Michael Boldin of the Tenth Amendment Center provides a peek at how just how ObamaCare can be stopped. Before continuing, keep this quote from Gandhi in mind:

40,000 British troops cannot force 300 million Indians to do what they will not do.

Power in numbers. If Americans don’t want ObamaCare, we don’t have to accept it. We have been conditioned that we must accept it, or that we must rely on the Supreme Court or Congress to save us, but what if the problem is the Supreme Court and Congress? What then? Micheal Boldin provides the answer:

Now that Heath Care legislation has passed, the obvious question for opponents is this: Now What? My answer is best summed up with just one word:

Marijuana.

No, I don’t mean that you should go out and smoke away your anger and frustration. Instead, you should feel empowered. The best way to explain this is by telling the story of a disabled mother from Northern California.

ANGEL’S STORY

Angel Raich has been permanently disabled since 1995. She has an inoperable brain tumor, a seizure disorder and other serious medical conditions. In 1997, her doctor felt that marijuana would be an effective medication.

Angel used homegrown marijuana, and she and her physician claim that it’s helped significantly. You may not agree with Angel’s choice, but it’s one made in accordance with California state law, which allows for such use. The federal government, however, has not shown much respect for state laws in recent decades, and chose to take action. After DEA agents seized and destroyed all six of her marijuana plants, she sued to stop them from doing so again.

The suit went all the way to the Supreme Court, and in Gonzales v Raich, Angel lost. The 2005 ruling made clear that the federal government did not recognize state laws authorizing the use of marijuana – in any situation.

The culprit here is the Commerce Clause, first defined in loose terms by Chief Justice John Marshall in the 1824 case of Gibbons v. Ogden. Justice Marshall is famous for his legislating from the bench and turning the defeat at the Philadelphia Convention of the nationalists, who believed in a strong central government with powers over the states, into a victory. Future Supreme Courts would take even more license with the Commerce Clause to grant Congress virtually unlimited powers – even under so-called conservative Chief Justices and conservative courts.

Mr. Boldin continues:

THE COMMERCE CLAUSE

The court ruled that control over a plant grown and consumed on one’s own property was authorized under the “Interstate Commerce Clause” of the Constitution. Article I, Section 8, Clause 3 of the Constitution empowers Congress to “regulate…commerce among the several states.” It has never been amended.

Like any legal document, if the words of the Constitution mean today what they meant at the moment it was signed, we must understand just what those words meant at the time of its ratification…

…With this in mind, the Supreme Court, which is not a set of nine infallible gods, ruled incorrectly. But rule, they did. Thus, all three federal branches agreed that State-level laws allowing marijuana were a no-go. In his dissent, Justice Clarence Thomas gave a stark warning:

“If the Federal Government can regulate growing a half-dozen cannabis plants for personal consumption…then Congress’ Article I powers…have no meaningful limits. Whether Congress aims at the possession of drugs, guns, or any number of other items, it may continue to appropria[te] state police powers under the guise of regulating commerce.”

If this is starting to make a bit of sense, it should. The Supreme Court ruling should have ended the matter, right? Even with the incorrect assumption held by most Americans that the Supreme Court is the ultimate arbiter of the constitution it did not. More than half a million people are registered users of medical marijuana, with millions more unregistered. So who is the final arbiter of the constitution? The states are, as our founders clearly wished it to be. Remember the nationalists were thumped at the Philadelphia Convention, it was only Marshall’s legislating from the bench that began to form the illusion the Supreme Court was all-powerful. Mr. Boldin continues:

RESIST DC

Even though she lost the case, Angel indicated she’d continue to use marijuana. At the time of the ruling, there were 10 states that had such laws. Not one of them has been repealed. Since then, another 4 states have passed similar laws, and many others are considering them, including South Dakota, Kansas, and New Hampshire…

…What’s been the result? The federal government will occasionally arrest some high-profile users, but taken in the perspective of the multitudes consuming the plant, the threat is quite low.

And, in mid-2009, recognizing a need for “efficient and rational use of its limited investigative and prosecutorial resources,” the Justice Department announced that it would back off the prosecution of medical marijuana patients even further.

Now it’s time to segway into the health-care arena. What, pray-tell, does the above have to do with ObamaCare? It’s the lesson, actually that, as Mr. Boldin states:

When enough states pass laws defying federal laws, and enough people actively defy them too, D.C. simply doesn’t have the manpower to arrest and prosecute all of us.

Many of us are relying on a political solution from Washington to solve our problems. Or perhaps we are putting our hope the Supreme Court will come to the rescue and not interpret the Commerce Clause in some novel way that will increase the power of Congress to control our lives to stunning new heights. For those who place their hopes in such entities I only have to say, good luck. Past experience dictates that such hopes are sure to be dashed, and even if a battle is won, the war will be lost until the people take action and not rely on the power of others to do the work they need to do. Never in history have people been rescued from tyranny by the very enablers of that tyranny, and the march to big government will always continue under both parties. It is only a matter of degree. As Dr. Larry Hunter points out in Who Lost Healthcare? (emphasis mine):

What do Harlem Globetrotters basketball, professional wrestling and American politics all have in common? They are FAKES…

…The sad thing is, most conservatives actually think American politics is a real contest between different visions and alternative practical courses for America. Au contraire. Politics in America today is between two Establishment political parties that need each other as foils—gotta’ have that “bad guy”—egged on by the mouth-radio carnies. The dirty little secret is most of the participants fundamentally agree on the need or the practical necessity of perpetuating and growing the welfare/warfare state. They differ only in degree, not kind.

The proof of this assertion is unambiguously clear: Government in the United States continues relentlessly to get bigger, more intrusive and oppressive no matter which political party is in control, no matter for how long. Yes, each party proceeds at a different pace and by different routes but they all herd us to the same destination nonetheless, confirming Thomas Jefferson’s observation that, “The natural tendency of things is for government to gain ground and for liberty to yield.”…

…The joke is on those Americans who actually believe a restoration of limited government, individual freedom and personal liberty are the objectives of either political party. The poor saps have spent their entire lives paying the full price of admission to cheer on the Washington Generals. How pathetic is that? Pitiful.

So, when the history of the government takeover of healthcare is written and the question asked, “Who lost healthcare?” the answer will be unambiguous: “Republicans, who failed to take a political risk and refused to employ every parliamentary device at their disposal to stop ObamaCare from being enacted into law.”

Conservatives, irate at the Democrats, will make heroes of Republicans for fighting the good fight rhetorically and overlook their unwillingness to act. They will flock to the polls and throw lots of Democrats out of office. Republicans will claim a mandate—but a mandate to do what, slow the boil?

So where do we go from here? Back to Michael Boldin and nullification:

This kind of activism – while it clearly carries personal risk – should be a real blueprint for people that have been consistently unable to find constitutional relief in Congress, the Executive, or the Courts.

Marijuana users: Love ‘em or hate ‘em, but show some respect for them, as many have suffered greatly for doing what they believe is right. People who believe strongly about other issues, like health care mandates, would do well to learn from them.

What should be done about federal control over health care? The same thing that should be done for every unconstitutional federal law, regulation, or mandate – Nullify Now!

If the politicians in Washington fail us (and there is already plenty of backtracking on promises of repeal) and the Supreme Court rules against the people, what then? By ignoring a perfectly good approach to taking back power from a tyrannical few in DC, we have only ourselves to blame. By putting our eggs in the federal basket and failing to pressure our state leaders to pass laws nullifying ObamaCare and coordinating with other states to do the same, we miss a real opportunity. An opportunity to send a message to Washington that, even if the Supreme Court sides with you and even when you back down from pledges to protect the people, we can still win. There are millions of us and only a few of you. We refuse to accept your tyranny and we do so without firing a single shot. All we have to do is ignore you, just like you ignored us.

Be sure to check out other posts at the Tenth Amendment Center that describe how legislation is shaping up, what local Sheriffs should do, how a state can react when Congress threatens to remove federal funds, and other items. Also, check out Nullification – Our Constitutional Option.

Remember, sometimes if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. Relying on politicians and judges to save us is a perfect example of why this little pearl of wisdom is still good advice.

In other news:

Andrew Breitbart Offers $10,000 to United Negro College Fund

Some Republicans Still Don’t Get It

AP: Say, guess what we just found in ObamaCare!

Keep the Hopenchange: Personal incomes drop

ObamaCare: What the GOP could (but probably won’t) do now

If you want to go fast – go alone. If you want to go far – go together.

Thus begins the anger of the states. Starting with Idaho and soon to be joined by 37 other states weary of the over-reach of federal power:

Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter is the first state chief executive to sign a measure requiring his attorney general to sue the federal government if Congress passes health care reform.

Legal experts say the measure, signed today, will likely be struck down. But Idaho’s new law reflects growing frustration with President Barack Obama’s health-care proposal.

If Federal courts strike down 38 state lawsuits, listen for the sound of Gabriel’s horn, as the overt evidence of federal contempt for the people and the states would be impossible to conceal. The feeling of déjà vu, burned into our cultural identity, so palpable even from a distant time, is summated by a single word – liberty.

The distant land of a sovereign parliament, transported to our shores centuries later, is now centralized in DC. The overlords have returned in a different guise; the mask slips, and they are revealed.

We recognize and reject the tyrants – as is our duty.

Related:

Landmark Legal Foundation to Slaughter House butchers: Not without a fight; Update: The states’ revolt

Update: Nullification resolution with teeth: ResistDC: The State Authority and Anti-Racketeering Act:

If teeth is what you want, you need to go no further than Georgia. House Bill 880 (HB880), introduced by Representative Bobby Franklin, is called the “State Authority and Anti-racketeering Act.”

Unlike the many 10th Amendment Resolutions that have been introduced around the country since 2008, HB880 is legally-binding legislation…

…that state governments not only have the right to resist unconstitutional federal acts, but that, in order to protect liberty, they are “duty bound to interpose” or stand between the federal government and the people of the state.

House Bill 880 includes strong language to assert this principle:

Any actions taken by the federal government through its agents or employees that are not authorized by the Constitution of the United States are unlawful; and being unlawful, they are criminal offenses against the affected parties

This bill would make it a crime – with imprisonment for up to 30 years for each offense – for “any judicial officer, law enforcement officer, agent, or employee of the federal government, any multinational government, any international government, or any global government” to attempt to “enforce any federal, multinational, international, or global law” reserved to the State of Georgia under the 10th Amendment to the Constitution.

As of this writing, the bill has had two readings in the Georgia House. Will such a strong piece of legislation go anywhere? Only time will tell. The reality, though, is this – it’s going to take some serious effort to push back against decades and decades of unconstitutional federal acts.

————————

News today at Hot Air via Townhall: Dem sources: Senate “fix” for ObamaCare could add another $300 billion to price tag; Update: Dems ready for reconciliation, says Kyl

As the saying goes – strike when the iron is hot.

Many of my friends will disagree with me this is the time or that healthcare is the issue to fight the nullification battle and start the long journey back to re-asserting states rights; it is a nasty and drawn out process, not an event as many would think. There is the beginning, a middle, and an end. The middle and the end are often, shall we say, fraught with peril. However, given the sheer level of contempt the Democrats are preparing to level at the American public it is clear the time for niceties is over. And I am not talking about the nullification of just the individual mandate which, if successful, may only serve to usher in more quickly the single-payer system, I am talking about the nullification of the entire bill. I’ll go even further and suggest that as many states as possible draft and pass legislation that would allow that state to nullify any federal law which violates state sovereignty. What I am talking about is an virtual (not literal) act of war by the states against the federal government. It would not be pretty; it would not be easy. Continuing a campaign of pressure against the federal government while steadfastly supporting state’s governors and legislators as they embark on this journey of defiance requires great skill, leadership, patience, and gumption. So get ready.

In his excellent piece A short history of the destruction of state sovereignty, a worthy read in itself, Dr. Hunter notes the following regarding the rolling back of tyrannical federal powers:

But, it won’t be simply a matter of untying the knot or walking this cat back. It is impossible to simply retrace the steps that brought the American political system to its present perilous situation; it will require courage, steadfastness, truculence, defiance and a will of iron to stand up to Washington and stand down the power of the federal government. It will be an undertaking not in principle different from but even more daunting and difficult than the Civil Rights Movement, namely reviving America and restoring liberty by overcoming oppressive government that is acting illegally and immorally with a pointed gun under the color of law.

Later, Dr. Hunter goes on to say (emphasis mine):

After spending several weeks traveling around the country speaking at grass-roots events and Tea Parties, I am impressed by the pent up anger at the federal government spilling out across the land. It is diffuse and largely unarticulated but it is real, and it is growing.

I also am impressed by the actions already taken and under consideration in several states to re-establish state prerogatives and “sovereignty”—from unilaterally withdrawing from the federal government the authority to regulate guns manufactured, sold and used solely within the confines of the state (MT & TN), to opting out of national healthcare (AZ) to consideration of refusing to be ensnarled in cap-and-trade (IN).

It is a messy, boisterous process and mass movements such as the Tea Parties frequently get it wrong in their enthusiastic assertions about what is and what is not constitutional. That said, there may be a kernel here—“state sovereignty”—around which a movement may be coalescing and the Spirit of ’98 revived.

But, the state sovereignty movement must be about more than simply unfunded federal mandates; it must go beyond making intergovernmentalism efficient and bearable; it must aim to revive genuine federalism in order to restore individual rights and personal freedom.

Certainly, to be a lasting political force, the Tea Parties need a focus rather than simply running around making noise and venting their frustrations. But time is not likely to wait for the intricate schemes and the best laid plans of man; from the sorry looks of states such as California and plans the current administration has in hand for a complete takeover of everything in sight, events may take on a life of their own.

In the not too distant future, America may face a spontaneous and violent crackup designed by no one but out of the control of anyone, followed by a backlash of severe national-government oppression and tyranny. That is why it is vital for citizens to get ahead of the curve and organize a peaceful rebellion against Washington—a restorative revolution led by the natural depository of power—the States—which were intended by the Founders to be the locus of resistance to check an oppressive and tyrannical national government.

If the states do not intervene to halt the national government’s takeover of everything and act to restore some semblance of balance to the American political system, there is a real danger that Nobel Laureate Friedrich Hayek’s prediction in The Road To Serfdom will come to fruition. Hayek feared that in times of turmoil and hardship, the appeal of dismantling the free-market system under the allure of central planning and the distemper of envy and fear would inevitably place society on “the road to serfdom,” which ultimately ends in the destruction of all individual economic and personal freedom.

Hayek argued that once a society progresses sufficiently far down the road to collectivism and consolidated central control, the failure of central planning would be perceived by the public as an absence of sufficient power by the national government to implement an otherwise good idea. According to Hayek, such a perception would lead the public to vote more power to the national government, and ultimately allow a “strong man” to rise to power. Once a charismatic strong man who is perceived to be capable of “getting the job done” consolidates his power, Hayek foresaw the ultimate and ineluctable descent into outright totalitarianism.

Or, America may traverse the road to serfdom via another route. Rather than a strong-man takeover, a consolidated and centralized national government may instead visit upon the American people tyranny by committee every much as destructive of economic and personal liberty as the rule of any strong man.

Although all the wounds of slavery, segregation and the Civil Rights Movement may not yet be behind us, it may be, one hopes, that they are sufficiently healed to allow a critical mass of Americans from all walks of life to join together and rejuvenate their states. To revive American liberty and restore our constitutional republic, people will have to rediscover their courage to resist the way Martin Luther King and his followers resisted. But whereas civil rights activists looked to the national government as the font of legitimacy to take down immoral and oppressive state laws, a restoration of freedom from national-government oppression will have to look to state governments as the font of legitimacy in resistance.

The Revive America Movement must begin by electing and supporting governors and state legislatures who will act with the Spirit of ‘98 in truculent and defiant resistance to Washington. It will require citizens standing shoulder to shoulder with their governors and state legislators to confront the federal government where possible, defy Uncle Sam where necessary and restore some semblance of balance to the American democracy before it is too late.

Reviving America and restoring liberty to Americans won’t be simple because we are too far down the road to serfdom for simple unwinding and backtracking. It is not self-evidently obvious what a true Restorative Revolution would look like but the civil rights movement offers a model that may be the last best hope we have before passing a point of no return.

As Redstate’s Brian Faughnan reports, Democratic pollster James Carville’s recent poll indicated just one-third of voters support ObamaCare:

Democrats are currently saying that no matter what happens in tomorrow’s Senate election, they will pass a health care rationing bill.

Now there’s some audacity for you.

I am reminded of our Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government.

The train of abuses has been long, and with the Brown win, President Obama is promising a combative turn. Translation: more abuses of federal power and even less attention paid to the will of the people. Therefore, it is time, in this author’s opinion, for the Tea Parties to work with state legislators and governors, standing shoulder to shoulder with them, unbending and stalwart in the battle for the freedoms and rights guaranteed to us by the Constitution. Together, state leaders and citizens must stare down the federal tyranny with an icy glare. So perilous is this journey that the path must be carefully prepared, our leaders steadfast, and our own resolve unbreakable. What of federal repercussions and our legislative preparedness to deal with them? Are each of us prepared, as in the civil rights movement, to resist in a passive-aggressive manner the abuses of the federal government with acts of civil disobedience? When will the movement reach critical mass, causing the federal powers to crumble under their own weight and lucre?

If the Senate or the House passes the current and very unpopular health care bill, especially if the process of reconciliation is used, this very well could be the tipping point, forcing our hand to take measures to ensure a federal government oblivious to the will of the public is spanked hard and spanked often until it caves to our will. As Orrin Hatch recently stated, the use of the process of reconciliation in the Senate is will lead to an all out war in that chamber. The states would not be far behind.

Already, we have seen the Democrats in the Senate vote, along party lines, to increase the debt ceiling to 14.3 trillion. Combined with the soft on terror approach of the current administration, balooning deficits, a Congress that seems hell-bent on ignoring the American public to the point of brazen arrogance and dismissal, an appology tour by nothing less than the President of the United States, a recent Executive Order by the Presidet that surrenders U.S. sovereignty to Interpol, and a host of other abuses that would fill a book, there is a growing sense that enough is enough.

It is interesting to note that many today believe the Supreme Court to be the final arbiter of all things within the borders of the United States while in fact this Court is only a check against the other two forms of the federal government, not the states. Where the Constitution is silent, the states can govern themselves.

From The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions (emphasis mine):

The resolution explicitly disclaimed that the national government was the judge of its own powers. Allowing it to judge its own powers would be akin to permitting an agent, rather than the principal, to determine the breadth of the agent’s authority. The law of agency at its most basic level recognizes that an agent can act as such only subject to the consent and control of the principal to whom the agent owes a fiduciary duty (see Restatement [Second] of Agency, sec. 1). Just as A, B, and C, the partners in a business firm, decide what authority to give their agent Z, so the parties to the Constitution decide the powers of the national government. In light of such logic, Jefferson proclaimed in the resolution that “each party [to the federal compact] has an equal right to judge for itself, as well of infractions as of the mode and measures of redress” (Virginia Commission 1964, 144). For Jefferson, the people acting through their states — the authentic organs of government — were the final arbiters of constitutional interpretation. Jefferson feared that giving the federal government the exclusive power to interpret the Constitution through the Supreme Court would lead to arbitrary government. As John Taylor later wrote in his Construction Construed and Constitutions Vindicated, “a jurisdiction, limited by its own will, is an unlimited jurisdiction” ([1820] 1970, 131). With the states stripped of the power to construe the Constitution, the enforcement of constitutional limitations on the central government would be chimerical. Thus, it is not surprising that none of the convictions under the Sedition Act were appealed to the Federalist-dominated Supreme Court. The Republicans did not want to give the Court an opportunity to set a dangerous precedent.

The public in each state must ensure its state government does not fold like a bunch of cheap suits when the federal government attempts its first act of retribution – the withdrawal of state funds. While money is a very powerful weapon, the stream flows both ways. Let us not forget our resolve nor allow our leaders in each state to ignore their constitutional duty to each citizen to fight for the rights of the state against the tyranny of the federal government. Let us not waver in the face of opposition from tyrants whose own audacity places them at odds with each of us. This is the time to use federal lucre and abuse of power to grab back the rights duly possessed by the states of this country. In this, the Supreme Court holds no sway over the authority of the states. The Constitution makes this clear. So long and slow has the erosion of state authority occurred, the we forget the people of this country and their respective states wield power over the federal government – not the other way around. Time has eroded our feeling of empowerment, and like pawns on a chessboard, we feel moved by the powers that be, forgetting that it is US that moves THEM. It is time to take back that power. It is time to save the future for our children and grandchildren. It is time to put the federal government back into its proper place. The road will not be easy, but if our resolve is strong, we can have back the country our forefathers left for us.

Update 1: While not a great Ron Paul fan, the an article at the Tenth Amendment Center basically lays out the same approach as above, but offers a few more details. I found the following to be highly interesting:

There are a whole host of peaceful actions that a state government can adopt if that day comes or appears to be just over the horizon. These measures range from county sheriffs requiring that federal agents receive written permission from the sheriff before acting in their county, to setting up a Federal Tax escrow account, which could potentially de-fund unconstitutional federal activities by requiring that all federal taxes come first to the state’s Department of Revenue.

Besides state interposition, the other thing Washington would have to consider, is whether enough of their agents would actually obey orders to punish people for exercising their constitutional rights. There is a significant chance that enough of them would either publicly or privately decide in advance to ignore such orders. As the probability of this increases, it becomes more likely that Washington will not risk overplaying its hand. The reality is that Washington just doesn’t have the manpower to enforce all their unconstitutional laws if enough states choose to defy them.

Of course, it all depends on the people of the several states: ordinary people like you and I. Although I’ve discovered that there are more elected representatives at the state level who are committed to acting in a courageous and principled manner than I ever dared hope, most of their peers lack such a brave commitment. Most of them will stick their head in the sand or sit on the fence until they determine which way the wind is blowing. And so it’s our opinion, not the opinion of the American people in aggregate, but our opinion as citizens of our respective states, that will influence the decision of our state representatives to either stand tall or to kneel down and knuckle under.

Living in Texas I am particularly interested in one of the comments:

We are developing nullification legislation for Texas that might serve as a model for other states. See http://constitutionalism.blogspot.com/2010/01/cautions-for-nullification-proponents.html

Proposed Components:

1. Commission. Establish “Federal Action Review Commission” – special commission with grand jury powers to meet continuously with rotating membership drawn from a pool of legal historians and constitutional scholars, appointed by the Governor, Attorney General, or Legislative Council; empowered to review the constitutionality of congressional legislation, or federal regulations or decisions, and if it finds such legislation, regulations, or decisions to be unconstitutional, to issue an edict, with the force of law, requiring that no state or local officials, employees, or contractors cooperate in the enforcement of it, and urging state citizens to refuse to cooperate. This Commission would be established by an amendment to the Texas Constitution.

2. Structure and procedure. The Commission shall consist of 23 members, who shall serve for staggered terms of 4-8 months, drawn at random from a pool of at least 230 constitutional scholars and legal historians, who shall meet for at least one hour once a week, with a quorum of 16, and a vote of 12 required to issue an edict, based on a presumption of nonauthority and requiring strict proof of constitutionality from logic and historical evidence. It shall be open to direct complaints of the unconstitutionality of federal actions from any citizen. It shall have the power to subpoena witnesses, and its deliberations shall be secret, except that it may disclose anything in its presentments. It may authorize criminal prosecution by issuing an indictment to any person, not necessarily a lawyer, upon a finding that the court cited has jurisdiction and that evidence of guilt is sufficient for trial.

3. Penalties. State and local officials, employees, and contractors shall be duly notified in writing of such edicts within ten days and shall have twenty days to comply or be subject to termination after one written warning and a second failure to refuse to cooperate.

4. Funding. Establish a state fund to pay for legal and financial support of state citizens and officials who refuse to cooperate with unconstitutional federal statutes, regulations, or decisions, with the intention to obtain judicial decisions that support the unconstitutionality of the federal actions.

Update 2: Another reason to start the nullification movement: Reconciliation flip-flopper of the morning

Update 3: Reconciliation, the public option, and Demcare revival

With the explosion of ClimateGate, who better to tell the truth about the global warming hysteria than Ian Plimer (see below). Mr. Plimer’s schedule should be booked for the next year if anyone is truly serious about getting to the truth and bypassing politics to see the real science and the actual data.

Cap-and-Trade, it’s next on the list so lets start thinking about it now. For an excellent background see Could Australia Blow Apart the Great Global Warming Scare? and A Tax on Thin Air.

These two links concern what happened in Australia. Ian Plimer’s book Heaven and Earth, Global Warming: The Missing Science, is a blockbuster that explodes the global warming myth. It turned the tide in Australia. I am sending a copy to my Representative and Senators. The more books we can send the better. Call your Senator and Representative and demand that Ian Plimer be allowed to testify in front of the Congress. The country deserves a balanced debate on the issue.

Anyone remember the television series Jericho? This show was about a devastating nuclear terrorist attack on the US (multiple cities) and one small Kansas town dealing with the aftermath. The show promoted family values, the power of communities, and the harsh reality that millions of Americans would face if such an event were to ever occur.” I loved the show and so did millions of others. When CBS decided to cancel the show, a grassroots movement began to keep the show on the air. The campaign involved sending crates of nuts to CBS. Nuts you say? Why would anyone possibly want to do that?

In the final episode of “Jericho,” the town is under siege from a neighboring community.

When asked to surrender, lead character Jake Green, played by Skeet Ulrich, has a one-word response: “Nuts.”

The response is in reference to Gen. Anthony McAuliffe, a U.S. Army general who in World War II was surrounded by Germans demanding his surrender.

His response: “Nuts.”

The campaign worked and a second season was aired. Ian Plimer’s book is our “nuts” campaign, as in your nuts if you think we are going to buy into this hype and pseudo-science. In a “this would be funny if it were not so serious moment”, Ian Plimer exposes one of the climate experts referenced in the International Panel on Climate Change as – you’re not going to believe this – an expert in fossil faeces. It’s like asking the weatherman on your local TV channel to perform your colonoscopy. Somebody’s getting it in the end and I think it’s supposed to be us – but not anymore. Australia did it and so can we.

The previous strategy would make a huge difference in turning the tide against global warming hysteria and could stop cap-and-trade dead in its tracks. Ian Plimer’s book that blows the lid off the man-made Global Warming myth and does such a good job that the book changed the mind of a leading global warming hysteric – Paul Sheehan (see his comments below). It changed the course of the debate in Australia and lead to the death of climate change legislation as the tide turned in public opinion.

One of the most remarkable changes brought about by Plimer’s book occurred on April 13, when leading global warming hysteric Paul Sheehan—who writes for the main Sydney newspaper, the Sydney Morning Herald, which has done as much to hype the threat of global warming as any Australian newspaper—reviewed Plimer’s book and admitted he was taken aback. He describes Plimer, correctly, as “one of Australia’s foremost Earth scientists,” and praised the book as “brilliantly argued” and “the product of 40 years’ research and breadth of scholarship.” What does Plimer’s book say? Here is Sheehan’s summary:

Much of what we have read about climate change, [Plimer] argues, is rubbish, especially the computer modeling on which much current scientific opinion is based, which he describes as “primitive.”…

The Earth’s climate is driven by the receipt and redistribution of solar energy. Despite this crucial relationship, the sun tends to be brushed aside as the most important driver of climate. Calculations on supercomputers are primitive compared with the complex dynamism of the Earth’s climate and ignore the crucial relationship between climate and solar energy.

To reduce modern climate change to one variable, CO2, or a small proportion of one variable—human-induced CO2—is not science. To try to predict the future based on just one variable (CO2) in extraordinarily complex natural systems is folly.

In response, this is Sheehan’s conclusion: “Heaven and Earth is an evidence-based attack on conformity and orthodoxy, including my own, and a reminder to respect informed dissent and beware of ideology subverting evidence.” This cannot be interpreted as anything but a capitulation. It cedes to the global warming rejectionists the high ground of being “evidence-based,” and it accepts the characterization of the global warming promoters as dogmatic conformists.

It is time to stop the nonsense of wealth distribution in the guise of a scientific farce visited upon the American people by psuedo-science. It is time to open the curtain and take a peak at the real agenda of global warming fear mongers.

I received the following from Dennis Hollingsead in my inbox on the national Tea Party site. Anyone who believes the Tea Party has dissipated should have their heads examined. A giant tsunami is heading Washington’s way and only a fool would ignore it. Pass any form of ObamaCare, Cap-and-trade, or other budget busting, deficit increasing, tax raising, and liberty stealing legislation and you might as well paint a giant target on your back and mark yourself for political extinction. For many who voted for Obama, buyer’s remorse is the phrase of the day. For those of us who did not, we have been spoiling for a fight and are wringing our hands in anticipation awaiting November of 2010 along with those who now realize the mistake that is Obama. From Dennis Hollingsead:

I have always appreciated the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights. But only since this summer and the healthcare initiative have I ever participated in any kind of political activism. Last January and for two months, I really thought that Obama might really be what America needs. However, I now believe that he has demonstrated that he knows how to use the right words, but his actions are incongruous with his message. I now believe that what we are seeing could be called a “Tipping Point”. Every night the media asks “Why don’t the people believe Obama?” I believe it is because so many Americans are also getting a sense of his true agenda. Last August, In my anger, I wrote the following to Congress and the American people. I have sent this to EVERY U.S. Senator, and all major media outlets:

A Pledge to Congress:

Whereas, thousands of homeowners have overextended their spending and are now bankrupt; so have both parties in Congress overextended America’s spending, thereby threatening “We the People” with bankruptcy;
Whereas, both parties in Congress, as well as state and local government, treat “We the People” as a never ending financial supply for government spending;

Whereas, both parties in Congress have demonstrated they cannot control spending, and through their legislation are a major reason for the current financial crisis;

Whereas, many Congresspersons in both parties ignore and violate the very same laws that they expect “We the People” to obey;

Whereas, both parties of Congress have either forgotten or choose to ignore that the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are documents detailing the boundaries of government power and influence, from “We the People”;

Whereas, both parties in Congress, through deficit spending, are undermining the Constitution they have sworn to protect and defend from all enemies, foreign and domestic;

Whereas, “We the people” have given the power to the government to govern, “We the people” are skeptical of all politicians that tell us the government is giving us permission, to do anything;

Whereas, many Congresspersons in both parties do not understand that excessive taxation enslaves “We the People”, whether we are rich or poor, pay taxes or not;

Whereas, “We the People” believe our own Congressperson is doing great, while realistically, most multiple-term members of Congress are the problem;

Whereas, to the extent that “We the People” have encouraged or expected our Congressperson(s) to bring home “the bacon”, “We the People” bear part of the blame for the current financial crisis and pledge to never engage in this behavior in the future;

Whereas, “We the People” make difficult spending choices in order to avoid financial disaster; Congress must commit to make difficult spending choices to avoid America’s financial collapse;

Whereas, Congress has neither identified the areas of healthcare excellence, nor analyzed and explained how
a sweeping change to the existing system will impact those areas of excellence;

Whereas, Congress and the President have apparently not included any of the following important stakeholders in the healthcare development process: doctors, nurses, hospital and insurance administrators, lawyers, judges, inventors of medical technology, manufacturing and pharmaceutical administrators, or individuals with real wisdom – retired Americans;

Whereas, both parties of Congress have no problem with adding to the national debt;

Whereas, Social Security is on the path to economic failure due to unrestrained Congressional spending;

Whereas, Congress and the Executive Branch refuse to look objectively at the historical evidence of the Law of Unintended Consequences following government legislation;

Whereas, Congress, even though given the authority by the President to write legislation, many have not even read the proposed bills, and refuse to allow “We the People” to read them before Congressional vote;
Whereas, the current healthcare debate has little to do with health and more to do with political ideology;
Whereas, a large number of “We the People” believe it has been a good day when Congress has not passed any legislation;

Therefore; I, Dennis Hollingsead of Buchanan, Michigan (son of a medical doctor and hospital employee for 17 years), cannot support ANY healthcare proposal, current or future that does not include major stakeholder groups in the development process. Furthermore, I encourage “We the People” to pledge to remove from office at the ballot box, any and all Representatives, Senators, or Federal Executives proposing legislation that adds to the national debt!

Dennis Hollingsead MLS, MMus
Buchanan, MI 49107

Ignore us at your peril. No ObamaCare, no cap-and-trade, and no card check. Quarantine Obama and his liberal allies. Republicans, RINOs, and moderate democrats – you have been placed on notice. Represent the will of the people and survive the political earthquake. Turn your back on us and we will rip through the barricade that surrounds the Beltway, take back our dome, and grab you by the scruff of your neck and throw you to the lions.

Update on the pink slip campaign: Not surprising, there is very little news on the congressional pink slip campaign but the examiner is reporting as of October 1st that 1.5 million pink slips have been sent to Congress. Since then, at least a million more arrived per a conference call I attended last week, with more arriving daily. The pink slips, arriving by regular mail, take about 4-6 weeks to make it to the desk. Like the 9/12 march on DC, this is vastly under-reported by the press, including Fox News. Dereliction of duty.

The success of the pink slip campaign is due in part to the contribution by Federal Express and their agreement to create enough slips to send to all members of Congress at a cost of around $30.00.

Update: Why this is reaching a critical moment: Howard Dean, DFA, Launch Campaign Encouraging 51-Vote Health Care Bill. If we ignore the following, we do so at our country’s peril. This strategy will work.

Keep the following in mind as you read this post: FORCE THE DEMOCRATS TO DEFEND IGNORING A RULE THEY AGREED TO. THEY HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO GROUND TO STAND ON. You will see this again below.

In this post, I argue how the coup de grace is nigh for ObamaCare. I also point to this post that details Senator Jim DeMint’s amendments how they can be used to kill reconciliation. From the second post:

During deliberations on the Senate Budget Resolution earlier this year, Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) introduced a point-of-order amendment that would require a 60-vote majority to pass “any bill, joint resolution, amendment, motion, or conference report that eliminates the ability of Americans to keep their health plan or their choice of doctor (as determined by the Congressional Budget Office).” The Senate approved the DeMint Amendment unanimously.

Subsequently, before the Senate Budget Resolution went to a Conference Committee where differences with the House Budget Resolution were to be worked out, DeMint offered a motion to instruct the Conferees not only to insist on retaining the 60-vote provision in the final Conference Report but also to widen the scope of the provision to cover any provision and so forth that decreases the number of Americans enrolled in private health insurance while increasing the number enrolled in government-managed, rationed health care. The Demint motion to instruct passed the Senate by an overwhelming vote of 79 to 14.

As a matter of congressional comity, the House ordinarily would have been expected to accede to the Senate provision since it affected Senate rules that applied only to the Senate. Remarkably, Senate Budget Committee Chairman, Kent Conrad, allowed the Demint 60-vote requirement to be removed from the Budget Resolution in Conference.

One comment on first post linked above comes from jfxgillis:

G.J.:

To take them in reverse order, the motion to instruct simply isn’t operative anymore. The instruction was not in the Budget Conference Report but it passed anyway.

The other amendment appears to rely on a CBO finding that hasn’t happened yet on a bill that hasn’t had a floor vote yet.

The amendments only passed in the first place because they don’t matter.

Once again it is up to the grassroots to get involved and put serious pressure on the Senate concerning these amendments and make known our expectation that these amendments be adhered to because of the promise by unanimous vote in one case and a vote of 79-14 in the second. If we shame enough Democrats the possibility increases that votes will be lacking in the Senate even for Reconciliation. It is up to the us to pressure Republicans to make this an issue. Republicans, as we all know too well, are prone to rolling over and need prodding on a regular basis. To borrow a Texas phrase, it’s like herding cattle.

The amendments passed. Therefore, if the Senators wish to be seen as men and women of character, they should follow the rules they set out for themselves. No more rules for thee (you and me) but not for me (the elitist politicians). No more spineless non-responses and no more pompous attitudes. If the 9/12 DC march taught Republicans and Democrats anything, it is the grassroots is real, we are big, and we will vote.

The Senate insiders have tried all along to dismiss the DeMint provisions on technical grounds by ignoring the facts that got us to the current situation. The grassroots must be ruthless and relentless in pushing the Republicans to do the right thing. It is all about constructing the right narrative. If we start listening to excuses from insiders, our movement will be hijacked by the establishment (beltway insiders, including politicians of both parties), which is exactly what they will try to do. But hijacking the movement is less about elbowing for who gets credit than about herding us so we don’t rock the boat and make life uncomfortable for them. What they fail to realize is they are the cattle and we are the cowboys. We herd them, not the other way around.

First, by any stretch of the imagination any bill currently under consideration by the Senate satisfies the conditions set down in the original DeMint Amendment that passed by unanimous consent. I would love to debate anyone arguing otherwise.

We can argue all day whether or not CBO would rule otherwise but that gives up the fight before it even begins. The CBO doesn’t have to rule on anything since the provision has been stripped. I suspect my detractors response above has been talking to a Republican insider or is getting his information from one second or third hand.

Of course CBO hasn’t yet ruled whether or not a bill satisfies the DeMint conditions, because it is not law yet. But the pertinent point is that the DeMint Amendment is not law precisely because it was dropped unceremoniously in conference contrary to the will of the Senate as evidenced by a huge bipartisan majority (79 votes). How did that happen? The Senate Budget Committee Chairman who voted for the measure twice on the floor of the Senate and was under instructions from his Senate colleagues to insist on the Senate provision in conference turned his head.

The reader may be asking why Senator DeMint is not pushing this issue hard – after all they are his amendments. The answer is obvious – he knows his cowardly Republican colleagues won’t stand up and fight and he doesn’t think the grass roots can be mobilized by this kind of procedural argument, which seems to be confirmed by my detractor above. If we allow ourselves to get intimidated by the technical details and try to explain and discuss them so we pass the test as Senate parliamentarians, we will lose the American public. The parliamentarian test is another favorite technique used to keep strategy control firmly within the hands of the insiders. That is why we have to construct the narrative and control it from the outside rather than allowing the insiders to set the terms of the debate.

Republicans always allow themselves to be cowed. They know that as politicians they are a dreadful lot, their political skills leaving much to be desired. They reveal this inferiority complex by this kind of timid, overly cautious behavior. Well, sometimes cattle need prodding. We need to take up the issue and insist on it. We must put ourselves in the drivers seats. The Senate Republicans are our passengers, our guests, and it is we who must take them along for a ride – not the other way around. Then let the Democrats stand on technicalities after placed on the defensive. The American public will see right through them.

This is a very simple story. The Senate made a rule and then broke other rules in the dead of night to throw it in the garbage. This is the same way these jokers have destroyed the Constitution. The Senate passed a rule committing itself not to consider under Reconciliation any healthcare reform bill that satisfied certain conditions. It left it to CBO to determine whether the bill would satisfy those conditions but it is self evident that any bill currently under consideration does satisfy them. The Senate then instructed its conferees to insist on retaining that amendment in conference. The Senate Budget Committee Chairman betrayed his colleagues and acted contrary to their instructions. We know for a fact that it was he because the House conferees had no political purchase on the provision. It could only be stripped out with Conrad’s acquiescence.

Now someone wants to turn around and argue that the DeMint amendment doesn’t apply because it is no longer in the Budget Resolution and, oh by the way even if it were still in the Budget Resolution it wouldn’t make any difference anyway because CBO would not certify any current bill under consideration as satisfying the conditions established by the amendment. Of course the DeMint amendment doesn’t apply, but they had to cheat to strip it so that it wouldn’t apply — we should not allow ourselves to be conned into defending status quo rules when other rules and long tradition of the Senate had to be broken to get us to this status quo – this is so Republican. Instead, we should be arguing that the Senate should abide by the rule it adopted for itself anyway because it should still be in the resolution and would be in the resolution if the Democrats hadn’t played games and the Republicans hadn’t slept through them.

As for CBO, we must simply assert that the only way CBO could possibly not certify a bill as satisfying the conditions of the amendment is if they were being manipulated by the Democrats.

The Republicans have the rules and the politics on their side, and they have simply been unwilling to pick up the ball and run with it just as they were unwilling to fight ObamaCare and RHINOCare until we made it impossible for them not to. We have to stick the ball in their hands and push them out front so either they run with it or get crushed. We have to re-focus the debate on fairness, abiding by the rules. Oddly enough, Robert C. Byrd provides us the best arguments for not passing healthcare reform under Reconciliation. Just ask yourself this: If the situation were reversed, would the Democrats be wringing their hands and being so fastidious? One guess, and my bet is you will get it right. Why, because if you are reading this chances are you are smarter than most politicians. I know you, not personally, but I have met hundreds like you and color me impressed. For any mindless ObamaBots who are reading this, the answer is – of course not.

The establishment knows how to play the game and that is why they take us to the cleaners on a regular basis – in the past. Now its our turn. Spin cycle anyone?

It’s up to us, the grassroots. We can’t go all wobbly on America now.

The argument that the Senate would have rejected the entire conference report if it really wanted the amendment in is weak. First, it all happened so fast I am sure only a couple of Democrats realized it was gone. The Republicans voted against the Resolution anyway. This was a set up and we are falling into the trap they set. Finally, we have to make it clear that this was not a provision in dispute between the House and Senate, which would have given the “it-passed-anyway-without-it” argument more saliency; this was a provision the House didn’t care about and the Senate was on record by huge bipartisan majorities in favor of twice.

The American people will want to know why was it stripped to begin with? More importantly, why wouldn’t the Senate abide by its own rule? The House has no say in it. FORCE THE DEMOCRATS TO DEFEND IGNORING A RULE THEY AGREED TO. THEY HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO GROUND TO STAND ON.

So how do you put the pressure on Republicans to make this an issue and subsequently push enough Democrats away from Reconciliation because the political stakes are too high? Copy this link (http://tinyurl.com/m6ywb7) and sent it out to everyone you know. Send it to the Tea Parties, make it viral, and continue to take back this country. Or feel free to use this material as you wish. Copy it, paste it, put it on your own blog. A good friend once told me of a quote by President Ronald Reagan.

There is no limit to what you can accomplish if you don’t care who gets the credit.

Amen. I am not looking for recognition, instead I am looking for the day to arrive when I turn on my computer, go to my favorite blog or internet news site and read: Healthcare Reform Dies.

Can you imagine? This is a group effort, it is a grassroots effort. None of this would be possible without millions of disillusioned citizens taking their grievances to the government, or putting in their time going to rally’s, protests, marches, writing on blogs, and organizing local tea party chapters. This is truly an amazing time in the history of this country.

We did it on 9/12, we can do it again.

Kill ObamaCare. Hit the reset switch. Then we can do it right. Simple free-market solutions exist which can drive down costs without liberty destroying legislation that favors big government and/or big business and without the budget busting price tag attached to all these proposals. I live in Texas and the benefits of tort reform by itself are quantifiable and beneficial to both patients and doctors.

Update: Reader SteveL in the comments asks the question why only a few are taking up this issue? The answer lies in the post above – it is how the establishment has gamed the system. I reply that I have contacted major bloggers on the issue and have yet to hear back from them. Nobody is interested. However, should ObamaCare pass and later analysis indicates the above approach would have killed it, then at least I was on the right side of history. I have contacted some Tea Party groups, including the national chapter. It has only been a couple of days for the later, so I am still holding out hope.

In other news and opinion:

Does Anybody Actually Like the Baucus Health Care Bill?

Doctors Threaten to Go Galt if ObamaCare Passes

ACORN’s Comprehensive Ho-migration Reform

The Useful Idiots Are After Rush Limbaugh Now

President Obama: Back to Square One on Health Care

ObamaCare: Who loves the Baucus bill?

Coward-in-Chief

Gallup: Obama under 50% on Afghanistan, economy, health care, deficit

Obama’s solution on illegals and health care? Amnesty; Update: Video added

Rasmussen: ObamaCare hits highest disapproval rate yet

A few more myths from the White House

Major Update 2: There is a meme making its way through the internet the Jim Demint amendments don’t matter. NOT TRUE.

Major Update: ObamaCare coup de grace is nigh. It is time to strike the death blow.

The battle now turns to preventing the Senate from jamming ObamaCare down the throats of the American People under Reconciliation. The end game is underway and the momentum is swinging toward the opponents of ObamaCare. Or to mix metaphors, ObamaCare opponents are on the green, and all they have to do is sink the putt. Can anybody here play this game? After Saturday’s impressive demonstration on the National Mall there is no doubt the grass-roots movement for freedom, privacy and limited government can hit a very long drive and knows how to chip onto the green. The question remains: Can they putt? Let’s hope so.

Can we stop reconciliation? You bet we can. Read Senate Ignores Jim Demint Amendments That Kill Reconciliation And How We Can Use It. The Senate passed these two amendments – one unanimously and the other by a margin of 79-14 – both which kill reconciliation. The Dems choosing to ignore their own amendments is shameful. We must follow the rules, but if you are a Senator, well rules be damned. It is exactly this privileged mentality of “rules for thee, but not for me” that fuels much of the anger directed at the Congress these days.

The grassroots Tea Parties carried a great deal of energy during the Congressional August recess over the break. That energy, which appeared non-coherent and at the local level, showed its national teeth September the 12th, 2009 during the march on DC. It is long past the time when this energy needs to be concentrated like a laser beam in one place – the Senate, or we WILL see bill pass that is contrary to fiscal responsibility and an outright danger to healthcare in this country. Like any form of energy, there is always a portion which is lost to other factors. In a automobile, the engine’s energy is used to power the vehicle, but much of it is lost to friction and heat. There is never a free lunch in nature. The same is true of informational energy. Undirected informational energy is wasted energy. Now, more than ever, we need to direct that energy or it will all be for naught. We will get the healthcare we deserve.

From the Social Security Institute:

The Hill reports that Senate Democratic Leadership remains optimistic they can produce a RHINOCare “bipartisan compromise” on healthcare reform that will get 60 votes. If not, Democratic Leader Harry Reid said they are prepared to jam ObamaCare down the American People’s throats under the special parliamentary maneuver called Reconciliation, which severely restricts the number of amendments that can be offered, stringently limits the time for debate and allows the Senate to pass a measure by a mere simple majority, contrary to the normal rules and long tradition of the U.S. Senate.

Now is the time for the grass-roots movement that put a million people on the National Mall last Saturday to rise up as one and (1) insist that Republicans not cave in to a RHINOCare “compromise” that would impose a mandate on individuals forcing them to purchase health insurance (a so-called “individual mandate”); and (2) demand that the Senate consider healthcare legislation under the REGULAR ORDER — NO RECONCILIATION.

Read more about the Individual Mandate here. . .

Read why RINOCare and the Individual Mandate is contrary to all GOP principles here. . .

Democratic Senator Robert C. Byrd explains why passing healthcare reform under Reconciliation would be an abuse of the budget process and contrary to the time-honored traditions of the U.S. Senate here. . .

And let’s not forget, The Story The Media And Major Blogs Are Not Reporting: Senate Ignores Jim Demint Amendments That Kill Reconciliation And How We Can Use It.

If we don’t win this, the Tea Parties will lose momentum. Once Congress realizes we speak in generalities and our energy is not focused on specifics, that’s it – everyone came to the party, had a good time, and went home. If we lose this, how successful do you think we will be with Cap-and-trade or Card Check or whatever other nightmare Obama has in store for us?

This adds a sense of urgency to our mission: Snowe falls away, leaving Senate Dems without GOP support on healthcare. Marcus comments and drives the point home:

With the Jim Demint amendments going national that increases the probability that enough Dems will not support reconciliation, which these two amendments address.

BLAST this link out to all your friends and have them blast it out. Blast it to the tea parties. Here is a shortened version of the link to this post that you can copy and paste into an email: http://tinyurl.com/ndork4. Use twitter and the social networks, the ShareThis button at the bottom of this post – whatever method works for you. It’s time to drop the hammer on ObamaCare, hit the reset switch and start over.

In other news and opinion:

Video: Mob boss or union boss?

ObamaCare getting even more partisan and more unwieldy

Whatever Happened to the 9/13 March?

Senate Democrat website: With no action, uninsured to reach 101 million by 2019

ObamaCare: Does the media matter?

45% Of Doctors Would Consider Quitting If Congress Passes Health Care Overhaul. Via Instapundit.

Report: Rules of engagement led to soldiers’ deaths

Too Much Obama Can Be Hazardous to the President’s Health

Audio: What would Wilson say to Carter?

ACORN: Hey, maybe we do need to clean house

Snowe bails on “compromise” ObamaCare bill; Update: Baucus plan cuts Medicare

Reason: The center’s paranoia is the most threatening

Your Morning Health Care Roundup: Exeunt Snowe, Republicans

VERY CRITICAL UPDATE: Looks like Olympia Snowe has dropped out and Dems are on their own. What is at stake and how two Jim Demint amendments can stop reconciliation. The clock is ticking. While Joe Wilson is an interesting story, this is the moment when we can drop the hammer on ObamaCare.

Donate to Joe Wilson here.

So Obama can call Republicans liars, call Sarah Palin a liar, and imply the Tea Party Patriots are liars but boo friggin’ who if someone calls a spade a spade. And I don’t recall Obama apologizing, nor for that matter do I recall Democrats apologizing when they booed President Bush during his 2005 State of the Union.

Looks like our thin-skinned leader can now be called hypocrite as well – as if he did not already own the title:

Readers who frequent this website know I am no apologist for the Republican Party but I must question the high dudgeon in which Democrats, the media and even some RINOs have gotten themselves into over the heckling incident during the President’s address to a Joint Session of Congress last night. OK, I will admit, many Americans were offended by Congressman Joe Wilson’s calling President Obama a liar. But another group of Americans was equally offended by the President’s calling Republican Members of Congress liars from the Dias. Besides which, since when have Americans become so persnickety about the manners of politicians who are the very definition of rudeness and boorishness? Has anyone read Mark Twain or Will Rogers lately?

Well, it all set me to thinking, and so I pose a few questions and observations for you dear reader to ponder:

• What is worse, the President lying to the public before a Joint Session of Congress (The healthcare system is in extremis and requires urgent overhaul; I will not sign a healthcare bill that adds one dime to the deficit; Nothing in my plan will adversely affect your current insurance) or a Member of Congress calling the President a liar in public?
• What is worse, the President calling Republican Members of Congress liars from the Dias during an address to a Joint Session of Congress or a Republican Member of Congress calling the President a liar from the floor of the House?
• What is worse, the President abusing the privilege of addressing a Joint Session of Congress, making a partisan playhouse out of the People’s House for his own political theater and using the Members of Congress as stage props for his own drama or a Member of Congress refusing to go along with the travesty and heckling the President from the cheap seats like some Member of the English Parliament?
• What is worse, the Republican heckler later apologizing for calling out the President after the President first threatened from the Dias of the House to call out Republican Members of Congress for their lies (for which the President has not apologized to anyone), or the former Republican presidential candidate who gave us this President by his pitiful failure as a candidate blushing in the cheap seats demanding that his heckling fellow Republican apologize?

The real question is why didn’t the President exhibit courage and respect for the U.S. Congress and do what British prime ministers do regularly, namely take questions from the floor of the House from Members of the Opposition Party rather than hiding behind the majesty of the People’s House to avoid having to answer questions from average Americans or their representatives? More importantly, why didn’t Republican Members of Congress exhibit courage and respect for the respective bodies in which they serve and insist before turning the Floor of the House over to the President for partisan use that he at least participate in Question Time from the Well of the House during the Joint Session before the departing the Chamber?

Here is a note I sent to the Republican Leadership of both Bodies and the Chairman of the Republican National Committee a week before the Joint-Session fiasco unfolded:

“The President has sought the privilege of addressing the nation on healthcare in a Joint Session of Congress because he wants to speak directly to the American People without having to answer their questions, as he would have to in an unscripted, un-orchestrated town hall meeting. If the Congress extends this courtesy to the President and shields him from direct questioning by the American People, we believe he should be obliged at least to take questions from the People’s representatives.

“Therefore, as a condition of allowing the President to expropriate the People’s House as a playhouse and use the People’s representatives as stage trappings to make a political speech to the nation, Republicans should insist on the right of Members to ask the President unscreened questions from the Well of the House after he addresses the nation before he leaves the House Chamber.

“Specifically, the Speaker of the House and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate and the Minority Leaders of each Body, or their respective designees, should be permitted to ask the President a set number of unscripted and unscreened questions from the Well of the House.

“We do not know the formal process by which the President requests and the Congress grants him permission to address a Joint Session but we presume there is a formal process of some sort. We believe the Republican congressional leadership should insert itself into that process and demand that the President answer questions from the Well of the House. Toward that end, we urge the Republican congressional Leaders to write the Democratic congressional leaders insisting that they obtain agreement from the President to take questions from Members of Congress after his remarks before he is granted permission to address a Joint Session.”

Read the whole thing.

We are all Joe Wilson’s Now.

In other news and opinion:

Unruly moment, manufactured outrage

Carlson: When did the Hopemeister turn bitter?

AP fact-checks Obama speech

Obama’s Lies Matter, Too

Obama accepts apology. Now I’m just waiting for his. Holding my breath, can’t breathe, everything is getting dark! Screw it, I’m not dying for this hypocrite.

HuffPo: Another Glenn Beck target resigns from Team Barry?

Durbin: Don’t expect cap-and-trade this year

I demand an apology

Hey, since Rahm Emanuel can get away with demanding an apology from Rep. Joe Wilson, and House Democrats can get away with demanding Wislon apologize on the House floor (Pelosi has called for House Dems to “move on” from the idea of demanding a House floor apology or censure), I demand an apology from every single Democrat lawmaker who has called opponents of ObamaCare every name in the book over the last couple of months. Hey, it’s all in the interest of NuCivility, so why not?

Dr. Lawrence Hunter of the Social Security Institute has a ringside seat of what is really happening in the ObamaCare negotiations and it is not anything like any of us would expect.

Serious pressure is building and the momentum is on our side. However, without the knowledge of what is actually happening behind the scenes, the grave we are digging for ObamaCare could actually become our own graves. Our collective effort could all be for naught if we allow the construction of any scaffolding for a public option. Liberals are very patient about realizing their agenda. They will build upon any infrastructure that allows for a Trojan Horse to a single payer system. And Republicans are often the unwitting contributors of legislation that is not in our best interests. More damage is done in the name of bi-partisanship and those Republicans with a proclivity to reach across the aisle need to be reigned in. We are so close and now is not the time to go wobbly.

The word from Dr. Hunter: Don’t get all excited about Obama dropping the public option. It is a head fake. Republicans should stop all negotiations with the Democrats, kill any ObamaCare bill and start over. And don’t thing that big pharma and the big insurance are our friends in this battle. The real behind the scenes maneuvering is a hodgepodge of nefarious backroom deals. I have talked with Lawrence Hunter and communicated with him via email for about two weeks now. My understanding of the real inner workings of the beltway have increased an order of magnitude and many of my previous beliefs exposed as nothing less than naivety. Prepare to be educated, entertained, and re-invigorated at the same time. Our energy needs to be directed now towards Congress, where the message must be clear – kill this bill. No co-ops, no bill written by big insurance companies or big pharma, no nothing. Hit reset, start over, and create a bill for the American people that keeps the government out of our business, allows for competition in the private sector, stops the creation of large insurance cartels and allows smaller insurance companies to thrive and compete. In short, a bill for the people, not the government, not big pharma, and not big insurance. Time for the lobbyists to go home, for we are the biggest lobby of all and we are awake. Let us be clear on this. Any Republican who wishes to usurp our will and allow ObamaCare to pass with the public option, a Trojan Horse public option, a large influence by big pharma, or big insurance will face political extinction. As all of the current bills fit this description, the sane choice is to stop and start over.

For an eye-opening view of what is really going on read Obama Jettisons Public Option Right on Cue and Phase Change in Healthcare Negotiations. Dr. Hunter’s bio can also be found on this site. He served as President Ronald Reagan’s policy adviser and has a long and distinguished career.

Dr. Hunter described the current landscape to me very well. To paraphrase Dr. Hunter:

There is a fundamental fissure that divides our camp. On one side stand those who believe some healthcare bill will pass this year. On the other side of the divide stand those who believe it is possible to checkmate the Obama Administration and prevent any bill from passing this year. The outcome of the healthcare-reform struggle will be determined by which view governs our strategy and activities from here on out.

This game is ours to lose, and there is nothing President Obama or his congressional Democrats can do on their own to win it if we don’t make a mistake. Any deviation from the strategy to “Kill Bill” is a mistake. To take a sport’s analogy, the fastest way to lose this game is to start thinking about the next game. If we are thinking and talking policy, we are thinking about the next game because there is no way a sufficient amount of good policy can make its way into a bill this year to make it acceptable. Hence “Kill Bill”, period.

We are now entering the End Game, and no matter how brilliant our Opening Game and Middle Game were – and they were brilliant – we will throw it all away if we fail to make the transition in our play. You can’t win at golf if you can’t putt; you can’t win at basketball if you can’t hit free throws; you can’t win at chess if you can’t play the end game; and you can’t win at politics if you can’t be ruthless in playing the political end game. That is why Democrats repeatedly beat us – we play policy when we should be playing politics while they play politics from beginning to end.

All politics and no policy makes a political party corrupt and degenerate but all policy and no politics makes a political party just plain dense. The little ditty about the Democrats being the evil party and the Republicans being the party of dim bulbs didn’t arise out of thin air.

If we assume some bill will pass, we can pretty well bet that prophecy will become self-fulfilling and some bill will pass.

If we have confidence we can stop all comers, we stand a very good chance of succeeding. But we will only stop all comers if we lay policy aside and do whatever is necessary to defeat the bill, which means all of our energy and resources must be concentrated on preventing a single Republican from defecting.

The debate is entering the stage (the Obama counter-offensive stage) in which any continued discussion of policy (what we should do or what we would accept) is counterproductive to defeating a bill. Look, I know that many of us in this struggle are policy wonks and medical professionals with very strong views about what should be done and about how negligent the Republican Party was for not doing them when they were in power.

But politics has a flow and a rhythm to it—it moves in seasonal cycles. As difficult as it may be for we policy wonks and medical professionals to accept, the season for substance and policy has ended and will not return until after the healthcare reform debate is put on the shelf, which means until after we defeat any and all comers during this Congress. If we try to exploit Obama’s weakness now by trying to craft a bill he will accept that we can live with, we not only will strengthen and empower him, we almost certainly will create a monster that will get out of control in very short order.

Continuing to focus on substance (other than to criticize the substance of the Obama/Dem bills) will divide and divert us, and it will allow Republicans such as Olympia Snowe to avoid her responsibility to ensure good policy for the American people by doing whatever is necessary to defeat a bill.

You can see what I mean coming through clearly in this Washington Post article: The Divisions in the White House Over Health-Care Reform

Snowe is scared to be the sole Republican supporting this bill, not to mention the Republican who ensures the passage of this bill. The reprisals within her caucus could be tremendous. If Snowe drops off the bill, using the budget reconciliation process will probably be a necessity.

As long as we continue talking about alternatives and options, we encourage her to continue negotiating whether that is our intent or not. And, rather than fearing Reconciliation, we should relish forcing the Dems into that corner because if they go down that path we can checkmate them.

We must agree among ourselves that our strategy is to “Kill Bill”, any bill, every bill, a big bill, a little bill, kill them all. If we can’t pledge that to each other, we don’t have the right stuff to win.

Also read the following posts from Dr. Hunter:

Trojan Rhino Smuggles In ObamaCare As “Bipartisan Compromise”

Senator Bob Bennett should stop negotiating. This post contains the two Jim Demint Amendments I have written about extensively after hearing about them from Lewis K. Uhler and Dr. Hunter. In a nutshell, these two amendments would make it impossible to pass ObamaCare under reconciliation, something even Robert Byrd is on the record as opposing. One amendment was voted on unanimously and the other by a wide margin of 79-14. Remarkably, Senate Budget Committee Chairman, Kent Conrad, allowed the DeMint 60-vote requirement to be removed from the Budget Resolution in Conference. Also included are links to the amendments and the roll call for the second amendment that passed by 79-14.

Also of interest is this story from The Hill:

GOP readies wave of objections to stall healthcare bill in Senate

Sen. Judd Gregg has hundreds of procedural objections ready for a healthcare plan Democrats want to speed through the Senate.

Gregg (N.H.), the senior Republican on the Budget Committee, told The Hill in a recent interview that Republicans will wage a vicious fight if Democrats try to circumvent Senate rules and use a budget maneuver to pass a trillion-dollar healthcare plan with a simple majority.

Our strategy is now clear and it becomes increasing apparent to me that not only can we stop reconciliation, but ObamaCare itself. Keep up the pressure on Congress, especially your Senators. Let them know you are aware of the Demint amendments and demand the Senate follow its own rules. As Americans, there are all sorts of rules that we must follow. And as Americans we are sick and tired of a privileged group that lives by the motto “Rules for thee, but not for me”. Enough is enough.

In other news and opinion:

Another Snowe Job

White House Floating “Snowe” Trigger

ObamaCare: Public option + trigger = exit strategy?

“I believe Jesus would vote yes for a public option”

Video: Rep. Pete Stark tells interviewer, “Get the f**k out of here or I’ll throw you out the window”

CNN poll: Majority now oppose ObamaCare

Did Rangel pay off Ethics Committee members?

Video: Van Jones and “revolution”

Obama planning Sister Souljah moment over public option

Another Reason Government-Sponsored Health Care Is Destined to Fail

MoveOn.org Thug Bites Off Protester’s Finger At Obamacare Rally!

Yes We Cannibal

The Holdren & Letterman lovefest

Wrong Turns: How Obama’s Health-Care Push Went Astray.

POLITICS: When Does School Start? The President Doesn’t Know

Turbo Tax Tim tucks tail

The NHS “death pathway”. Chilling.

A Truther Czar?… Obama’s Green Czar Van Jones Believes Bush Government was Behind 9-11

This Wouldn’t Be Happening If Obama Were President

Hands off my health care. Teeth off my hands.

Is There Any More Point to Talking About Health Care?

Operation “Hall Pass on That”

The mantra of the day: There were no attacks under George Bush after 9/11. Learn it, love it, live it.

For all his faults, George Bush did protect the homeland.

For all his faults, Obama continues to multiply the number of his faults. I quit counting.

As Obama continues to quickly move to a 9/10 mentality that President Clinton would be proud of, the President’s approval of Attorney General Eric Holder’s investigation of the CIA, combined with other political moves designed to weaken our national security and the ability of our intelligence community to gather information and protect this country, is a dereliction of duty of the highest order. Should any future attack on this country occur, there will be blood on the hands of not only Obama and Eric Holder, but any liberal in Congress who does not step up now and declare their own contempt for any action that strengthens our enemies while weakening this country thereby putting all of us at greater risk.

A resolution should immediately be put forward in the House and Senate condemning Eric Holder and the CIA investigation. Let there be a full accounting within Congress of those who stand for and against the safety of this country. That way, we can remember in 2010 and 2012 who is on the side of our enemies and who is on the side of America. And let this resolution be brought to the floor of both Chambers every single day until election day in 2010, and every single day after that until 2012. High Treason is at hand, and let it be recognized for what it is, for what Eric Holder and Obama are doing is providing aid and comfort to our enemies by pulling out the rug from under the CIA and all but muting their ability to protect us all. And make no mistake, the damage is already done and Attorney General Eric Holder should immediately be fired. Should we be attacked again, don’t look for American’s to rally around a President directly responsible for enabling the enemies of our country. Look for America to hold Obama accountable, for this is within his control to stop.

Obama is not Harry Houdini, and the American people are actually smarter than most of the liberals in Congress, as recently evidenced by the fact that many of us actually read HR3200. Try as he might, escaping the obvious is impossible not only for Obama, but for many Democrats in Congress to dense to realize that chaining themselves to the leftists of their party is actually not in their best political interests.

Jennifer Rubin writes in Commentary Magazine The Commander in Chief Hides, but nobody is fooled, for the attorney general serves at the pleasure of the president:

The president has been playing the “Look, Ma—no hands!” game for the better part of a week, denying responsibility for the decision to name a special prosecutor to go after CIA operatives interrogating terrorists overseas. Democrats are ignoring the whole thing, now dimly aware that this is not the sort of thing the public likes. Conservatives are furious and taking the president to task for his refusal to take responsibility for the decision—or fire Attorney General Eric Holder if this isn’t what the president wanted.

Michael Barone, recalling that Harry Truman sacked an attorney general, writes:

Obama administration spokesmen are portraying the president as unable to overrule Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to have a special prosecutor determine whether to prosecute CIA interrogators who were cleared by Department of Justice career attorneys back in 2004. “This was not something the White House allowed, this was something the AG decided,” a White House spokesman said. Utter nonsense. The attorney general serves at the pleasure of the president, and the president can determine that a prosecution would undermine the national security—a subject on which he has a wider perspective and a greater responsibility than the attorney general—and order that it not go forward.

[. . .]

If Barack Obama really meant it when he said that he didn’t want to see prosecutions of CIA interrogators for acts committed long ago, for which they were cleared long ago, he has a ready alternative: he can give Eric Holder the same treatment Harry Truman gave [his attorney general] J. Howard McGrath.

Newt Gingrich makes a similar suggestion. And Rep. Pete Hoekstra, ranking minority member on the House Intelligence Committee, is outraged that Holder is conducting his own war on CIA personnel—over the strenuous and entirely ignored objections of Leon Panetta. We are left wondering why the president prefers to hide, copping to managerial ineptness and timidity. This is no way to score points with the netroots and liberals on the Hill. They are expecting a robust series of investigations and prosecutions and can’t be impressed with the president’s timidity. (And he will come off the Martha Vineyard’s golf course eventually and face some questions about all this.)

So if Obama does not support the actions of AG Eric Holder, then its time for Mr. Holder to hear the words popularized by Donald Trump…”You’re fired”. Should Obama wish to pander to the left wing of his base then he will hear those very words himself in 2012, although in my opinion he already is beyond the point of redemption and each of us will be treated to his skulking out the back door of the White House in 2013.

Obama can also signal his intent to use the power of the Presidential Pardon for any convictions that result from the investigation. The problem with this approach is that it will be too late to reverse the serious damage to our national security by politically motivated assaults on its very infrastructure. And it would be weak – good luck finding twelve jurors to convict on the ground of the interrogations themselves. Sure, you may get a perjury conviction – maybe. So the entire show is obviously a political circus that puts everyone at risk. Play politics with my life and the life of those I love and you will have one very, very motivated voter. Sure you want to do that?

In a nutshell:

• The House and Senate should pass a resolution condemning the witch hunt Eric Holder is conducting. This resolution should be brought to the floor every day until the 2010 elections and, if necessary, everyday after that until the 2012 elections. Legislators serious about national security should immediately seek other solutions to put an end to this madness before our intelligence community is irreparably damaged.
• Obama should fire Attorney General Eric Holder. If he does not, then he is explicitly, not implicitly, allowing the investigation to continue as it is within his power to put an end to this.
• Unless Obama reverses direction on this and any other policies which continue to weaken our security then he is personally responsible for any attack within our borders or against American citizens abroad that could have been avoided with the policies in place under George W. Bush made now defunct under Obama.

In the days ahead, we will know who is for protecting American families and who is against it. Those against security will pay for their misplaced loyalties.

In other news and opinion:

Goodbye War In Afghanistan?. Go ahead Obama, piss on graves of over three thousand dead men, women, an children. Remember. Remember. Remember.

I saw this one coming: Republican Promises To Reverse Obamacare If GOP Wins In 2012. Encouraging to hear, but trust me, no guarantee. Keep the pressure up – I would rather see ObamaCare die this year. Trust me, it can be done.

Wackjob science czar to appear on David Letterman

Tom Ridge: Straight to the remainder bin

Monday morning quick hits: Gadhafi, Haditha, Dingy Harry & more

Ridge: Sorry, Just Trying To Sell My Book. Pinhead.

The Kennedy Watch

WaPo Asks: Is That a Recovery in Your Pants?. Using underwear as an economic barometer. Now I have seen and heard everything. I can just hear it now: “Wall street saw a sharp decline today after the release of the latest Tighty Whitey Index indicated men are going commando in a sure sign the economy is in big trouble.”

Cheney Wins. Of course he does. Never bet against a real man and a real American.

Harry Reid cheers unemployment in Las Vegas media!

Gibbs accuses Bush/Cheney of “underresourcing” the whitewashed war on terror