Politics

DPS caught up (for me, anyway)

The DPS website let me know that my State permit to prescribe has been renewed for another year.Yeayy!

The story is that DPS brought in extra people and have been working nights to put about 3000 delayed permits through their new software before Midnight, August 1.

I’m glad they’re catching up, but I still believe that it was irresponsible for them to install the new software program during what is probably their busiest time of the year, when they knew they’d have less personnel, because of budget cuts and because of vacations, etc.

NIH-Backed Study Examined Effects of Size of Male Genitalia in Gay Community

This source  and subject of this post is rated PG13, at least, even though I’ve cleaned up the title a bit.

There is a bit of scientific knowledge gained: an association with size and rate of STD’s. However, in medicine, I was taught that we probably shouldn’t measure test if there is no treatable condition involves.

It appears that the stipend for a post-doctoral fellow (someone who has already finished his Ph.D, but is doing further research under the supervision of a professor or committee, was covered by the National Institute of Health (the NIH), as some part of a large grant which was then awarded to subsidiaries:

“Those researchers then compiled data from a survey of more than 1,000 gay and bisexual men at events in New York City for the gay community.

     ”    . . . . But one of the researchers involved with the report told FoxNews.com that NIH funding was only used to help “analyze and write up” data that had already been collected without the use of taxpayer funds.  

“The data were not collected using taxpayer funds,” Jeffrey Parsons, a professor with Hunter College, said in an email. “NIH funds were not used to measure anyone’s penis size.” 

“This study was funded by the Hunter College Center for HIV/AIDS Education Studies and Training,” the National Institutes of Health said. “Dr. Christian Grov was supported as a postdoctoral research fellow at the time the research was conducted by a National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)-funded training grant.”

The de Tocqueville Moment: will we endure?

Has the United States of America reached the Moment predicted by Alex de Tocqueville when,”The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money?”

Congress and the DC bureaucracies have expanded the federal government, increased regulations and permits, heaped ObamaCare —>on top of “Stimulus” —> on top of TARP and all of this —> on top of the other spending that made Conservatives angry enough to stay home in 2006 and 2008 is not the answer.  We didn’t like it in November, 2010 and we don’t like it now!

Edited for spelling 3/28/2012 BBN

Lame Duck President (From Sarah Palin)

Now the President is outraged because the GOP House leadership called his bluff and ended discussions with him because they deemed him an obstruction to any real solution to the debt crisis.

via Lame Duck President.

Federal Reserve Audit: $16 Trillion in loans over 3 years

Yep, $16 Trillion. Or maybe, less?

(or was it $1 T? This guy doesn’t explain his numbers, but REALLY? Only $1 Trillion?)

Thursday, the Government Accounting Office released its review, “Opportunities Exist to Strengthen Policies and Processes for Managing Emergency Assistance” of the accounts of the Federal Reserve Bank’s books from December 2007 through July, 2011. (Some were credit lines never used, some were paid back. As far as I can tell from page 4, there’s $956 Billion still outstanding.  But I’m a doctor, not an accountant.)And some went to foreign-based subsidiaries of US institutions in Switzerland, France, Germany, Scotland, Britain, and Belgium.The GAO report, “Federal Reserve System: Opportunities Exist to Strengthen Policies and Processes for Managing Emergency Assistance, ” is here.

Why GAO Did This Study:
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act directed GAO to conduct a one-time audit of the emergency loan programs and other assistance authorized by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Federal Reserve Board) during the recent financial crisis. 

The GAO criticized the Fed’s reluctance to explain all of it’s reasoning about the emergencies. There’s also criticism about the way that Timothy Geithner, then-Chairman of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, gave waivers and allowed no-contract bids for entities hired to help arrange the Emergency loans. One of those waivers went to a man who had interest in AIG, and is now the President of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, replacing Geithner when the latter moved to DC to take over the Treasury Department.

(I’m thinking they were really scared and doing the best they could at the time.) (But, again, I’m a doctor, not an accountant.)

(That first table is an adaptation of the pdf from CNBC. The second is from the GAO report, page 40.)

An Open Letter to Republican Leaders

Conservative Republicans from my home town of New Braunfels and all over Texas have made it a point to tell me that they are frustrated with you. Even as you begin asking for our support in next year’s election, y’all don’t seem to remember who brought you to the dance, and that we are supposed to lead.

You may have heard our Conservative song at times; even going so far as to dance all around your own Bills in order to appear in step with us. But you still dance to a beat we don’t like far too often.

We worked so hard last year to send a Republican majority to Austin and Washington, only to have the people we elected seem to pay little attention to us and our Party Platform.

In Austin, it was a compromise on the Speaker and toll roads. In DC, we’re watching this political theater about the budget and the debt ceiling.  Why are Republicans, with a majority in the House and a clear mandate from the voters, still getting bogged down in “negotiation?”

And don’t tell us how hard it is to hammer Bills into Laws. This is your job, the one you volunteered for. It can’t be any harder than what we did to get you there in 2010, and what you’ll ask us to do in 2012.  And we did it on top of our regular duties, not as a paid, full-time job!

After all the time and money we  invested in your campaigns before the primaries, some of us spent  thirteen hours working the polls on Primary Day and rushed from there to attend our Precinct Conventions.  Delegates to our Precinct and County Conventions gave up hours on Primary night and on a Saturday later in the month. Before these meetings, we reviewed the old Party Platform and carefully crafted new resolutions. Then we defended them at our Precinct, County and State Conventions. Some of us served on Convention Committees at the County and State level, giving more time to sift through the Resolutions, put them in order and finally come up with a Platform that our Delegates approved at the State Convention.

I’m sorry if this seems like I’m giving you a hard time, and I’d rather be spending my time encouraging you than griping. But, still,  if we can do all that, why can’t y’all cut spending in DC?

Gallup:Perry, Giuliani Score High on Positive Intensity With Republicans

Interesting poll results and graphic from this week’s Gallup Poll:

Perry, Giuliani Score High on Positive Intensity With Republicans.

No emotional noise zone

Emotional noise is destructive to education according to David Horowitz. It’s just as destructive to government, politics and policy and getting along with our friends and neighbors.

Edify, don’t split hairs

We Conservatives can split hairs finer than Baptists – or the Galatians and Ephesians to whom the Apostle Paul wrote 2000 years ago. Apostle Paul had good advice when he admonished us to edify one another and to gently correct our opponents.

Will this help the deficit: Texas drug cartel crackdown?

In the second nationwide attack on La Familia, dubbed Project Delirium, 1,985 people were arrested, and officials seized $62 million in cash, 2,773 pounds of methamphetamine, 2,722 kilograms of cocaine , 1,005 pounds of heroin, 14,818 pounds of marijuana and $3.8 million in other assets over 20 months, the DEA said.

via La Familia cartel crackdown yields 35 arrests in area.

POLL: VOTERS NOW BLAME OBAMA FOR ECONOMY at DickMorris.com

POLL: VOTERS NOW BLAME OBAMA FOR ECONOMY at DickMorris.com.

Including Independents, those under 35 years old, nearly half think Obama is making the economy worse.

According to a new FOX News survey (July 17-19, 2011), voters now believe that Obama’s economic policies are making things worse. While only 34% feel they are making things better, 49% believe his policies are making things worse.

Senate rejects ‘Cut, Cap, Balance’ – Scott Wong – POLITICO.com

Senate rejects ‘Cut, Cap, Balance’ – Scott Wong – POLITICO.com.

The Democratic-controlled Senate voted Friday to block a Republican measure that would force Congress to pass a stringent balanced budget amendment and cap spending before increasing the debt ceiling.

And on it goes . . .

Angelina County jury finds man guilty of evading arrest after being mistaken for burglar in his own home – The Lufkin Daily News: Local & State

Angelina County jury finds man guilty of evading arrest after being mistaken for burglar in his own home – The Lufkin Daily News: Local & State.

Following a one-day trial and four-hour deliberation, a six-panel Angelina County jury concluded Sauceda was guilty of resisting arrest on March 15, 2009, while being pepper-sprayed, shot with a pepper ball gun and wrestled to the ground by nine Lufkin Police officers in his own living room, according to testimony.

The man in question is evidently mentally retarded and his crime was that he hid in the bathroom and refused to come out when police crashed into his house. This looks like a case of an attempt to prevent a lawsuit and over-reaching.

According to the DA: “We tried the case simply because we really did believe he resisted arrest,” Jones said. “The statute says that you do not have the right to resist the arrest. We were going to try the case no matter what.”

Well, in my opinion, you ought to have the right to hide when frightened. Not in East Texas – the police get to claim a locked door is “resisting arrest.”

The police evidently beat the man up pretty badly when they got him out of the bathroom.  The jury found the man guilty under the law, but sent a note to the judge saying that,

“We’ve all reached a verdict. To us we feel he has been wronged. Please consider that in his sentencing.”

The victim received 30 days in jail, along with his beating and pepper spray assault.

Franken got it wrong

Al Franken, (See the Politico story, here) the nominal Senator from Minnesota, attacked the representative of Focus on the Family, Tom Minnery, claiming that Mr. Minnery is unreliable because of the way he read a report on statistics on marriage and the health of children. Mr. Minnery’s testimony is here.

Franken claimed that Minnery was wrong in assuming that the families in question were composed of one husband and one wife. Hamming it up, pausing for laughter, Franken claimed to have read the study from the “Department of Health and Human Services” and to understand it better than Mr. Minnery. Franken’s claim was that Mr. Minnery had no reason to assume that the definition of “nuclear family” used in the study (“A nuclear family consists of one or more children living with two parents who are married to one another and are each biological or adoptive parents to all children in the family.”) did not include same-sex married couples.

Franken was wrong. See the original CDC study, “Family Structure and Children’s Health, in pdf, here.

The CDC paper Franken waved around about specifically mentions – on Page 12 – that it is referring to the “‘traditional” nuclear families” and further confirms that “spouse” is defined as “husband/wife.” The data came from 2001 to 2007, and Massachusetts became the first State to legalize homosexual marriage in 2004. There were evidently not enough same sex married parents to cause a bump in their years-long process. The definitions and clarifications in question are on page 12.

Regardless of your personal political leanings, there simply is not enough empirical or historical evidence to justify changing the basic unit of society. First same sex legal marriage in the States was less than 10 years ago. There have always been legal interracial marriages throughout history, with evidence that the marriages produce stable families. There’s more historic evidence that polygamous families are stable forces in society than there is for same-sex couples.

The social eugenics are bad enough, but in the litigious United States, the problem then becomes, if you don’t want a church that preaches homosexual acts are a sin and won’t bless their marriages, don’t go to one. Or, if you don’t want an Inn that refuses to host same-sex weddings, don’t own one. Sure —- The problem becomes lawsuit here a lawsuit there, etc.

Conservatives in Action: TED CRUZ THE SQUEAKY CLEAN TEXAS SENATORIAL CANDIDATE

Conservatives in Action

Conservatives in Action: TED CRUZ THE SQUEAKY CLEAN TEXAS SENATORIAL CANDIDATE.

From “Red Sonja”, Conservatives in Action:

In an attempt to bring first hand information to you about some of our 2012 candidates I sat down and visited with Texas Senatorial candidate Ted Cruz. The YouTube video is just 5 minutes and 17 seconds in length. Actually, I spent more like 30 minutes visiting with him. Cruz has never run for elected office before but has a very successful record as former Texas Solicitor General. He has a very impressive family background and other than not graduating from a Texas university, has a squeaky clean record. He has a way about him that is pleasing and his manner of speaking is easy listening. He seems sure of himself and is passionate and unshakable about his conservative values. Because of his court battles he is unflappable and knowledgeable in the critical issues facing us. I believe he would stand firm against the Obama Administration and against tyranny.

As the Solicitor General under Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, Cruz was instrumental in winning several landmark cases in the US Supreme Court and the Federal Court of Appeals. He has personally argued cases before the US Supreme Court, such as Medellin vs Texas and successfully defended the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act in 2006. Consequently he is well versed in understanding what it takes to win. His knowledge and expertise will be extremely effective if he is elected to the Senate.

Cruz exemplifies the American Dream. His father born and raised in Cuba fought in the Cuban Revolution and was imprisoned and tortured. Ted’s grandfather got him out of prison and he fled to America in 1957 seeking freedom from oppression. Ted’s father enrolled at the University of Texas and worked hard all his life. Ted’s parents, as small business entrepreneurs, managed a data processing company in the oil and gas field. It was great listening to Cruz comment that his father was his ‘hero’.

Read the transcript from the interview, here and watch the video on YouTube:

Dividing Conservatives: Who Started This, Anyway?

(The ACLU is probably hiring lawyers as we speak. See! Government can create jobs outside of Government bureaucracies.)

Remember when we were told not to pay attention to what people do in the privacy of their own bedrooms? Now, they’re forcing us to watch. We didn’t start this round, but get ready: Conservatives who believe that marriage is between one man and one woman will be treated as divisive and accused of splitting the Conservative vote.

President Obama has declared his support for legislation ending the Defense of Marriage act. The bill, the Respect for Marriage Act, will be heard today in the Senate Judicial Committee.

The full title is, “S.598, The Respect for Marriage Act: Assessing the Impact of DOMA on American Families.” In the House, it’s H.R. 1116. According to the Examiner.com,

The bill which was introduced by Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) would repeal all three sections of DOMA which places a strong federal hold against states rights in the matters of legalized same sex marriage recognition.

The new bill is set out to repeal specifically the sections in which DOMA defines marriage as the union between a man and a women, instructs states not to recognize same sex marriages performed in other states and prohibits the federal government from recognizing legally performed same-sex marriages.

Which is probably exactly where it should be heard. After all, now there can be more lawsuits,like this one in Vermont against private business owners who does not want to celebrate same sex marriage in their Inn.

There’s a conversation on Facebook about whether the phrase “gay conservative” is an oxymoron. I maintain that it is.  Will organizations like the Log Cabin Republicans still want to vote with Conservatives who are happy to form coalitions on fiscal  matters, small government, and the sanctity of life, but who won’t support the change they want to make in the family or the definition of marriage? Will they join in the debate in favor of “Respect for Marriage,” and how will they do it?

The basic unit of society is the family. Social experiments with the family are not conservative because they risk weakening that basic unit, the source of support and protection in times of crisis and where we learn the skills that allow us to function in the greater society.

There is no historical support for same sex couples forming a stable family.  There’s more empiric evidence for stable families resulting from polygamy. For that matter, the Egyptian Pharaohs, who practiced incest in order to keep their power in the family, managed to hold their reign together longer than the entire history of open same-sex lifestyle, much less the legalization of their “marriages.”

Those who disagree with me tell me to go along to get along and to quit bringing “the church” into politics, “because parties are about politics & policy issues not religious ideology.”

While I do have strong religious convictions, I don’t like to use religious arguments in politics. I don’t need to claim that the only reason to support traditional monogamous marriage is because marriage is a covenant with our Creator. I consider the fact that I can debate tough philosophical (even “ideology”) by using empirical arguments is proof that my position is close to the truth.

My fellow conservatives and I did not start this. The ones bringing in “controversy” are the ones who demand to make us aware of what should be a very private matter and that we agree with their redefinition of marriage and the family.  It is they who insist on dividing conservatives by identifying first as homosexual, then as fiscal conservatives, etc. This identification declares that their purpose is not to cut spending or support small government: their primary purpose in forming a political group is to gain sympathy for their true cause.
(edited, 11AM, 7-20-11, to remove a repeated sentence. 8-9-11, for grammar and to add link to NYT story on Vermont Inn.)

Texas Succession (not secession)

Yesterday, Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst threw his hat in the ring for Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison’s soon to be vacated seat.

The media keeps telling us that Governor Perry will soon declare his candidacy for President.

So, if Perry and Dewhurst win their (speculative) primaries, then in November, how would the New Governor be chosen? Would Dewhurst resign and let us appoint Abbott, or would we wait ’til the middle of November to start the succession, would we need a special election, or what?

Obama Aims for the Money You Don’t “Need” with New Taxes

I will not accept, a deal in which I am asked to do nothing, in fact, I’m able to keep hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional income that I don’t need, while a parent out there who is struggling to figure out how to send their kid to college

via Obama Aims for the Money You Don’t “Need” with New Taxes.

In other words, you don’t own anything. According to this man, everything belongs to the government, you keep “according to your needs.”

“Rebuilding the Dream” (Marx’s dream, that is.)

My initial impression of the moveon.org “Rebuilding the Dream” “House Meeting” on Sunday, July 17, 2011, at the New Braunfels Public Library was that I had visited another planet. However after thinking about my experience for a day or so, I’ve decided it was more like visiting an impoverished culture that sort of speaks my language, but with an almost impenetrable accent. Over the next couple of days, I’ll try to interpret the goings-on for my fellow conservatives from Texas, to whom the ideas, the hatred, and the stereotyping would be completely foreign.

First of all, despite the stereotype, I’ve seen much more diversity at our Tea Party meetings – and certainly at our Republican meetings. I heard no “foreign” accents at all. Among the 25 in attendance, the only literal, non-philosophical accents that I noticed were “Yankee” accents wielded by Non-Texans, maybe from California or the State of Washington, a few even from the Northeast and Chicago. Most had been “born and raised” in Texas. The majority was older than I and retired from various jobs. All but two or three were of the same Western European heritage that we call “White” around here. There were no blacks or Asians and less-than-a-handful of people whose grandparents might have been, like my great-great grandmother, American Indian.

The online news group, RedState has noted in their “Cargo Cult Watch”* that Jone’s Dream is an attempt to recreate a Left wing version of the Tea Party. However, the small group that I met – while very upset that the on-line address for future plans of the Movement was  “contract.rebuildthedream.org,” (warning: video of Robert Reich) because it reminded them of Newt Gingrich – was willing to divide in to 4 tables of 6-7 participants each, with pre-determined table leaders. Can you imagine a Tea Party event like that?

The culture must be “impoverished” because their highest goal is to make the Nation “middle class.” From Van Jones, who is spearheading the Movement, said:

“Rebuild the middle class – and pathways into it – by fighting for a “made in America” innovation and manufacturing agenda, including trade and currency policies that honor American workers and entrepreneurs.”

And they’re willing to vote themselves a lot of everyone else’s money to make sure that no one rises above “middle class,” too! It’s also obvious that Mr. Jones has no clue what an entrepreneur risks – or what he expects in return for his risks and everything he or she gives up for success.

Did you grow up wanting to be middle class? I grew up thinking that if I worked hard enough, I could be rich, the President, or go to the moon. (Okay, I didn’t quite think a girl could do some things until I was grown.  I sure didn’t expect to do it all, myself, but I was very happy to discover that some of my sisters could. Someday, there will be a “Mrs. President.”)

More to come. . .

*Cargo Cult: a reference to a – probably fictional – story about a primitive tribe that lived on a Pacific island that US forces chose for a temporary airbase. After the War was over, the GI’s left, and the planes and air drops containing riches stopped coming. The locals made faux radios, headphones from coconut shells, followed the rituals that they’d seen the tower crew act out in an attempt to get the gods to send more treasures from the sky.

The de Tocqueville Moment? (Are you for sale?)

President Obama has declared that he will veto the Cut, Cap,and Balance Bill if it passes. The White House is calling the Bill “extreme, radical, and unprecedented” and  ” the Ryan plan on steroids.” I’m hoping the Republicans in Washington remember who their base is and count his threat as a dare – and call his bluff.

Cut spending first, show a good faith effort, then we”ll talk. President Obama needs to bite the bullet, eat his own peas, and decide that if he wants to cut the deficit and cut debt, some – in the form of savings from cutting unnecessary spending – is better than none.

What Congress and the bureaucracies in DC have done by expanding the federal governments, increasing regulations, permits, heaping ObamaCare on top of the “Stimulus” on top of TARP and all of this on the other spending that made Conservatives angry enough to stay home in 2006 and 2008 is not the answer. We didn’t like it in November, 2010 and we don’t like it now.

I remember that the tax code was simplified when Ronald Reagan cut the tax rates in the 80’s. The Democrat controlled Congress promised cuts in spending to go along with the lost deductions. Those cuts never materialized and federal spending grew even faster than the remarkable Federal revenue.

Federal Revenues and Expenditures 1980-1993

more and more people became beneficiaries of Federal largess.

It’s gotten to the point that more than half of people in the U.S. fell right off the tax rolls. 

Has the United States of America reached the Alex de Tocqueville moment when,”The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money?”   What’s your price?

Edited for spelling 3/28/2012 BBN

We Republicans

“We ended up with candidates chosen by the least knowledgeable voters.”

Here’s an older post that I wrote June 1, last year. It still applies, more than ever!

We Republicans are the Tea Party. If you look at the Tea Party, you will see the Conservative foundation, the remnant that have opposed “centrists” and “moderates” for years. We are the ones who have known all along what the Dems relearn each election cycle, but some of our own never seem to: Americans are conservative, to the right of center. When all the couch potatoes woke up last year, we were the ones who were here to welcome them and give them somewhere to start.

Some of us sat out the 2006 and even 2008 elections to “teach them a lesson;” that they need to legislate like Republicans if they want us to support them. Where Republicans turned out to vote, we held offices. Where the Republican voters were no-shows, we lost ground and offices. In a few cases, Republicans crossed over in the name of Chaos and strong conservatives were narrowly defeated in the Primaries, leaving us with a choice between a RINO, a Democrat or an under vote. We ended up with candidates chosen by the least knowledgeable voters.

Well, that was successful, wasn’t it? Can’t you just imagine all the true conservative candidates in the Presidential primary of 2008, each wishing the Chaos voters had turned out for them?

The Dems won a majority and then a super majority in the Federal House, Senate and the White House, allowing them to ram-rod their agenda to spread the wealth around, undermine families and threaten the weak and sick at all stages of life. Corrupt and corrupting Chris Dodd, Charlie Rangel, and John Conyers wield Committee Chairmanships when they should be indicted. The media ignored – and continues to ignore – our plainly stated opposition, underreporting our numbers and drowning out our voices as they proclaim that we lost because the Left better represented the voters and the Country was ready for Change! And now, the media and the liberals are crowing about the power of the tea partiers, and asking everyone who will give them a few seconds what we’ll “do” with “them.”

Unfortunately, the “moderate” Republicans and some of our conservatives didn’t learn the lesson we wanted to teach them. Instead, they decided they need to spend more time and money wooing the swing voters and undecideds. The Big Tent is looking more like a Circus. (See CPAC and “gay conservatives.”)

Many who have appropriated the title of “conservatives” – those who have never been active (or even voted) in the Republican Party before and those who spend their “meet-up” time with the Libertarian Party – are using any and all opportunities to infect the Party with their discontent. If they can destroy us for their own political gain and “Revolution,” they will be happy.

If your goal is to throw the bums out for the sake of defeating the old established leadership, if you think it’s your turn at power, even if you’ve never been involved, much less been a leader, then perhaps your motives aren’t as pure as they should be. Please reconsider what your real goal is and how – whether – your actions will achieve your purpose.

WingRight

Today’s newspaper is out. I’m still getting the bugs out. If you find some of the chosen articles are inappropriate, please let me know. WingRight.

For Texas’ Atheists

Preamble to the Constitution of the great, sovereign State of Texas:

Humbly invoking the blessings of Almighty God, the people of the State of Texas, do ordain and establish this Constitution.

Just FYI.

And, BTW, according to the 1st Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, it’s “Freedom OF Religion,” or “the free exercise thereof,” not “Freedom From Religion.” thought you would want to know, since you’re suing Governor Rick Perry over the Response prayer gathering on August 6th, at Houston’s Reliant Stadium.

(Thanks to LukeL of FreeRepublic.com for the reminder about the Preamble.)

Texas Insider » Cong. Smith: “Republicans will not support legislation that raises taxes.”

Repeat it often, and do it! Don’t give us mock compromises. (Don’t mock us with compromises.)

The Republicans have a budget. Do not pass the McConnell deal. Keep the control in the House as mandated in the Constitution. Pass a short-term debt ceiling, and force the Senate and/or the President to kill it.

If there’s a bandaid that needs pulling off, this is it.

Texas Insider » Cong. Smith: “Republicans will not support legislation that raises taxes.”.

First Amendment: excuse for lawsuits or freedom?

The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

The Texas Tribune, that NPR/University of Texas online news organization that accepted $150,000 from George Soro’s “Open Society,” (whose url is “soros.org”), reports that atheists backed by an organization from Wisconsin, have filed suit to stop Governor Rick Perry’s participation in the prayer gathering in Houston next month. They claim that the 1st Amendment prohibits State Governors from public religious expression. It doesn’t seem odd to to them that the same Government should defend their right to not be religious while forcing others to refrain.
Forget for a moment that the Constitution is talking about the Federal Congress and not a State Legislature or Governor – look at the rest of the Amendment.

“… shall make no law” – no law for and no law against
“. . . the free exercise thereof . . . “
“ . . . abridging the freedom of speech . . .”
“. . . right of the people peaceably to assemble . . .”

The comments on TT  concerning the lawsuit are the typical Austin liberal screed, with an added anti-religious hatefulness and the obligatory hair comments thrown in. Knowing the type of readers who comment on these pages, I’m still surprised at the prejudice and lack of knowledge displayed. So, here’s my answer to their questions and doubts:

Yes, Christians do believe that the Lord chooses our Governors and other leaders. And, yes, Christians do have a need and “Commission” to testify about our faith and blessings. And many of us do not believe that we can abdicate our own private duty to Christ to care for the sick, poor or children to government, which hasn’t proven a good steward. And, no, you don’t have the right to be free from knowledge and tolerance of our free exercise of religion, speech, and assembly.

God bless their little hearts.

Addicted to spending, power, or nicotine?

I’ve noticed that addicts find some excuse to leave early or get “agitated” easily toward the end of a long meeting. May the Present President just needed a cigarette?

From CNN, a quote from Congressman Cantor: about the July 13th meeting with President Obama:

“That’s when he got very agitated and said I’ve sat here long enough — that no other president — Ronald Reagan — would sit here like this — and that he’s reached the point that something’s gotta give,” Cantor said, adding that Obama called for Republicans to compromise on either their insistence that a debt-ceiling hike must be matched dollar-for-dollar by spending cuts or on their opposition to any kind of tax increase.
“And he said to me, ‘Eric, don’t call my bluff.’ He said ‘I’m going to the American people with this,'” Cantor quoted Obama as saying.
“I was somewhat taken aback,” Cantor said. When he continued to press the issue, Cantor said, Obama “shoved back from the table, said ‘I’ll see you tomorrow’ and walked out.”

Get the RINO’s out, now!

I tend to be a “some is better than none” type of voter. Normally, I say that just about any Republican is better than just about any Democrat.
But not on life and family issues. I wont cast a vote for pro-aborts or pro-homosexual “marriage” RINO’s.
I did refrain from criticizing my own State Senator, who is both, because of a misguided loyalty to the Party – and my husband is the County chair. In reward the man refused to allow me to be introduced as “Doctor of the Day” at the Senate, this May and he fought our ultrasound bill.
Never again.
Every Republican who cannot stand for the sanctity of life and traditional marriage should be hounded out of office, not just voted out. No violence, no threats, just unrelenting pressure to resign. (My husband says, “Good!” or I wouldn’t put this on line. I really do believe what I say about marriage.)

Opinion: Why let IPAB control health care? – Sen. John Cornyn – POLITICO.com

Senator John Cornyn, my Senator from Texas, has introduced a Bill to repeal the power of the (Medicare) Independent Advisory Board. As the Senator says, the Board of 15 appointed, non-elected bureaucrats will determine what services are offered to Medicare-eligible patients. Those recommendations will be based on economics, not on actual patients or on their needs. (Did you know that the US Preventive Services says that the evidence for  Prostate Specific Antigen tests and prostate exams and annual mammograms or teaching breast self-exams is “insufficient?”)

From the Senator:

We should learn from Britain’s mistakes rather than repeat them — and we should also listen to voices of Texans in our state. The IPAB has created “immediate uncertainty at hand,” says Scott & White Healthcare in central Texas, for their 12 hospitals and more than 800 physicians. Many more organizations and associations have expressed similar concerns and urged me to do what I can to repeal this ill-conceived bureaucratic board.

That’s why I have introduced the Health Care Bureaucrats Elimination Act, and why I’m testifying Wednesday on the other side of the Capitol to build support in the House. This legislation seeks to repeal the IPAB completely and defuse this bureaucratic bomb before it explodes.

Opposition to the IPAB is already a bipartisan affair in the House. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), for one, is in favor of abolishing this panel. As Pallone put it, “I’m opposed to independent commissions or outside groups playing a role other than on a recommendatory basis.”

Repealing this unelected board of bureaucrats does not mean giving up on efforts to reduce costs in Medicare. A better model is Medicare Prescription Drug Coverage, which has come in under budget by more than 40 percent. It has achieved this by introducing competition and choice into the system.

Several other initiatives at the state level and in the private sector have also cut costs without sacrificing quality or access to care. Congress should take a look at them as well.

Our seniors have paid their hard-earned money into Medicare for years. They deserve far better than to see their health care placed at the mercy of 15 unelected bureaucrats.

via Opinion: Why let IPAB control health care? – Sen. John Cornyn – POLITICO.com.

The United Nations Bans Opposition to Its Global Tax Design Meeting

News on UN meeting on taxing carbon and energy, in Japan July 13-14, from Cathie Adams and the Eagle Forum:

The Committee consists of representatives from 40 nations, including the U.S., who are considering taxes on carbon, international aviation and shipping, international financial transactions and a wire tax for producing electricity. The UN is also pushing for removal of fossil fuel subsidies and redirecting them to its international green agenda, which would cause the U.S. to be even more dependent on foreign oil.

The purpose of the Fund is to enable the UN to implement its global blueprint for sustainable development called Agenda 21. This green agenda is the new Marxism that requires government ensured economic equity and environmental neutrality. Agenda 21 is not a treaty, but a plan of action produced by the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

via The United Nations Bans Opposition to Its Global Tax Design Meeting.

Need more info on Obamacare?

Ben Hoffman has written a comment in response to my post of earlier today, “53% want repeal of health care law,”  to let me know that he doesn’t believe that the Rassmussen Poll is accurate (or maybe it’s that I’m wrong.):

If people knew the truth about the reform, more would think it was good for our country. But right-wing propaganda has taken hold over facts. The main issue people cite when asked why they’re against it is the mandate, which won’t affect people who already have insurance and for those who don’t, well… they’re just sponging off the rest of us when they get sick or hurt and they have to go to the emergency room, so who cares what they think.

I disagree with Mr. Hoffman on whether or not people know “the truth” and whether or not they will like the healthcare bill as they learn more about it and about whether or not the mandate is the greatest objection or will affect other insurances. The mandate is bad enough  – as is commonly repeated these days, if the government can force you to buy health care, it can force you to buy anything.

First, the poll itself is evidence that people are changing their minds as they learn. As I do, and as I’m sure you do, the people I’ve talked to are researching, following the news and the bits of the law and the regulations that are already coming to be known.

One bit of the law that has already affected many of us is the restriction on Health Savings Accounts. The before-tax contributions were limited, cutting the amount that people can save to pay for their own health care. We can no longer use our HSA to pay for over the counter meds and devices without risking a huge penalty. Doctors are being asked to write scripts for aspirin and other over the counter meds that are medically necessary, but no longer paid under the HSA regs.

Many of us are bothered by the waivers that are going out to some companies.

And, we laughed when we all found out that the Bill had no “separate and severability” clause and would have outlawed all Congressional staffers’ insurance if the Office of Personnel had not engaged in a slight-of-hand trick.

Personally, I found the rules change abuse by Senator Reid to be offensive. He has bound all further Congresses to his debate rules: no debate at all without a 2/3 majority vote and then very limited time for each side to present their case. He also forced any changes to go through the Senate Finance Committee.

However, the biggest danger has not kicked in, yet. The Independent Medicare Advisory Board will soon be mandating cuts in Medicare services by determining what is and is not medically and financially effective. Those cuts may only be overturned by the 2/3 vote, then Senate Finance Committee route, and then only if other cuts can be substituted to meet the same dollar amounts.

The IMAB will make us forget that we ever laughed at “death panels.” This is where the government will control what your doctor does in that little exam room. What Medicare does, everyone does or they risk “exclusion” from Medicare and all those who participate with Medicare.

And finally: “rightwing propaganda?” Please give people the same credit for thinking that you do, Mr. Hoffman.