A "River" Reader Goes to a Town Hall Meeting

One of our readers here at The River recently had the opportunity to attend a town hall meeting set up by his local representative to Congress, Sheila Jackson-Lee. He even got to ask a question, along with a follow-up.

Before I get into the story and tell you who it was, I just have to say that I thank the Lord God Almighty of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that this woman is not my congressman (shudder). I am abundantly blessed to have, instead, Jeb Hensarling as a U.S. Rep. and he represents my viewpoint almost perfectly.

But not so blessed is our friend Allen Lewis, the Texas Conservative. Here is the story of his second trip to a town hall meeting and what took place there, including his questions to the distinguished Mrs. Jackson-Lee. (click here)

I'm just glad for our friend Mr. Lewis that Mrs. Jackson-Lee's mobile phone was apparently turned off this time and he was able to have her undivided attention, even if just for a few minutes.

For those of you too lazy to go over to his blog right now, I wanted to bring up a fabulous point that Mr. Lewis made to the congresswoman by quoting him here and then giving him a hearty "amen." Here is Mr. Lewis:

For me, I finally got to ask my question, which I did not get to do at the last meeting. I pointed out to her that Congress is not authorized in Article I, Section 8 of the US Constitution to operate a health care program. I asked her if she would sponsor an amendment to the Constitution which would reserve this power for the Congress.

Her answer was not really an answer so much as it was a skillful avoidance of the question. She stated that the government does many things which are not specifically allowed in the Constitution, and said that this was being done to “promote the general welfare” and “to form a more perfect union.”

My reply to her was that her interpretation of the general welfare clause essentially allowed for an arbitrary government, which naturally leads to tyranny. I also pointed out to her that from 2001-2009, she and other Democrats were rightfully angry at what they perceived to be arbitrary laws made by the Bush administration, such as the Patriot Act; and the unconstitutional abdication of the responsibility to declare war by the Congress.

She definitely agreed with me that the Patriot Act and the Iraq/Afghanistan wars were not Constitutional. Unfortunately I was way over my time, so I didn’t get to make my closing point which was: by her reasoning, if George W. Bush and the Congress said, “The Patriot Act is for the general welfare of the nation,” it immediately becomes Constitutional - no matter what the bill actually says or does.

I think that our friend, Mr. Lewis, thinks on a far deeper level than someone like Mrs. Jackson-Lee ever has. And his logic here is flawless. "Progressive" politicians have been abusing that little clause in the preamble since Theodore Roosevelt.

Paglia Agrees With The River

Camille Paglia, columnist, uber-liberal, and Obama aficionado, agrees with me and this blog concerning Nancy Pelosi . . . and . . . the town-hall protesters.

She writes in Salon:

But who would have thought that the sober, deliberative Barack Obama would have nothing to propose but vague and slippery promises--or that he would so easily cede the leadership clout of the executive branch to a chaotic, rapacious, solipsistic Congress? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whom I used to admire for her smooth aplomb under pressure, has clearly gone off the deep end with her bizarre rants about legitimate town-hall protests by American citizens. She is doing grievous damage to the party and should immediately step down.

There is plenty of blame to go around. Obama's aggressive endorsement of a health care plan that does not even exist yet, except in five competing, fluctuating drafts, makes Washington seem like Cloud Cuckoo Land. The president is promoting the most colossal, brazen bait-and-switch operation since the Bush administration snookered the country into invading Iraq with apocalyptic visions of mushroom clouds over American cities. . . .

In fact, Paglia speaks a lot of truth in her column and I recommend you go there and read all of it. The admissions will be shocking coming from a liberal, but that's Paglia.

Wow. A Lefty who is honest about the Left. Somebody pinch me.

Click here for entire column.

John Dingell Plays the Race Card

Yes, American subjects, this is what the American nobility thinks of you.

They're not listening.

Hillary Slams Pelosi

As you may have heard, several big-name Democrats have verbalized, recently, the opinion that those American citizens who show up at Town Hall Meetings to question their legislators or vocalize their dissent about the current helath care proposal being considered by Congress are un-American. The most recent example of this was Nancy Pelosi over the weekend.

From FoxNews.com

"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi turned the health care debate up a notch Monday, penning a column along with her top deputy that questioned the patriotism of those disrupting town hall meetings to air their complaints.

Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer claimed such behavior is 'simply un-American.'"

Again, to read the entire newspiece click here.

Interesting.

Even more interesting was Hillary Clinton's purported response to that accusation.



(smile)

Pelosi and Swastikas

Here is our esteemed House Speaker, the Honorable Nancy Pelosi, telling us what she thinks of average citizens expressing their views. She pulls out the time-honored canard of "Nazi Republicans." Heart-warming isn't it?

Is there anyone who actually believes this? The arrogance of this woman to think we are all so stupid as to not check her facts, but just to believe her no matter how outrageous her claims should be. It is pure hubris.

AARP Town Meeting Erupts

Check out this video. It speaks for itself. Comments are welcome.

"Enough of the Mob"

Check out this ad put out by the DNC today.



Nice, isn't it?

Here are American citizens exercising their first amendment rights . . .

1st Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

. . . in a peaceful manner, no doubt under the assumption that this is a government of the people, for the people, and by the people, and the Democrat National Committee chooses to malign them by portraying them as an angry "mob." These, according to the DNC, are "extremists" who, judging by the photos, are full of hatred and malice. Obviously they are not grass-roots and genuine, rather they are being organized by those ee-vil Republicans who have no ideas at all.

This is classic leftist demagoguery--demonize the opposition.

The favorite debate technique of the Left in this country is the one known as ad hominem. In fact, it is the only one they know, but they use it recklessly and with impunity. Sadly, their constituency has proven itself consistently dull enough to make its use of inestimable value.