Issa to Emanuel: Back Off!

Last month I blogged about the Obamanation's scare tactics against Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) because he questioned the efficacy of the stimulus package. Now Darrell Issa (R-CA) strikes back. Via the Committe on Oversight and Government Reform:

Following reports that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel has been orchestrating an effort to intimidate members of Congress and Governors who raise legitimate concerns regarding the effectiveness of the stimulus, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Ranking Member Darrell Issa (R-CA) sent a letter to Emanuel saying "While this type of scare tactic may work In Chicago, it will not work to intimidate me or other Members of the United States Congress."

"I and others have dared to bring these facts to the attention of President Obama, the Congress and the American people," Issa wrote. "You’ve unfortunately reacted by once again resorting to the playbook of the Chicago political machine."

Last month, Politico reported that Emanuel had "launched a coordinated effort to jam" Senator Kyl and other Administration critics… "[A]fter seeing Kyl and House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) again paint the legislation as a failure on Sunday talk shows, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel directed that the letters from the Cabinet secretaries be sent to [Governor] Brewer, according to two administration officials."

Issa noted, "The fact that the letters were coordinated by you to maximize the level of intimidation is supported by the timing, structure, and content of each letter. Not only were the four letters all sent the day following Senator Kyl’s remarks, but they were also remarkably similar in tone and sentence structure."

It is admirable that Issa is willing to stand up to the Chicago/DC political thuggery, but we need more representatives willing to resist these kinds of tactics and stand up for what is right, even when popularity polls are not in their favor.

Specter's and Sebelius' Call to Arms

Courtesy of IowaHawk

Guest Opinion
By Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA)
and Kathleen Sebelius, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services

Over two hundred years ago, America's founding fathers established a constitutional republic based on the audacious notion that the interests of its citizens would be best served by a wise body of their democratically-elected representatives. In the two centuries that have since transpired, that bold experiment has largely been a success. But we should also realize our system only works when the interests of voters and their government are in harmony. Unfortunately, recent evidence suggests that America's hard-working hometown legislators are feeling the pinch from a fickle and increasingly out-of-touch voter class who no longer serves our needs.

Nowhere has this disturbing trend been more evident than in the recent debate over health care reform. Like hundreds of our fellow legislators and government officials, we recently traveled to a town hall meeting to distribute a grassroots press release explaining why this critical legislation is a done deal. Our advance staffs said that should anticipate a respectful, positive hearing from local media and bused-in union members. Instead we were greeted by a rude howling mob of idiot "voters" who refused to listen to reason, and ruined what should have been a killer photo op for our re-election ad campaign.

Have these arrogant ivory tower armchair quarterbacks ever had to live with the pressures of being a working stiff Senator or Cabinet Secretary in Washington DC? Have they ever had to juggle markup language on a supplemental appropriations bill, or deal with an incompetent Chief of Staff who constantly double-books fund raising dinners? Apparently not, if their whiny obnoxious chants are any indication. "Read the Bill! Read the Bill!" blah, blah, blah, as if we weren't already exhausted from writing and voting for the damned thing...

Sadly, that brief shining Camelot in Washington has suddenly been replaced by a new Dark Ages, with hordes of placard- and plague-carrying voter vermin pouring up from the sewers of our home districts, threatening us and our very re-elections. Across Washington, hundreds of everyday legislators and consultants are paralyzed by fear, wondering where these these intrusive bubonic boobs will strike next.

The reasons for this are difficult to understand, but the results are clear: we have come face-to-face with a national crisis of confidence, as America's struggling government increasingly loses faith with its electing class. A recent Rasmussen tracking poll showed American Voters getting a paltry 23% approval rating from members of Congress and the Executive branch, and only 17% from members of the media...

Enough is enough. It's time for us to get out our pitchforks and tell the Outside-the-Beltway gang that we're mad as hell, and we're not going to take it any more. We are the little guy, the junior senator from some godforsaken Nebraskansaw, just looking to make that subcommittee with the big contributor action. That fresh young regulatory agency head who only wants to test that bank nationalization idea from her Harvard term paper. We are the people who get up every day, work hard, and play inside the rules. Most of the time. And if one of us accidentally plays outside one of those rules, then, by golly, the rest of us will make sure to modify that rule so he's still playing inside the rules. And we're tired of getting pushed around the town hall by the likes of you, Big Voter.

Will our call-to-arms spark a grassroots movement among Government-Americans to take our town halls back? Call us irrepressible optimists, but we have high hopes. Because we still believe in the American ideal that one man, with a staff of 83, and a chair on an $800 billion subcommittee, and an iPhone full of contact numbers, can still make a difference.

In the end, democracy means that voters get the government they deserve. In fairness, shouldn't we get the voters we deserve?

Obama vs Obama on Health Care

Just in case you need any more evidence that Obama is trying to orchestrate a government takeover of health care and introduce a single payer system, here you go.

You know, I'm so sick of arguing this point, that I can't even find the stomach to comment on the video. Not that it needs any commentating...it should be pretty straight forward.

h/t: Breitbart

Goldman-Sachs Web of Deceit

Just in case the whole ObamaCare thing isn't enough to make your blood boil, watch this breakdown of the controversy surrounding the bailouts and AIG/Goldman-Sachs, courtesy of Glenn Beck. One thing Glenn doesn't mention is that Goldman-Sachs is also widely believed to own the Fed. Is it just me, or is it insane that we entrust a private business to control the supply of money in our country, and that we don't even know who actually runs the Fed??? Are you kidding me? Anyway, enjoy this video. DISCLAIMER: You may want to wrap your head in duct tape before watching it, just in case.

Is the Obamanation the next stop for Fehr?

Donald Fehr, the most powerful union boss in America, has announced he will retire no later than the end of March 2010. Fehr has been the head of the Baseball Player's Union since taking over the position in 1983. Under his direction, the league has seen the baseball strikes of 1985 and 1994 (during which the World Series was canceled), and the lockout of 1990; the average salary has risen from $289,000 to $2.9 million (that's an increase of over 900%; the average American salary only increased about 165% over that same timeframe), and steroids have ravaged the sport because of Fehr's refusal to cooperate with virtually any and all forms of drug testing. His opposition to the implementation of a salary cap has also devastated many of the smaller market teams (former Kansas City Royals players like David Cone, Jose Offerman, Carlos Beltran, and Johnny Damon, all left the team for more lucrative markets).

All of these traits would seem to make him a remarkably qualified candidate for the Obamanation. To recap, he is the most powerful union boss in America, and he vehemently pursues his own agenda and the agenda of those who pay his salary, regardless of the wake of destruction he leaves in his path. He opposes any attempts at transparency in his industry, and he is more concerned about big business than small business. Yup, sounds like a lock to me. (It may also be worth noting that the 1994 stoppage ended only when the National Labor Relations Board, at the union’s request, obtained an injunction to restore work rules from US District Judge Sonia Sotomayor, nominated last month by O for the Supreme Court).

I'm not predicting anything...I'm just sayin'...

Census + White House + ACORN = Recipe for Success!

I really wanted to title this post WTF!?!?, but that expression has kind of lost it's meaning due to my continuous usage of the word regarding anything that comes out of the Obamanation.

So Der Fuhrer has been working to transfer control and reporting of the U.S. Census to the White House on the grounds of improving "efficiency." When I first heard that, I thought it reeked vaguely of a power grab. Now it just downright smells like a landfill. So who is responsible for collecting the data in the census? The government hires temporary workers to scour the countryside, diligently recording the vital information that will help determine congressional districts, representatives, and electoral votes. The astute reader would understandably raise the question, "Aren't our Dear Leader and his administration too busy miring our economy in a depression, revoking our individual rights, and destroying our Constitution to find qualified, intelligent individuals to take the census?" Never fear, ACORN is here!

That's right, folks! ACORN is going to help recruit workers to take the 2010 census!

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now signed on as a national partner with the U.S. Census Bureau in February 2009 to assist with the recruitment of the 1.4 million temporary workers needed to go door-to-door to count every person in the United States -- currently believed to be more than 306 million people.

A U.S. Census "sell sheet," an advertisement used to recruit national partners, says partnerships with groups like ACORN "play an important role in making the 2010 Census successful," including by "help[ing] recruit census workers."

Wow. Does anyone else find this positively terrifying? Does anyone remember the voter fraud questions during Obama's presidential campaign? ANYONE!?!? ACORN has been implicated in voter-fraud schemes in 15 states!!!

But maybe I'm just being irrational. After all, an ACORN representative has stated that "fears that the organization will unfairly influence the census are unfounded. It will be the Census Bureau that determines the role and scope of its 300 national partners. ACORN is committed to a fair and accurate count." Well, if ACORN says it is committed to fairness, that's good enough for me.


This is gerrymandering on steroids. *sigh* Does anyone have some duct tape? My head's about to explode.