Archives | Liberty Under Fire

‘Irresponsibility’ on Immigration

Apr 28, 2010 | Immigration

By George Will

“Misguided and irresponsible” is how Arizona’s new law pertaining to illegal immigration is characterized by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. She represents San Francisco, which calls itself a “sanctuary city,” an exercise in exhibitionism that means it will be essentially uncooperative regarding enforcement of immigration laws. Yet as many states go to court to challenge the constitutionality of the federal mandate to buy health insurance, scandalized liberals invoke 19th-century specters of “nullification” and “interposition,” anarchy and disunion. Strange.

It is passing strange for federal officials, including the president, to accuse Arizona of irresponsibility while the federal government is refusing to fulfill its responsibility to control the nation’s borders. Such control is an essential attribute of national sovereignty. America is the only developed nation that has a 2,000-mile border with a developing nation, and the government’s refusal to control that border is why there are an estimated 460,000 illegal immigrants in Arizona and why the nation, sensibly insisting on first things first, resists “comprehensive” immigration reform.

Arizona’s law makes what is already a federal offense — being in the country illegally — a state offense. Some critics seem not to understand Arizona’s right to assert concurrent jurisdiction. The Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund attacks Gov. Jan Brewer’s character and motives, saying she “caved to the radical fringe.” This poses a semantic puzzle: Can the large majority of Arizonans who support the law be a “fringe” of their state?

Popularity makes no law invulnerable to invalidation. Americans accept judicial supervision of their democracy — judicial review of popular but possibly unconstitutional statutes — because they know that if the Constitution is truly to constitute the nation, it must trump some majority preferences. The Constitution, the Supreme Court has said, puts certain things “beyond the reach of majorities.”

But Arizona’s statute is not presumptively unconstitutional merely because it says that police officers are required to try to make “a reasonable attempt” to determine the status of a person “where reasonable suspicion exists” that the person is here illegally. The fact that the meaning of “reasonable” will not be obvious in many contexts does not make the law obviously too vague to stand. The Bill of Rights — the Fourth Amendment — proscribes “unreasonable searches and seizures.” What “reasonable” means in practice is still being refined by case law — as is that amendment’s stipulation that no warrants shall be issued “but upon probable cause.” There has also been careful case-by-case refinement of the familiar and indispensable concept of “reasonable suspicion.”

Brewer says, “We must enforce the law evenly, and without regard to skin color, accent or social status.” Because the nation thinks as Brewer does, airport passenger screeners wand Norwegian grandmothers. This is an acceptable, even admirable, homage to the virtue of “evenness” as we seek to deter violence by a few, mostly Middle Eastern, young men.

Some critics say Arizona’s law is unconstitutional because the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of “equal protection of the laws” prevents the government from basing action on the basis of race. Liberals, however, cannot comfortably make this argument because they support racial set-asides in government contracting, racial preferences in college admissions, racial gerrymandering of legislative districts and other aspects of a racial spoils system. Although liberals are appalled by racial profiling, some seem to think vocational profiling (police officers are insensitive incompetents) is merely intellectual efficiency, as is state profiling (Arizonans are xenophobic).

Probably 30 percent of Arizona’s residents are Hispanics. Arizona police officers, like officers everywhere, have enough to do without being required to seek arrests by violating settled law with random stops of people who speak Spanish. In the practice of the complex and demanding craft of policing, good officers — the vast majority — routinely make nuanced judgments about when there is probable cause for acting on reasonable suspicions of illegality.

Arizona’s law might give the nation information about whether judicious enforcement discourages illegality. If so, it is a worthwhile experiment in federalism.

Non-Hispanic Arizonans of all sorts live congenially with all sorts of persons of Hispanic descent. These include some whose ancestors got to Arizona before statehood — some even before it was a territory. They were in America before most Americans’ ancestors arrived. Arizonans should not be judged disdainfully and from a distance by people whose closest contacts with Hispanics are with fine men and women who trim their lawns and put plates in front of them at restaurants, not with illegal immigrants passing through their back yards at 3 a.m.

*Original article can be found at http://www.realclearpolitics.com

georgewill@washpost.com

Obama is a Bully

Apr 28, 2010 | Immigration

By Dennis Kneale

Will someone please rein in our relentlessly hectoring President? Barrack Hussein Obama has taken his gift for inspirational oratory—one of the traits that got him elected—and turned it into something darker and more insidious.

Bam is a bully. Bad enough that he bashes Wall Street, but this President has gone farther than any in modern history in putting the wrong kind of “bully” back into what Teddy Roosevelt

Photo by: Pete Souza

President Barack Obama

had called the bully pulpit.

Obama’s latest broadside came over the weekend, when he vehemently criticized the state of Arizona and its (Republican) governor for passing a tough new law on illegal immigration.

The President called the measure “misguided” and all but labeled it un-American. He even ordered the Department of Justice, before the ink on this bill-signing has even dried, to examine the civil-rights “implications” of the new law. Seems like the courts and rights groups could handle that once any problem actually emerges.

Can you remember any other modern President, wagging a finger from on high, so directly and bitterly criticizing a new law passed by any state?

This is hubris at best and ignorance of the Constitution at worst. The U.S. was founded in part on the precept of states’ rights as an important counterweight to a rapacious federal government. Thus a President must step softly here, questioning gently but avoiding rancor and browbeating.

The new state law itself is disturbing, even detestable, and I don’t like it. It forces immigrants to carry with them proof of their legal status and lets cops demand to see the “papers” of anyone (read: any foreign-looking person) to make sure he didn’t sneak into the country. It smacks of Nazis in the Jewish ghetto in Poland.

But it is the law, and Arizona’s people duly elected the legislators who voted for it. They acted, moreover, on an issue the feds clearly have botched—immigration—and are trying to protect the state’s citizens from an influx of drug-cartel violence from Mexico.

Rather than trash an entire state, Bam could have privately lobbied Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer and urged her to veto the bill. Or he could have said, simply, that he hoped to pass better solutions at the federal level.

That would have been statesmanlike, but this President gets pouty whenever anyone dares to disagree with him. He seems to view dissension not as healthy public debate but as a suspicious, pernicious challenge to his omnipotence and popularity.

Obama the Bully, at his State of the Union address, had the temerity to criticize the Supreme Court of the United States for its new ruling that companies have a right to free speech in political campaign advertising (a right that unions already enjoyed, by the way). He did this as the justices themselves sat before him in the audience, paying their respects to a leader who showed them none.

Perhaps President Obama had forgotten an American civics lesson: The Supreme Court is the supreme law of the land. It is unseemly and disrespectful for a President to so bluntly and blatantly question the justices’ judgment and intent—especially right in front of their faces.

I can’t remember of any other President in my memory having done this. Nixon maybe? An unfortunate comparison, indeed.

Similarly, President Obama maligns Wall Street for trying to have a say in financial reform and lobbying for its interests, though this input is a vital ingredient in any democratic process. Yet Obama doesn’t criticize giant unions like the AFL-CIO and the SEIU when they similarly lobby on fin-reg.

Why? Because the unions agree with him. Even though Wall Street has a far more legitimate claim to get involved in this debate than do the unions, which represent only 7% of the private work force and essentially should have no dog in this fight at all.

Hmm, now that I think about it, nor can I recall any other modern President who has spent so much effort lambasting his immediate predecessor. Reagan didn’t do it to Carter. Clinton didn’t do it to the first George Bush.

And the worst part is, we’re barely calling out Obama the Bully on this behavior at all. We are becoming entirely too accustomed to it, failing to see it for what it really is: a striking lack of civility, and an overflow of divisiveness, from a President who had promised to give us precisely the opposite.

*Editor’s note: While our position on Arizona’s new immigration bill differs from that of Mr. Kneale, we certainly appreciate his respect for states’ rights and his regard for the Constitution.

*Original article can be found at http://www.cnbc.com/id/36776494/

Follow Kneale at twitter.com/denniskneale

Barack Obama has awakened a sleeping nation!

Apr 28, 2010 | Healthcare

By Gary Hubbell

Barack Obama is the best thing that has happened to America in the last 100 years. Truly, he is the savior of America’s future. He is the best thing ever.

Despite the fact that he has some of the lowest approval ratings among recent presidents, history will see Barack Obama as the source of America’s resurrection. Barack Obama has plunged the country into levels of debt that we could not have previously imagined; his efforts to nationalize health care have been met with fierce resistance nationwide; TARP bailouts and stimulus spending have shown little positive effect on the national economy; unemployment is unacceptably high and looks to remain that way for most of a decade; legacy entitlement programs have ballooned to unsustainable levels, and there is a seething anger in the populace.

That’s why Barack Obama is such a good thing for America.

Obama is the symbol of a creeping liberalism that has infected our society like a cancer for the last 100 years. Just as Hitler is the face of fascism, Obama will go down in history as the face of unchecked liberalism. The cancer metastasized to the point where it could no longer be ignored.

Average Americans who have quietly gone about their lives, earning a paycheck, contributing to their favorite charities, going to high school football games on Friday night, spending their weekends at the beach or on hunting trips — they’ve gotten off the fence. They’ve woken up. There is a level of political activism in this country that we haven’t seen since the American Revolution, and Barack Obama has been the catalyst that has sparked a restructuring of the American political and social consciousness.

Think of the crap we’ve slowly learned to tolerate over the past 50 years as liberalism sought to re-structure the America that was the symbol of freedom and liberty to all the people of the world. Immigration laws were ignored on the basis of compassion. Welfare policies encouraged irresponsibility, the fracturing of families, and a cycle of generations of dependency. Debt was regarded as a tonic to lubricate the economy. Our children left school having been taught that they are exceptional and special, while great numbers of them cannot perform basic functions of mathematics and literacy. Legislators decided that people could not be trusted to defend their own homes, and stripped citizens of their rights to own firearms. Productive members of society have been penalized with a heavy burden of taxes in order to support legions of do-nothings who loll around, reveling in their addictions, obesity, indolence, ignorance and “disabilities.” Criminals have been arrested and re-arrested, coddled and set free to pillage the citizenry yet again. Lawyers routinely extort fortunes from doctors, contractors and business people with dubious torts.

We slowly learned to tolerate these outrages, shaking our heads in disbelief, and we went on with our lives.

But Barack Obama has ripped the lid off a seething cauldron of dissatisfaction and unrest.

In the time of Barack Obama, Black Panther members stand outside polling places in black commando uniforms, slapping truncheons into their palms. ACORN — a taxpayer-supported organization — is given a role in taking the census, even after its members were caught on tape offering advice to set up child prostitution rings. A former Communist is given a paid government position in the White House as an advisor to the president. Auto companies are taken over by the government, and the auto workers’ union — whose contracts are completely insupportable in any economic sense — is rewarded with a stake in the company. Government bails out Wall Street investment bankers and insurance companies, who pay their executives outrageous bonuses as thanks for the public support. Terrorists are read their Miranda rights and given free lawyers. And, despite overwhelming public disapproval, Barack Obama has pushed forward with a health care plan that would re-structure one-sixth of the American economy.

I don’t know about you, but the other day I was at the courthouse doing some business, and I stepped into the court clerk’s office and changed my voter affiliation from “Independent” to “Republican.” I am under no illusion that the Republican party is perfect, but at least they’re starting to awaken to the fact that we cannot sustain massive levels of debt; we cannot afford to hand out billions of dollars in corporate subsidies; we have to somehow trim our massive entitlement programs; we can no longer be the world’s policeman and dole out billions in aid to countries whose citizens seek to harm us.

Literally millions of Americans have had enough. They’re organizing, they’re studying the Constitution and the Federalist Papers, they’re reading history and case law, they’re showing up at rallies and meetings, and a slew of conservative candidates are throwing their hats into the ring. Is there a revolution brewing? Yes, in the sense that there is a keen awareness that our priorities and sensibilities must be radically re-structured. Will it be a violent revolution? No. It will be done through the interpretation of the original document that has guided us for 220 years — the Constitution. Just as the pendulum swung to embrace political correctness and liberalism, there will be a backlash, a complete repudiation of a hundred years of nonsense. A hundred years from now, history will perceive the year 2010 as the time when America got back on the right track. And for that, we can thank Barack Hussein Obama.

Gary Hubbell is a hunter, rancher, and former hunting and fly-fishing guide. Gary works as a Colorado ranch real estate broker. He can be reached through his website,aspenranchrealestate.com .

Protest picture of the day

Apr 26, 2010 | Tea Party

Image source

Obama to White and Asian Men, and Old People: Don’t Bother Voting in November

Apr 26, 2010 | Healthcare

By Katie Pease

In his attempt to salvage any possibility of keeping democrats in power come November, Obama is scrambling around the country in support of the democratic candidates (since that worked so well with Martha Coakley). In this video, he is appealing to the “first-time” voters of 2008 who helped elect him. He specifically asks that “Young people, African-Americans, Latinos, and women…stand together once again” at the polls in order to keep his administration in power at “all levels of government”. It is interesting to hear straight from the horse’s mouth that White and Asian men, plus old people need not participate in the new ObamaNation election process. Apparently in his new America, the only thing these people are good for is providing a group that the media can constantly accuse of racism.

What Mr. President does not realize is that he has already “connected” with thousands who have not usually been involved in politics- but not in the way that will get and keep his friends in office. Regular Americans have awakened since he took office and have been forced to engage in the political process because they have felt pushed against a wall by this administration. The Tea Parties are an evidence of this fact. They have given a voice to the everyday American who no longer wants Obama’s brand of “Hope and Change”.

He goes on to celebrate all of the things his administration has ” accomplished” (i.e. health care reform, and the recovery act). Then 50 seconds in he makes the most important statement of the video:

“Despite everything we’ve done, our work isn’t finished.”

Yes, we know that you will continue destroying this country. As if that is not enough reason to get you involved in the “political process”, he goes on to make the case for us why YOU AND I need to run to the polls this November: because despite the fact that this administration continues to ignore us (except when they ridicule us) OUR VOICE MATTERS! Their work isn’t finished, so neither is ours. Thank you, Obama, for convincing me more so than ever of my responsibility to vote.

“Make Mine Freedom” vs “The Story of Stuff”

Apr 20, 2010 | Economy

By Katie Pease

Too bad they don’t show cartoons like this in school now. Compare this cartoon, which celebrates the free market system and applauds America for her contributions to the world with the one below that our children are shown in school today.

Then:

“Make Mine Freedom” (1948)

Below is “The Story of Stuff”, which vilifies our system and makes Americans out to be consuming monsters. It is filled with errors and blatant lies. To see a well-made debunking of the video below, check out “Story of Stuff, The Critique” on YouTube. Ask you kids if they have seen this at school. If they have, it’s time to have a talk with them and possibly with your school administration.

Now:

“The Story of Stuff” (2007)

Talking to our children about political philosophy is as important now as talking to them about drugs and sex education. If we leave it to the schools, they will be indoctrinated by liberalism. Take the egg out, turn on the burner, and bring out the pan. Show them the egg and say “This is your brain.” Then fry the egg and tell them “This is your brain on liberalism. Any questions?” It’s time to teach them before they are exposed to this kind of propaganda. And if it’s too late for that, arm them with the skills to spot the lies when they hear them. Our freedom and theirs depends on it.

“General Welfare” Does Not Include National Healthcare

Apr 16, 2010 | Constitution, Healthcare

By Dr. Harold Pease

As the federal government grows and becomes ever more intrusive on our liberties, more people then ever before are looking to the Constitution to save us. Of particular interest is the list of the things the federal government is entitled to do, identified in Section 8.

During this time in history, the colonies had just rejected Parliament’s attempt to gain more power over them; in fact the cause of the American Revolution was excessive government. As a result, the states knew they needed to handcuff the federal government so that unrestrained government could never happen again. In the Constitutional Convention they decided to only forfeit specific powers to the federal government, and those powers were things that the states agreed that they could not reasonably do themselves. All areas not mentioned were to remain with the states.

There are many less well-known facts to keep in mind as you review Section 8. Convention delegates curiously placed every power in one sentence with 18 paragraphs. This strange construction was to make it even more difficult for future power grabbers to isolate and enhance a power. Everything had to be considered in the context of the one sentence.

The Founders gave the federal government only four areas of power: taxes, paying the debts, providing for the general welfare (that’s not the same as providing the general welfare), and providing for the common defense. That is it. All four powers are identified before the first semi colon. Everything that follows are simply qualifiers of these four.

The Founders did not dare to leave the phrase “general welfare” for future power grabbers, as there is no telling what they could do with this vague concept if left undefined. They understood that it is the nature of all governments to grow. As a result, clauses 2-9 list 14 powers that comprise “general welfare.” Five deal with borrowing money, regulating its value, and dealing with counterfeiting. The other nine powers include naturalization, bankruptcies, establishing post offices, protecting inventors and authors, establishing “tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court” and “regulating commerce with foreign nations and among the several states.”

National health care is not anywhere near the 14 powers detailing general welfare. For this reason national health care is unconstitutional. If national healthcare can be prostituted from this list anything can, thus ending any pretense of a government with limited powers. We might as well have a sentence that Congress can make any rules they like.

This section is hated by big government advocates who do everything they can to explain it away. They are betting on the likelihood that you and I won’t read and understand this section nor hold them accountable to it. They cleverly disguise their policies to try and force them to fit into these categories, and whether they actually do or not is irrelevant to them. For this reason your liberty is under fire. Read Article I Section 8 and keep it marked for frequent reference. Send this column to your friends and neighbors. Hold your leaders accountable at the polls. Be on the side of freedom in this fight against tyranny.

Good News! Thousands of New Government Jobs Are Coming!

Apr 15, 2010 | Economy

By Katie Pease

Tired? Poor? Homeless and tempest-tossed? Well have I got a deal for you! Lady Liberty has lifted her beacon beside the golden door and is ready to place at your feet everything you will ever need. After all, ask not what you can do for your country, but what your country can do for you. The United Nanny States of America have created so many new government jobs in the new health care reform bill that there should be enough jobs to go around for everyone. There is a committee and commission for just about anything you can imagine now. Take your pick! For the low price of your freedom and at the expense of our American financial system, you too can have a fulfilling government job.

An anonymous someone has sifted through the health care bill and put together a list of all of these commissions and committees. It’s hard to imagine someone could have the time to do so, but then about 9.7% of us seem to have a lot of time on our hands these days (actually more like 22% of us, according to this article in the NY Post).

Don’t believe these committees and commissions are legit? Read them for yourself in the health care bill. I dare you to read the whole thing without going blind. H.R. 3590

Committees and Commissions Created in Health Care Bill

1. Grant program for consumer assistance offices (Section 1002, p. 37)

2. Grant program for states to monitor premium increases (Section 1003,p. 42)

3. Committee to review administrative simplification standards (Section 1104, p. 71)

4. Demonstration program for state wellness programs (Section 1201, p. 93)

5. Grant program to establish state Exchanges (Section 1311(a), p. 130)

6. State American Health Benefit Exchanges (Section 1311(b), p. 131)

7. Exchange grants to establish consumer navigator programs (Section 1311(i), p. 150)

8. Grant program for state cooperatives (Section 1322, p. 169)

9. Advisory board for state cooperatives (Section 1322(b)(3), p. 173)

10. Private purchasing council for state cooperatives (Section 1322(d), p. 177)

11. State basic health plan programs (Section 1331, p. 201)

12. State-based reinsurance program (Section 1341, p. 226)

13. Program of risk corridors for individual and small group markets (Section 1342, p. 233)

14. Program to determine eligibility for Exchange participation (Section 1411, p. 267)

15. Program for advance determination of tax credit eligibility (Section 1412, p. 288)

16. Grant program to implement health IT enrollment standards (Section 1561, p. 370)

17. Federal Coordinated Health Care Office for dual eligible beneficiaries (Section 2602, p. 512)

18. Medicaid quality measurement program (Section 2701, p. 518)

19. Medicaid health home program for people with chronic conditions, andgrants for planning same (Section 2703, p. 524)

20. Medicaid demonstration project to evaluate bundled payments (Section 2704, p. 532)

21. Medicaid demonstration project for global payment system (Section 2705, p. 536)

22. Medicaid demonstration project for accountable care organizations (Section 2706, p. 538)

23. Medicaid demonstration project for emergency psychiatric care (Section 2707, p. 540)

24. Grant program for delivery of services to individuals with postpartum depression (Section 2952(b), p. 591)

25. State allotments for grants to promote personal responsibility education programs (Section 2953, p. 596)

26. Medicare value-based purchasing program (Section 3001(a), p. 613)

27. Medicare value-based purchasing demonstration program for critical access hospitals (Section 3001(b), p. 637)

28. Medicare value-based purchasing program for skilled nursing facilities (Section 3006(a), p. 666)

29. Medicare value-based purchasing program for home health agencies (Section 3006(b), p. 668)

30. Interagency Working Group on Health Care Quality (Section 3012, p. 688)

31. Grant program to develop health care quality measures (Section 3013, p. 693)

32. Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (Section 3021, p. 712)

33. Medicare shared savings program (Section 3022, p. 728)

34. Medicare pilot program on payment bundling (Section 3023, p. 739)

35. Independence at home medical practice demonstration program (Section 3024, p. 752)

36. Program for use of patient safety organizations to reduce hospital readmission rates (Section 3025(b), p. 775)

37. Community-based care transitions program (Section 3026, p. 776)

38. Demonstration project for payment of complex diagnostic laboratory tests (Section 3113, p. 800)

39. Medicare hospice concurrent care demonstration project (Section 3140, p. 850)

40. Independent Payment Advisory Board (Section 3403, p. 982)

41. Consumer Advisory Council for Independent Payment Advisory Board (Section 3403, p. 1027)

42. Grant program for technical assistance to providers implementing health quality practices (Section 3501, p. 1043)

43. Grant program to establish interdisciplinary health teams (Section 3502, p. 1048)

44. Grant program to implement medication therapy management (Section 3503, p. 1055)

45. Grant program to support emergency care pilot programs (Section 3504, p. 1061)

46. Grant program to promote universal access to trauma services (Section 3505(b), p. 1081)

47. Grant program to develop and promote shared decision-making aids (Section 3506, p. 1088)

48. Grant program to support implementation of shared decision-making (Section 3506, p. 1091)

49. Grant program to integrate quality improvement in clinical education (Section 3508, p. 1095)

50. Health and Human Services Coordinating Committee on Womens Health (Section 3509(a), p. 1098)

51. Centers for Disease Control Office of Womens Health (Section 3509(b), p. 1102)

52. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Office of Womens Health (Section 3509(e), p. 1105)

53. Health Resources and Services Administration Office of Womens Health (Section 3509(f), p. 1106)

54. Food and Drug Administration Office of Womens Health (Section 3509(g), p. 1109)

55. National Prevention, Health Promotion, and Public Health Council (Section 4001, p. 1114)

56. Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health (Section 4001(f), p. 1117)

57. Prevention and Public Health Fund (Section 4002, p. 1121)

58. Community Preventive Services Task Force (Section 4003(b), p. 1126)

59. Grant program to support school-based health centers (Section 4101, p. 1135)

60. Grant program to promote research-based dental caries disease management (Section 4102, p. 1147)

61. Grant program for States to prevent chronic disease in Medicaid beneficiaries (Section 4108, p. 1174)

62. Community transformation grants (Section 4201, p. 1182)

63. Grant program to provide public health interventions (Section 4202, p. 1188)

64. Demonstration program of grants to improve child immunization rates (Section 4204(b), p. 1200)

65. Pilot program for risk-factor assessments provided through community health centers (Section 4206, p. 1215)

66. Grant program to increase epidemiology and laboratory capacity (Section 4304, p. 1233)

67. Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee (Section 4305, p. 1238)

68. National Health Care Workforce Commission (Section 5101, p. 1256)

69. Grant program to plan health care workforce development activities (Section 5102(c), p. 1275)

70. Grant program to implement health care workforce development activities (Section 5102(d), p. 1279)

71. Pediatric specialty loan repayment program (Section 5203, p. 1295)

72. Public Health Workforce Loan Repayment Program (Section 5204, p. 1300)

73. Allied Health Loan Forgiveness Program (Section 5205, p. 1305)

74. Grant program to provide mid-career training for health professionals (Section 5206, p. 1307)

75. Grant program to fund nurse-managed health clinics (Section 5208, p. 1310)

76. Grant program to support primary care training programs (Section 5301, p. 1315)

77. Grant program to fund training for direct care workers (Section 5302, p. 1322)

78. Grant program to develop dental training programs (Section 5303, p. 1325)

79. Demonstration program to increase access to dental health care in underserved communities (Section 5304, p. 1331)

80. Grant program to promote geriatric education centers (Section 5305, p. 1334)

81. Grant program to promote health professionals entering geriatrics (Section 5305, p. 1339)

82. Grant program to promote training in mental and behavioral health (Section 5306, p. 1344)

83. Grant program to promote nurse retention programs (Section 5309, p. 1354)

84. Student loan forgiveness for nursing school faculty (Section 5311(b), p. 1360)

85. Grant program to promote positive health behaviors and outcomes (Section 5313, p. 1364)

86. Public Health Sciences Track for medical students (Section 5315, p. 1372)

87. Primary Care Extension Program to educate providers (Section 5405, p. 1404)

88. Grant program for demonstration projects to address health workforce shortage needs (Section 5507, p. 1442)

89. Grant program for demonstration projects to develop training programs for home health aides (Section 5507, p. 1447)

90. Grant program to establish new primary care residency programs (Section 5508(a), p. 1458)

91. Program of payments to teaching health centers that sponsor medical residency training (Section 5508(c), p. 1462)

92. Graduate nurse education demonstration program (Section 5509, p. 1472)

93. Grant program to establish demonstration projects for community-based mental health settings (Section 5604, p. 1486)

94. Commission on Key National Indicators (Section 5605, p. 1489)

95. Quality assurance and performance improvement program for skilled nursing facilities (Section 6102, p. 1554)

96. Special focus facility program for skilled nursing facilities (Section 6103(a)(3), p. 1561)

97. Special focus facility program for nursing facilities (Section 6103(b)(3), p. 1568)

98. National independent monitor pilot program for skilled nursing facilities and nursing facilities (Section 6112, p. 1589)

99. Demonstration projects for nursing facilities involved in the culture change movement (Section 6114, p. 1597)

100. Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (Section 6301, p. 1619)

101. Standing methodology committee for Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (Section 6301, p. 1629)

102. Board of Governors for Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (Section 6301, p. 1638)

103. Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Trust Fund (Section 6301(e), p. 1656)

104. Elder Justice Coordinating Council (Section 6703, p. 1773)

105. Advisory Board on Elder Abuse, Neglect, and Exploitation (Section 6703, p. 1776)

106. Grant program to create elder abuse forensic centers (Section 6703, p. 1783)

107. Grant program to promote continuing education for long-term care staffers (Section 6703, p. 1787)

108. Grant program to improve management practices and training (Section 6703, p. 1788)

109. Grant program to subsidize costs of electronic health records (Section 6703, p. 1791)

110. Grant program to promote adult protective services (Section 6703, p. 1796)

111. Grant program to conduct elder abuse detection and prevention (Section 6703, p. 1798)

112. Grant program to support long-term care ombudsmen (Section 6703, p. 1800)

113. National Training Institute for long-term care surveyors (Section 6703, p. 1806)

114. Grant program to fund State surveys of long-term care residences (Section 6703, p. 1809)

115. CLASS Independence Fund (Section 8002, p. 1926)

116. CLASS Independence Fund Board of Trustees (Section 8002, p. 1927)

117. CLASS Independence Advisory Council (Section 8002, p. 1931)

118. Personal Care Attendants Workforce Advisory Panel (Section 8002(c), p. 1938)

119. Multi-state health plans offered by Office of Personnel Management (Section 10104(p), p. 2086)

120. Advisory board for multi-state health plans (Section 10104(p), p. 2094)

121. Pregnancy Assistance Fund (Section 10212, p. 2164)

122. Value-based purchasing program for ambulatory surgical centers (Section 10301, p. 2176)

123. Demonstration project for payment adjustments to home health services (Section 10315, p. 2200)

124. Pilot program for care of individuals in environmental emergency declaration areas (Section 10323, p. 2223)

125. Grant program to screen at-risk individuals for environmental health conditions (Section 10323(b), p. 2231)

126. Pilot programs to implement value-based purchasing (Section 10326, p. 2242)

127. Grant program to support community-based collaborative care networks (Section 10333, p. 2265)

128. Centers for Disease Control Office of Minority Health (Section 10334, p. 2272)

129. Health Resources and Services Administration Office of Minority Health (Section 10334, p. 2272)

130. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Office of Minority Health (Section 10334, p. 2272)

131. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Office of Minority Health (Section 10334, p. 2272)

132. Food and Drug Administration Office of Minority Health (Section 10334, p. 2272)

133. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Office of Minority Health (Section 10334, p. 2272)

134. Grant program to promote small business wellness programs (Section 10408, p. 2285)

135. Cures Acceleration Network (Section 10409, p. 2289)

136. Cures Acceleration Network Review Board (Section 10409, p. 2291)

137. Grant program for Cures Acceleration Network (Section 10409, p. 2297)

138. Grant program to promote centers of excellence for depression (Section 10410, p. 2304)

139. Advisory committee for young womens breast health awareness education campaign (Section 10413, p. 2322)

140. Grant program to provide assistance to provide information to young women with breast cancer (Section 10413, p. 2326)

141. Interagency Access to Health Care in Alaska Task Force (Section 10501, p. 2329)

142. Grant program to train nurse practitioners as primary care providers (Section 10501(e), p. 2332)

143. Grant program for community-based diabetes prevention (Section 10501(g), p. 2337)

144. Grant program for providers who treat a high percentage of medically underserved populations (Section 10501(k), p. 2343)

145. Grant program to recruit students to practice in underserved communities (Section 10501(l), p. 2344)

146. Community Health Center Fund (Section 10503, p. 2355)

147. Demonstration project to provide access to health care for the uninsured at reduced fees (Section 10504, p. 2357)

148. Demonstration program to explore alternatives to tort litigation (Section 10607, p. 2369)

149. Indian Health demonstration program for chronic shortages of health professionals (S. 1790, Section 112, p. 24)*

150. Office of Indian Mens Health (S. 1790, Section 136, p. 71)*

151. Indian Country modular component facilities demonstration program (S. 1790, Section 146, p. 108)*

152. Indian mobile health stations demonstration program (S. 1790, Section 147, p. 111)*

153. Office of Direct Service Tribes (S. 1790, Section 172, p. 151)*

154. Indian Health Service mental health technician training program (S. 1790, Section 181, p. 173)*

155. Indian Health Service program for treatment of child sexual abuse victims (S. 1790, Section 181, p. 192)*

156. Indian Health Service program for treatment of domestic violence and sexual abuse (S. 1790, Section 181, p. 194)*

157. Indian youth telemental health demonstration project (S. 1790, Section 181, p. 204)*

158. Indian youth life skills demonstration project (S. 1790, Section 181, p. 220)*

159. Indian Health Service Director of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Treatment (S. 1790, Section 199B, p. 258)*

*Section 10221, page 2173 of H.R. 3590 deems that S. 1790 shall be deemed

as passed with certain amendments.

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of…High-Speed Internet

Apr 15, 2010 | Economy

By Katie Pease

America has a lot of problems. Homelessness, abuse, broken homes, illness, a suffering education system, and a “reformed” health care system, to name a few. But for 3 minutes and 56 seconds, this woman opened my eyes to the real problem: children who suffer through the pain of living with dial-up internet. 1 in 5 children helplessly bang their head against their desk every day as they sit in agony, watching the hourglass thingy flip around waiting for their pages to load. These are not just statistics; these are people. Children, no less! We must save the children. They are the future. And if they can’t Tweet at least 100 megabits per second, then they will not graduate from high school. They won’t go to college. They will wind up roaming the streets, buying and selling drugs, joining gangs and murdering other innocent children who are wandering the streets while they wait for their pages to load. It’s a vicious cycle that must be stopped. But don’t worry. It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s the government! The National Broadband Plan will fix this “digital divide” by delivering broadband to 100 million homes, using magical fairy dust and that thing called your money.

Remember the days when we used to read those things called books? Perhaps little Jimmy can take a trip to the taxpayer funded public library to do his homework. Although I would hate to imply that we actually teach our children to use those old dusty things. It borders on child abuse to expect such a commitment to education.

Has it really come to this? What do you think about this speech? Are you fighting back tears or is your head about to explode? Please log in and share your thoughts below.

Foes of tea party movement to infiltrate rallies

Apr 13, 2010 | Tea Party

By Valerie Bauman, Associated Press Writer

ALBANY, N.Y. – Opponents of the fiscally conservative tea party movement say they plan to infiltrate and dismantle the political group by trying to make its members appear to be racist, homophobic and moronic.

Jason Levin, creator of http://www.crashtheteaparty.org, said Monday the group has 65 leaders in major cities across the country who are trying to recruit members to infiltrate tea party events for April 15 — tax filing day, when tea party groups across the country are planning to gather and protest high taxes.

“Every time we have someone on camera saying that Barack Obama isn’t an American citizen, we want someone sitting next to him saying, ‘That’s right, he’s an alien from outer space!'” Levin said.

Tea party members said the backlash comes from ignorance.

“They can’t actually debate our message and that’s their problem,” said Bob MacGuffie, a Connecticut organizer for Right Principles, a tea party group that also has members in New York and New Jersey.

The tea party movement generally unites on the fiscally conservative principles of small government, lower taxes and less spending. Beyond that the ideology of the people involved tends to vary dramatically.

Levin says they want to exaggerate the group’s least appealing qualities, further distance the tea party from mainstream America and damage the public’s opinion of them.

“Do I think every member of the tea party is a homophobe, racist or a moron? No, absolutely not,” Levin said. “Do I think most of them are homophobes, racists or morons? Absolutely.”

The site manifesto says they want to dismantle the Tea Party by nonviolent means. “We have already sat quietly in their meetings, and observed their rallies,” the site said.

Another tea party organizer said the attempt to destroy the movement was evidence its message is resonating.

“We’ve been ignored, we’ve been ridiculed. Well, now they’re coming after us,” said Judy Pepenella, a co-coordinator for the New York State Tea Party. “Gandhi’s quote is one we understand: ‘First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win.'”

To view the original article, visit http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100412/ap_on_go_ot/us_tea_party_crashers

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