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 Home | May 2009 Archives


  Sotomayer Press Release #2 | May 29, 2009 | Digg This
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For further information, contact:
Charles Orndorff, 703-938-9626

QUESTIONS WHICH JUDGE SOTOMAYOR SHOULD BE ASKED

Howard Phillips, Chairman of The Conservative Caucus, has called upon members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to probe Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor regarding the following questions:

1. What relation, in your view, does the Declaration of Independence bear to the Constitution of the United States?

2. Do you agree with the statement in the Declaration that "all Men…are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights"?

3. The Preamble of the Constitution asserts that "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." Do you agree that "We the People" are the source of authority for the Constitution and everything in it?

4. How do you interpret the term "promote the general Welfare"?

5. Article I, Section 1 says "All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States". Do you believe that legislative powers may be exercised by entities other than the Congress? What about the Federal Reserve? May it exercise legislative powers? What about regulatory agencies? What about the Civil Service? What about Presidential Executive Orders? What about international organizations such as the World Trade Organization (WTO)? What about NAFTA? What about the Judiciary?

6. In the event of a national calamity, it is possible that many members of Congress may suffer death or disability. Article I, Section 5 asserts that "a Majority of each [House] shall constitute a Quorum to do Business". In your view, how ought such a majority be defined? Would it be a majority of the living? A majority of those physically and mentally capable? What would it be?

7. Do you attach any religious significance to the language in Article I, Section 7 which, in defining the time available to the President to consider whether he shall veto a piece of legislation which has arrived on his desk, permits him "ten Days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him". Is there a Christian premise to this language in the Constitution?

8. Article I, Section 8 says "The Congress shall have Power to lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States". Do you believe that the power of Congress, as stipulated, is limited to those matters set forth in Article I, Section 8?

9. Article I, Section 8 says "Congress shall have Power…To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations". Did Congress violate this provision in accepting U.S. participation in the WTO, in NAFTA, and in CAFTA?

10. Article I, Section 8 says "Congress shall have Power…To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures". Does this not imply that our money shall be of fixed value, not subject to regulation by an entity such as the Federal Reserve?

11. Article I, Section 8 says "Congress shall have Power…To declare War". To what extent can the President intrude on this authority?

12. Article I, Section 8 says "Congress shall have Power…To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions". What is your understanding of the term "the Militia"?

13. Article I, Section 10 of the U.S. Constitution asserts that no State shall "make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts". How do you interpret this requirement and its current application?

14. Article II, Section 1 sets forth the oath to be taken by the President: "Before he enter on the Execution of his Office …I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.’ " In your opinion, has President Bush faithfully, consistently, and without exception defended the Constitution of the United States?

15. Article II, Section 2 states that the President "shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur". Do you believe that U.S. participation in NAFTA and the World Trade Organization should have required, as treaties, a two thirds vote of the Senators present and voting?

16. Do you regard as valid Executive Agreements which may be entered into by the President of the United States?

17. Article III, Section 1 says "The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour". (a) How do you define "good behaviour"? (b) If a judge is found to have violated standards of "good behaviour", may such a judge be removed from office by simple majority vote of the Senate, which confirmed his appointment to office?

18. Article III, Section 2 says "The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which shall be made, under their Authority;—to all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls;—to all Cases of admiralty and maritime Jurisdiction;—to Controversies to which the United States shall be a Party;—to Controversies between two or more States;… —between Citizens of different States, —between Citizens of the same State claiming Lands under Grants of different States…. In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make." What restrictions, if any, do you think are permissible on the authority of Congress to limit the appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court?

19. Article III, Section 2 stipulates that "The Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of Impeachment; shall be by Jury; and such Trial shall be held in the State where the said Crimes shall have been committed; but when not committed within any State, the Trial shall be at such Place or Places as the Congress may by Law have directed." The U.N.’s proposed International Criminal Court (ICC) treaty seems to be in clear violation of these provisions. Do you agree that it would be un-Constitutional for the Senate to ratify the International Criminal Court (ICC) treaty?

20. Article IV, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution says "Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State; And the Congress may by general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof." In your opinion, does this language require other states to recognize the Massachusetts "same sex" marriage procedures?

21. Article IV, Section 4 says "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion". In your view, what is the Federal government required to do in response to the invasion of illegal aliens which has particularly affected such states as California, Arizona, and Texas, among others?

22. Article VI says "This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land". In your view, does this require that treaties ratified by the U.S. Senate are the "supreme Law of the Land", even when such treaties are in conflict with provisions of the U.S. Constitution?

23. The First Amendment to the Constitution stipulates that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion". (a) Do you agree that this language was included in the Constitution to prevent any interference by the Federal government in the establishments of religion which existed by authority of the legislatures of the several states which had joined in ratifying the Constitution? (b) In your view, are different interpretations of this clause valid for purposes of Constitutional interpretation?

24. The Second Amendment says "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." Do you believe that in light of this language any or all of Federally enacted gun control laws are Constitutionally valid?

25. According to the Fourth Amendment, "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." (a) Do you believe that any branch of the Federal government has the authority to violate the Fourth Amendment for any reason whatsoever? (b) Do you believe that the requirements of the Fourth Amendment have ever been violated by the Federal government, if so, when, by whom, and in what circumstances?

26. The Fifth Amendment says that "nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb". Was not this provision set aside in the Rodney King case when law enforcement personnel were prosecuted for the same alleged offense under both state and Federal law?

27. The Sixth Amendment requires that "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed". (a) How do you interpret the term "speedy"? (b) When, in accordance with your definition, this provision is violated, what should be the remedy?

28. The Eighth Amendment says that "cruel and unusual punishments" may not be inflicted. How would you define a cruel and unusual punishment?

29. The Tenth Amendment says that "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." (a) When powers which Constitutionally ought be reserved to the states are usurped by the Federal government, what remedy is available to states thus aggrieved? (b) Is nullification a valid response? (c) Is interposition an appropriate response?

30. The Thirteenth Amendment says that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." In your view, does adherence to this amendment preclude the possibility of a military draft?

31. Many people have questioned the inclusion of the Fourteenth Amendment in the U.S. Constitution, inasmuch as part of a conditional readmission to the Union, certain southern states were required to ratify this amendment. In some cases, ratification was enforced at the point of a gun by occupying military troops. (a) Do you think the Fourteenth Amendment was properly ratified? (b) If not, do you believe it should be enforced?

32. The Fourteenth Amendment says that no state may "deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law". (a) In your view, at what point does the unborn child qualify for consideration as a person? (b) At such point, does it become unconstitutional to deprive any such person of life without such person having been duly convicted of a crime by a jury of his or her peers?

33. The Fourteenth Amendment also says that no person shall be denied "the equal protection of the laws". In your view, does this make affirmative action laws unconstitutional?

34. The Sixteenth Amendment says that "The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration." How do you define the term "incomes"?

35. The Nineteenth Amendment says "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex". Does this use of the word "sex" refer exclusively to gender, or can it be construed to cover sexual activity?

36. The XXVII Amendment to the Constitution says "No Law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened." This language seems to preclude members of Congress from accepting pay increases recommended by commissions or operating in reliance on changes in the cost of living.

What is your view?

###


  Sotomayer Press Release #1 | May 29, 2009 | Digg This
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For further information, contact:
Charles Orndorff, 703-938-9626

EMPATHY, IMPARTIALITY, AND JUSTICE: WHY SONIA SOTOMAYOR IS NOT QUALIFIED TO BE OUR NEXT U.S. SUPREME COURT JUSTICE

Bob Renaud, a member of the Board of Directors of The Conservative Caucus, has issued the following analysis of President Barack Obama’s nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court:

"President Barack Obama was just past his first ‘100 days in office’ when David Souter’s retirement gave him the opportunity to submit his first Supreme Court nominee to Congress. He had been planning for this moment. During his campaign for the presidency, Obama explained what he would look for in a nominee to the high court:

" ‘We need somebody who’s got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it’s like to be a young teenage mom. The empathy to understand what it’s like to be poor, or African American, or gay, or disabled, or old. And that’s the criteria by which I’m going to be selecting my judges.’[1]

"President Obama reiterated his commitment to ‘empathy’ last week when he commented on Justice Souter’s resignation. He promised to seek someone ‘who understands that justice isn’t about some abstract legal theory or footnote in a casebook.’ Apparently, to President Obama, a basic understanding of the plain text of the Constitution is now ‘abstract legal theory.’ But empathy, he says, will produce justice.

"Once again, President Obama has demonstrated that the ‘change we can believe in’ is not the change we need in this country. What we need is a change towards constitutional and biblical fidelity.

"Writing in 1833 in his famous Commentaries on the Constitution, Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story explained that empathy is not the same as justice. Justice must be ‘freely, fully, and impartially administered.’ Without impartial justice, ‘neither our persons, nor our rights, nor our property, can be protected. And if these, or either of them, are regulated by no certain laws, and are subject to no certain principles, and are held by no certain tenure, and are redressed, when violated, by no certain remedies, society fails of all its value; and men may as well return to a state of savage and barbarous independence.’[2]

"By seeking to nominate to the high court, judges who ‘got the heart, the empathy’ — as opposed to judges who are faithful to the law of the land — we are heading toward that ‘state of savage and barbarous independence’ that Justice Story warned about. That was two centuries ago. Justice Story wasn’t the first.

"Writing 3,500 years ago in the book of Leviticus, the ultimate Law-giver explained the proper role of judges:

" ‘Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour’ (Leviticus 19:15).

"In this text of Scripture, there is no reference to how judges feel about a matter, or how judges should ‘empathize’ with the parties to the case, or even how judges should use their own ethnic background to decide the matter before the bar. The command is to ‘not respect the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty.’ Not feel their pain!

"Contrary to what the ACLU or even the president himself might want, our legal system has codified this biblical command not to respect either the ‘poor’ or the ‘mighty’ in our own republic. The United States Code prescribes the oath that all federal justices or judges are to swear or affirm before performing their duties. The oath states:

" ‘I, [name], do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich, and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me as [job title] under the Constitution and laws of the United States. So help me God.[3]

"President Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, was picked for her empathy rather than her impartiality. In fact, Judge Sotomayor has a record of showing partiality both in her written opinions and as well as outside the courtroom.

"In a 2001 speech at the University of California at Berkeley, Judge Sotomayor said that the ethnicity and sex of a judge ‘may and will make a difference in our judging.’ She went on to declare that ‘I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.’

"Fast forward to 2008, where we see how Judge Sotomayor applies her judicial philosophy of ‘empathy’ in the case of Ricci v. DeStefano (now before the U.S. Supreme Court). In that case, local firefighters in New Haven, Connecticut, took an examination in hopes of getting promoted. When the results came out, the majority of those who took the test and passed were ‘white.’ The town decided to disregard that exam. The firefighters who passed the test were passed up for promotion, and they sued the town for reverse discrimination. On appeal to the Second Circuit Court where Judge Sotomayor sits, Judge Sotomayor refused to examine the issues of the ‘white’ firemen and threw out the case. So much for Judge Sotomayor’s ‘empathy’ for both sides.

"And finally, one cannot forget the gaffe committed in 2005 in which Judge Sotomayor explained at a Duke Law School forum that it is at ‘the court of appeals is where policy is made.’ Isn’t that the job of the legislature? Judge Sotomayor caught her mistake and quickly said, ‘We don’t make law, I’m not promoting that, I’m not advocating that, you know.’ However, you have to ask yourself, how does an ‘extremely qualified’ judge make a mistake like that?

"Jesus Christ said that ‘out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.’

"I think it’s clear where Judge Sotomayor’s heart is — she thinks that her job is to ‘empathize’ with the parties before her as opposed to judging ‘in righteousness . . . thy neighbour.’ And this is why she is disqualified to be our next U.S. Supreme Court justice."

 

1. A widely quoted 2007 speech that then Sen. Obama gave to Planned Parenthood. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/supreme-court/2009/05/obamasempathystandard_drawin.html?hpid=news-col-blog

2. http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/preambles21.html

3. Title 28 chapter 21 § 453.

______________________________

Mr. Renaud is in his final year of law school at the Oak Brook School of Law in Fresno, California and is an official of Vision Forum Ministries in San Antonio, Texas.

###


  Obama Fascism | May 28, 2009 | Digg This

OBAMA FASCISM PUNISHES THE PRODUCTIVE

"My name is George C. Joseph.  I am the sole owner of Sunshine Dodge-Isuzu, a family owned and operated business in Melbourne, Florida. My family bought and paid for this automobile franchise 35 years ago in 1974. I am the second generation to manage this business.

"We currently employ 50+ people and before the economic slowdown we employed over 70 local people.  We are active in the community and the local chamber of commerce. We deal with several dozen local vendors on a day to day basis and many more during a month.  All depend on our business for part of their livelihood. 

"We are financially strong with great respect in the market place and community.  We have strong local presence and stability. I work every day the store is open, nine to ten hours a day. I know most of our customers and all our employees.  Sunshine Dodge is my life.

"On Thursday, May 14, 2009 I was notified that my Dodge franchise, that we purchased, will be taken away from my family on June 9, 2009 without compensation and given to another dealer at no cost to them.

"My new vehicle inventory consists of 125 vehicles with a financed balance of 3 million dollars.  This inventory becomes impossible to sell with no factory incentives beyond June 9, 2009. Without the Dodge franchise we can no longer sell a new Dodge as "new," nor will we be able to do any warranty service work.

"Additionally, my Dodge parts inventory, (approximately $300,000.) is virtually worthless without the ability to perform warranty service.  There is no offer from Chrysler to buy back the vehicles or parts inventory.

"Our facility was recently totally renovated at Chrysler's insistence, incurring a multi-million dollar debt in the form of a mortgage at Sun Trust Bank.   

"HOW IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CAN THIS HAPPEN?  

"THIS IS A PRIVATE BUSINESS NOT A GOVERNMENT ENTITY

"This is beyond imagination!  My business is being stolen from me through NO FAULT OF OUR OWN.  We did NOTHING wrong.

"This atrocity will most likely force my family into bankruptcy.  This will also cause our 50+ employees to be unemployed. How will they provide for their families?  This is a total economic disaster.

"HOW CAN THIS HAPPEN IN A FREE MARKET ECONOMY IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA?

"I beseech your help, and look forward to your reply. Thank you.

Sincerely,

George C. Joseph
President & Owner
Sunshine Dodge-Isuzu"

Source: tothepointnews.com, 5/26/09 


  ACORN Born in Leftist Revolution | May 26, 2009 | Digg This

"GREAT SOCIETY" FUNDED GRASSROOTS LEFTISTS

When I was Director of the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) in 1973, I cut off the money to all of the entities promoted by Richard Cloward and Francis Fox Piven.

For example, prior to my tenure, under Sargent Shriver, Don Rumsfeld, and Dick Cheney, more than 500 chapters of the National Welfare Rights organization were created at taxpayer expense to implement the Cloward-Piven strategy.

Despite my efforts to Defund the Left, when I resigned as OEO Director, following President Nixon’s decision to continue funding the agency and its programs at an even higher level, the Left was refunded by my successors under Presidents Nixon and Ford.

"ACORN, the radical organization charged with voter fraud in several states, owes its origin to a revolutionary strategy developed by two Columbia University sociologists in the 1960s.

"After completing his legal education at Harvard, Barack Obama returned to Chicago to work in an ACORN-funded voter registration project that developed directly out of this radical revolutionary strategy.

"On … May 2, 1966, Columbia’s Professor of Social Work Richard A. Cloward, and his then research associate Frances Fox Piven, wrote a pivotal article in The Nation, articulating ‘a strategy to end poverty.’

"In what became known as the Cloward-Piven strategy, the article argued a revolutionary approach to mobilizing the poor in the form of class warfare against capitalist forces viewed as exploiting labor and oppressing the poor. …

"Cloward and Piven argued a ‘guaranteed annual income’ should be established as an entitlement for the poor, a right the poor could assert and demand to be paid.

"Arguing for massive registration of poor in existing social welfare programs, Cloward and Piven sought to create a crisis that could be exploited to obtain a fundamental redistribution of power in favor of the ‘have-nots.’

"Advancing their socialist revolutionary aims, Cloward and Piven explained the crisis they sought ‘can occur spontaneously (e.g., riots) or as the intended result of tactics of demonstration and protest which either generate institutional disruption or bring unrecognized disruption to public attention.’

"The Cloward-Piven strategy sought to apply the tactics of the revolutionary civil rights movement, including urban riots, to the poor as a whole, transcending interest-group politics defined by race to involve interest-group politics defined by class.

"Radical black activist George Wiley created the National Welfare [Rights] Organization, or NWRO, to implement the Cloward-Piven strategy.

"Sol Stern, writing in the City Journal, noted that foot soldiers hired by the NWRO were successful in expanding welfare rolls from 4.3 million to 10.8 million by the mid-1970s. The result was that in New York City, where the strategy had been particularly successful, ‘one person was on the welfare rolls … for every two working in the city’s private economy.’

"James Simpson, a former White House staff economist and budget analyst, asserts in American Thinker that the ‘vast expansion of welfare in New York City that came of the NWRO’s Cloward-Piven tactics sent the city into bankruptcy in 1975.’

"William Radke, the founder of ACORN, was a member of the radical Students for a Democratic Society, or SDS, before he dropped out of Williams College in 1968 to join the anti-draft movement protesting the Vietnam War.

"He next worked for George Wiley’s NWRO in Springfield, Mass., before leaving for Little Rock, Ark., in 1970. In Little Rock he formed the Arkansas Community Organizations for Reform Now, an organization whose name he morphed into the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, to form a national organization.

"With ACORN, Radke resolved to apply the Cloward-Piven strategy as a ‘community organizer’ in an effort to recruit radicals to register to vote as Democrats, often fraudulently, in local, state and national elections.

"Radke’s idea was to create a crisis in voter registration similar to the crisis in registration for welfare benefits that Cloward and Piven had initially sought to cause.

"Funded heavily by George Soros through his Open Society Institute, ACORN has followed a three-point strategy that James Simpson described as follows:

  1. "Register as many Democratic voters as possible, legal or otherwise, and help them vote, multiple times if possible.
  2. "Overwhelm the system with fraudulent registrations using multiple entries of the same name, names of deceased, random names from the phone book, even contrived names.
  3. "Make the system difficult to police by lobbying for minimal identification standards required of voters arriving at polling stations to vote.

"In 1992, while he was working as a community organizer in Chicago, Obama headed the Chicago operations of Project Vote!, an ACORN effort to register voters nationally. In Chicago, Obama had his biggest impact registering African-American voters on Chicago’s South Side." Source: WorldNetDaily, 5/14/09, Jerome R. Corsi


 Outrageous Spending | May 21, 2009 | Digg This

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK

(CNSNews.com, 5/4/09) – "The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is funding a study that seeks to discover a link between drinking and having sex among homosexuals in Argentina.

"The study will send researchers to six bars in Buenos Aires to interview both patrons and proprietors in an effort to discover what it is about those bars that may encourage the risky behavior.
 
"The study began on Sept. 30, 2008, and runs through Aug. 31, 2010. It already has cost taxpayers $198,776. By the time the project ends, it will have cost $403,902, according to NIH.
 
"The grant, awarded to the New York State Psychiatric Institute, was provided by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), the division of NIH that studies the effects of alcohol and alcoholism.
 
"The study’s primary focus is to determine the relationship among drinking, bars frequented by homosexuals, and risky sexual behavior to see if certain bars in Argentina might be good targets for HIV-prevention campaigns. 
 
" ‘Targeting public venues in Buenos Aires where men meet, alcohol is consumed, and sexual behavior occurs, the goal of this two-year exploratory study is to understand the various factors that contribute to the creation of a high-risk sexual space,’ the study’s abstract explains.

" ‘To that end, the study seeks to describe the relative contribution of physical characteristics of the place, patron characteristics, type and level of alcohol consumption, and social dynamics that are at play and potentiate each other to result in sexual risk behavior.’
 
"The study has six goals, including the collection of information on six specific bars in Buenos Aires; the appearance, of those bars, alcohol availability, patrons, and types of sexual behavior taking place. The study also seeks to identify which factors contribute to alcohol consumption and sexual behavior in the bars.
 
" ‘The specific aims of this study are to … 2) identify factors that contribute to alcohol use and high-risk sexual behavior in the venues,’ says the abstract.
 
"Researchers will interview 48 of the men who patronize the bars, as well as the bar staff to gather information on the types of alcohol consumed and sexual behavior engaged in. …

"While the study is being conducted in Argentina, it is being funded with U.S. tax dollars.  The grant recipients--who could not be reached for comment--say in the abstract that information gathered in the bars in Argentina might help inform similar efforts in America. …
 
"The study is among a number funded by the NIAAA to examine the relationship between drinking and the spread of HIV, including a study of tourism, prostitution, and HIV in the Dominican Republic and another study examining drinking and HIV among prostitutes in China."


 North American Union Pass | May 20, 2009 | Digg This

ANOTHER STEPPING STONE TO NORTH AMERICAN UNION?

"Signs showing an integrated North America have begun showing up on U.S. Interstate highways for NORPASS, a new electronic system that allows participating truckers in Canada and the U.S. to by-pass roadside weigh stations through the use of a transponder mounted on the windshield.

"The NORPASS website describes the organization as ‘a partnership of state and provincial agencies and trucking industry representatives who are committed to promoting safe and efficient trucking throughout North America.’

"Truckers that register to participate in NORPASS receive a small transponder that signals to a computer in participating weigh stations.

"As the participating truck approaches the NORPASS weigh station, a roadside reader detects the transponder and a computer in the weigh station checks the truck’s credentials.

"If the truck is certified, the NORPASS transponder signals a green light, allowing the driver to bypass the station.

"If a problem is detected, a red light flashing on the transponder indicates a need for the truck to stop and be checked.

"Participating NORPASS truckers are charged $45 to purchase a windshield transponder directly from NORPASS.

"Melanie Coon, a spokesperson for the Washington Department of Transportation, or WaDOT, told WND the purpose of the system is to contribute to the state’s efforts to introduce ‘automated intelligence systems to assist trucks and people in crossing the U.S.-Canadian border more efficiently.’

"Along with Washington, states participating in NORPASS include Alaska, Oregon, Idaho, South Dakota, New York, Connecticut, Kentucky and North Carolina.

"Two Canadian provinces, British Columbia and Quebec, are NORPASS participants.

"A map on the NORPASS website indicates NORPASS weigh station by-passing is also compatible with the transponders issued by BestPass, another U.S.-Canadian truck transponder system." Source: Jerome Corsi, WorldNetDaily.com, 5/15/09


 Kill the Death Tax! | May 19, 2009 | Digg This

TCC’S "MAKE THE DEATH TAX REPEAL PERMANENT PETITION"

TO: MEMBERS OF THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Whereas,           the American people are already overtaxed; and
Whereas, it is grossly unfair to impose punishing taxes on the loved ones of relatives who have passed away; and
Whereas, after taxing a person throughout his or her lifetime, it is double taxation, to tax them again at death; and
Whereas, eliminating the tax on inheritances and bequests will energize the economy by keeping family businesses and farms working; and
Whereas, taxing away the lifetime assets an individual hopes to pass on to his or her loved ones is morally wrong; and
Whereas, taxing inheritances is another example of government changing the rules to punish those who played by the rules all of their lives.
Therefore, I urge you to immediately reintroduce, vote on, and pass the "Death Tax Repeal Permanency Act", vital legislation to finally and permanently abolish the unfair Federal Estate Tax ("Death Tax").
 

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