Another one announced today

Today's giggle via bookwormroom.com.

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Memorial Day thoughts

Here is an extract from The WashingtonPost: 

I’m a veteran and I hate ‘Happy Memorial Day.’ Here’s why.

By Jennie Haskamp May 22 at 11:02 AM

. . . I’m angry. I’ve come to realize people think Memorial Day is the official start of summer. It’s grilled meat, super-duper discounts, a day (or two) off work, beer, potato salad and porches draped in bunting.

But it shouldn’t be. It’s more than that.

Nearly 150 years ago, Memorial Day— first called Decoration Day— was set aside to decorate the graves of the men who’d recently died in battle. America was still reeling from the Civil War when Gen. John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, issued a proclamation in 1868, according to a PBS account of his decision.  “The 30th of May,” he declared, “would be an occasion to honor those who died in the conflict.”

He chose the date because it wasn’t the anniversary of any particular battle.

Here’s how it was outlined in General Orders No. 11, Washington, D.C., May 5, 1868:

The 30th day of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet church-yard in the land. In this observance no form of ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.

How is it then, some century and a half later, after more than a decade of war in two countries that claimed the lives of some 6,861 Americans, we are collectively more concerned with having a barbecue and going shopping than pausing to appreciate the cost of our freedom to do so?

A friend reminded me that plenty of people use the weekend the way it was designed: to pause and remember the men and women who paid the price of our freedom, and then go on about enjoying those freedoms.

But I argue not enough people use it that way. Not enough people pause. Not enough people remember.

I’m frustrated by people all over the country who view the day as anything but a day to remember our WAR DEAD. I hate hearing “Happy Memorial Day.”

It’s not Veteran’s Day. It’s not military appreciation day. Don’t thank me for my service. Please don’t thank me for my service. It’s take the time to pay homage to the men and women who died while wearing the cloth of this nation you’re so freely enjoying today, day.

Read the rest here. 

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Fox editorial on the Health Care Compact

A second chance to get America's health care right: Give authority to our states

By Sen. John Cornyn, Sen. James Lankford

Published May 15, 2015 on FoxNews.com   

Health care reform has dominated our nation’s political and social conversations for the past six years. After the implementation of ObamaCare, it is clear the law brought radical change and real pain to our nation’s families, economy, and health care system. The promised "affordable health care fix" made things worse.  

The pending King v. Burwell case reveals another interesting legal problem with the policy and text of the Affordable Care Act. As written, the federally controlled subsidies and employer mandates are not allowed, unless a state chooses them. Now the Supreme Court debates, behind closed doors, the question of state responsibility and textual intent to determine the direction of health care in America. The resulting Supreme Court opinion could dismantle the structure of ObamaCare and give America a second chance to get health care reform right.  

Ironically, the issue of state responsibility could take ObamaCare down and lift individual citizens up.

States are generally more effective regulators than the federal government. Allowing states to assume responsibility and maintain authority moves people from numbers on a spreadsheet to neighbors down the street.

The Constitution gives states the power to regulate health care within their state and voluntarily compact with other states, but the federal government has attempted to preempt state action by assuming centralized control. What is needed is clear legislation that affirms the right of states to compact with one another to return authority for health care regulation to states that choose to participate.

Interstate compacts have been used on more than 200 occasions to establish agreements between and among states. Mentioned in Article 1, Section 10 of the Constitution, state compacts provide authority and flexibility to administer government programs without federal interference. In the Compact structure, federal health care tax money and responsibility is returned to a state when they expand their existing Healthcare Authority structure.  Congressional consent is extended when states enter into a legally binding compact. It is similar to a multitude of other grants made by the federal government to states and local entities.

Complexity empowers big government, simplicity empowers families and local leaders. Giving health care authority to states is simple and beneficial because they are able to enact accountability, efficiencies and tailor their system to fit the exact needs of their population. One size does not fit all – ObamaCare proves that. The health challenges and population needs of Vermont or California are not the same as Texas or Oklahoma.  

Why should bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. manage all health care systems the same way?

Health care is large, complex, and challenging to manage at the federal level. With a federal system that impacts over 300 million people, $2.3 trillion spent annually and almost 3,000 pages of regulations for Medicare and Medicaid, federal management of our health care system is inefficient and virtually occluded from individualized input. The Medicare fraud rate has hovered around 10 percent for decades, with over $50 billion in annual lost tax money.  Big systems allow massive financial loss and make individual citizens small.  

States are generally more effective regulators than the federal government. Allowing states to assume responsibility and maintain authority moves people from numbers on a spreadsheet to neighbors down the street. Rural health care struggles to get the attention of federal agencies, but they would have the consistent ear of state agencies. 

Some people assume only people in Washington, D.C. care about the health needs of people across the nation, but we can assure you that state leaders and state agencies deeply care for their neighbors and want to find ways to help them. In fact, before the Affordable Care Act passed, our states had already initiated systems to care for those without health care. Unfortunately, the state solutions were forced out when ObamaCare took over.

The Compact is an option that ensures the people of each state will have a choice. States can opt in to the Compact – or not.  To date, the Health Care Compact has been formally requested by 9 states – Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah – and several other states are considering it.  

As Congress works towards solutions to the problems created by the top-down approach of ObamaCare, we want to let states innovate to serve their citizens’ health care needs. When the Supreme Court rules on King v. Burwell in favor of state responsibility, we want to let states innovate ways to serve their citizens’ health care.

Republican John Cornyn represents Texas in the United States Senate where he serves on the Judiciary Committee. He is a former state attorney general.

Republican James Lankford represents Oklahoma in the United States Senate.

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Tea Party & NAACP: Time for the Government to Stop Spying on Americans

From The News & Observer --

By Jenny Beth Martin and Hilary O. Shelton


It’s not often that the NAACP and the tea party agree on much of anything, but we have come together over a common concern to fight for a common cause: We want our government to stop spying on innocent Americans.

The government claims the legal authority to collect records of your personal, private conversations with your significant other, spouse, doctor, pastor or lawyer – all without a warrant or any evidence of wrongdoing. It can turn on your computer’s webcam in your own home without your knowing, provided it gets a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, a secret court that approves 99.96 of the government’s requests.

Our intelligence agencies say they need these powers to combat terrorism, but many of these powers are used routinely to collect information about innocent Americans. And very often, it is racial and ethnic minority groups who are disproportionately targeted.

One of the most infamous examples was FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover’s COINTELPRO, a series of covert and often illegal operations in the 1960s to discredit and smear civil rights and political groups the agency deemed subversive, including the NAACP, Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. In the name of national security, the bureau planted illegal wiretaps, sabotaged communications and conducted warrantless physical searches and whjle committing a variety of other violations.

The surveillance tools the National Security Agency possesses today – being able to monitor Internet searches and call records – makes the age of hotel-room bugs seem quaint. And experience shows us how threatening unchecked government surveillance can be damaging to the very core of our democracy.

Earlier this month, a federal appeals court ruled that the Patriot Act did not in fact permit the government to collect and store the phone records of all Americans, as it has been doing. Rather than stop it, however, the court noted that Section 215 of the Patriot Act, the provision the NSA cites to justify its call records program, is set to expire June 1. So the court decided to let Congress determine whether Section 215 should die, be revised or extended without alternation.

Last week, the House passed the USA Freedom Act, a bipartisan bill that would prohibit the bulk collection of phone records. But while the bill would stop the government from collecting phone records en masse, it would not stop it from accessing those records from telephone companies so long as it gets approval the FISC. And it doesn’t address government spying abuses authorized by other surveillance authorities.

Clearly, this reform is not enough. We need a broad overhaul of the government’s surveillance powers, and the people of North Carolina know this. A recent bipartisan poll commissioned by the American Civil Liberties Union found that more than 80 percent of voters in the state find it concerning that the government is collecting and storing the personal information of Americans.

As the USA Freedom Act moves to the Senate this week, we urge Sens. Richard Burr and Thom Tillis to pull the plug and let Section 215 expire. By wiping the slate clean, our country can have the much-needed debate about how much of our liberty and privacy we are willing to give up in the name of domestic surveillance.

Be it members of the NAACP or, more recently, members of the tea party, the fact is our government has too often, during the most challenging of times, targeted those who wish to struggle for positive change or demand accountability in the name of the common man or the underserved. We have all been on the receiving end of government overreach and other abuses, and this is why we stand united today.

Jenny Beth Martin is the co-founder and national coordinator of the Tea Party Patriots. Hilary O. Shelton is the director of the NAACP Washington Bureau and senior vice president for policy and advocacy.

Stopping Common Core in Ohio!

Local Authority Restoration Act L.A.R.A.

This is the bill we've been waiting for!

From Marianne & Ohio Tea Party Patriots:

Finally, the bill we have been waiting for will be introduced in Columbus on Monday the 18th!

On Monday, Rep. Andy Thompson will introduce the Local Authority Restoration Act - LARA Bill - to the House. Click Here for the summary. The final bill text is not yet available, as we won't have a bill number until it is formally introduced Monday.

We are trying to fill voicemail boxes and need phone calls, by the hundreds, to be made over the weekend.  NOW!!!

Call now through Sunday

Call the people listed below and ask them to support the local control bill being introduced Monday by Rep. Thompson. 

House Leadership: 

Cliff Rosenberger (614) 466-3506

Jim Buchy            (614) 466-6344      

Dorothy Pelanda  (614) 466-8147

Ron Amstutz        (614) 466-1474

Barbara Sears     (614) 466-1731

Mike Dovilla         (614) 466-4895

Below is a list of Representatives who are already showing support by signing on as co-sponsors.

Is your representative on the list?

If so, please call to thank him/her.  If not, please call and ask him/her to show their support and sign on as a co-sponsor.

Current Co-Sponsors: Timothy Ginter, Thomas Brinkman, Paul Zeltwanger, Terry Boose, Ron Young, Ron Maag, John Decker, Stephen Hambley, David Hall, Ron Hood, Kyle Koehler, Tony Burkley, Jim Buchy, Nino Vitale, Steve Kraus, John Becker, Wes Retherford, Anne Gonzales

Click Here for Contact Information

Take Action and Make the Calls!

This is the Bill We've Been Waiting For!

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Good News about the Health Care Compact

Here's important news from the Director Of Development for the Health Care Compact -- and it should be encouraging for all Ohio patriots:

Yesterday, Congressman Doug Collins of Georgia filed the Health Care Compact in the U.S. House of Representatives. Once Congress passes the legislation, the nine (and counting!) states that have joined the Compact would be able to take back control of health care from the federal government. You can check out the Congressman's press release here. 

This is just the first step in passing the Health Care Compact at the federal level, but it's an important one. We're working hard to ensure the bill is soon filed in the U.S. Senate, which would catapult our efforts at moving the Compact through Congress.

In the meantime, would you consider forwarding this email, sharing our Facebook announcement and retweeting our Twitter update? Let your friends know the Health Care Compact is the best option we have to undo Obamacare and give health care control back to the states, where it belongs. 

In other good news, it looks like we'll soon be adding to the nine states that have joined the Compact. While Montana's governor vetoed that state's bill in April, the Compact was voted favorably out of committee in Ohio last week. I look forward to reporting back to you with more news in the coming weeks. 

Remember, nine states have already approved the Compact (Indiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Texas, Kansas and Utah), and every additional state that joins gives us a greater voice in the halls of Congress. 
  

Thank you for your continued support of the Health Care Compact - the ONLY proposal that takes all health care decision-making authority out of Washington, D.C. and returns it to the states. Please continue to make your voice heard!

In liberty,

Jamie Kohlmann
Managing Director of Development

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Ohio Health Care Compact NEWS

Art credit: kansascity.com

Ohio Health Care Compact NEWS (h/t Marianne):

The Health Care Compact (HB 34) passed out of the State Government Committee last week with a vote of 9 - 4, along party lines!  Please take a moment to thank all the committee members that voted Yea, and ask for their support when the bill hits the House floor.  

Click here for contact information for the Yea votes.

We are hoping to have the full House vote the week of May 18th.

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