Gangster Government

Frightening. Michele Bachmann is so perfectly on target with what she has to say in the video below, and in her stance on the Census.

I used to wonder how an entire country could move from relative freedom to socialism, communism, dictatorships. Now I know. I'm experiencing it first hand. It's such a helpless feeling to watch what is going on and realize how little power I actually have to stop what is happening in our country. I'll be at the next Tea Party. I blog. I network. I share information. I vote. I just hope my vote still matters in 2010 and 2012. As I type the gangster government is continuing to undermine fair elections...

Obama promises "Employee Free Choice Act" will pass

In a closed-door meeting Tuesday, President Obama told over 100 top union officials that "we will pass the Employee Free Choice Act."

It's now clear that President Obama, Big Labor, and their left-wing allies in Congress, will attempt an unprecedented power grab that is a mortal threat to our economy and our democratic values.

This is being done in a stealth manner because its backers know that this bill will not pass if the American people understand its destructive nature.

To expose and stop this effort, I've joined American Solutions as National Chairman of our "Freedom Not Fear" campaign, and you can join us by signing our petition here.

The Employee Free Choice Act, or "Card Check," would eliminate the right to vote by private ballot when deciding whether to join a union, and it would undermine the right to freely negotiate contracts.

We can't tolerate this. We must stand for freedom, not fear in the workplace.

We cannot afford to be intimidated. Please stand with us now.

This is about protecting our fundamental right to vote privately without coercion.

It's about protecting the right of employers and employees to negotiate freely.

It's about allowing businessmen and women, not bureaucrats and union bosses, to run our businesses.

And in the end, it's about saving and protecting American jobs.

Please sign the petition now.

Saul Anuzis
National Chairman,
Save American Jobs Project
American Solutions

www.AmericanSolutions.com

Shortcomings in Oversight of Stimulus Spending?

Ya think it might be difficult, no impossible, for the government to figure out who's doing what with the stimulus (porkulus) package dollars? How 'bout controlling the money once it leaves the government printing press and lands in the coffers of various agencies and local governments? Hmmm... Is there any sane, straight-thinking person in the world who actually thinks that the government is capable of good oversight when it comes to spending our tax dollars?

Social Security. Welfare. The IRS. TARP. Anyone want to raise your hand and say the government is doing a good job in any of those areas?

Huge bureaucracy begets lack of communication, fraud, nepotism, favoritism, sloppiness, waste and the list goes on.

Now the prez wants to add more layers of bureaucracy and wants to increase government. He's also printing money like it came on rolls of toilet tissue. And, he's consolidating power in Washington DC so fast it should scare the pants off every American citizen who cares about our country.

Putting Joe-what number is the website for oversight please-Biden in charge would be considered comedy if this weren't such a serious matter.

Mr. Obama is playing games with our heads. He is saying one thing and then doing another. He's telling his media minions what they want to hear and keeping the general masses appeased with rhetoric.

Do you really think he's serious about oversight? Do you really think the government is capable of oversight? Do you really think he intended there to be good oversight?

Max Stier does a great job of pointing out many of the shortcomings in the purported oversight of porkulus in the following article in the Washington Post:

Serious Shortcomings in Obama's Oversight of Stimulus Spending
The $787 billion economic stimulus package has raised serious questions about the ability of our federal government to fulfill its basic duties, and will require more than just the close scrutiny promised by the Obama administration.

Hardly a day goes by without a headline disclosing the failure of a federal agency to carry out its mission because it is short-staffed, under-resourced and ill-equipped, or poorly managed. These are conditions that will inevitably worsen as the government is asked to dispense billions of dollars in stimulus money as quickly as possible.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/25/AR2009022503083.html?wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter

Obama: Pork Happens

FRC: Last year, Sen. Barack Obama proposed more than $331 million worth of earmarks to the Appropriations Committee on Illinois's behalf. As CNN says, that was last year. On January 6, 2009, the President-elect pledged to change his ways. He vowed to the American people that the stimulus plan would be pork-free. "We are going to ban all earmarks," he insisted.

What a difference a month--and some public resistance--make. Realizing that his recovery package wasn't headed toward a fairy-tale ending, Obama did what mortal politicians do. He broke his promise. During his speech to the House Democrats' retreat yesterday, Obama returned to politics as usual. "[T]here's the argument, well, this is full of pet projects. When was the last time that we saw a bill of this magnitude move out with no earmarks in it? Not one," he said to applause. "So then you get the argument, well, this is not a stimulus bill--this is a spending bill. What do you think stimulus is?"

In his must-read column today, "The Fierce Urgency of Pork," Charles Krauthammer highlights the President's warning that if Congress doesn't act on the stimulus, the crisis would become "a catastrophe." "So much for the president who in his inaugural address two weeks earlier declared 'we have chosen hope over fear.' Until, that is, you need fear to pass a bill."

Although Republicans have tried to strip some excess from the stimulus, Democrats had a small victory of their own yesterday, defeating Sen. Jim DeMint's (R-S.C.) amendment to ban religious discrimination from the bill by a 43-54 vote. Only Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) deserted the GOP to side with her liberal pals in opposing the provision.

To hear more about the stimulus--straight from the elephant's mouth--please tune in to Washington Watch Weekly for my one-on-one conversation with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). He'll help us break down the bill. Later, our own Dr. Pat Fagan will discuss Obama's socialized health care plan. For a station listing, show schedule, or to subscribe by podcast, visit www.frcradio.com.

Additional Resources
The Washington Post: The Fierce Urgency of Pork

From Family Research Council, www.frc.org

Romney: Stimulate the economy, not government

These are extraordinary times, and like a lot of Republicans I believe that a well-crafted stimulus plan is needed to put people back to work. But the Obama spending bill would stimulate the government, not the economy.

We're on an economic tightrope. The package that passed the House is a huge increase in the amount of government borrowing. And we've borrowed so much already that if we add too much more debt, or spend foolishly, we could invite an even bigger crisis.

We could precipitate a worldwide crisis of confidence in America, leading to a run on the dollar or hyperinflation that wipes out family savings and devastates the middle class.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/06/romney.stimulus/index.html

StimulusWatch.org

Want to see where the money's going? The site doesn't appear to track it all, but it's very interesting. You can vote on the projects and leave comments. I just took a quick look so will need to look a bit closer to see later in the day when I have more time, but wanted to share. Thanks to Moms for Sarah Palin (http://moms4sarahpalin.blogspot.com) for sharing this link in her blog. Here's some info from the site:

Congress and the President are getting ready to spend billions of dollars to try to stimulate the economy. As a result, the U.S. Conference of Mayors has responded by releasing a list of "shovel-ready" projects in cities around the country that the mayors would like to see funded.

President Obama, however, has promised to spend stimulus dollars only on critical projects.

"What we need to do is examine what are the projects where we're going to get the most bang for the buck [and] how are we going to make sure taxpayers are protected," he has said. "You know, the days of just pork coming out of Congress as a strategy, those days are over."

StimulusWatch.org was built to to help the new administration keep its pledge and to hold public officials to account. We do this by allowing you, citizens around the country with local knowledge about the proposed projects in your city, to find, discuss and rate those projects.

The project was started by Jerry Brito after Eileen Norcross pointed out to him the opportunity the mayor's report presented. Jerry herded cats on the project and contributed the graphic design. The development of the site was lead by Peter Snyder, who coded the site in PHP and MySQL and implemented the MediaWiki integration. Peter was assisted by Kevin Dwyer, who helped scrape and format the report data.

Its creators are:

Jerry Brito, senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. His research has focused on government transparency and accountability, specifically how the internet can be harnessed to crowdsource the task of keeping officials accountable. You can read his paper on the subject, "Hack, Mash, and Peer: Crowdsourcing Government Transparency," (PDF) pubilshed by the Columbia Science & Technology Law Review. His personal site is jerrybrito.org.

Kevin Dwyer, Senior Computer Scientist at White Oak Technologies, Free Software contributor, and GNU/Linux zealot. Also a Pythonista, Kevin writes about the science of computers and beer at http://squareone.pheared.net.

Eileen Norcross, senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Her research has focused on state and local budgets, economic development, and the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program. For more information, you can read her paper, "The Community Development Block Grant: Does it Work?"

Peter Snyder, contract programming. He specializes in Web 2.0 projects and Cocoa programming in Chicago, IL. He can be contacted about projects or comments at snyderp@gmail.com, or at his website www.peteresnyder.com. You can read is daily thoughts at snyderp.tumblr.com.

Again, this is an independent website that is not affiliated or connected to any organization including the developers' employers.

Top 20 Fast Facts About the House Democrats' Trillion Dollar Spending Plan

Read My Lipstick Network just zapped this to me, she rec'd from @PabloMac (Twitter). I signed up for updates from House Republican Leader John Boehner while I was on the site.

http://republicanleader.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=109402
Washington, Jan 26 - Earlier this month, when then-President-elect Obama met with Democratic and Republican congressional leaders, he laid out a vision of crafting a bipartisan economic recovery package focused on creating jobs and fast-acting tax relief. However, in the weeks since that meeting, Democratic leaders in Congress have taken that vision and turned it upside down, crafting a plan loaded with hundreds of billions in spending on programs and projects – most of which will not impact our ailing economy for many years, if ever, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Rather than working with Republicans on a proposal that lets families, small businesses, entrepreneurs, and the self-employed keep more of what they earn to create jobs and help fix our economy, it seems congressional Democrats are prepared to barrel ahead with the same-old, same-old – more and more aimless spending – at a time when the American people expect so much more out of their elected officials in Washington. For a taste of just how badly Capitol Hill Democrats have strayed from the vision of a bipartisan plan to get our economy moving again, take a look at these 20 fast facts about their bloated plan:
http://republicanleader.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=109402

Stop the Stimulus

From Read My Lipstick Network:

I don't normally send out group emails, but this one is SO critical. Let's make this viral! We only have TWO days left to stop the stimulus. Visit www.readthestimulus.org for details on the bill then be sure to go to www.nostimulus.com and sign the petition. Don't stop there, call Congress, write letters, post blogs, send emails, send faxes! If enough people call and voice their opinion we CAN stop the stimulus.

Join me in taking a stand in the first major policy battle of President Obama's Administration.

You've seen the coverage of the approximately $1 trillion debt scheme pushed by Speaker Pelosi and President Obama that's being called the "Stimulus Package."

Sadly, many politicians in Washington, DC really believe that driving our nation even deeper into debt and using our money for wasteful government spending boondoggles is the way to get us out of the current recession.

These political leaders don't realize that massive deficits, higher taxes, wasteful spending and heavy-handed regulation are primary reasons for the current recession.

You can fight back today by visiting www.NoStimulus.com and joining the growing army of taxpayers saying NO by signing Americans for Prosperity’s petition to stop this disastrous trillion-dollar debt scheme, known as the “Stimulus Package.”

It is critical that we send a loud and clear message to DC politicians that ordinary citizens simply cannot afford the crushing burden and devastating consequences of this initiative.

Please act now to make your voice heard -- and encourage your friends and family to do the same -- by signing AFP’s petition at www.NoStimulus.com.

Your tax dollars to now fund abortions around the world

Whether you are pro-abortion or pro-life, this one is hitting everyone in the pocket-book and should have your wondering about Mr. Obama's priorities if nothing else.

At a time when we're being asked to swallow stimulus packages and Obama initiated plans with price tags too large for us to comprehend, the new President has chosen to start sending millions and millions of our tax dollars around the world to fund abortions.

He did it with no fanfare and no press late Friday night. In the dark of the night, with the stroke of a pen, he opted to fund the taking of lives around the world with our hard-earned tax dollars. Those dwindling dollars we're doing everything we can to hold onto at the moment.

How can he justify sending our money, our children's money, to fund abortions in other countries at a time when we're hearing from his lips that things are going to get a lot worse before they get better? Pro-life or pro-choice, this one should raise your ire.

From the AP article linked below (emphasis mine):

"For too long, international family planning assistance has been used as a political wedge issue, the subject of a back and forth debate that has served only to divide us," Obama said in a statement released by the White House. "I have no desire to continue this stale and fruitless debate."

He said the ban was unnecessarily broad and undermined family planning in developing countries.

"In the coming weeks, my administration will initiate a fresh conversation on family planning, working to find areas of common ground to best meet the needs of women and families at home and around the world," the president said.

Obama issued the presidential memorandum rescinding the Bush
policy without coverage by the media, late Friday afternoon. The
abortion measure is a highly emotional one for many people, and the quiet signing was in contrast to the televised coverage of Obama's announcement Wednesday on ethics rules and Thursday's signing of orders on closing the Guantanamo Bay prison camp and banning torture in the questioning of terror suspects.
His action came one day after the 36th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion.

From the Family Research Council:
'Planet' Parenthood
After granting a 24-hour stay on the execution of the unborn, President Obama delivered today on his promise of taxpayer-funded promotion of abortion. This afternoon, the new administration inked the order overturning the "Mexico City policy" and unleashing millions of federal dollars to international abortion groups. Of course, it was no accident that the new president postponed the act until the last possible minute on Friday, knowing the repeal would be buried in the weekend headlines. Issuing it now means that even the presidential blackberry will get more media coverage than his international abortion bailout. The end of "Mexico City" is nothing less than a tragedy for the world's poor. For more on this and other events of this week, watch the video I've recorded which can be seen at www.frcblog.com. (video posted at the end of this blog)

Obama reverses abortion-funding policy
CNN - USA
"By signaling his intention to restore US funding for UNFPA, the UN Population Fund, President Barack Obama is signaling his re-engagement with the...

Obama Reverses Bush Abortion-Funds Policy
ABC News - USA
By MATTHEW LEE and LIZ SIDOTI AP Writers
AP President Barack Obama, walks through the kitchen area of the Brady press briefing room at the White....

The Times Ignores March for Life for Second Year Running
A few dozen left-wing activists protesting Rev. Rick Warren were worthy of a Times story plus a large photo. But when tens of thousands marched in D.C. at the pro-life March for Life, they were completely ignored by the Times for the second year in a row.

Obama reverses Bush abortion-funds policy
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama on Friday struck down the Bush administration's ban on giving federal money to international groups that perform abortions or provide abortion information - an inflammatory policy that has bounced in and out of law for the past quarter-century. Obama's move, the latest in an aggressive first week reversing contentious Bush policies, was warmly welcomed by liberal groups and denounced by abortion rights foes. http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090124/D95TDP100.html

Say NO to the un-"Fairness Doctrine", Sign the Petition

With the election of Barack Obama for President of the United States, and the Democrats controlling both the House of Representatives and the Senate, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is pushing to re-install the "Fairness Doctrine", a policy enforced by the FCC that called for issues to be debated in an equitable manner.

However, this policy is being reintroduced by Democrats to stifle conservative talk radio shows, like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and others.

By signing this petition, you are pledging your support for conservative talk radio. Please engage family, friends and colleagues to sign this as well and tell Congress NO to the "Un"Fairness Doctrine.

We (Facebook group) plan to have 1,000,000 signatories on this petition and send it to House Speaker Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and President-elect Barack Obama.

The link is: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/NoToFairnessDoctrine/