Archive for August, 2009

FAIR Legislative Update August 31, 2009

  • Written by Cnation
  • Posted August 31, 2009 at 9:45 pm

Congressional Research Agency Confirms Illegal Aliens Will Get Health Benefits Under House Bill

Last Tuesday, the Congressional Research Service (CRS), which is the non-partisan “research arm” of the United States Congress, issued a report that concludes that illegal aliens will be able to receive benefits under the House health care bill (H.R. 3200) through two major loopholes.  (See CRS Report and FAIR Press Release, August 26, 2009).

According to its own website, CRS is a legislative branch agency that provides Congress with “policy and legal analysis” that is authoritative, objective and accurate.  (CRS website).  The latest CRS report validates what FAIR has been saying for the past month and a half — that illegal aliens will be able to receive taxpayer-funded health benefits under the House health care bill.  (See FAIR’s Legislative Updates, July 20, 2009; July 27, 2009 and August 3, 2009).

The House bill creates an “exchange” and “all individuals,” which would include illegal aliens, are eligible to participate in the exchange.  Anyone who participates in the exchange, and does not otherwise have health insurance, can either enroll in the public option plan created by the House bill or enroll in a private insurance plan.  Accordingly, the first loophole that provides illegal aliens with health insurance is the ability for illegal aliens to freely enroll in the taxpayer-subsidized public option.  According to CRS, “H.R. 3200 does not contain any restrictions on non-citizens — whether legally or illegally present, or in the United States temporarily or permanently — from participating in the Exchange.”  (CRS Report).  Accordingly, illegal aliens can enroll in the public option, courtesy of the American taxpayers, to meet their health insurance needs.  (See CNN.com, August 2009).

The second major loophole is the failure to require any meaningful verification procedure for taxpayer-subsidized insurance credits. Under the House bill, individuals who buy private insurance through the Exchange may receive an affordability credit to offset the cost of insurance.  This credit is ostensibly limited to individuals lawfully present in the U.S., but CRS (like FAIR) notes the complete absence of any provision in the House bill that requires verification of eligibility for the affordability credits.  Without such a mechanism, there is nothing in the bill that will prevent illegal aliens from receiving this taxpayer subsidy to buy private health insurance.

These conclusions by CRS should eliminate any remaining doubt about whether illegal aliens will receive health benefits under the bill.  As a result of this report, President Obama can no longer characterize the concerns about the illegal alien health care loophole under the bill as “misinformation.”  (See FAIR’s Legislative Update, August 24, 2009 and FAIR’s Health Care Podcast, August 24, 2009).  In addition, Members of Congress can no longer claim the bill prevents coverage for illegal aliens, and the media can no longer suggest this concern is a “myth.”  (See FAIR’s House bill summary and Townhall.com, August 27, 2009).

Federal Court Upholds E-Verify Federal Contractor Rule

The amnesty lobby suffered a significant setback last week as a federal court upheld a regulation that will require most federal contractors to use E-Verify — the online, electronically operated employment verification system that allows employers to quickly and easily check the work authorization status of their new hires. (The New York Times, August 27, 2009).

The ruling came more than eight months after a coalition of special interest groups — including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce; Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc.; the Society for Human Resource Management; the American Council on International Personnel; and the HR Policy Association - sued to block the rule from taking effect on its original targeted implementation date of January 15, 2009. (See FAIR’s Legislative Update, January 5, 2009).

The push to require federal contractors to use E-Verify has had a long history. On June 6, 2008, then-President George W. Bush signed Executive Order (EO) 13,456, which amended EO 12,989 to require federal contractors to use an electronic employment eligibility verification system to verify the work authorization status of their employees. EO 13,456 also required the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to choose the verification system to be used. (EO 13,456, June 9, 2008). On June 9, 2008, former DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff designated E-Verify as the system to be used by federal contractors under the EO. (DHS Press Release, June 9, 2008). The Final Rule implementing President Bush’s EO was issued in mid-November 2008. (Final Rule, November 14, 2008).

On December 23, 2008, a coalition of special interests filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Maryland alleging that the Final Rule was unlawful because it violated the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA). The plaintiffs argued that Secretary Chertoff had violated Section 402(a) of IIRIRA, which states that “the Secretary of Homeland Security may not require any person or other entity to participate in a pilot program [of employment eligibility confirmation].” In designating E-Verify as the electronic employment eligibility verification system to be used by federal contractors under President Bush’s EO, the plaintiffs alleged that Chertoff had violated this statutory prohibition. The complaint contained several other allegations, including a claim that the Final Rule violated a separate IIRIRA statutory prohibition against re-verifying the work authorization status of existing employees. (Complaint, December 23, 2008).

In last week’s decision, Judge Alexander Williams, Jr. rejected the claims made by the coalition of special interest groups. Judge Williams noted that “[t]he decision to be a government contractor is voluntary and…no one has a right to be a government contractor.” Williams added that, even though the Final Rule requires federal contractors to enroll in E-Verify, “[p]otential government contractors have the option not to contract with the government,” so Secretary Chertoff hadn’t actually required anyone or any entity to use E-Verify. Judge Williams also went on to reject the coalition’s claims that the E-Verify contractor rule violated an IIRIRA prohibition against re-verifying the work authorization status of existing employees. According to Williams: “Nothing in IIRIRA explicitly prohibits the Executive Branch from using E-Verify for current employees.” (Decision, August 25, 2009).

The Obama Administration has indicated that it intends to implement the final rule on September 8, 2009 — after having delayed the regulation on three separate occasions. (See The Washington Post, January 30, 2009 and FAIR’s Legislative Updates from April 20, 2009; June 8, 2009 and July 13, 2009).However, the E-Verify program itself  is set to expire on September 30, 2009. While many immigration reformers have been insisting that the program be permanently reauthorized, the Administration has avoided adopting such a position. Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) successfully attached a related E-Verify amendment to the Fiscal Year 2010 Homeland Security spending bill that would (1) permanently reauthorize E-Verify and (2) require all federal contractors to use E-Verify to check the work authorization status on all of their new hires, plus existing employees who are assigned to affected federal contracts.  The fate of the Sessions Amendment is uncertain, however. The Homeland Security spending bill is scheduled to move to a House-Senate conference sometime in September. Since the House version of the bill does not contain the Sessions Amendment, the Conference Report — which would likely become law - may include or drop this language. (See FAIR’s Legislative Update, July 13, 2009).

Illegal Alien Faces Death Penalty for 2008 Murder of High School Football Star

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced last week that it will seek the death penalty for Pedro Espinoza — an illegal alien member of the 18th Street Gang who allegedly murdered 17-year old high school football star Jamiel Shaw, Jr. in cold blood last year. (CBS News, August 27, 2009; KPCC, August 26, 2009; KTLA, August 26, 2009; and The New York Times, August 26, 2009). Shaw’s murder on March 2, 2008 touched off an explosive debate over Special Order 40 — the Los Angeles sanctuary ordinance which does not require police officers to check the immigration status of suspects who have been arrested. (See FAIR’s Legislative Update, April 14, 2008).

According to Los Angeles police, Shaw was about three blocks from his house, talking on his cell phone with his girlfriend on the night of his murder. Two men in a car pulled up to Shaw, jumped out, and asked Shaw if he belonged to a gang. When Shaw did not respond, Espinoza allegedly shot him to death. Shaw’s father, Jamiel, Sr., was on the phone when he heard the shots and raced outside to find his son lying on the sidewalk, bleeding. His mother, Army Sergeant Anita Shaw, was serving her second tour of duty in Iraq at the time Jamiel was killed. (The Los Angeles Times, March 4, 2008).

Following the murder, it came to light that the illegal alien who had allegedly killed Jamiel, Jr. had been released from jail on a firearms charge just one day before Shaw was killed. This prompted Shaw’s parents to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department on the grounds that the illegal alien should have been turned over to federal authorities instead of being freed. (CBS News, August 27, 2009). Additionally, Shaw’s parents unsuccessfully petitioned for Jamiel’s Law, legislation that would have altered the sanctuary provisions in Special Order 40 by requiring authorities to check the immigration status of gang members who were under arrest or investigation. (KTLA, August 26, 2009). FAIR Media Director Ira Mehlman commented last week about the release of the illegal alien who has been charged with murdering Shaw: “The local police never took the trouble to find out he was an illegal alien and remand him to federal authorities. If they had done that, they would not have put him back out on the streets. He would have been remanded to federal custody and never had the opportunity to murder Jamiel Shaw.” (OneNewsNow, August 28, 2009).

Parents Jamiel, Sr. and Anita Shaw were proud of their son. Jamiel, Jr. aspired to play college football and wanted to become a sports agent after graduating college. Jamiel’s mother compared the gang violence that had led to her son’s death to the violence that she had seen in Iraq: “The only thing is we don’t have sand and dirt flying all around. But we have the bullets.” In the days following Jamiel’s murder, Jamiel, Sr. said of his son: “He was set. He was going to college…he was my hero.” (CBS News, August 27, 2009).
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Filed under: FAIR News 3/1/2010

Politics Before Justice at Obama’s DOJ

  • Written by Cnation
  • Posted at 8:35 pm
The Heritage Foundation  

On Friday of last week, following the announcement that Attorney General Eric Holder would appoint a prosecutor to re-investigate the CIA’s treatment of detainees, former Vice President Dick Cheney taped an interview with Fox News. During the interview, which aired yesterday on Fox News Sunday, Cheney describes Holder’s decision as an “outrageous political act” that will have “devastating” consequences within the CIA.

Cheney is dead on. But unfortunately Holder’s political CIA witch hunt is just the latest example of a troubling pattern of politicization of the Justice Department under Holder.

Recent Entries

Obama’s Tripling of the National Debt in Pictures
 
Cap and Trade’s Bait and Switch
 
The ABCs of the Health Care Debate Bias
 
Rigging the System with New Regulation
 
A Slap in the Face to Poland?

Voter Intimidation: On Election Day 2008, members of the New Black Panther Party dressed in military-style uniforms were filmed standing outside a polling place in Philadelphia. According to a complaint filed by career lawyers at the Justice Department, the New Black Panther Party violated section 11(b) of the Voting Rights Act by engaging “in coercion, threats, and intimidation” of voters, including “racial threats and racial insults” as well as brandishing “a deadly weapon.”

One of the defendants named was Jerry Jackson, a Democratic Committeeman of the 14th Ward in Philadelphia. The front-line career lawyers in the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division recommended that Justice seek sanctions against the party and three of its members after the government had already won a default judgment in federal court against the men. But then Associate Attorney General Thomas Perrelli, the politically appointed No. 3 official in the Obama Justice Department, intervened. Instead of following through and getting an injunction to prevent this behavior in future elections, the suit was dismissed against all defendants, but Jackson, who received a watered-down injunction to prevent him from carrying a weapon in a polling place. But only in Philadelphia and only until 2012!

Public Corruption: In 2008, a federal grand jury began an investigation into a possible pay-to-play scheme in which lucrative work on New Mexico bond deals went to a Gov. Bill Richardson (D) donor. But then just last week, news leaked that that no one would be charged in the investigation with sources telling the Associated Press: “It’s over. There’s nothing. It was killed in Washington.” Heritage senior legal fellow Hans von Spakovsky explains why this is so troubling: “For anyone familiar with internal Justice Department procedures, this is particularly suspicious. The DOJ has a manual called “Federal Prosecution of Election Offenses” (I helped edit the latest edition when I was at Justice) that sets out the rules and procedures for U.S. attorneys when they are investigating these types of public-corruption cases. It is the U.S. attorney in New Mexico who would normally make the final call on a local public-corruption case, not ‘top Justice Department officials’ in Washington.”

Undermining National Security: In 2004 the CIA Inspector General issued a report documenting alleged detainee abuse by CIA interrogators and contractors. The DOJ’s career, not political, prosecutors then examined that document and other incidents from Iraq and Afghanistan for legal accountability. In one case, the DOJ decided to prosecute, and has already obtained a criminal conviction of a CIA contractor. Furthermore, the CIA has also taken their own disciplinary action against others involved in the incidents. As Heritage senior fellow Peter Brookes explains, Holder’s decision to re-investigate the CIA will have a chilling effect on the morale at the agency and will leave officers in the field wondering whether they should be more concerned about getting terrorists or getting lawyers.

Anyone familiar with Holder’s history should not be surprised by the politicization of the Justice Department under his leadership. In 1999, Holder promoted clemency for 16 members of FALN and Los Macheteros, terrorist organizations linked by the FBI to more than 130 bombings and six murders. Then in 2000 Holder played a prominent role in the pardon of Marc Rich, whose ex-wife gave considerable sums to the Democratic Party ($867,000) and the Clinton Library ($450,000).

Now, as the head of DOJ, Holder’s political decisions are undermining core rule of law concerns including the integrity of elections, ethical governance, and national security. Holder reports directly to his boss, President Barack Obama. Someone needs to be held accountable.

QUICK HITS

According to Rasmussen Reports, 57% of Americans would vote to replace the entire Congress and start all over again.
 
Public interest groups are concerned that the Obama administration is spending billions in stimulus dollars to expand high-speed Internet networks without first knowing where they are most needed.
 
According to the Associated Press, politics, not need, is dictating how $720 million is spent for border upgrades.
 
According to the National Association of Small Business Contractors, the Obama administration has repeatedly failed to meet its obligation to set aside 23 percent of its contracts to small businesses.
 
More than $3.1 billion in stimulus money for state unemployment insurance programs is sitting in a federal trust fund because 23 states (only 11 under GOP control) have refused to change their unemployment system as dictated by Congress to qualify for the program.

  

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Get all the latest health care news as the battle heats up in Washington. It will be constantly updated as we get news. Click here for the latest on health care.
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Filed under: Morning Bell Archives

Cnation’s Picks for 8/31/2009

  • Written by Cnation
  • Posted at 1:06 am

TEA Partiers Doing it right in Tucson

According to this guy, CIGNA owes me some money

From Gateway Pundit: A violent tea party crasher. Here’s another.

Dealers take clunkers; now where’s the cash?

“His stated goals aren’t arguably fraudulent, but verifiably so”

Organizing For America manufacturing consent in Denver

Union payoff should get stripped from ObamaCare

Forget the recession and the “uninsured.” Obama has bigger fish to fry

The Give-a-Damn Index reaches a new high (updated)

I get what he’s saying, but don’t believe compromise is an option anymore.

I’d Rather Be Waterboarding….

And now for somehing completely different…..


-Cnation

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Filed under: Headlines

Heritage.org: Outsourcing Your Tax Dollars

  • Written by Cnation
  • Posted August 29, 2009 at 11:18 pm
The Heritage Foundation

The Morning Bell

FRIDAY, AUG 28, 2009

During a July 7th Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing on the 1,500 page Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade legislation, Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) got Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson to admit that “U.S. action alone will not impact CO2 levels.” This is 100% consistent with all the best science which shows that the carbon reductions under Waxman-Markey will not affect global temperatures in any material way. For example a recent study of cap-and-trade by MIT concluded:

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The different U.S. policies have relatively small effects on the CO2 concentration if other regions do not follow the U.S. lead…The Developed Only scenario cuts only about 0.5 °C of the warming from the reference, again illustrating the importance of developing country participation.


As we have asked before, “So how is that ‘developing country participation’ going?” Well, just this week ministers from 10 African countries renewed their intent to demand billions of dollars in aid before they sign any climate agreement and both China and India have also made it crystal clear that they require billions in aid to help finance carbon-reducing projects before they agree to reduce their emissions.

So where are all these billions of dollars going to come from? You, of course. A recently leaked document from the G20 Climate Finance Experts Group refers to “carbon market finance,” as a major source of the “hundreds of billions of dollars per year” delivered to the rest of the world by the U.S. and the other wealthier nations. So what is “carbon market finance?” It’s what Waxman-Markey proponents call cap and trade even though, in reality, all it is a huge new energy tax.

But the story gets even better. Remember all those EPA and CBO estimates purporting to show how little the Waxman-Markey energy tax would hurt consumers? Well, besides the fact that they all ignored the cost of lost GDP from higher energy taxes, the CBO and EPA also assumed that Waxman-Markey would rebate all of its tax proceeds back to consumers. For example, the CBO estimates Waxman-Markey would raise taxes on Americans by $872.8 billion between 2010-2019 but then also assumes that the federal government will immediately turn around and spend $863.8 billion.

In other words, the left in Congress has already spent 100.3% percent of the “carbon market finance” revenues raised. And not a single penny of it has yet been allocated to India, China, and the other developing countries that are demanding cash payments from us before they lift a finger to reduce carbon emissions.

As our economy struggles to recover, our leaders should be working to lower our energy costs and develop our own natural resources, not enacting complex regulatory schemes that will crush our economy and send our hard-earned money overseas.

QUICK HITS

Rep. Betsy Markey (D-CO) admitted to constituents Wednesday that some people, including Medicare recipients, will have to give up some current benefits under Obamacare.
Despite three decades of support from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for universal health insurance, some conference leaders have concluded Obamacare will pay for abortions and worry rationing will penalize the chronically ill.
According to Rasmussen Reports, cratering support for Obamacare has leveled off over the past two weeks with only 43% of voters favoring the plan with 54% opposed.
According to a new poll by The Economist, only 24% of Americans believe President Obama’s stimulus plan is working and only 9% think the plan will eventually work.
Toyota’s decision to officially close its Fremont, California plant next March means the Golden State’s toxic business environment will have killed its last auto plant in the state.




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Hundreds of Obamabots Bussed In To Raleigh, NC Pro-Obamacare Rally

  • Written by Cnation
  • Posted at 10:49 pm

Update: Welcome Instapundit Readers!

In Raleigh, NC this morning, HCAN held a pro-Obamacare rally at the state capital. I was among a relatively small but vocal group of counterprotestors stationed across the street. At our peak, we numbered about 70, and most of us stayed through the entire event.

The pro-healthcare crowd was several hundred strong, and for good reason - they arrived in at least three and possibly 4 full-sized tour buses (see pics below). One of the buses came in from Wilmington, which is a couple of hours away, and while I have no idea where the others came from, they sure as hell weren’t from around here.

Two of the buses were parked right around the corner and down the block, so it was no big feat of detective work to follow the o-bots back to them at the rally’s end. The other two (that I saw) were parked in a lot another couple of blocks back, but I lost track of them after they pulled out so can’t say for certain if they were both O-bot vehicles. No matter though,two buses, four buses, whatever…. it’s just further proof that these pro-Obamacare organizers fear what their rallies would look like if they didn’t bring their own crowd.

Their rally was predictable - a few speakers whose job it was to play the emotional angle, a couple more telling the crowd why they deserved free healthcare, and the requisite incindiary black preacher-type who I was told but unable to confrm was president of the Durham NAACP chapter. This man in particular drew loud boos from our side of the street when he invoked the name of God in his insistence on free insurance on the backs of taxpayers. Real fire-and-brimstone crap from this guy, sort of like Rev. Wright without the overt racism.

Oh, and there were many, many identical pre-printed signs.

What struck me about the pro-obamacare crowd was how completely willing they were to disregard the consequences and realities of taxpayer-funded government-run healthcare. It was all about what they were entitled to, what they deserved, how the billionaire insurance companies were allowing them to die in the streets, etc, etc…a real mix of fantasy-land sensationalism and pie-in-the-sky nonsense. It really leads one to wonder - and I say this with absoutely no malice - just how tenouous a grasp on reality the bulk of these people have.

One in particular caught my attention (sorry, no pic) - this one guy spent a large portion of the rally facing and waving a dollar bill at us from across the street. Try as I may, I was totally unable to figure out what his point was. If the cops weren’t doing such a good job of keeping our two sides separated, I might have gone over to him and pointed out that the people looking for a handout were behind him, not in front of him.

Our people were awesome, of course. The signs were good and the passion strong. If I have one concern, it’s that we need to get better organized. This sentiment was shared by several other people I spoke with, and the general feeling was - based on turnout at past events - that if the communication had been better, we could have turned out significantly more people. This is something I am going straight to work on tonight.

A couple of personal notes: On the way back and forth between bus parking areas to get pictures of the O-bots ‘grassroots’ transportation after the rally’s end, I had a couple of interactions with some of the pro-reform people. The first one, an older black woman, was having trouble holding on to her armload of pro-obamacare signs on her way back to her car, dropping one in the process. As I passed, she asked if I could help her out and I did. She dropped another, and I got that one for her as well. Just two human beings who had both just minutes before been screaming at each other from different sides of the street, now pleasantly and peacefully interacting with each other. I was struck by the sheer normalcy of the moment. Yes, I left it alone.

A few minutes later, a small group of obamacare people walked past me in the opposite direction when one of the women, carrying a pro-reform sigh, said to me “can I get a thumbs-up?” I said “nope”, and kept on walking. After a few more paces though, I turned around and called over to her. When she turned around, I told her that I didn’t mean to be rude, and that however this healthcare disaster shakes that it will need to work for everyone. She said “me too, so how about a thumbs-up”, but I responded “not as long as you’re still carrying that sign”, and we went on our respective ways.

If there’s an aspect to this whole thing that I am having trouble dealing with, it’s how this administration’s far-left policies and aspirations have normal Americans choosing sides and at each others throats. At one crosswalk, it was me and about a half-dozen obamacare people and it was just….I dunno….weird. I don’t like having to size up my fellow citizens as friend or foe, but I guess that’s just where we’re at right now in Obama’s Amerika. I long for the day when the aforementioned ‘normalcy’ returns to our society, but I also know that those days may well be behind us.

No matter how troubling I find our current situation or how it weighs on me personally though, I will continue to fight for and defend what I know to be right, because it’s about so much more than just me. It’s about a future for my wife, my kids, my friends, family, city, state and country. It’s about joining with my fellow patriots to stomp out the flames of tyranny before they become a bonfire. It’s about restoring greatness to a nation being brought to its knees by an element -  fronted by a smooth-talking con man - whose goal is to take over industry, destroy capitalism and the free market, and to take from those who produce and contribute to give to those who do neither.

Next weekend I’ll be installing a new timing belt, water pump, crank and cam seals and valve cover gasket on my ancient Corolla in preparation for the trip to DC on September 12. A strong showing here can not only help kill  HR3200 (and HR676) once and for all, but put congress and the white house on notice that we will not be disregarded any more. Lest we forget, amnesty is next.

Two Obamacare buses down the block from the rally

Two Obamacare buses down the block from the rally

Obamabots boarding the bus post-rally

Obamabots boarding the bus post-rally

More Obots board the bus

More O-bots board the bus

Another Obamacare bus around the corner

Another Obamacare bus around the corner

Close up shot of the above bus

Close up shot of the above bus

Patriots! About 70 at our peak.

Patriots! About 70 at our peak.

A Patriot caling for some common sense.

A Patriot calling for a simple plan that will work.

Patriots!

Patriots!

Patriots!

Patriots!

Apparently the drama club got out early today. The dork on the right obviously has no clue whatsoever as to the irony of his sign.

Apparently the drama club got out early today. The misguided soul on the right is oblivious to the irony of his sign, which reads "Let them eat Advil".

Patriots!

Patriots!

Patriots!

Patriots!

O-bots display their lovingly-crafted and totally original grassroots signs.

O-bots display their lovingly-crafted and totally original grassroots signs.

Spotted on the way out, an Obamacare sign in the trash. Yup, that about sums it up.

Spotted on the way out, an Obamacare sign in the trash. Yup, that about sums it up.

…..

-Cnation

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Filed under: Healthcare, Healthcare Protests, Liberal dishonesty

Obama’s Amerika: Meet Officer Wesley Cheeks Jr.

  • Written by Cnation
  • Posted at 12:15 am

This is the type of ‘empowerment’ Obama has provided.

.

.

Does anyone think the race hustler in chief will accuse this fascist scumbag cop Wesley Cheeks Jr with ‘acting stupidly”?

Me neither.

My country is turning into a scary fucking place.

More from hotair.

-Cnation

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Filed under: Political Corruption

Tomorrow 8/29 - Obamacare Counterprotests in North Carolina

  • Written by Cnation
  • Posted August 28, 2009 at 11:54 pm

The healthcare battle is heating up on the streets and at town halls all across the country. The left - in a shameless-but-classic display of hypocrisy - is shedding any pretense of grassroots origins and is rolling their union and paid obama-bot-filled busses from city to city in support of Obamacare.

Here’s the thing though - the polls are with us in a pretty substantial way. People across the political spectrum know that Obamacare is a loser. The senate democrats know it too, which it is why they don’t currently have the votes to get it through. The left is scared that their big chance is falling through their fingers, so they’re trying to regain the momentum we’ve stolen from them.

They have the money. They have the media. They have the house, the senate, and the presidency. And they’re still losing.

However, with the left making a this last big (and big money) push via television and radio ads, and astroturfing their way across America in the “OFA Health Care Reform bus” (you have to see this thing to believe it…the best ‘grassroots’ effort that team obama money can buy), it is absolutely no time to start believing that we’ve got this thing won. We don’t yet. We are getting there though, and our efforts at these rallys and town hall meetings have changed the game in a very major way.

I am proud beyond words of what we’ve been able to accomplish to date, but now we need to ramp up the effort even more - increase our presence, apply even more pressure on our elected representatives,  and to be wherever that ridiculous bus full of pro-government-healthcare Obamabots shows up in order to meet, counter, and outnumber them.

Remember, the left can’t and won’t have an honest, straight-up debate on HR3200.  If you find yourself in a discussion or argument with a reform supporter, remember that it’s not them you’re trying to convince - because you simply will not -, it’s the third party who’s watching/listening that you’re trying to reach. Know your facts, support them, do not waver, and your argument will win the day on this thing every single time.

Tomorrow in North Carolina, there will be pro-healtcare ‘reform’ rallies in Asheville, Greenville, Raleigh and Charlotte. It is unclear to me at the moment exactly who is behind them, but it doesn’t matter - we need to be there:

ASHEVILLE
Asheville Health Care Can’t Wait Rally
Saturday, Aug. 29 from 10 a.m.-12 p.m.
Pritchard Park on Patton Avenue, downtown Asheville

CHARLOTTE
Healthcare Reform Educational Forum
Saturday, Aug. 29, from 3:30 p.m.-6 p.m.
Greater Mount Sinai Baptist Church  1243 West Blvd. Charlotte, NC 28208  3
Purpose: To inform, educate, and provide facts to the citizens of Charlotte about Healthcare Reform
Why: To alleviate fear amongst citizens by speaking the truth about Healthcare Reform
[This would be a particularly good place to be well-armed with the real facts about the consequences of Obamacare - Cnation]

GREENVILLE
Health Care Can’t Wait Rally
Saturday, Aug. 29, from 10 a.m.-11 a.m.
At the corner of Charles Blvd. and Greenville Blvd.

RALEIGH
Saturday, Aug. 29, from 10:00 – 11:30 a.m.
State Capitol Building in Raleigh

We’ll see you there!

…..

-Cnation

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Filed under: Healthcare, National Politics

ABC and NBC Won’t Air Ad Critical Of Obamacare

  • Written by Cnation
  • Posted at 12:07 am

Proving even further how completely in-the-tank both of these networks are for the current administration, both ABC and NBC have refused to run this ad opposing Obamacare::

.
NBC has said that it will consider running the ad ‘after some revisions”, but ABC has stated flatly that they “do not sell time for advertising that presents a partisan position on a controversial public issue” - a statement which is nothing short of laughable considering how they completely gave themselves over to Obama for a day back in June in order to allow him to attempt to sell his healthcare scam to the American people. Durnig that telecast, ABC refused to sell airtime to those with an opposing viewpoint. So really, this is nothing new for them.

From Fox News:

The refusal by ABC and NBC to run a national ad critical of President Obama’s health care reform plan is raising questions from the group behind the spot — particularly in light of ABC’s health care special aired in prime time last June and hosted at the White House.

The 33-second ad by the League of American Voters, which features a neurosurgeon who warns that a government-run health care system will lead to the rationing of procedures and medicine, began airing two weeks ago on local affiliates of ABC, NBC, FOX and CBS. On a national level, however, ABC and NBC have refused to run the spot in its present form.

“It’s a powerful ad,” said Bob Adams, executive director of the League of American Voters, a national nonprofit group with 15,000 members who advocate individual liberty and government accountability. “It tells the truth and it really highlights one of the biggest vulnerabilities and problems with this proposed legislation, which is it rations health care and disproportionately will decimate the quality of health care for seniors.”

More from FOX News

…..

-Cnation

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Filed under: Healthcare, Media Corruption

Heritage.org: How State and Local Governments Can Help Control Illegal Immigration

  • Written by Cnation
  • Posted August 27, 2009 at 11:13 pm
The Heritage Foundation

The Morning Bell

THURSDAY, AUG 27, 2009

Meeting with his counterparts from Mexico and Canada earlier this month, President Barack Obama said that he expected the Democratic-controlled Congress, after completing work on health care, energy and financial regulation, to draft comprehensive immigration reform bills this year. This time frame acknowledges that no immigration legislation will be passed until at least 2010. But as Heritage visiting fellow Matt Meyer points out in a new report there is still plenty that states can do, in the meantime, under their own constitutionally-protected traditional police powers to tackle the problem right now.

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Illegal immigration is a relatively new public policy problem. In 1980, there were only 3.5 million illegal aliens in the United States, which represented 1.5% of the total U.S. population. That year, 1.5 million illegal aliens lived in California — 6.6% of its population—making the Golden State the only state in the union whose illegal aliens comprised more than 3% of its population. It was only after the 1986 immigration reform bill, which provided amnesty to more than three million illegal aliens, that an ever increasing surge of people began entering the U.S. illegally. There are now an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States representing almost 4% of our population and 18 states have joined California with illegal populations exceeding 3%.

In response to this influx of illegal aliens — which places increasingly greater burdens on state and local budgets, law enforcement, and public infrastructure like hospitals and schools – states began exercising their constitutional powers by engaging in a flurry of activity to curtail illegal immigration. The primary areas of action were: (1) driver’s licenses and identification, (2) public benefits, (3) access to higher education benefits, (4) voting, (5) criminal sanctions, and (6) employment. But states can, and should, do more. Mayer identifies a host of state and local government policy fixes including:

  • Mandate the use of the Systemic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system to verify entitlement to all state and local government benefits;
  • Make it a felony to falsely claim legal presence in the United States;
  • Make it a felony and a predicate racketeering crime to smuggle aliens;
  • Outlaw sanctuary cities, including day-labor sites;
  • Institute a withholding tax for all electronic funds wire transfers to foreign parties or on negotiable bank drafts and international money orders without a valid Social Security Number;
  • Ban the use of foreign identification documents to establish identity or to obtain state identification cards unless accompanied by a U.S. document that demonstrates legal presence in the United States;
  • Restrict the use of taxpayer identification numbers for purposes not authorized by the Internal Revenue Service, including identification, unless accompanied by a U.S. document that demonstrates legal presence in the United States.


Turning to what the federal government should do, Mayer concludes:


Congress should help [localities], not by passing an amnesty reform package, but by amending the statutory (not constitutional) provisions that limit the actions they can take and by increasing the legal means for foreigners to come to the United States to work. The only way to end or significantly slow illegal immigration in America is to create a mosaic of laws across the country that increase the cost of illegal immigration to a point that the supply dwindles to a trickle as the demand is filled by legal workers.


QUICK HITS

According to Rasmussen Reports, 70% of likely voters now favor a government that offers fewer services and imposes lower taxes over one that provides more services with higher taxes.
Based on CBO’s forecast for the average unemployment rate in calendar year 2010, 2.3 million fewer people will be employed on average next year than they projected in January.
The United States Tax Court rejected a taxpayer’s attempt to use the TurboTax defense successfully employed by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
Defending trucking deregulation in 1978, Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) reminded Americans: “The problems of our economy have occurred not as an outgrowth of laissez-faire, unbridled competition. They have occurred under the guidance of federal agencies, and under the umbrella of federal regulations.”
According to car-shopping service Edmunds.com CEO Jeremy Anwyl, “Cash for clunkers distorted the market in a way that benefited the industry for four weeks. Now, the payback begins.”




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From Heritage.org: A Sobering Wake Up Call

  • Written by Cnation
  • Posted August 26, 2009 at 10:04 pm

A Sobering Wake Up Call

Defending mounting job losses despite his administration’s $787 billion stimulus package, Vice President Joe Biden told ABC News George Stephanopoulos last month: “The truth is, we and everyone else misread the economy. The figures we worked off of in January were the consensus figures and most of the blue chip indexes out there.” This is just not true. Yesterday the White House released their Mid-Session Review admitting that President Barack Obama’s policies would force our nation to borrow more than $9 trillion over the next ten years.

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Commenting on the gap between the new $9 trillion number and the $7 trillion number the Office of Management and Budget used to sell President Obama’s budget to Congress, the Washington Post reports:


The extra $1.9 trillion in red ink mainly reflects the Office of Management and Budget’s adoption of more realistic — that is, more pessimistic — estimates of economic growth and unemployment. White House officials protest that their original, rosier numbers made sense at the time; actually, plenty of forecasters, including those at the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, made more accurate calls. This situation was foreseeable and should have been acknowledged earlier.


While it is good that the Obama administration is finally admitting that the fundamental assumptions driving their economic policy were wrong, the reality of our current budget deficit, and what President Obama’s policies threaten to do to our national debt over the next decade, are truly sobering. Heritage senior policy analyst Brian Riedl details the carnage:

  • Since World War II, the largest budget deficit recorded was 6.0 percent of GDP in 1983. The Bush Administration oversaw budget deficits averaging 2.0 percent of GDP. The projected 2009 budget deficit of 11.2 percent of GDP would nearly double the post-war record.
  • The 2009 budget deficit will be larger than all budget deficits from 2002 through 2007 combined. More than 43 cents of every dollar Washington spends in 2009 will have been borrowed.
  • While President Obama claims to have inherited the 2009 budget deficit, it is important to note that the estimated 2009 budget deficit has increased by $400 billion since his inauguration, and the whole point of the “stimulus” was to increase deficit spending to nearly $2 trillion based on the unproven notion that would it alleviate the recession.
  • The 22 percent spending increase projected for 2009 represents the largest government expansion since the 1952 height of the Korean War (adjusted for inflation). Federal spending is up 57 percent since 2001.
  • In 2009, Washington will spend $30,958 per household–the highest level in American history–and under President Obama’s budget, the figure will rise above $33,000 by 2019.
  • The White House brags that it will cut the deficit in half by 2013. The President does not mention that the deficit has nearly quadrupled this year. Merely cutting it in half from that bloated level would still leave budget deficits twice as high as under President Bush.
  • The public national debt–$5.8 trillion as of 2008–is projected to double by 2012 and nearly triple by 2019. Thus, America would accumulate more government debt under President Obama than under every President in American history from George Washington to George W. Bush combined.

And now for the real kicker: none of these numbers include the costs of Obamacare which would create another $1.5 trillion health care entitlement on top of our existing unsustainable entitlement obligations. The OMB’s Mid-Session Review should serve as a wake up call to the American people. President Obama’s policies are leading us down a path of unsustainable spending and borrowing.

There is another choice. Not all future spending is inevitable. In the 1980s and 1990s, Washington consistently spent $21,000 per household (adjusted for inflation). Simply returning to that level would balance the budget by 2012 without any tax hikes. Alternatively, returning to the $25,000 per household level (adjusted for inflation) that Washington spent before the current recession would likely balance the budget by 2019 without any tax hikes. So with very little sacrifice, and no new taxes, the government could get its budget under control and the American economy could get fully back on track in three years. Isn’t that worth considering?

QUICK HITS

Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) lost his battle with cancer yesterday, and Republicans joined Democrats mourning his passing.
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The woman arrested by Denver police on suspicion of smashing 11 windows at Colorado Democratic Party headquarters appears to be the same woman who handles the books for many other Democratic-leaning political committees and was paid $500 by the leftist Colorado Citizens Coalition for “communications” in November 2008.
According to the non-partisan Congressional Research Service: “Under H.R. 3200, a ‘Health Insurance Exchange’ would begin operation in 2013 and would offer private plans alongside a public option…H.R. 3200 does not contain any restrictions on noncitzens—whether legally or illegally present, or in the United States temporarily or permanently—participating in the Exchange.”
Discussing health care with a Wisconsin crowd, Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) said: “Nobody is going to bring a bill before Christmas, and maybe not even then, if this ever happens. … We’re headed in the direction of doing absolutely nothing, and I think that’s unfortunate.”



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