Almost two years ago I took a trip to China. I was excited, but somewhat leery of a culture I had been told was so different from our own. I would also be treading into Communist territory. I am fairly well-traveled. I have been to Europe, the Middle East and South America five times.

We planned this trip to arrive in China one day before our tour was to begin. After all, there are problems of weather, mechanical problems of the aircraft, terrorist fears etc. We wanted to make sure we were there well ahead of time. It would also allow us to relax for one day and adjust to the 12 hour time difference. The tour company put us up at one of the most luxurious hotels in Beijing: The Westin. It had all the comforts and amenities of any five star hotel in the US. Except there was one huge obstacle: the language. I have never felt as helpless anywhere in the world as I was in China for that first 24 hours before the arrival of our English-speaking tour guide.

But that afternoon we arrived something totally unexpected happened. A major earthquake whose epicenter we were later told was 1200 miles from us, but still shook our hotel in Beijing.

At first we weren't sure what was happening. Was it a storm, a low-flying aircraft that knocked everything off the shelves in our hotel bathroom? We called the front desk. Earthquake we were told. We turned on the TV in our room. Local news. National news. All in Chinese, of course. Useless. We found CNN later. And the reports started coming in about the devastation that had rocked a country not only devastated by Communism but by a major natural disaster.

Imagine our surprise the next day when we met up with our tour guide. We told him about what we had seen on CNN about the earthquake. He looked at us and said "only the large, luxurious tourist hotels are allowed to have news television from the US. US news stations are blocked for the citizens here."

So my point is, what we take for granted in the US as "free press" and the luxuries of having access to news and information from outside of this country is usual for us. So imagine that taken away.

The saying is you don't miss what you never had.

Steve Forbes has an extremely disconcerting report via Fox News today. Could a Chavez-Style Media Crackdown Be Coming Our Way?

Ever hear of Robert McChesney? He is the founder of FreePress.net. Quite a little progressive we have here. And what do you know. He is also a supporter of Hugo Chavez. Ya know, that guy in Venezuela that has pretty much nationalized his country and loves killing journalists who disagree with him?

Forbes states via a report from the OAS (Organization of American States):

Each day Chavez gets closer to his goal of a Castroite dictatorship.

The Washington Post, in an editorial on Monday, called the report “shocking” and suggested that those who continue to defend Chavez against his” Yanqui imperialist” critics ought to be thoroughly discredited.

Many of Chavez’s most ardent supporters here in the U.S. come out of the “media reform” movement, which believes that our corporate media has been thoroughly co-opted by capitalists bent on destroying the benevolent leadership of the likes of Chavez. They think that our capitalist-plagued media world is in dire need of reform.

The chief proponent of this thinking – which amounts to an unprecedented government intrusion into our own country’s media -- is Professor Robert McChesney, founder of the Orwellian-named Free Press, one of the most influential organizations in the growing “media reform” movement on the far-left.

Oops.

Forbes goes on to say:

Dr. McChesney is apparently quite comfortable with [this].  He has employed it repeatedly to argue that his version of media reform is the first step in the struggle to remake American society in a socialistic fashion.

Yep. Tomorrow I fully expect McChesney to be named as Obama's what is it, anyhow, that number of czars he has now? as the "Press Police" czar. Just like China. And Venezuela. And how many other countries who don't enjoy the variety and access of news we have in this country. This is Marxist, Leninist, and Hitleresque. The potential suppression of news in the US.

With the explosion of the internet, twitter & social net-working, many newspapers and other media are in dire straits. If a government who has already essentially "nationalized" a car company and healthcare, decides to infuse taxpayer dollars into the US media, what can we expect for the future?

I've already seen it in China. I hope I never see it here.

I had an opportunity to be included on a conference call which began at 4:30 pm today with Congressman Phil Gingrey (R-GA) and Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) discussing the Healthcare bill. Below is a synopsis of the call.

Rep. Gingrey is an M.D. who has presently put his OB-GYN practice on hold for the last eight years while he has been a Congressman and therefore knows much about medical issues and what may and will befall us should this Healthcare bill be passed.

Rep. Gingrey stated 73% of Americans oppose this bill, which would allow the federal government to takeover 1/6 of our economy. He feels there needs to be health reform, however the current bill should be scrapped and begun again and could conceivably be written into law before Election 2010 so voters can determine which legislators they feel would be in their best interest. Two areas he stressed where reform is needed would be dealing with coverage for "high risk" patients and those with pre-existing conditions. He is sure there is not one Republican who will vote for the bill in its present form.

I questioned Rep. Gingrey regarding tort reform and whether or not he feels people should be permitted to purchase coverage over state lines. To the former, he stated as a physician he knows all too well the frustration of having to practice "defensive medicine." He stated the CBO has estimated $54B could be saved over 10 years with tort reform, but in his opinion he feels $54B could be saved every year. To the latter question, he believes people should be permitted to shop for insurance on the internet if they desire.

Rep. Rodgers was asked the question if today's ruling from the Senate Parliamentarian that Mr. Obama must sign Congress' original Healthcare reform bill before the Senate can act on a companion reconciliation package would make it harder for Ms. Pelosi to put this bill into law, she stated "considerably." It will make it much more difficult for the House because they will have to vote on the Senate bill as is, with all the "vote buying" that went into the Senate version, ex. "The Cornhusker Kickback" and this will make it more difficult for House Dems to swallow. She stressed that reconciliation is limited in scope, and relates only to budgetary items, and today's ruling will be a lot for House Democrats to swallow.

Rep. Gingrey agreed, stating there has to be an element of trust by the House for the Senate to later pass all the amendments they promised would be included, and Ms. Pelosi would then need 60 votes, which he is confident she doesn't have. He stated there is no way this can be accomplished by Mr. Obama's "deadline" of March 18.

When questioned if the above parliamentary ruling would make the "Slaughter Rule" moot, Rep. Gingrey said he believed it would. The Slaughter Rule is eponymous to Rep. Louise Slaughter of New York, who is chair of the House Rules Committee. Her committee was set to meet on March 17 and deem the Senate version of the bill passed. This would have allowed Senate Democrats to avoid a vote, and thus any negative repercussions from their constituents as to how they voted on the bill. Clever, huh?

Rep. Gingrey stated should the bill be eventually passed, it could conceivably be repealed if the Republicans regain control of Congress in the fall; however he stressed  Mr. Obama would still be in office and would most certainly veto the repeal. It would then require a 2/3 majority of Congress to overrule him.

In closing, Rep. Gingrey stated he feels this is not a time for us to become complacent and to assume the bill will or will not pass. But Conservatives should renew and keep up their grass-roots initiatives, activism; get on the phone to their Congressmen and to DC for rallies if possible.

Thank you Congressman Gingrey and Congresswoman Rodgers.

Less than 24 hours ago Reps. Mike Pence (IN), Jeb Hensarling (TX) and John Campbell (CA) introduced their Spending Limit Amendment or SLA  (short page here) and longer version here (large PDF file). This amendment differs from the Balanced Budget Amendment in that the SLA would focus on limiting government spending, while the Balanced Budget Amendment would simply focus on limiting taxation.

I had an opportunity this morning to participate in a conference call for bloggers with both Representatives Pence and Hensarling. Erick Erickson already touched on this today in his post A Real Tea Party Worthy Amendment to the Constitution. This morning's conference call was meant to get the word out to bloggers so they can get the word out to their readers and the electorate.

Rep. Hensarling's biggest concern is the present rate of government spending will reach 40% of GDP by the middle of this century and this poses a domestic threat to future generations, as well as a threat to our domestic security. Historically the government has spent only $.20 on the dollar and Representatives Hensarling, Pence and Campbell's proposed amendment would cap government spending to the traditional 20%.  The only exceptions would be in time of war or if 2/3 of Congress votes for a raise. Their priority is to ensure America does not go bankrupt and when asked the question if this was a campaign ploy, stated no, they feel they have a moral obligation to the American public they represent and future generations as well to introduce this amendment.

Representative Pence stated unlike businesses, who have budgets, the federal government seems to have no boundaries on their spending; "this only happens in DC."  Part of the challenge of this amendment would be changing the mentality of those in government and also educating the electorate on the importance of its passing, i.e. empowering the American people to restrain their government.

Representative Pence stated support is rapidly building in the House and many Congressional candidates for Election 2010 have already embraced the amendment and realize our government's out-of-control spending is a serious challenge that demands a serious solution.

Our job as bloggers and the American public is to get the word out to readers, family and friends to back this amendment, which realistically could take several years to pass. Please help the word go especially to Tea Party groups, twitter, blogs, FB and to family and friends.

Crossposted.

I had heard some rumblings a few weeks back because of the ACORN  sting by O'Keefe & Giles the little nuts were bugging out. Getting out of town. Slinking into a hole. But even cockroaches and snakes have to come up for air every once in awhile, so what is really happening is they are "rebranding." Doing a makeover. "Flipping their houses." Only a lot of them are the same house.

I'm sure the "poison fruit of the oak tree" hoped we wouldn't notice, but do they really think we are that stupid? Apparently so.

A couple of weeks ago I went to ACORN's webpage and printed out a copy of the listing of all their offices in the US. And started making phone calls. I started with the six offices listed in Ohio. Phone numbers for Akron, Dayton, Toledo and Cincinnati are disconnected. Columbus says "mailbox full" but didn't identify who they were. Only the Cleveland office answers and identifies themselves as "Cleveland Acorn." And since I don't live far from Toledo, I took a drive to the address in downtown listed at 316 N. Michigan. The office is empty. No sign, no nothing.

Then on to other parts of the country. Miami, Vegas, New Orleans, San Bernadino & Oakland CA numbers disconnected. San Diego says "leave message" but no identifier. Detroit & Rhode Island ACORN in Providence answer & identify them as ACORN offices, but "please leave a message."  The Dallas office answers as The Texas Organizing Project. hmmmm...The LA office number answers and states "ACORN is no longer operating in LA." hmmmm....Remember this for later, guys.

Then I ran into an article on written by Matthew Vadum on Big Government who has written tons about ACORN. There Vadum states that ACORN in New York has a new name of New York Communities for Change. And that California ACORN has "rebranded" as ACCE, or Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment. Come on, give me a break. But research tells me h/t on this actually goes to lib blogger Norman Oder of Atlantic Yards who beat Vadum by a couple of hours.

ACORN, ACORN, ACORN. I was so sick of hearing about them. So just like Scarlett O'Hara I told myself "tomorrow is another day" and I set this aside for a few. Then today I was alerted, h/t to Jesse Hathaway, about an e-mail he received from ACCE in California. I tracked it down on their website.

January 23, 2010
Los Angeles ACCE Members Join LA Councilmember Richard Alarcon to Introduce New Standards for Banks Doing Business with City

Remember earlier in this post I told you I called the LA ACORN office and got the "ACORN is no longer operating in LA" message. That was less than two weeks ago. Look at the date on the above: January 23, 2010. I cross-checked the address listed of 3655 South Grand Ave with the address listed for LA's ACORN office I printed out a couple of weeks ago. Ohhh,,, my gosh! Same address!!

Who would have thought. We even have one of the "usual suspects." SEIU.

The only thing changed here, folks, is the name and the color of their t-shirts, which are now "yellow" instead of their usual "red."

Notice the name of LA Councilman "Richard Alarcon" in their post. Don't know him. So I asked Erick Brockway of RedState because he lives in the area if Alarcon is a "crook." So h/t to Brockway in providing me with this interesting little tidbit on Alarcon from ABC news. Seems that Alarcon is being investigated because he supposedly registered to vote giving an address for a home that is not his residence!

Who would have thought. ACORN is known for fraudulent voter registrations, has been indicted in several states, has bugged out in many areas because of the Giles/O'Keefe scandal. Now they have reopened in many areas with different names, but are still up to their old tricks. And now apparently their "modus operandi" has rubbed off onto an LA Councilman.

To Councilman Alarcon. If you are reading this post. I dare ya to refute the above paragraph.

Thanks.

Crossposted.