Steamed does not begin to describe my reaction to this piece by Politico:

It is not clear how effective DeMint’s flamboyant brand of politics will be in the long term. For now, however, he is the most vivid example of how, in a new-media age of cable television and the Web, a politician willing to step on toes and play to ideological crowds can jump the line of older colleagues in establishing a national profile.

In an earlier age, a politician like DeMint — a former House member and businessman whose fiery views coexist with a surprisingly mild personality — could have expected to languish for years in relative obscurity.

By becoming for practical purposes the Washington leader of the tea party movement, DeMint also illustrates the degree to which energy on the right is now flowing to the capital and not from it. Congressional GOP leaders like House Minority Leader John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell derive their power from the inside, by virtue of the support of their colleagues. DeMint is the model now for how a rank-and-file member otherwise consigned to the back bench can be relevant without any title. It may not make him popular at the weekly caucus lunches, but it will get him on Sean Hannity’s show…

…On politics, it means offering only a deafening silence toward senators facing primary challenges he views as insufficiently conservative — Arizona’s John McCain and Utah’s Bob Bennett — and backing more ideologically pure candidates than his party’s leadership prefers in the Senate primaries in Florida and California.

Further rankling his colleagues, DeMint is using his political action committee, the Senate Conservatives Fund, to rate senators on just how conservative they are. Several who were given relatively low marks by DeMint — based on their votes in the last Congress — are dismissive of the ratings.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said his 89 percent lifetime ranking from the American Conservative Union is “what counts” — not the 76 percent rating from DeMint, who, not surprisingly, is the only senator to receive a 100 percent rating on his website.

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, vice chairwoman of the GOP Conference, who got a 50 percent score for her votes in 2008, said that DeMint’s ratings were “assuming his standard of conservatism.”

And Bennett, a close ally of McConnell’s who received a 60 percent score from DeMint’s PAC, said he had “no idea [on] what basis people make these kinds of calculations.”

“I can show you surveys that show you I’m one of the most conservative members and another survey that shows me that I’m not,” said Bennett, who is facing multiple GOP candidates running on his right flank. “It all depends on who is picking the votes to come to the conclusion he wants.”

Asked to respond to DeMint’s decision not to endorse him in the race, Bennett said: “I have no comment.”

McCain said he wasn’t bothered by DeMint’s decision not to endorse him in his primary contest with former Rep. J.D. Hayworth, pointing out his support from other conservative figures, such as his 2008 running mate, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, and Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.).

What is clearly bothering others in the caucus, though, is DeMint’s seeming preference for being pure and in the minority than having a squishy majority.

His new stump speech mantra: “I’d rather have 30 Marco Rubios than 60 Arlen Specters.

Read the whole thing and remember the names of establishment GOP whose habitual dismissive behavior of DeMint is disingenuous as the reader will soon see.

Looks like DC needs to break some bad habits, like identifying effectiveness and then attempting to squash it. Not on my watch. A little history is in order.

Why would leaders such as Senator McConnell squirm at the mention of Senator DeMint? That requires a trip down memory lane.

Last year, two events happened during the fight against ObamaCare that, had the Senator from South Carolina not stood on principle for the people of this country and championed fiscal responsibility, we would already have ObamaCare, Scott Brown win or not.

Senator DeMint understood the need to obstruct and use the tools of obstruction to block the passage of the liberty stealing behemoth that is ObamaCare. Erick Erickson picked up on this process in December and wrote an excellent piece titled Fight:

The Senate, unlike the House of Representatives, has parliamentary rules and procedures that give the minority the ability to stall legislation. In fact, unlike the House, the minority have the ability to virtually paralyze the Senate. Doing so is not something we would want or expect for every bad bill that comes through Congress, but the proposed healthcare legislation is probably the worst piece of legislation ever considered by the United States Congress. It is the most intrusive, most damaging, most costly, most dangerous bill to the economic and personal freedom and liberty of individual Americans that Congress has ever considered. If there is any bill that deserves being stopped by shutting down the Senate, it is this one.

There are a whole series of parliamentary maneuvers that could be used by Republican senators to stop this bill. There is a hard backstop to the current process (Christmas). The Republicans’ goal should be to prevent Reid from passing the bill before that time. If he goes past Christmas and is forced to adjourn or recess, the momentum will shift in favor of those opposing the bill.

How could this be done?

To start with, they should stop constantly agreeing to “unanimous consent” requests from the Democrats. Senate Republicans, to date, have allowed Democrats, by unanimous consent, to process 10 amendments. The amendments that have been accepted – Democrat amendments – did not make the over 2000-page atrocity any better. The Republican strategy of trying to pass their own “message” amendments carries no message unless you consider “no strategy to kill the bill” a message.

When DeMint removed unanimous consent, there existed an expectation that other GOP members join the fight. When Democrats threatened to retaliate against the GOP for this obstructive tactic, done on behalf of the American people, the GOP backed down. What ominous threat could possibly cause such a mass defection from standing up for the rights of the American people in fighting an unpopular bill? The GOP was told they would be kept in the Senate until and even beyond Christmas break. God forbid such a horror happen.

This prompted a campaign by a number of organizations to expose the lack of starch in the spine of many GOP members. I was honored to be a part of this campaign and work with the likes of such luminaries as Dr. Larry Hunter, former policy advisor to President Ronald Reagan. This campaign, titled I Object, sent out an email blast, some of which follows:

Just say “I Object” to Stop ObamaCare

Shame on Republican Senators!

They are paving the way for ObamaCare to be enacted into law this year because they want to go on Christmas Vacation.

Yes, that’s right, REPUBLICAN Senators are going to be responsible for the impending government takeover of healthcare. They have the power to prevent the Reid Health Bill from passing the Senate this year but they are not doing what needs to be done to stop the socialization of one-sixth of the American economy before the New Year arrives.

I know it sounds unbelievable that REPUBLICANS are the ones who will be responsible for a government takeover of healthcare but that is the sad and outrageous truth.

Don’t Let Republican Senators Put Their Christmas Break Ahead of Their Country. Tell Republican Senators: “Just Object to Harry Reid’s Fast-Track Rush on ObamaCare”…

…Our Capitol-Hill operatives have learned that the Senate Republican Leadership is working hand-in-glove behind the scenes with the Democratic Leadership to move one amendment after another through the Senate without adequate time for debate and deliberation. In exchange for this collaboration with the enemy, the Democratic Leadership is assuring Republicans they will be allowed to offer their own “message amendments” and that Republicans will not be forced to work long hours through the night during this holiday season.

These “message amendments” are not intended to be adopted in order to improve the bill—this bill is so horrible it cannot be improved by amendments—they are designed simply to put Senators on the record and hoodwink voters into believing Republicans are fighting the good fight against ObamaCare.

Republican Senators, with a few exceptions such as Senator Jim DeMint (SC), ARE NOT fighting the good fight. They are collapsing like cheap suits all over Capitol Hill. If they don’t reverse course immediately and stiffen their spine, it will be the REPUBLICANS who are responsible for enacting ObamaCare into law.

Republican Senator Jon Kyl let the cat out of the bag on Bill Bennett’s radio show last week. When guest host Rick Santorum asked Kyl, “What is your strategy, to the extent you can share it,” Kyl said, “Actually, I think we can be fairly upfront about it. Our strategy is not actually to delay and not take votes.” Kyl went on, “Our strategy is to have a lot of good amendments and highlight the problems in the bill. It is not our strategy to somehow slow things down.”

This complicity by Republican Senators is despicable, and it is illustrative of how your representatives in Washington say one thing and do exactly the opposite.

For example, last week Democratic Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado offered a do-nothing amendment that purported to protect Medicare from cuts. It was a classic congressional fig-leaf amendment for ObamaCare supporters to hide behind.

The amendment was carefully and narrowly crafted with much hortatory language about not cutting guaranteed Medicare benefits but the amendment actually does NOTHING to change provisions in the bill that WILL cut Medicare by hundreds of billions of dollars. Behind the cover of this Senate fig-leaf amendment—political cover for the Democrats, which all 40 Republicans voted in favor of—the Reid bill will undermine Medicare Advantage plans and squeeze the life out of Medicare by putting doctors, hospitals and other medical providers in a reimbursement vice that fixes prices and leads to Medicare rationing.

Rather than filibustering this amendment to expose the duplicity and deception behind it; rather than insisting on unlimited debate on the amendment and forcing Harry Reid to file a cloture petition to shut off debate, which would have guaranteed two days of debate, deliberation and sunshine on the amendment; rather than voting against the amendment to expose the shenanigans behind it; the Republican Leadership instead agreed to wrap up the amendment with only a few hours debate.

In exchange for this Republican complicity in providing Democrats political cover, the Democratic Leadership graciously allowed Republicans an amendment to be offered by Arizona Senator John McCain that would recommit the Reid Bill to committee and strip out provisions that actually DO cut Medicare. Republicans knew 20 Democrats/Independents would never vote with them to recommit the bill (it would have taken 60 votes to do so). Yet, Republicans traded off two days worth of debate and voted for a fig-leaf amendment to provide ObamaCare supporters political cover in order to be allowed to offer a “message amendment” of their own, which misled the public into believing Republicans are trying to fight the bill when in fact they are facilitating its ultimate passage before the New Year.

The Bennet amendment passed with only hours of debate by a vote of 100 to zero. Then, the McCain amendment to recommit the Reid Bill to Committee in order to actually strip out provisions of the bill that DO cut Medicare—think of it as an amendment to actually implement the do-nothing amendment that just passed by 100 votes—was defeated on a virtual party-line vote. Only two Democrats (Jim Webb-Va. and Ben Nelson-Neb.) were given free passes from the Democratic Leadership to vote in favor of it. Message sent: “Republicans are allowing themselves to be played as the Democrats’ useful idiots.”

All of this was little Medicare drama was precooked by the Republican and Democratic Senate Leadership in what is called a “Unanimous Consent Agreement,” which lays out the terms and conditions under which amendments are offered, debated and voted upon.

What is a Unanimous Consent Agreement?

A Senator may request unanimous consent on the floor to set aside a specified rule of procedure so as to expedite proceedings. If no Senator objects, the Senate permits the action, but if any one Senator objects, the request is rejected.

The Republican Senators have been protesting vehemently in the media about how much they oppose ObamaCare and the Reid Health bill, and despite their constant reassurances to grass-roots activists that they are doing everything humanly possible to defeat the bill, Republicans in fact are quietly stepping aside and allowing the ObamaCare Express loaded down with the Reid Bill and tons of amendments to barrel through the U.S. Senate so they can go home for Christmas Vacation without delay and not have to work long hours in the meantime.

The ONLY exception is Senator Jim DeMint (SC).

He is the lone Senator willing to stand in the gap and do what it takes to defeat socialism, defeat ObamaCare. But he cannot do it alone. He cannot be on the floor 24/7, which is what it takes to stop these unanimous consent agreements. He needs his fellow Republicans assist him by standing sentinel on the Senate Floor against unanimous consent agreements when he cannot be there.

Republicans need to follow Senator DeMint’s brave example and just Object to Harry Reid’s Fast-Track Rush on ObamaCare.

If you have a U.S. Senator who is OPPOSED to the Reid plan for a Washington takeover of healthcare, you have a huge opportunity right now to take action—action that could stop ObamaCare from being rushed into law this year. Let Republican Senators know that if the Reid Bill passes the Senate this year, you will hold them personally responsible for ObamaCare being enacted into law and despite anything else they say or do in the interim, you will vote against them they next time they stand for reelection, yes even if that means voting for a Democrat because it will be clear by their INACTION that they are nothing but tools of the Democrats anyway.

Republicans have the power; all it takes is one Senator to object to each Unanimous Consent Agreement every time Reid tries to ram another amendment through the fast-track process. Republicans must take turns following Senator Jim DeMint’s example when he objected to the use of a Unanimous Consent Agreement to ram the very first amendment to the Reid Bill—the Mikulski Amendment—through the Senate on the “Fast Track.” DeMint demanded that Reid get 60 votes on a cloture motion, thus guaranteeing two days of sunshine and scrutiny on the amendment. Republican Senators MUST STAND WITH DEMINT AND DEMAND at least two days debate and public scrutiny of EVERY amendment proposed to the Reid Bill.

The GOP holds only 40 seats in the U.S. Senate but that is enough to stop ObamaCare from passing this year if Republicans man up to the situation and play their cards right—even if that means casting some difficult votes, taking heat for dilatory tactics, staying up late at night and yes perhaps even working Christmas Eve and the week after Christmas. Republicans must not put their Christmas Break ahead of their country. Republicans must not put their personal political careers ahead of the general welfare.

If ObamaCare is enacted into law this year, IT WILL BE THE FAULT OF REPUBLICAN SENATORS because they refused to suffer a little bit of personal inconvenience and political risk to defend their country against another government takeover. Make no mistake, all Republican Senators must do to stop ObamaCare this year is object to the Democrats fast-track scheme to jam one amendment after another through the Senate with limited debate and restricted public scrutiny.

It doesn’t take 40 Republicans to succeed in stopping the Reid Bill; it doesn’t take 20; it only takes ONE Republican to object each time Harry Reid propounds a unanimous consent agreement to rush another amendment through the process.

Let me say that again: It takes ONLY ONE Republican to object each time Harry Reid tries to jam another amendment through the process with limited debate and little public scrutiny. With 40 Republicans in the Senate, that means even if Harry Reid kept the Senate in session 24 hours a day (as the Democratic Whip has threatened), each Republican Senator would have to spend no more than 36 minutes a day doing floor duty as a sentinel against the Majority Leader jamming another amendment through the Senate process under a rigged unanimous consent agreement.

All year we’ve been trying to convince senators who support government health care to change their minds and senators on the fence to come out against it. That’s still vitally important. But given the way the Senate works, it is more important right now to make sure Republican Senators who claim to oppose the Reid Bill have the courage and perspicacity to use the enormous leverage they possess to prevent the bill from passing this year. Remember, there is no way the Reid Bill can pass the Senate as it is currently written. Therefore, it must be amended to pass. But those amendments will be highly controversial, even among Democrats. That is why it is vitally important that each and every amendment be given close public scrutiny and at least two days’ debate.

If the Democrats want to play brinksmanship by holding the Senate in session long hours, seven days a week until Christmas Day, so be it. If the Democrats drag Senators back to Washington between Christmas and New Years for marathon sessions, so be it. Giving up Christmas Vacation is the least Republican Senators can do to stop a socialist government takeover of healthcare this year.

Our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq don’t get to take time off from combat to celebrate Christmas, and they are putting their lives on the line every hour of every day. No U.S. Senator fit to serve in that august body would even think about shirking his or her duty to defend America against a government takeover of healthcare just so he or she can work bankers’ hours and enjoy college-student vacation time.

Millions of Americans across America don’t even have a job this Holiday Season and they are demanding that Senators do their jobs to protect and defend America against another government takeover.

If one or both of your Senators are opposed to the Reid Bill, contact them and make a very simple request: “Do not help Harry Reid rush any aspect of this outrageous legislation through the Senate by giving him your consent to proceed along the fast track. Use your power to object to any unanimous consent agreement limiting debate and restricting time for deliberation; demand that every amendment be given at least two-days’ debate and public scrutiny so that everyone has time to understand and comment on each one of them. ”

Right now, the Senate Democratic Leadership with the complicity of the Republican Leadership is preparing to propound one unanimous consent agreement after another to circumvent regular Senate procedure. Tell your Senator to JUST OBJECT.

Not only could these amendments pave the way for the bill to be enacted into law but the amendments themselves contain huge policy changes that directly effect our health care and our economic future. They need to be analyzed carefully and thoroughly—Two Days Minimum.

Fortunately, under Senate rules the Democratic leadership can rush these amendments through ONLY if they get what’s called “unanimous consent.” That means all 100 senators have to agree to rush the amendments through by consenting to a unanimous consent agreement, which severely limits debate and restricts the time available for experts to analyze the amendments. It’s the old bum’s rush.

Even ONE senator objecting would be enough to slow the rush of amendments down and give the American people at least two days of debate on each amendment. Two days is the minimum we should have to analyze amendments and to allow Senators an opportunity to comment on and debate them.

Please contact your senators TODAY and demand that they NOT CONSENT to rushing amendments through.

The American people deserve the right to know what the Congress is preparing to do to our healthcare. The American people deserve to be represented by Senators who have the courage and the dedication to put the good of the country ahead of their own convenience and political expediency.

Just say “I OBJECT.”

This should have caused a GOP about-face. It did not. Instead, the Sunday news shows, talk radio, and press releases were filled with GOP leadership and other Senate GOP members defending their position. The only exception was Michael Steele, who shot a memo over to the Senate GOP telling them to obstruct. The memo was ignored until another, more egregious incident caused a seismic shift in the GOP strategy. This piece was also cross-posted at Politico and was written by Dr. Larry Hunter, CEO of the Social Security Institute and Lewis Uhler, CEO of the National Tax Limitation Committee:

After weeks of refusing to embrace the “obstructionist” label as a virtue, Senate Republicans finally saw the light and late last week began to use the parliamentary tools at their disposal to delay a final vote on health care.

Until then, with the exception of South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, Republican lawmakers had refused to use Senate rules and procedures to obstruct the passage of the health care bill being pushed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and run out the clock on Obamacare. Some prominent Republican senators and members of their staffs had even let it be known they actually believed passage of the Reid health care bill and enactment of Obamacare would benefit GOP candidates in the November midterm elections.

This GOP strategy of expedient complicity enraged the conservative base, roused talk radio show hosts and bloggers and even provoked a backlash from the chairman of the Republican National Committee. The Social Security Institute and the National Tax Limitation Committee joined with Tea Party Support and Gun Owners of America to convey this outrage to the Senate Republican leadership through letters, e-mails and telephone calls from the grass roots to GOP senators’ offices.

Paraphrasing Barry Goldwater, we argued, “Obstructionism in defense of liberty is no vice; cooperation in pursuit of tyranny is no virtue.”

Rush Limbaugh waded in to the fray: “I’m not a parliamentary expert. But I know a disaster when I see it. And I know that [Obamacare has to] be stopped, and whatever parliamentary steps are available to people who do know … should be taken — every blocking tactic.”

Even RNC Chairman Michael Steele opposed Senate Republicans’ “messaging strategy,” which was designed not to kill the bill but simply to use message amendments to put senators on record in a manner that could be used to good political effect in campaigns next November. Steele urged Republican senators to rise above politics and do whatever is necessary to “delay, stall, slow down and stop the Reid bill.”

Thomas Jefferson is quoted as saying, “All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.” Senator DeMint of South Carolina is not a silent man. To the establishment GOP, this is a character flaw. If not for the Senator and a few other patriots like Dr. Larry Hunter, Lewis Uhler, and many others who worked with them, ObamaCare would be law – right now. Instead we are able to live on to fight another day.

Jim DeMint is a friend of liberty, an ally of Tea Parties everywhere, and a man of real character who stuck his neck out only to be abandoned and embarrassed by his own party. The fact he is still willing to pick up the gauntlet is a testament to his qualities. What almost happened last year could be characterized with a small change to Jefferson’s quote: “All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to want to go on Christmas vacation.”

To its credit, the establishment GOP is now on board with the will of the American people. I leave it to the reader to guess their motivations. It is telling that while one man lead the way, others were hauled, kicking and screaming, to stand up for this country and reject political expediency and the self-serving strategies of those who do not have a grip on power but rather find themselves in power’s grip.

Who truly represents the views of fiscal conservatives? The leftovers from the George Bush era of Republican big government spending that lead to Obama’s victory, or a single Senator from South Carolina who stood up when nobody else would follow him?

It would do the establishment GOP a great deal of good to pay attention. We ordinary folk out here have long memories. I would consider a strong alliance with Jim DeMint to be in the best interests of a party badly in need of a spine transplant.

Update: Conservative Redstate’s talented blogger Erick Erickson is now picking up the story and whipping up the troops. Early last week Tea Party Support and the Social Security Institute ran an email and fax blast campaign called “I Object” sending out over 1.5 million call-to-action emails to activists across the country. The campaign concerned the subject covered below – how to block ObamaCare in the Senate using the procedural tactic of removing unanimous consent on each and every amendment offered to the Reid healthcare bill. The information generated by Tea Party Support and the Social Security Institute is now being picked up across the internet and on the Hill. Even the big guy himself Rush Limbaugh blasted Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for a flawed, treacherous, and wobbly strategy, forcing Senate Minority Whip John Kyl and Senator McConnell to provide a lackluster defense of the strategy. The narrative of the Republican sell-out was so compelling that soon after the TPS and SSI push CBS reported that Michael Steele sent a memo to the Senate GOP telling them to pull out all the stops and use every trick in the book to stop ObamaCare. Tea Party Support followed that story up with a press release Rush Limbaugh & Michael Steele Join Tea Party Support & Social Security Institute-Demand GOP Senate Stop ObamaCare by Any Means Possible.

Below is the original post:

Stand with Jim DeMint and Just Say “I Object” (fax blast and email). Please note that faxes are a better way to impact your Senator.

This is the hill we will live or die on. This is it folks. For years we have allowed Republicans to act in the name of political expediency instead of taking off the gloves for a bare knuckle fight. For years we have allowed them to use one excuse after another to hide under a rock. For years we have allowed our so-called representatives to put self-interest over country. No more. As this story states the Tea Party is now more popular than the GOP in a national poll. Can you hear us now?

The time to pony up has arrived. If the Republican Party wishes to continue to exist they will start paying attention to their bosses – us. If they allow ObamaCare to pass – and don’t let them fool you or give sorry excuses for it is well within their power to stop it – then 1/6 of the U.S. economy will be under the control of wealth distributionists and socialists. If that happens, it is a fair question to challenge the usefulness of the Republican Party.

It doesn’t take 40 Republicans to succeed in stopping the Reid Bill; it doesn’t take 20; it only takes one Republican to object each time Harry Reid propounds a unanimous consent agreement to rush another amendment through the process.

Fortunately, under Senate rules the Democratic leadership can rush these amendments through only if they get what’s called “unanimous consent.” That means all 100 senators have to agree to rush the amendments through by consenting to a unanimous consent agreement, which severely limits debate and restricts the time available for experts to analyze the amendments. It’s the old bum’s rush.

Even ONE senator objecting would be enough to slow the rush of amendments down and give the American people at least two days of debate on each amendment. Two days is the minimum we should have to analyze amendments and to allow Senators an opportunity to comment on and debate them.

Let me say that again: It takes only one Republican to object each time Harry Reid tries to jam another amendment through the process with limited debate and little public scrutiny. With 40 Republicans in the Senate, that means even if Harry Reid kept the Senate in session 24 hours a day (as Senator Durbin threatened), each Republican Senator would have to spend no more than 36 minutes a day doing floor duty as a sentinel against the Majority Leader jamming another amendment through the Senate process under a rigged unanimous consent agreement. Last week Senator Jim DeMint did just that and waited for Republicans to back him up. When Dick Durbin threatened to keep the Senate in session 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, our so-called leaders in the Republican Party slithered away whimpering like a bunch of cry-babies and left Senator DeMint dangling over a cliff.

Christmas first, country second – a fitting label for a weak and morally corruptible party. Ask your Republican Senator, “Why are you allowing this to be done to our country?”. If ObamaCare passes the Republican Party will face an all out war from within their own ranks the likes of which they have never seen. Tea Parties will turn to state legislatures and nullification movements to take back this country and Republicans will face a wave of primary challenges beyond imagination.

The Republican Senators have been protesting vehemently in the media about how much they oppose ObamaCare and the Reid Health bill, and despite their constant reassurances to grassroots activists that they are doing everything humanly possible to defeat the bill, Republicans in fact are quietly stepping aside and allowing the ObamaCare Express loaded down with the Reid Bill and tons of amendments to barrel through the U.S. Senate so they can go home for Christmas Vacation without delay and not have to work long hours in the meantime. Cowards and swine.

All year we’ve been trying to convince Senators who support government health care to change their minds and Senators on the fence to come out against it. That’s still vitally important. But given the way the Senate works, it is more important right now to make sure Republican Senators who claim to oppose the Reid Bill have the courage and character to use the enormous leverage they possess to prevent the bill from passing this year. Remember, there is no way the Reid Bill can pass the Senate as it is currently written. Therefore, it must be amended to pass. But those amendments will be highly controversial, even among Democrats. That is why it is vitally important that each and every amendment be given close public scrutiny and at least two days debate.

If the Democrats want to play brinksmanship by holding the Senate in session long hours, seven days a week until Christmas Day, so be it. If the Democrats drag Senators back to Washington between Christmas and New Years for marathon sessions, so be it. Giving up Christmas Vacation is the least Republican Senators can do to stop a socialist government takeover of healthcare this year. Our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq don’t get to take time off from combat to celebrate Christmas, and they are putting their lives on the line every hour of every day. No U.S. Senator fit to serve in that august body would even think about shirking his or her duty to defend America against a government takeover of healthcare just so he or she can work bankers’ hours and enjoy college-student vacation time.

Millions of Americans across America don’t even have a job this Holiday Season and they are demanding that Senators do their jobs to protect and defend America against another government takeover.

If one or both of your Senators are opposed to the Reid Bill, contact them and make a very simple request: “Do not help Harry Reid rush any aspect of this outrageous legislation through the Senate by giving him your consent to proceed along the fast track. Use your power to object to any unanimous consent agreement limiting debate and restricting time for deliberation; demand that every amendment be given at least two days debate and public scrutiny so that everyone has time to understand and comment on each one of them.

If ObamaCare is enacted into law this year, it will be the fault of the Republican Senators because they refused to suffer a little bit of personal inconvenience and political risk to defend their country against another government takeover. Make no mistake, all Republican Senators must do to stop ObamaCare this year is object to the Democrats fast-track scheme to jam one amendment after another through the Senate with limited debate and restricted public scrutiny.

You can do something about this and take action now. Stand with Jim DeMint and Just Say “I Object” (fax blast and email). Tea Party Support is an organization I have posted about here. If the fax campaign is out of your budget, please consider using the donate button and provide a one time donation or recurring donation for as low as $1 a month. I like to look at it this way – donate a few bucks to Tea Party Support now or allow Washington to raid your coffers for the rest of your life and the life of your children and grandchildren. I vote for the former case.

What else can you do to help? Use the ShareThis button at the bottom of this post to blast this information to the social networks or email it to a friend, or just email the following TinyUrl link to all you friends and family: http://tinyurl.com/ylblvuf. Take the time to do this and take back your country. It is not much to ask. Get the word out or get ready for ObamaCare.

Enough is enough.

In other news and opinion:

ObamaCare: Is the GOP helping pass it?

Dude, Where’s My Strategy?

EPA declares air a danger to human health

ObamaCare: Nelson is Stupak all over again, but possibly worse

There is a story making its way through the blogosphere concerning the “white flag” from White House pertaining to the public option. Nobody is buying it. What is being bought is time – time to allow someone to turn the pressure relief valve and time for RHINOCare to make its way out of the Senate Finance Committee. Obama and the liberals in Congress, well aware that co-operatives are a Trojan Horse for a single payer system, are only to happy to assist in keeping the pressure off in the hope of one of two outcomes. The first – by removing pressure from the public, the administration is free to apply its own pressure to ensure a public option. Second, less public pressure increases the chance the RHINOcare option makes its way out of the Senate Finance committee. But as I have said before, there are already procedural amendments in place to kill ObamaCare as long as pressure is brought to bear on five Republican Senators in the Finance Committee. Read on.

Memorize and repeat the following like a mantra:

A cooperative is nothing more than a Trojan Horse for single payer healthcare.

Remember these five Senators:

• Chuck Grassley
  United States Senator, Iowa
• Olympia J. Snowe
  United States Senator, Maine
• Susan Collins
  United States Senator, Maine
• Michael Enzi
  United States Senator, Wyoming
• Lindsey Graham
  United States Senator, South Carolina

You can contact them here.

What do they all have in common? All are members of the Senate Finance Committee, the only committee with a chance at a reaching a bi-partisan compromise on health care reform. Many are already touting the end of the public option, which is slated to be replaced by co-operatives. But is this really a victory? The answer is a resounding NO. These five Republicans with an annoying proclivity to reach across the aisle are about to sell out America.

Read the rest of this entry »

UPDATE 1: 9/9/2009 The Nightmare That Is The Senate Finance Committee Healthcare Proposal – RINOCare Gone Wild. Pay attention to what the Senate is doing right under our noses. It is important to understand what the Senate Finance Committee healthcare proposal means to you. Hint: it’s not good.

Update 2: Finally someone is talking about the constitutionality of ObamaCare. It is this very issue which strengthens the case made by Dr. Lawrence Hunter to use the two Jim Demint amendments and pressure five Senate Democrats on the Finance Committee to stand with their party. What Senator wants to stake their careers on a bill that may pass only to be repealed later? The real question comes down to how long can the states tie up this legislation in the courts. We only need three years. Is ObamaCare Constitutional?

Watch for more of this to come. Utah is looking into using its state constitution and the 10th Amendment protection of states rights from an encroaching federal government to opt out of ObamaCare should it pass Congress.

SALT LAKE CITY — Republican Utah lawmaker Carl Wimmer, R-Herriman, wants Utahns to have the option not to take part in a federal health care program.

He says he’s drafting a proposed amendment to Utah’s Constitution; one he believes will get overwhelming approval.

“We’re going to pass a state Constitutional amendment stating that people will not be forced by the national government to purchase health care insurance and that small businesses will not be forced to provide them,” Wimmer said.

Voters, of course, would have to pass the amendment, and it would have to get at least two-thirds majority in the Utah House and Senate. But Wimmer says it’s worth it, no matter what comes out of the Federal health care reform effort.

He says it’s a state’s rights issue and that Utah has made good progress on its own reform plans. “We don’t need help from the Federal government figuring this thing out, we know how to do it and we’re able to do it far more efficiently than they are,” he says.

Such an amendment could lead to cuts in federal funding and to lawsuits, but Wimmer says it’s time states “wean themselves” from federal dollars and that lawsuits may be the only way to “turn the tables” on the Federal government.

The course for the ObamaCare ship is in uncharted waters, while ways to defeat it are not as difficult as one might think. First, Congress needs a bill for the President to sign. In this and the prevous post I outline the process whereby this can come to pass. These are not my ideas, but come from two very distinguished gentlemen, their biographies presented in my previous post. Keep reading.

Even if passed by Congress, expect strong resistance with a slew of state’s rights movements via the 10th amendment and subsequent lawsuits. There is plenty of time to tie this legislation up in the courts. Long enough, in fact, for the opportunity to derail the legislation by repealling it in a future Congress. However, if enough states fight Obama’s attempt to sieze control and increase the powers of federal government the fissures and fault lines created by this backlash would not favor ObamaCare. What vulnerable Senator or Representative really wants to stake their careers on legislation that may pass, only to possibly be killed later, or that would create such an outcry against federal powers as to start a movement of decentralizing power back to the states? In the end, polling and passion will win the day and minds will be changed. We are living through history, and many of us are actively a part of it. As Obama has shown us, we can no longer take liberty and freedom for granted. It is the duty of every American who cherishes liberty for themselves and future generations to take to the streets and town halls, to encourage state legislatures to resist the federal governement, and to call Senators and Representatives and make their voices heard. This is a beast that can be slaughtered.

Florida is also asserting 10th Amendment State’s Rights under the U.S. Consitution (emphasis mine):

On the heels of a successful state-level resistance to the 2005 Real ID Act, activists and state legislators alike are focusing their efforts on state governments as a way to resist new federal programs.

The latest? Health Care.

In response to what some opponents see as a Congress that doesn’t represent their interests, State Legislators are looking to the nearly-forgotten American political tradition of nullification as a way to reject any potential national health care program that may be coming from Washington.

The most recent effort comes from Florida State Senator Carey Baker and State Representative Scott Plakon, who this week filed a proposed State Constitutional Amendment (HJR37) as a means to prevent Floridians from being affected by any Federal Health Care Legislation. If approved by the legislature, Florida residents could be voting on it as early as 2010.

HJR37 would deny the ability of any new law to impose demands, restrictions or penalties on health care choices on Floridians. Versions of proposed federal health care reform legislation have included insurance coverage mandates, and certain penalties on employers who fail to provide employee health insurance.

It states, in part:

(1) A law or rule shall not compel, directly or indirectly, any person, employer, or health care provider to participate in any health care system

(2) A person or employer may pay directly for lawful health care services and shall not be required to pay penalties or fines for paying directly for lawful health care services. A health care provider may accept direct payment for lawful health care services and shall not be required to pay penalties or fines for accepting direct payment from a person or employer for lawful health care services.

A similar measure, called the Health Care Freedom Act, has already passed in Arizona, and residents of that state will have the opportunity to vote on it in 2010. Sources close to the Tenth Amendment Center say that more than ten other states may see such proposals introduced in the coming session.

Of course, this may not even be necessary as outlined at the Social Security Insitute here by Dr. Larry Hunter:

While a constitutional amendment is a sound and desirable backup measure, and a powerful prophylactic against future over reach by Washington, Wimmer and his compatriots are strategically positioned to drastically reduce the chances of nationalized healthcare ever occurring in the first place. To do so, they need to prevail upon Republican U.S. Senator Bob Bennett to stop trying to negotiate a version of ObamaCare Lite with the White House and his Democratic Senate Colleagues.

Senator Bennett’s version of ObamaCare, which he has introduced with Oregon Democratic Senator Ron Wyden as The Healthy Americans Act (S. 391), is really nothing more than ObamaCare in drag—a Trojan RHINO with ObamaCare hiding inside ready to be smuggled into the country disguised as a “bipartisan compromise.” Bennett’s “solution” to the problems afflicting the healthcare system is not a conservative, market-based solution that one would expect a conservative Republican Senator to promote; it is not a plan that encourages and promotes individual self-reliance; it is RHINOCare (Republican Healthcare In Name Only) that simply wraps ObamaCare in a Republican skin and does not reflect conservative principles and values.

The bill would end the employer tax exclusion for employer-based health-insurance benefits and replace it with a combination of direct federal subsidies and individual tax deductions. In other words, it would increase people’s dependency on Washington dramatically. Mandatory insurance premiums would be collected through automatic payroll deductions from workers’ paychecks, which would be enforced by the IRS. Employers also would be required to pay into the nationalized healthcare system on a payment schedule based on number of employees, employer revenue and an average-plan premium—clearly a tax on employers to fund universal heath coverage run by the federal government.

Senator Bennett’s bill would replace the employer as the tax wedge in the health-insurance market with a direct government tax-and-subsidy wedge designed to drive the after-tax price of healthcare below market-clearing levels—it’s called price controls and it will lead inevitably to healthcare rationing. Hence, the bill would replace one poison with another: Rather than having the employer make critical decisions about what kind of healthcare is available to workers, as the current system does, government would assume a much more direct and active role in making these determinations. For example, the Wyden-Bennett plan would replace the current health system with one that is heavily regulated by the federal government. Individuals would have access only to plans permitted by the government, and they would be required by federal law to purchase such a plan.

The federal government would standardize the entire insurance market through direct mandates and regulations. The federal government would determine which health plans people could buy. The bill would establish a standard benefits package.

The bill requires all individuals to purchase government-defined health coverage without any real choice for individuals to pick a plan that best suits their needs. Senator Bennett even requires that all health insurance policies pay for abortions.

The plan would use direct government regulation to “squeeze out inefficiencies” in the system. In other words, the system would rely upon a new federal bureaucracy to implement “cost-control” measures that would ration and delay care to reduce overall healthcare spending.

Let’s call a spade a spade: Wyden-Bennett represents a form of healthcare fascism in which government and private insurance companies work hand-in-glove (an insidious “public-private partnership”) to control who spends how much, on what medical goods and services, for whom, under what circumstances and on what schedule. While the bill would leave a private-insurance façade on the system, Senator Bennett is actually proposing to turn healthcare over to the government to run, making private insurance companies and healthcare providers essentially agents of the federal government.

Dr. Hunter continues to describe why there is an important political reason for Senator Bob Bennett to stop negotiating with the White House on health care, how the Democrats could ram through a version of health care reform via the reconciliation process, and how Senator Jim DeMint offered a point-of-order amdenment (passed unanimously) and motion to instruct the Conferees (79 yeah votes) that would all but kill the reconciliation process, only to have Senate Budget Committee Chairman, Kent Conrad, ignore the 60-vote requirement and allow it to be removed from the Budget Resolution in Conference. Everyone lives by the rules, unless you’re and Senator. It is elitist and dishonest, in the least, to ignore rules while expecting the rest of us to live by them. Call your Senator and Representative and ensure they commit themselves to the rules that, in one case, all of them voted for. Read My Discussion With Lewis K. Uhler – How 5 Republican Senators May Hold The Future Of Healthcare In Their Hands.

Dr. Hunter makes an excellent point that a constitutional amendment is a sound and desirable backup measure, and a powerful prophylactic against future over-reach by Washington. Even if ObamaCare passes, it is this my belief that states around the country draft resolutions and amendments that reassert state’s rights, putting the federal governement and the Obama administration on notice to tread lightly and expect one hell of a fight if they even attempt to tip-toe on our rights. Time to put the lot of them in thier place or throw the bums out. Many inside the beltway should thank their lucky stars that tar-and-feathering are out of fashion.

Stay out of our lives.

In othe news and opinion:

A must see video that should be passed on. The Public Plan Deception – It’s Not About Choice. Three public statements advocates of single-payer health insurance explain that a health care bill with the “government monopoly option” would move America toward a single-payer government health care system. In the video Professor Jacob Hacker admits, publicly, that:

Someone once said to me this is a Trojan Horse for single-payer. Well it’s not a Trojan Horse, its just right there (audience laughter). I’m telling you, we’re going to get there, over time, slowly, but we will move away from reliance on employment based health insurance as we should, but we’ll do it in a way that we won’t frighten people into believing they are going to lose their private insurance.

Watch the entire video. Email it. It is damning to the narrative of the Obama administration and its liberal allies – it pulls aside the curtain and allows us to peak behind the stage where we find the naked emperor.

The gift that keeps on giving. Dick Durbin, who as you remember compared America to Nazi Germany opens his pie hole and ticks off another segment of the public content until now with sitting on the sidelines. He accomplishes this task, free of charge, by stating the town hall meetings are clearly orchestrated and insulting a growing segment of the American public. I mean, you can’t buy that kind of motivation, the type of motivation that awakens a growing number of us to get out and make our voices heard. If any orchestration is going on, it’s people like Dick Durban and Nancy Pelosi, and Obama who are the wind in our sails, and I thank them for that. Keep up the good work and watch as more of us join the largest movement since Civil Rights. Note to self – liberals unable to follow simple logic. The more they open their mouths and accuse people like me and you of being automatons when it is clearly their side that is orchestrating violence at the town hall meetings, clearly liberal organizations such as the SEIU that are robots at the beck and call of Obama the citizen spy master, the more of us show up, the angrier we are, the more desperate they look, and the more the poll numbers for health care plummet. Anybody home in that brain there Dick? Obama? Rahm? Nancy? Any liberal?

Please, keep talking. Don’t ever stop. It’s like free advertisement when liberal leaders decide to bloviate ad nauseum and explain how good their version of health care is for us, yet refuse to back a resolution that would require them to “enjoy” the same benefits as their own constituents. An on August 22nd, when the recess rally occurs, liberals like Dick will look like fools and skulk back under their rocks. At that time, only a few brain dead liberals will buy the already lifeless meme of orchestrated resistance when they see millions of people taking to the streets. Ahhh, I love the smell of crybabies in the morning.

The Washington Times agrees, the polling data does not back up the protesters are scripted. Drooping polls undercut scripted protest claims

CRITICAL: White House continues spy campaign: White House Launches Health Tattle-Tale Site on another .gov website. The site is here. Don’t forget to turn yourself in by using the contact section of the page. Ask them to address this video. Amazing how many lies these people will attempt to propagate in a vain attempt to spread the meme of “ObamaCare” is good for you. Watch this one backfire and the polls to drop even lower. Perchance the older site was inundated with millions of emails? Let’s do it again. Melt the phone (202-501-0282) and email of Lee Ellis (lee.ellis@gsa.gov), policy administrator of the GSA Federal Acquisition Service which assign .Gov domains and creates the guidelines for the use of .Gov domains. Be courteous.

More protests in Austin. Some protests in Massachusetts. Did I just read that?

Death panels? What death panels? Oh, those death panels

Rep. Tsongas tries to explain why Congress is exempt from Obamacare. Fails.

“Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American.”

Tsongas (D-MA): I won’t take ObamaCare because I have better options. Wow, the truth from a Democrat!? Quick, somebody turn her in to flag@whitehouse.gov. She’s spreading disinformation! It’s fishy I tell you!

It appears as if Obama’s coattails have become an anchor. Net approval for Dem Senators declining twice as fast as GOP counterparts

Dems Continue “Listening Tour”– Fists, Boots, Bullhorns, Stomping Heads, Smashing Faces, Assaults Included. I can’t wait for the 22nd. A little camera off in the background to document a few things, some thug(s) about to commit an act of stupidity their tiny brains can’t begin to comprehend, and then me. By the time I am done defending myself, said thug(s) will be spending so much time in the hospital they’ll name a wing after them. It will be called the Stupidity Wing – fully paid for by the SEIU.

I just got off the phone with Lewis K. Uhler, Founder and President of the National Tax-Limitation Committee (NTLC). Mr Uhler’s career is long and distinguished:

Lew Uhler is founder and President of the National Tax Limitation Committee, one of the Nation’s leading grass roots taxpayer lobbies.

With offices in the Sacramento Area (Roseville) and Washington, DC, NTLC works with the White House, Members of Congress, legislators in states across the Nation and grassroots organizations to limit state and federal spending through legal restrictions and constitutional change. Uhler has been at the forefront of the national movements for a Tax Limitation/Balanced Budget Amendment to the United States Constitution and for term limits.

In 1968, then-Governor Ronald Reagan selected Uhler to serve on the California Law Revision Commission. In 1970, Reagan designated Uhler as the Governor’s State Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity. Subsequently, Uhler served in Reagan’s cabinet as Assistant Secretary of the Health & Welfare Agency. In 1972, Governor Reagan asked Uhler to organize and serve as Chairman of the Governor’s Tax Reduction Task Force. With the assistance of a nationwide panel of advisors (including Nobel Laureates Milton Friedman and James Buchanan), the task force developed California’s landmark Revenue Control and Limitation Act, which became a model for tax-expenditure limitation measures in many states.

About three hours prior to my speaking with Mr. Uhler, I talked with him briefly during an American Liberty Alliance teleconference, where strategies for defeating ObamaCare were discussed at length. However, it was something Mr. Uhler said that caught my attention. After the teleconference, I called the NTLC to get additional clarification of what Mr. Uhler discussed. Three hours later, my cell phone rang and I found myself talking to man who used to know and work for Ronald Reagan. A rush to say the least.

When all was said and done, Mr. Uhler decided to send me an email from Lawrence Hunter, PhD of the Social Security Institute. Dr. Hunter also has a distinguished career, and served on the White House staff as a policy advisor to the president during Ronald Reagan’s second term. The email is titled: Building the Case Against Moving Healthcare Reform under Reconciliation in the Senate. I encourage readers to read the blog entry referenced at the beginning of the email which follows (emphasis mine):

I just posted a new blog (“Utah Op Out” — http://socialsecurityinstitute.com/blog_post/show/200) explaining why the Wyden-Bennett healthcare reform bill is another Trojan RHINO in which ObamaCare will be smuggled into the United States as a “bipartisan compromise.” I wrote the blog not only to alert people to the fatally flawed nature of Senator Bennett’s bill but also to emphasize how important it is for the Senate Republicans to maintain a united front in opposition to ObamaCare. Many Republicans are of the opinion that there is nothing that can be done to stop ObamaCare in the Senate because the Democrats will ram a bill through under Reconciliation. Therefore, their reasoning goes, it is better to negotiate a less-bad bill than get stiffed with a horrible bill. I do not believe the situation warrants this pessimism and defeatist attitude. If Republicans remain united in opposition to ObamaCare in all its variants and play it smart in the Senate, I believe the procedural situation can be played to make it very difficult for Democrats to ram a bill through under Reconciliation. Here is the last part of that blog, which addresses the procedural situation in the Senate. I urge all of you to rally behind the argument that the Senate already has TWICE adopted a 60-vote rule on healthcare committing the Senate NOT to pass ObamaCare under Reconciliation. Were it not for an extraordinary act by the Budget Committee Chairman that runs contrary to Senate tradition, custom and norms, Reconciliation would not even be a theoretical possibility now. The integrity of the Senate still means something to enough Democrats that if we play it right, I believe we can dissuade them from moving this bill under Reconciliation. It is certainly worth the fight.

. . .Beyond the fatally flawed nature of Senator Bennett’s bill, there is an important political reason for him to stop negotiating with the White House on healthcare. A united Republican front is required in the Senate to stop the Democrats from ramming ObamaCare through the Congress by a razor thin majority. True, a united Republican front in the U.S. Senate may not be sufficient to head nationalized healthcare off at the pass. Senate Democrats could ram it down the nation’s throat through a special provision called Reconciliation, which short circuits the Senate’s super-majority rules that ordinarily protect an intense minority from being run rough shod over by a bare majority. Under Reconciliation, which drastically limits debate and amendment opportunities, a mere 51 votes is all that is required to pass legislation. Ordinarily, 60 votes are required to cut off debate before bringing a measure to a vote.

However, with a united Republican front in the Senate, Democrats would be hard pressed to jam a bill as comprehensive and detested as ObamaCare down Americans’ throats. Current polls indicate that more people oppose ObamaCare than support it. Moreover, Senate Republicans stand on very strong procedural grounds for resisting a bum’s rush on government-run healthcare through the Reconciliation process. It would take an act of extraordinary arrogance and recklessness for the Democratic Leadership to use Reconciliation this way.

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.

It is time to bring some sanity to the healthcare debate. Let’s hit the reset button. There is no emergency and no necessity to pass health legislation this year. Senate Republicans must form a united front to insist that the Senate abide by the 60-vote rule it passed twice in recent months requiring that it not pass major health reform under Reconciliation. They owe it to the Senate in which they serve; they owe it to the American people whom they represent.

There are five Republican Senators in particular with a proclivity to reach across the aisle. Doing so in this case will result in usurping the will of the people of the United States and selling us out. The cooperative option being floated by the Senate Finance Committee is nothing more than the public option in disguise. The concern is that protesters are concentrated on Democrat Representatives and Senators, while it is quite possible that five Republican Senators hold the future of American health care in their hands.

From the Limit Taxes website:

Obama Care is on the ropes. It is fatally defective and must be killed. Later we can start over on the right track. There is no way we can fix Obama Care and should not be negotiating to do so.

Blue Dog Democrats know how bad Obama Care is, but the political pressure on them is enormous. They are hoping a few senate Republicans, who are currently negotiating with Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, will come up with a compromise that will give them the cover to vote for a House Bill.

For the future of our nation it is essential that Obama Care self destruct. What better way than to have the Blue Dogs and other Democrats kill it themselves. So it is vital that you contact the following well intended Republican Senators and ask them to stop negotiating and to do everything possible to defeat Obama Care in the Senate!

To find out more about the identity of these five Republican Senators, which state they represent, and how to contact them, see here. Don’t forget to attend any town hall meetings called by any of these five Senators and tell them to just say no to cooperatives and health care reform as currently envisioned by the liberal spectrum of the Democrat party. Shock them by insisting they demand adherence to the 60-vote rules passed by Senate members regarding health care reform. Nothing like an informed citizenry. Be polite but assertive. I know the passion is high, but I believe these five Senators can be reasoned with. I doubt any Senator will ultimately want to stand against two amendments voted on unanimously in one case and overwhelmingly in another. The image projected to the public that we should follow the rules while the Senate can choose to ignore them would be like setting off a hydrogen bomb – imagine the backlash. Combine that with 10th amendment challenges already planned in two states and possibly followed up by ten additional states (see the update below) and it is quite possible the legislation would not survive a 10th amendment challenge, or that in 2010 or 2012 the entire legislation could be watered down procedurally or repealed altogether. With no real guarantee that ObamaCare will pass or survive passage in Congress, why risk a political future to begin with?

Also, don’t forget the August 25th Recess Rally. Go to the link and check your state for more information.

Of course, it won’t hurt to ensure that all Democrat and Republican Senators insist on the 60-vote rule they passed twice.

Pass this information on – use the Share This button at the bottom of this post. You can email the story to your friends and have them pass it on. You can also use social networks to get the word out. And don’t forget there are still a lot of Democratic Senators and Representatives who need to hear from you. I know it sounds like a great deal of work, but ask yourself – are your freedoms worth it? If you start to feel overwhelmed, just remember the countless souls who died so the greatest country this world has known could exist and thrive. Stop Obama now.

Update: Follow up on this story: Florida, Utah May Opt Out Of ObamaCare By Asserting State’s Rights Under The 10th Amedment. Ten Other States May Join.

In other news and opinion:

Culture of Corruption: Dodd/Conrad cleared in Countrywide probe

Sebelius calls her SEIU “brothers and sisters” to battle; Dennis Rivera decries “terrorist tactics”

SEIU’s new attack video on “Teabaggers”. If you can believe this, the SEIU, in a definite show of their complete lack of intelligence, actually use video of their members committing acts of violence by kicking some poor soul as he lays on the ground. I guess they hope the viewers will believe it is the evil teabaggers. I know hamsters with more brain power than this. While I never had any fear of these bozos before, I can now honestly say they are about the stupidest bunch I’ve ever witnessed.

Mel Martinez’s strange resignation

An Open Letter To The President

Why ObamaCare goons do not help ObamaCare

Grassley: Town halls could force senators to start over on healthcare. I say, it’s time to start over and do this right. No more rushing bills through Congress that nobody has read. Let’s get a bill that addresses the issues that need attention but leaves the fundamentals in place for the free-market, innovation driven system we have today. If we are to have competition to drive down costs, let it be among private insurers and leave the governments and cooperatives out. The cooperative approach is nothing less more than a Trojan horse for what will one day force a single payer system upon us. No more ObamaCare. It’s time for AmericaCare. Hit the reset button.

Is ObamaCare Constitutional?