Last Ditch Health Care Efforts

100,000 Calls Per Hour To Congress...

"We're not transforming one-sixth of the economy all in one fell swoop," -- Barack Obama to Bret Baier on Fox!

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BIDEN: 'We're going to control the insurance companies'... 

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“Kick open that door, and there will be other legislation to follow,” she said. “We’ll take the country in a new direction.”

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Change is not a destination, just as hope is not a strategy - Rudi Guiliani

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The health care bill would cut government funding for private student loans, expand direct government lending, and use billions of dollars in predicted savings to give out grants to poor students -- and to defray some of the health plan's costs, which could win over wavering lawmakers. 

High-income families would be hit with a tax increase on wages and a new levy on investments under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul bill. For the first time, the Medicare payroll tax would be applied to investment income, beginning in 2013. A new 3.8 percent tax would be imposed on interest, dividends, capital gains and other investment income for individuals making more than $200,000 a year and couples making more than $250,000.
The bill also would increase the Medicare payroll tax by 0.9 percentage point to 2.35 percent on wages above $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for married couples filing jointly.
The new tax on investment income is higher than the 2.9 percent tax proposed by President Barack Obama. House Democratic leaders increased it so they could reduce the impact of a new tax on high-cost health insurance plans strongly opposed by labor unions. 

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The Washington Times writes: "The Slaughter Solution is a poisoned chalice. By drinking from it, the Democrats would not only commit political suicide. They would guarantee that any bill signed by Mr. Obama is illegitimate, illegal and blatantly unconstitutional. It would be worse than a strategic blunder; it would be a crime - a moral crime against the American people and a direct abrogation of the Constitution and our very democracy.

It would open Mr. Obama, as well as key congressional leaders such as Mrs. Pelosi, to impeachment. The Slaughter Solution would replace the rule of law with arbitrary one-party rule. It violates the entire basis of our constitutional government - meeting the threshold of "high crimes and misdemeanors." If it's enacted, Republicans should campaign for the November elections not only on repealing Obamacare, but on removing Mr. Obama and his gang of leftist thugs from office.

It is time Americans drew a line in the sand. Mr. Obama crosses it at his peril."

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The AP reports: "Congressional budget scorekeepers say a Medicare fix that Democrats included in earlier versions of their health care bill would push it into the red.

The Congressional Budget Office said Friday that rolling back a programmed cut in Medicare fees to doctors would cost $208 billion over 10 years. If added back to the health care overhaul bill, it would wipe out all the deficit reduction, leaving the legislation $59 billion in the red.

The so-called doc fix was part of the original House bill. Because of its high cost, Democrats decided to pursue it separately. Republicans say the cost should not be ignored. Congress has usually waived the cuts to doctors year by year."

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From the UK Telegraph:  The nasty car crash that is Obamacare is dragging down Barack Obama’s presidency. The cancellation of his visit to Indonesia and Australia to stay at home offering pork-barrel enticements to doubtful House Democrats is the kind of desperate expedient we expect from Third World dictators apprised of a potential coup at home. It advertised to the world the precarious nature of a presidency that has all but lost control.

In his obsession with his healthcare fantasy, Obama is prepared even to allow the subversion of the US Constitution. For what else is the so-called Slaughter Solution? Leaving aside the grim irony of this name being associated with legislation that seeks to promote an explosion of abortions in America by injecting billions of dollars into state support of that abomination – and thereby making every taxpayer complicit in abortion – the fact remains that the fundamental purpose of the Slaughter Solution is to bypass the American Constitution.

What is Joe Public supposed to make of that unambiguously malign intent? Its secondary purpose is to remove accountability from members of Congress – this from the administration of a president who was swept to power promising an end to Washington deal-making and a new era of transparency in government. Has anyone before, in the entire history of the United States, ever attempted to deny citizens knowledge of how their Congressman voted on a highly contentious topic?

The term “Slaughter” may come to have a deeply ironic resonance for Democrats, come November. In the meantime, “deem and pass”, the most outrageously anti-democratic scam ever seen in American political life, is almost certainly open to challenge in the Supreme Court, beyond the bear-traps that Republicans will set for the legislation in the Senate.

The presiding spirit behind the squalid manoeuvres of Pelosi and Reid is Barack Obama. He is the President and commander-in-chief. The buck stops, etc. So, in the event that the President signed this healthcare legislation, consciously evading Clause 1, section 7 of the Founding Fathers’ protective document for American freedom, and it were then struck down by the Supreme Court, a question arises: could Obama then face impeachment? Think about it. An Exocet is always a tiny speck on the far horizon at first, but it is amazing how quickly it arrives at its target.

More Health Care Changes

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Congressman Pete Hoekstra (MI) says he has introduced legislation to enable tea party activists and others to recall members of the U.S. House and Senate.

Hoekstra said tea party activists are “a huge part” of the healthcare reform debate.

“The whole healthcare process is fueling the tea parties because they see Washington as being arrogant and out of step with where they want to go,” he says.

“Whether it’s about what’s going on with healthcare or uncontrolled spending, the tea party is definitely having an influence on public policy today. It will also have a major impact on the elections in November.

“I think if the tea party movement had not existed, it’s very possible that we would have had healthcare passed already, and the president would be trumpeting the fact that he had passed national healthcare. I think the tea party movement has been instrumental in derailing that effort. I just hope they continue to be active, involved and successful over the coming days and weeks.”

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From The Hill: "Subcommittee on Oversight ranking member Charles Boustany (R-La.) said the IRS provision in the bill "dangerously expands, in an ominous way the tentacles of the IRS and it's reach into every American family," he said today during a press conference. "This is a vast expanse of power," he said.

Boustany said the bill would allow the IRS to confiscate refunds if there are penalties for not buying health care.

Assuming it becomes law, the Congressional Budget Office expects the IRS will need roughly $10 billion over the next 10 years and nearly 17,000 new employees to meet its new responsibilities under health reform."

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Dennis Kucinich’s (Ohio) normally loyal base apparently responded badly to the flip of his vote from NO to YES. By Thursday, Kucinich called another press conference announcing that he would return all contributions that had been made by voters who did so believing he would oppose Obama on the measure.
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Newsbusters: "While a vote on health care reform legislation appears to be imminent, should it pass it could have broader economic implications, even if the bill itself won't take effect for some time. As CNBC "Mad Money" host Jim Cramer predicted - if it passes, get ready to see a sell-off on Wall Street. Cramer appeared on CNBC's March 18 "The Kudlow Report," with his former broadcast partner Larry Kudlow. Kudlow asked Cramer to elaborate on his theory ObamaCare could send the financial markets reeling or "topple the stock market."

"First, it is the single biggest impediment to the stock market going higher," Cramer said. "And a lot of this has to do with what's not being talked about enough with how it's going to be paid and also about what it will do to small business formation. This bill is a disaster for both."

Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/jeff-poor/2010/03/19/mad-money-cramer-health-care-passage-will-topple-stock-market#ixzz0id3UrRv

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For those who wish to read in detail the recent changes to the health care bill, go to http://www.healthleadersmedia.com/page-1/LED-248239/10-Major-Changes-to-Health-Reform-in-Houses-Reconciliation-Bill

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It has been noted that 37 states are in the process of passing a law confirming their 10 Amendment Right to disallow the Feds from mandating the purchase of health care insurance for all. Virginia and Idaho are attempted to have this issue fast tracked to the Supreme Court as an issue concerning States Rights, from the 10th Amendment. As the Amendment states: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. This would give us all a ruling before years have passed getting to the Supremes. If this bill is deemed to be unconstitutional, the first year of President Barack Obama will be deemed to be totally useless.

Part of the rationale are some historic quotes by John Marshall, an American statesman and jurist who shaped American constitutional law and made the Supreme Court a center of power, according to Wickipedia.
"The power to tax is the power to destroy.

“Indeed, in a free government almost all other rights would become worthless if the government possessed power over the private fortune of every citizen”

“No political dreamer was ever wild enough to think of breaking down the lines which separate the States, and of compounding the American people into one common mass”
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This story, reported by WhizBang has been confirmed by the National Republican Congressional Committee: "And what is the latest bribe for a YES vote? Water in California is as valuable as gold. Since there isn't enough to go around, it has been rationed and supplied only to those whom the government believes need it the most. Unfortunately, the people who live in California's San Joaquin Valley have had their water turned off in order to protect a tiny fish called the delta smelt. As a result farm land that used to be prime agricultural land are now dust bowls. It devastated the economy as well, driving up the the unemployment rate in some areas to as high as 41 percent. Yet for months on end, President Obama said and did nothing to help the people in the Central Valley.

But now the president's health care reforms are on the ropes and the San Joaquin Valley's two blue-dog Democratic congressmen Dennis Cardoza and Jim Costa have been reluctant to support the president's reforms. So imagine everyone's surprise when the Department of the Interior announced yesterday that it is dramatically increasing the water supply to the valley's parched lands. And what a coincidence, now the two California congressmen who were once "undecided" are being moved over into the "yes" column."

The Christian Science Monitor:  The battle for healthcare reform is shifting from open-field policy fights to the obscure trenches of procedural warfare, as House Democrats look to pass the Senate bill without a direct vote. It’s a procedure called a self-executing rule, and if it is used, the Senate healthcare reform bill will be "deemed" to have passed the House whenever the House passes a package of fixes to the Senate bill. Deeming is typically used as a convenience for issues that aren't controversial.
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Rank-and-file Democrats did not talk about the details, but said that the CBO scores had come up short.  “They were less than expected” in terms of deficit reduction, said Rep. Gene Green, D-Texas, who plans to vote for the bill.
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Empty Suit Alert from the President who declared at one time that the US has 57 states! Powerline reporting on President Obama's speech in Ohio, gave us this Obama quote:  "How many people are getting insurance through their jobs right now?  All right. Well, a lot of those folks, your employer it's estimated would see premiums fall by as much as 3,000 percent, which means they could give you a raise." [Did this man ever study math?  Does he ever have an original thought?]
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Dennis Kuchinich (D), Ohio just flipped his vote on health care to a YES.  Do you find it interesting that just yesterday or today, Michelle Obama appointed his activist wife to run a campaign with Michelle to reduce the number of obese Americans.  Me too.  Just one more bribe - or enticement- to add to their list.  Plus, our President has said he will refuse to campaign for any Democrat who votes NO.   
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Here's another consequence of reducing Medicare reimbursements- first the drugstores and then the doctors?  Walgreens in the Seattle area said its decision to not take new Medicaid patients stemmed from a "continued reduction in reimbursement" under the state's Medicaid program, which reimburses it at less than the break-even point for 95 percent of brand-name medications dispensed to Medicaid patients.  I guess the government could FORCE drugstores and doctors to take Medicare patients. Would that be good for America?  We can't cover the enormous entitlements we now have, we are mired in enormous debt, and now we want to saddle ourselves (those 60% of us who actually pay taxes) with the largest entitlement yet?
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From Politico:  Democrats might like to think that health care reform is all but a done deal if it clears the House, but the Senate is where Republicans have been plotting for months to sentence it to a painful procedural death.

You will no doubt be hearing about the Byrd Amendment and Parliamentary rules.

Republicans are plotting ways to strike major elements of the reconciliation bill via these methods.  This debate and all the procedures could last for months....

But here is what gives Republicans comfort: Two-thirds of those reconciliation bills faced procedural challenges.

Every line in the bill must adhere to complex rules or risk being struck by the parliamentarian. If so much as a comma is changed in the bill, it will need to return to the House for a second vote. Depending on what is eliminated, passage in the House could be

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/34605_Page2.html#ixzz0iWunH0Wb
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As liberal Sen. Dick Durbin jhas admitted, “Anyone who would stand before you and say well, if you pass health care reform next year’s health care premiums are going down, I don’t think is telling the truth.”
And that “anyone” would be the president.
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The American Spectator informs us: Often the politicians who talk about health care the most believe in the Hippocratic Oath the least. Barack Obama falls into this category. He promises that his health care plan will protect the weak and vulnerable. This would be a little bit more credible if his policies weren't already killing and exploiting them.
He considers aborting unborn children "health care," has authorized the use of tax dollars for the exploitation of embryos in lab experiments, and his Department of Health and Human Services is now pushing the grotesque practice of harvesting organs from urgent-care patients in emergency rooms.
 Bioethicist Michael Grodin is quoted as saying: "When you do this stuff in such close proximity to treating the patient, the people in the emergency room will quickly start to think, 'This is a potential organ donor' even when they are treating the patient…People are going to wonder, if they are being treated in the ER, 'Are the transplant people going to swoop down to get my organs?'".
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The Boston Herald is reporting" Even one of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s floor whips, U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch, says a proposed parliamentary move to pass health-care reform would be “disingenuous” and harm the credibility of Congress.
In a sign of how tough it’s been for Pelosi to round up votes for the massive bill, Lynch - a South Boston Democrat who supported a House reform package last year - said he’ll probably vote against a key Senate version of the legislation, unless unexpected major changes are made soon.
Lynch, who serves as one of Pelosi’s key vote counters, said he also can’t support a proposed “deem and pass” procedure that would allow Democrats to vote to strip out controversial portions of the Senate bill and then “deem” that the entire package has passed without a second, directed vote."

SDS - Students for a Democratic Society & Their Education Agenda

Have you ever heard of SDS? http://www.studentsforademocraticsociety.org/?q=node/8From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
They are back again, helping to organize the current student marches against tuition hikes, and for socialism.

From Wikipedia: "Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was a student activist movement in the United States that was one of the main iconic representations of the country's New Left. The organization developed and expanded rapidly in the mid-1960s before dissolving at its last convention in 1969.

"SDS was the organizational high point for student radicalism in the United States and has been an important influence on student organizing in the decades since its collapse. Participatory democracy, direct action, radicalism, student power, shoestring budgets, and its organizational structure are all present in varying degrees in current national student activist groups. Though various organizations have been formed in subsequent years as proposed national networks for left-wing student organizing, none has approached the scale of SDS, and most have lasted a few years at best." Their logo can be viewed at http://sdshouston.wordpress.com/ It is a drawing of a fist on an open book, with the words !(which is upside down)Protect Your Education, followed by Resist Mobilize Transform

"In early 2006 SDS was "refounded" by high school and college students, with the help of former members of SDS from the '60s, and has grown rapidly through local chapters, regional and national conventions. The "New SDS" takes the name, inspiration and focus on participatory democracy from the original group, but is a completely new youth- and student-led organization.
DS developed from the youth branch of a socialist educational organization known as the League for Industrial Democracy (LID) which descended from the Intercollegiate Socialist Society, started in 1905. SDS held its first meeting in 1960 at Ann Arbor, Michigan, where Alan Haber was elected president. Its political manifesto, known as the Port Huron Statement, was adopted at the organization's first convention in 1962, based on an earlier draft by staff member Tom Hayden. This manifesto criticized the political system of the United States for failing to achieve international peace and for failing to address social ills in contemporary society.
[I figured that taking care of the poor and those living on the streets, and providing health care to all would be their first priorities in a bad economy. But, no, they believe that an entirely free education from preschool through a PhD is the RIGHT of all, costs being no object.]
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MSNBC reports from BERKELEY, Calif. - "Students carried out raucous rallies on college campuses nationwide Thursday in protests against deep education cuts that turned violent as demonstrators threw punches and ice chunks in Wisconsin and blocked university gates and smashed car windows in California. The university was among dozens of nationwide campuses hit with marches, strikes, teach-ins and walkouts in what was billed as the March 4th National Day of Action for Public Education."
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To save most of you from having to read the rest of this blog, I have simply listed the stated goals of these radical people of the 70's, come back to power now under various new organizational names:
1) Free tuition for all, from preschool thru PhD
2) Fight Capitalism and the two party political system in America
3) Jobs for everyone thru public works
4) Unity of working class
5) Troops out of Middle East
6) Don't scapegoat immigrants
7) Nationalize our banks and large corporations
8) Equality
9) Redistribution of wealth - where have we heard this before?
10) Socialism
11) To defend education the problem must be address at its roots: the entire structure of America and world society (Is this Obama's plan to, as he says, Transform America?)
12) The alternative to capitalism is socialism
13) Reorganization of economic life on a world scale - to meet social need, not private profit
14) Debt cancellation of all student loans
15) Defend public education from disaster capitalism
As Kait McIntyre, as student at the University of Chicago, and a member of the Chicago SDS stated: "This is the first step toward more militant actions".

[This is a sobering demonstration of what liberals in charge of our system of education in America have created through their social agenda, where the teaching of American history and our Constitution have been sacrificed to better teach social studies, service to Obama and the environment. There is actually a pledge:  I pledge allegiance to the Earth.  Students are taught to see America as an evil in the world, and her capitalism as disastrous and evil.]

David Horowitz, a converted 60's radical has said, "I think the potential for violence and actually disastrous violence is very real and that is because these first of all, these are violent groups and they will commit violent acts. But much more serious is that they are integrated with our terrorist enemies. They have networks and their ideology links them into the Islamic jihad. I've written a book about this called Unholy Alliance. I have experience of this. I mean, I was a very intellectual leftist. I never threw a rock. But as the editor of Ramparts magazine, which is the biggest magazine of the left, I was approached by an editorial board,a defector from our intelligence services. And we printed national secrets in the magazine and, of course, nothing, nothing happened to us. I was advised actually by a Harvard law professor, still a professor of constitutional law on exactly how to commit treason."
As an example, the speaker at the Detroit march, happily declaring they are in favor of Socialism, called for: free college educations, a right to food, & housing rights which cannot be taken away. I wonder if they have considered the truth of this statement:  "the problem with Socialism is that sooner or later, they run out of other people's money to spend".  I'm certain that they see no value in what Margaret Thatcher had to say.....
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For those who want in-depth coverage of these issues, please continue reading.....


To give you an idea of how the SDS and its many spin-offs appeal to college students, I have copied from CCDE's website: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=124513161926
CUNY Campaign to Defend Education (CCDE)
Description:
CCDE is a new campaign dedicated to building an on-going struggle to defend CUNY education through mobilizations and united actions.

We meet on Tuesdays at 7pm at the CUNY Graduate Center (34th St and 5th Av), room 5414

We say: Education is a right - for open admissions and free tuition

Full funding for all CUNY needs

It's not our crisis, we won't pay!

I find it instructional that their logo of choice is a black fist - raised and clutching a pencil and the letters C C D E.
Having just listened to an interview with former admitted leftist radical David Horowitz, I consider myself warned that the radicals of the 70's finally have their long awaited power: a radical President in the White House, and ownership by the radical left of the NYT and the Washington Post. Their agenda is the hatred of capitalism and America, and their plan is to take over our government, and, as Barack Obama has proclaimed, to fundamentally change America. David Horowitz is concerned that if the health care bill empowering them and the unions fails to pass, we should be alert for perhaps even violent reactions by the groups who with their code word associations are truly radical.

Add to the mix this headline from The World Socialist Web Site, or WSWS: For a socialist movement to defend education!
Statement of the International Students for Social Equality
23 February 2010 However, demonstrations by themselves will not solve this crisis. What is necessary, above all, is a new political movement that unifies all sections of the working class in a common political struggle, directed at the source of the crisis: the capitalist system and the two political parties—the Democrats and Republicans—that defend it.
The International Students for Social Equality advocates the following program:

1. No education cuts! Billions to rebuild schools! Free public education for all!
2. For an emergency public works program! Jobs for everyone who wants to work!
3. Withdraw all troops from Iraq and Afghanistan! For an end to militarism and war!
4. For the international unity of the working class! As the international scope of the economic crisis reveals, workers and young people in every country face the same struggle. The ISSE calls for the unity of the working class and rejects all efforts to scapegoat immigrants and divide the working class along racial, ethnic or national lines.
5. Nationalize the banks and large corporations! For equality and the redistribution of wealth
6. Defend democratic rights!
7. Mobilize the working class to defend education!
8. For socialism and equality! To defend education, the problem must be addressed at its roots: the entire structure of American and world society. No opposition to cuts in public education that accepts the parameters of the capitalist system can be successful. The alternative to capitalism is socialism. The defense and expansion of public education requires the reorganization of economic life on a world scale, to meet social need, not private profit.

If you agree with our program, make the decision to join the ISSE and take up the fight for socialism! To see more, go to http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/feb2010/mar4-f23.shtml
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Glenn Beck recently interviewed David Horowitz, once a self acclaimed radical from the 70's who long ago saw the power of destruction of these groups. As Glenn said, "If you research the participating organizations [for last week's campus marches], they were all in a coalition called Defend Education. There's one, Bail Out the People Movement, which is a front group for the International Answer, which is a pro North Korea Communist Party. [I have done some research myself, and cannot disagree with Glenn's assessment - just Google the names for yourself.]

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On Monday, the California Socialist Party USA endorsed the March 4th national demonstrations to defend education; on that day, demonstrations will occur nationwide to protest escalating tuition fees, layoffs, cuts and attacks on education.
In Chicago there was a forceful protest of over 250 at the University of Illinois-Chicago who came out to defend education and fight for fair contracts. Chanting "Chop from the top!" and "Whose university? Our university!", students, members of SEIU Local 73, the Graduate Employees Organization, and faculty joined in unison against the administration placing the budget crisis on their backs. Earlier in the day featured a forum by several professors speaking on the budget crisis, followed by a rally and march through the campus to the administrator’s building, and closed with a soup kitchen provided by SEIU to demonstrate for a fair contract.

"This is the first step toward more militant actions," says Kait McIntyre, a student at UIC and member of Chicago SDS. "Today we showed that you can't put this on the backs of students and workers, you can't cut our diversity centers without a fight."
SDS works for the democratic transformation of education in this country through its national campaign, Student Power for Accessible Education.
The goals of this campaign are:

1. Universal, free, equitably-funded schools at all levels
2. Schools run democratically by students, workers, teachers, and the
local community
3. Debt cancellation of all student loans
4. Affirmative action and a focus on anti-oppression to end all forms
of oppression in our schools and communities
Defend public education from ‘disaster capitalism’
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Fight Imperialism, Stand Together (FIST) issued the following statement in solidarity with the March 4 national day of action in defense of education.

On Thursday, March 4, students, educators and community activists across the country will take to the streets in defense of public education. Students will also be demanding the cancellation of student debt and the right to public higher education.

Stewart Alexander, the California SPUSA State Chair says, “March 4th is a day of solidarity with students, teachers, parents, workers, unions and organizations to unite against the attacks on education.” Alexander, a Candidate for California Governor, has spoken against the drastic tuition hikes that were recently approved by the University Of California Board Of Regents
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Human Rights

The excitement is building for Tea Party Patriots and Freedom Works that our gathering in Washington, DC this Tuesday will help turn the tide against the proposed health care bill.  Hopefully, the House will not pass the Slaughter bill in order to get their job done - pretending to have voted for it without actually voting.  I will be taking lots of photos, and will have a report by Friday!  Wish us luck! 
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The Washington Examiner asks: "Would House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her fellow House Democratic leaders try to cram the Senate version of Obamacare through the House without actually having a recorded vote on the bill?"          
National Review Online declares: "This week will be the last stand for Obamacare, and the trickery that Speaker Pelosi is concocting to get the 2,700-page Senate bill through the House almost defies belief. It’s aptly called the “Slaughter Strategy,” after Rep. Louise Slaughter (D., N.Y.), who chairs the House Rules Committee. Under this scheme, House members would vote on a bill of amendments to the despised Senate bill, and the Senate bill would be “deemed” to have passed if this companion bill is approved. This is supposed to inoculate House members, who could say they never actually voted for the Senate bill.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/House-Democrats-looking-at-Slaughter-Solution-to-pass-Obamacare-without-a-vote-on-Senate-bill-87267402.html#ixzz0i5TuwBxP

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Mark Levin writes:  Arguing that Slaughter's New Rule to "deem" that the bill is passed  without ever voting on it is attempting an unprecedented violation of the constitution, Mark Levin in this audio clip, argues that the House Republicans should initiate expulsion proceedings against her.
Levin also brilliantly expounds on the constitutional issue. First, the relevant portion from Article I, Section VII, Clause II of our founding document:

"...But in all such Cases the Votes of both Houses shall be determined by Yeas and Nays, and the Names of the Persons voting for and against the Bill shall be entered on the Journal of each House respectively.

Levin:
And do you want to know why? Because this clause goes to the heart of this Republic.
This clause goes to the heart of how our representative body, that is Congress, makes laws. And so I want you to [observe] how particular the Framers were... They have to pass a Bill to present it to the President...
This is one of the most exacting clauses in the Constitution.
 And if this is done, this is about as close to martial law as you'll ever get... So Louise Slaughter, a Representative from New York, is discussing, in essence, martial law. Now I can tell you, if they pursue this process, and try to impose this kind of a law, without actually passing a statute, that I will be in a race -- with scores of others -- to the courthouse to stop this.
I can't think of a more blatant violation of the U.S. Constitution than this. And the liberal media has essentially ignored it!
...It's not only absurd on its face -- that these power-hungry ideologues, party-first-country-second types, would make the claim that the House voted on something it never voted on... that's not only absurd on its face, it's blatantly unconstitutional!
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(CNSNews.com) – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Thursday that the State Department is soliciting comments from citizens, advocacy groups and other non-governmental organizations on the human rights record of the United States.

“Human rights are universal, but their experience is local. This is why we are committed to holding everyone to the same standard, including ourselves,” Clinton told a press briefing at the State Department, where she unveiled the “2009 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices.”

Clinton said the U.S. is now gathering facts on its own record because – as a member of the U.N.  Human Rights Council – it is participating in the UNHRC’s “universal periodic review” process.
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From the NYT: "After three days of turbulent meetings, the Texas Board of Education on Friday approved a social studies curriculum that will put a conservative stamp on history and economics textbooks, stressing the superiority of American capitalism, questioning the Founding Fathers’ commitment to a purely secular government and presenting Republican political philosophies in a more positive light. The vote was 10 to 5 along party lines, with all the Republicans on the board voting for it."
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The AP reports: "The senator [Chris Dodd]  trying to rewrite the nation's financial industry rules is dropping plans to create a stand-alone consumer financial protection agency and give a single regulator the power to oversee all banks, according to people familiar with the evolving proposal. Backing away from the proposal he offered four months ago, the chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee is now incorporating GOP ideas, and yet not one Republican senator is coming along so far. Sen. Christopher Dodd's new regulatory scheme is expected to be released Monday.
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interview of Obama and John Walsh of America’s Most Wanted: The nation’s chief executive extols the virtues of mandatory DNA testing of Americans upon arrest, even absent charges or a conviction. Obama said, “It’s the right thing to do” to “tighten the grip around folks” who commit crime.

Read More http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/03/obama-supports-dna-sampling-upon-arrest#ixzz0iEAbAQjZ

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American Thinker reports: "In his latest initiative, Obama takes "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help you" across national borders. The White House recently "announced a 'summit on entrepreneurship' to build economic ties with the Islamic world, part of President Barack Obama's outreach to Muslims." It has invited participants from more than forty countries over five continents for the April 26-27 conference in Washington.

On one level, this initiative is laughable, undoubtedly worthy fodder for several "Saturday Night Live" and Jon Stewart skits. On another, it reflects a serious situation -- the continuing delusional nature of Obama and his administration."