A Democrat I Can Agree With!

Here is a video I just bumped into of one fiery democrat I can agree with. This is Rep. Marci Kaptur D-Ohio. She has got the facts on NAFTA and the North American Union. We are losing a Ford plant in St. Paul yet the Ford company is going to spend over nine billion dollars on factories in Mexico. The end result is cheap labor for Ford at the expense of Minesota's middle class. Watch this video and pay attention! This is alarming!

Support the Teamsters

The truck drivers at Johnson Brothers Liquor have been on strike since March 17th, 2008. A friend of mine works there and tells me that their contract with the company ended and they are asked to accept a contract of lesser value. Less pay and less vacation. They are picketing around the clock, seven days a week. My wife and I drove by about midnight last night and they were out in force.

I used to be a Teamster about thirty years ago. I drove a taxi. It was a short stint that lasted one summer but it was a great experience.

One great thing I admire about the Teamster's of today is that they are the only union to object to 100 Mexican trucks being driven on our national highways today. These trucks are on our roads without the safety inspections we require of American truckers and they are not compensated as well for their labor. Thus undermining the wages of the middle class.

The union truckers of Johnson Brothers Liquor ask us to not purchase the following products.

LIQUOR

All Phillips brand products, Karkov Vodka and Gin


WINE

Bella Sera, Peter Vella, Twin Valley

Rancho Sera, Sonoma Gallo, Cooks

Dancing Bull, Livingston Cellar, Copper Ridge

Carlo Rossi, Redwood Creek, Black Swan

Ecco Domani, Trinity Oaks, Boones Farm

Bartles and Jaymes, Fairbanks, Andre

Ballatore, Barefoot, Sutter Home

Arbor Mist, Black Box, Alice White

MCCAIN VS. OBAMA ON GAS TAXES

John McCain proposes eliminating the federal gas tax from Memorial Day to Labor Day. I am sure Ron Paul would be in favor of doing away with it entirely! Michele Bachman spoke at the tax rally about how we have in this nation less than half the refineries that we had in the seventies. I sold valves and refinery equipment when I lived in Houston in '91. All the obsolete equipment was being rebuilt and used in Mexican refineries where the environmental requirements were not as strict. Our federal legislators should really lighten up on domestic drilling. Anwar alone is not the answer. Robust, aggressive offshore exploration is the answer to ease prices at the pump. That and ending the ethanol requirements. Mexico discovered billions of barrels in the gulf of Mexico last year. It will take several years to get it out of the ground. Mexican oil companies are owned by the Mexican government unlike ours. I recently heard an expert on a radio show say that if we do not start drilling in the gulf off the shores of Florida in the near future, Cuba will see no reason not to let the Chinese have at it. It was also mentioned that they do not have the safety record that we do.

Here is a video with McCain and Obama being quoted on the federal gas tax.

GINA: This Too Shall Pass

From the Family Research Council, Tony Perkins' Washington Update:

A lot has changed in Congress since 1995, but the debate over genetic anti-discrimination laws has not. Yesterday, the Senate did its part to put the issue to rest after a long, 13-year journey. The bill has weathered two presidencies and at least four congressional majorities. Despite its history, the Senate made the bill's passage look easy, voting 95-0 in its favor. If the House follows suit, as we expect it will, insurance companies and employers will no longer be able to refuse coverage or raise premiums on individuals or families based on the results of genetic tests. This is especially important as disease detection and prevention technology improves. Although doctors can clinically screen for more than 1,200 diseases, patients have been wary of taking the tests out of fear that it would jeopardize their health insurance. GINA would ensure that Americans can take advantage of this technology without backlash from their coverage providers. During my time in the Louisiana state legislature, I first became aware of this issue. I was informed that insurance companies, using genetic information, were dropping customers after learning that a woman was pregnant with a baby that had Down's syndrome or was otherwise disabled. Unfortunately, this type of discrimination was forcing more mothers to abort because they couldn't shoulder costs of their children's special needs without help from their insurance provider. As a result, I authored and passed one of the first measures of this kind in 1997. Until recently, the federal measure didn't include the protections for unborn or adopted children who test positive for genetic deficiencies. With the support of our friends on the Hill, FRC's Government Affairs team led the effort to make this pro-family clarification part of the final bill. We look forward to similar equity in the House version, which is due for a vote in the next few weeks.

Ronald Reagan on Ron Paul

Here is a interesting video. I sure hope Lisa M. gets to see this! LOL

Health Department's "DNA WAREHOUSE" Bill - The Good GOP Arguments; The Troublesome DFL Statements

Below:

• The Vote on the Holberg Consent Amendment
• Photos of Legislators during the Debate
• What they said...for or against parent consent.

CCHC was at the legislature talking to members on both sides of the aisle. There was bipartisan support for Rep. Holberg's parent consent amendment, just not enough. It failed 64-69. The other Republican-offered consent amendments had bipartisan support also, but less. Those votes are recorded in the House Journal for April 17, 2008.

Please let your legislators know your thoughts about their votes...and their quotes: rep.firstname.lastname@house.mn

Republicans: Abeler, Anderson B, Anderson S, Beard, Brod, Buesgens, Cornish, Dean, DeLaForest, Demmer, Dettmer, Drazkowski, Eastlund, Emmer, Erickson, Finstad, Garofalo, Gottwalt, Gunther, Hackbarth, Heidgerken, Holberg, Hoppe, Howes, Kohls, Lanning, Magnus, McFarlane, McNamara, Nornes, Olson, Ozment, Paulsen, Peppin, Peterson, N, Ruth, Seiffert, Severson, Shimanski, Simpson, Smith, Tingelstad, Urdahl, Wardlow, Westrom, Zellers.

DFL: Dill, Doty, Eken, Faust, Gardner, Greiling, Hilty, Juhnke, Koenen, Lesch, Lillie, Mariani, Marquart, Masin, Murphy, M, Otremba, Scalze, Ward

Not Voting: Hamilton (R)

Republicans Voting Against: Berns, Erhardt

DFL Voting Against: Anzelc, Atkins, Benson, Bigham, Bly, Brown, Brynaert, Bunn, Carlson, Clark, Davnie, Ditrich, Dominguez, Fritz, Hansen, Hausman, Haws, Hilstrom, Hornstein, Hortman, Hosch, Huntley, Jaros, Johnson, Kahn Kalin, Knuth, Dranz, Laine, Lenczewski, Liebling, Lieder, Loeffler, Madore, Mahoney, Moe, Morgan, Morrow, Mullery, Murphy, E, Nelson, Norton, Olin, Paymar, Pelowski, Peterson, A, Ptterson, S, Poppe, Rukavina, Ruud, Sailer, Seertich, Simon, Slawik, Slocum, Solberg, Swails, Thao, Thissen, Tillberry, Tschumper, Wagenius, Walker, Welti, Winkler, Wollschlager, Spkr Kelliher.

Here is what some of our legislators had to say,

Rep. MaryLiz Holberg, GOP (leading the charge for informed consent): My concern is that the state of Minnesota has put together a database of our youngest residents. They have the rights to it. They own it."

Rep. Paul Thissen, DFL (author of the bill): The studies wouldn't be possible if the blood spots weren't stored because these diseases are not identified till many years later...I understand the concern about privacy, but....to go down the path of written consent in any way, or an opt-in, will undermine our ability to proceed with this very, very successful program."

Rep. John Berns, GOP: "My wife and I were sleeping...We were awakened by our baby crying...It was a technician doing the test...The technician said..there were no options...that person didn't do it correctly." (RE: Oct 2006 incidence with 3rd baby in hospital)

Rep. Dettmer, GOP: "I trust parents to make the right decision...I think it's important we let the parents make that decision."

Rep. Tom Emmer, GOP (offering a second consent amendment): It is a very important privacy issue...This goes right to the heart of the rights of an individual...We got somebody whose out driving on the highway with a blood alcohol level above .08. What do we do? They get pulled over...Can we automatically get a sample of their blood. No. You have to get their consent.

Rep. Steve Drazkowski, GOP: "Whose DNA is it? Does it belong to the family or does it belong to the state? It's our responsibility to protect the freedoms of Minnesotans."

Rep. Ryan Winkler, DFL: "The issue is about whether the rights of a parent to make a decision about genetic testing is more important than the right of a child to have a healthy life...Less testing means more death, more hearing loss, more growth failure...The issue is the parent's theoretical interest in privacy more important than the child's fundamental right to have a health outcome and a healthy life."

Rep. Steve Gottwalt, GOP: "The first right is the right is the parent's right with their child. They have the ultimate obligation. The parents have the right, not the state, not the doctor, not the hospital. All we're asking is that we get informed consent before things are being done....The parents...deserve the opt-in, not the opt-out. We require more information on that [opt-out] form than we require for people to vote in this state."

Rep. Paul Thissen, DFL: "Because more people opt-out...and in addition to do additional research on childhood diseases, for all those reasons if you require an opt in or a written consent, it undermines our ability to do those things."

Rep. Joyce Peppin, GOP: "It's very difficult to even find the form...makes it very difficult for a parent to opt-out. Either have to go to a notory public or a medical professional to get a signature. Perhaps parents don't want to have to explain why they don't want to submit to this testing. My amendment is to simplify things."

Rep. Mark Olson, IR: "It's not a state child. It's the parent's child."

Rep. Rob Eastlund, GOP: "Rep. Holberg's amendment is absolutely necessary! It took me over 15 min on the health department website to find an opt-out form."

Rick Hansen and the Minnesota Genetic Privacy Law

My good friend emailed Representative Hansen and urged him to vote "no" on warehousing citizens DNA.

Here is what he wrote to Rep. Hansen,

VOTE NO! No consent, no warehouse - vote no. Show some guts Rick and vote against your party.

Here is Hansen's response,

Thanks for the email. As I read it, it looks as if SF 3138 actually puts more restrictions on existing state law.

Rick Hansen


This is just the beginning of Orwellian government intrusions into the lives of its citizens. Representative Rick Hansen is in favor of our government warehousing our children's DNA for government to engage in genetic research, experimentation, manipulation, and profiling. Please see my last post,

http://jungbauer2010.blogspot.com/2008/04/mn-house-votes-unanimously-to-gut.html

And go to Citizens' Council on Health Care website to read more about this scary subject,

http://www.cchconline.org/

MN House votes unanimously to gut the Minnesota Genetic Privacy Law

Minneapolis/Saint Paul – Today, in a shocking decision, the Minnesota House voted unanimously to eliminate the genetic privacy rights of citizens, starting at birth. The legislation will exempt warehousing, use, and analysis of newborn blood and DNA from the informed consent requirements of the 2006 Minnesota Genetic Privacy Law.

Twila Brase, president of Citizens' Council on Health Care, makes the following statements:

"Citizen DNA is citizen property. The government should be required to ask, not allowed to take."

"If this bill becomes law, each year 73,000 newborn citizens will not be protected by the state genetic privacy law. The Department will take their DNA and unless the parents figure it out, the government will keep it.

"Children grow up. Eventually, every citizen will have their DNA owned by state government and available for government to engage in genetic research, experimentation, manipulation, and profiling.

"What good is the state genetic privacy law if government warehousing and analysis of every child's DNA from birth is exempt from its informed consent protections?"

"The Health Department came to the legislature this year to get out from under the March 2007 administrative law judge's ruling that informed parent consent was required by the state genetic privacy law. They appealed the ruling and lost. Now the legislature is going to let them win.

"Conference Committee?
The House voted on the Senate bill. If the Senate accepts the minor amendments adopted by the House without a conference committee, the bill could be sent directly to Governor Pawlenty for his signature.

"Whatever happens, by the looks of it, it'll be up to the Governor to protect the genetic privacy of the people," states Brase.

Twila Brase is president of Citizens' Council on Health Care. She can be reached at 651-646-8935 office or 612-619-1889 cell.

###

Citizens' Council on Health Care supports freedom for patients and doctors, medicalinnovation, and the right to a confidential patient-doctor relationship

Charlton Heston's legacy

When Charlton Heston died, not only did Hollywood lose an icon, the world witnessed the passing away of a man worthy of respect outside of his acting credentials. With the exception of a few extreme loon bloggers, the much-deserved tributes poured in.

Heston will be remembered by many for his legendary performances. A rule at my uncle’s house every year around Easter is, “Thou shalt watch 'The Ten Commandments.'" The fact this Cecil B. DeMille-directed movie still plays on television on a regular basis more than 50 years after its release is a testament to Heston’s powerful on-screen presence and staying power. DeMille reportedly chose Heston for the role because he thought the muscular, six-foot, three-inch, granite-jawed actor bore an uncanny resemblance to Michelangelo's famous statue of Moses.

Heston’s most celebrated movie roles were Biblical epics. Mr. Heston played John the Baptist in 1965's “The Greatest Story Ever Told." The 1959 movie “Ben-Hur” earned him an Oscar for best actor.

Not only did the actor leave us with memorable performances from “The Ten Commandments," “Ben-Hur” and “The Greatest Story Ever Told," but who can forget the classic lines from "Soylent Green" (“Soylent Green is people!”) and “The Planet of the Apes” ("Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!").

Heston was a passionate man. Passionate about his acting and the causes he believed in. He campaigned for presidential candidates Adlai Stevenson and JFK. In later years, for Ronald Reagan and both Bush presidents. He accompanied Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1963 civil rights march in Washington, D.C. He served as president of the National Rifle Association (NRA) from 1998-2003. He resigned in 2003 after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

He also leaves a legacy as a fiery orator. In a 1997 speech, he denounced a culture war he said was being conducted by a generation of media, educators, entertainers and politicians against:"

... the God-fearing, law-abiding, Caucasian, middle-class, Protestant - or, even worse, evangelical Christian, Midwestern or Southern - or, even worse, rural, apparently straight - or, even worse, admitted heterosexuals, gun-owning - o,r even worse, NRA-card carrying, average working stiff - or, even worse, male working stiff - because not only don’t you count, you are a down-right obstacle to social progress. Your voice deserves a lower decibel level, your opinion is less enlightened, your media access is insignificant and, frankly, mister, you need to wake up, wise up, and learn a little something from your new America and, until you do, would you mind shutting up?” (Excerpt taken from his autobiography "In the Arena"). Strong stuff. Chuck Heston was not known for mincing words.

Despite his association with the high-profile and much-maligned (and misunderstood) NRA, Charlton Heston was much loved by anyone who met him in person for being kind, generous, polite and gracious. Reading through many columns and comments following his death, I found the writers, even those who disagreed with his politics, reaffirmed what his friends, family and acquaintances attested to. He had a genuine caring and respect for his fellow man. That’s a legacy worth more than a hundred Oscars.

This story is from the Sioux City Journal. Michael McNeil is a free-lance writer from Dakota City, Neb. You can write to him in care of the Journal or at lvrcomments@hotmail.com.

Crowd Chants "It's My DNA!!"

After CCHC's president called on the crowd to yell "It's my DNA" loud enough for anyone in the Capitol to hear, the crowd unexpectely kept chanting, "It's my DNA! It's my DNA! It's my DNA!!!"

CCHC also unveiled the new URL for CCHC's "NO DNA WAREHOUSE." The url was visible on CCHC's new "It's My DNA" T-Shirt and the glossy business card-sized information cards with a clever helix-focused (child-captured) design.

Take this opportunity to use our new T-shirt to make public what the Health Department doesn't want anyone to know. Order your T-shirt today! Please feel free to use the donate button (and the special instructions field for your size and number) to order it online!

Tax Cut Rally Revved by CCHC President

Reminding the crowd that the most powerful word in the English language is "NO," Twila Brase, CCHC president, had the crowd practice the word before she gave them the opportunity to say "NO" to pending health care reform bill (H.F. 3391)and the DNA Warehouse bill (HF3438/SF3138).

The crowd said a resounding "NO" to:
"Fat scores" on children (no child left unweighed)
Medical welfare for the middle class
Electronic tracking of patients and doctors, and restricted access to medical care by a proposed $12 Million Super Agency (H.C. Transformation Commission)
Taxes on "make believe health care savings"
$100 million to monitor lifestyle and attempt to enforce healthy habits
$250 million of a tax on patients to balance the budget

DNA Warehouse on all citizens, starting at birthAlso speaking were U.S. Congresswoman Michele Bachmann and Congressman John Kline. Also there was Minority Leader Marty Seifert, Taxpayers League Phil Krinkie and Jeff Davis from Minnesota Majority. KTLK radio's Chris Baker emceed the event and KTLK's Dan Conry introduced the ever-popular Jason Lewis.

It was a wild day for the rally. Snowflakes fell and the wind blew, but the sound system was great and thousands showed up! Ignore the Star Tribune's report of only "1000 attendees." Clearly the reporter doesn't know how to count! There were at least 3,000-4,000 people. Others estimate 6,000 people. CCHC thanks everyone who came...and stood against big government and big brother proposal with that resounding, "NO, NO, NO!"

THE TAX CUT COALITION RALLY

BE SURE TO JOIN US AT
THE TAX CUT COALITION RALLY
HOSTED BY JASON LEWIS
AT THE STATE CAPITOL
SATURDAY, APRIL 12th at NOON!
Show up early a huge crowd is expected again this year!
A FREE bus will be available at Midway Stadium, 1771 Energy Park Drive,
St. Paul to shuttle people to and from the Capitol starting at 10AM

Depressing Statistics

What have you been doing for the last 3 ½ months?

According to the Tax Foundation, you’ve been working for the federal government. This April 23rd marks 2008's “Tax Freedom Day” – the day you stop working for Uncle Sam and start working for yourself (though in Minnesota we don’t actually get let off the hook until April 27th).

“‘Government continues to dominate the American taxpayer’s budget,’ said Tax Foundation president Scott Hodge. ‘Americans will still spend more on taxes in 2008 than they will spend on food, clothing and housing combined.’

“In 2008, Americans will work 74 days to afford their federal taxes and 39 more days to pay state and local taxes. Meanwhile, buying food requires 35 days of work, clothing 13 days, and housing 60 days. Other major categories are health and medical care (50 days), transportation (29 days), and recreation (21 days).”