Friends, Romans, Congressmen?

On April 30, 2012, in Barack Obama, Congress, by CliffordMitchell

Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) led a letter of GOP committee members Friday asking for numerous documents relating to EPA’s enforcement priorities, strategies and procedures for Region 6. “While you have apologized for these comments, there is genuine concern that your comments reflect the agency’s overall enforcement philosophy,” the letter states. “Further,

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Friends, Romans, Congressmen?

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Stealing Our Elections

On April 25, 2012, in Barack Obama, Eric Holder, Ronald Reagan, by MuffolettoWadford409

Columnist David Limbaugh, brother of Rush, asks in a recent column , “Can anyone think of an innocuous reason that President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder oppose state voter ID laws?” The correct answer is definitely “No!” But even Limbaugh dances around the full answer to the question, suggesting only at the end that the lack of a good reason to oppose voter ID suggests that the real motivation is an ulterior motive to rig elections. Let’s be fully frank. It’s not just Obama and Holder, true. It’s the whole Democrat party. And the transparent reason they oppose Voter ID, and favor loose election laws like Motor Voter, election day registration, mail in registration, online voting, and extended voting over days and even weeks before Election Day is that vote fraud is a central Democrat strategy for “winning” elections. Protect Your Vote The American Civil Rights Union (ACRU) is a legal foundation started by the late Robert B. Carleson, the former chief welfare advisor to Ronald Reagan, both when he was Governor of California and President of the United States. Carleson, closely backed by Reagan, spawned a revolution in welfare policy, starting with the famous California welfare reforms originating in 1971, spreading across the country throughout the 1970s, going national with Reagan’s reforms as President in 1981, and then culminating in the outrageously successful, fundamental, block grant reforms of the old, New Deal, Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program in 1996. Today the ACRU serves as a counterpoint to the ACLU, with former Reagan Attorney General Ed Meese and other Reagan Administration alumni or associates serving in the organization, including myself, working as General Counsel since the organization’s founding in 1998. The Chairman and President since 2006 is Susan A. Carleson, Robert Carleson’s widow. A new project of the ACRU is “Protect Your Vote!” focused on countering vote fraud. It serves at the ACRU website as a one-stop shop covering voting requirements in every state, current state efforts to strengthen ballot security, and the push-back from the left. The project promotes model legislation for adoption by the states, including mandatory voter ID, mandatory proof of citizenship when registering to vote, and required signature verification and proof of ID when voting by mail. Reform measures would also include modification or repeal of the federal Motor Voter dictates, which require states to register anyone applying for a driver’s license without proof of citizenship, to offer mail-in registration with no proof of identity, and to prohibit government employees from challenging any newly registered voters. Motor Voter also hampers states from purging the voter registration rolls of those who have died or moved to another state. The ACRU project also encourages citizens in every state to get involved in the process to protect their vote by volunteering to be poll watchers, help in voter registration drives, and a multitude of other pre-election and election day efforts. Motor Voter was the first bill passed under the Clinton Administration. It is a transparent attempt to make our electoral system vulnerable to voting by illegal aliens, who would overwhelmingly support Democrats, and to multiple voting organized by unions and left-wing extremist groups like ACORN. There can be no other explanation for such lax policies, as Limbaugh’s question suggests. The ACRU’s worthy Protect Your Vote project begins to counter this depreciation of our democracy. It deserves support from everyone who recognizes the current Paul Revere moment calling patriots to action to prevent the still developing Marxist takeover of America. The Vote Fraud Project Democrats make the laughable, undocumented, unsupported charge that voter ID and other ballot integrity reforms are just Republican tricks to suppress minority voting, which goes Democrat by wide margins. Our fine Attorney General Eric Holder sagely advises reformers “to resist the temptation to suppress certain votes in the hope of attaining electoral success and, instead, achieve success by appealing to more voters.” But that misleading rhetoric is just a smokescreen for vote fraud. When partisan conspirators challenged the constitutionality of Indiana’s voter ID law, the suit was laughed out of court because the plaintiffs could not produce one voter who had been prevented from voting because of the voter ID requirement. Numerous academic studies, cited in the Supreme Court opinion, show no effect of voter ID laws in suppressing voter turnout or participation. In some states that have adopted voter ID, minority voting increased rather than declined in the next election. These are the reasons that the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Indiana’s model voter ID law as constitutional. In that case, the established facts showed that 99 percent of Indiana voters already had the required ID (see, e.g., drivers licenses). Those who were disabled or elderly, who might not drive, were automatically entitled to vote by absentee ballot, which required no voter ID. Those who were too poor to pay any nominal fee for an ID were entitled to a state-issued ID for free. No wonder not a single voter could be found who was not able to vote because of the voter ID requirement. That is why Limbaugh’s question is so apt: Can anyone think of an innocuous reason that President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder oppose state voter ID laws? Why did Attorney General Holder just blow off the Supreme Court in using the authority of the Voting Rights Act to nullify voter ID laws in South Carolina and Texas? Did he find a single voter in either state who had been prevented from voting because of the requirement? If he had, we would all know his or her name by now. Holder assures us that a vote fraud problem “does not really exist” in the United States. But video guerilla James O’Keefe schooled Holder on the problem. With the video camera rolling, an O’Keefe associate indicated to a D.C. poll worker that he was Eric Holder, provided Holder’s address, and asked for a ballot to vote. Handing the ballot to the white O’Keefe associate, the poll worker waived off an offer to show an ID, saying, “As long as you’re in here and you’re on our list and that’s who you say you are, we’re OK.” Sure, a single documented case of easy vote fraud success does not represent a real problem. But the courts in upholding voter ID have noted that a state does not have to wait until vote fraud makes a mockery of its elections before taking action. But in some jurisdictions that mockery may already be here. As the Washington Times editorialized on April 17: In April 2011, officials for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) in Nevada pleaded guilty to running an illegal voter-registration scheme. Earlier this month, Democratic Party officials in Indiana were indicted on vote fraud charges for purportedly forging signatures on Barack Obama’s 2008 primary petitions. In Virginia, 10 felons were charged with making false statements on voter registration forms.” Of course, in the early 1990s, President Obama actually ran ACORN’s Project Vote in Illinois. Early on the morning of June 5, union members in Chicago will be boarding union rented buses to ride to Wisconsin to vote early and often that day for the recall of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. They will vote in the name of dead people still on the rolls, or those who have moved to other states, or under fraudulently registered names on the rolls through some ACORN-style project. Wisconsin Republicans and conservative activists, maybe with their own video cameras, should be on the lookout for such buses rolling into the state from Illinois. A February report from the Pew Center on the States found 1.8 million names of dead people still registered to vote on state rolls. Another 2.75 million are registered to vote in more than one state. The study found altogether that 24 million voter registrations, 13 percent of the nation’s total, contained major inaccuracies or were otherwise invalid. That’s a lot of room for mischief. Facilitating that Chicago union Wisconsin project, and similar conduct in swing states this fall, is the real reason Holder opposes voter ID. By his official actions as Attorney General, Holder is running a vote fraud conspiracy right out of the AG’s office. And that is being done with ACORN Obama’s approval.

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Stealing Our Elections

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Responding to the GSA Fiasco

On April 20, 2012, in Barack Obama, Congress, Uncategorized, by GlendaAnastasia803

Promoted from the diaries…. It’s time for wholesale change. The agency that’s supposed to make sure the federal government minimizes costs and runs efficiently is at the center of a fraud and waste scandal. When the General Services Administration burns taxpayers for $822,000 for what amounted to a Las Vegas party, the answer has to be more than outrage. What happened at the GSA is symptomatic of a culture of corruption and government waste in Washington. The problem is massive and costly, and demands a serious response. Last year I introduced a bill called the Federal Realignment and Closure Commission Act (H.R. 2680). The FRACC Act would begin a fundamental reformation of the federal government by creating a commission to evaluate every federal program, department, and agency to identify which ones are actually functioning efficiently, and which ones are duplicative, outdated, wasteful, or irrelevant. It’s patterned after the Base Realignment and Closure Commission that the Defense Department has used to reorganize its base structure. What is even more unique about the FRACC act is that once the President grants approval to the Commission’s recommendations, the plan takes effect automatically unless Congress acts to disapprove of the plan in its entirety. The FRACC Act has the potential to put an end to ridiculous and wasteful spending, save billions of dollars to bring down the deficit, and claw back the scope of a government that has grown far beyond its Constitutional boundaries. Imagine a Federal government which must prove that its rules and agencies are actually serving the American people purposefully, efficiently and constitutionally. It can happen, but it will take a majority in the Senate and a president in the White House who believe these are worthwhile goals. __ Congressman John Fleming, M.D., represents Louisiana’s 4th District. He is Co-Chair of the Congressional Values Action Team, Chairman of the Natural Resources Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, Oceans and Insular Affairs, and is a member of the House Armed Services Committee. He is a physician and small business owner.

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Responding to the GSA Fiasco

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Promoted from the diaries…. It’s time for wholesale change. The agency that’s supposed to make sure the federal government minimizes costs and runs efficiently is at the center of a fraud and waste scandal. When the General Services Administration burns taxpayers for $822,000 for what amounted to a Las Vegas party, the answer has to be more than outrage. What happened at the GSA is symptomatic of a culture of corruption and government waste in Washington. The problem is massive and costly, and demands a serious response. Last year I introduced a bill called the Federal Realignment and Closure Commission Act (H.R. 2680). The FRACC Act would begin a fundamental reformation of the federal government by creating a commission to evaluate every federal program, department, and agency to identify which ones are actually functioning efficiently, and which ones are duplicative, outdated, wasteful, or irrelevant. It’s patterned after the Base Realignment and Closure Commission that the Defense Department has used to reorganize its base structure. What is even more unique about the FRACC act is that once the President grants approval to the Commission’s recommendations, the plan takes effect automatically unless Congress acts to disapprove of the plan in its entirety. The FRACC Act has the potential to put an end to ridiculous and wasteful spending, save billions of dollars to bring down the deficit, and claw back the scope of a government that has grown far beyond its Constitutional boundaries. Imagine a Federal government which must prove that its rules and agencies are actually serving the American people purposefully, efficiently and constitutionally. It can happen, but it will take a majority in the Senate and a president in the White House who believe these are worthwhile goals. __ Congressman John Fleming, M.D., represents Louisiana’s 4th District. He is Co-Chair of the Congressional Values Action Team, Chairman of the Natural Resources Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, Oceans and Insular Affairs, and is a member of the House Armed Services Committee. He is a physician and small business owner.

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Responding to the GSA Fiasco

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It’s time we invoke a new rule when discussing the federal budget:  don’t focus on spending cuts; focus on limiting the size of government.  All too often we get caught up in dollar figures of various government programs and agencies, instead of focusing on their imperative to exist in the first place. The first step in approaching a spending bill is to determine if the given venture is constitutionally sound.  If the answer is no, there’s nothing more to debate.  The second step is to determine if that venture, which is constitutionally sound, is helpful or harmful.  Needless to say, if it is harmful to the public then it should be scuttled.  Finally, once the constitutional rationale and the imperative for the venture are established, we can discuss the funding level of that venture. The case in point is the Energy-Water appropriations bill, which funds the Department of Energy and parts of the Department of Interior.  There is no reason for the DOE to exist.  Period.  The nuclear program could easily be transferred to another part of the federal government, while we eliminate all of the wasteful programs that have not only failed to increase our energy supply, but encumbered its growth over the past few decades.  Now that Republicans have focused so much attention on merely trimming the DOE budget, it turns out that they failed to cut anything! CQ reports that the Energy-Water bill passed out of the Energy-Water Appropriations subcommittee yesterday by voice vote actually appropriates $32.1 billion, an $88 million increase above fiscal 2012 levels.  But here is the most egregious part of the bill: Frelinghuysen [the subcommittee chairman] said the legislation would provide $1 billion to “strengthen” Energy Department programs focused on determining the causes and impacts of high gas prices in the future, a $36 million boost from current levels. It also would provide $554 million for fossil energy research and development, including a new $25 million shale oil program “to both increase the efficiency and improve the impacts of shale oil recovery,” he said. So we are giving the DOE $1 billion to focus on determining the causes of high gas prices.  Why don’t they look in the mirror!  We know why gas prices are high.  The American and global economies run on energy, and with demand increasing, we need to increase our supply.  The DOE and other branches of government have promoted green energy and have hindered the private sector from developing our resources.  That’s why gas prices are high.  We don’t need to spend $1 billion to study the issue. In addition, why should we fund fossil fuel research programs?  We should oppose government promotion of fossil fuels just like we oppose their peddling of green energy.  Let the private sector handle the R&D.  This is why we should abolish the DOE.  We don’t need more regulations on energy development, nor do we need any help or subsidies from them either.  Of course, the bill contains $1.5 billion for “energy efficiency and renewable energy programs” as well. With members like this on the appropriations committee, we will never reduce the size of government – even to pre-Obama levels.  Another disconcerting problem that we will continue to focus on is the fact that many of these guys come from red districts.  Here is the roster for that subcommittee along with their scores from Heritage Action and the PVI of their districts: Rodney Frelinghuysen – Chairman (NJ-5 R+7 ) – 46 Jerry Lewis – (CA-41 R+10 )  - 56 Mike Simpson (ID-2  R+17 ) – 53 Denny Rehberg (MT-At Large R+7 ) – 61 Rodney Alexander (LA-5 R+14 ) – 52 Steve Womack (AR-3  R+16 ) – 58 Alan Nunnelee (MS-1 R+14) – 73 If we continue to elect members from conservative districts who underperform so dramatically, and place them on the appropriations committee, we will never ever limit the size of government. Amazingly, speaking in reference to the draft legislation, Rep. Frelinghuysen said that “some of us believe it is time to pull the government back from such a strong involvement in the private sector.” Folks, you can’t make this stuff up.

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House GOP Appropriators Continue to Grow Government

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