Pot meet Kettle; China Criticizes U.S. on Human Rights

China - the land where Buddhist Monks are free to self-immolate themselves, where families are free to participate in gendercide, religious freedom is embraced, and where free speech and the right to protest are encouraged - has just criticized the United States over Human Rights abuses.

While the big brother/nanny state policies have increased since President Obama has taken office and our God-given and Constitutionally protected rights are constantly under attack from the Obama Administration, China criticizing the U.S. on human rights - is like President Obama's recent "pot meet kettle" moment when he called 2nd Amendment supporters liars after his gun bill was spanked in the U.S. Senate.

From Yahoo News --

China slammed the human rights record of the United States in response to Washington's report on rights around the world, saying that U.S. military operations have infringed on rights abroad and that political donations at home have thwarted the country's democracy.

The report released Sunday in China — which defines human rights primarily in terms of improving living conditions for its 1.3 billion people— also cited gun violence in the U.S. among its examples of human rights violations, saying it was a serious threat to the lives and safety of America's citizens.

The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2012 said the U.S. government continues to strengthen the monitoring of its people and that political donations to election campaigns have undue influence on U.S. policy.

"American citizens do not enjoy a genuinely equal right to vote," the report said, citing a decreased turnout in the 2012 presidential election and a voting rate of 57.5 percent.

The report from the information office of the State Council, or China's Cabinet, which mostly cited media reports, said there was serious sex, racial and religious discrimination in the U.S. and that the country had seriously infringed on the human rights of other nations through its military operations in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen.

The U.S.'s annual global human rights report issued Friday by the State Department said China had imposed new registration requirements to prevent groups from emerging that might challenge government authority. It said Chinese government efforts to silence and intimidate political activists and public interest lawyers continued to increase, and that authorities use extralegal measures such as enforced disappearance to prevent the public voicing of independent opinions.

It also said there was discrimination against women, minorities and people with disabilities, and people trafficking, the use of forced labor, forced sterilization and widespread corruption.

China's authoritarian government maintains strict controls over free speech, religion and political activity — restrictions that the U.S. considers human rights violations.

Human Rights Watch report on China for 2012 and 2013.

Socialism Roaring Back in Europe

From Tea Party Patriots --

The next time someone tells you America should be more like Europe, tell them to check out this socialist disaster:

Senior figures in Germany are now arguing that some richer home owners in countries like Spain, Portugal and Greece have so far avoided paying their fair share to rescue the euro, leaving Germany paying too much.

Taxes on property or other assets would mark a significant change in Europe’s approach to funding bail-outs for eurozone members. Until now, the cost of rescue packages for countries like Ireland, Greece and Portugal has fallen largely on people who invest money in either those countries’ bonds or – in the case of Cyprus – bank accounts.

Prof Peter Bofinger, an adviser to Mrs Merkel, said that levies on bank accounts are the wrong way of funding bail-outs, because rich people are able to shift their money out of the country.

“The resourceful rich just move their money to banks in northern Europe and avoid paying,” Prof Bofinger told Der Spiegel, a German magazine.

Instead of taxing cash, European Union governments should in future target property and other, less mobile assets, he said.

“For example, over the next 10 years, the rich should give up a portion of their assets,” Prof Bofinger said. Spain was last year forced to seek international help to prop up its banks. Despite recent signs of progress, some analysts believe the Spanish government itself could also have to seek a bail-out in order to pay its debts.

The discussion basically boils down to this: Germany is the wealthiest and most economically powerful nation in the European Union and has been ponying up for bailouts of other nations. Nations in trouble say this is only fair. German economists disagree:

The ECB study found that the “median” wealth in Cyprus is €267,000 (£227,600), compared to just €51,000 in Germany.

The median or midpoint level – which strips out the distorting effect of the super-rich – was €183,000 for Spain, €172,000 for Italy, and €102,000 for Greece, and even €75,000 for Portugal.

Average wealth in Cyprus is €671,000, far higher than in the four AAA creditor states: Austria (€265,000), Germany (€195,000), Holland (€170,000), Finland (€161,000).

Prof Feld said the report showed that people in the crisis countries are richer than the Germans. “This shows that Germany has been right to take a tough line of euro rescue loans,” he said.

It’s easy to be torn on this. Do we blame Germany’s leaders for calling for higher taxes in other countries? Socialist policies on taxes don’t work, but it’s also not right for Germany to shoulder so much weight for bailouts. This is the crux of the problem – on either side of the coin, Europe continues its disastrous fall into socialism. Bailouts and higher taxes are not free market solutions to Europe’s fiscal straits, and will simply make a government-created problem worse.

Keynesian economists in America argue that we don’t have to worry about Europe’s fate – investors are still putting money into America at high rates, we have our own currency, and interest rates are low. Once again, they completely misunderstand the problem. Just because we have more breathing room is no reason to finance bad decisions.

Medicaid Expansion in Ohio; Down but not Out

The budget bill was passed out of the Ohio House yesterday with a 61-35 vote - and it did not include Governor Kasich's proposal to expand Medicaid under Obamacare in Ohio. 

Sadly, this is only a minimal victory. While it is unlikely the Ohio Senate will put Medicaid expansion back in the budget, the fight to expand Medicaid is far from over.

Keeping Medicaid expansion in Ohio on life support, Representative Barbara Sears offered an amendment that passed which will keep the fight against Medicaid expansion going for at least the rest of the year.....

From The Plain Dealer -- (Emphasis Added)

Ohio's Medicaid expansion is down, but not out.

House Republicans kept alive the possibility that Ohio may expand its Medicaid program to cover the working poor, approving an amendment to its budget that could open the door to changes later this year.

The change was one of several the GOP-controlled House considered as members poised late Thursday night to vote on their iteration of Gov. John Kasich's "Jobs Budget 2.0" The chamber approved a budget proposal for the next two years by a vote of 61-35.

The GOP amendment on Medicaid expansion, introduced by Republican Rep. Barbara Sears of suburban Toledo, requires that legislation to reform the Medicaid program in Ohio be introduced in the House, but does not specify what shape that reform will take.

It directs the governor's Office of Health Transformation and his Medicaid director to provide assistance in developing the legislation. And if the legislation is not enacted before the year ends, efforts to change Medicaid must cease. More...

This is truly sad as Rep. Sears was at one time strongly against any form of Obamacare and even introduced legislation in 2010 trying to stop the implementation of Obamacare in Ohio.

So at the end of the day - some GOP members in the OH House are pretending to be conservative for taking Medicaid expansion out of the budget.

And when the truth be told -- these same GOP members that voted to remove Medicaid expansion from the budget -- also voted to support of an amendment giving an extended shelf life for a proposed Medicaid expansion in Ohio under Obamacare.

Time to Defund Common Core; Contact Your U.S. Senator Now!

The left's feel good program to further indoctrinate our children through the education system, Common Core, is thankfully facing a growing opposition.

In Ohio, the Ohio State Board of Education has adopted Common Core and is now cajoling local school districts to accept these new standards.  Common Core turns traditional teaching on its' head and will cause enormous financial burdens on districts as they will need to purchase new text books specifically tailored to teach the new Common Core Standards.

To combat this effort in Ohio, Ohioans Against Common Core (OACC) has been doing great work and has recently held forums across the state in attempts to educate the public on this very dangerous indoctrination program.

To watch a short informative video on what Common Core Standards are, please click here.

As local activist groups across the U.S. try to battle Common Core Standards at the local level, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is taking the fight against Common Core to D.C. and is asking fellow Senators to co-sign a letter asking them to join his efforts to defund Common Core....

From Caffeinated Thoughts --

Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is asking his colleagues to co-sign a letter asking the Senate Appropriations Committee that funds education to cut off all future funds that would allow the Obama administration to “cajole state’s” into participating in the Common Core State Standards and it’s assessments.

His office in an email sent late this afternoon document the steps the Obama administration has taken to push states to adopt the Common Core.

• Making adoption of Common Core a pre-requisite for a state even being able to compete for Race to the Top funds.

• Directly funding the two assessment consortia developing tests aligned to Common Core using Race to the Top funds.

• Assembling a panel to review the work of the two assessment consortia.

• Making implementation of Common Core or coordination with Common Core a funding priority for other, unrelated competitive grants administered by the Department of Education.

• Making participation in Common Core essentially a prerequisite for being awarded a waiver from the Department of requirements in the No Child Left Behind Act.

The email said, “This means no more Race to the Top funds in support of Common Core or the assessments aligned with Common Core and stopping further federal review of the assessments produced by the two consortiums. It also means that the Department could not penalize a state that chooses to leave Common Core by revoking its NCLB waiver. The deadline for senators to sign on this letter is April 25 so it can reach the subcommittee in time to be considered. “

Please contact your U.S. Senator immediately and ask them to sign on to Senator Grassley's letter to defund Common Core Standards. (Click to Read Letter)

In Ohio, please contact Senator Rob Portman and Senator Sherrod Brown....

Senator Rob Portman
PH #: (202)224-3353
Email: http://www.portman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact?p=contact-form

Senator Sherrod Brown
PH #: (202)224-2315
Email: http://www.brown.senate.gov/contact/

To find contact information on your U.S. Senator please click here.

Tea Party Patriots put Senator Marco Rubio on Notice; Stop Acting Like Nancy Pelosi

As part of the Tea Party Patriots D.C. Intervention initiative yesterday, Tea Party groups across the country descended upon the local offices of all 50 U.S. Senators to express their outrage regarding Senate Bill 649 - over reaching gun control legislation - and the secretive immigration reform bill to be introduced in the Senate.

Rattled by the presence of Tea Party groups protesting against him, one time Tea Party darling, Florida Senator Marco Rubio quickly scribbled out a response (or lame excuse) to his wavering position on the secretive immigration reform bill. 

To read Rubio's response click here. 

Senator Rubio (202)224-3041 - we are not buying it!

From Breibart -- (Emphasis Added)

After Tea Partiers in Florida protested at the home state offices of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) on Tuesday at an event organized by Tea Party Patriots, Rubio quickly, but largely unsuccessfully, tried to reaffirm his commitments to conservative principles when it comes to the immigration fight.

The group of Tea Party conservatives was protesting Rubio for his part in the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” pushing immigration reform and argued in a press release over the weekend he is the “star spokesman for a secretive, small group working on a bill that purports to address illegal immigration and the entire US immigration system as a whole.”

“Not only might the legislation be bad policy, it has already gone outside of the normal process,” the Tea Party group wrote in the release.

After the protests themed around how some normally conservative senators needed a “DC Intervention” ended, Rubio fired off a letter to Tea Party Patriots members pleading with them for continued support. “Over the years, the Patriot movement and I have worked together on many causes and I want to respond personally to correct some misinformation regarding my involvement in the work to reform our country’s broken immigration system – misinformation that has prompted visits by some of you to my offices across Florida and in Washington,” Rubio wrote in a letter addressed “Dear Patriots.”

“First, there is absolutely no truth to the idea that I will support any immigration legislation that is rushed through Congress in typical Washington fashion,” Rubio wrote. “Already, I have fought and continue to fight to secure commitments for greater transparency through committee hearings and mark-up sessions that will allow senators on the Judiciary Committee ample opportunities to review and amend any immigration legislation before it is considered by the full Senate for additional debate and scrutiny. As a result, not only has the Judiciary Committee agreed to delay its first hearing on this issue, it has agreed to add an additional one next week.”

Tea Party Patriots co-founder and national coordinator Jenny Beth Martin told Breitbart News she was disappointed in Rubio’s letter response to the protests. “Sen. Rubio has quickly forgotten how the rest of the country views a 1,500-page bill that is deliberately being rushed through Congress,” Martin said. “He may be aware of details in the bill but the rest of the Senators, and certainly the American public, are not. He thinks he may be thoroughly educated on how the sweeping legislation will affect every facet of our lives, and on the consequences of his proposed changes, but he cannot be. It's simply too large an undertaking for him to have already fully analyzed all of the ramifications of this bill.”

The legislation was originally supposed to be introduced on Tuesday, but as of the close of business, no bill has been filed. The bill is expected to be about 1,500 pages long. Originally, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT) scheduled a single hearing for Wednesday afternoon on the legislation — just one day after its planned rollout. However, Leahy rescheduled the hearing, at which Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is supposed to testify, for Friday.

After Monday's Boston terror attack bombings, the senators postponed their scheduled Tuesday press conference at which they would tout the bill but still planned to file the bill. By the close of the business, they did not meet the deadline.

Martin said that “[a]ssuming the bill is released tomorrow, that gives us only 1 extra day for the hearing this week.”

“The other crumb they are throwing to placate us is the Judiciary Committee's so very gracious agreement to add one additional hearing next week, as though that is enough time for the Senators to deliberatively review the bill and all of its potential consequences,” Martin added.

In his letter to Tea Party Patriots members, Rubio also wrote: “Immigration reform is a difficult issue. It represents the kind of broken government that Tea Party members across our country were fed up with in 2010, and an issue that inspired me to run in order to change the way Washington works.”

Martin took serious issue with that claim.

“Senator Rubio's stated goals to change the way our government works - an entity that he acknowledges is broken - do not mention the constitutional basis of the bill or the fiscal impact of his version of Pelosi's ‘pass it so we can find out what's in it’ legislation,” Martin told Breitbart News. “Sen. Rubio needs to reevaluate his goals and how he hopes to achieve success. He must do this in order to ensure that his measurement of success is rooted in the constitutional principles that are the foundation of our country, and that whatever bill he passes does not drive our country into further debt.”

STOP THE GUN GRAB

STOP THE GUN GRAB

SAVE THE HOUR

ON TUESDAY (TOMORROW)

If the Senate passes S. 649 on Tuesday (tomorrow), it will effectively trample our Second Amendment rights. There are two short videos that provide chilling testimony to just how critical this legislation is. Please take (less than) four minutes to watch these two videos, as they will give you some important talking points.

Sarah Merkle, a 15-year old, testified eloquently on why these proposed gun control measures would do NOTHING to prevent another tragedy such as Newtown.

Manuel Martinez, a legal immigrant from Cuba, testified in Oregon on the danger of losing our Second Amendment rights, as they did in Cuba; video and transcript here (but watch the video if you can).  

On Tuesday (tomorrow), some Tea Party Patriot groups across the country will be visiting offices of their senators or demonstrating outside their offices at noon. In northern Ohio, we thought we might be more effective adding our voices by telephone, fax, and email to those being organized by the NRA. So mark your calendar for Tuesday (tomorrow), at least from noon to 1pm. Whether you are able to phone or fax or e-mail, we think this is every bit as cataclysmic as Obamacare. This is gun control legislation that actually has some chance of passage in the Senate, thanks to promise-breakers like Marco Rubio and Pat Toomey. But won't the House stop it? Not with squishes like Speaker Boehner.

From HotAir: "House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) signaled Thursday that he may continue to bypass a House Republican rule [i.e. the "Hastert Rule"] that has required any legislation being voted upon to have the support of a majority of the GOP conference. He said at a news conference Thursday that he will continue to try and follow it in spirit, but also suggested he might well violate it for upcoming votes on guns, immigration and the budget."

The goal of gun control is to expand and protect the government. One of the three core Tea Party Patriot values is "Constitutionally limited government." Gun control violates our Second Amendment rights and protects, not the law-abiding citizen, but the out-of-control government. So it IS time to push some sort of panic button.

We are urging every single one of you to plan to take time out of your day on Tuesday, Apr-16 to call Sen. Rob Portman, Sen. Marco Rubio, and Speaker Boehner. (There is no point calling Sen. Sherrod Brown, and Sen. Pat Toomey is a co-sponsor of this bill.) If you are at the office, take 15 minutes on your lunch break and call from the hallway or the sidewalk. Keep this message on your screen as you call or print out for talking points. If you are faxing or emailing, cut-copy-and-paste any part of this message into an email that makes the point(s) you think should be made.

S. 649 (the Gun Control bill) is as crippling to our freedom -- and our future -- as is Obamacare. And as you can see in the link for Boehner, Immigration "Reform" is right around the corner. Obamacare, Gun Control, and Immigration "Reform" - these three strike at the heart of our freedom and our survival as a Constitutional republic. We are at a crossroads, so this is calling all Tea Party Patriots and anyone you can persuade to call, fax, or write: 

Sen. Rob Portman

Cleveland Phone: 216-522-7095

Email 

Columbus Fax: (614) 469-7733

Sen. Marco Rubio

DC Phone: 202-224-3041

Email 

DC FAX: 202-228-0285

Speaker John Boehner

Ohio PH 513-779-5400

Email 

DC Fax 202-225-0704

More Obamacare Failures / Reason # 9,547 Not to Expand Medicaid in Ohio

In yet exposing another failure of Obamacare that was predicted, businesses are dropping health care coverage for employees. The reason - insurance premiums rising over the implementation of Obamacare!

During the forcing of Obamacare down the throats of Americans, President Obama and his talking heads were repeatedly saying Obamacare would not take away your employee health insurance. In fact, in cases with businesses with over 50 employees, employers would be penalized for not offering employee health insurance.

We countered with it would be cheaper for businesses to pay the fine for not offering coverage, and by design, premiums would rise under Obamacare, thus forcing businesses to drop coverage, ultimately forcing people into government run health insurance.

And they say we were crazy Tea Party people....

From Cincy Enquirer -- (Emphasis Added)

Businesses in Ohio made some of the deepest cuts in the nation to employee health insurance benefits during the past decade, according to a report released Thursday.

The State Health Access Data Assistance Center, an independent group that studies health care, found about 11 million American workers lost their employer-provided health insurance plans between 2000 and 2011. That’s a drop of 10 percentage points nationwide.

Ohio had the fourth biggest drop in the country, falling 13.7 percentage points.

Workers who kept their insurance saw premiums double in most states, with costs for single coverage increasing by about $2,500 a year in the state.

Analysts blame the decline in employer-provided insurance on a combination of economic turmoil, ever-increasing health care costs and uncertainty over President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, known by some as Obamacare. More....

Sadly, as more Obamacare programs are implemented and are showing to be failures, Governor Kasich wants to expand Medicaid under Obamacare in Ohio.

In spite of, and ignoring the fact that to date every aspect of Obamacare that has been implemented or is trying to be implemented has failed, Governor Kasich's arrogance has suppressed and clouded his judgement.

To protect Ohio from being infected and dragged down by the failures of Obamacare, we are asking that you contact the GOP members on the Ohio House Finance & Appropriations Committee and urge them to support provisions in Substitute HB 59, that remove Medicaid expansion in Ohio under Obamcare.

To contact the OH House Finance & Appropriations Committee click here.