FreedomWorks Virginia

Thursday, October 29, 2009

FreedomWorks in Richmond With Dick Armey and John Taylor
Cross-posted on UCV and The Talon

Revised and extended

The first official FreedomWorks Virginia event went off without a hitch tonight down at Europa Italian Cafe on E. Cary St. I highly recommend this resturant. Its easy to get to, plenty of parking less than half a block from the door. Go spend money and tell 'em FreedomWorks sent ya'.

We had about 100 folks in attendance, and some of those folks drove from as far as Rockbridge and Shennandoah County to hear Dick Armey, John Taylor from Tertium Quids, Nan Swift from FreedomWorks, Tabitha Hale from SmartGirlPolitics, and Josh Eboch newest member of the FreedomWorksVA team, speak on issues near and dear to the hearts of Virginians.

FreedomWorks, and Virginia, are very lucky to have such talented, intelligent, motivated individuals.

Doc Thompson was under the weather, but one of the best stand-ins ever filled in for him. Scott Lee from The Lee Brothers did the Emcee duties and he was, well, he was Scott Lee.

There may be an addition to a segment on the Lee Brothers radio show on Saturday mornings. Seems Scott is a huge fan of good BBQ sauce, and since I happen to know where to get some primo, Scott came up with an idea. I'll let him develop it as he sees fit, but stay tuned. This may get sticky. ;)

Be sure to listen to Doc on Friday. He's going to have a film crew from the BBC in the studio with him. I met them tonight. A lot of Britons are going to get introduced to some real Americans when this documentary on Cap and Trade gets broadcast in England on BBC2.

Once the Virginia election is over, and we have a conservative majority back in charge, the real work begins. The mission is the re-affirmation of the sovereignty of the several states and the rights of those states to conduct business without unneccessary government regulations.

We'll be directly involved working to protect the jobs and the standard of living of the citizens of the Commwealth by encouraging the passage of legislation that enhances domestic energy production and promotes self-reliance and personal responsibility.

We need to stop cap and trade in its tracks. We need to protect the people who provide us with uninterrupted power. We need to drive a stake through the heart of restrictions on domestic energy production. We need to push hard for the House of Delegates and the VA Senate to recognize that the federal government does not have the final word on the welfare of the citizens. The Commonwealth has the right and obligation to defend the rights and property of its citizens.

The 10th Amendment is law. It is clear.

Josh is moving to Richmond and will be the point man for FreedomWorks Virginia. If you have something you think FreedomWorksVA can help with, please leave a comment here and we'll do what we we're allowed by law or you can hit him from the FreedomWorks site.

It starts here. It starts now. In Virginia. Where it began the first time. Its time for Virginia citizens to once again mark their place in history.

The Constitution is the Law.
Everything else is just a regulation.

More Video From The 9/12 March

As the head of the Security Team for FreedomWorks at the 9/12 March, all I can say is I am proud of each and every American who took the time to come to DC and make a statement. (Except for the LaRouche idiots. I could have done without them.)

Plans are already underway to duplicate the remarkable success next year.

Operation Clean Sweep 2010 is in production.

"Buckle up, Buttercup." ;)

Baucus Bill - FBI/DoJ To Have Unfettered Access To Records?

Washington, DC - According to credible sources familiar with the Senate Finance Committee’s health care bill—the “Baucus Bill”—the current legislation gives the Department of Justice and the FBI unprecedented and unfettered access to the Medicare and Medicaid records of all 80 million-plus Americans enrolled in those programs.

Unfortunately, it’s Senate Finance Committee “tradition” not to release the actual legislative language for the American people to read while the Committee amends it.

FreedomWorks President and CEO Matt Kibbe commented: “Hiding the bill doesn’t fit with President Obama’s pledge to run ‘the most transparent government in history.’ This sort of secrecy and arrogance adds to the low opinion of Congress and is part of why so many came to the September 12 Taxpayer March on Washington.”

All we get to see at this point is the “Chairman’s Mark”—the general summary of what the committee intends to make law, and page 186 and 187 say:

The Chairman’s Mark would require CMS to complete development of the comprehensive “One PI [Program Integrity]” Integrated Data Repository (IDR). The “One PI” IDR would expand existing program integrity data sources and expand data sharing and data matching across Federal health care claims and payment data (including HHS, SSA, the Departments of Veterans Affairs (VA), Defense (DOD), and Justice (DOJ)). In addition to including all claims and payment data for Medicare and Medicaid, the “One PI” IDR would enable existing and new data sources to be integrated…

The “One PI” IDR would be accompanied by additional authority for HHS OIG and DOJ to use these data, including secondary data sources, to identify and investigate potential fraud and abuse.

Kibbe continued: “Persecuting waste, fraud, and abuse is very important but so are the checks and balances within the government that currently protect our privacy. These paragraphs—and particularly the line ‘additional authority…to use these data’ suggest the Baucus bill will remove these checks.

Until they reveal their legislation, we are left to ask:

1. Does this mean the FBI—part of the DOJ—will have open access to all Medicare and Medicaid information?

2. Who will make sure the data will not be used for political fishing expeditions?

3. Do all who join a Medicare-like 'public option' also become part of an open-access database?

No Insurance? Go to Jail; Do Not Pass Go; Do Not Collect $200

ObamaCare: No Insurance, Go to Jail!
By Max Pappas on Sep 25, 2009

First we learned that the major health care reform bills the Democrats are pushing included an "individual mandate" that would tax you up to $1,900 (or $3,800 for a family) if you didn't buy health insurance that Congress approves of.

Now it has been revealed that if you do not pay that tax, it is a misdemeanor with up to a year in jail and $25,000 in fines!

The source? A hand written letter by the Chief of Staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation written to Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), as reported in Politico.

Read it yourself here.

This is an incredible use of government power to force us to buy the product being sold by private insurance companies, and why FreedomWorks went to protest the insurance companies call for this "individual mandate", as seen in this video.

Video From 9/12

Freedom Plaza 9/12 March

Thats me on the right.

A Message From Dick Armey

Dear Friend,

The 9-12 March on Washington has concluded and by any measure it was nothing short of an historic success for the limited government movement.

The debate over how many people were actually there is now raging from one extreme to another. Some media reports have gone as high as 2 million, while liberal pundits like David Schuster have thrown out insulting low estimates under 50,000. I believe the truth is that our crowd actually approached 1 million, but you can judge for yourself as coverage of the March will air on CSPAN again tonight at 8 pm EST. No matter the actual number, the 9-12 March on Washington was far and away the largest gathering of limited government conservative activists in history and I want to thank you for helping to make it so.

Whether you were there or not, your support was key – your contribution, attendance at a local taxpayer protest in your own community, or your presence in DC is being felt today by the politicians here in the Nation’s Capital. Some may not admit it publicly, but I promise you that even the likes of Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Barrack Obama himself now know the power that our side represents.

We are all exhausted, but it’s imperative that we keep telling the stories, and sharing the images, and connecting the people from all 50 states who spoke with one voice to petition their government. After all, we all worked so hard to send the message to our elected officials: “Silent No More.” To help document this monumental event, over the next few weeks, FreedomWorks will be putting together an online archive of the 9/12 March on Washington. However, if this project is going to be successful, we need your help!Here is how you can help:

Tell us your story. If you were at the March, watched it from home, or participated in one of the hundreds of other local taxpayer rallies that took place all over the country, we want to hear from you! Simply email your story to 912dc.org@gmail.com, and don’t forget to include your name (we’ll only publish your first name), age, and location! We will also be sure to get a hard copy hand-delivered to your Senators and Congressman.

Send us your pictures and video. Did you take photos or video at the DC March or your local event? If so, we’d like to post them on our archive. To do this, all you need to do is upload your photos to Flickr.com, and videos to YouTube.com, then include the tag “912dc” before saving them. If you have too many photos, or your video is too large, you can mail a CD or DVD to: FreedomWorks, 601 Pennsylvania Ave, NW, North Building, Suite 700, Washington, DC 20004.

We need your help to get ready for the coming battles. The health care debate continues to rage and we expect the Left to continue their push for cap and trade and other items on the big government wish-list through the end of this year. We are working to build an infrastructure capable of conducting targeted research and issuing rapid-response calls to action that will make the difference in these fights.

In addition, our political battle plan for 2010 is already starting to come together. To give you a sneak preview, this includes another major event in Washington, D.C. and playing in the most high-profile Congressional mid-term races. All of this of course will take significant resources, but that’s what it is going to take to give limited government activists like you the necessary tools to affect change. Click here to support FreedomWorks with your generous contribution.

I think back to 1994. Then, true limited government conservatives saw the dawn of a new era where fiscal conservatives rose to power on the shoulders of the Contract with America and “threw the bums out.” While conservatives in Congress ultimately lost their way and thus the support of the voters, I believe that thanks to the grassroots uprising we are seeing now that lawmakers are getting the message and that 2010 could look a lot like 1994, if we keep it up.

So while I again congratulate you on the success of 9-12, I remind you that the battle goes on. We can take our government back, but as abolitionist Wendell Phillips famously said, “eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”

FreedomWorks,

Dick Armey

A More Realistic Estimate

We all know the VLWM is suffering from a serious numerical dyslexic-disorder. They just can't seem to get their numbers straight, for some reason.

Lets get this out of the way now.

Most media outlets are using the term "10's of thousands" to describe the 9/12 March attendance in Washington DC.

I was there from 0700 until 1500 and I can assure you, (and I have Park Police estimates to back it up), there were 1.3 million Americans at the 9/12 March in Washington DC.

ONE POINT THREE MILLION voting Americans who quite possibly represent another 100 voting Americans who could not attend.

Are you listening now?

Can you hear THEM NOW?!?!

CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW??!!!

InstaPundit has a photo taken by MKH, (what a class act and a smokin' hot baby-doll) who actually paid $18 to access the vantage point from the top of the Newseum. This is the end of Pennsylvania Ave from about 3rd Street to the West Lawn. The Newseum is at 555 Pennsylvania Ave, between 5th and 6th. The March extends west to 14th Street. Do the math. It took 3.5 hours to move the crowd from 14th to 3rd Streets, and the marchers filled Pennsylvania Ave from curb to curb for almost 3 hours.

Tankerbabe and I met up with Uncle Jimbo and Lilyea.
Uncle Jimbo was speechless; a condition he rarely, if ever, suffers from, although I did hear several "WOW!!!'s" and at least three "I can't effing believe this!!'s"

He did manage to recover sufficiently to film some folks.