This just in
Virginia’s Personhood bill was killed in the Senate today:
The Virginia state Senate voted Thursday to postpone a decision on the controversial ultrasound bill that had passed out of Committee earlier today. The latest version, which requires women to undergo a transabdominal ultrasound before they can get an abortion, will likely be taken up tomorrow. The Senate also voted to send a bill back to Committee that would have defined “personhood” as beginning at the moment of conception, which effectively kills the bill until 2013.
Nobody expects the vaginal inquisition.
This is why we fight and make our voices heard. Celebrate this victory and then keep on fighting. Republicans still are trying to set up shop in your uterus, so we mustn’t become complacent. But still — this is great news.
***Also, read Krystal Ball’s article in The Atlantic, “How the Virginia GOP Could Tank Bob McDonnell’s Political Fortunes.” Just do it!
[via TPM]
[cross-posted at ABLC]
jibeaux
(Krystal Ball is a real name? I assumed it was a nickname for Bill Kristol.) In a saner world, she’d be right, but my money is still on McDonnell.
Comrade Mary
“Republicans? In my vagina?”
(I am probably not the first person to make this joke.)
Good to hear that they’ve turfed these bills. McDonnell’s chances of a VP nomination, however, just went up.
Raven
@jibeaux: She’s an attractive young lady.
jibeaux
@Raven: She is, but that is an unfortunate name. I mean, especially if you’re going to write political prognostication…but who knows, maybe it’s helped her!
gene108
Looks like the Republicans are still trying to make a play for the Slut Vote.
/snark
Raven
@jibeaux: Someone thought it was a good idea at the time I spose. I know a couple here, his last name is Mustard and her’s was Pickles. I swear to god.
gene108
@Raven:
Krystal Ball beats the crap out of Lance Boyle as far as names go.
Raven
“Ball’s father, Edward Ball, was born in West Virginia and has a Ph.D. in physics. Her mother, Rose Marie Ball, is an educator in King George County, Virginia. The name Krystal came from her father, a physicist who did his dissertation on crystals.”
arguingwithsignposts
@Raven: Good thing they didn’t have a son and name him Harry.
Comrade Mary
Call me a snob (a snob with working class roots, who spent several years on welfare, too), but Krystal with-a-K seems like a really jarring choice for a middle-class, academic family. Or maybe the name is less class-marked in the States than in Canada.
(Oh, God, I’m probably offending some perfectly nice people named Krystal out there, but as long as we’re talking about what an unusual name it is, that’s one thing that stood out for me. I plead ignorance and curiosity.)
Hewer of Wood, Drawer of Water
@raven, @jibeaux
Amanda Hugankiss? Hugh Jass?
arguingwithsignposts
But do they have Prince Albert in a can?
Mouse Tolliver
McDonnell hasn’t really changed his position though. The changes they’re proposing are only cosmetic. A woman would still need a forced vaginal probe to meet the new sonogram requirement. It’s like going from “Irish need not apply” to “People from the third-largest island in Europe need not apply.”
The Real Randiego
Let’s be clear that they only pulled the bill to protect McDonnell. As soon as the veep selection process is done, it’s back.
Dems should do nothing to slow these egregious ones down… it’s killing the R brand with women (why women would ever vote with R’s is beyond me…)
Amir Khalid
@Raven:
Isn’t this just the kind of name that makes a kid resent the hell out of her parents? You know, like those silly names Bob Geldof’s daughters got stuck with: Fifi Trixibelle, Peaches Honeyblossom and Little Pixie. And their half-sister Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily, whose father was Michael Hutchence. Names like that bring a kid no end of grief at he school playground, so I hear.
scav
@Comrade Mary: Ahh, to have been raised in SoCal during the 60s and 70s. Krystal is amazingly name-like. Merely being cute with the spelling and throwing terminal “i”s about didn’t count. No cosmic or weather event, cute plant, inspiring mood was entirely safe. Not as the majority, but certainly not unexpected. Granted, raised nearby but not in suburbia. Getting teased depended on the exact crowd and individual. Branch and Leif Woodman were not longer fair game by the time I met them.
Violet
Ha! Love it.
Glad to hear the amendment got shot down
Baud
Best Softball Team Name Ever!
BGinCHI
After the Civil War, Lincoln should have changed the name of the state to Vagina.
Then the phrase “the University of Vagina Cavaliers” would have made more sense.
dmsilev
@BGinCHI: I think you’re on to something there. He should have required renaming all of the states as a condition of reentry. “Oversized Insane Asylum” would be good for South Carolina for starters.
Beth in VA
Very, very, very good news. This was evenore troublesome than the State Rape ultrasound law, IMHO.
Phylllis
@Comrade Mary: Think Dynasty. As in Krystle Carrington.
Democratic Nihilist, Keeper Of Party Purity
Scuse me, gotta go to RedState and read strieff’s butthurt weeping.
You gotta take the good things in life where you find them.
slag
“For now” is exactly right.
Along these lines, this cartoon from MoveOn strikes the right chord when it comes to hanging this legislation and all of its kind around the neck of the GOP.
Martin
@The Real Randiego:
Yep. They were willing to fight it through to the Governor once – this isn’t a ‘maybe we were wrong’ outcome. It’ll be back as soon.
TenguPhule
This is not a victory. At best, a mere holding action.
At worst, Trojan Horse.
Victory is when the corpses of the GOP at state and federal levels are scattered like sprayed rats across the fields of American golden grain.
Anything less is a draw.
Drive-By Nomad
@Comrade Mary:
There’s your problem.
mdblanche
@Comrade Mary:
FTFY. The Santorum Inquisition has no use for prince bishops who lapse into heresy at the first sign of a peasants’ revolt, while the ROMney9000 calculates that putting another governor who has just earned the suspicion of the base by flip-flopping produces an invalid result for the ticket-balancing program.
As for appealing to swing voters, responses to that range from “blasphemy” to “error: please adjust tree height parameter.”
David Koch
Krystal Ball is fucking gorgeous.
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/293/kyrstalball.jpg
MSNBC needs to give her her own show, before somebody else does.
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
You can count on that. The beady eyed pervs are back at the drawing board of lady parts to plan the next vagina invasion. Those thangs have teeth, I coulda told them that
How about we ultrasound their noggins to find out what’s in it and how old it is.
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
@David Koch:
first pic I’ve seen of her. Since I about only listen to cable news on XM, and you are correct. Gorgeous.
arguingwithsignposts
@David Koch: Honestly, that’s a pretty bad pic, and i don’t care what my spox ppl look like, if they have the right ideas.
Canadian Shoggoth
@Comrade Mary:
The truly 1% version would have to be Cristal.
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
@arguingwithsignposts:
Some of us are but mere sprouts on the monkey tree. Forgive us our lower branes.
Richard
All I can say is that my sperm should be allowed to vote.
slag
@General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero):
I’m afraid of what this drawing board looks like. I suspect there’s a moat somewhere on it. Maybe with alligators. That’s it! We’ll build an alligator moat wall around all illegal lady parts!
Mark S.
Love that poster.
@Mouse Tolliver:
Huh, I would have thought Ireland was bigger than Iceland. I learn so many things here: Joe Biden’s a Catholic, John Ensign’s a veterinarian. Balloon Juice is like a continuing education annex.
David Koch
@arguingwithsignposts: bad picture, how so?
Mark S.
Break out the violins:
Allan West spent $70 to fill his Hummer, blames Obama
Leaving Texas
After seeing yet another old, white guy standing on a street corner holding a “Pray to end abortion” sign, I wonder if there are any suggestions for action that I can give him that don’t involve bothering FSM or trampling women’s rights. An end to the sexualization of young girls for profit (thongs for tweens, really?) and equal pay for women are two things that might actually result in fewer abortions. Of course, standing next to him with a “Pray to end sanctimony” sign might be more emotionally satisfying.
Redshift
@The Real Randiego:
People who would actually have to live under these laws beg to differ. And not fighting them doesn’t help the Democratic brand. As we’ve seen with this one, the best outcome is to get plenty of brand-killing publicity for the GOP and positive publicity for Democrats fighting the good fight, and to have them go down to defeat in the end.
Citizen_X
I love this too. Needs to be a BJ tagline.
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
And when that voter block is dead to them, the president and dems will roll out the next clown cannon to bait the wingers into finishing off whatever is left of the vote from Latinos for republicans.
The nutters will dutifully form a circle and start blasting away with enough hate and xenophobia to match the stupid in the recent vagina wars, and maybe then some.
PBO chided them today on Univision claiming he’s not finished yet, and has five more years of presidentin’ left to do. Well, that went over like a lead canoe in greater wingnuttia. They are whining that he broke his promise to try and pass Immigration reform, first thing, instead passing the hated Obamacare. And that Hispanics aren’t “stupid”. They are right, they aren’t, and they know full well who will be totally blocking that reform when dems re introduce immigration reform any day now. But Obama is to blame?, because, well, shut up, that’s why.
But in the end, some wingers may be whiny that Obama has drunk their milk shakes on a regular basis, but know he is their pol master.
Yup, and it won’t be because he didn’t do immigration reform first thing, it will because the republican party is full of racist hatemongers. That is the GOP’s problem, not ours. And these folks insist on making it look easy.
arguingwithsignposts
@David Koch: Are you serious? She looks like a black-haired Ann Coulter in that pic.
honus
@Comrade Mary:
Didn’t you catch the part about her father being from West Virginia?
Garbo
I would like to coopt the “Personhood” amendment and make it about guaranteeing men and women full rights of bodily self-determination. If it’s going on within the boundaries of my skin, it’s mine. If I do not have that level of self-determination, then I am not being accorded my full rights as a person or citizen.
I’m so pissed that we are even having this conversation and I’d like to see not just relief, but some forceful pushback on the basis that this is a freedom issue. Are women entitled to be as free as men? Then they must have autonomy over their own bodies. Period.
Otherwise, let’s bring on the discussion of eminent domain and start deciding who is unworthy of their organs and should give them up to more deserving people. (Although some of the people on my list are likely heartless, so they wouldn’t be worth the surgery.)
harlana
The transabdominal ultrasound requirement is still unacceptable.
whipper
“Didn’t you catch the part about her father being from West Virginia?”
Hey, that’s funny, got any nigger jokes? Any jew stories?
MikeJ
In Idaho, the state legislature gets more personally involved with what other people’s sex organs.
Blogreeder
Why is it when you guys use the term “Woman’s reproductive health”, you are only talking about abortion?
Blogreeder
@whipper: You used the n-word! On an ABL post too!
SiubhanDuinne
This is O/T, but just a little bit O/T (Maryland borders Virginia, so close enough, right?)
The Maryland Senate passed a same-sex marriage bill 25-22 this afternoon. It’s headed for Governor O’Malley’s desk, and he is expected to sign it.
This is good. One state at a time. More and more jurisdictions are recognizing same-sex marriage all the time, and one day there will be a critical mass of states that have it and at that point the states that haven’t signed on will scramble to get with the program so they don’t look backward and stupid.
Well, not as backward and stupid.
Sad Iron
It’s good to see that they came to their senses and upgraded to lady business.
SiubhanDuinne
@arguingwithsignposts:
Or Schweddy.
MikeJ
@SiubhanDuinne:
Here’s a news story from 1999:
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/recycled/2008/06/white_weddings.html
Bigots are happy to stick with their bigotry no matter how stupid it makes them look.
kay
I just think they should listen to some of the ways people are describing this stuff.
Today I heard a probably 60ish man describe the ultrasound bill they amended as “mandatory probing of pregnant women in Virginia”
That’s a devastating description, politically, and he was just talking, not ranting, but really uncomfortable with this whole thing.
It just seems to me they’ve crossed
some sort of line that I wasn’t aware existed.
gbear
@arguingwithsignposts:
Good thing she hasn’t married a guy named Bob Meth.
gbear
@SiubhanDuinne: Yay Maryland! I’m hoping that so many states accepting same-sex marriage will embarass Minnesotans into voting against the same-sex marriage ban that’s on the ballot this November. I’m really glad for what Maryland, Washington and New Jersey (their legislature, not their fat-faced fuckhead governor) have done.
kay
If it’s the Krystal Ball who ran for Congress she’s smart and funny and straight-forward.
I met her (for 20 seconds or so) at Netroots and her “workshop” or whatever it was (I attended) was great.
It was about political crisis, because she was in one in her race, when Halloween pictures of her and her boyfriend came out.
I think she’s married to the boyfriend now.
Anyway, she’s great.
iriedc
I have progressive democrat relatives living in Northern VA. They weren’t all that upset when the Rs took the state Senate. When I asked why they snickered and said “McDonell’s chances at the VP slot will be 0% by the time these crazies are done. Wait until you see the legislation he’s gonna have to sign.” They are outright laughing at his backpedalling, as well as appalled at how accurate they were about the crazy.
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
@kay:
That’s her. Apparently, some risque photos emerged when she was 22 at a costume party sucking on Rudolph the Red Nosed reindeer’s red nose. I guess it was played up as a sex scandal, but nobody nose why. It doesn’t take much to cause republican vapors in the sex department.
Anyway, she went to war with the double standard thing, and ended up famous. Too bad it didn’t work for Weiner’s weiner . Thems the break, some make lemonade from lemons, others slink away into the night.
kay
Thanks, Stuck.
It’s a good story.
She was at some dead-boring campaign “event” and her husband called her and told her something like: “a horrible thing has happened, but don’t worry!”
Which, you know, won’t work at all:)
Nutella
The miserable fucksticks in Pennsylvania are pushing the same kind of legislation. link via mojo
Reading between the lines of the handwritten letter from the bill’s sponsor, he thinks women are required to produce babies for other people to adopt. Or else.
elftx
In Tx, the asshats continue onward.
parsimon
@SiubhanDuinne:
Not to be overly enthusiastic, but as a Marylander (and a human being), I am so overjoyed by this. It was a tough call whether the Senate would go ahead. I’m actually astonished that this is happening.
SiubhanDuinne
@MikeJ:
Oh, I know. Mississippi didn’t ratify the 19th Amendment (women’s suffrage) until 1984. I believe they were the last holdout, though.
SiubhanDuinne
@parsimon:
I don’t think there’s any such thing as overly enthusiastic. You go ahead and enthuse all you want. I think it’s terrific, and for some reason (gut feeling is all) it does seem like a hinge moment. Other states are going to come along now in a great tsunami of same-sex legislation. Yeah, there’ll be some pushback and some ugliness and a clutch of holdout states, but same-sex marriage now has the feeling of inevitability. I truly believe that. And as an old straight broad, I think it’s just groovy.
SiubhanDuinne
@General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero):
You did that on purpose, didn’t you? Just so a bunch of people would be all, Oh, hee hee, I see what you did there! Well, FSM nose, if we’re playing this game, I demand fourfeet. Which would be a picture of Charlie.
Wait, this isn’t really an open thread, is it? Oh well, SD +2
Interrobang
If they try to resurrect that bill, given that the transvaginal ultrasound requires the victim to drink a massive amount of water so her bladder’s full before they do it, women in Virginia should have a mass pee-in protest at the statehouse.
Sing it with me: Pee is for Protest, that’s good enough for me, OH, Pee is for Protest, that’s good enough for me! Pee is for Protest, that’s good enough for me, Yeah, Protest Protest Protest starts with Pee!
parsimon
@SiubhanDuinne: I’m not sure I think it’s the advent of a cascade. Maryland is a very blue state, and Martin O’Malley is a librul if ever there was one. Still, cautiously optimistic for the future.
Steeplejack
@SiubhanDuinne:
The possibly dark cloud behind the silver lining is that apparently the governor agreed that if foes of the same-sex marriage bill can get 120,000 signatures on a petition the issue will be decided as a referendum in the November election. If that happens, it will allow the forces of evil to flood the zone à la Prop 8 in California.
Caveat: I am passing this along secondhand from my brother (who is usually reliable and has been following this closely).
ETA: Can’t find anything about a referendum in the Post‘s (very short) article, but there is mention of it in the comments.
parsimon
@Steeplejack: The referendum has been assumed from the get-go: yeah, they’ll probably gather enough signatures to get it on the ballot. So the battle isn’t over.
Mnemosyne
@Steeplejack:
Given that the forced birthers weren’t able to get a “personhood” referendum passed in deep-red Mississippi, I have a feeling trying to pass a vaginal probe law in Virginia may go over like the proverbial lead balloon.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mnemosyne:
Now that sounds painful!
honus
@whipper: Fuck you. I’m a West Virginia native. And if you had half a brain you’d know my comment wasn’t an insult to West Virginians. And I hope you enjoyed the opportunity to use the word “nigger.”
JCT
@SiubhanDuinne: I had the exact same reaction when NY joined the fold — right before the Gay Pride Parade in NYC. Now that was probably one of the most energizing days of my 30 years in NYC.
Time and progress marches on, time for these antediluvian assholes to just go away.
SiubhanDuinne
@Amir Khalid:
“Mo-o-om! Da-a-ad! Why couldn’t you have named me Moon Unit like normal kids??”
AxelFoley
@David Koch:
Her husband is a lucky man.
Thatgaljill
Lord help us, but on the Newshour today there was a gal who was claiming that the ultrasound bill was designed to “provide the gold standard of medical care for women, because doctors need to determine the placement of a fetus before performing an abortion.” Her example was that in the case of an ectopic pregnancy, if the women did not have an ultrasound that a chemical procedure would not work and leave the woman’s health and future fertility in jeopardy. I was almost lulled by her siren song… except…
I had an ovarian cyst at the beginning of my one and only pregnancy (after 6 years of infertility treatments), and my doctor took every step needed to make sure I didn’t have an ectopic pregnancy. The difference, in my case, being we were trying desperately to save a pregnancy rather than end it. Oh, and I wouldn’t have been required to look at the ultrasound photo and wait 24 hours for it to be “informed consent.”
BY THE WAY, dingbats trying to get all up in my lady parts… If you find you are pregnant, and are trying to end it in the earliest stage, there may be nothing to see. My son’s blip on the ultrasound didn’t appear for 5 days after they expected it to… and we knew EXACTLY when all the magic turkey basting had taken place.
SHEESH!
I did think perhaps that a companion piece of legislation for men could be the requirement to demonstrate that they could not achieve an erection to a panel of three or more medical professionals.
brantl
“Nobody expects the vaginal inquisition” needs to be an SNL skit, it REALLY does!
Paul in KY
@Amir Khalid: If they weren’t the sons/daughters of multi-millionaires (the ones you listed), then they probably would get some grief over them.
harlana
if you want to force me to bear and birth a child that neither i nor the “inseminator” can afford (i’m speaking about the first trimester here and a mutually voluntary insemination, btw), i have to assume you are willing to accept the financial responsibility of helping me raise that child.
Din’t think so. So you REALLY need to drop the whole contraception debate. But of course, please don’t, because it is great for our side. As always, keep it up!
Personally, you’re not getting another wage/debt slave out of me, I can tell you that.
harlana
i didn’t mean to exclude cases of rape or incest, btw – sorry, my time to edit comment ran out!
The Lodger
@arguingwithsignposts: Or possibly Lefty.
pam
I left the US in 2001 to live in Asia. Every time I return to America, I see the USA getting worse. I am angry, shocked, surprised, saddened, disappointed, and disgusted by the changes I see.
When I leave from a sparkling new modern Asian airport like Hong Kong, Seoul, or Shanghai and land at a run down American airport like LAX that has faded signs, broken water fountains, and a decor that looks like it hasn’t been updated since 1984, I feel like I have arrived in a 3rd world country.
I see Americans getting fatter.
I see more laws in the USA that outlaw everything from baggy pants to sex tourism to artificial turf to feeding the homeless to banning fast food restaurants.
I see the end of freedom in the US. Americans can now be added to no fly lists. The US Constitution has been overruled by the Patriot Act that has legalized wiretaps without a warrant and allows the government to deport and strip any American of his or her citizenship. Does that sound American to you?
http://articles.latimes.com/print/2011/jun/02/news/la-pn-patriot-act-alarm-20110602
The prison at Guantanamo has been opened to detain and torture suspected terrorists indefinitely without trial.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2009/06/25/human_rights_chief_appeals_to_us_on_guantanamo_inmates/
The US now has a secret panel “kill list” of Americans who are targeted to be assassinated without a trial.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/05/us-cia-killlist-idUSTRE79475C20111005
President Obama recently signed the National Defense Authorization Act that allows the indefinite detention of any American or foreigner accused of terrorism without trial by the US military on US or foreign soil.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/01/02/president-obama-signed-the-national-defense-authorization-act-now-what/
I see a higher unemployment rate and more welfare. I see jobs have been offshored to cheaper countries, more jobs lost to technology, and the US flooded with illegal immigrants that take American jobs, don’t pay taxes, and drain government resources.
I see indebted Americans who bought more than they could afford and a broke US government that has lowered taxes, but increased spending on unnecessary wars.
Looking at the history of Rome, Nazi Germany, and the United States, I see some disturbing parallels:
1. While becoming a superpower, Rome abandoned the very values with which it had won its supremacy.
2. Roman rulers used “self-defense” pretexts to invade other countries, with hawks criticizing doves for not being patriotic.
3. War benefited the Roman elite before the masses.
4. Wars were sold as about liberty and justice defeating tyranny.
5. The aggressor nation stated conditions to avoid war that are impossible for the opponent to comply with.
6. Powerful Romans hated to make concessions. They would have rather fought to the death instead of giving in to the the demands of citizens. The elite felt that they earned it, even though they used corruption to amass their wealth.
7. Romans became weak and lazy because the masses were given free bread and circuses.
8. The people seen as “barbarians” gradually wore down the empire, causing it to spend itself into bankruptcy.
In Nazi Germany, the Reichstag burned in 1933. In the USA, the World Trade center was attacked in 2001.
Nazi Germany passed the Enabling Act that gave Hitler dictatorial powers. The US now has the Patriot Act.
Nazi Germany opened Jewish concentration camps. The US has opened the Guantanamo Bay detention camps.
Germany invaded Czechoslovakia and Poland. The US invaded Iraq and Afghanistan.
Americans should not just be concerned by the recent changes in the US, they should be outraged. We need to get our country back.
I suggest that we start moving the US in a better direction by doing the following:
1. Americans would be more healthier and better looking if they just started eating less and exercising more.
2. The US really needs to end the very scary and obvious movement that is banning freedom, increasing nanny state laws, and expanding the creation of a military socialist dictatorship. Even if politicians says they won’t use unconstitutional laws on the books now, doesn’t mean that later officials won’t. Americans that stay silent while illegal laws are enacted should not depend entirely on the Supreme Court to protect their rights because courts once protected slavery, segregation, and concentration camps as well. The time to protest unconstitutional laws is before they are enacted. Americans cannot naively believe a dictator like Hitler or Stalin will never seize power in the US.
If America has no freedom, criticizing countries like China or North Korea is hypocritical.
Everyone opposes terrorism, but if you want to prevent terrorism, give suspected terrorists a trial, improve airline security, and don’t give out visas easily. Terrorism should not be an excuse to declare war against Americans. Not only are many of the growing flood of regulations wrong, they are also unnecessary. One only needs to look at the pro-democracy protests in the Middle East to see Arabs prefer following a democratic model instead of Osama bin Laden terrorism.
3. Americans should call for a much smaller government with less welfare, a greatly reduced military budget, a tax hike on the richest, higher visa fees for foreigners, increasing sin taxes on alcohol and tobacco, reducing the wages of government workers, ending government farm and airline subsidies, and eliminating less important programs like Amtrak, PBS, and the National Endowment for the Arts. We should stop extending unemployment benefits and require unemployed Americans to take jobs in farming, meatpacking plants, construction, landscaping, and hotels. Business people should not be punished while lazy people are encouraged to depend on government welfare. Welfare makes people lazy and no country would be foolish enough to attack the US even with a smaller military. We need to get the American house in order before we try to control the world.
4. Americans need to start moving overseas to teach English and export US products. Whining about jobs being outsourced because foreign workers are willing to work cheaper is not very practical. Americans would be shocked how poor product quality and shopping selection is in 3rd world countries compared to the US. Would you rather have an American car or a Chinese one?
5. One of the few areas the US government needs to increase spending is enforcing immigration laws and protecting the border from illegal immigrants. Limited legal immigration is not bad, but allowing illegal immigrants to live in the US encourages disrespect for the law. Illegal immigrants should not be allowed to have driver licenses, pay in-state tuition, or receive government benefits. The lives of illegals should not be made easier or be rewarded for breaking the law. Illegals should be deported and employers should be required to use E-Verify. If 13 million Americans are out of work, 12 million illegal immigrants should not be taking up the jobs.
6. Americans need to start living within their means and stop taking on credit card debt, auto loans, mortgages, and student loans. What you want and what you need are two different things.
7. Americans should vote for any presidential candidate other than Obama. Obama is a pessimistic pro-government, anti-business, anti-freedom, pro-illegal immigration, and pro-war politician who is continuing most of the worst policies of George W. Bush that will bankrupt the US without improving much at all.
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2011/06/obama-we-still-face-some-tough-times/1
http://www.boston.com/business/healthcare/articles/2010/03/26/congress_completes_overhaul_of_health_care/
http://articles.latimes.com/print/2009/jan/28/nation/na-obama-capitol-hill28
http://news.yahoo.com/obama-acts-ease-burden-student-loans-001017820.html
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2011/09/GOP-Obama-regs-are-killing-jobs-548766/1
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jan/05/news/la-pn-obama-immigration-regulation-20120105
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1946990,00.html
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2011/10/obama-dispatches-100-troops-to-uganda/1
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2011-03-21-1Alibya21_CV_N.htm
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2011/11/fed-debt-hits-15-trillion-gop-blasts-obama/1
8. Despite the very real problems facing the US, Americans also need to remain confident. The USA is by far the richest and most powerful country in the world. Who invented the assembly line, telephones, movies, light bulbs, airplanes, air conditioning, elevators, skyscrapers, television, the atomic bomb, the pill, calculators, microwaves, lasers, the Internet, mobile phones, the space shuttle, and landed on the moon? What country wins the most medals at the Olympics despite having only 5% of the world population? If the United States is dying, why do so many people want to immigrate there?
While I must admit that I once did not oppose some of the policies like the Iraq war, less banking regulation, and tax cuts that lead to part of our current troubles, I now fear that more terrorism laws, bigger government, coddling illegal immigrants, and increased debt are not the solutions to our problems. I was quiet once about concerns I saw in the past and I regret it. Now I think people should not keep silent while watching a potential train wreck.
The problems facing the USA require urgent action. I love the United States and I do not want the strongest, richest, and most free country in the world to fall. Talk about the changes happening to the US with your friends and family, vote, donate to the ACLU, contact the media, and write to your elected officials. Thousands of Americans did not die fighting for freedom and democracy in wars to have liberty denied in the USA. Do not let their sacrifice go to waste.
America won’t be a beacon to the world if freedom is banned and the US goes bankrupt. Stand up, fight for your rights and values, and protect our country now!
http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml
http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html
http://www.aclu.org/
http://www.nannystate.com/
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Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
The best government is that which governs least.
Be the change you wish to see.