Showing posts with label Heritage Foundation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Heritage Foundation. Show all posts

Friday, February 7, 2014

You Can’t Trust Washington on Immigration

Obama has “already circumvented immigration law with respect to large numbers of unlawful immigrants already in the country.”


Heritage Foundation,  Amy Payne, February 7, 2014

President Obama can’t be trusted to enforce U.S. laws—and that makes many lawmakers hesitant to pass new immigration laws.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said yesterday that this was proving to be a roadblock:

Listen, there’s widespread doubt about whether this administration can be trusted to enforce our laws. And it’s going to be difficult to move any immigration legislation until that changes.

Thursday, January 2, 2014

More New Taxes and Fees: How You’ll Pay for Obamacare in 2014

Heritage Foundation, January 1, 2014

Obamacare contains 18 specific tax hikes, mandates, or penalties that cost Americans money, and three new ones take effect in 2014. This is only the beginning—watch how two of these taxes get worse in the years to come.

1. Individual Mandate Tax. The individual mandate is designed to strong-arm individuals into purchasing government-approved health insurance or facing a tax penalty. In 2014, the penalty for not purchasing insurance will be either $95 or 1 percent of annual income (whichever is greater). Very few, if any, people will end up paying just $95, because individuals with an annual income of only $9,500 or less would likely qualify for Medicaid or a hardship exemption from the mandate. The mandate increases drastically in coming years, rising to $325 or 2 percent of income in 2015, and $695 or 2.5 percent of income in 2016—whichever is greater.

2. Health Insurer Tax. One of the largest tax increases in the law is an annual fee imposed on health insurers based on their share of the market. It is estimated to raise $8 billion in 2014 alone. The tax will more than likely be passed on to consumers through premium increases. An actuarial analysis by the consulting firm Oliver Wyman projects that in 2014, this tax will increase premiums by 1.9 percent to 2.3 percent. And the impact will be greater in later years as the tax increases.

3. Reinsurance Fee. This fee isn’t included in the list of 18 tax hikes, but it’s another one that will impact the cost of insurance. Health insurers will have to pay the temporary fee on group health plans to help spread the cost of the covering those in the individual market, inside and outside Obamacare’s exchanges. The fee begins in 2014, costing $63 per covered person and decreasing in 2015 and 2016. Like most taxes and fees, the result will likely be higher insurance premiums.




Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Tea party asks its grass roots to help kill health care law - Washington Times

TAKE ACTION FOLKS, PLEASE!

Tea party Republicans are girding for a fight with the White House — and members of their own party — over how to block President Obama’s health care law, saying Congress must not miss the chance to use this year’s funding bills to try to starve Obamacare to death.  Speaking at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative nonprofit in Washington, freshman Sen. Ted Cruz called on “hundreds of thousands” or even millions of grass-roots critics of the Affordable Care Act to sign petitions and call their representatives on Capitol Hill before the spending debate in September.


Sunday, May 26, 2013

Obama Runs Away from the War on Terrorism

May 26, 2013

Tea Party Nation--By Alan Caruba


“You may not be interested in war, but war may be interested in you.” -- Leon Trotsky

If you think about the presidents who we remember and honor the most, it is those who faced war and rallied the nation to victory. Our first president, George Washington, sustained the Revolutionary War for eight long years against daunting odds, including a Continental Congress that often provided little support for the men under his command that were fighting to create a new, free nation.

Washington’s reputation in war and peace is the reason that the Constitution designates the President as Commander-in-Chief. He was so highly regarded for his conduct of the Revolution that the Founders concluded that future presidents had to be free to wage war, but only after Congress declared that a state of war existed.

America, however, has not formally passed a declaration of war since WWII and then because it had been declared against us first. Since then wars have often been fought under the sanction given by the United Nations as was the case in the Korean conflict and the two Gulf wars, an erosion of our national sovereignty.

Lincoln is revered for having preserved the Union during the bloodiest conflict this nation ever fought. Franklin D. Roosevelt earned his place in our history for mobilizing the nation prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor, assisting Great Britain prior to entering the World War II, and then pursuing an aggressive policy to defeat the Axis nations.

Quite a few of our presidents gained fame in various conflicts, from Washington to Grant to Eisenhower. Other presidents presided over wars both long and short.

In a speech on May 23, given ironically at the National Defense University, President Obama did his best to run away from war. His opposition to the war in Iraq, his decision to withdraw from Afghanistan, and his efforts to close Guantanamo will likely be seen in the same way as the Clinton policies of the 1990s when Osama bin Laden declared war on the United States on behalf of al Qaeda and subsequently attacked the World Trade Towers twice, in 1993 and on September 11, 2001. Weakness always encourages aggression.

In an application of magical thinking, at the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan the entire U.S. military was instructed not to use the term “global war on terrorism”, replacing it instead with “overseas contingency.” The Obama administration has refused to identify the May 22nd murder of a British soldier on the streets of London by an Islamist as terrorism.

Obama spent his first term and now his second insisting that al Qaeda has been defeated despite ample evidence that it has not. He has never ceased to downplay any event that suggests we and the rest of the world are not engaged in a war with radical Islam.

The Benghazi scandal arose out of an effort to claim and cover-up that the attack was “spontaneous” and the result of an anti-Islam video despite the fact that it occurred on September 11, 2012. Earlier, an attack on soldiers based at Fort Hood was declared “workplace violence.” The bombing in Boston was glossed over as a criminal act, not a terrorist act of war.

The absurdity and the danger of not describing the many instances of the Islamic jihad is a failure of major proportions and not being willing to take preemptive action against its perpetrators suggests it will grow, not diminish, and not cease to threaten the homeland and the world.

In a scathing May 24 analysis of his speech, “President Obama is Tired of Fighting Terrorism”, the Heritage Foundation said that “even as new fronts in the war on terrorism sprang up, the Administration continued to argue that it was winning” despite the Benghazi attack, despite the Boston bombing, despite the attacks in Afghanistan. Time and again Obama has said that the assassination of Osama bin Laden marked the end of al Qaeda and that the isolated drone attacks have reduced its ability to wage jihad. It has not, but Obama proposed scaling back the use of drones.

“The war of ideas,” said Heritage, “was completely banned from the Obama lexicon. Islamist terrorism became ‘violent extremism.’ Terrorism became ‘senseless violence.’ In 2011, however, Obama shifted course dramatically."

"More than dumping the war of words, the White House signed off on a new counterterrorism strategy that amounted to running away from Iraq and Afghanistan as quickly as possible and limiting the offensive campaign to whacking top-level al Qaeda with drone strikes”, noting that “The new strategy was bound to fail, fighting the last war while al Qaeda evolved into a global insurgency that has spread from Pakistan to Nigeria.”

CONTINUE READING:  http://www.teapartynation.com/profiles/blog/show?id=3355873%3ABlogPost%3A2534650&xgs=1&xg_source=msg_share_post

Monday, March 18, 2013

Morning Bell: Make Your Voice Heard for Marriage

March 18, 2013

Marriage is the fundamental building block of all human civilization. All Americans, especially conservatives, should respect this crucial institution of civil society. This is why 41 states and the federal government affirm that marriage is between a man and a woman.

But these laws are on the line. Next week, the U.S. Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments in cases that challenge the constitutionality of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and California’s Proposition 8. The Court should uphold these laws and respect the constitutional authority of citizens and their elected officials to make marriage policy.

Next Tuesday, March 26, as the Supreme Court hears these cases, thousands will come to our nation’s capital to March for Marriage.

Watch a special invitation from Heritage President-elect Jim DeMint:

Make your voice heard in support of marriage between a man and a woman—and urge the Court to respect your constitutional authority. We don’t need an activist Court creating a Roe v. Wade on marriage.


Last Thursday, at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Senator DeMint highlighted the importance of marriage for America and limited government, and stressed the unity of social and fiscal conservatism:

We cannot hope to limit government if we do not stand up for our core civil society institutions, beginning with marriage. Marriage is the foundation of America’s cultural stability and economic prosperity, and the courts have no business overruling the people’s democratic decisions in the states. People can love whom they want and live the way they choose, but no one is entitled to redefine a foundational institution of civil society that has existed for centuries.


In two weeks, the Supreme Court will hear arguments against the right of states to protect marriage and the federal Defense of Marriage Act. Judicial activism is to blame for the Court even considering these cases. The Supreme Court should uphold these laws. It must recognize that the American people should make these decisions, not unelected judges.

We are told that the social issues divide Americans and that we should stop talking about them. We cannot.

Economic and social conservatism go hand-in-hand. They’re natural allies.   Perhaps you heard the news on Friday that Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) announced he now supports redefining marriage to include same-sex couples. You can read the Heritage response here. Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) responded by reiterating support for marriage as the union of a man and a woman. As we’ve explained, marriage matters for America and conservatism. Meanwhile, a broad and diverse array of scholars has filed more than 50 amicus briefs defending marriage at the Supreme Court.

And as Bill Beach and I show, we can craft policy that benefits all Americans without redefining marriage at all. Sometimes it’s as simple as repealing a bad tax.

We are only now beginning to have a national conversation about marriage. The people of France are already having this debate in their country. The Supreme Court cases provide a unique window of opportunity to explain what marriage is and why it matters. And all Americans need to be equipped for this conversation.

Working with the National Organization for Marriage, the Alliance Defending Freedom, and the Family Research Council, Heritage has produced a short pamphlet making the case for marriage in everyday language. It helps you articulate what your heart knows. And it walks you through the most frequently asked questions—the things you’re likely to hear from neighbors and friends. You can read and download the pamphlet online.

To better understand what is at stake, check out these resources. Last week Heritage published a new Backgrounder: “Marriage: What It Is, Why It Matters, and the Consequences of Redefining It.” With my co-authors Robert P. George and Sherif Girgis, we’ve filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court on the consequences of redefining marriage. We’ve also just published a book making the case for marriage: What Is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense.

Americans and their elected officials have constitutional authority to make marriage policy. When Americans hear the case for marriage as the union of a man and a woman and its importance to children and limited government, by and large they support it and stand for this timeless institution. All Americans, especially conservatives, should make the case for marriage. And the Supreme Court should respect our constitutional authority to do so.


MORE:  http://blog.heritage.org/2013/03/15/morning-bell-why-we-dont-need-universal-preschool/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=&utm_content=

Thursday, December 6, 2012

News from The Hill: Jim DeMint resigns from Senate

By Alexander Bolton

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) has resigned from the Senate to take over the conservative Heritage Foundation.

"It's been an honor to serve the people of South Carolina in the United States Senate for the past eight years, but now it's time for me to pass the torch to someone else and take on a new role in the fight for America's future," DeMint said in a statement that took Washington by surprise.

READ MORE:  http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/271411-jim-demint-resigns-from-senate

Friday, February 10, 2012

Why Congress should reject the highway bill

We're expecting debate to start on Monday or Tuesday in both the House and Senate on the infamous Highway bill. The legislation is how Congress plans to inefficiently fund transportation projects all across the country over the next few years, and it's a decidedly inept process.


The Club for Growth has been all over this from the beginning. They have issued Key Vote Alerts against BOTH the House and Senate versions.

Republican leaders in the House are claiming that their bill is a positive step forward because it doesn't include earmarks, but it's still remarkably inefficient. It contains no spending cuts and is paid for by dubious and uncertain offsets. It's also a bailout, paid for by you and me, for all of the poor funding decisions made in the past. The Senate version was written, in part, by Sen. Barbara Boxer, so you know it's not a recipe for limited government. One of the dumbest provisions, thanks to Sen. Max Baucus, would use auto import tariffs to pay for more spending. If that passed into law, the floodgates would open for new tariffs to pay for new highway spending!


Why Congress Should Reject the Highway Bill

Washington Examiner, Andy Roth
February 9, 2012

Everyone knows that if you take the bacon off a greasy cheeseburger, it’s still packed with tons of calories and saturated fat. So why do members of Congress think cutting pork from the 2012 Highway Bill should suddenly make it appetizing to fiscal conservatives?


The Highway Bill — the last one expires at the end of March — traditionally uses gas tax receipts to fund highway construction and maintenance, but it also finances “enhancement projects” like bike paths, transportation museums, and the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere.” Just over the past seven years, reckless spending on pork projects like these have caused the federal government to bail out the Highway Trust Fund three times to the tune of nearly $30 billion, according to the Heritage Foundation.

GOP leaders are claiming that fiscal conservatives should support the current bill because it does away with these projects. They’re even including expanded oil drilling as a sweetener to the deal, even though it has nothing to do with the Highway Trust Fund. But the bill is still a huge waste of money. It doesn’t cut any spending. It still requires higher-than-market wages that are a sop to labor unions. Worst of all, it perpetuates a system based on central planning from Washington.

CONTINUED:http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/op-eds/2012/02/why-congress-should-reject-highway-bill/253041

Friday, February 3, 2012

Conservative Leadership Conference (CLC)

March 2-3, 2012: Conservative Leadership Conference (CLC) at the Marriott Crabtree Valley in Raleigh, NC.

The Conference is designed to energize, train, and equip citizens and leaders in our state. North Carolina will be a battleground state like never before. We face battles in local elections, a constitutional amendment, and races for Governor, the NC General Assembly, and U.S. Congress.


This Conference will train, prepare, and motivate the citizens of North Carolina. We will have speakers and trainers from Heritage and Heritage Action, American Enterprise Institute, Americans for Prosperity, Civitas, and Texas Watchdog, along with radio personalities from the local and national level including Fox News Contributor, Dr. Charles Krauthammer. We hope that you will join us at this exciting and important Conference. For more information or to register, contact The Civitas institute at 919-834-2099 or visit http://www.battlegroundnc.org/.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

FACTSHEET: Obamacare: Obama Ends Medicare As We Know It

From the Heritage Foundation
January 25, 2012

We Need Medicare Reform, but Not Obamacare


Obamacare Ends Traditional Medicare, but the Wrong Way: Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi claimed that the health law protects Medicare. The truth: Obamacare makes massive changes to the program. Obamacare contains more than 160 provisions for Medicare that increase government’s control over the delivery of care, hit doctors with unsustainable payment cuts, and leave taxpayers with higher deficits.

Obamacare Continues an Outdated Model for Reform: Obamacare expands central planning and tightens price controls on providers. These recycled mechanisms have yet to show any success in driving down costs without harming patients’ access and quality of care. Even the program’s chief accountant says many Medicare providers cannot survive the cuts.

Obamacare Undermines the Doctor–Patient Relationship: On top of the severe payment cuts facing physicians that will threaten seniors’ access, the law weakens the doctor–patient relationship by linking payment not to patient outcomes but to adherence to government protocol.

MUCH MORE!http://www.heritage.org/research/factsheets/2012/01/obamacare-obama-ends-medicare-as-we-know-it?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Heritage%2BHotsheet

Monday, November 21, 2011

Heritage Foundation Asks: Which Presidential Candidate Will Protect America?

Heritage Foundation and CNN will co-sponsor Presidential Debate on Defense and Foreign Policy--Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 8:00 pm on CNN



Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Obama Admin. Announces Tax on Chistmas Trees…to Improve ‘Image’ of Chistmas Trees

Are you starting to get in the Christmas spirit? Feeling a little holly and jolly? Well, this might make you a little Scrooge-like. The Obama administration has just announced a 15-cent charge — or tax — on all fresh Christmas trees to, as the Heritage Foundation explains, “improve the image and marketing of Christmas trees.”


Heritage has more:

In the Federal Register of November 8, 2011, Acting Administrator of Agricultural Marketing David R. Shipman announced that the Secretary of Agriculture will appoint a Christmas Tree Promotion Board. The purpose of the Board is to run a “program of promotion, research, evaluation, and information designed to strengthen the Christmas tree industry’s position in the marketplace; maintain and expend existing markets for Christmas trees; and to carry out programs, plans, and projects designed to provide maximum benefits to the Christmas tree industry” (7 CFR 1214.46(n)). And the program of “information” is to include efforts to “enhance the image of Christmas trees and the Christmas tree industry in the United States” (7 CFR 1214.10).

To pay for the new Federal Christmas tree image improvement and marketing program, the Department of Agriculture imposed a 15-cent fee on all sales of fresh Christmas trees by sellers of more than 500 trees per year (7 CFR 1214.52). And, of course, the Christmas tree sellers are free to pass along the 15-cent Federal fee to consumers who buy their Christmas trees.

The new charge, however, could mean bad news for the industry. Politico reports sales of fresh trees has declined lately:


Fresh tree sales declined from 37 million in 1991 to 31 million in 2007, according to the Agriculture Department. Meanwhile, sales of artificial trees nearly doubled to 17.4 million between 2003 and 2007, according to McClatchy.

“The economy is barely growing and nine percent of the American people have no jobs,” Heritage says. “Is a new tax on Christmas trees the best President Obama can do?”

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/obama-admin-announces-tax-on-chistmas-trees-to-improve-image-of-chistmas-trees/

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Morning Bell: Surprising Facts about America’s Poor

September 13, 2011

In his address to the joint session of Congress last week, President Barack Obama called for $477 billion in new federal spending, which he said would give hundreds of thousands of disadvantaged young people hope and dignity while giving their low-income parents “ladders out of poverty.” And today, the U.S. Census released its annual poverty report, which declared that 46.2 million persons, or roughly one in seven Americans, were poor in 2010. What President Obama didn’t tell America as he was pleading for more spending–and what the Census Bureau didn’t report–is what it really means to be poor in America.


In a new report, Heritage’s Robert Rector and Rachel Sheffield lay out what the U.S. government’s own facts and figures really say about poverty in the United States. The results might surprise you, especially if your view of poverty is the conventional one, perpetuated by the media–namely, destitute conditions of homelessness and hunger. In reality, though, the living conditions of those defined as poor by the government are much different than that popular image. The following are facts about persons defined as “poor” by the Census Bureau:

CONTINUE READING: 
http://blog.heritage.org/2011/09/13/morning-bell-surprising-facts-about-americas-poor/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell

Friday, January 21, 2011

The House Repealed Obamacare. What Next? HERITAGE FOUNDATION reports

The Heritage Foundation
Thursday, January 20, 2011 5:14 PM

Last night, the House of Representatives, the legislative chamber of Congress closest to American popular opinion, voted to repeal Obamacare—the increasingly unpopular law which led directly to a change in the control of Congress just three months ago.

Many will tell you that yesterday’s bipartisan vote of 245 to 189 was an exercise in futility—an empty, symbolic measure. Liberals in Congress, the White House and their echo chamber in the media all insist, as NPR has duly reported, that “this measure will go no further.”

Don’t believe this for a single minute. The vote last night was an important step in the democratic process of protecting and conserving our constitutional freedoms.

Our country, it is increasingly clear, has arrived at a pivotal moment – perhaps the pivotal moment – in its history. Together, we face a choice between two futures. One is a collectivist future where the federal government claims ever increasing shares of our income and grants itself the authority to make decisions affecting virtually every aspect of our daily lives. The other future is built upon the idea that individual freedom trumps government authority, and that in those rare cases when solving a problem requires government, the government that governs best is the one that is smallest and closest to the people. That is the future that we should seek – reaffirming our individual liberty, strengthening private markets, shrinking the size of governments, and making decisions wherever possible at the local level rather than in Washington.

No issue joins this debate more dramatically than the question of Obamacare, and what to do about it. It’s not just about health care. The law redefines our centuries-old understanding of the reach of federal authority, indeed whether there are any limits at all to the government’s ability to intrude upon individuals, families, business owners, physicians and other health providers, and state and local governments. Little or nothing will be allowed outside the new regulatory scheme – no alternative state programs, no individuals or businesses that choose not to participate, no truly private market alternatives.

The debate boils down to one big question: Shall we govern ourselves, or let unelected bureaucrats rule us?

Behind this question are the many other specific ones about health care:

  • Should the federal government control America’s $2.5 trillion health sector, fully one sixth of our economy?
  • Should government bureaucrats decide what form of health coverage is “acceptable”?
  • Should these bureaucrats be given the legal authority to require all Americans to purchase government-designed health plans and levy penalties on those who don’t comply?
  • Should the federal government require the States to devote scarce resources to the creation of federally designed health exchanges that State lawmakers may feel inadequately address the unique needs of state residents?
  • Should the federal government expand the Medicaid program so dramatically that States face a Hobson’s choice – either shoulder billions in new fiscal commitments (on top of an already unsustainable budget mess) or withdraw from the program entirely?
What about employers who want to continue to provide their employees with health coverage but learn that federal bureaucrats deem the coverage they can afford to provide insufficiently generous?

And these are but the most obvious concerns raised by last year’s law.  But what comes next, you ask?

First, it is incumbent on the Majority leader of the Senate, Harry Reid (D-NV) to allow a vote on the floor of that chamber. A bipartisan majority in one half of Congress has just repealed the most ambitious expansion of the federal government in many decades following a major electoral reversal for his party. For Mr. Reid to prevent this vote from coming to the Senate floor would be to thumb his nose at the will of the American people. Senators must be allowed to vote on this question so that repeal legislation might go to the president for his consideration.

In the meantime, Heritage Distinguished Fellow Ernest Istook (who sat on the Appropriations Committee for 14 years) and Government Relations Director Brian Darling say that an incremental strategy is critical. To start the de facto repeal of Obamacare, lawmakers should focus on dismantling the key provisions that form the very foundation of the law’s architecture. This means, for example, going after the pillars of the law through a variety of means like de-funding its critical aspects, engaging in aggressive oversight of the consequences of the law and enacting legislative triggers to delay or block its implementation. All these approaches will contribute to Obamacare’s implosion.

While that important national debate is taking place, the House of Representatives can move to defund provisions of Obamacare through either a rescissions package or funding riders. Congress is not required to fund this law or the myriad of new programs that it spawned. Like every other federal program, the current Congress can adjust – or even zero out – the level of funding for the implementation of Obamacare. Special provisions in the health care law will complicate the process, but the propriety of de-funding is unquestionable. As noted by the Congressional Research Service (CRS), “Congress is not required to provide funds for every agency or purpose authorized by law.”

De-funding is a legitimate use of the power of the purse that the Founding Fathers wisely granted to Congress. It won’t be easy. Obamacare was designed to be the governmental equivalent of kudzu – growing everywhere. However, Obamacare is not a fait accompli, no matter what the Left is telling you.

After a clean repeal we can move on to debate what good ideas on health care can be adopted in the future, as Heritage health care expert Nina Owcharenko does in her report, “Repealing Obamacare and Getting Healthcare Right.”

The House of Representatives acted wisely last night. Now the debate opens again. It’s a national debate we need to have, and we need to have it now. Don’t listen to those who want to stifle this debate, or close this controversy. There’s nothing uncivil about standing up for your freedoms. This is no time for summer soldiers and sunshine patriots.

None of our work on Obamacare would be possible without the dedicated support of our 710,000 members from around the nation. Support us as we keep the momentum going for repeal.

Sincerely,
Edwin J. Feulner, Ph.D.
President
The Heritage Foundation

Monday, October 25, 2010

Conservative Action Alerts

Defending the Constitution against a Radical Federal Government

“We don’t sue because we don’t like things. That is what elections are for,” Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli told the closing lunch of the Fall 2010 Legal Strategy Forum, “We sue because some things the federal government has done are unconstitutional.” Speaking at The Heritage Foundation Thursday, Cucinelli urged the public interest lawyers in attendance to do all that they can to educate the public about how the federal government’s ever expanding power is antithetical to our nation’s First Principles. “These legal battles have been coming for some time. The hyper aggressive expansion of federal power did not start in the last two years. The problem stretches back into previous administrations,” he said.


While Virginia is also involved with litigation against the Environmental Protection Agency, Cuccinelli spent most of his time addressing Virginia’s suit challenging the federal government’s power to force all Americans to buy health insurance. Cuccinelli reached all they way back to before the nation’s founding to bolster his claim that an individual mandate is beyond the scope of powers the Founding Fathers intended the federal government to have.

In 1774, the First Continental Congress implemented a trade boycott against Great Britain in protest of the Intolerable Acts. When King George III asked if the colonists could boycott British goods, his solicitor general informed him it was beyond the power of the king to mandate that his subjects buy specific goods like tea. “The power of the United States government under the Constitution must be smaller than that of King George,” Cuccinelli said.

Cuccinelli also recounted an admission made by former Solicitor General Walter Dellinger at an earlier panel discussion. Pressed to identify what – if any – boundaries there are to federal government power if courts find the individual mandate Constitutional, Dellinger said the only boundary left would be politics. “Congress could force you to buy cars. Even a specific car, like an Equinox. I have an Equinox. You don’t want one.”

Cuccinelli had one word to describe such an interpretation of federal government power: “radical.”


http://conservativeactionalerts.com/blog_post/show/1378


The Constitution for the United States -- Full Text Here
http://www.conservativeactionalerts.com/blog_post/show/702

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Patriot’s Handbook

Patriot’s Handbook a Practical Guide to Restoring Liberty
by James Simpson

A Country in Crisis

America is a country in crisis. From financial meltdown to economic hardship; from a growing list of hostile foes to grave doubts among our allies; from failures in schools and fractured families to federal government intrusion into virtually every aspect of life, our country faces a profound, multi-dimensional crisis that threatens to destroy our livelihoods, our form of government and our very way of life. It casts a bleak shadow on the future for our children, their children and all future generations.

The events of the Obama administration’s first two years have brought this crisis into sharp focus. Never in recent memory have any President and Congress attempted to move so far, so fast to radically transform our country. They have sought to impose vast new regulatory regimes against our will, and engaged in a budget busting spending spree – robbing a flagging economy of much-needed resources and raising the specter of rampant inflation. And while threatening economic stability at home, the administration pursues a foreign policy of indulging our enemies and undermining national defense.

But this radical leftist administration and Democrat-controlled Congress are only a symptom of a larger systemic problem. The radical Left represents an indescribably destructive system of thinking and philosophy of government that has gradually been “mainstreamed” over the past century. It infests our grade schools and college campuses. It pervades the thinking of most among our media elite, the political class and even the church. It must be expunged from our national psyche if we are ever to rescue ourselves from this crisis.

America has become detached and largely ignorant of the core principles that made this country great. It is critical to our long-term survival that we rediscover and embrace again the key concepts of individual freedom, individual responsibility, limited government and the rule of law.

The founders of this country gave us an incredible set of documents: the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. These documents provide a firm road map to return our country to fiscal and moral responsibility, and are the reason we have been a beacon of hope for the rest of the world for over two centuries.

The Solution

“It does not take a majority to prevail … but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.” Samuel Adams

America’s unique spirit of freedom and independence has bred in us a brave, resourceful and innovative nature. In times of past crises, Americans have always risen to the occasion. Now Americans have answered the call once more, as the Tea Party movement, or perhaps it should be called the Liberty Movement, blossomed spontaneously to meet these challenges.

At rallies and town halls over the spring and summer of 2009, the American people expressed a growing chorus of concern. The massive Washington, DC rally on Sept. 12th removed any doubt that there was a nationwide movement afoot. Stunning political reversals in New Jersey and Virginia’s special elections last fall were stern warnings to the liberals, and the January 2010 election of a Republican to fill the seat left by the death of ultra-liberal Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy was, like Concord, Massachusetts, 235 years before, “the shot heard round the world.” Primaries and special elections in 2010, including the first Hawaiian Republican Congressman in 20 years, further confirm this sea change in national outlook.

The April 2010 Battleground Poll, considered to be one of the most accurate political polls, found that 59 percent of Americans identify themselves as conservative. Since 2002, this number has never gone below 58 percent. This is three-fifths of the population!

Polls indicate that a majority of the American people support the Tea Party message. A whopping 58 percent of mainstream voters have a favorable opinion of the Tea Party movement. A recent Rasmussen poll says that 24 percent of all Americans say that they or someone close to them is a Tea Partier. That is one quarter of the population.

While not all tea partiers are conservatives and vice versa, we share a common goal. That is to scale back massive government intrusion into our lives and restore America’s constitutional principles: limited government and the rule of law.

Combined, we represent an overwhelming majority of Americans. “We surround them,” as Glenn Beck says. In fact, about the only people who oppose our message are the radical Left. In other words, we are America!

Our potential political power is vast, but we have a long way to go to realize that potential. The Left is deeply entrenched within our institutions. Vladimir Lenin exhorted his followers: “Organize, organize, organize.” The Left took this lesson to heart and today acts largely as one mass organism – the various groups operating with common goals and coordinated activities. In any policy debate they speak with one voice, and that voice is endlessly echoed in the mass media mouthpiece they control.

We have to take a cue from Lenin and fuse our potential into organized action. We must commit ourselves to working together as one movement to retake the levers of power at all levels of government. Our goal is to scale back government’s massive growth, and rid ourselves of the leftist termites that for decades have been ceaselessly gnawing away at the foundations of our institutions, our culture and our Constitution.

This will not be easy. Not only are we threatening an ideology the Left has spent decades implanting in the American psyche, we are threatening a vast and lucrative power structure that has enriched people willing to promote leftist goals. The Left is its own industry.

This is why we are being ceaselessly attacked and vilified in the press as dangerous, right-wing extremists. The Left recognizes us as a mortal threat to their interests, and in the past their tactics have been very effective in silencing critics.

But there is a difference this time. Instead of singling out one person or a small group – easy targets for the leftist machine, they are attempting to marginalize the entire population of mainstream America! They are the extremists, and we all know it. But the unfortunate fact is that as long as the Left controls the message their intimidation methods can be effective anyway.

There are still many people unaware of what is happening in America, people who are willing to be influenced by the mass media’s carefully crafted propaganda. But the media’s message is a threat to everyone: identifying with the Liberty movement means you are odd. You are an extremist. You are the enemy! And what does a society do with extremists? Monitor them? Arrest them? At best, it marginalizes them. For many people, especially those who are either insecure or not fully cognizant of the danger we face as a nation, these threats will easily defeat reason, because they are implicit threats against both one’s life and place in society.

The Left will continue to do all it can to marginalize, intimidate and discourage us from our task. And these attacks, now apparently including physical attacks, will increase. There are a number of things all Patriots should do to inoculate themselves from these pressures:

1.Join a Tea Party, or conservative political club of your choice. Become a formal part of a party organization.

2.Maintain regular contact with like-minded individuals, hang out together regularly and join in movement activities suggested in this pamphlet as a group.

3.Read, read, read. Educate yourself on the issues to build confidence, help inform others and reinforce your commitment.

4.Remember that we surround them. They are a loud but small minority. They can only win if we let them.

This little pamphlet was written to assist us in our fight, for our greatest weapon is information. With information, we can discover the enemy’s weak points. With information, we can deflect his strategies, and turn them against him. With information, we can educate others to join our cause. With information, we can overcome the mountain of misinformation produced by the Left’s media propagandists.

With information we can win.

What You Can Do Right Now to Save Your Country

Get off the sidelines. Jump in and participate. Fully acknowledge to yourself that this is a battle for the heart, soul and future of our Nation. Accept the lesson Americans of countless past generations have taught: if you want to get something dodne, you have to do it yourself. Commit to taking action.

I. First Things First

Electing the right people this coming November is a critical first step to restoring our liberty. It is up to you as a citizen to play what part you can in every election – local, state and national. Without conservative majorities across the land and especially in the U.S. Congress next year, eventual victory may be out of reach. Here are twenty ways you can get involved:

1. Support conservative candidates at all levels. It is critically important to rebuild a conservative majority from the ground up. There are many local and state offices: town council, county board, sheriff, state assembly, state senate, and a host of other elected positions crying for principled, conservative leadership.

2. Understand the essential role of the local party committee/precinct.

Read:

■The Most Powerful Office in the World IS NOT the President of the United States.
http://www.eagleforum.org/misc/brochures/precinct-committman.shtml
■Visit Precinct Solution.org for a concise and easy-to-follow explanation.
http://www.precinctsolution.org/

3. Join your Party’s formal structure. Attend local Party central committee meetings and become involved. Run or be appointed to a seat on the committee.

4. Help build your precinct: visit, call, e-mail; many areas have no political infrastructure. Focus your efforts: build out from targeted voter lists. Get the list from your local party or registrar of voters. Focus on getting registered voters energized first.

5. Volunteer to become a precinct/block captain. These are challenging jobs but critical to identifying and motivating voters. Block captains are almost always in short supply.

6. Volunteer to be an election judge or poll watcher. Conservatives frequently leave this job to others, with predictable results. Vote fraud is an increasing problem, with much of the leftist infrastructure getting behind the effort. George Soros has even funded something called the Secretary of State project, designed to elect leftists to oversee each state’s vote count.

7. Run for political office. If you feel you can make a contribution this way, consider running. The country needs you, now!

Useful websites:

■The Green Papers blog provides access to comprehensive election information by state.
http://www.thegreenpapers.com/
■Federal Election Commission provides campaign law, filing dates by state and other useful information.
http://www.fec.gov/
■Your state’s Party organizations provide detailed information about each political subdivision within the state, down to the precinct level.

8. Learn to use social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instant Messaging to help promote candidates and the conservative message. Communication is key and these tools greatly facilitate spreading the message.

Get two great free tutorials to learn how: Facebook PDF Guide and Twitter PDF Guide, from American Majority.org.

9. Volunteer to maintain Facebook/Twitter site for candidates.

10. Use personal e-mail accounts to promote candidates and spread the conservative message.

11. Volunteer for candidate sign waving – believe it or not, this simple activity does more for candidate name recognition than many other activities.

12. Volunteer to canvas for candidates.

13. Attend candidate fundraisers.

14. Volunteer for phone banks or just to make calls. With modern technology, you can now call from your home or car. There is often no longer a need to actually go to a phone bank.

15. Get certified from your local Board of Elections to register voters. This is usually an easy step, involving a short trip to the Board of Elections office and swearing in.

16. Volunteer for door knocking.

17. Put up yard/street signs. Use and distribute candidate bumper stickers.

18. Join a political campaign. If you feel strongly about a particular candidate, focus your efforts and volunteer to work to get him/her elected.

19. 72 hour push – Last three days before November elections, volunteer for any activity to help get out the vote for your candidates.

20. On election day, work outside polls with signs, sample ballots and pamphlets, if state campaign law allows.

II. Build Strength in Numbers and Unity

In everything you do, there is strength in numbers. Keep it in the forefront of your mind that you are not alone, that you are part of a nationwide movement to save America.

You will be hearing this a lot: strength in numbers. Organize, organize, organize. Try to do everything as a group. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Any action you take is multiplied in effect when you do it as a group. There is synergy in collective action. Everyone in the group gets a morale boost by being a part of something rather than merely a lone voice in the wilderness. You can also accomplish more: tasks can be delegated to those best suited for them, lessening the time and resource demands on each individual.

On the other hand, one person alone making calls to Congress, writing letters or indeed, taking on some of the tasks suggested in this handbook will quickly become overwhelmed, exhausted and discouraged. Furthermore, the voice of an individual, unless a uniquely influential individual like Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh for example, is largely ineffectual and quickly gets lost in the din and roar of all the others.

So suit up and join up. We have to hang together or we will certainly hang separately.

You should begin to meet regularly with a circle of like-minded friends. Join a Tea Party, conservative or other patriotic organization in your area. Attend as many Tea Party rallies/events as you can. These are not merely feel-good exercises. They are opportunities to add your voice to the chorus, to let them know we are out there and we have strength in numbers. It’s also an opportunity to network, get news, find out what other groups are up to and learn new tactics. Most organization websites have event lists and/or search functions. National Journal has a good rundown of the top 12 tea party related organizations. Here is a short list

Tea Party Patriots (Probably the best known. SEARCH for an TPP group/event near you)
FreedomWorks (Organizers of the 9-12 Rally. Congressman Dick Armey’s group)
Tax Day Tea Party (Inspired by Rick Santelli. State-by-state directory online)
Our Country Deserves Better (Founded by organizer of CA Governor Gray Davis recall; organizers of Tea Party Express bus tours. Hosted 2010 Searchlight, NV rally – home of Democrat Senator Harry Reid)
Tea Party Nation (this is a for profit group)

Other Tea Party associated groups:

Americans for Limited Government (Information resource – free signup)
Americans for Prosperity (Dedicated to limited government/free markets)
American Majority (Trains conservative political activists/candidates)
Grassroots America We the People (Feisty East Texas organization, a model for grassroots organizing. Executive Director JoAnn Fleming initiated Justice Foundation’s Project Liberty, a citizen class-action lawsuit against Obamacare)
Independence Caucus (Started as volunteers to elect Congressman Jason Chaffetz)
Liberty First PAC (Actively supports conservative candidates)
912 Project (Glenn Beck’s group)
Smart Girl Politics (Called the “Founding Sisters of the Tea Party movement” by Michelle Malkin)

Remember, strength in numbers!

III. Familiarize Yourself with the Tactics of the Radical Left

The radical Left seeks to undermine this country and destroy its institutions. As they have no legitimate claim to power, their only real tactics are deception, the smear and outright confrontation. They use lies and misinformation to confuse and mislead. They use the smear to discredit and marginalize opponents. When all else fails, they use street thugs. In everything they do, the intent is to intimidate, polarize and destroy their opponents – Saul Alinsky’s most successful tactic.

In confronting this ugly truth, remember once again, strength in numbers. Their intimidation tactics can work against individuals but not a united front. We are America. It is our cause that has the moral authority. Think of our family, our children and their future – think of the great gift we have been given simply by being born Americans. We have something they never will: a cause worth fighting for! So fight smart:

■Read David Horowitz’s short pamphlets: Barack Obama’s Rules for Revolution and The Art of Political Warfare for Tea Parties.
■Read Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals and/or Reveille for Radicals. Familiarize yourself with Alinsky’s 13 Rules.
■Apply/defeat Alinsky tactics: Read about the San Francisco’s Tea Party Patriots’ successful use of Alinsky tactics.
Take a camera or video recorder with you to every rally you attend. Surround tea party “crashers” and phony “rightwing nutcase” plants as soon as you identify them. Take lots of pictures/video and urge the people you are with to do the same.
■When you attend rallies, bring eye-catching signs saying “Infil-Traitor” or “Not With Us” with arrows to point at leftist plants as Tea Partiers in several cities have done. Make this a dedicated task for willing rally participants. Take pictures and video of the phonies. Point at them and laugh.
■Challenge people who disparage our movement and/or make statements about public policy you know to be false.
■Aggressively expose all Astroturf operations.
■Get to know who the leftists are. Utilize KeyWiki, an amazing catalog of the Left by famed researcher, Trevor Loudon.
■Expose the Left for the mean-spirited, self-serving movement it is. Document their abuses and intrusions. Nothing dries up festering boils like sunshine.

IV. Be Heard

It can’t be emphasized enough: strength in numbers. Take heart from the fact that you represent America, what our country stands for, what made it great. Let your voice join the chorus of protest. Make that chorus rise to the heavens. Here are five ways you can be heard:

1. Voting is a precious and essential right to secure and maintain our constitutional republic. Register to vote, vote in all elections you can and actively help others to do the same.

2. Join Heritage Action for America:
■Communicate with Congressmen and Senators on key policy issues.
■Attend virtual town halls using online chat to discuss issues with experts.

3. Attend town council meetings, town halls, communicate with elected leaders.

4. Use the following tools to contact your Representative/Senator, look up pending legislation and track how they vote:

E-mail your Representative/Senators
Write/call your Representative (includes mailing labels with Member addresses)
Write/call your Senators (includes mailing labels with Member addresses)
■These Senate, House and Library of Congress sites allow you to look up pending legislation
■Track your Congressmen’s votes with Congress.org’s Megavote – get weekly e-mail updates on how they are voting, communicate with both federal/state legislators and much more

5. Write and call local print and broadcast media. This is important. The media is largely responsible for the ascendancy of the Left. Without the media defending and promoting them, leftists and leftist ideas could never have gotten out of the cellar. But the media still has to turn a profit (in most cases). Dog them relentlessly in order to:

■Expose media bias
■Air views on key issues

You may contact many local newsmagazines through this site: Newsweekly Directory.

V. Take Civic Action

The Left uses our taxes, our donations, our corporations and even our investments [JKW3] to promote its anti-American agenda. They produce little of value without our unwitting assistance. We have the power in our hands to defang the Left. One last time: we have strength in numbers. Conservatives compose the majority of the American people. Let’s use our overwhelming power in coordinated action to de-fund their movement with 12 Steps to Freedom:

1. Spotlight the Radicals Utilize David Horowitz’s wide-ranging online tool, Discover the Networks to research and identify radical organizations, funders and individuals in politics, non-profits, corporations, finance and the entertainment industry.

2. Lobby Congress to De-Fund the Left Many radical leftist organizations, like National Council of La Raza, the Council on American Islamic Relations, ACORN and the ACLU, receive government grants and appropriations to pursue their radical, destructive activities. Go online and see what ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis said to the Young Democratic Socialists in a short online video to see how she views America. Grassroots conservatives should work with sympathetic members of Congress and state legislators to repeal statutes granting tax dollars to these groups.

3. Boycott Leftist Media National news media serves as the rhetorical sword and shield of the Left, while many TV shows and movie channels subtly, and sometimes not so subtly, promote the leftist message. But they all rely on advertising and/or subscription revenue to survive. Here are very simple steps that you can do from home:

■Discontinue subscriptions to newspapers and magazines with a leftist slant.
■Cease unnecessary patronage of network and cable television stations that show leftwing bias. Stop watching them.

4. Counter Biased Reporting with Phone Calls and Letters Most TV, radio and print media have an ombudsman. Demand their reporting be based on fact and clear thoughts. Ask them to abide by their own ethical standards, requiring reporters to be fair, accurate and unbiased.

See codes of ethics for the Washington Post, or the New York Times, for example. Their standards are in black and white. Do they abide by them?

5. Boycott Hollywood The movie industry is controlled by leftists. They have created a blacklist against non-leftist actors that dwarfs the anti-communist blacklist of the 1950s, virtually shutting out any message except that of the radical left. Read movie reviews and avoid movies that promote leftist propaganda or send a culturally destructive message. They rely completely on our entertainment dollars. Cut ‘em off! Go bowling instead, or take your kids to miniature golf! Support your local small businesses. They are more likely to be conservative, too.

6. Protect Our Children from the Leftist Message The Left has also introduced toxic messages to our children through their control of the media. Review both movies and TV shows for leftist and/or culturally degenerate messages. Spend more time with your kids instead!

7. Stop Donating to Leftist Charities Many think tanks, foundations and charities are controlled by radicals and promote the radical leftist cause. Quit sending them money! Even familiar groups like the Red Cross and United Way fund radical causes. They also use disastrous events like 9-11, the Indonesian Tsunami and the Haitian earthquake as an excuse to raise funds for ongoing activities. Some will use it for nefarious purposes. For example, the money you kind-heartedly donated to the United Way 9-11 fund to assist victims families could have gone to pay legal fees for terrorism suspects. If you intend to donate funds for victims of some tragedy, check to be sure your money is earmarked for that purpose. In many cases, it isn’t. Carefully vet all organizations you intend to donate funds to:

■Read the revealing FrontPage Magazine article, Foundations of Betrayal.
■Examine the charitable giving of corporations you deal with or own stock in. Write, call or attend shareholder meetings to protest.
■See Discover the Networks’ “Funders” page for a wealth of information on the subject.
■Utilize Discover the Networks’ lists of top leftist funders and top conservative funders.
■If you don’t already know who he is, read about George Soros at Discover the Networks.
■See Discover the Networks’ extensive list of Soros funded charities.
■Here are a few of the better-known leftist foundations and non-profits:

■Open Society Institute
■Tides Foundation
■Ford Foundation
■Rockefeller Foundation
■MacArthur Foundation
■Carnegie Endowment
■Packard Foundation
■Pew Charitable Trusts
■Turner Foundation
Hewlett Foundation
■Public Interest Research Groups
■National Audubon Society
■Defenders of Wildlife
■Sierra Club
■Natural Resources Defense Council
■Greenpeace
■U.S. Peace Council
■Center for Constitutional Rights
■National Lawyers Guild
■American Civil Liberties Union
■Institute for Policy Studies
■Friends of the Earth
■Center for American Progress
■Industrial Areas Foundation

8. Be a Friend of the Earth – De-fund the Environmental Movement Most mainstream environmental groups do not support American free enterprise. Their agendas tend to be about attacking capitalism more than saving the environment. Read the testimonial of Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore, who has been vilified by the environmental movement for pointing this out. Because many such groups are run by radical leftists, they also use “saving the environment” as a pretext for supporting other causes. For example, Defenders of Wildlife opposes the Global War on Terror, and along with the Audubon Society and Sierra Club, has sued the government to prevent construction of the border fence.

9. De-fund Leftist Churches and Synagogues Many churches support leftist causes, knowingly or otherwise. Consult Discover the Networks resource “Religious Left Groups.” Gather like-minded individuals in your parish or congregation and discuss this issue. Obtain a list from your church office showing where and how your tithe dollars are spent. Consult the other leftist charity lists mentioned earlier. In many cases you will be horrified. Find out if your church donates to, or is a member of any of the organizations listed below. As a group, demand your church stop funding these and other radical organizations and causes or find another church.

National Council of Churches (radical leftist promoters of “liberation theology.”) The NCC includes among its members 35 Christian denominations representing 140,000 congregations with over 50 million members. Check the list, if your church is among those denominations, find another church, NOW.

World Council of Churches (NCC is the domestic subsidiary of the WCC.) The leader of the WCC acknowledged on CBS’s 60 Minutes many years ago that the church’s philosophy was Marxism. There is also an alleged connection to the Soviet KGB.
Church World Service – Funds leftist causes worldwide.
American Friends Service Committee – Quaker. Has supported many radical leftist causes around the globe for years.
Mennonite Central Committee – Strongly anti-Israel. Hosted dinner with Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
■Christian Peacemaker Teams – Anti-war group posed as human shields in Iraq.
Jews Against the Occupation – Pro-Palestinian, anti-Israeli Jewish group.
Catholic Campaign for Human Development – Supports leftist causes, including Saul Alinsky’s Industrial Areas Foundation.
Gamaliel Foundation – Supports network of leftist groups and scriptural relativism.

10. Take back our schools The National Education Association is a radical leftist organization and has a virtual vice grip control over public school budgets. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, however, is proving change can happen. Attend PTA meetings, obtain a seat your local PTA or run for seat on Board of Education. Inspect your child’s textbooks. Support candidates and elected officials who favor school vouchers.

11. Take Back Our Universities Before you donate to any private secondary schools or colleges, including your alma mater, or in considering a suitable private school or college for your child, check the institution’s record on speech codes and free speech policies. Have any incidents occurred on their campuses where conservative speakers were harassed, intimidated or denied the opportunity to speak? Have any incidents of classroom bias or intimidation been reported? Utilize the following resources:

TheFire.org: online resource for researching school speech codes and other evidence of anti-free speech bias. Excellent school search tool.
■David Horowitz Freedom Center’s Student Center: includes many tools for fighting anti-American bias on campus.
The American Council of Trustees and Alumni: organization dedicated to academic freedom, excellence and accountability.
National Association of Scholars: The NAS is a watchdog group dedicated to “intellectual integrity in the curriculum, in the classroom, and across the campus.”
Freedom Forum and First Amendment Center.

12. Take Back Our Borders This is a critical national security issue, but will require a sea-change in thinking on Capitol Hill and in many state legislatures because many lawmakers shamefully see open borders and amnesty for illegal immigrants as a vote-getter. All the more reason we must remove the current crop of liberals and replace them with solid conservatives who understand that the border must be secured. There are many things activists can do:

■Support strong conservative candidates and lawmakers at all levels.
■Let federal, state and local lawmakers know every time an immigration issue arises.
■Don’t hire immigrants who cannot prove their legal immigration status.
■Support making English the official language of the United States. The U.S. English website’s Action Center provides updates on this movement at both the state and federal level.
■Read Heritage.org backgrounders on amnesty and immigration. Heritage has a number of solid proposals for resolving the illegal immigration issue:
■Enact E-Verify to enable immediate identification of worker status.
■Enforce immigration and workplace laws.
■Secure the southern border.
■Promote economic development and good governance in Central/South America.
■Improve the temporary worker program.
■Improve efficiency at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
■Strengthen citizenship through language, history and civics education.
Encourage states to do more. Read about Arizona’s new immigration law, for example.
■Expand Secure Communities program

VI. Reinforce Your Understanding of Constitutional Principles

Conservatives can win countless elections, but unless and until our culture and society return to a full understanding and acceptance of fundamental Constitutional concepts, like limited government, separation of powers, individual rights and responsibilities, we will face this crisis over and over again.

To shore up your understanding of these principles there is no better resource than the Heritage Foundation. This group is an amazing resource for material on virtually any public policy issue, and most of it is available, free. Because of this, we have linked to a lot of Heritage studies and tools in this document. For constitutional issues, utilize the following resources:

■Get the free Heritage Pocket Constitution and Declaration of Independence.
■Download the free PDF book: How to Read the Federalist Papers.
■Use the Heritage website, First Principles as a regular reference. Bookmark the site.
■Get the Heritage Guide to the Constitution, by Reagan AG Edwin Meese.

VII. Arm Yourself with Facts on Key Issues

Communicate to family, friends, neighbors and acquaintances. Discuss/share with fellow activists these ten key issues and resources:

1. Understanding the financial crisis: the direct result of leftist meddling in the mortgage market:

■Familiarize yourself with Cloward & Piven and the Manufactured Crisis Strategy.
■Read A Financial Crisis of Government’s Making.

2. Global leadership, national security and immigration

■See the free online film 33 Minutes: Protecting America in the New Missile Age.
■Free 1 Pager Missile Defense Brief. Includes 14 embedded links to Heritage foundation studies on aspects of this issue.
■Find out about Secure Communities, a model for immigration enforcement.
■Sign up for free weekly 33 Minutes Missile Defense Update and twice weekly National Security Update e-mails from Heritage.org.

3. Entitlements; our greatest domestic challenge

■See Heritage’s free 12 minute video: A Legacy of Debt.
How poor are America’s “poor?” See Glenn Beck’s explanation in this short video.
■Access Heritage.org’s free resource page on entitlements, poverty & inequality.
■Sign up for free biweekly Budget Bulletin e-mail

4. The truth about the energy crisis

■Read free report Twelve Principles to Guide U.S. Energy Policy.
■Sign up for free weekly Energy and Environment Update e-mail.

5. The crisis in American education:

■Download Heritage’s free report, A Parents Guide to Education Reform
■See the video, Let Me Rise
■Sign up for free weekly Education Notebook e-mail

6. What to do about healthcare:

■Visit Heritage’s online healthcare resource: http://www.fixhealthcarepolicy.org/
■Sign up for free weekly Fix Healthcare Policy e-mail

7. Daily updates on critical issues: sign up for Heritage’s free Morning Bell and Heritage Hotsheet emails

8. Take advantage of Heritage.org’s countless free resources on virtually any policy issue:

Policy Experts – access to experts and issues
Insider Online – free information on virtually any public policy topic
■Insider Online Toolkit – free how-to guides on internet marketing, protocol, event planning and much more
Conservative Community – portal for access to information and tools of value to movement conservatives, including:
Research
Policy Experts
Lectures, Seminars and Events

9. Use the Government Printing Office’s comprehensive online tool for access to every single document printed by the federal government. Go to: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/

Conclusion

We hope this handbook has given you some ideas and pointers that will prove useful in the battle to take back our country. The battle has been joined. As we engage in this battle, let’s be absolutely clear on one thing: this is not a battle of Republican versus Democrat, though many of the players adopt those Party uniforms. It is not a battle of Conservative versus Liberal, though many of the players identify themselves with those titles. It is not even a battle of Right versus Left, though we speak of it in those terms. It is really a battle of right versus wrong, of good versus evil, of liberty versus tyranny. It is the conflict for our time, and we must prevail, for we are the world’s last hope. And we will prevail, for we are Americans.

©2010 James M. Simpson, All Rights Reserved

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