Weasel Eric Massa vs. Warrior Jim Bunning

WASHINGTON: The balance of health care reform lies in the hands of weasels. Case in point, former Rep. Eric Massa is claiming that he alone wielded the decisive vote in the House on pending health care legislation, and now he has been forced out of Congress by the White House in order to shore up support for passage of the bill.

An initial gut reaction to Massa’s claim is that the White House will stop at nothing in order to ram rod legislation that will fundamentally change this country, even if it means destroying a congressman’s career. It is true that to date there have been promises made, bribes taken and bullying employed to secure votes for socialist style health care reform. But if we turn a light onto the players of this debate, regardless of which side they favor, we find a house full of cockroaches scurrying for a dark crevice to hide within. Few in Congress are untainted by the corruption that exists there.

This is not to say that courage and honor do not exist in Washington, but their manifestations are rare, and when they do present themselves, the person exhibiting these attributes is denigrated and vilified. Senator Jim Bunning’s recent actions in the Senate are a fantastic example of legislative courage. Senator Bunning stuck to his ground opposing unfunded mandates by blocking a $10 billion spending bill. The media was quick to react though. Instead of reporting on the “Pay-Go” law that Democrats passed and President Obama signed, news outlets screamed that the unemployed would suffer at the hands of a single senator.

Eric Massa might believe that he is exercising political courage by exposing the coercive tactics employed against him that ended in his resignation. But is it courage, or is it the last gasps of a dying politician? Massa implies that the White House and the congressional leadership are behind a house ethics probe that involves Massa. The basis of the investigation involves an inappropriate remark made by Massa to a staffer, to which Massa fully admits. If Eric Massa possessed any form of political courage and honor, would he not fight to retain his House seat? The NIP believes there is more to this story than Massa is letting onto and facts revealed later may tell a different story. But for the time being it appears Massa is guilty of more than just an inappropriate remark, otherwise Massa would not have given up so easily.

The point being made here is that we pin our hopes on men and women, trusting that they will have the strength to go to battle in the ideological war taking place in the nations capital. Only to have these hopes dashed to pieces because these same men and women turn out to be weasels, not warriors, incapable of defending themselves much less the American people.

Massa frankly admitted making inappropriate remarks to a staffer making a congressional enquiry unnecessary, however the House leadership wished to pursue the matter to pressure him to resign. Massa had voted against the health care proposal and Pelosi wanted him replaced with someone who would vote for it. Massa responded to a caller to his weekly radio show on WKPQ Power 105 FM:

The leadership of the Democratic Party have become exactly what they said they were running against. They have become exactly what we all ran against. You cannot effectively govern this country without the consent of the governed. The entire nation has said, “Let’s rewrite the health care bill, let’s find what we can agree upon.” No, no, no, no, we are going to ram this down the throats of the American people and anyone who stands in the way of doing that, is going to be smeared.”

Never mind the will of the people, Queen Pelosi will rule as she deems fit. King George was never this bad.

The Senate’s Committee on Environment and Public Works issued an urgent email late Monday claiming the DRUDGE REPORT is ‘responsible for the many viruses popping up throughout the Senate.’

The committee ordered hill staff: ‘Try to avoid’ the DRUDGE REPORT ‘for now’.

On Monday DRUDGE served over 29 million pages with NOT ONE email complaint received about ‘pop ups’, or the site serving ‘viruses’.

The site was seen 149,967 times since March 1st from users at senate.gov and 244,347 times at house.gov. [10,825 visits from the White House, eop.gov]  Drudge

The only virus that Senate employees risk by visiting the site is the virus of freedom of speech. Obviously the Senate wants its staff to be as insulated as possible from the opinions of the American public in order to facilitate ramming the Socialist healthcare agenda down the throats of the American people. Open wide and say, “Ahhh.”

The Cat In the Hat was written by Dr. Seuss, (pen name of Theodor Seuss Geisel), in 1957 as a response to a challenge by the Life magazine writer, John Hershey, who specifically mentioned Geisel as an ideal illustrator for modern children’s books in a May 25, 1954 article titled “Why Do Students Bog Down on First R? A Local Committee Sheds Light on a National Problem: Reading”. Geisel’s publisher, Random House, asked him to write a new style of engaging children’s literature using a limited vocabulary of only 400 words, which the publisher’s estimated school children were learning at the time. Geisel cut the suggested list down to 223 and added 16 of his own.

Using the pseudonym of “Dr. Seuss”, Geisel’s The Cat In the Hat proved an instant hit and the story of the two rainy day bored young children first enjoying then panicking over the crazy, chaotic antics of a floppy red-and-white stripped hat wearing tuxedo Cat accompanied by his eagerly undisciplined partners-in-crime, Thing One and Thing Two still resonates with young readers 53 years later.

In fact, The Cat in the Hat is such a fondly remembered piece of American literature that it was recently quoted in the US Senate when, in 2008, Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, in complaining of a stalled immigration reform bill likened the problems on the Senate floor with the chaos caused by the Cat and read out from the book into the Senate record, “‘That is good,’ said the fish.’He’s gone away, yes. But your mother will come. She will find this big mess.’”

Reid went on to explain, “If you go back and read Dr. Seuss, the cat manages to clean up the mess.” A tip o’ the Cat’s hat to whichever analyst so succinctly commented about Reid’s failure to get the bill passed by saying “the Cat in the Hat did not have to contend with cloture.”

Now, considering that if Dr. Seuss was alive today as a cantankerous 106 year old watching the purposeful destruction of America through the Cloward-Priven strategy and Saul Alinsky formulated chaos, he’d want to revisit his The Cat In the Hat characters using the cadence of his Green Eggs and Ham with President Obama as the hammy Cat, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi as Thing One yegg and Harry Reid as Thing Two yegg:

I do not love the Rule of Law.
I do not claim citizenry from Paw.
I do not follow Constitutional rules.
I do not care if I hurt Democratic mules.

I party every Wednesday without fail.
I drink like a fish and dine on quail.
Everything revolves around me, me, me.
I won! I won! So let me be!

I’m off to golf instead of work.
I snub the Brits and Gordon Brown’s a jerk.
I grovel in front of every despot I can.
America needs to learn that I’m the Man!

Nancy Thing is always at my side.
To my star she’s hitched a ride.
Harry Thing makes quotes so snide.
Come November 2010 they’ll have no place to hide.

The three of us America want to socialize.
Socialize! Socialize! America we want to socialize.
Obamacare is our master plan.
To take America down the can.
Obamacare! Obamacare! We’ll ram it through!
With new taxes now but no healthcare due.

The sick and elderly will wait and wait.
Fate! Fate! Succumb to fate!
Death panels and abortions late!
The old the over-taxed young will come to hate.

ARE YOU A CITIZEN BORN AND TRUE?
ARE YOU OF THE RED, WHITE AND BLUE?

I keep my past full under wrap.
I will not, care not to my citizenship provide a map.

DID YOU NOT SWEAR UPON A BIBLE?
DID YOU KNOW THAT YOU ARE LIABLE?

I did swear upon a Bible.
I did not care that I am liable.
I did not dwell on my Kenyan family tribal.
I will not worry about birthers libel.

DID YOU INTERNALIZE KARL MARX?
DID YOU HOPE FOR CIVIL WAR SPARKS?

I did internalize Karl Marx.
I did hope for Civil War sparks.
I did not love America ever in my life.
I did not and neither did my wife.
I did not become President to bring you hope.
I care not; will not because I’m no dope.

I became President to bring you change.
With Communist failure that is destructive and strange.

News first broke of impropriety in June of 2008. While rent controlled apartments in New York City are increasingly hard to find, the New York Times reported that Rangel had four of them, including three adjacent units overlooking Upper Manhattan. The next month Rangel officially requested an ethics probe to clear his name over the allegations. Two months later he acknowledged that he owed taxes for rental income he did not report. Finally that month on September 25, 2008 the House ethics panel convened an investigative subcommittee. Meanwhile many other allegations came to light.

Nearly two years later the investigation has censured Rangel on the least of the charges, forcing him to step down. This amounts to a slap on the wrist which will move Rangel out of the spotlight to enable Democrats focus their attention on ramming healthcare reform down the throats of the American people. Left unadressed are several issues:

• Failing to report hundreds of thousands in assets, including mutual funds and stock
• Failing to report ownership in an overseas luxury residence
• Using his official position to raise money for a school named after him
• Tax evasion on unreported assets and other ethics violations

This month millions of Americans will grapple with the complex US tax code as they prepare their tax returns for the upcoming deadline. Many struggle to pay their tax liability to fund this out of control government. Charlie Rangel as head of the Ways and Means Committee was in charge of writing this tax code. No one would know better than Rangel the illegality of hiding nearly one million in unreported assets. Yet he holds himself above the law, depending on his cronies who are still covering for him.

This is all too often the case with the ruling class. They pass laws that others must obey, taxing the serfs who serve to finance their power and decadence. Meanwhile they exempt themselves from the very laws they impose upon others.

Pelosi promised to “drain the swamp” when she took control in 2006. Instead she has pumped raw sewage into the bayou and has spritzed her private cologne to cover the stench.

Nick Popaditch "Cigar Marine"

JAMES SIMPSON: A common complaint we hear about members of Congress is that they have never served in the military. A total of 95 veterans of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and the National Guard are current House members (the 96^th, John Murtha just died). This represents a mere 20 percent of sitting Members of Congress and is a record low. We can chalk this up as one good reason for Congress’s stunning ignorance regarding military matters.

“I will go to Washington to do battle against Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, Steny Hoyer and the rest of them. They have never seen anything like the Southern fried butt whipping that’s coming at them!” Lt. Col. Allen West (Ret.)

Among the many encouraging signs for the nation as we head into the 2010 midterm elections is the number of first-time Republican candidates for Congress who are recent military veterans. There is even an organization supporting them: Iraq Veterans for Congress (IVC).
IVC was created in the 2008 election cycle to assist Marine Corps veteran Kieran Lalor in his bid to win New York’s 19^th congressional district. While Kieran lost that year, the organization assisted the successful candidacies of Duncan Hunter, Jr. (CA-52) and Mike Coffman (CO-6).This year, IVC is supporting 36 vets. 33 are running for U.S. House seats, one is running for governor, another for lt. governor, and one for U.S. Senate. There are also a number of others running independently. If just those 33 House candidates won, it would increase veterans’ representation in the House by over 30 percent. Such a win could provide a backstop against the lunatic, anti-military policies of Congressional Democrats and the White House, and may add some much-needed spine to the House Republican caucus. A list of those running is provided at the end of this article.

These people are exemplary models of the best America can produce, but space considerations prevent me from describing them all in detail. There are a few among them however, whose stories are a bit “more equal,” so I am going to pick out one or two for special focus in the next few columns. Here’s the first:

Nick Popaditch

“Gunny Pop” Nick Popaditch, enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps 1986, a year after graduating high school. He served as a tank commander during the first Gulf War and was honorably discharged in 1992. He re-enlisted in 1995, and from 1998 – 2002, served as a Drill Instructor at MCRD San Diego. In 2003, Nick shipped off to the Gulf to participate in Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) again as tank commander. Upon entering Baghdad, his unit became famous the world over for helping to topple Saddam’s statue. The picture of him above, smoking a cigar with Saddam’s statue in the background, earned him the moniker “Cigar Marine.”

Gunnery Sergeant Popaditch returned to Iraq for a second tour in 2004, and participated in the first assault on Fallujah in April. During that battle, Nick was hit in the head by a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG). This was actually caught on camera by nearby news crews. Nick was blinded by the wound, but due to the tireless efforts of medical staff and his indomitable spirit, his left eye was saved. Nick wrote a book, with co-author Mike Steere, about his experiences, Once a Marine: An Iraq War Tank Commander’s Inspirational Memoir of Combat, Courage, and Recovery. The book made the Commandant of the Marine Corps recommended professional reading list for all ranks, won The Military-Writers Book of the Year for 2009, and was a national book club selection. Nick’s unique command tactics and leadership in Iraq earned him the Silver Star.

Nick is running for a seat in the 51^st Congressional District of California, a seat currently held by Bob Filner, one of the most liberal Democrats in the House and a founding member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (read socialist). The choice couldn’t be clearer: a patriotic American versus a radical leftist who has been wreaking havoc in Washington, DC since 1992.

Time for regime change once again! And Gunny Pop is the one to topple this slug. Future issues will examine the testimonials of Allen West, Dan Gilyeat, Katherine Jenerette and others. With folks like these on board there may yet be hope for our teetering Republic.

Here is a list of all IVC candidates. Check them out! U.S. House:  Justin Bernier (CT-5^th) USN, Will Breazeale (NC-7^th) USA, Diggs Brown (CO-4^th) USA, Kevin Calvey (OK-5^th) USA, Dan Gilyeat (KS-3^rd) USMC, Tim Griffin (AR-2^nd) USA, Wayne Harmon (IN-7^th) USMC, Dr. Joe Heck (NV-3^rd) USA,Jesse Kelly (AZ-8^th) USMC, Adam Kinzinger (IL-11^th) USAF, Todd Lally (KY-3^rd) USAF, Patrick Murray (VA-8^th) USA, Andrew “Rocky” Raczkowski (MI-9^th) USA, Brian Rooney (MI-7^th) USMC,William Russell (PA-12th) USA, Steve Stivers (OH-15^th) USA,Scott Taylor (VA-2^nd) USN, Vaughn Ward (ID-1^st) USMC, Allen West (FL-22^nd) USA, Michael Crimmins (CA-53^rd) USMC, Dave Evans(TN-6^th) USA, Mike Grimm (NY-13^th) USMC, Katherine Jenerette (SC-1^st) USA, Quang Pham (CA-47^th) USMC, Les Phillip (AL-5^th) USN, Lang Sias (CO-7^th) USN, Rick Barber (AL-2^nd) USMC, Rick Crawford (AR-1^st) USA, Steve Pearce (NM-2^nd) USAF, Mike Pompeo (KS-4^th) USA, John Loughlin(RI-1^st) USA, Willie Vaden (TX-27^th) USMC. U.S. Senate:  Conrad Reynolds (AR) USA. Candidates for governor/lt. governor:  Allen Weh (NM) USMC, Bill Connor (Lt Gov-SC) USA.

Businessman and Examiner.com columnist Jim Simpson is a former White House staff economist and budget analyst. His writings have been published in American Thinker, Washington Times, WorldnetDaily, FrontPage Magazine, DefenseWatch, Soldier of Fortune and others.

Obama is "Fixing" More Than Your Car

WASHINGTON (or is it Detroit?): The NIP was the first to call into question the Congressional witch hunts against Toyota. Our position was that all credibility of the National Traffic Safety Administration has been lost now that Obama is in the car business. Turns out we were right, but it goes much further.

When unions spend more than $60 million on an election, they demand results. That money put Andy Stern, head of the SEIU, in the White House more than any other visitor. Andy Stern warned us that the union thugs “prefer to use the power of persuasion, but if that doesn’t work we use the persuasion of power.”

Big money always means big influence. Unions came out on top when it came time restructure GM, ironic because unions were at the heart of the automaker’s troubles. Guess who receives barrels of union money:

We are told that 19 of the 36 Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee were given sizable checks by the UAW for their election campaigns. We also learn that 12 of 25 Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee got checks, too. In my opinion, such a conflict of interest puts Toyota at quite a disadvantage…

I offer this from Brian Johnson, who serves as the Federal Affairs Manager for an outfit called Americans for Tax Reform. He writes, “When GM fired over 35,000 employees between 2006 and 2008, Toyota laid off zero. GM loses almost $2,500 in profitability per vehicle where Toyota makes almost $1,500 per vehicle.

“This is largely due to GM’s forced union contracts. GM’s union, the United Auto Workers (UAW), mandates that GM pay, on average, each non-skilled line worker about $33 per hour. This inflated wage includes workers who are “idle,” meaning they don’t have a specific job that day, but can still come to work, sit in a special facility and collect a pay check,” Johnson explained. Roy Exum, Chattanoogan.com

As independent examiners look into the so-called “evidence” it turns out that much of it has simply been manufactured in order to smear the number one automaker:

During last week’s hearings, a tearful Rhonda Smith of Sevierville gave a compelling testimony, but we have since learned the car in question was promptly sold, that nothing could be found wrong, and it has since been driven 27,000 miles without an incident. That wasn’t told at the Congressional hearing.

Worse, an “expert,” Dr. David Gilbert of Southern Illinois University, offered testimony from research he said he had done but afterward, when he was asked to duplicate it for unbelieving Toyota researchers, it could not be replicated. Further, it was not revealed at the hearing that Dr. Gilbert’s research was … er, “funded” by lawyers with suits pending against Toyota. In my opinion, that’s not right.

Today comes word from the highly-respected Consumer Reports that, “as early as this week,” they will return eight Toyota models to their vaunted “recommended” list because – Congress not withstanding – Toyota products have factually been proven to be among the most reliable automobiles in the world.

On Tuesday the spring auto issue of Consumer Reports will be released and – what is this? – Toyota is again No. 3 on the list. (Honda and Subaru are tied for first.) Ford is ranked 11th while GM and Chrysler are again at the bottom of the annual rankings.

Last year Toyota displaced General Motors as the world’s largest automobile manufacturer. Today there are Toyota manufacturing plants in eight states that employ 35,000 workers. This week at least three of the plants will be idle – due to the recalls. But, get this, Toyota will still pay each worker, having them attend safety classes rather than man the assembly lines. Roy Exum, Chattanoogan.com

These kinds of shenanigans are what you can expect when government gets out of control. GM and the country would have been far better off had GM been allowed to go through normal restructuring. The whole point of government assistance was to avoid bankruptcy, which happened anyway last June. With a normal bankruptcy GM would have been able to redraw its union contracts, but the Obama administration stepped in and not only prevented such action, but awarded the union with control of the company.

With the unions in control of GM, Congress and the White House, they are on now in full attack mode against Toyota and free enterprise. Are you feeling safer yet?

WASHINGTON

There are 30 vulnerable Democratic Congressmen who voted for Obamacare the first time around. These 30 are vulnerable to voter backlash who may listen to your input. Give them each of them a call and let them know what you think:

Rodgers, a 25 year veteran of ABC Radio and a 15 year veteran at KSFO with his highly rated and profitable Lee Rodgers Show, was in the normal process of renegotiating his contract for renewal in July when he was fired last week. In a clear violation of his contract, Rodgers said that his leaving, “…was forced upon me, with no notice.”

Talk Show Host Lee Rodgers

ABC Radio is owned by Citadel Corporation and is in bankruptcy. Its move to terminate one of its highest rated and profitable hosts in a major metropolitan market seems counter-productive but is not unusual under Citadel’s current management. Earlier in the month Chicago sister station, WLS-AM 890 fired in mid-week the abrasive but entertaining libertarian, Mancow Muller, and his co-host, Pat Cassidy, for, as Muller put it, “no rhyme or reason.”

In an email sent to his fans, Rodgers wrote, “The top management of Citadel, led by a CEO named Farid Suleiman–widely regarded as the most incompetent executive in broadcasting–decided that I was making too much money after 25 years with ABC and fifteen as morning host on KSFO, taking no note of the fact that I’ve generated large sums of money for the company.”

Rodgers then went on to say, “I WILL tell you, in all candor, that thanks to Mr. Suleiman’s Citadel management, I could no longer proudly say that the company had never told me what to say or what not to say.  There was an obvious cave-in to some ultra-left and pro-Muslim groups, making it unlikely that I would have ever renewed my contract with the company, anyway.”

Rodgers’ co-host, Melanie Morgan, lost her slot in what ostensibly was a cost-cutting move on the part of KSFO in 2008. However, immediately before she was let go, Morgan was war reporting directly from Iraq and was one of the leading charity organizers in the nation for sending goodie packages to our frontline fighting men and women in the WOT. Morgan was pro-Bush and a major cheerleader on the Iraqi and Afghani fronts. Even though her husband, Jack Swanson, was then and still is the manager of KSFO, it was not enough to ensure that her contract was renewed.

Over the 15 years that Rodgers was morning host, he was famous for not suffering fools gladly and holding firmly to conservative principles. He repeatedly stated that the last, true President of the United States concerned with the actual welfare of America was Ronald Reagan and that the Islamic nation building conducted under President Bush II was a disastrous waste of American manpower and money. Rodgers advocated secure borders, reported on Islamic terrorism, cultural jihad and creeping sharia within the USA, and repeatedly hammered on the Obama Administration over its gross incompetence, corruption, conflicts of interest, bailouts and willful shredding of the Constitution.

Rodgers’ co-hosts, Melanie Morgan and Officer Vic (Tom Benner), followed his lead but Rodgers left them in the dust with his show preparation and research that was so extensive he operated on only four hours of sleep a day. Rodgers never accepted second-rate thinking from anyone including his guests and nationally syndicated conservative talk show host, Mark Levin, cut his radio teeth with Rodgers as a call-in debater when Levin was a patent attorney in the South Bay/Silicon Valley city of Sunnyvale.

Rodgers is not registered with the Republican Party and, unlike many other conservative radio talk show hosts, refuses to carry water for the GOP. Rodgers could easily translate into national syndication and would give Levin and Rush Limbaugh major competition for listeners.

President Obama pronounced “corpsman” as “corpse man” twice in the same address. This mispronunciation has caused quite a bit of ridicule about a man who ascended to the presidency based upon his rhetorical skills. Mark Whittington, Associated Content

Maybe they understand fakery when they see it, but whatever the reason, the video below demonstrates the heartfelt difference Marines feel when it comes time to recognize their Commander-in-Chief. The video shows you side-by-side comparisons of the troops responses to Bush vs. Obama. The difference is striking. At the end of the Obama clip even the commentator remarks on the “tepid response” of the troops to their CiC.

Obama’s obvious lack of familiarity with our armed services should give all concerned citizens pause when considering Obama’s recommendations on foreign and military policies. This video shows that our troops are concerned, shouldn’t you be too?