Archive for December, 2010

There are plenty of changes in store for Macomb County residents this New Year’s Day.  For starters: Captain Anthony Wickersham, a 24-year veteran of the department, will replace Sheriff Mark Hackel, who is leaving to become Macomb’s first county executive.   For more information on his appointment

Click incoming Sheriff Wickersham’s photo.

Former Macomb County Sheriff, Mark Hackel was elected Macomb’s first County Executive.  Explore Mark’s plans for the county by clicking his image below.

Unfortunately, Mark Hackel’s start as County Executive hit a bump in the road, right out of the gate.  Read more here.

New Governor Rick Snyder

to put Michigan’s focus on smaller firms. Click Governor Snyder’s image for more about his plans.

Nationally, the Republican leadership

is poised to control the legislative agenda.

U.S. Senate Schedule

Official U.S. House Schedule

Here are some great research opportunities on God, Christmas, Hanukkah and U.S. History.

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah

The History of Christmas History of Christmas in USA Christmas History

The History of Hanukkah Hanukkah History

Click the Images below for more God in U.S. History

Note: The US Treasury link available here is has a “Certificate” that is “Out of Date, or Untrusted” as determined by the Internet community at large.  No, this is not a joke.  To view the site, merely add a “certificate exception” in your browser, when prompted.

Your Phone Calls and Faxes are needed TODAY (Friday) to defeat this bill

On Thursday Harry Reid abandoned the Omnibus spending bill before a sure defeat, due to Republicans uniting  behind Mitch McConnell, and will now turn Senate attention to the DREAM Act (Amnesty).  Reid has filed for a motion for cloture (to begin debate and move bill forward).  If successful, then a vote on the already-passed House version will be on Saturday.  If the Senate passes this bill it will go directly to the President’s desk for signing into law.  The Main Stream Media might call this legislation popular, but a recent poll  reports 

54 percent of voters oppose the DREAM Act, compared to 38 percent who support its passage.

“Promoters of the DREAM Act have deliberately tried to mislead the American people by not disclosing detailed information about the legislation. But when Americans fully understand the scope of this illegal alien amnesty proposal, the benefits that illegal aliens would be eligible to receive, and the very minimal requirements needed to qualify, they overwhelmingly oppose passage of the DREAM Act,” said Dan Stein, president of FAIR.

Here are some thoughts about the DREAM Act and why Amnesty is bad legislation for America. Also, the American Legion opposes the DREAM Act.

Read a recent RATP commentary by Jay Corey, The DREAM Act?, about the many reasons why the DREAM Act is wrong.

Sen. Sessions outlines 10 reasons why the Senate should reject the DREAM Act in this article.

Call Your Senators NOW and Tell Them to Vote NO

Please make your calls early – Congressional offices won’t be open Friday evening or Saturday.

Top priority in Michigan is Debbie Stabenow, who is up for re-election in 2012.  Debbie is uncommitted but leaning Yes.  (Senator Levin is a sponsor of the bill, he probably won’t be swayed)

MICHIGAN

Debbie Stabenow (D)  Washington, DC: ph: 202-224-4822

If the Washington, DC office is busy or full, try these Michigan offices.

Detroit: ph: 313-961-4330 
East Lansing: ph: 517-203-1760  
Flint: ph: 810-720-4172 
Grand Rapids: ph: 616-975-0052
Marquette: ph: 906-228-8756
Traverse City: ph: 231-929-1031 

Talking Points (From FAIR):

*  Congress should be using its time and energy in the lame-duck
session to help American workers, not illegal aliens;
*  American students should not have to compete with illegal aliens
for limited federal dollars and declining slots at colleges and
universities;
*  It is unfair that hard-working American taxpayers are forced to
subsidize the education of illegal aliens; and
*  Granting amnesty to lawbreakers does nothing to stop illegal
immigration and will only encourage more.

Click here to FAX your Senators for FREE through NumbersUSA. 

 Easy to register and use, and the message comes from you.

Don’t forget you can contact our MI Senators via webforms, linked to on their site, from our “Elected Officials” tab at the top of our website, or click here.  

PLEASE PICK UP YOUR PHONE TO COUNTER  THE GIANT SURGE OF PRO-AMNESTY LOBBYING 
If you have time to make more phone calls, below is a Target List from Roy Beck, President of Numbers USA for Friday, December 18, 2010.

TOP PRIORITY: Encourage These 12 Senators To Stick With Leanings or Pledges To Vote No

Give them quick phone calls to thank them for their intention to vote NO on the DREAM Act amnesty. And note that a key reason they are right is that DREAM provides zero enforcement to stop future millions of illegal workers from coming and taking jobs from hard-pressed Americans.

Florida – George LeMieux (R)  Washington, DC ph: 202-224-3041

Kansas – Sam Brownback (R) ph: 202-224-6521

MAINE – Susan Collins (R)  ph: 202-224-2523 and  Olympia Snowe (R)  ph: 202-224-5344  

MONTANA – Max Baucus (D) ph: 202-224-2651     

NORTH CAROLINA – Kay Hagan (D) ph: 202-224-6342

NORTH DAKOTA  – Kent Conrad (D) ph: 202-224-2043

OHIO -  George Voinovich (R) ph: 202-224-3353

Texas – Kay Bailey Hutchison (R) ph: 202-224-5922

West Virginia – Joe Manchin (D) ph: 202-224-3954

Vermont – Judd Gregg (R) ph: 202-224-3324

2nd PRIORITY: Pound These 3 Senators Up For Re-Election in 2012 Who Are Leaning YES on Amnesty

There is no logical political reason for these Senators to vote YES on amnesty . . . if the people of their states know what they are doing. All three of these have good tendencies in our direction on amnesty in the past. But they are acting like this amnesty is somehow different.Your job with these Senators is to persuade their staffs that voting for an amnesty without any enforcement will definitely be a key issue in the 2012 elections during what all experts predict will be continuing high unemployment for U.S. workers.All three of these are Democrats in states that swung heavily Republican in last month’s elections. A vote for amnesty might look like political suicide.

MICHIGAN – Debbie Stabenow (D) ph: 202-224-4822

MISSOURI – Claire McCaskill (D) ph: 202-224-6154

VIRGINIA – Jim Webb (D) ph: 202-224-4024  

3rd PRIORITY: These 3 Senators Do NOT Face 2012 Re-Election But Are On The Fence And Leaning YES

All three of these have voted with us against amnesty in the past.Tell their staffs that you don’t understand how the Senator could oppose “comprehensive immigration reform” in the past when amnesty and enforcement were wrapped together, but now they are willing to pass an amnesty with NO enforcement.

ALASKA  – Lisa Murkowski (R) ph: 202-224-6665

LOUISIANA – Mary Landrieu (D) ph: 202-224-5824

NORTH DAKOTA – Byron Dorgan (D and retiring) ph: 202-224-2551

Thanks to Karen W. for info and updates.

Taxed Enough Already

TEA Party members get a mixed bag of wins/losses from Congress, as it sends the Tax Cut Bill to Obama’s desk for signing on Friday, December 17th.  Though the bill contains a two year extension of “The Bush Tax Cuts”, Obama negotiated additional spending of $858 billion within the legislation.  Click the image above to read more.

In a Far More Aggressive Move to Limit Government,

How Omnibus was Defeated GOP Kills Omnibus Omnibus: The Ugly Truth Omnibus Funds Abortions?

U.S. Senate blocks DREAM Act,

passes repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

In a Saturday session a week before Christmas, the U.S. Senate voted failed to overcome a procedural vote to move the DREAM Act forward.

The Senate shot down the DREAM Act motion on a 55-41 vote.  The U.S. Senate did invoke cloture for the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, the law which prohibits openly gay or lesbian citizens from serving in the U.S. military.  The legislation went on to pass the full Senate late on Saturday afternoon.

U.S. Senate blocks DREAM Act “Dream Act” Bill Blocked

U.S. Senate repeals ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ repeal celebrated in S.F.

Who Voted for What?

Click the our U.S. Senate image to begin your research

On December 13, 2010, Judge Henry Hudson made clear in a 42 page ruling that he thinks the idea of forcing people to buy health insurance – and punishing them with a federal tax penalty if they do not – is outside the bounds of the Constitution.

In his 42-page order, Judge Hudson declared there was no legal precedent under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution to allow the Congress through federal legislation “to compel an individual to involuntarily enter the stream of commerce by purchasing a commodity in the private market.”  The judge also ruled that the mandate could not be validated under the General Welfare Clause of the Constitution, which permits broad federal power to tax, because it is “in form and substance, a penalty as opposed to a tax.”

Hudson, a 2002 appointee of George W. Bush, thus became the first federal judge in the nation to endorse the merits of a legal challenge to the mandate provision — which requires individuals to purchase health insurance, some for the first time, to help reduce the overall costs of health care.  The Virginia lawsuit which generated the ruling is one of dozens around the country (another challenge, out of Florida, will move forward with a hearing later this week).  Earlier this year, a federal trial judge in Michigan, and another federal trial judge in Virginia, dismissed similar constitutional challenges to the new law.

Click either photo above

and the links below to read additional news coverage on the topic.

Judge Strikes Section of Health Care Law
YouTube Video of White House response to Obama Health Care Overhaul Suffering Setback
Supreme Court Review Expected

In the final installment of the What We Believe series, Bill looks at how America is indeed exceptional — a once-in-history success militarily, economically, scientifically and culturally.

Bill Whittle “takes on” the culture at Declaration Entertainment.

View some of Bill’s other videos at our “Great Videos” Category (in the panel at the right side of RATP Website).

To share this post with friends, copy and paste the Permalink  http://romeoareateaparty.org/wordpress/2010/12/14/what-we-believe-part-7-american-exceptionalism/ into your email.

From Fellow Tea Partier Bill Whittle, on YouTube. 

In Part 6 of What We Believe, Bill looks at the critical distinction between legal and illegal immigration, and how apologists for illegal immigration end up hurting the legal immigrants that have always been the backbone of America.

Bill Whittle “takes on” the culture at Declaration Entertainment.

View some of Bill’s other videos at our “Great Videos” Category (in the panel at the right side of RATP Website).

To share this post with friends, copy and paste the Permalink –  http://romeoareateaparty.org/wordpress/2010/12/08/immigration-ti…believe-part-6/  in your emails.  Thanks!

U.S. National Debt Clock in Real Time

This is not good news at all for us taxpayers.

Click on the Graphic below, or

Click on the drop-down button on our “Resource Links” tab.

It is especially disturbing that the calculated “Debt per Citizen” is $44,477 (at least it was at time of posting — it increases quickly), and the “Debt per Taxpayer” is $125,221.  Almost twice as much.  This confirms the fact that over 40% of citizens pay no income tax (zero or negative tax liability).

4 Great Websites

It is tough and time consuming to keep an eye on the goings-on under the Capitol dome.  Looking for a resource that’s closer to the source?  These have been recently added to our “Resource Links” page, available at the top of our Website.

OpenCongress – “A non-profit, independent public resource.  Everyone can be an insider. “

Roll Call — “The Newspaper of Capitol Hill since 1955″

Washingtonwatch — “Are You Watching?”

Our fourth website is another Tax information source.

Tax Foundation – “From its founding in 1937, the Tax Foundation has been grounded in the belief that the dissemination of basic information about government finance is the foundation of sound policy in a free society.”

THE DREAM ACT?

by Jay Corey
This is just wrong.  It is wrong on so many levels.  The Dream Act purports to be a compassionate process to offer citizenship to “children” (up to age 35!) of illegal immigrants.  The path to forgiveness runs through higher education and/or military service.  On the surface it sounds compassionate, but don’t be deceived.  It is nothing more than another attempt to sneak in amnesty for millions of people who have committed breaking and entering on a grand scale.  It is literally no different than telling you that you have to provide shelter, healthcare, and education to vagabonds who camp out in your backyard without invitation.

It is wrong because it grants in-state tuition rates to non-citizens that are not available to U.S. citizens.

It is wrong because it will allow those who enter the program to bring in family members to the amnesty program. This is the backdoor to full amnesty.

It is wrong because it is about giving amnesty to people who have broken our laws. They have consciously, and with premeditation, violated the laws of our land.  This country was founded on principles of self-determination by people who took responsibility for their actions. They established the rule of law and rightfully expected everyone to live by it.  If citizens followed the law of the land, they could reap the benefits of hard work and risk-taking.  We who honor those laws and play by the rules are being asked to not only look the other way when criminals ignore our laws, but we are also being asked to reward them with the fruits of our labors.  What lessons do we teach our children (and the world) when we reject the principle of personal responsibility and ignore our own laws?

It is wrong because, quite simply, we cannot afford it financially.  The Center for Immigration Studies, an independent, non-partisan, non-profit, research organization, states that “on average, each illegal immigrant who attends a public institution will receive a tuition subsidy from taxpayers of nearly $6,000 for each year he or she attends for a total cost of $6.2 billion a year, not including other forms of financial assistance that they may also receive.”
It is wrong because it dishonors our ancestors.  This country cannot afford to throw away the sovereignty for which our families and forefathers fought and died.  We, as a nation, willingly spilled untold gallons of our precious blood to preserve our nation for our children, not someone else’s.

It is wrong because polls speak loudly and clearly that the majority of American citizens do not want amnesty.  Even during the Bush administration when John McCain and Bush tried to push through a comprehensive immigration bill in 2007, the American people voiced strong opposition and defeated that attempt.  Since then, our voices have become louder and stronger, yet those who dislike America persist in their efforts to dismantle its institutions, traditions, and laws.

It is wrong because it addresses an effect, but not the cause.  It does nothing to stop the flood across our borders.  It only legitimizes those who have flagrantly disregarded our laws.

It is wrong because it enables a weak Mexican government, which demonstrates an inability to stem the lawlessness of its border towns, as it initiates a lawsuit against the state of Arizona for enacting tough and fair immigration laws.

It is wrong because the whole problem of illegal immigration is tied closely to the flow of drugs across our borders.  Many of the illegals are used as mules who carry bales of narcotics on their backs as they emerge from tunnels and breaches in our border.

It is time to speak up again.  We in Michigan have an opportunity to apply pressure to one of our Washington senators.  Debbie Stabenow is up for re-election in 2012. She will be paying attention to the voices of those who will cast votes and decide her fate.  If pressure is not applied, it will be business as usual.  We must contact her repeatedly through every means possible.  Below is a link to her Senate email.  Listed also is her Washington office phone number and her local contact information.  Make it a habit to contact her repeatedly.  Let her know that her support of the Dream Act may be one of her last acts.  She must know that we feel it is just wrong!

Washington, DC Office
Senator Debbie Stabenow
133 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-4822
e-mail:  senator@stabenow.senate.gov

Mid-Michigan Office
Senator Debbie Stabenow
221 W. Lake Lansing Road, Suite 100
East Lansing, MI 48823
Phone: (517) 203-1760

Southeast Michigan Office
243 W .Congress Suite 550
Detroit, MI 48226
Phone: (313) 961-4330

Don’t forget Senator Levin and your local congressman.

While you were busy doing your job in a competent and skillful manner, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act has passed in the Senate.  Prior to the vote, many individuals and groups were alarmed at the contents of the bill.  Calls to Action to notify our state senators went out, and yet the people’s voices and faxes appear to have been disregarded.

Writing at HotAir.com, Howard Portnoy terms “The New Food Safety Bill a Bipartisan Failure“.  Several Republicans joined the Democrats to pass this bill in the rush that is popularly called the Lame Duck session, despite S. 510 being originally introduced in the Senate back on March 9, 2009.

Offering some hope to conservatively-minded citizens, the question of whether Harry Reid followed Constitutional provisions, and procedures for Senate business, will force the Senate to take another look at this legislation.  Once again, writers at HotAir.com have kept us abreast of the situation, and call the Food Safety bill “dead in the water”.   Click through that link to the RollCall.com article for a thorough explanation where John Stanton begins,

A food safety bill that has burned up precious days of the Senate’s lame-duck session appears headed back to the chamber because Democrats violated a Constitutional provision requiring that tax provisions originate in the House.

By pre-empting the House’s tax-writing authority, Senate Democrats appear to have touched off a power struggle with members of their own party in the House. The Senate passed the bill Tuesday, sending it to the House, but House Democrats are expected to use a procedure known as “blue slipping” to block the bill, according to House and Senate GOP aides.

If you had the words “error”, “violations”, “pre-empting”, “embarrassment”,  and ”trampling on the rights of the House of Representatives” describing your job performance, what would likely happen to you and your career?  Perhaps we should give Harry a break, maybe this is an arcane provision stipulating how Congress works.  Wrong on two counts.  First of all, every U.S. Congressman should have read and demonstrated a working knowledge of the United States Constitution.  Secondly, as Stanton points out,

This is not the first time that Reid has run afoul of the Constitution’s tax origination provisions. His efforts to pass a tourism promotion bill that was key to his re-election hopes was temporarily stymied earlier this year because the Senate passed a version with revenue raisers similar to those in the food safety bill.

Finally WashingtonWatch.com/blog/ gives ”The Skinny on Food Safety Legislation“.  Interestingly, visitors at their site voted 10% for the bill, 90% against the bill.

We should continue to hold our representatives accountable and demand that they follow the Constitution.  Careful deliberation prevents most of the unintended consequences that plague liberal legislation.  Continue to contact your representatives. Be vigilant, then be vocal.