The Right Rev Rowland

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This morning on the Glenn Beck Radio Show, Michelle Bachmann (R) MN, asked Americans to show up in DC

on Thursday to demand to meet with their representatives and block passage of the new Healthcare monstrosity introduced by Nancy Pelosi last Thursday.

Appropriately released on the week of Halloween, this Frankenstein bill is a hybrid of the three House bills already introduced and debated previously. Stunningly, this hybrid bill retains the most controversial of the provisions which were argued over and stripped from the senate versions.

The true insult to Americans is the inclusion of the worst parts of the bill, such as mandatory coverage, public option, and end-of-life counseling. Yes, Sarah Palin’s DEATH PANELS have survived, ironically, since this was the provision that created national outrage and rocked the townhalls as Americans began to realize how bad these healthcare bills are. The public option is no longer on life support, but alive and thriving in HR3962.

After the uproar over the over 1000-page bills pushed out of Congress last session, Pelosi and House Democrats are doubling-down with an almost 2000-page bill to further piss off the American public. This bill will be voted on this week and sent to the Senate, where many expect Harry Reid (D) NV, to use the nuclear option to pass it on a 51-vote majority.

This Thursday, November 5, 2009, Bachmann has called all concerned Americans to arrive in Washington to express opposition to this egregious bill. We’ll see how many are able to make the trip, leaving work and home obligations in the middle of the week to go.

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Here’s an endearing video of proponents of healthcare receiving their detailed instructions on how to refute those who are concerned about HR3200 and the companion bill to be presented in the Senate. Notice how this activist gives reasoned responses to the questions and complaints of the voters.

Oh, wait….. they don’t have any, that’s right! And what response they do give is proven to be lying propaganda when you read the bill that this Congress has actually passed. Oh, and did you hear how Charlie Rangel, Democrat tax-cheat from New York,  slipped a provision to harshly punish tax cheaters and those who made inadvertent mistakes into the HEALTH CARE BILL???

This Do-As-I-Legislate-Not-As-I-Do Congress and President have chafed the average American so raw in the area of liberty and freedoms that there is outright rebellion brewing at the townhalls and tea parties. Between Harry Reid refusing to face the voters in his own state by holding open meetings, and calling those who are trying desperately to get his attention on the important issues ‘evil-mongers,’ he is hand-crafting his opponent’s campaign for 2010.

The tactics that the current leadership have undertaken to force acceptance of have been thuggish and reflect a racketeering mindset. To smear your opposition with lies and name-calling without the facts and evidence to support your wild claims is not an honest argument. Nor is it good governance. We have an incredible dearth of principled leadership in America today. Everything has become about accomplishing your goals and the goals of your party, and no one stops to ask if these goals are in the best interest of the nation.

I contend that if Harry, Nancy, and Barak want to live in an EU-styled semi-socialist to a statist nation, that they move to Venezuela or to France and go nuts! Why we need to ruin the freest, most-prosperous nation in history that has spawned hope and democracy around the world is beyond me.

I say, send them all home in 2-4 years and repeal everything that has happened in the last 20 years. Then, we tell the new batch that for every new law, they have to repeal an old one. For every new spending initiative, they have to cancel and old one, and so on. No new layers of regulation and bureaucracy, we are too far under the thumb of government already, and it’s time to start getting out.

I’m just sayin….

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It’s been building for some time. The frustration of many if not most Americans about the runaway spending and complete redefinition of our free-market economy. The things that made us prosperous and free are being vilified and condemned by our own government.

The outbreak of Teaparties was an outlet for many and most of us had hoped they would lead to something meaningful. The response in most places was greater than expected. The reaction of the media as a whole was not expected. While not sympathetic to regular, ordinary Americans, I was surprised at how they worked so hard to ignore these events. FOX News has been blasted as planning and organizing many of them, but that is far from the truth. ANY news organization that would have covered in-depth the teaparty movement without starting arguments would have been welcomed. Yes, I’m looking at you, Susan Roesgen of CNN!

I had hoped that each event would grow larger and lead up to a million plus people marching to the steps of the Capitol building in DC, and shaking the stupid out of Congress. But, to my dismay, many people are even more disillusioned after the Tax Day Teaparties than before. I have been told countless times that ‘They didn’t lead to anything meaningful.’ I thought they were a start, a gathering place, but many had been looking for much more.

The problem is that Teaparty people aren’t activists. They are regular folks with jobs and families. They run businesses and are a part of their communities. They don’t think like activists, they think like moms and dads, business owners and neighbors. The opposition, ACORN, unions, liberal groups- anyone who is FOR the overspending spree in Washington, they have organizations and groups of people that think like political activists. They have been planning for this day for a really long time and they are hell-bent on ramming through as much of their agenda as they can while Barry, Harry, and Nancy have the reins of power.

On the regular American side, you have people looking around in frustration, wondering what we can do to stop this insanity. MAny came out to the Tax Day events and even some before that looking for some leadership or an action plan. When all they saw was a pep rally, they felt good for the moment, and then went back to work, back to school, back to raising their families. With the derision of the White House and the national media, many felt as though it were an exercise in futility. That is EXACTLY what the opposition wanted them to think and feel.

We can’t let their tactics work on us. If enough American voters show up in DC on 9/12, IN PERSON and with a voice, it will shake the halls of congress. I believe with all my heart that liberals want you and I to just give up, go to work and pay our ever-increasing share of taxes while they buy elections and divert billions of dollars to their operatives such as ACORN and the SEIU. There is a deliberate plan to defund the opposition, meaning conservative or libertarian groups, and lavishly fund those groups who exert pressure whenever and wherever they are needed. It has devolved into a rent-a-mob with federal tax dollars.

For those of us who believe in the America we grew up in, this is the fight for our lives. I am telling you that if this administration and congress get what they want, America will change forever for the worse. With the national debt, environmental regulation, and now healthcare initiatives, we will be bankrupt and at the mercy of our creditors, which will be foreign entities. We will become a ward of the UN collectively.

We need to take a stand and soon. I am frustrated with writing letters and calling my representatives and emailing only to get snide responses or form letter that don’t even address my questions. I am tired of politicians working in a bubble in DC and the rest of the country be damned. I am tired of an self-deluded elite group of people deciding what is best for me and my future AND the future of the nation I love.

If you love this country and hate what is being done to her right now, you NEED to get moving. If you think you can AT ALL make it to DC in September, go to this website, right now and get the information. You don’t need to register, but it helps with planning. Then let other people know of your commitment to stop this stupidity before it is too late. PLEASE, take your stand today, your kids and grandkids will thank you.

I’m just sayin’……..

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Or so that’s what I had heard. For over 20 years, a group of business leaders and community leaders have been advocating for a high-speed rail system between Southern California and Las Vegas. There have been billions spent on research, planning, surveys, and lobbying efforts.

One of the biggest supporters of this railway has been the hapless Harry Reid, Nevada’s senior senator, and currently, the Majority Leader of the United States Senate. Harry has waited for decades to see this railway dream come to pass, and he is getting a little impatient.

With Obama in office, and stimulus funds flying out of the Treasury faster than the ink can dry on the bills, Harry was able to secure a portion of the 8 billion dollars designated for fast rail projects for our little railway. Literally, a dream come true!

Then, just this month, it came out that Reid had switched horses in the middle of the race. He had for years been a proponent of the Maglev railway system, which uses magnetic power to lift and propel the train at speeds of up to 300 MPH. These magnetic trains can easily traverse the steep grades in the Cajon Pass, which rises from the Riverside Valley to the high desert near Victorville, CA. All this at the bargain price of $12 billion.

Nowadays, Reid is backing Desert Xpress, a much younger company that is proposing a traditional steel-wheel railway powered by a diesel-hybrid engine and can run up to speeds of 150 MPH. Oh, and the best part about this slower option for travel is that will only run between Las Vegas and Victorville, at the top of the Cajon Pass. It would still be another 85-mile drive into the Riverside Valley and LA area through CA freeway traffic.

The reason that Desert Xpress has to stop at Victorville is that it’s engine and rail technology can’t handle the steep grades of Cajon Pass. That’s the major incline/decline that we traverse on the 15 to get to and from Disneyland, the beach, Tijuana, and most other cool things Californian from Southern Nevada. My wife hates driving up and down this stretch of road(although up is a little easier to take for her than down, I guess cause all the scary-looking dropoffs are mostly behind the SUV as we jam up the road at 80MPH.)

So, to be clear, the superior technology of the Maglev magnetic railway will get you farther, faster than the dated Desert Xpress option. The better service will cost more, DUH! But if I have to ride for an hour and a half on a train and then rent a car and drive another hour and a half to get to the beach, WHY wouldn’t I just take a 45-minute flight to LAX, rent a car and drive 20 min. to the beach. OR Disney? For a more detailed comparison, check out the story in the Las Vegas Sun, or you can read Nevada Blogger, Elizabeth Crum’s take on it. OR, you can read national coverage by Mark Hemingway at National Review.

Reid’s spokesperson claims that the good Senator has waited 30 years to see a fast train to SoCal and has lost patience. Desert Xpress promises to deliver sooner than Maglev. Desert Xpress claims private financing and would not need as much government assistance to launch as Maglev.

Wait! hold the phone a tic! Is our good senator about to make a fiscally-responsible -conservative, even – decision in this down economy? To promote private industry over the government-funded project? Nah, look a little closer.

Reid has THE toughest re-election campaign in his career looming in 2010. The ‘Anybody-but-Reid’ movement is growing in number and volume. Desert Xpress, unlike Maglev, can deliver construction progress by 2010, giving Reid a campaign issue to crow about. He can even claim he made a fiscally-sound decision and ’saved’ the government money by promoting the cheaper (& crappier) option. I’m sure there will be no talk of if we should even have government dollars supporting any railway, of which Amtrak is a painful reminder, but I digress.

Add to that that Desert Xpress has a powerful backer in Sig Rogich, a prominent political and business figure in Nevada who claims to have a Republican political affiliation. Rogich also announced his support for Reid by chairing the ‘Republicans for Reid’ comittee announced in February of this year. I’m sure there was no convenient arrangement between Rogich and Reid for political favors, not like Harry’s land deal with his good friend Jay Brown…. what do you think this is, Las Vegas? Oh, yeah, right….. well….. it is.

Me? Well, if they built it, I’d ride it down to Disneyland…not Victorville, but I don’t want the government to finance, manage, or operate the darn thing. If there is a viable option for such a line, and somebody can make money doing it, there will be investors willing to support it. If the consuming public is unwilling to pay to use the service, or doesn’t like the destination (pssst… Victorville!), then it shouldn’t be built.

And I certainly think that a one-man propaganda machine like Harry Reid shouldn’t get his name all over it with US Taxpayer dollars. Like Sen. Steven’s Bridge to Nowhere, or the Murtha Airport, or ANYTHING with KKKBird’s name on it in West Virginia. We do not NEED a Reid fast-train that looks like a suppository speeding through the desert. Then again, the imagery might be fitting…..

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