Garden State Patriot

NJ Protesters Sound Off At Obama Rally

A New Jersey contingent joined a crowd of several hundred sign-waving protesters outside the Capitol in Washington on Friday to oppose changes the Obama administration wants to make to health insurance and much more.

“We’re just really concerned about basically our liberty being taken away,” said Mike Proto of Hackensack, holding a sign reading “Socialism Isn’t Cool.”

Along with health care, Proto cited the proposals to reduce carbon emissions through a cap-and-trade system as job killers that would infringe on personal liberty.

The rally was organized by the group Americans for Prosperity as part of its two-day “Defending the Dream” summit.

Proto’s sign and the hundreds reading “Hands Off My Health Care,” were printed by AFP, but many people also held hand-lettered signs with such slogans as “King George Didn’t Listen Either” and “Obamacare/The Next Cash for Clunkers/Turn in Grandma.”

“The government is mandating that we all get health care and if we don’t we all get fined. I don’t think that’s right,” said George Humphris of Toms River. His elaborate, homemade sign attracted many in the crowd who wanted a snapshot of it.

Now that Congress is back in session, what do you think will happen with healthcare? Do you think a plan with a ‘public option’ will pass? Register your vote below!

After the Rothman Listening Session in Wallington, I was interviewed by RNN-TV for their show ‘Richard French Live.’ Here is their report (which skews left in my humble opinion). I appear at the beginning of the second part.

I think the reporter’s comments that people were closed-minded about the debate were silly. Why on earth should we be open-minded about government intrusion in our lives? Should we also be open-minded about the 1st Amendment? Should we be open-minded about putting criminals in jail?

There are some things in this life where there is no gray area. Our Founding Fathers made it clear that the national government only held certain enumerated powers. The national government is supposed to protect our liberty – which includes our property; or that which we have created and/or earned. When the government takes away our hard-earned money to pay for someone else’s health care then we are losing our liberty and the national government is doing precisely what it should not be doing.

The RNN reporter needs some lessons in constitutional principles before making a statement that people ought to be open-minded about offering health insurance. The Founders didn’t intend senators and representatives to be insurance salesmen. They intended us to be free and for free enterprise to be just that – free of government intrusion.

By the way, I didn’t have a ’script.’ I went to the listening session with armed with facts in order to make my case as strongly as possible.

See, this is what happens when you don’t take the teleprompter with you everywhere you go. You end up comparing your bad bowling game to the disabled. Nice going, Baracky.

Leno asked the president whether the White House bowling alley had been “burned and closed down” in light of Obama’s gutter ball embarrassment on the campaign trail last year.

Obama replied, “No, no. I have been practicing . . . I bowled a 129.”

The audience roared with laughter, and the late-night talk show host assured Obama “that’s very good, Mr. President.” To which Obama interjected, “It’s like — it was like Special Olympics, or something.”

And you know it’s bad when even Keith Olbermann can’t help but cringe. Of course, if it were “W” he’d have been leading the call for his impeachment.

Ahh, fun times in Obama’s America.

{UPDATE: Here’s the video straight from the Leno show}

Cross-posted at Conservatives with Attitude!

I had the privilege of speaking to Mark Levin on his radio show last night. I spoke with Mark briefly about my big blog post as well as the New Jersey governor’s race.

Here’s the audio with the key moment starting at about the 94:00 mark.

Mark Levin Show

More here, too.

OK, I know I’ve been tooting my own horn over my post on Dems wanting Bush to fail (if I don’t, who will? ). But you have to admit it’s amazing how one little blogger just futzing around on the Internet could cause a tremor that reached the biggest media outfits in the country.

Now, the latest ramification of my little post is this little ditty from Bill Sammon of Fox News:

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, just minutes before learning of the terrorist attacks on America, Democratic strategist James Carville was hoping for President Bush to fail, telling a group of Washington reporters: “I certainly hope he doesn’t succeed.”

Carville was joined by Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg, who seemed encouraged by a survey he had just completed that revealed public misgivings about the newly minted president.

“We rush into these focus groups with these doubts that people have about him, and I’m wanting them to turn against him,” Greenberg admitted.

The pollster added with a chuckle of disbelief: “They don’t want him to fail. I mean, they think it matters if the president of the United States fails.”

“The most influential Republican in the United States today, Mr. Rush Limbaugh, said he did not want President Obama to succeed,” Carville railed on CNN recently. “He is the daddy of this Republican Congress.”

Rush responded today himself:

“The difference between Carville and his ilk and me is that I care about what happens to my country,” Limbaugh told Fox on Wednesday. “I am not saying what I say for political advantage. I oppose actions, such as Obama’s socialist agenda, that hurt my country.

“I deal in principles, not polls,” Limbaugh added. “Carville and people like him live and breathe political exploitation. This is all a game to them. It’s not a game to me. I am concerned about the well-being and survival of our nation. When has Carville ever advocated anything that would benefit the country at the expense of his party?”

Just classic. More liberal hypocrisy. I really think these people think we’re all stupid.

Looks like Obama and Geithner are going to have to attend summer school this years because they are failing economics. Apparently, they’ll be joining Jon Corzine in class.

U.S. President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner received failing grades for their efforts to revive the economy from participants in the latest Wall Street Journal forecasting survey.

The economists’ assessment stands in stark contrast with Mr. Obama’s popularity with the public, with a recent Wall Street Journal/NBC poll giving him a 60% approval rating. A majority of the 49 economists polled said they were dissatisfied with the administration’s economic policies.

On average, they gave the president a grade of 59 out of 100, and although there was a broad range of marks, 42% of respondents rated Mr. Obama below 60. Mr. Geithner received an average grade of 51. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke scored better, with an average 71.

And why the low grades? Because they are two clueless schmoes without a plan (shock!).

However, economists’ main criticism of the Obama team centered on delays in enacting key parts of plans to rescue banks. “They overpromised and underdelivered,” said Stephen Stanley of RBS Greenwich Capital. “Secretary Geithner scheduled a big speech and came out with just a vague blueprint. The uncertainty is hanging over everyone’s head.”

Mr. Geithner unveiled the Obama administration’s plans Feb. 10, but he offered few details, and stocks sank on the news. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down almost 20% since the announcement, as multiple issues have weighed on investors’ confidence. The Treasury secretary has since appeared before Congress and offered more specifics but has said action on key parts of the plan still is weeks away.

Feeling any more confident yet? Yeah, I didn’t think so.

Cross-posted at Conservatives with Attitude!

As Logan mentioned in his previous post, a vote on Card Check is forthcoming in Congress. This legislation is a payback to Big Labor and will rob union workers of their right to a secret ballot. It also could result in the loss of 600,000 jobs. Newt Gingrich explains in his latest newsletter column.

After spending an astounding $61 million to elect Democrats in the 2008 elections, union bosses are getting their payback this week.

Yesterday, so-called “Card Check” legislation was introduced in both the House and the Senate.

Card Check Could Eliminate 600,000 Jobs In Its First Year

That means that an estimated 600,000 jobs could be lost due to Card Check in the first year alone — and that’s on top of the over four million jobs already lost to the flagging economy.  

Card Check is a job killer.  Even Obama supporter Warren Buffet opposes it, saying “I think the secret ballot is pretty important in the country.  I’m against card check.”  Watch him here.  

But as far as Big Labor is concerned, a deal’s a deal.  Their goal is to get their allies in Washington to ram Card Check through Congress this week, before anyone notices that American workers and businesses are losing fundamental rights.  

Card Check strips American workers of the right to a secret ballot and gives the federal government the right to impose labor contracts on workers.

The timing of this assault on the freedom of the American workplace could not be worse. A new study shows that for every three workers coerced into joining a union under Card Check, one job will be eliminated by besieged American businesses.

More… 

The Stakes Are High This Week

But it’s precisely this kind of pro-secret ballot, pro-freedom sentiment among the American people that makes union bosses so eager to pass Card Check.

Under Card Check, union organizers and their enforcers will be able to go into any small business, hospital or construction site and coerce workers into signing cards.  If they get 50 percent plus one, the deal’s done, and the workers are forced into a union.  And if management and the new union fail to reach a negotiated contract, the federal government will just impose one.  Coerced unionization allows for what is effectively a new, unaccountable form of forced taxation.  Workers will have a portion of their paycheck going to the union to be spent as the bosses see fit, including political donations to parties and candidates that the workers may not even support.  

Talk about an “offer you can’t refuse.”  There’s no vote.  No secret ballot.  No right to freely negotiate the contract.  The workers, the workplace, and a portion of the worker’s paychecks are controlled by the union bosses.  

For Americans like you and me, the stakes are high this week.  Hanging in the balance are literally hundreds of thousands of jobs, not to mention fundamental freedoms like the ability of small businesses to create and sustain jobs, the freedom of American workers to have a say in how their workplace is organized, and the freedom of American workers to freely choose whether they want to give money to politicians and political parties.

American Solutions has a petition up on their web site – Freedom Not Fear. I urge you to sign it and start passing it along.

Give credit where credit is due. Lord knows I’m not on the same page with Steve Rothman on much of anything. But he has my support in trying to make the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) accountable — and trying to keep relief aid to Palestinians out of the hands of terrorists.

US lawmakers demanded Thursday that the United Nations impose tighter controls on the UN agency that manages aid to the Palestinians to ensure no US funds end up in the pockets of extremists.

“The United Nations should take immediate steps to improve the transparency and accountability of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA),” said Democratic Representative Steve Rothman.

Rothman has written a non-binding resolution urging US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to certify that “no American taxpayer dollars are being directed to terrorists or to further terrorist propaganda” through UNRWA.

The New Jersey lawmaker said that while aides to US President Barack Obama had yet to explicitly support the measure, “they assure me that they share our concerns.”

The resolution calls on UNRWA to improve transparency of its operations by posting on the Internet copies of all educational materials used at agency-administered schools.

“UNRWA schools have been known to, and are still continuing, to include textbooks, videotapes, and other materials which not only slander the state of Israel but also are virulently anti-Semitic,” said Rothman.

The resolution also urges UNRWA to enhance screening procedures, including terrorist name-recognition software, “to ensure that UNRWA staff, volunteers, and beneficiaries are neither terrorists themselves, nor affiliated with known terrorist organizations.”

“These are certainly reasonable recommendations, especially in this time of severe economic crisis in America, when so many of our countrymen and hurting, and the world is suffering and in need of resources, that none of our US taxpayer dollars goes to any terrorist organization,” said Rothman.

Of course, this is just another example of why we shouldn’t be un the U.N. at all. It is a corrupt organization with many members who hate America and hate Israel. Yet, we are the ones who give it the most money to operate.

Cross-posted at Red County.

It just gets more comical every day. We have a Treasury Secretary that cares more about global warming than economic prosperity. 

WASHINGTON, March 4 (Reuters) – U.S. oil and natural gas producing companies should not receive federal subsidies in the form of tax breaks because their businesses contribute to global warming, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told Congress on Wednesday.

It was one of the sharpest attacks yet on the oil and gas industry by a top Obama administration official, reinforcing the White House stance that new U.S. energy policy will focus on promoting renewable energy sources like wind and solar power and rely less on traditional fossil fuels like oil as America tackles climate change.

“We don’t believe it makes sense to significantly subsidize the production and use of sources of energy (like oil and gas) that are dramatically going to add to our climate change (problem). We don’t think that’s good economic policy and we think changing those incentives is good for the country,” Geithner told the Senate Finance Committee at a hearing on the White House’s proposed budget for the 2010 spending year.

Perhaps if people like Mr. Geithner paid his taxes he wouldn’t have to promote taxing our energy and gas companies up the wazoo.

Seriously, I don’t even know what to say anymore except, “We are in heap big trouble.”

Cross-posted at Conservatives with Attitude!