GOP opposition to the Patriot Act

Last night, the US Congress voted to extend several provisions of the Patriot Act. The final tally was 275-144. The main argument for renewal of these provisions is clearly a matter of protecting the US against a future terrorist attack. As is commonly said in support of renewal, "If you are not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about."

Twenty-seven Republicans voted against the renewal of the Patriot Act provisions. One of those Republicans was Tom McClintock's (R-CA). Consider his position on the Patriot Act (beginning at the 1:15 mark):

In case you weren't paying attention...

The Obama Adminstration quietly made an administrative change in the organizational chart of the bureaucracies established to implement the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The change moved the Office of Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, OCIIO, from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

I learned of this organizational change on Friday from a lobbyist colleague, and only after that did I find any news of this change. This description of the change is from National Underwriter Life & Health website:

The name of the OCIIO will be changed to the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (CCIIO), and the CCIIO will be under the oversight of CMS officials, rather than directly under Sebelius. 

The CCIIO will be led by CMS Principal Deputy Administrator Marilyn Tavenner.

If you have gotten this far, you may be wondering why this matters.

The Republican leadership has vowed to de-fund the regulatory agencies that will implement health care reform. OCIIO is an agency that is a linchpin for establishing the framework and regulations necessary for creating the state-based health exchanges. Prior to the move, the GOP had to set its sites on de-funding the HHS. Now it must de-fund CMS. When the Republicans attempt to de-fund CMS, the howls from the supporters of the health care reform will be deafening. They will proclaim loudly and repetitively that the Republicans are trying to de-fund Medicare (to appeal to the elderly) and that they are trying to de-fund Medicaid (to appeal to the poor and the easily fooled compassionate).

Please share this with your friends and neighbors so they may also know the ruse that the Obama administration will play.

Do not fall prey to the rhetoric! The GOP is not trying to de-fund Medicare or Medicaid. At least not yet.

Now What?

Last night the political landscape in Texas changed dramatically. Most "experts" on Texas politics were calling for up to a 10 seat gain for the GOP in the Texas House of Representatives. While there may be some seats in dispute, as of this morning, the GOP looks to have 99 or more seats in the House. That is a 2 to 1 margin in the House! Just as nearly all the statewide races went 2 to 1 for the GOP.

Now we can start to have an influence. I almost feel like a kid in a candy store. With these margins, there is no need for the GOP to tiptoe around some truly conservative causes:

Could we actually see the Texas House nullify the mis-labeled Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act?

Is it possible, the GOP House will actually support choice in education?

Will the GOP leadership actually reverse the tide of our expanding Texas government and actually cut or eliminate big government programs?

The answer to all these questions depends on us, and grassroots activists across the state to infuse some political courage into our state reps.

 Let's roll!

Tea Party or Establishment, GOP Looks for Gains

Tea Party or Establishment, GOP Looks for Gains

WILMINGTON, Del. -- In the turbulent year of the tea party, Republican Rep. Mike Castle of Delaware set out to jangle no nerves as he ran for a Senate seat long held by Vice President Joseph Biden. It's the way Republican strategists originally envisioned 2010, a roster of seasoned politicians pointing the party toward significant gains in the Senate.

"He brings our style of civility and independence to Washington and works to develop solutions," is the soothing, even quaint message on the 71-year-old lawmaker's campaign website, which shows him in a suit and tie, working alone at his desk. Experience "is hugely important," he said in an interview.

After two terms as governor and nine as the state's lone congressman, Castle appears better positioned than other veterans who faced a tea party-backed challenge this year. If he prevails over Christine O'Donnell on Sept. 14 -- he and GOP officials have launched a fierce counterattack -- he would join more than a half-dozen other veteran Republican officeholders on the ballot in Senate races.

In matters of style as well as policy and political experience, they are the polar opposite of Rand Paul of Kentucky, Sharron Angle of Nevada and Ken Buck in Colorado, all of whom tapped into an anti-government sentiment, espouse politically risky positions, won primaries over establishment candidates, and now face particularly difficult races in the fall.

Full Story Here:
Tea Party or Establishment, GOP Looks for Gains

One thing is a certainty, the TEA Party has garnered a great deal of attention and we have a lot of notice from politicians on ALL sides of the spectrum.

The Democrats call us names and the Republicans are thinking that maybe we're taking the Grand Old Party over and making it go Conservative again.

That means we ARE doing the RIGHT thing.

One thing bothers me greatly, the GOP has made it clear, they intend to co-opt the TEA Party.

"We don't need a lot of Jim DeMint disciples," Lott told the Washington Post, referring to the conservative South Carolina senator who has been a gadfly for party leadership and a champion for upstart conservative candidates. "As soon as they get here, we need to co-opt them." Republican Lobbyist Trent Lott: "As Soon As Tea Party Candidates Arrive, We Need To Co-opt Them"

I don't know about you, but speaking for ME, I won't be co-opted by anyone, especially the RINO infested GOP.

I am personally acquainted with a TEA Party group, not a part of it, I just know quite a few of their members, and that group is a GOP creation. Inspired and created to promote GOP ideas in their town and county. For that very reason, I have personally cut all ties with that group.

The TEA Party was NOT designed to be a wing of the GOP. It was NOT designed to be co-opted BY the GOP. The TEA Party was designed to take the Conservatives of this nation to a place they haven't been in a while. A place where true Conservatism is the plan. A place where RINO politics isn't allowed.

For those that don't know, RINO = Republican In Name Only, in other words, a conservative Republican when the mood strikes them, or the need hits them. Think John McCain.

It's all about our Core Values America, and standing up for what's RIGHT, not necessarily what's popular.

As GOP civil war rages, Democrats look to benefit

As GOP civil war rages, Democrats look to benefit

WASHINGTON (AP) - A Republican civil war is raging, with righter-than-thou conservatives dominating ever more primaries in a fight for the party's soul. And the Democrats hope to benefit.

The latest examples of conservative insurgents' clout came Tuesday at opposite ends of the country. In Florida, political newcomer Rick Scott beat longtime congressman and state Attorney General Bill McCollum for the GOP gubernatorial nomination. And in Alaska, tea party activists and Sarah Palin pushed Sen. Lisa Murkowski to the brink of defeat, depending on absentee ballot counts in her race against outsider Joe Miller.

Full Story Here:
As GOP civil war rages, Democrats look to benefit

A fight is being waged within the Republican Party. It's a fight between REAL Republicans, the old fashioned Reagan Conservative Republicans, and the RINOs that have come to represent a party that is in severe need of a makeover.

The GOP has made it clear that they will blow smoke up the TEA Party's skirt, use them if they can, and once elections are over, they plan to try and co-opt the TEA Party into being a wing of the GOP.

It's just NOT going to happen that way folks.

There are multitudes of Conservatives out there in *I VOTE LAND* that are SO tired of the GOP, Michael Steele, the RNC, the RINOs, Graham, McCain, Murkowski, Snowe, Collins and so many others. I am happy to see that in many cases, REAL Republicans are replacing RINOs.

The GOP is likely to survive its bitter intraparty battles in such states as Alaska and Utah, even if voters oust veteran senators in both. But tea party-backed candidates might be a godsend to desperate Democrats elsewhere - in Nevada, Florida and perhaps Kentucky, where the Democrats portray GOP nominees as too extreme for their states.

Too extreme for America and their states? Or for the Dems and their game?

God, guns and guts is too extreme? Believing in God is too extreme? Standing up for the right to life of the unborn is too extreme? Wanting secure borders and wanting those in this nation that are not here legally removed? That's too extreme for the Dems?

Do Americans, especially the Blacks of this nation, which do, by and large, vote Democratic, need to be reminded that it was the Democrats that started the Klan? It was the Democrats that sought at every turn to deny the Black man the right to vote? To be counted as a WHOLE person? Do the Dems REALLY want to go there regarding extremes?

If Murkowski joins Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, as a victim of party activists who demand ideological purity, other Republicans are still likely to win in November, though Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., would have to deal with more maverick members who are loathe to compromise. And the conservative insurgency is hardly all-powerful, as Sen. John McCain proved by easily winning renomination in Arizona despite a challenge from the right by J.D. Hayworth.

'As a victim of party activists who demand ideological purity' has a nice ring to it.

Compromise is OUT of the question! Compromise is what took America to the brink of disaster, the one that we are now facing in the person of Barack Hussein Obama.

Regarding Conservative insurgency and John McCain, all I can say to the GOP voters of Arizona is this; John McCain is nothing more than an ass-kissing RINO. He got all Conservative as soon as the election cycle started again, and you folks bought it. As soon as it’s over, he’ll go right back to being an ass-kissing RINO, writing bills with Feingold and the like, reaching across the aisle and siding with the Dems at every occasion.

Arizona, you should be ashamed of yourselves.

The White House has tried to link the Republican Party with the fledgling conservative-libertarian tea party coalition - and demonize the combination as too extreme for the country.

That's "the Republican tea party" that's "offering more of the past but on steroids" and is "out of step with where the American people are," Vice President Joe Biden told the party's rank and file last week.

Here we go with that too extreme stuff again. What, exactly, is too extreme?

An American president bowing to foreign dignitaries? Is that too extreme?