My personal mandate to the new Congress

My personal mandate to the new Congress

I just completed my "Citizen Mandate" for the newly elected Congress -- -- putting the new Congress on notice that I am serious about making sure these members of Congress do the right thing.

See the results of my Mandate below and go here to send your own Citizen Mandate to members of the New Congress right now:

http://www.grassfire.com/140/survey.asp?PID=26960961&NID=1

Fred Witzell's Citizen Mandate To the 112th Congress (my answers in bold)

Does the new Republican leadership in Congress have a mandate to change Washington, D.C.?
Yes, but only if citizens continue to hold all elected officials accountable
The issues I believe are important for the new Congress to address:

Limiting the size and scope of government

My CITIZEN MANDATE on government-run healthcare:

I am calling for ObamaCare to be REPEALED immediately

My CITIZEN MANDATE on illegal immigration:

Border security must be increased and those in our country illegally should be punished to the full extent of the law and deported

My CITIZEN MANDATE on the federal debt:
The federal debt is a serious problem but the answer is not higher taxes. Instead, we must cap spending and grow the economy

My CITIZEN MANDATE on government spending:

Government spending is our of control and the federal government should be required to reduce its annual budget every year until the budget is balanced

My CITIZEN MANDATE on TARP and other government bailouts:

Federal bailouts of the private sector such as the TARP program must be stopped immediately and any unspent funds returned to the taxpayers.

Today is the LAST CHANCE to have our opinions heard on Net Neutrality

Tomorrow the FCC will vote on a series of rule changes that will give it the authority to regulate broadband rates under the guise of making sure the Internet remains open and free. The FCC is attempting to implement these "Net Neutrality" rules circumventing Congress and violating a court ruling denying the agency the authority to do so.

Today, the Rowlett Texas TEA Party sent a letter to the 5 commissioners of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

“We the People” do not want “net neutrality”!

The internet is the only place where all may express their views without censorship. If someone does not like what the author has written they can leave that site and find one that espouses their views. For the government or a government appointed agency to impose or restrict open dialogue and/or free speech is a direct violation or our 1st Amendment rights.

Please remember that our Creator gives us rights and we “ENTRUST” some of these rights to the government to preserve; NOT remove. Free Speech is a natural right but access to the internet is NOT A NATURAL RIGHT, Civil or otherwise. Access to the internet may be obtained in our RIGHT TO PURSUE HAPPINESS, but it is NOT a guaranteed right.

Commissioner Copps has stated in an interview to the BBC that America” is not producing as much news” and “there is no oversight of the media”; oh, and perhaps there should be a “public value test”.

HOW DARE YOU!

If We the People do not like what is being said we will change the channel or the station. If there are fewer viewers or listeners then they (the stations) will go out of business. That is the way the free market works!

In his latest rant Rev. Al Sharpton wants the FCC to take Rush Limbaugh off the public airwaves because he (Sharpton) is offended by what Rush says. If Mr. Sharpton is offended, then he too can change the channel or station.

Any action by the FCC to infringe on our 1st Amendment rights is mirroring dictatorial actions imposed by Hugo Chavez in Venezuela!

Sincerely,
The members of the Rowlett Texas TEA Party

CC: Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison
Senator John Cornyn
Representatives Ralph Hall, Sam Johnson, and Jeb Hensarling

I would like to encourage all of you to send a similar note to the five FCC commissioners, our Senators, and your Congressional Representative.

Chairman, Julius Genachowski
Commissioner Michael J Copps
Commissioner Robert McDowell
Commissioner Mignon Clyburn
Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker

Morning Bell: The Tea Party is Back

Morning Bell: The Tea Party is Back

Two hundred and thirty-seven years ago last night, a group of colonists disguised as Indians boarded British merchant ships and dumped an estimated £10,000 worth of tea into Boston Harbor. This Boston Tea Party, which John Adams described as the “grandest event which has ever yet happened since the controversy with Britain opened,” was not just a protest about taxation. Our forefathers did not destroy tea because of a simple tax dispute. The 1773 Tea Party were protesting the process by which the British government taxed them. They were fundamentally rejecting the way the British were governing them.

Last night, the spirit of the Tea Party won another major victory when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D–NV) was forced to drop his $1.27 trillion, 1,924-page omnibus spending bill. The problem with Reid’s omnibus spending bill was not just its size—although our federal government does spend far too much of other people’s money—but the way it was drafted and forced on the American people. For far too long our Congress has amassed more and more spending power into fewer and fewer legislative acts while waiting until the last possible minute to consider them. Lobbyists have made an entire business model out of identifying must-pass appropriations and tax bills and then getting pliant Members of Congress to insert their special breaks, loopholes, and giveaways. The omnibus collapse was a complete rejection of that way of doing business in Washington. Senator John McCain (R–AZ) told National Review: “I know this is a seminal moment, because for the first time since I’ve been here, we stood up and said ‘enough.’”

Last night’s victory could not have happened without the Tea Party. Earlier in the day, Tea Party–defeated outgoing- Senator Robert Bennett (R–UT) was working “actively to round up as many as nine potential Republican votes” for the omnibus bill stuffed with 6,000 earmarks worth $8 billion. But then Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R–KY) worked the phones all day twisting the arms of those nine Republicans, many of them members of the Senate Appropriations Committee, to drop their support for the bill. It was not an easy sell. Senator Thad Cochran (R–MS), the ranking member of the Appropriations Committee, had 281 earmarks worth $561 million in the bill. McConnell himself had 48 earmarks worth $113 million. But wisely, these lawmakers eventually saw the light. McConnell told National Review afterward: “We decided that we’re not going to pass a 2,000-page bill that nobody has seen since yesterday. That’s not the way to operate and that’s not the message from the November elections.”

Tea Party activists across the country should take a moment to celebrate this victory. But only a moment. Not all of the 111th Congress has gotten the message of the November elections. Too many on Capitol Hill seem to be operating under the belief that the American people voted in November to have President Barack Obama’s agenda shoved down their throats in December. The Hill reports: “Democrats will move instead to two high priorities on their legislative agenda: the DREAM Act, which would grant permanent legal residency to illegal immigrants under a certain age, and a repeal of the military’s ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy.” And let’s not forget the Boxer–Reid Land Grab and New START.

None of these issues demands resolution by a Congress that was “shellacked” at the polls last month. According to Gallup, the American people dislike this 111th Congress more than any other Congress in history. Specifically, a full 83 percent of Americans disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job, while only 13 percent approve. That is the worst approval rating in more than 30 years of tracking congressional job performance. Last night Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D–CA) House voted to prevent a massive tax hike on the American people. It now looks like Congress will pass a simple bill that freezes spending through February of next year. The 111th Congress has no mandate; they must go home and let the Tea Party Congress govern.

SOURCE HERE:
Morning Bell: The Tea Party is Back

In 1773 Americans answered the call. Americans continued to answer the call, right up until we fell off the credibility map at the end of the war in Vietnam.

Last chance to short-circuit Obama's Internet power-grab

Last chance to short-circuit Obama's Internet power-grab

President Obama and Elitist liberals are waging war on the last free-market stronghold in the world -- the Internet, and with your help we think we can stop them.

Click here now for more information and to take action:

http://www.grassfire.net/r.asp?u=35740&RID=22164557

Last week we brought you chilling details about Net Neutrality and how Obama was kicking you, Congress and the Constitution aside to achieve his goal -- taking federal control of the Internet using the Federal Communications Commission!

Liberal success would deal a severe blow to our Free Speech rights as the federal government would regulate, ration and control what you see and hear on the Internet!

December 20 begins the assault on YOUR FREEDOM

We have an incredibly short period of time to respond to Obama's Internet power-grab and we are urging you to take a few moments to sign our petition so that we can represent you on Capitol Hill in just a few days!

After signing, take a few additional moments to alert your conservative friends and family members to Obama's latest statist scheme.

Urge them to click below right now to stop his unconstitutional assault on liberty and freedom:

Like a huge cyber-wrecking ball, the FCC is poised to do Obama's bidding and begin the deconstruction of the Internet -- all in the name of freedom for all, and we have just days to stop it.

In just a few days, Grassfire Nation will deliver tens of thousands of petitions to each of the five FCC commissioners, including FCC chairman Julius Genachowski, strongly opposing this statist grab reminding them that the FCC does not have the power or authority to force any such actions!

Obama took over healthcare, the banking industry, auto-industry - now he's eyeing the Internet.

Take immediate action by signing below, and then alert your friends.

Thank you for standing with Grassfire Nation.

Steve

P.S. Again, after signing our petition forward this message to 30-40 friends alerting them to the FCC's plan to seize control of the Internet. Urge them to add their name to our petition by clicking here now:

http://www.grassfire.net/r.asp?u=35740&RID=22164557

Tea party seeks Capitol clout after election gains

Tea party seeks Capitol clout after election gains

WASHINGTON (AP) - Tea party activists and other conservatives, eager to transform electoral gains into clout on Capitol Hill, are pressuring Republican leaders to take a hardline approach in the next Congress, shunning compromise for confrontation with Democrats.

The strategy is likely to bring gridlock on major issues - particularly tax cuts and spending - and make it more difficult for President Barack Obama and Congress to find common ground on virtually any measure. It's also leaving key Republicans, in charge of the House and with larger numbers in the Senate, less room to maneuver as they seek to show they can make the big changes they've promised.

GOP leaders have bowed to the pressure already this week.

Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, said he'd go along with a ban on the practice of earmarking - in which lawmakers steer federal spending to pet projects in their states and districts. The decision narrowly averted an internal party fight over earmarks, and gave the tea party a high-profile victory reflecting its growing influence.

Full Story Here:
Tea party seeks Capitol clout after election gains

We have established a *toe hold*, nothing more.

Some are already looking at the GOP gains in the recent election and are saying *Mission Accomplished*. The couldn't be further from the truth. The work has barely begun for Conservatives and TEA Party members.

Conservative leader Richard Viguerie said: "Today begins the process of repairing the Republican brand."

I sincerely hope that *brand* can be repaired, it would likely be a more acceptable endeavor to most Conservatives than the effort required to for a viable 3rd party.

If the GOP is to be repaired, let it begin with the routing of ALL RINOs.

FreedomWorks retreat seeks to refocus Republican lawmakers on tea party goals

FreedomWorks retreat seeks to refocus Republican lawmakers on tea party goals

FreedomWorks, the conservative political organization that spent millions of dollars helping to elect tea party-backed candidates across the country, is hosting a retreat in Baltimore on Thursday and Friday to encourage congressional Republicans to stay true to the small-government principles they espoused during the campaign.

FreedomWorks' chairman, former House majority leader Richard K. Armey, and its president, Matt Kibbe, will talk to incoming and returning Republicans about not setting aside their advocacy for lower taxes and spending in the interest of finding favor with Republican leaders or scoring valuable committee assignments.

"We have to move from the election cycle and a year in which Americans across the country have been expressing concern and talking about what they don't want from their government to where we start to move toward with what we do want," said Republican Sen.-elect Mike Lee of Utah in a telephone interview from the Hyatt Regency on Baltimore's Inner Harbor. "We will be talking about ideas on how to move forward."

The retreat highlights the potential for conflict between Republican leaders and new members who campaigned forcefully on a message to change the culture of Washington - and who, in some cases, took aim as much at Republicans as Democrats for their role in allowing spending, earmarks, taxes and the national debt to spiral upward.

Full Story Here:
FreedomWorks retreat seeks to refocus Republican lawmakers on tea party goals

That's a great start, keep it in their heads, 'YOU work for US and WE can, and WILL fire you if you make a move to The Dark Side'.

Earlier today, I posted this on my personal blog: Earmark dispute splits GOP senators.

It can't be stressed too often, we must be ever vigilant. Our nation faces great peril from ALL fronts, one of the greatest perils we face is the GOP (RINOs) and Democrats that spend OUR money like there is no tomorrow.

At the rate these guys have been going, there may well BE no tomorrow if we're not careful and keep a constant eye on what goes on in American politics.

And so it begins…

The RINOs love pork just as much as the Dems. I told my readers before the election, ‘as soon as the elections are over, we’ll see a resurgence in the RINO herd’, and we are. NOW is the time to put a lid on it too. STOP these out of control RINOs from spending money this nation doesn’t have. NOW is the time for the entire GOP and ALL Conservatives to stand and tell a few Senators NO! A word that HATE to hear.