senate term and three Two Year House terms

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

2. No Tenure / No Pension:

A congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

3. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security:

All funds in the Congressional retirement fund moves to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, Congress participates with the American people.

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, server your term(s), then go home and back to work.

4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan just as all Americans.

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

5. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work..

6. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

7. Congress must equally abide in all laws they impose on the American people.

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

8. All contracts with past and present congressmen are void effective 1/1/11.

The American people did not make this contract with congressmen, congressmen

made all these contracts for themselves.

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work..

If you agree with the above, pass it on to all in your address list. If not, just delete.

July 5th, 2010 | Tags: Government and Politics, politics | Category: Entertainment, Government and Politics, Open | Leave a comment

Death of Mexican migrant by Border Patrol ruled…

Death of Mexican migrant by Border Patrol ruled “homicide;” Outcry continues
By Billie Greenwood send a private message
San Diego : CA : USA | Jun 03, 2010

The San Diego County coroner ruled yesterday that the death of Mexican migrant Anastasio Hernandez Rojas at the U.S. border was a homicide. The ruling came five days after the 42 year old father of five was beaten and killed while in the custody of Border Patrol agents as he resisted deportation.

Hernandez had wrestled two border enforcement agents to the ground after his handcuffs were removed at the San Ysidro Port of Entry. One agent, apparently from ICE, struck Hernandez with a baton, according to the San Diego police report. The CBP officer then shocked Hernandez with a stun gun. Hernandez stopped breathing and showed no pulse.

Hernandez was declared brain-dead Saturday. His family removed him from life support Monday. Results of the police investigation will be sent to federal prosecutors, who will determine if criminal charges will be filed, San Diego police Capt. Jim Collins said.

Pro-migrant organizations on the Border join Mexico’s Foreign Relations Department in their condemnation of the use of force against Hernandez. A bi-national vigil of protest is scheduled for this evening at the border crossing in San Ysidro, sponsored by Raza Rights Coalition and the American Friends Service Committee.

” The killing of Anastasio Hernández Rojas by Border Patrol agents is a clear indication of the climate of hate and repression that is being fomented every day against migrant communities and is tied to the current genocidal and murderous governmental policy,” explained the event sponsors in a statement to the press.

A routine review of Mexican periodicals shows that this event has been given nationwide coverage in Mexico, states a report by the National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers .

Hernandez came to the U.S. when he was 14 and subsequently worked in construction, according to information provided by Christian Ramirez, national coordinator of American Friends Service Committee’s Project Voice immigration reform campaign. He lived in the San Diego area for the most part and has five U.S.-born children.

The head of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement promised a federal investigation.

June 4th, 2010 | Tags: Government and Politics, idiots, politics | Category: Government and Politics, Open | Leave a comment

Tea party event welcomes Palin – STLtoday.com

Tea party event welcomes Palin
By Kathleen Hennessey
TRIBUNE WASHINGTON BUREAU
02/05/2010

As anti-tax and small government enthusiasts began pouring into Nashville Thursday for the National Tea Party Convention, leaders hoped the event would be an important step toward shedding the movement’s chaotic image and establishing it as a national electoral force.

“I know it’s very hard to define the tea party with one message,” said Rebecca Wales, spokeswoman for SmartGirlPolitics.org, an online network popular with tea party activists and a convention sponsor. “But we’re unified in the fact that we do get out. We mobilize quickly and it’s powerful when we do.”

The group also appears united in its support for former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the convention’s keynote speaker. Some will pay more than $300 just to hear Palin speak Saturday night.

Grass-roots activism — the door knocking, phone banking and online networking that was the hallmark of President Barack Obama’s campaign — will be the focus of the weekend convention. Such activity helped elect new Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., and tea party leaders increasingly see it as the cornerstone of their power.

The question is, will the Tea Party… become its own party? If this movement, and that is all it is right now, a movement much like a group of bra burning women… if this movement actually forms a political party, it may be something of interest. On the other hand if it, the Tea Party, just stays on as a way for Shawn Hannity to get more face time for his whinny, the sky is falling voice, then it will just be something that will turn more people off of their rights as citizens.

Workshops will be run by the Leadership Institute, a conservative training group recently in the news for funding a magazine founded by James O’Keefe, the activist accused of tampering with phones in the office of Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La. Wales’ group will teach attendees how to conduct voter registration drives.

Born last spring as a response to the Wall Street bailouts, the nation’s various tea party groups had until recently been better known for large-scale protests than organization.

True to its early reputation, this weekend’s meeting has been rife with contention. The convention is organized by a for-profit social networking site and charges up to $560 for tickets. Some grass-roots activists criticized the costs as exorbitant and against the spirit of people-powered revolution the movement espouses.

A few sponsors dropped out. The only elected officials signed on to speak — Reps. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Michele Bachmann, R-Minn. — backed out over ethics concerns.

Kind of scary that the representatives of people are afraid of ethics violations… oh, I forgot, how the curren political structure is, is, if your a Democrat or a Republican, you can’t endorse or encourage any other party or group without sanctions being placed against them. This is a failsafe for political parties to stop it’s members from being honest with the people that wanted them to be honest. I mean lets face it, if a Bill was to go up that helped people but that Bill didn’t help your Political party, your party would make you vote a specific way, either that or you risk sanctions from the party. Americans are really hoodwinked when they think they are voting for someone to speak for them in DC. IF the Tea Party could break this lie of a political party being for the people… but really not, it would be great.

But the big draw, Palin, remains committed. She has promised to donate her more than $100,000 speaker’s fee to “the cause,” though she has not been more specific.

“I thought long and hard about my participation in this weekend’s event,” she wrote this week in an op-ed published by USA Today. “At the end of the day, my decision came down to this: It’s important to keep faith with people who put a little bit of their faith in you. Everyone attending this event is a soldier in the cause.”

Local tea party leaders and their boosters in Washington increasingly are trying to define that cause. Many activists are trying to narrowly define the tea party movement as a push for limited government and fiscal conservatism.

Under that banner, they have united against the health care bill in Congress, and railed against bailouts for banks and the auto industry. Criticism of the deficit and debt is a growing rallying cry.

“There’s a clear economic message that’s evolving out of this movement,” said Republican strategist David Winston. “Which direction, in terms of the political activism, does this go? I think we’ll get a sense of that from this convention.”

February 5th, 2010 | Tags: Government and Politics, liars club, politics | Category: Government and Politics, Open | Leave a comment

Too bad that they were dressed in nice clothing and spoke english.

December 8th, 2009 | Tags: Government and Politics, idiots, liars club, politics | Category: Government and Politics, Open | Leave a comment

Can you really believe that we pay these people…?

Maxine Waters – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Maxine Waters (born Maxine Moore Carr on August 15, 1938) is a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives since 1991, representing California’s 35th congressional district (map). She resides in the Hancock Park area of Los Angeles, which is approximately six miles west of downtown. She is the most senior of the twelve African American women currently serving in the United States Congress.

As a Democratic representative in Congress, Waters was a superdelegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention. She endorsed Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton for the party’s nomination in late January 2008, granting the New York Senator nationally-recognized support that some suggested would “make big waves.” Subsequently, however, Waters switched her endorsement to Sen. Barack Obama, by then insurmountably ahead in the pledged delegate count, on the final day of primary voting.

Waters voted against the Iraq War Resolution, the 2002 resolution that funded and granted Congressional approval to possible military action against the regime of Saddam Hussein. She has remained a consistent critic of the subsequent war. Waters asserted in 2007 that President George W. Bush was trying to “set [Congress] up” by continually requesting funds for an “occupation” that is “draining” the country of capital, soldier’s lives, and other resources. In particular, she argued that the very economic resources being “wasted” in Iraq were those that might provide universal health care or fully fund President Bush’s own “No Child Left Behind” education bill. Additionally, Waters, representing a congressional district whose median income falls far below the national average, argued that patriotism alone had not been the sole driving force for those U.S. service personnel serving in Iraq. Rather, “many of them needed jobs, they needed resources, they needed money, so they’re there.” In a subsequent floor speech, Waters told her colleagues that Congress, lacking the votes to override the “inevitable Bush veto on any Iraq-related legislation,” needed to “better [challenge] the administration’s false rhetoric about the Iraq war” and “educate our constituents [about] the connection between the problems in Pakistan, Turkey, and Iran with the problems we have created in Iraq.” A few months prior to these speeches Waters became a cosponsor of the House resolution to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney for making allegedly “false statements” about the war.

In May 2008, Waters told Shell Oil President John Hofmeister at the House Judiciary Committee’s Task Force on Competition Policy and Antitrust law, that if he did not guarantee reduced gasoline prices in exchange for Congress allowing the oil industry to drill where it wished, she would favor nationalizing American petroleum companies. In a widely reported exchange, she stated: “Guess what this liberal will be all about, this liberal will be all about socializing… taking over and the government running all of your companies.”

Waters was included by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (”CREW”) among its 2005 list of the thirteen “Most Corrupt Members of Congress” list and on the 2006 list for “her exercise of this power to financially benefit her daughter, husband and son.” She was not included on subsequent lists.

During the Los Angeles riots of 1992, Waters appeared on television as a commentator. Waters said “If you call it a riot it sounds like it was just a bunch of crazy people who went out and did bad things for no reason. I maintain it was somewhat understandable, if not acceptable. So I call it a rebellion.”
 Stock ownership of OneUnited Bank

Waters arranged meetings with U.S. Treasury Department officials (in September, 2008) for OneUnited Bank to plead for federal cash. It had been heavily invested in Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, and its capital was “all but wiped out” after the U.S. government took them over. Her husband is a stockholder (more than $250,000 as of May 2008) and former director of the bank. The bank’s executives were major contributors to her campaigns. Rep. Barney Frank counseled her against participating in the matter. The bank has its headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts, and offices in Los Angeles and Miami. It did secure $12 million in Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) money28. The matter is currently being investigated by the House Ethics Committee.

On June 25, 2009, Waters got into a fight on the House floor with fellow Democratic Congressman and Appropriations Committee Chairman Dave Obey of Wisconsin. After the House floor had largely cleared following a series of votes, Waters and Obey split apart from a heated conversation about an earmark requested by Waters for a public school employment training center in Los Angeles that was named after herself. Obey rejected the earmark as violating policies against so-called “monuments to me.” Waters revised her request to go to the school district’s whole adult employment training program, so the district could decide whether the money would go to the school named after herself. Nonetheless, Obey let it be known that the earmark would be denied. She approached him and complained, shouting, “You’re out of line!” while walking down toward the well in the House chambers. Obey shouted back, “You’re out of line!” before turning and walking away, but stopped, turned back toward Waters, and shouted, “I’m not going to approve that earmark!” He again turned away while Waters huddled with members of the Congressional Black Caucus and was overheard saying, “He touched me first.” before being escorted into the cloakroom. Obey went to talk with House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer when Waters briefly returned again, telling her colleagues, “He touched me.” before returning to the cloakroom. An aide to Waters said that Obey had pushed her while Obey’s spokesperson, Ellis Brachman, placed the blame on Waters for escalating the situation.

Citizens Against Government Waste named her the June 2009 Porker of the Month due to her intention to obtain an earmark for the Maxine Waters Employment Preparation Center.

September 20th, 2009 | Tags: Government and Politics, idiots, liars club, politics | Category: Government and Politics | Leave a comment

Of course this is from the same representative that refuses to believe we gave Saddam weapons.

The Associated Press: Heckling of president is rare in American history

Heckling of president is rare in American history

By JOCELYN NOVECK (AP) – 19 hours ago

Some 150 years ago, a congressman from South Carolina, angered by a speech on slavery, entered the Senate chamber and beat a senator from Massachusetts into unconsciousness with a metal-topped wooden cane.

Years earlier on the House floor, a representative from Vermont attacked a colleague from Connecticut — also with a cane — only to be attacked himself with a pair of fireplace tongs.

And then there was the 1838 pistol duel in which William Graves of Kentucky shot and killed fellow congressman Jonathan Cilley of Maine over words spoken on the House floor. (He wasn’t even expelled.)

Given those breaches of congressional protocol, it would seem that a mere shout of “You lie!” from a 21st-century South Carolina congressman would be small potatoes. Especially when compared with a global tradition of brawls, scuffles, hurled insults (sometimes fruit, too) and other mayhem in legislatures around the world.

Yet there’s little if any historical precedent for a U.S. congressman individually challenging a president during a speech to Congress — let alone accusing him of lying — which is just one reason why some longtime political observers were stunned by Rep. Joe Wilson’s outburst.

Presidents didn’t even address Congress between 1800, when John Adams held the job, and 1913, says Fred Beuttler, deputy historian at the House of Representatives, who calls the Wilson incident “highly unusual, if not unique.”

“Occasionally, members of the opposing party have been known to boo and jeer as expressions of dissent on a specific point,” says Beuttler, citing instances during the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations. But before Wednesday, he says, “expressions of individual opposition of members to a president’s speech had not been recorded.”

Some have compared Wilson’s outburst to those that occur routinely in Britain’s House of Commons, when the prime minister is answering questions. But one political analyst says this is vastly different, because the prime minister isn’t the head of state.

“Our president is the head of government and also the head of state, the combination of the country and the government,” says Steven Cohen, professor of public administration at Columbia University. “We expect a certain amount of deference to the president, in the same way as we would for the queen. Here, we combine the two roles.”

To another political analyst, it’s the nature of the accusation — an elected official calling the president a liar — that is not only a serious breach (accusations of lying are forbidden under House rules) but also extremely rare in politics.

“Accusing someone of lying is impugning their integrity,” says Kathleen Hall Jamieson, an expert on political communication at the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. “It was done in print a lot in the 19th century. But it is not routinely done in political discourse.”

Congress is a place of deliberation, Jamieson adds: “If you call someone a liar, you’ve ended the deliberations. This is such a strong norm that it’s been in the House rules since Jefferson.”

In Britain, too, despite its lively parliament sessions, lawmakers can be suspended for accusing others of lying. One, Tam Dalyell, was thrown out for doing just that to former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, whom he called “a bounder, a liar, a deceiver, a cheat and a crook.”

A British lawmaker was rebuked in 1986 for referring to President Ronald Reagan as Thatcher’s “cretinous friend.”

Winston Churchill was more subtle about the charge of lying, once describing a statement by another lawmaker as a “terminological inexactitude,” now a commonly accepted euphemism for a lie.

Churchill was much subtler than the Labour lawmaker who accused Thatcher of acting “with the sensitivity of a sex-starved boa-constrictor.” Or the members threatened with suspension for using terms including “hooligan,” “cad,” “jackass,” “Pecksniffian cant,” “coward,” “git,” “guttersnipe,” “stool pigeon” and “traitor.” Or Prime Minister John Major, who called Tony Blair, then the opposition leader, a “dimwit.”

And royalty hasn’t been exempt: The late Willie Hamilton, a Labour MP, was ordered to retract his description of Prince Charles as “that young twerp.”

In Asia, it can get physical — all-out brawls are almost an annual event in Taiwan’s raucous legislature, where in May 2007, lawmakers exchanged punches, climbed on each other’s shoulders and jostled violently during a debate over electoral reform.

In Seoul, hundreds of lawmakers screamed and wrestled in South Korea’s parliament in July, scuffling and shouting, grabbing each other by the neck and trying to bring opponents to the floor. Last year, lawmakers used sledgehammers to pound their way into a parliamentary committee room.

In Hong Kong, meanwhile, maverick lawmaker Raymond Wong, nicknamed “Mad Dog,” hurled a bunch of bananas across the legislative chamber to protest an old-age allowance scheme.

And in Israel, parliament speeches are often drowned out by shouting legislators leaping out of their seats, pointing fingers and running about the chamber or being ordered out by the speaker. In 2001, Ethics Committee chairwoman Colette Avital circulated a list of 68 insults she wanted banned, including: blood-drinker, boor, fascist, filth, eye-gouger, Jew-hater, Nazi, Philistine, terrorist, traitor and poodle.

Such colorful drama is less familiar to Americans these days, at least since an 1858 debate over allowing Kansas as a state.

“A brawl ensued on the House floor with 50 or more representatives rushing towards one another and wrestling and punching each other as the Speaker, James Orr of South Carolina, pleaded for order,” says Beuttler, though he notes the fight ended in laughter as one congressman pulled the wig off another, “which set the whole House of Representatives roaring with laughter.”

Recent years have been much less colorful — until this week, and Wilson’s remark, the fallout from which continues to saturate the airwaves and the blogosphere.

Many have blamed a culture of talk radio, the Internet and cable TV, where everyone has a point of a view and a platform, for creating an environment where such an incident could happen.

“If we become accustomed to hearing people call a politician a liar everywhere else — for example, in town halls — suddenly it seems more natural in a place where it’s never been acceptable,” says Jamieson,

But with any luck, she and others say, Wilson’s remark may actually serve to prevent future such outbursts, because the swift negative reaction was a powerful reminder of what is not OK.

“I’d imagine that the next time President Obama speaks to Congress,” says Beuttler, “everybody will be very polite.”

Associated Press writers Robert Barr, Meera Selva, Kwang-Tae Kim, Dikky Sin, Peter Enav and Ian Deitch contributed to this report.

September 12th, 2009 | Tags: Government and Politics, politics | Category: Government and Politics | Comments (1)

The question is will the people that are feeding us to the lions look out their windows and see the crowds?

Tea Party Express Arrives for ‘March on Washington’ to Protest Government Spending – Political News – FOXNews.com

Tea Party Express Arrives for ‘March on Washington’ to Protest Government Spending
FreedomWorks Foundation, a conservative organization led by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, has organized several groups from across the country for the Saturday event, dubbed a “March on Washington.”

The Tea Party Express — a gathering of activists protesting what they view as out-of-control spending by an expanding federal government — has arrived in the nation’s capital Saturday.

Thousands of people marched to the U.S. Capitol on Saturday, carrying signs with slogans such as “Obamacare makes me sick”

The line of protesters completely filled Pennsylvania Avenue for blocks, all the way to the capitol, according to the D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency. People were chanting “enough, enough” and “We the People.” Others yelled “You lie, you lie!” and “Pelosi has to go,” referring to California congresswoman Nancy Pelosi.

Others are waving U.S. flags and holding signs reading “Go Green Recycle Congress” and “I’m Not Your ATM.” Some men are dressed in colonial costumes. Police on motorcycles and horses watched as the marchers passed.

FreedomWorks Foundation, a conservative organization led by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, has organized several groups from across the country for the Saturday event, dubbed a “March on Washington.”

The demonstration is part of the so-called Tea Party Movement that gathered steam in April to protest tax policies. And Saturday’s event is the culmination of a 34-city, 7,000-mile bus tour that began Aug. 28 in Sacramento, Calif.

The “partiers” have cited a host of grievances and demands, such as a call for any health care reform to create more competition and be guided by market principles, not a government-run plan.

Organizers said they anticipated tens of thousands of proponents of limited government to attend. They say it will be the largest group of fiscal conservatives to ever gather in Washington.

Richard Brigle, 57, a Vietnam War veteran and former Teamster, came from Paw Paw, Mich. He said health care needs to be reformed — but not according to President Barack Obama’s plan.

“My grandkids are going to be paying for this. It’s going to cost too much money that we don’t have,” he said while marching, bracing himself with a wooden cane as he walked.

The rally comes on the heels of heated town halls held during the congressional August recess when some Democratic lawmakers were confronted, disrupted and shouted down by angry protestors who oppose President Obama’s plan to overhaul the health care system.

“I can’t figure out to save me what [Mr. Obama and the Democrats] are trying to accomplish, unless they want socialism,” 73-year-old Joseph Wright, a retired paper-mill worker, told The Wall Street Journal.

Wright rode from Tallahassee, Fla., to Washington this week on one of the many chartered buses bringing in demonstrators from states as far-flung as Massachusetts and Arkansas.

Many protesters said they paid their own way to the event — an ethic they believe should be applied to the government. They say unchecked spending on things like a government-run health insurance option could increase inflation and lead to economic ruin.

Terri Hall, 45, of Starke, Fla., said she felt compelled to become political for the first time this year because she was upset by government spending.

“Our government has lost sight of the powers they were granted,” she said. She added that the deficit spending was out of control, and said she thought it was putting the country at risk.

Other sponsors of the rally include the Heartland Institute, Americans for Tax Reform and the Ayn Rand Center for Individuals Rights.

The White House on Friday claimed it was unaware of the planned rally.

“I don’t know who the group is,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters with a shrug.

But a House leadership aide has warned fellow Democrats that up to 2 million demonstrators could turn out.

“It looks like Saturday’s event is going to be a huge gathering, estimates ranging from hundreds of thousands to 2 million people,” Doug Thornell, an aide to Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., wrote in a memo obtained by FOXNews.com.

But conservatives believe the memo is ploy to inflate expectations for the turnout anticipating that it will fall short.

“It’s an old political tactic to get out in front and make wild projections and when they’re not met, claim their opponents don’t have the juice,” said Pete Sepp, a spokesman for the National Taxpayers Union, one of the organizers of the rally.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

September 12th, 2009 | Tags: Government and Politics, politics | Category: Government and Politics | Comments (1)

Palin Paints Picture of ‘Obama Death Panel’ Giving Thumbs Down to Trig – Political Punch

When we last heard from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin she was — not without some justification — beseeching some members of the media to “quit making things up.”

But in a post on her Facebook Page today, the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee seemed to take some liberties of her own.

In a column titled “Statement on the Current Health Care Debate,” Palin wrote that as “Americans delve into the disturbing details of the nationalized health care plan that the current administration is rushing through Congress, our collective jaw is dropping, and we’re saying not just no, but hell no!”

She questions Democratic promises that the health care reform plans will reduce the cost of health care, invoking economist Thomas Sowell, saying the only way to cut costs is to refuse treatment.

“And who will suffer the most when they ration care?” Palin asks. “The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s ‘death panel’ so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their ‘level of productivity in society,’ whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.”

One can question whether there will by necessity be any rationing decisions that will need to come as a part of health care reform (and, in fact, we have) but pictures of government bureaucrats forcing euthanasia upon seniors — and, now, children with Down syndrome — because they’re not productive members of society are not part of any reasonable debate on the facts of the matter. (And frankly, I agreed with Palin previously, when she was asking members of the media to keep her children out of any public debate.)

Asked specifically what the former governor was referring to when painting a picture of an Obama “death panel” giving her parents or son Trig a thumbs up or down based on their productivity, Palin spokeswoman Meghan Stapleton responded in an email: “From HR3200 p. 425 see ‘Advance Care Planning Consultation’.”

That’s a curious reading of page 425 of the House Democrats’ bill, which refers to “advance care planning consultation,” defined as a senior and a medical practitioner discussing “advance care planning, if…the individual involved has not had such a consultation within the last 5 years.”

This includes an “explanation by the practitioner of advance care planning, including key questions and considerations, important steps, and suggested people to talk to,” an “explanation by the practitioner of advance directives, including living wills and durable powers of attorney, and their uses,” and an “explanation by the practitioner of the role and responsibilities of a health care proxy.”

It directs the medical provider to give the patients “a list of national and State-specific resources to assist consumers and their families with advance care planning,” and an explanation “of the continuum of end-of-life services and supports available, including palliative care and hospice, and benefits for such services and supports that are available under this title,” as well as “an explanation of orders regarding life sustaining treatment or similar orders.”

Factcheck.org disputes this interpretation, saying “accepted definition of end-of-life planning means thinking ahead about the care you would like to receive at the end of your life — which may include the choice to reject extraordinary measures of life support, or the choice to embrace them….the bill would not make these sessions mandatory.”

August 10th, 2009 | Tags: Government and Politics, idiots, liars club, politics | Category: Government and Politics | Leave a comment