Ben Nelson’s Bribery Flip-Flop?

Ben Nelson was another Democrat senator on the fence for the Senate Health Care bill. He was up in the air based on his pro-life stance and the abortion mandates being slipped into the bill.

There have been reports that Ben Nelson was apparently offered somewhere between $300-$500M worth of earmarks for his state of Nebraska.

The White House and Democratic Leadership in the Senate has told Senator Nelson they will close every military base in Nebraska — a threat that is not credible, really — but they have also offered Senator Nelson between $300 million to $500 million in earmarks, according to key hill health care operatives. These hundreds of millions will be available for whatever he wants to spend them on in Nebraska.

Earlier, as mentioned above, there was a report that the White House and other Democrats were threatening to close Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska. 

A Nelson aide has not only discredited the AFB threat, but has also stated the earmark bribery is an erroneous report.

As the Senate health care debate enters crunch time, the pressure from all sides continued to grow today, with Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., right in the middle.

His spokesman quickly dismissed a report by conservative columnist Michelle Malkin that Nelson was even being threatened with “closure of an air force base,” presumably Offutt Air Force Base, which is south of Omaha and home of U.S. Strategic Command. Malkin also said Nelson has been promised a “bribe bigger than Sen. Landrieu’s.”

That’s a reference to Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Democrat and one of the last holdouts on the vote to begin the health care debate. The legislation includes a provision to increase Louisiana’s Medicaid funds that Landrieu says is worth $300 million.

I wonder who we should believe? Another politician or people legitimately concerned about the future of the country? Excuse me if I’m not ready to concede that the bribery is false, given the fact that so many politicians seem to have lost all sense of decency, integrity and any connection to the people they supposedly represent.

Grateful That My Name Isn’t Babs: Mikulski & Boxer The Epitome of “Huh?”

Babs Mikulski and Babs Boxer, two Democrat females from Maryland and California respectively have said some interesting things this past week, which should make everyone go “Huh?”

Barbara Boxer earlier this week equated the amendment to continue the ban of federal funded abortions to denying men Viagra.  Now, I’m not quite sure if it is just me, but I don’t really see how these two are comparable.  On the one hand you have an actual disorder; erectile dysfunction, on the other, you have pregnancy, which I don’t find to be a disorder.  (Spare me mother’s health, rape/incest – those are already covered). 

Barbara Mikulski created an abortion amendment that would call abortion preventative care, placing it in the Senate Health Care bill, which would invariably dump the federal funding ban on abortion.

As the Senate prepares for a possible vote today on the Mikulski amendment to the Senate version of the government-run health care bill, it is drawing more opposition. Americans United for Life joins the National Right to Life Committee in condemning the amendment for calling abortion preventative health care.

As LifeNews.com reported yesterday, NRLC condemned the Mikulski amendment because it would essentially define abortion as preventative care and could persuade private insurance plans to define abortion as such and provide coverage of it.

AUL staff attorney Mary Harned has released her own analysis of the amendment and concurs with NRLC that it presents problems.

“The Mikulski amendment, in pertinent part, requires group health plans and health insurance issuers offering group or individual health insurance to provide coverage for and not impose cost sharing requirements on ‘preventative care’ for women ‘as provided for in comprehensive guidelines supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA),'” she explained.

I would like to ask both Babs’ what they deem preventative care.  I would assume that prevention starts before an individual gets pregnant, i.e. birth control and sex, however, that may just be my naiveté.  Abortion is legal, I’m not sure why it needs to be included in an insurance plan, especially if Americans don’t want to pay for it or agree with it based on moral and religious grounds.  How is a mandatory inclusion of abortions in a government health care system constitutional?  It would seem that forcing all citizens onto a plan that covers abortions would violate first amendment rights for those who are opposed based on religious beliefs. 

To make matters even worse, Mikulski recently stated that health care is a female issue.  Is this just another Democrat showing her true intolerant and segregated beliefs? Mikulski is my Senator, so I have many opinions (not good) about how she operates and what she stands for.  Health care is a human issue, not an individual group’s issue – but here we go again: liberals grouping people by class, race, gender and religion… Stop the insanity.

Big Labor = Big Corruption; Jimmy Hoffa Would Be So Proud

It’s time to clean house!  I’d like to see a sweeping investigation into any and all big labor unions, “non-partisan” taxpayer funded groups, lobbyists, and major corporations that donate to politicians. 

Union bosses are still acting much like mafia characters, and some would argue that’s what they in fact are.  A union boss is admitting to using/exploiting his union members as political activists.   

An interesting admission by James A. Williams, president of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades in Philadelphia, can be seen in an interview he did with the Philly Inquirer. It is an admission that confirms one of the things that anti-union folks have been saying for years, but one union officials are loath to admit.

While discussing the hard economic times, the Philly Inquirer asked how the recession was affecting the union. In his answer President Wilson admitted that his union uses out-of-work members for “political events.” Wilson mentioned that they lower dues to $1 a month after a member has been out of work for more than six months, but that isn’t just the kind hearted union looking out for its members. No, the union expects something in return for that lowering of dues. 

Would exploitation and quid pro quo be considered commendable by the bleeding heart liberals?  Union leadership has always been in the business of lining their own pockets and achieving their own objectives, no matter who gets stepped on along the way, including their own members.

Obama has long been a union advocate, as are many other Democrats.  Unions became part of the Democrat voting block after FDR focused his efforts on creating certain groups that could be used for votes.  Big labor, since that time, has been a large contributor to the DNC.  Obama has spoken at the UAW, SEIU, and AFL-CIO conventions numerous times and most recently this past week.  The latest push for union control of ports and the fact that Obama supports easing the rules of union organizing should give anyone pause. 

President Obama gave a corker of a campaign speech yesterday at the AFL-CIO convention in Pittsburgh, promising to deliver on his promise to ease the rules for union organizing. If you want to know what this means in action, consider the current Teamsters play to control California ports. 

[…]

The American Trucking Association sued to block the rule, and with good cause. Federal law has long pre-empted state and local regulation of interstate trucking “prices, routes and services,” for the reason that international and interstate trade depend on uniform regulation. The courts have recognized this, and even the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals found that the new port rule had likely violated the Constitution’s Commerce Clause, which led to a court injunction earlier this year. Trial on the merits of the rule has been set for next year. 

[…] 

Unionization would give the Teamsters enormous bargaining leverage over work rules and pay, sharply raising the cost of moving goods, as well the power to shut down ports in a strike. Some 32 trade groups, from farm organizations to the National Retail Federation, signed a recent letter to Mr. Oberstar opposing the legislation. The response of shippers would be to divert cargo to Mexico or Canada, or pass through an expanding Panama Canal for ports on the Gulf or East Coasts. California doesn’t need more reasons for business to flee the state. 

For a group who continues to point their finger at George Bush and the Republicans for the current state of the economy, it sure seems as though they would prefer the economy to stay stagnant and hand it over to big labor and government, two of the causes for our hardships now. 

An example of the sheer lack of morals and utter corruption that has corroded big labor for quite some time is the recent conviction of Jaime Enrique Feliciano, a 50 yr. old man sentenced to 25 years in prison for child molestation, possession of child pornography and the intent to manufacture child pornography.  So who is Feliciano?  He was the former district president of the California SEIU, a proud partner of ACORN.

It’s time to wake up and take control of our country again.  These big labor organizations and large non-profits that are acting as arms to the government, doing their bidding, need to be disbanded and swept clean.  People on both sides should be sick and tired of the corruption, the ponzi schemes, the pay-to-play politics, and the lack of consideration for the people of America.

Democrats: “Who’s Crying Now?”

I have Journey’s song playing in my head after Joe Wilson’s outburst Wednesday night.  Joe Wilson exclaimed “You Lie!” regarding President Obama’s assertion that illegal aliens would not be covered in any health care legislation, however, under all but one version of the health care bills, illegal aliens would in fact be allowed to partake in the system (no proof of documentation required).

This is something that was discovered several weeks ago by those citizens who actually took the time to read through the bills as they became available to the public.  There were other provisions in the draft legislation that also raised various red flags. 

The AP, of all publications, ran a mostly objective fact check on the President’s speech and found that he most certainly lied regarding that issue as well as various others.   

People could argue day and night over the issue of right and wrong and the appropriateness of Joe Wilson’s remarks.  There will always be those who agree with the timing of his remark and those who do not.  It’s just that simple.  Don’t cloud the issue of health care by demonizing a politician and distracting the American public when plenty of politicians have done the same thing in other forums.

I find it incredibly hypocritical to hear President Obama call Sarah Palin a liar, because she made complete sense in her recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, continue to blame Bush for everything, and state that Republicans do not have solutions, but feign outrage when somebody shouts out at a specific part of legislation that has been blatantly falsified, and all hell breaks loose. 

I also find it funny that during various State of the Union addresses by then President Bush, the Democrats would interrupt him as a raucous crowd, applauding their own social security obstructionism:  

2005:

2006:

 

(H/T Gateway Pundit)

I have to wonder in wild amazement how Democrats can be so blind to their history of doing the same things that they get so riled up about.  I realize that there are hypocrites on both sides of the aisle, but give it a rest.  How many times did specific liberal politicians give an interview during Bush’s term in office stating that he was a liar?  How many times did Democrats like Harry Reid make disparaging remarks about the support of our troops by stating that the War was lost?  What about Nancy Pelosi’s recent CIA accusation, where she called them liars?  I could go on, but I’ll leave it there.  The selective outrage of the liberal wing of the Democrat party is astounding, if not so pathetic.

ACORN & Balti-Morons

It comes as no surprise that Baltimore is one of the more corrupt cities in America.  It also maintains one of the highest crimes rates in the nation, my personal favorite, however, is the title of Heroine Capital of the United States, but who’s keeping track? Barring all of that, there was a recent scandal that hit regarding ACORN and its associates.  A woman and a man, who went undercover disclosed to the world, the vile nature of this organization.  She masked herself as a prostitute who wanted to start a business with her pimp boyfriend.  The two were trying to figure out how they could purchase a home and start an illegal prostitution business in that home. 

The first part of their conversation included tax evasion, aiding and abetting illegal activity, and fraud.  The two women working at this ACORN facility seemed to have no problem that a 19 year-old female and her pimp were trying to start a business that would obviously expose the neighborhood to inappropriate activity.  The worst part of all of this, if complicity and ambivalence for the sake of money wasn’t enough, the fact that the couple wanted to traffic underage illegal aliens to perform sexual activities should be.  How void of morals/principles must one be to condone such acts? This would be incomprehensible to most people and in most areas, but not in Baltimore, no siree! – Balti-morons have had a long history of corruption and scandal.  One only has to look as far as the city council to be aware of how political and deep this runs.  The poor communities of Baltimore have stayed poor.  Other areas have been refurbished, but there is still crime, especially an up-tick in murders at places like the Inner Harbor and the ‘touristy’ sections: The “safe havens” of the city aren’t really all that safe.  If a person wants to ever see what really takes place on the streets of Baltimore they should actually watch The Wire, which is not far fetched; in all actuality the episodes that are depicted stem from true stories written in the Baltimore Sun or some other city paper.  The papers in Baltimore are just as politicized as they are in any other city, but the cronyism and cover-ups of murder statistics and money laundering go above and beyond.  There is no such thing as objective reporting in the likes of Baltimore, but then again, is there really such a thing in America anymore? 

The city has been rocked by recent scandal with its Democrat Mayor Sheila Dixon as well as several Democrat city council members who were all being investigated for fraud and bribery, but even in the local realm of politics that still isn’t enough to send these cockroaches packing.  They infiltrate large community organizations that shake down businesses in the name of social justice and ‘change.’ Nothing has changed in Baltimore, especially not within the areas that have been destitute and crime ridden for decades.  It’s a wonder why they continue to vote for the same party who has been in power since 1967, yet continue to blame Republicans for their strife.  Republicans cannot be let off the hook that easily though, because the biggest mistake they make is staying away from the cities.  Too many have just given up on inner cities and won’t even try to communicate a different message or a conservative cause.  Without that one-on-one face-time it’s almost impossible to prove, through action, not words, that the change that might be needed is an entirely different train of thought.  

Democrats have been running Baltimore since the age of Abe Lincoln.  One interesting historical story was a man by the name of George Proctor Kane.  After the party of the Whigs disappeared he joined the Democrats and became a member of the Confederacy.  He was the police chief during Lincoln’s train ride through the East to his eventual destination of Washington, D.C.  He was later arrested and sent to Canada after it was discovered he was plotting to help assassinate Lincoln on his way through Baltimore.  Lincoln caught wind of this and did not disclose to the mayor or to Mr. Kane that he would be leaving Harrisburg early and would travel through Baltimore 3 hours in advance of when he was originally expected.  Although that’s a bit of history, the crazy thing was that this man was elected mayor of the city after the Civil War.  He only served one year from 1877-1878 because he died while in office.

My other favorite piece of Baltimore history involves Nancy Pelosi, yes that’s right, Nancy Pelosi hailed from Baltimore not the Bay Area.  She actually came from a family that ran the city, and by ran, I mean Mafia, which not only loves “doing business,” it also loves politics.  Both her father and her brother have been mayor of Baltimore: Thomas D’Alesandro, Jr. 1947-1959, Thomas L. J. D’Alesandro, III 1967-1971.  Both brother and father were indicted for bribery, conspiracy, and her father was also indicted for a scandal involving a garage operator.  The family’s last name has a variant spelling: D’Alessandro, which is what was originally used when they immigrated from Italy to the Port of Baltimore.  (More mafia/Baltimore related stories can be found under the variant name).  The D’Alesandro’s were THE FAMILY of Baltimore and ran the Democrat Political Machine in Maryland for decades… I hear Little Italy on Eastern Ave. loves them!   

The list of Republican mayors is short-lived so here it is:  

Alcaeus Hooper 1895-1897

William T. Malster 1897-1899

E. Clay Timanus 1904-1907

William Broening 1919-1923 & 1927-1931

Theodore McKeldin 1943-1947 & 1963-1967

There you have it – the only Republicans to ever run the city of Baltimore, a total of 23 years.  Can one of the progressives please tell me again why they continue to blame conservatives for all their problems and the conditions of inner cities?  We are seeing that Democrats continue to be the party of oppression, the party of those who exploit and use others in order to gain power and votes.  Plantation politics, the politics of slavery, have been shifted from the old Democratic days of the Confederacy and the KKK to entitlements (enabling), welfare (carrot and stick philosophy), community organizing, the exacerbation of the victim mentality, and the exploitation of demographic groups, labor groups, class, religion, and gender.

The two women who were videotaped advocating on behalf of the prostitute and the pimp, were fired.  ACORN, to this day exclaims that it is not responsible for the actions of its employees, but try that excuse at any big company and see how the liberals wail.  Management, in any form of business, for profit or not, is incredibly responsible for the actions of those working on behalf of the company name and their mission.  It’s amusing to see that the people running these “social justice” groups are white liberal elitists while the worker bees are people of color.  I just hope that one day soon, people begin to wake up!

The Health Care Hypocrisy Of The Left

Could this be the Obama administration’s Halliburton?  The left attacked Dick Cheney’s ties to Halliburton and it’s no contract awards.  David Axelrod’s situation with his firm AKPD appears to have similar issues regarding the current health care legislation.

Bloomberg broke the story:

Axelrod was president and sole shareholder of AKPD from 1985 until he sold his interest after Obama’s victory, government records show. The firm owes Axelrod $2 million, which it’s due to pay in installments beginning Dec. 31. Axelrod’s son, Michael, still works there. He didn’t return a phone call. The firm’s Web site continues to feature David Axelrod’s work on the Obama campaign.

While Hugh Hewitt followed up with further investigation into the matter:

The problem is that Axelrod’s former firm is currently receiving huge fees “from Healthy Economy Now, a coalition that includes the Washington-based Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America, known as PhRMA,” as well as AARP, the SEIU and other big players in the health care debate. 

IfAxelrod has been negotiating any part of any deal involving any of these players which are funneling money to the firm that owes him money, or if he is advising the president on the deals with any of these groups, that’s a conflict of interest.  Laundering the money through a “coalition” doesn’t remove the conflict much less the appearance of impropriety.  The coalition is in effect partially funding David Axelrod’s severance package though its members might have done so unknowingly.  These forthcoming payments to Axelrod are much more significant than the sort of “retained ties”  that Democrats blasted Dick Cheney for vis-a-vis Halliburton even though there was no high level negotiations between the vice president and his former company.

AKPD isn’t the only firm that is set to make windfall profits from a health care reform bill.  GMMB also worked for various Democrats, the DCCC, the DNC, and Obama’s campaign.

President Barak Obama’s push for a national health care overhaul is providing a financial windfall in the election offseason to Democratic consulting firms that are closely connected to the president and two top advisers.

Coalitions of interest groups running at least $24 million in pro-overhaul ads hired GMMB, which worked for Obama’s 2008 campaign and whose partners include a top Obamacampaign strategist. They also hired AKPD Message and Media, which was founded by David Axelrod, a top adviser to Obama’s campaign and now to the White House. AKPD did work for Obama’s campaign, and Axelrod’s son Michael and Obama’s campaign manager David Plouffe work there.

[…]

“We are deeply honored to have been part of Barack Obama’s historic campaign to change America and the world,” GMMB says on its Web site. GMMB’s partners include Jim Margolis, a senior strategist for Obama’s presidential campaign.

Both GMMB and AKPD also have worked for Democrats this year. The Democratic National Committee paid AKPD at least $106,000 for polling, media production, communication consulting and travel costs from February through April. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee paid GMMB roughly $75,000 from February through June for ads. And GMMB took in at least $9,000 this year from Senate leader Reid’s political action committee for communications consulting.

This hypocrisy goes hand-in-hand with Obama’s latest back-door deal with the health care industry/PhRMA.  His deal was eerily similar to Bush’s drug deal which had the left screaming.  Weeks after this deal was made, those on the far left and the more progressive end of the spectrum finally admitted the story was true.  In fact the story was aired on Air America today of all places!

Unfortunately, this wouldn’t be new to Obama or any of his Chicago cronies, who act more like the mob than they do petty theft politicians.  After reading Michelle Malkin’s “Culture of Corruption,” I am still learning much more than I ever imagined based on their pay-to-play politics as usual, rampant double standards, lies, and fraud.  It’s as simple and basic as checking Michelle Obama’s progression through the ranks of her career as Obama moved up in state and eventually US politics. 

To make matters worse, House Democrats have decided to conduct a witch hunt against specific health insurance companies.  I do not believe that our constitution allows for witch hunts or going after a specific/select group.  This is a discriminatory attack to silence dissent and to get their way on health care when the session begins in September. 

Letters sent to 52 insurance companies by Democratic leaders demand extensive documents for an examination of ‘extensive compensation and other business practices in the health insurance industry.” The letters set a deadline of Sept. 14 for the documents.

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, signed the three-page letter dated Monday.

An industry source replied when asked for comment: “This is nothing more than a taxpayer-funded fishing expedition designed to silence health plans.”

How is this legal?  Should I assume that because the House passed the cap on executive pay, which is an unconstitutional piece of legislation, although I do agree that some executive compensation is in fact superfluous and harmful, that they can nows conduct searches/investigations on any individual, any community, any genre of business?  I have an idea! If we are going to go after harmful business entities, why not conduct a witch hunt against Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, AIG, Citibank, Bank of America, Country Wide, Fannie & Freddie, GE, CLN, The unions, and the Federal Reserve.  Hell would freeze over for that to happen while the Democrats maintain a super majority, especially when Wall Streets gives almost 3x as much to Democrats as it does to Republicans. 

This all sounds eerily fascist, I hate to say that, but this is much worse than the Patriot Act folks – this is appalling.

More Democrat Child Shields And Liberal Astroturf At Florida Town Hall (Alan Grayson)

Alan Grayson held a town hall yesterday evening last minute in Orlando, FL.  He held his town hall at a union headquarters, which I believe violates House Rule 24 which stipulates that town halls must be held at public venues for public debates.  Although some of our taxpayer money may be heading to unions under the table – I still believe they are supposed to be private “technically.”

Many who attended his town hall yesterday felt that the venue was unfair and union supporters were sent in as typical astroturf for liberals. 

The hastily-called meeting was held in a relatively small union hall which limited attendance to about 120 or so members of the public. But it was held just after a regular meeting of local Democrats, some of whom stayed behind for the town hall in the scarce seats.

Outside the union hall, a frustrated crowd of hundreds of people who could not get into the hall waved signs and chanted simultaneously for and against health care.

There were so many different chants that they were unintelligible. At one point, Andy Showen, 49, of Orlando, angry he couldn’t get in, pulled on a side door until police officers stopped him…

Some other comments from the Orlando Sentinel article:

This meeting was a joke. PRECEDED by an Orange County Democratic Party meeting. Easily 750 people outside. Grayson hides behind his 3 kids. He’s a sick Democrat.

I was at the meeting. I got there at 6:15 and I was number 70 in line. When they closed the doors, there were about 40 in front of me who didn’t get in. So a good estimate of how many they let in is 30. They said the place held 130 so they preloaded the room with 100 and let 30 regular citizens in, which is somewhere between 5% and 10% of the people who showed up.I asked one of Grayson’s reps at the door why they didn’t get a bigger place. She had two reasons. 1. They couldn’t find a bigger place on such short notice (which begs the question, “then why didn’t you give some notice?), and 2. She said that it was free and they didn’t spend any taxpayer money.

She also told me that lots of events have to turn people away.  She was smug and patronizing.  After the recent history of Democrats having “town hall meetings” packed with their own supporters, doing the very same thing again here shows an amazing arrogance.

You are not going to believe this, but Grayson brought three of his children to the event! The children were in the 8-12 yr old range, and he asked that we be respectful in light of this. He did state that he will support the bill in it’s present stage, repeatedly stated that 18,000 people die each year due to no health insurance, that this was the right thing to do, was morally responsible and that he could not sleep at night knowing that he did nothing about this.

Wait!? So let me get this straight… Grayson stacks his town hall with supporters/astroturfers, but those opposing ObamaCare are fake and don’t represent America.  We had a Democrat who held a town hall at a Children’s Hospital, we had an 11-yr-old girl of an Obama supporter exploited at his New Hampshire town hall, and now Alan Grayson uses his children as a shield in order to make the crowd ‘respectful?’

I can think of other countries further ‘East’ that also like to use children as shields…

Barney Frank’s Arrogance Is Showing, What’s New?

Listen to how Barney Frank responds to several people at his town hall from earlier today. This man is a bumbling buffoon but continues to be voted in. You can apparently destroy the economy and trample over the constitution, but still get voted back into Barney’s district in Massachusetts, so long as you are not a Republican. I would think that some Democrats would begin to get tired and upset by the way Barney Frank treats his constituents, as well as his elitism/attitude problem.

Hands Off My Radio

On Friday of last week the new FCC Chief Diversity Officer stated that he intended to create a new type of fairness doctrine which would require private radio to fund public radio.  Private radio stations would have to pay a fee of 100% of their operating budget to their public competitors who would pay nothing.  In essence private radio would pay 2x it’s budget and hope that it makes 201% of it’s original operating budget, which probably will not happen.

An operating budget is usually set based upon estimates that are either from history or known costs that have an 85% chance of occurring.  No company expects to make 100% x it’s operating budget, but at least some percentage above their costs/budget that will provide the organization a profit.  This new regulation would drive businesses out of the communications/media industry, and I have to believe this is on purpose. 

Net Neutrality, the Fairness Doctrine, Hate Crimes Legislation, Localization, Cass Sunstein, who believes in regulating free speech if deemed untrue (by his own opinion), and now a brand new FCC diversity panel that was created right after Obama’s inauguration, will create some type of ban on conservative views one way or another.  A new type of fairness doctrine will be created, it will just be under another name.  It will be one of those alternatives that tricks people through semantics as Saul Alinsky stipulates in rule 12.

Mark Lloyd, newly appointed Chief Diversity Officer of the Federal Communications Commission, has called for making private broadcasting companies pay licensing fees equal to their total operating costs to allow public broadcasting outlets to spend the same on their operations as the private companies do.

[…]

“Federal and regional broadcast operations and local stations should be funded at levels commensurate with or above those spending levels at which commercial operations are funded,” Lloyd wrote. “This funding should come from license fees charged to commercial broadcasters. Funding should not come from congressional appropriations. Sponsorship should be prohibited at all public broadcasters.”
 
Along with this money, Lloyd would regulate much of the programming on these stations to make sure they focused on “diverse views” and government activities.

I also wonder if many have heard of the performance tax?  This is another idea coming out of Washington in connection with the record label companies that would require local radio stations to pay a tax on any and all music played.  Many radio stations play a variety of music, provide local traffic updates, news, and other information, all of which could find itself on the chopping block if this tax is passed.  It’s estimated that this tax would cost local radio stations anywhere from $2-7B annually.  Radio stations already pay fees to purchase music, as well as use online streaming, but record labels are not satisfied because they are still seeing a decline in their sales now that everything has gone digital. 

In short, the money would flow out of your community and into the pockets of the record labels – the great majority of which are foreign-owned. The record labels would like for you to think this is all about compensating the artists, but in truth the record labels would get at least 50% of the proceeds from a tax on local radio.

This is beginning to sound more like that wonderful idea; cash for clunkers.  I thought we were supposed to pump money into our own economy and not into foreign ones to see a real recovery?  So I was curious to see what party was looking to levy this tax on our radio stations – it comes as no surprise that the tax and spend party and the party who is backed by the liberal music industry believes this performance tax to be a good idea.  But I must give credit to several Democrats and the Republicans who are attempting to stop this idea from passing: 

There are currently two bills pending in Congress that would levy a performance tax on local radio – H.R. 848, sponsored by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI-14) and S. 379, sponsored by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT). Your members of Congress need to hear that you strongly oppose these bills.

Additionally, anti-performance tax resolutions have been introduced in the House and Senate in support of local radio. In the Senate, Sens. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) and John Barrasso (R-WY) introduced S. Con. Res. 14, and in the House, Reps. Gene Green (D-TX-29) and Mike Conaway (R-TX-11) introduced H. Con. Res. 49. Both are known as the “Local Radio Freedom Act.” Encourage your senators and representative to cosponsor these resolutions. 

The Hypocrisy of the Left

I have been extremely troubled by the rhetoric that has come out of the Democrat majority in Congress as well as the Commander in Chief over the last couple of weeks.  If there is one amendment to the Constitution that trumps all others, it would be the first one.  The first amendment is one in which truly separates the free, from the oppressed, and for our own government to denounce healthy dissent and outspoken opposition (whether they agree or not) is just wrong.

Maybe I was delusional over the last 8 years, but as I recall, and even at a much younger age; Bush was demonized as BusHitler, a chimp, an imperial emperor, a dictator, and any other fascist besides Hitler.  I do not recall the Bush administration or those in Congress stooping so low as to turn the attention onto the protesters and accuse them of being such vile groups, names, and of all things: Astroturf. 

It’s true that during the Bush years the media was on the side of the protesters, so that is already one mark against Obama’s opposition, however, more and more are beginning to awaken to the joke that is called the US mainstream media, or the 4th column of the DNC.  Democrats can’t even take half of these channels seriously because they know that even some views that they may tend to agree with aren’t questioned, just sugar-coated.  The media loved the 6 woman protest that sat out front of President Bush’s yard, against the Iraq war, they loved the huge global warming protests, the unions/ACORN protesting banks to force them into making risky loans to those who would otherwise not have the proper credit or income to buy a home.  The media loved all the anti-war protests, where people dressed as Hitler, brought props like guillotines with Bush’s head in a basket, or devil horns on an American-Israeli ally.  All of these and more were acceptable to the media, and even prominent personalities voiced similar opinions (i.e. Keith Olbermann), but now, all of a sudden, those who disagree with their own views are cast out as “tea-bagging, racist rednecks;” sounds  fair and balanced to me.

 

The hypocrisy comes from the past 8 years where speakers and special guests on college campuses were shouted down, fists thrown through windows to end a lecture, or pies thrown in faces.  The last 8 years had people walking around the White House in orange jumpsuits with black bags over their heads.  The last 8 years had Code Pink groupies shouting during Congressional hearings or holding anti-war protests and blocking people from entering recruiting centers.  The last 8 years was a large scoop of insanity with sprinkles of dissent, and as much as I disagreed with where they stood, and at times, how they went about doing it, they still had that one very basic American right: The freedom of speech.

William Jacobsonput things into perspective when he wrote, “So this is what it comes to. After eight years of protesters hanging George Bush in effigy, calling him a Nazi, disrupting conservative speeches on campuses by taking over stages or throwing pies, creating websites and movies that wished for Bush’s death, and a myriad of other indignities…. After all this time, Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer discover what it means to be ‘Un-American.’”

I recall a not so distant past where Democrats railed against Bush and his unconstitutional Patriot Act, but the ‘true’ supporters are somehow able to turn a blind eye to a President violating a US code and American privacy rights when asking for people to snitch on their neighbors by sending emails about ‘fishy’ comments regarding health care to flag@whitehouse.gov.  The White House is caught in a horrible conundrum since it can neither collect data on individuals, nor can it purge the data once it’s received.  This sounds fairly similar to Bush’s wiretapping, if not worse.  The worst part isn’t even the fact that Obama has actually expanded the wire-tapping program, but that many Democrats are unable to see their own hypocrisy.

The very same could be said about those in the House and the Senate. The White House & Democrat leadership is upset that ‘misinformation’ about the health care bill is out in the public, however, nobody, not even Obama, has been able to clearly articulate the specific clauses and sections of the bill – most likely because many still have not read it.  Misinformation did not seem to be an issue for Democrats in Congress during the Bush administration or the media:

Democrats’ concerns about allowing all viewpoints to be heard accurately would be a lot more credible if they had not been silent when those on the right were being silenced and demagogued.  In many cases leading Democrats were not silent, but actively participated in the demagoguery, spreading misinformation far and wide with the assistance of their friends in the media.

There have been many such examples over the past few decades.  Remember Democrats’ claims that Republicans wanted to starve old people and school children? You know, back when they used to tell Americans on a regular basis that an increase in spending was really a cut if it was not as big an increase as Democrats wanted?

I could write for days about misinformation: Today, it seems as though every liberals’ go-to entities to hate are the evil insurance companies.  I’m sure they all know that insurance companies pay off Democrats and have currently made a deal with Obama to run ads for health care as well as a drug deal similar to Bush’s.  I also enjoy the snippets from politicians and radio show hosts that are taken out of context to make immigrants think that Republicans hate them.  In fact, I just so happened to run into someone who was misinformed, but agreed with every other platform of the Republican party. However, she didn’t vote Republican because of the unfortunate propaganda she had heard.  I disclosed that Republicans believe in immigration; LEGAL immigration.  They believe that those coming to this country should pay taxes, go through the proper paperwork, and abide by the laws of the country they come to, not a free ride for doing things illegally – it’s that simple.  There was also the misinformation about blood for oil.  I guess we will be able to use the term blood for green soon enough.  In my opinion, the worst offense was that, which was propagated by supposed leaders in our government: the war in Iraq was lost, but Democrats had no problem voting for troop support or military supplementals. 

I’m saddened that people who are getting involved politically for the first time are being called astroturf and un-American.  When Democrats put out ads on craigslist or pay off union members to attend protest events, that is astroturf; but not when housewives, nurses, doctors, coal miners, financial analysts, IT engineers, graphic artists, small business owners, and mechanics go to their first protest.  Is it really that difficult for Democrats to believe that there are people in this country who strongly believe in the founding principles of this nation and are tired of the elitist snobbery emanating from Washington?  It’s a sad day when people, even those who disagree, are disappointed to see American citizens getting involved in politics, government, and the future of the nation.  It’s despicable when one party is ashamed of Democracy.