A Fait Accompli?

The buzz in the American news media is that Obamacare seems to be a fait accompli.

The Obama administration and democrat partisan hacks in the federal legislature are apparently negotiating on Fox News, and also print and broadcast organs of the government/media enterprise in advance of the House-Senate conference next month, which is normally where competing bills would be reconciled before a concluding final vote in each body. They are planning and refining their "ping-pong" strategy to work out their differences behind closed doors, without C-SPAN and out of the public view.

Eternal Vigilance has already been in contact with our senators, as well as with other key Republican senators. We will also be contacting the members of our state delegation in the House of Representatives, both Republican and democrat. We have asked, and will continue to ask that, our elected representatives in both parties work to defeat the socialist/progressive/government takeover of American health care.

We have contacted with the Republican Governors Association. As many governors have taken to the airwaves to denounce the Louisiana Purchase, Cornhusker Kickback and the Florida Flim-Flam as "unfair", this raises the spectre of chief executives supplicating on behalf of their states for a place at the ping-pong table with Nancy and Harry. They will have our unwavering support if they use every constitutional means at their disposal to thwart this disaster. Conversely, any use of their office to support or advance this flagrant subornation of the United States Constitution and the legislative process will be duly noted and reported here.

Health care is but one part of the scheme that has been launched since the election of President Obama. From his czars, to climate change, to foreign relations, to domestic policy, President Obama seems determined to roll back decades of real progress under the rubric of "change" and "progress". Matthew Spalding with the Heritage Foundation rightly points out that change and progress are virtually useless as metrics. The 2008 election of Barack Obama is an example of "change". The inexorable march toward "health care reform", with its irrevocable clauses binding future Congresses, regressive taxes, debt-busting expenditures, and second-world rationing of care is "progress".

In the Senate bill the backdoor repeal of the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funding of abortion, is an example of the lengths to which the socialist/progressives will go to pander to their base. They would subvert three decades of established law and the moral conventions which inform our society. We applaud the Stupak-Pitts amendment offered with the House version, which restricted government insurance plans under the bill from paying for abortions. That amendment passed on a floor vote with a solid majority of members.This may be a major problem for the conferees and the ping-pong players.

We no longer accept the idea that writing and passing legislation is one of two things that should never be seen. We call on Congress and the Senate to deal justly with the American people. When there is a fair and open legislative process, free from corruptive pandering and influence-peddling and fully dedicated to good governance and sound fiscal policies, only then will Congress be able to regain any measure of trust and respect from the American people.

President Lincoln at Gettysburg called on the Americans of his day to take the measure of their devotion, on behalf of those who had given "their last full measure of devotion". These times are just as perilous to the Republic as the Civil War was then. They fought to preserve the Union. We strive today, once again, to save the Republic.

Millions of everyday, otherwise unremarkable Americans have taken the measure of their devotion and have decided that enough is enough. We have drawn a line in the sand in 2009.

When we voted for McCain/Palin in 2008 we said no to radical socialist/progressivism.

We voted no on cap-and-tax.

We voted no on deficit and debt-busting budgets, regressive taxation and the expansion of the welfare state on April 15, 2009.

We voted no on government-run universal health care on August 22, 2009 and at townhall meetings all summer. Many of us have been reviled and sorely abused for the stand we've taken, some even physically abused for refusing to bow to the "inevitability" of it.

We voted no on the unbridled expansion of government and a radical socialist/progressive agenda on September 12, 2009 with a million or two million Americans in the streets of Washington, D.C.

We have voted no again and again and again with emails, faxes, phone calls, letters and petitions. Because the Left have had the street to themselves too long, we have taken to the streets in record numbers, with signs and anger, and a little fear.

Every elected Republican representative and senator has the support of the electoral majority in their district and state. Why haven't they all taken advantage of their bully pulpit to explain the health care bill and why they opposed it? We would ask that they come out of their offices and out of the TV studios, and take the lead on this issue.

Gentlemen and gentleladies, enough with the civil and stentorian tone! There is no comity out here in the real world! A talk radio listener wanted to know why the senators from his state, who voted against the Senate bill, weren't running around like their hair was on fire over this.

We are not satisfied with press releases from your office or tweets from the party or the campaign. It is long past the time for sound bites and emails, or speeches from the floor to empty chambers and C-SPAN cameras. We don't have time to watch anyway. We may not all be the deep-pocketed contributors who will help pay for your re-election campaign, but we are the voters at whose pleasure you serve. You have heard from us - it's high time we hear from you!

A fait accompli? We the People don't think so. Do you?

Thomas Paine offered three alternatives to the leaders of his day - "Lead, follow, or get out of the way".

SO SAY WE ALL!!!!

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty....

Rage Against the Machine

In response to a plea for deus ex machina.

There is a god in the machine, but one which will only bring us harm. The machine is malevolent rather than benevolent, a mechanism of soft tyranny which seeks to crush the impulse of liberty.

The machine is incapable of deliverance, only enslavement.

Rage against the machine....

Rage against the machine that was the legislative branch of the federal government but is now a den of charlatans, thieves and feckless mandarins. Rage against the machine that has become the government/media enterprise, substituting propaganda, "progressivism" and "change" for responsible governance and sound fiscal policies.

There are tens of millions of fed-up and frustrated Americans, with an equal number of points of view and opinions on how to respond to the problems that plague us. No single individual or group has the capacity alone to mitigate this crisis. Each new day brings with it a greater sense of urgency, new demands for action.

Each one of us needs to heed the wisdom of President Lincoln at Gettysburg, and take the measure of our devotion - to faith, to liberty, to hope for the future of our country and our posterity, then act accordingly.

Thomas Paine said it best, I think -
"If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace."

There is no greater reason for hope, no greater gift to our posterity, than for us to know we have done all we could in our generation to preserve, protect and defend the United States of America against all foreign enemies, and against domestic enemies who write their legacy in double-dealing and fraudulent legislation.

Our legacy will be the continuation of the American experiment.

Ours is the better course.

Harry Reid's "health reform" debacle

So Harry had to buy Senator Mary Landrieux, democrat Lousiana, to get her vote. He had to toss the so-called "public option" overboard to buy the vote of Senator Joseph Lieberman, Independent from Connecticut. Now there are supposed changes to the abortion language to mollify Senator Ben Nelson, democrat Nebraska, to get his vote. Oh yeah, almost forgot - and some unspecified amount of federal health care dollars, covered under a portion of the legislation written specifically for the state of Nebraska, to be paid beginning January 1, 2017(!).

According to Cox Radio correspondent Jamie Dupree, the abortion provision changes that satisfied Nelson have angered Representative Bart Stupak Democrat of Michigan, who calls the language "unacceptable". Politico.com reports that Stupak says he has to the votes to stop the bill.

While Stupak was making his objections known, the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL), also came out against the modified abortion language in the bill. Planned Parenthood and the National Organization of Women (NOW) have raised their own objections to the Reid-Nelson abortion compromise, as well.

Does this mean that Reid's cloture-ready democrat majority is blown up again? What will it take to buy off Stupak and the House anti-abortion Democrats? Are all democrat politicians for sale? Will the pro-abortion caucus in the Senate bow to pressure from abortion interest groups and reject cloture on the bill as it now stands?

Stay tuned.

Eternal vigilance, indeed....

On Copenhagen

Venezualen dictator Hugo Chavez says socialism will save the world from the "evil ghost of capitalism", and gets a rowsing round of applause.

US Secretary Hillary Clinton's talking about how hard it is to reach an agreement on activities to mitigate climate change and that $100bil is just a downpayment in the 3rd world shakedown of 1st world capitalism.

It's not about the environment, stupid...!

It's anti-capitalist, anti-democratic, and anti-American economic thuggery.

It's a global pandemic of liberal pandering. Western and Asian democracies have elected leaders who are more sympathetic to the madcap anarchists and tin-horn dictators who populate the Copenhagen conference and make up the bulk of the protestors outside, than are dedicated to the democratic principles which have underpinned their countries for decades and centuries.

The leaders of these economic powers would sell their citizens down the river- for what? The admiration and respect of Hugo Chavez and Wen Jia Bao? For good vibes in Sudan and Russia?

Unfortunately, President Barack Hussein Obama is more interested in creating a world constituency for himself, than he is in advancing the ideals of freedom, limited government and American exceptionalism...

...and he was probably right at home....

Of Partisan Hacks, Rank Hypocrites and Opportunists

It is the rankest form of hypocrisy for democrat partisan hacks in Washington
to complain about the quality of the Afghan government and the cost of the Afghanistan war.

FoxNews.com quotes Richard Durbin, ranking democrat partisan hack from Illinois, speaking about Afghanistan, "...there's a lot to be desired in terms of the last election and the corruption in his government". I suppose it's some kind of mental or rhetorical slip as he goes on to ask, "Are we going to let American soldiers stay there (in Afghanistan) indefinitely while they dither, in Vice President Cheney's words?"

I could give Durbin the benefit of the doubt and assume that he's accusing President Karzai and the Afghan government of dithering. However, based on Durbin's behavior, I wouldn't put it past him to actually accuse the U. S. military of dithering. And it must be lost on Durbin that President Karzai could easily justify making the same statement about the American government, as the American government, in the person of President Barack Obama, did dither for months on the Afghanistan decision.

The same article quotes Russ Feingold, democrat partisan hack from Wisconsin, as saying he and his allies will do whatever they can to prevent the Afghanistan surge, even to the point of blocking funds for the troops. Their strategy will include efforts to "...fight any attempts to use sort of accounting gimmicks to allow it (the Afghanistan surge) to be funded", and "...to oppose it... (as) also fiscally irresponsible." Feingold is also quoted as saying, "The idea of continuing to spend on this war flies in the face of the American people's priority to bring spending down.

Perhaps these are newly discovered traits for both, and they really don't know how to apply the principles that underly these ideas. Otherwise, Durbin's recent passion for good governance and decisiveness, and Feingold's new-found ardor for sound policy and fiscal restraint smacks of political opportunism and paints both of them as the rankest of a mob of rank hypocrites in Washington D.C. and in the democrat party as a whole.

It may seem redundant to do so, but I would like to offer the following list of recent democrat activities for the reader's consideration - Bush's fault, TARP, bank and insurance company seizures, US military as Nazis and terrorists, automotive manufacturing seizures, Bush's fault, tax cheats, socialists, tax increases, VATs and war surtaxes, communists and communist sympathizers, Maoists, ACORN, dithering, health care "reform", Bush's fault, talking with dictators without preconditions, racism, Honduras, Colombia, Afghanistan, timetables for withdrawal, 12 trillion dollar national debt, quadrupling the national budget deficit, cutting critical weapons systems and Bush's fault.

Anywhere else it would be considered a singular character flaw when someone tries to do the right thing for the wrong reason. Of course, since Durbin and Feingold are both career Washington insiders, I believe they know exactly what they're doing. They are pandering to their base, to their sycophants and acolytes in the state-run media by cloaking themselves in the mantle of good governance and fiscal restraint to advance a liberal/democrat/progressive agenda which has no use for either virtue.

Perhaps Durbin, Feingold and the rest of the democrat partisan hacks could benefit from the wisdom of Jesus Christ, found in the Book of Matthew chapter 7 verse 3, by ignoring the mote in someone else's eye and considering the beam in their own.

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, especially when liberty is under assault by partisan hacks, rank hypocrites and political opportunists.