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Martin 9/12 Calendar (& City of Stuart)

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Is Obama Circumventing Congress to Restrict Political Speech?

Is President Barack Obama trying to perform an end-run around Congress in order to implement restrictions on political speech?
 
It’s a question that 27 senators put to President Obama in a letter this week in which they urged him to reconsider a draft executive order (EO) that would require government contractors to disclose political contributions.
In the letter, the senators cite to Hans von Spakovsky, Senior Legal Fellow at The Heritage Foundation, who raised concerns over the underlying purpose of the executive order:
"Given similarities between the draft EO and some provisions of the DISCLOSE Act, which was rejected by the Senate in its current form, we are also concerned that the EO may be an effort to circumvent Congress. At least one commentator, former Federal Election Commissioner Hans von Spakovsky, has already criticized the draft EO as an attempt by your Administration “to implement–by executive fiat–portions of the DISCLOSE Act.”
Earlier this week, von Spakovsky explained in The Washington Examiner the effect — and intent — of the president’s EO.
"It would require any company bidding on a government contract to disclose all political contributions made in the two years before the bid by the company, its affiliates and subsidiaries, and any of its directors or officers …
It would require government contractors to disclose any contributions they make to third-party organizations “with the intention or reasonable expectation” that the funds will be used to make “independent expenditures or electioneering communications.”
In other words, bidders will have to disclose all of their charitable and noncharitable donations to third parties if those outside organizations engage in any grassroots lobbying or political speech. This is obviously intended to curtail (and censor) political speech by government contractors."
The order wouldn’t apply to federal employee unions or many nonprofits that receive federal grants and, as von Spakovsky writes:
"What is really going on here is a transparent attempt to introduce political gamesmanship into the government contracting business by the Obama administration. It is a cynical attempt to use the guise of reform to achieve political goals at the cost of the liberty that all Americans have to participate in the political process, and to voice their political opinions, without fear of retribution to themselves and their businesses."


The Heritage Foundation

The Endgame Headwinds - John Mauldin's Weekly E-Letter

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Thoughts from the Frontline
The Endgame Headwinds
By John Mauldin | April 29, 2011

 

In this issue:

The Endgame Headwinds
If Something Can’t Happen…
GDP = C + I + G + Net Exports
Increasing Productivity
Toronto, Cleveland, LA, Philadelphia, Boston, and Italy

I have written repeatedly about the Endgame in the weekly letter, as well as in a New York Times best-seller on the same topic. By Endgame I mean the period of time in which many of the developed economies of the world will either willingly deleverage or be forced to do so. This age of deleveraging will produce a fundamentally different economic environment, which the McKinsey study referenced below suggests will last anywhere from 4-6 years. Now, whether this deleveraging is orderly, as now appears to be the case in Britain, or more resembles what I have long predicted will be a violent default in Greece, it will create a profoundly different economic world from the one we have lived in for 60 years. This makes sense, in that the prior world was defined by ever-increasing amounts of leverage. Outright reductions in leverage or even a significant slowing of the rate of growth is a whole new ballgame, economically speaking.

Subscribe NowJoin The Mauldin Circle and learn more about alternative  investingIn all this I have explained the various options facing the developed world, but I have refrained from putting forth my own estimates as to what will actually happen and what the environment surrounding that outcome will be. That is about to change. I have been giving this a great deal of thought and research. While my conclusions will be somewhat controversial (I know, surprise, surprise), with enough to offend almost everyone on some point, I hope that I can muster enough clarity to help you think through your own personal views and how you will respond to what I think will be yet another crisis on the not-too-distant horizon. Whether that is Crisis Lite or Crisis Depression is up to us and the politicians we elect. I argue that we need to choose most wisely, because we are at a crossroads that is as critical as any since 1940.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Essay; The New Patriotism

By WILLIAM SAFIRE
Published: July 02, 2001

My compatriots:

At a poolside gathering on the Fourth of July some years ago, the then-Librarian of Congress Daniel Boorstin asked Chief Justice William Rehnquist to read aloud the Declaration of Independence.

Rehnquist rose, buttoned his loud sport shirt to add a semblance of formality, and began. Halfway though the angry enumeration of wrongs done the colonists by King George III, he interrupted his reading to observe: ''This is quite an indictment.''

Saturday, April 23, 2011

U.N.'s Agenda 21 is in your community

 

 

 

Posted: April 23, 2011
© 2011

Editor's note: Listen to this column online.

Anyone who reads Chapter 7 of Agenda 21 and then reads his local comprehensive land-use plan will immediately recognize that most of the provisions of the local land-use plan come directly from Agenda 21. More often than not, the elected officials who adopt these plans have never read Agenda 21, and many have never even heard of the U.N. document, signed by President George H.W. Bush in 1992.

The facilitators and professional planners have heard about Agenda 21, but frequently claim that the plan they are working on has nothing to do with the U.N. or Agenda 21. Don't believe it for one minute.

Gary Lawrence, former director of the Center for Sustainable Communities at the University of Washington, and chief planner for the city of Seattle, told an audience in London:

In the case of the U.S., our local authorities are engaged in planning processes consistent with LA21 [Local Agenda 21], but there is little interest in using the LA21 brand. … So, we call our processes something else, such as comprehensive planning, growth management or smart growth.

In community after community, the same scenario is repeated. The federal government, through the EPA or the Department of Commerce or the Department of Interior,offers special grants to communities for the purpose of developing a vision for a greener future and a plan to convert the vision into reality.

Read more: U.N.'s Agenda 21 is in your community http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=290225#ixzz1KOxcxQEM

The Day Free Speech Died in Dearborn

The Day Free Speech Died in Dearborn - Tea Party Nation

This story is huge.

Scroll down (after linking) to see where the author gets a NEW story from a military member who is being hustled out of the military for refusing to accept homosexuality as a normal lifestyle.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Why is America Exceptional?

Why is America Exceptional? | The Heritage Foundation

 

Every time I heard Bill O'Reilly say that "America is exceptional because we are a 'good' and ‘generous’ people," I just wanted to scream at the television.

If someone with O'Reilly's stature in the political discourse is confused about American Exceptionalism, what hope do we have to educate our grassroots activists on what it's going to take to recapture our government back from the Progressives? Why would someone like him just assume he knows the definition of American Exceptionalism while merely reciting why he thinks America is exceptional? Doesn't he realize that the two-word phrase has earned its place in our history as a national identity, and not just a juncture of ordinary words?
 
Well, I thought I would do some research to see if there was an easily understood explanation of American Exceptionalism to offer people who were interested in refreshing their knowledge about why and how our Constitutional Republic is worth restoring. I didn't have to look far, as The Heritage Foundation has a brief paper that nails it better than I ever could.
 
Please READ and Understand American Exceptionalism now.
 
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Monday, April 18, 2011

GUIDE TO THE GEORGE SOROS NETWORK

Introduction by George Fuller of FLIMEN

When Subash Kateel of the FLORIDA IMMIGRANT COALITION attends the immigration hearings, dragging along a cast of 50 or 75 illegal aliens to plead on their knees not to pass immigration laws that might get them deported or deny them jobs, the initial reaction is humanitarian.  Go behind the scene and you find their opposition to Immigration laws is not simply about Florida, but part of a national network of Soros operatives trying to undermine our country.

Scroll through the Soros Network (below) and see if you can figure out what he is up to. You decide if his intentions are to make the country stronger or to destroy it as we know it. Soros is determined to prevent legislation to protect our workers and our citizens.

YOU DECIDE: Why would George Soros, a world-wide known subversive, finance efforts to prevent Florida from passing immigration laws to protect the citizens of the state?

Pass mandatory E-Verify and oppose the George Soros Agenda!


SOURCE

George Soros is one of the most powerful men on earth. A New York hedge fund manager, he has amassed a personal fortune estimated at about $13 billion (as of 2009). His company, Soros Fund Management, controls at least another $25 billion in investor assets. Since 1979, Soros's foundation network -- whose flagship is the Open Society Institute (OSI) -- has dispensed more than $5 billion to a multitude of organizations whose objectives are consistent with those of Soros. With assets of $1.93 billion as of 2008, OSI alone donates scores of millions of dollars annually to these various groups. Following is a sampling of the major agendas advanced by groups that Soros and OSI support financially. Listed under each category heading are a few OSI donees fitting that description.soros

Organizations that accuse America of violating the civil rights and liberties of many of its residents:

  • The Arab American Institute impugns many of the "sweeping" and "unreasonable" post-9/11 counterterrorism measures that have unfairly "targeted Arab Americans."
  • The Bill of Rights Defense Committee has persuaded the political leadership in more than 400 American cities and counties to pledge noncompliance with the anti-terrorism measure known as the Patriot Act, on grounds that the legislation tramples on people's civil liberties.
Organizations that depict America as a nation whose enduring racism must be counterbalanced by racial and ethnic preferences in favor of nonwhites:

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Allen West--SFTP Tax Day Rally

Congressman Allen West speaks at the 3rd Annual Tax Day Tea Party / Palm Beach County


Saturday, April 16, 2011

Michael Burry on the financial crisis

Burry says, “No one is accepting blame for financial collapse.”

An excellent summary of events leading to the financial crises ....and his view of the future is pretty bleak.  (31 minutes)

Interesting guy, a neurosurgeon (diagnosed with Asperger syndrome) who gave up practice and started his own hedge fund.   Cashed out with personal windfall of $100M in 2008 and now invests in California almond farms (something having to do with water rights). If you listen to one video on this subject, this is it. We should try to play this at one of our meetings.

(from Al Ventoso)

Martin County Tax Day Protest 2011

Martin 9/12 TeaParty and friends on April 15, 2011.

LINK to the TCPalm news item.

 

Sunday, April 10, 2011

The Phony Free-Trade Agreement

The Phony Free-Trade Agreement
 

BY CLIFF KINCAID -

APRIL 9, 2008

[THIS ARTICLE IS THREE YEARS OLD.  THE FREE TRADE AGREEMENT IS BEING SUPPORTED TODAY BY SEN, MARCO RUBIO.]

The White House wants a quick vote in favor of a “U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement,” saying it will help U.S. business, bolster the anti-communist government of Colombia, and deal a setback to the anti-American ruler of Venezuela. The name has been changed from the “U.S. Colombia Free-Trade Agreement.” Whatever they call it, however, a trade agreement isn’t necessary to accomplish any of these worthwhile objectives. In fact, it is a major distraction. We shouldn’t be pretending that we can fight Colombia’s communist drug-dealing terrorists, or Hugo Chavez, with trade agreements.

Like so many issues, the dispute has become a case of partisan politics. Congressional Democrats want to delay a vote or defeat the agreement outright. What has been lacking from the media, especially the conservative media, is a coherent analysis of how flawed this agreement really is, and how the Bush Administration is giving a bad name to “free trade.” This Colombia agreement, for example, has 18 pages devoted to caring for the environment through new institutions and arrangements.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Thank you Rep. Snyder

Rep. Snyder (Will):
 
Jack Oliver from FLIMEN tells us you are doing a great job in the Florida House on the legislation that advances the FLIMEN interest in E-Verify.
 
The Martin 9/12 TeaParty Committee wants you to know that your work is greatly appreciated. It means a great deal to be able to boast that our own state representative really "gets it."
 
Jim McGovern for the Committee
 
 

Ronald Reagan
Feb. 06, 1911 - Jun. 06, 2004
IN GOD WE TRUST


Reply received April 04. 2011

Jim, Snyder

Thank you very much for your encouraging e mail.  The immigration bill passed out of my committee clean with no amendments.  House staff is currently working with the governor on final language before the proposed legislation is given its next committee stop. I will keep you in the loop when the next reference is made. 

This has been by far the most grueling session I have experienced but we are moving major pieces of legislation that will make life better for all Floridians.  Keep up the fight.

Will

Friday, April 1, 2011

We've Become a Nation of Takers, Not Makers

More Americans work for the government than in manufacturing, farming, fishing, forestry, mining and utilities combined.wsj_print

By STEPHEN MOORE

If you want to understand better why so many states—from New York to Wisconsin to California—are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, consider this depressing statistic: Today in America there are nearly twice as many people working for the government (22.5 million) than in all of manufacturing (11.5 million). This is an almost exact reversal of the situation in 1960, when there were 15 million workers in manufacturing and 8.7 million collecting a paycheck from the government.

It gets worse. More Americans work for the government than work in construction, farming, fishing, forestry, manufacturing, mining and utilities combined. We have moved decisively from a nation of makers to a nation of takers. Nearly half of the $2.2 trillion cost of state and local governments is the $1 trillion-a-year tab for pay and benefits of state and local employees. Is it any wonder that so many states and cities cannot pay their bills?

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