Very interesting isn't it, that even such an AMERICA FIRST CONSERVATIVE "news" organization like Fox (Faux) News isn't on top of the two day old story of an American Presidential candidate on a humanitarian mission kidnapped by a Middle Eastern country? I wonder what the coverage would be like if the Iranians had done this or Iraqis or Syrians or Saudis or.... need I go on?
You might recall that the Israelis bombed the crap out of Lebanon because they CAPTURED two Israeli soldiers patrolling around on Lebanese territory in 2006.
You might recall the Israelis just celebrated this past Christmas by murdering 1800 Palestinians, wounding many more and destroying what precious little infrastructure is left in that CONCENTRATION CAMP called the Gaza Strip.
So what the hell is going on here??????? Seems that the Israelis can steal our military secrets, run our foreign policy, bomb our embassies (Levant Affair and others) and attack USS Liberty, secretly develop nuclear weapons, run the white slave trade, and drug trade, and yet they don't raise a blip on the Richter scale??? Why doesn't this even rate being in US news let alone Obama threatening to level Tel Aviv? Are Americans suddenly GUTLESS after murdering several million people in Afghanistan and Iraq for NOTHING but lies? Which raises ANOTHER point, why are we still allowing Congress and the "peace" President to approve money for undeclared and fraudulent wars?
The American people had better start waking up, we're running out of time. The House just passed the carbon tax law, after pilfering the American people out of TRILLIONS of dollars (about $14 trillion now, according to Bloomberg and other reputable sources) which hasn't even stopped yet and they are about to stick us with Universal Healthcare that will make HMO coverage look GREAT. Meanwhile this government is continuing the wars overseas, expanding the heroin trade in Afghanistan and spreading the wanton violence into Pakistan.
Believe it or not, I am still shocked at EVERY new low and EVERY new outrage that Americans sit mutely by and accept.
Someday soon, you will wake up to find yourself completely under the thumb of a Communist utopia complete with Zionist Commissars (Jews and Shabbas Goy) just like the Russians and Germans in the last century (actually pretty much here now) but there will no longer be a velvet glove concealing the iron fist.
Pirates of the Mediterranean
Paul Craig Roberts
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
On June 30, the government of Israel committed an act of piracy when the Israeli Navy in international waters illegally boarded the “Spirit of Humanity,” kidnapped its 21-person crew from 11 countries, including former US Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and Nobel Laureate Mairead MaGuire, and confiscated the cargo of medical supplies, olive trees, reconstruction materials, and children’s toys that were on the way to the Mediterranean coast of Gaza. The “Spirit of Humanity,” along with the kidnapped 21 persons is being towed to Israel as I write.
Gaza has been described as the “world’s largest concentration camp.” It is home to 1.5 million Palestinians who were driven by force of American-supplied Israeli arms out of their homes, off their farms, and out of their villages so that Israel could steal their land and make the Palestinian land available to Israeli settlers.
What we have been witnessing for 60 years is a replay in modern times, despite the United Nations and laws strictly preventing Israel’s theft of Palestine, of the 17th, 18th, and 19th century theft of American Indian lands by US settlers. An Israeli government spokesman recently rebuked the President of the United States, a country, the Israeli said, who stole all of its land from Indians, for complaining about Israel’s theft of Palestine.
I knew the “Spirit of Humanity” would fall to Israeli piracy the minute I received on June 25 from an official of an Israeli peace organization a “public advisory” that the government of Cyprus had withheld permission for the “Spirit of Humanity” to leave for Gaza. The US State Department had advised that “The Israeli Foreign Ministry informed U.S. officials at the American Embassy in Tel Aviv that Israel still considers Gaza an area of conflict and that any boats attempting to sail to Gaza will not be permitted to reach its destination.” The “Spirit of Humanity” obtained permission to leave Cyprus when all aboard signed a waiver absolving Cyprus of all responsibility for the crew’s safety at the hands of the Israelis.
As President Obama has called for humanitarian aid to be sent to Gaza, and as the International Red Cross has damned the inhumanity of Israel’s blockade of Gaza, the question that immediately comes to mind is why did not the United States send sufficient US Navy escort to see the “Spirit of Humanity” safely through international waters to Gaza? We send ships against Somalian pirates, why not against Israeli ones?
We all know the answer. The US talks a good “human rights” game, but never delivers–especially if the human rights abuser is Israel. After all, Israel owns the US Congress and President Obama. Israel even has an Israeli citizen and former member of the Israeli Defense Forces as the Chief-of-Staff in Obama’s White House. Israel owns millions of American “Christian Zionists” and “rapture evangelicals.” When it comes to Israel, the American government is a puppet state. It does what it is told.
Macho Americans might stand tall, but not when Israel snaps its fingers.
Israel, of course, will get away with a mere act of piracy. After all, Israel has been getting away with its war crimes and violations of international law for 60 years. If the UN tries to do anything, the US will veto it, as the US has done for decades.
What will happen to the kidnapped foreign nationals? Most likely they will be released and sent back to their respective countries. Israel, of course, will keep the stolen “Spirit of Humanity” to foreclose any further attempts by human rights activists to run Israel’s inhumane blockade of Gaza.
On the other hand, Israel might declare its captives to be terrorists on the ground that the Gazans elected in a free election Hamas as their government. Hamas, unlike Israel, is declared to be a terrorist organization by the puppet American State Department in Washington. Thus the human rights activists onboard the “Spirit of Humanity” are aiding and abetting terrorists by delivering goods to them. The US Department of Justice (sic) prosecutes American citizens and charities for sending aid to Palestinians on the grounds that Palestinians, if not everyone a terrorist, are governed by terrorists.
I wouldn’t be surprised if a Nobel Laureate and a former member of the US House of Representatives, along with the rest of the crew, are handed over to the Americans for indefinite detention and for torturing and waterboarding in the American torture facility at Bagram. I am certain that “Homeland Security” and the US Government are desperate to be rid of all of critics, and knocking off a Nobel Laureate and a member of the House sets a precedent for getting rid of the rest of us.
Meanwhile, California, which has become a failed state, has been denied bailout money from Washington. Israel, which has been a failed state for 60 years, can, unlike the American state of California, always count of Washington to deliver the money and the weapons to keep Israel going.
The same week that “our” government in Washington told the Governor of California “not one red cent,” President Barak Obama handed over $2.775 billion to Israel.
Online Journal (June 29) reported that the handover to Israel of the unemployed Americans’ tax dollars took place in a “tiny Capitol room” to which members of the press were denied access. I mean, really, who wants the media writing about US taxpayer dollars for Israel’s nuclear weapons while Americans are being kicked out of their homes. Not that, of course, the “Christian” supporters of Israel would mind.
Unlike every other recipient of US military largesse, Israel is permitted to bypass the Pentagon and to deal directly with US suppliers. Consequently, the Israel Lobby’s influence multiplies, because military suppliers fight for Israel in congressional committees in order to get Israel’s business. This lets Israel turn the screws on Iran. According to Grant F. Smith writing in Online Journal, Republican US Representative Mark Steven from Illinois has received $221,000 in campaign contributions from Israel political action committees (PACs). Therefore, it was a sure thing that he would introduce legislation preventing the Import-Export bank from providing loan guarantees to countries doing business with Iran.
Americans think that they are a superpower, but in fact they are a stupor-power. A puppet state if truth be known.
There is a great deal of evidence, even in Time magazine that Israel is a child abuser. “God’s Chosen People” routinely abuses captured Palestinian children. The Israelis also abuse Palestinian children by shooting them down in the streets.
Don’t take my word for it. The Geneva-based Defense for Children International says, according to Time Magazine, that “the ill-treatment and torture of Palestinian child prisoners appears to be widespread, systematic and institutionalized, suggesting complicity at all levels of the political and military chain of command.”
According to Time Magazine, “Often, children suffer lasting traumas from jail. Says Saleh Nazzal from the Palestinian Ministry of Prisoner Affairs, ‘When soldiers burst into a house and drag away a child, he loses his feeling of being protected by his family. He comes back from prison alienated from his family, his friends. They don’t like going back to school or even leaving the house. They start wetting their beds.’ Says Mona Zaghrout, a YMCA counselor who helps kids returning from prison: ‘They come out of prison thinking and acting like they are men. Their childhood is gone.’ And they often turn to another father figure–the armed militant groups fighting the Israeli occupation.’”
And so it goes. There’s no money for California, or for Americans’ health care, or for the several million Americans who have lost their homes and are homeless, because Israel needs it. Israel need the Americans’ taxpayers money to that it can create even more enemies, and, therefore, need more American money to spend with the American armament industries to oppress more Palestinians and to make more enemies, requiring more American money to protect Israel from its folly and its evil.
And the brainwashed American public goes along year after year.
It should come as no surprise to regular readers of redhampshire.com since it was strongly hinted here last week, but the speed of the announcement is astounding.
Parimutal/Charitable Gaming Director Paul Kelley called me at 1:30 Monday afternoon, in response to a question I’d left for him last Friday, to affirm that the state’s two remaining dog tracks, Belmont and Seabrook, announced this morning that they will not be offering live racing this summer.
As part of House Bill 2 passed last Wednesday, all three tracks will be allowed to maintain their simulcast program without holding the 90 days of live racing which had been required. It was widely expected that Belmont would drop live racing which has been a money loser for both the track and the state to regulate.
The news from Seabrook came as no real surprise either although it was up in the air with that track even as weekend simulcasting continued at the track. I personally traveled to Seabrook Saturday night. My brother, far more gregarious than I, asked everybody he came into contact with when the live racing schedule would be. Most employees at the track told him that there would be no more live racing; a few referred to a fall schedule. Apparently track owners had not informed all their employees prior to the announcement Monday morning.
According to Director Kelley, Rockingham will continue its slate of live harness racing this summer although they will not be required to do so to maintain simulcasting rights.
The budget includes approximately $500,000 in state funds to regulate racing this summer, but that amount was removed from next year’s budget. When I asked Director Kelley what his department would do with the unnecessary money, he said regulation costs more at the Rock than the two dog tracks. He also stated that the dog tracks could legally opt to go back to dog racing next summer. That’s entirely true, unless the House and Senate pass something before.
Even with that caveat, it appears that the last dog race has been run in New Hampshire.
Two Massachusetts tracks continue live racing till the end of the year, butthey will be required to close downDec. 31, 2009(as a result of an initiative which was overwhelming approved by Bay State voters last November).
That leaves only a single track (Twin Rivers in Rhode Island) as the only dog racing venue in the Northeast, and there’s plenty of controversy there. Although required to run only 120 days a year,Twin Rivershad been running a full schedule. As part of its recent bankruptcy filing, it decided to pare back to 120 days (remember how I’ve always asserted that live racing was a money loser!), but the Rhode Island Senate, flush with contributions from dog trainers, threatening to stop to state budget unless the number is increased to 200 days. That in fact passed the Senate 31-1 and the RI House 61-9 despite a threatened veto. Thus, despite the track losing $10 million a year and being told to save money by the bankruptcy judge, the RI legislature is making matters worse and wasting state money there.
Don’t take my word for it. There are lots of stories in major media on this, so you might try googling Twin River for the latest details in a story that will provide insightnot only into racing but the money behind racing and its undue influence on legislators which Rep. Neal Kurk has spoken about here in New Hampshire.
As part of my visit to Belmont and Seabrook over the weekend, I learned that neither is particularly healthy. At 6:30 p.m. Friday, only a few miles away from the Loudon Race Track on one of the busiest weekends of the summer, virtually no one was present to watch the simulcasts at Belmont. Similarly, the charitable gaming tables (adjacent to the simulcast screens) were almost entirely vacant as well. The supposedly elegant restaurant was open more as a bar with only three people there drinking and nobody eating. The only noteworthy people at Belmont were off in another room waiting for a Texas Hole’em Poker Tournament to begin.
Apparently, it’s true that up 70-80 percent of Belmont’s business comes from out of state telephone bettors. When I asked if I could set up a telephone account, I was told no problem. When I noted how Hinsdale, during its bankruptcy, had taken money from the accounts of telephone bettors, I was told that is no longer possible here due to state law (regulations maybe, I thought, but we certainly haven’t changed any laws).
No dogs were available for adoption at Belmont despite numerous brochures advertising adoption at the facility.
Seabrook, Satruday night at 7 p.m., was much busier, at all three levels–simulcast wagerers, charitable gaming tables, and the Texas Hold’em room. There were up to 50 people in various areas watching simulcast races, both dog and horse races. The area was littered with “losing” tickets, thus helping to dispel the rumor that people pick up losing tickets to offset their taxable winnings.
(When I asked if they were losing tickets, one gambler joked, “No they’re winners but people have made so much, they don’t want ‘em.” Talk about gallows humor!)
Two Texas Hold’em tournaments were going strongly at Seabrook, and the charitable gaming room (separated from the simulcast area) was lively. I can personally attest to that. Many of you know that I’m a fan of Black Jack, so I decided to test it out. Dealers were pleasant; it was great fun. Except for the fact that you lost part of your bet in a tie, something no real casino would dare do, it was very much like my experience at the Montreal casino. Even the losing “push” bets was no real problem since I was betting only a dollar a hand (max is $4), and the manager of the room said card counters are welcome, no surprise since card counters win by upping their bets from $25 to $500 when the shoe runs in their favor (no way to go to $500 when the limit is $4).
My brother received mixed answers when asked if greyhounds were on site for adoption at Seabrook. One woman tried to explain how he’d have to come back Monday to find out; her supervisor told her not to say anything (maybe she saw me in the background).
Oh yes, there was free coffee at Belmont, not so at Seabrook.
Oh yes, I won $12.50 and tipped the dealer a couple of 50 cent pieces. Had my brother and his wife not been bored to tears and “begged” to leave, I’d probably have stayed till closing and lost it all back. Thanks, Bro!
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Obama-backed plan volunteers Americans to pay global taxes
By Cliff Kincaid, Accuracy in Media
The United Nations is proceeding, with President Obama’s acquiescence, to implement a global plan to create a new international socialist order financed by global taxes on the American people.
The Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on Development that begins today will consider adoption of a document calling for “new voluntary and innovative sources of financing initiatives to provide additional stable sources of development finance...” This is U.N.-speak for global taxes. They are anything but “voluntary” for the people forced to pay them.
The most “popular” proposals, which could generate tens of billions of dollars in revenue for global purposes, involve taxes on greenhouse gas emissions and financial transactions such as stock trades.
The document was agreed to at an informal meeting of expert “facilitators” and was made available on June 22 at 3 p.m. It is doubtful that any changes will be made to it.
The conference was postponed from June 1-3 to June 24-26 at the U.N. in New York. While the “outcome document” has been watered down somewhat from the previous version, it still reaffirms attainment of the U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals, which would require the payment of $845 billion from U.S. taxpayers. A commitment to the MDGs was a stated objective of the Global Poverty Act, which Barack Obama had introduced as a U.S. senator. It requires the U.S. to devote 0.7 percent of Gross National Income to foreign aid.
Now, as President, Obama can bypass the Congress and simply direct his Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice to approve the U.N. conference document. Then the pressure will be increased on Congress to come up with the money and satisfy our “international commitments.”
This is the pattern that he followed in regard to more money for the International Monetary Fund (IMF). After agreeing at the G-20 summit to provide more money for the IMF, the Obama White House slipped the cash and credit into the recently passed emergency war funding bill. The Obama White House had added billions in cash, as well as a $100 billion line of credit, for the IMF.
Rep. Mike Pence commented, “This legislation, which includes $108 billion in loan authorizations for a global bailout, for the International Monetary Fund — at a time when this government has run up a $2 trillion annual deficit — I believe does a disservice to taxpayers and to those that defend us. Passing a $108 billion global bailout on the backs of our soldiers is just not right.”
The U.N. conference document explains where all of this is leading — the destruction of the American dollar as the world’s reserve currency and the build-up of global institutions such as the IMF and the U.N.
It declares that “We acknowledge the calls by many states for further study of the feasibility and advisability of a more efficient reserve system, including the possible function of SDRs in any such system and the complementary roles that could be played by various regional arrangements.” SDRs are Special Drawing Rights, a form of international currency that enables global institutions like the International Monetary Fund to provide more foreign aid to the rest of the world. The U.S. pays for SDRs through its financial contributions to the IMF.
If implemented, the document would officially mark the end of the United States as the world’s leading economic power.
Urging socialism as the solution to the crisis, the document states that “Insufficient emphasis on equitable human development has contributed to significant inequalities among countries and peoples. Other weaknesses of a systemic nature also contributed to the unfolding crisis, which has demonstrated the need for more effective government involvement to ensure an appropriate balance between the market and public interest.”
The nerve center of this emerging new international socialist system will be the United Nations, a body that has developed a reputation for corruption and incompetence and whose “peacekeepers” have been implicated in sexual abuse and other human rights violations.
“The United Nations, on the basis of its universal membership and legitimacy, is well positioned to participate in various reform processes aimed at improving and strengthening the effective functioning of the international financial system and architecture,” the document says.
“This United Nations Conference is part of our collective effort towards recovery,” it adds.
The Obama Administration’s unofficial point man in U.N. deliberations has been economist Joseph Stiglitz, who has been coordinating a “Commission of Experts” that has reported to U.N. General Assembly President Miguel D’Escoto, the notorious Communist Catholic Priest who received the Lenin Peace Prize from the old Soviet Union.
Stiglitz produced his own document which called for “the issuance of additional SDRs,” “additional sources of funding” for global institutions, a new global reserve currency, and a new global credit facility. Key recommendations have been incorporated into the official U.N. conference document but Stiglitz and his “experts” provide far more details about them.
In terms of new funding sources, the document calls for “innovative sources of financing such as emission rights trading and financial transactions taxes…” The concept of “emissions trading” enables corporations to avoid limits on greenhouse gas emissions if they pay taxes to government. It is part of the “cap and trade” legislation now being pushed on Capitol Hill.
Chapter Five of this document, “International Financial Innovations,” goes into detail, declaring that “For some time, the difficulty in meeting the UN official assistance target of 0.7 percent of Gross National Income of developed industrial countries as official development assistance, as well as the need for adequate funding for the provision of global and regional public goods (peace building, fighting global health pandemics, combating climate change and sustaining the global environment more generally) has generated proposals on how to guarantee a more reliable and stable source of financing for these objectives.”
The document notes that an international airline ticket tax is now in effect, as a result of the actions of the “Leading Group on Solidarity Levies” that now involves close to 60 countries and major international organizations. This money is going to fight global diseases.
The term “Solidarity Levies” is U.N.-speak for global taxes.
The Stiglitz document explains, “Some of the initiatives that have been proposed encompass ‘solidarity levies’ or, more generally, taxation for global objectives. Some countries have already decreed solidarity levies on airline tickets but there is a larger set of proposals. There have also been suggestions to auction global natural resources — such as ocean fishing rights and pollution emission permits — for global environmental programs.”
It goes on to say, “The suggestion of taxes that could be earmarked for global objectives has a long history. To avert their being perceived as encroachments on participating countries’ fiscal sovereignty, it has been agreed that these taxes should be nationally imposed, but internationally coordinated.”
So the nations of the world, including the U.S., will collect the taxes but then turn them over to institutions such as the U.N. The world body will function, in effect, like a global IRS.
Is it too much to ask that our media take some time off from talking about the girl with star tattoos on her face, “Jon & Kate Plus 8,” and Perez Hilton, to examine what is going on at the United Nations?
The Monadnock Ledger Transcript’s June 2 editorial “A sane policy on health-care needed now” appears to have been written with the editor’s heads in the sand to borrow their quote.
First of all, our purported representatives in Washington have not had first hand experience dealing with Medicare or health-care insurance companies so they do not have a clue. They do not pay for any of their care because we pay for it.
I have had the fortunate (or unfortunate) experience with Medicare since 2006 and with Government run health-care (Veteran’s Administration) since 2006.
When I retired in 2005, my “COBRA” health-care premiums were almost $900 per month so I studied various plans for a year to look for the best value. Somewhat to my surprise, I found out that my government would deduct monthly premiums from my well earned Social Security benefits.
In 2006, I enrolled in Medicare Parts A & B and also applied for health-care benefits from the VA because I earned those benefits by serving my country for four years during the Vietnam conflict. Of course, I found out that my benefits would be limited because I was not disabled. I signed up for prescription drug coverage under Medicare Part D and found that I would pay a private insurer a monthly premium and that if I used medications that cost over $2,000 to $3,000 annually, I would not be covered if I went beyond those amounts until I spent about $2,000 of my own money. (Called the donut hole).
Here are some of the wonderful things I have learned since 2006.
● No one except yourself will manage your healthcare and its costs.
● Trust no one with health-care and its costs! I trusted AARP because I have been a member since 1991 only to find out that their sponsored health-care provider charged me $660 more per year than Anthem Blues or others. AARP receives a “kick-back” from anyone they endorse
● The health-care I receive from the Veteran’s Administration (Manchester) is good, however, I have received medications without having them discussed with me and making me pay a co-pay that is not competitive with Wal-Mart. (Annual costs for generics are $96.00 vs. Wal-Mart’s $40.00)
● I must maintain a medical relationship with my Doctor at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Clinic in Keene so that if I need emergency care I can get in locally.
● Wal-Mart is a very “Big Business” as derided by the Ledger, however it is helping us retirees more than Washington has.
I also find it interesting that all health-care providers, including hospitals advertise their services. I would estimate that the Ledger, get more that 30% of their advertising revenue from MCH and others.
Washington and Concord (Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, etc.) should stop tinkering with citizen’s rights and start major reforms that are needed to fix the system.
To name a few:
· Institute Tort reform to limit abusive law suits and encourage people to become medical professionals.
· Stop the NH legislature for stealing $110 million in surplus from the medical malpractice insurance fund run by the Joint Underwriting Association.
· Restrict lobbyists in the Health-care industries from access to and “bribing” our elected representatives. (This was a campaign promise Mr. President!)
· Give equal access and benefits to elected officials and have them become part of the system. (Another campaign promise Mr. President!)
· Take legal action against “bi-partisan non-profit” organizations that use their organizations to profit from healthcare.
· Establish / strengthen grants, endowments, scholarships for students willing to enter the medical professional field (Nurses, technicians, surgeons, Doctors) and encourage General practitioners.
· Establish a reward system to encourage cost control, control of infection, innovative healthcare, and better generic medications.
Much of this is the “same-old, same-old but our elected officials are not listening to their constituents but are working their own self-serving agendas.
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To Congressman Hodes,
Your vote yesterday in the affirmative for H.R. 2454 is the definitive moment of the ending of your career as the Representative of District 2 in the State of New Hampshire and your hope of becoming one of our Senators. Circle this date on your calendar, so that you might remember the exact moment your fortunes changed.
From this day forward, your actions to cast your vote for this legislation will haunt you in ways you cannot even imagine. You have galvanized this constituent and thousands of others like me to actively seek your defeat in the November 2010 elections.
You have disrespected me and every other person in your constituent base by your vote.
Your thoughtless, inconsiderate, and completely uninformed actions will cause irreparable economic damage to my family, this state and nation should this legislation survive to become law. It is absolutely unconscionable for you to vote the way you did, when you were contacted by many thousands of your constituents directing you – yes, DIRECTING you – to vote otherwise.
Perhaps you have forgotten that you are the SERVANT of the people you represent. You are OUR employee. Businessmen hold their employees accountable for their actions. When they deliberately mislead us, lie to us, and go against our stated wishes, they have no choice but to fire them.
You have taken money from my family’s budget with your vote. You have swelled the coffers of Goldman Sachs with yet another commodity/derivative scheme known as “Carbon Credits”. You have based your vote on faulty science, which will be exposed by the next election.
I shall support any and all challengers to your seat in the 2010 elections, both with data and financial resources. I shall spread and opine on your shameful voting record as widely as possible from now until then. I will work tirelessly to track every vote you cast, and educate your constituents in the danger that you are, and the necessity to ensure your defeat in the coming elections.
And I shall remain incessant in my reminding you as to how I view your absolutely deplorable service to the residents of this District.
Shame, shame on you for this. Your family will look at your congressional career and ask you, WHY, WHY, WHY?
See you at the ballot box.
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I ask you to take action against two urgent threats to U.S Sovereignty:
1) Dangerous UN Treaty
The Obama Administration has floated a trial balloon to see if there is public resistance to the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). This UN treaty would supercede U.S laws and jeopardize parents' rights to raise their children. A UK official has already stated that the UNCRC would logically lead to the outlawing of home schooling in the UK. So it is pretty clear where this international treaty would lead if it were ratified here.
CALL the White House comment line (9am-5pm M-F) 202-456-1111 and politely state your opposition to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Urge the President to defend our Constitution and our nation's sovereignty (our right to have the laws we want).
2) Dangerous nominee Harold Koh
The president has nominated as legal advisor to the State Department Harold Koh. Mr. Koh is an avowed internationalist who has stated that the UN should have more jurisdiction over the United States. The top lawyer for the State Department should represent Americans, and American interests, not the UN.
Contact our U.S. Senators (contact info below) and tell them to oppose the UN Treaty on the Rights of the Child and to oppose the Koh nomination.
Contact
Senator Gregg (202) 224-3324
Web Form: gregg.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.ContactForm
Senator Shaheen (202) 224-2841 Web Form: shaheen.senate.gov/contact/
Tell our Senators to oppose ratification of this UN Treaty and to uphold U.S. sovereignty.
Time is of the essence. The Koh nomination could come up as soon as Thursday June 25.
From: Rep. Steve Vaillancourt, Hills 15
Monday, June 22, 11:25 a.m.
I left a message on your answering machine Friday and have yet to hear from you.
I'm still waiting for an answeras to whether Senator Maggie Hassan (at approximately 8:15 p.m. Thursday night, at which time both Neil Kurk and I were in Goffstown for an essential Hillsborough County budget matter), either deliberately or out ofignorance, deceived the conference committee by stating that the Kurk amendment on making tracks pay the full cost of regulation could not be done because the tracks have already lined up racing slates this summer. As I would hope you knew at the time,Neal and your Finance Committee division one were very careful to take that argument into account, and the House plan specifically excluded this year for that reason. If I can't get an answer from you (as the person who was defending the House position on that issue), I hope to get a chance to listen to it on streaming audio before I am afforded the opportunity to question you on the floor Wednesday (fair us fair; this is a heads-up). So far, I have three sources who all say Senator Hassan did in fact make such an argument. If so, I'm not sure whether deliberate deceit or simple ignorance would be a more acceptable answer. Either way, it is an outrage that must not go unanswered.
I also have a question regarding whether or not, despite the Kurk amendment being removed, monies are in House Bill 1 for regulation. As I understand it, the House version of pari-mutual funding was approved. Thus, even though the Kurk amendment was removed from House Bill 2, the funding was also not present in House Bill 1. Thus, without the monies to regulate dog and horse racing in 2010 (not 2009!), what would the racing commission do? Could they get the monies added back in without any of us knowing? Could they go to Fiscal Committee? Would they have to introduce a new bill. Having seen gay marriage passed, I now view ending this cruel business of dog racing (especially because it costs the state about half a million dollars a year to do something virtually no one wants) as my top legislative priority. Thus, answers to these questions are of extreme importance to me prior to Wednesday's vote. Thank you for your attention to this.
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The vision of a renewed Republican Party is to be the better-better-best enabler of this uniquely American Dream. It can be so and do so by finding new ways to honor traditional American values. Do we have to disown or compromise our values? NO! Do we need to be open, creative and imaginative to find new and better ways to honor them? YES!
For all the media focus on WHAT -- the usual set of headline issues like energy, housing, the economy, the environment, etc. -- it’s matters of HOW that truly distinguish Republicans from Democrats. Scan the major issues and you won’t find much difference between the major parties. We all want a cleaner environment, more and less expensive energy, strong national security, affordable housing, economic growth, job creation, etc. Statements of goals usually found under issue headings are practically the same. Ways of achieving these goals [HOW to] are substantially and practically different.
Note the major differences in ways/HOW:
•u GOP: Emphasizes ways to solve problems that rely more on individual or entrepreneurial initiative, competition, free enterprise, personal responsibility, self reliance, volunteerism, a market economy, small business, job creation, equal justice under law, limited and decentralized government, equal opportunity, less regulation, lower taxes, less government spending, balanced budgets, belief in God, family and community life ... And ways that adhere to our Constitution [especially: freedom and liberty, separation of powers, federalism, state and local more than central-federal, and the 1st, 2nd and 10th Amendments]
•u DEMOCRATIC PARTY: Relies more on the powers of the federal government -- bigger, more centralized and ever more powerful government as the source of solutions to nearly every problem -- via bureaucratic rule- and decision-making, over-regulation [“command and control” mechanisms], taxing and spending, globalization, social engineering, and the politics of good intentions [we have them; you pay for them]. Democrats are more likely to tolerate ways adverse to life, marriage, family and religion in the public sphere, elitist means that rely more upon “the best and the brightest”, and ways that compromise the 1st and 2nd Amendments to the Constitution.
Bottom line? -- Democratic fetishes for big government and the politics of good intentions dishonor American values and diminish the American Dream!
This new focus on HOW over WHAT implies a major shift in candidate selections and campaign messages. What better opportunity to put the shift into effect than for the 2010 Congressionals! After all, Congress has been a major culprit in the crisis. Bailout and stimulus experience highlight HOW Congress fails to do the people’s business -- working for themselves and their big political donors rather than us. Note, for example:
•ý Fannie and Freddie, aided and abetted by Rep. Barney Frank; and
•ý AIG, aided and abetted by Senator Chris Dodd.
The risks of huge federal bets on poor policies have been placed on the backs of the American people for generations to come because Congress doesn’t know HOW to handle the WHAT for US.
Yet, for the GOP to play any significant role in reform of the Congress, the Party must first transform itself. With entrepreneurship and innovation as the prime drivers of the new economy, how can the GOP fail to be entrepreneurial and innovative -- unless the Party wants to go the way of the Whigs? Reorientation implies the GOP should:
•ü Recruit and support candidates who are entrepreneurs and innovators, who “think anew and act anew.”
•ü Take seriously and give responsibility to those in the party’s ranks who are renegades, whistleblowers, or who otherwise “think out of the box.”
•ü Encourage serious debate on differences within the party. Open up the party to rethinking and new ideas as to HOW we can honor old values in new ways.
•ü Rebuild the party from the bottom-up by following guidelines to be found in WE THE PEOPLE: A Conservative Populism and TAKE BACK YOUR GOVERNMENT: A Handbook for the Private Citizen Who Wants Democracy to Work.
•ü DO NOT support candidates for Congress who will not agree to run as “Change Congress” and “Downsize DC” candidates [see Change-Congress.org and DownsizeDC.com].
For the sake of the American Dream, it’s time to do or die. “Live Free or Die!”
PETER BEARSE, Ph.D., Independent-conservative candidate for Congress in ‘08 and former member of the NH GOP Platform Committee, June 21, 2009. Comments to democracyanddevelopment@msn.com would be welcome.
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If AARP is a truly a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization for people age 50 and over, then the organization should not be supporting partisan issues and policies. In recent months, I have been astounded that AARP would;
1. Award Congressmen Franks and Dodd on housing seeing that they did not keep watch on the financial problems of the housing industry while encouraging loans to people who could not afford them and that they are profiting from it.
2. How can AARP support major legislation on healthcare reform when the costs to all are yet to be determined and Republicans have been blocked out of the decision making process and it will have a severe impact on small business?
3. How can AARP endorse and recommend healthcare plans (AARP-United Health) when the premium is higher than others? I had AARP United health until it was pointed out that the exact same plan would cost $50 per month less with Anthem Blues!
Clearly, AARP is in violation of the IRS ground rules for non-profits and I shall push to have this corrected until AARP becomes truly Non- Partisan!
Richard H. Olson.
Member #059360124 since 1991
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