Up to two million march to US Capitol to protest against Obama’s spending in ‘tea-party’ demonstration

Up to two million march to US Capitol to protest

against Obama’s spending in ‘tea-party’ demonstration

By Mail Foreign Service
Last updated at 9:39 PM on 12th September 2009

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Up to two million people marched to the U.S. Capitol today, carrying signs with slogans such as “Obamacare makes me sick” as they protested the president’s health care plan and what they say is out-of-control spending.

The line of protesters spread across Pennsylvania Avenue for blocks, all the way to the capitol, according to the Washington Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency.

People were chanting “enough, enough” and “We the People.” Others yelled “You lie, you lie!” and “Pelosi has to go,” referring to California congresswoman Nancy Pelosi.

Tens of thousands of people converged on Capitol Hill on Saturday to protest against government spending

Demonstrators waved U.S. flags and held signs reading “Go Green Recycle Congress” and “I’m Not Your ATM.” Men wore colonial costumes as they listened to speakers who warned of “judgment day” – Election Day 2010.

Richard Brigle, 57, a Vietnam War veteran and former Teamster, came from Michigan. He said health care needs to be reformed – but not according to President Barack Obama’s plan.

“My grandkids are going to be paying for this. It’s going to cost too much money that we don’t have,” he said while marching, bracing himself with a wooden cane as he walked.

FreedomWorks Foundation, a conservative organization led by former House of Representatives Majority Leader Dick Armey, organized several groups from across the country for what they billed as a “March on Washington.”

Organizers say they built on momentum from the April “tea party” demonstrations held nationwide to protest tax policies, along with growing resentment over the economic stimulus packages and bank bailouts.

US President Barack Obama sports a mustache famously worn by German dictator Adolf Hitler

Demonstrators hold up banners on Capitol Hill in Washington on Saturday

Many protesters said they paid their own way to the event – an ethic they believe should be applied to the government.

They say unchecked spending on things like a government-run health insurance option could increase inflation and lead to economic ruin.

Terri Hall, 45, of Florida, said she felt compelled to become political for the first time this year because she was upset by government spending.

“Our government has lost sight of the powers they were granted,” she said. She added that the deficit spending was out of control, and said she thought it was putting the country at risk.

Anna Hayes, 58, a nurse from Fairfax County, stood on the Mall in 1981 for Reagan’s inauguration. “The same people were celebrating freedom,” she said. “The president was fighting for the people then. I remember those years very well and fondly.”

Saying she was worried about “Obamacare,” Hayes explained: “This is the first rally I’ve been to that demonstrates against something, the first in my life. I just couldn’t stay home anymore.”

 

The heated demonstrations were organized by a Conservative group called the Tea Party Patriots

Like countless others at the rally, Joan Wright, 78, of Ocean Pines, Md., sounded angry. “I’m not taking this crap anymore,” said Wright, who came by bus to Washington with 150 like-minded residents of Maryland’s Eastern Shore. “I don’t like the health-care [plan]. I don’t like the czars. And I don’t like the elitists telling us what we should do or eat.”

Republican lawmakers also supported the rally.

“Republicans, Democrats and independents are stepping up and demanding we put our fiscal house in order,” Rep. Mike Pence, chairman of the House Republican Conference, said.

“I think the overriding message after years of borrowing, spending and bailouts is enough is enough.”

Other sponsors of the rally include the Heartland Institute, Americans for Tax Reform and the Ayn Rand Center for Individuals Rights.

Recent polls illustrate how difficult recent weeks have been for a president who, besides tackling health care, has been battling to end a devastatingly deep recession.  

Fifty percent approve and 49 percent disapprove of the overall job he is doing as president, compared to July, when those approving his performance clearly outnumbered those who were unhappy with it, 55 percent to 42 percent.

Just 42 percent approve of the president’s work on the high-profile health issue.

The poll was taken over five days just before Obama’s speech to Congress. That speech reflected Obama’s determination to push ahead despite growing obstacles.

“I will not waste time with those who have made the calculation that it’s better politics to kill this plan than to improve it,” Obama said on Wednesday night. “I won’t stand by while the special interests use the same old tactics to keep things exactly the way they are.

“If you misrepresent what’s in the plan, we’ll call you out. And I will not accept the status quo as a solution.”

Prior to Obama’s speech before Congress U.S. Capitol Police arrested a man they say tried to get into a secure area near the Capitol with a gun in his car as President Barack Obama was speaking.

Police spokeswoman Sgt. Kimberly Schneider said Thursday that 28-year-old Joshua Bowman of suburban Falls Church, Virginia, was arrested around 8 p.m. Wednesday when Obama was due to speak. 

‘Parasite-in-chief’: The title given to the American President during the demonstrations on Saturday

Bowman’s intentions were unclear, police said.

Today’s protests imitated the original Boston Tea Party of 1773, when colonists threw three shiploads of taxed tea into Boston Harbour in protest against the British government under the slogan ‘No taxation without representation’.

The group first began rising to prominence in April, when the governor of Texas threatened to secede from the union in protest against government spending. Waves of tea party protests have crossed America since.

Today’s rally, the largest grouping of fiscal conservatives to march on Washington, comes on the heels of heated town halls held during the congressional August recess when some Democratic lawmakers were confronted, disrupted and shouted down by angry protestors who oppose President Obama’s plan to overhaul the health care system.

ACORN Watch: Census Bureau cuts ties; Update: Census letter added

By Michelle Malkin  •  September 11, 2009 06:26 PM

It’s a start!

FNC’s Major Garrett reports on Twitter that the U.S. Census Bureau has cut all ties to ACORN, which had been named a Census data collection partner for the 2010 Census.

Census director Robert Groves, an ACORN-approved nominee, reportedly sent a letter to the racketeers today in the wake of Big Government’s videotaped stings in Baltimore and DC.

Now, on to a full investigation of the ACORN Housing Corporation, CSI, CCI, Project Vote and the Obama campaign.

No more taxpayer funding for this corrupt racket.

Cut ‘em all off NOW.

Repeat after me: ACORN is a criminal enterprise.

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House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Ranking Member Darrell Issa (R-CA) today applauded U.S. Census Bureau Director Robert Groves’ decision to terminate its partnership with ACORN in conducting the 2010 Census: “ACORN had no business working on the Census. ACORN’s partisan election efforts and its involvement in criminal conduct rightly disqualified it from working on the non-partisan mission of the Census to accurately and honestly count the U.S. population,” said Rep. Issa. “Had ACORN been allowed to submit fraudulent information to the Census, it could have changed the boundaries of Congressional districts and altered Federal funding decisions to states and local communities. I applaud Census Bureau Director Robert Groves for making this independent decision following mounting evidence of wrongdoing by ACORN.”

Here’s the PDF of the Census Director’s letter to ACORN’s Maude Hurd.

Takeaway quotes from letter: “Over the last several months, through ongoing communication with our regional offices, it is clear that ACORN’s affiliation with 2010 Census promotion has caused sufficient concern in the general public, has ineed become a distraction from our mission, and may even become a discouragement to public cooperation, negatively impacting 2010 Census efforts. While not decisive factors in this decision, recent events concerning several local offices of ACORN have added to the worsening negative perceptions of ACORN and its affiliation with our partnership efforts.”

Bottom line: “We no longer have confidence that our national partnership agreement is being effectively managed through your offices.”

The Manchurian Candidate

The Manchurian Candidate
By: David Horowitz
Friday, September 11, 2009

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Barack Obama emerges as the radical leader of a new popular front.
Those who were surprised by the White House appointment of Van Jones – a self-styled “communist,” and a proponent of the idea that the Katrina catastrophe was caused by “white supremacy,” haven’t been paying attention to developments on the left since the fall of Communism, or to president Obama’s extensive roots in its political culture. Van Jones is the carefully groomed protégé of a network of radical organizations — including Moveon.org — and of Democratic sponsors like billionaire George Soros and John Podesta, former Clinton chief of staff and co-chair of the Obama transition team. 

At the time of his appointment as the President’s “Green Jobs” czar – and despite a very recent 10-year history of “revolutionary” activity – Jones was a member of two key organizations at the very heart of what might be called the executive branch of the Democratic Party. The first is the Center for American Progress which was funded by Soros and is headed by Podesta. The second is the Apollo Alliance, on whose board Jones sits with Podesta, Carol Browner and Al Gore. This is a coalition of radicals, leftwing union leaders and corporate recruits, which had a major role in designing Obama’s green economy plans, including the “cash for clunkers” program. The New York director of the Alliance, who will be writing its applications for tens of millions of dollars in “stimulus” funds, is Jeff Jones (no relation) who was a co-leader of the terrorist Weather Underground along with Obama’s close friend and political ally William Ayers.

According to his own account, Van Jones became a “communist” during a prison term he served after being arrested during the 1992 Los Angeles race riots. For the next ten years Jones was an activist in the Maoist organization STORM – “Stand Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement.” When STORM disintegrated Jones joined the Apollo Alliance and the Center for American Progress Democrats. As he explained to the East Bay Express in a 2005 article, he still considered himself a “revolutionary, but just a more effective one.” “Before,” he told the Express, “we would fight anybody, any time. No concession was good enough;… Now, I put the issues and constituencies first. I’ll work with anybody, I’ll fight anybody if it will push our issues forward…. I’m willing to forgo the cheap satisfaction of the radical pose for the deep satisfaction of radical ends.”

 

Pursuing the deep satisfaction of radical ends is the clear sub-text of Jones’ 2007 book, The Green Collar Economy which comes with a Forward by Robert Kennedy Jr. and enthusiastic blurbs from Nancy Pelosi and Al Gore. According to Jones, the Katrina tragedies were caused by global warming, white supremacy, free market economics and the “war for oil” in Iraq. This “perfect storm” of social evils deprived poor blacks of the protection of adequate levees and private vehicles which would have allowed them to escape. The fact that a fleet of public buses was available but the black mayor and the black power structure in New Orleans failed to deploy them go unmentioned in Jones’ indictment of white racism. Instead, “The Katrina story illustrates clearly the two crises we face in the United States: radical socioeconomic inequality and rampant environmental destruction.” To deal with these crises “we will need both political and economic transformation – immediately.”

How did John Podesta and Al Gore and Barack Obama come to be political allies of a far left radical like Van Jones, a 9/11 conspiracy “truther” and a supporter of the Hamas view that the entire state of Israel is “occupied territory?” To answer this question requires an understanding of developments within the political left that have taken place over the last two decades, and in particular the forging of a “popular front” between anti-American radicals and “mainstream liberals” in the Democratic Party.

The collapse of Communism in the early Nineties did not lead to an agonizing reappraisal of its radical agendas among many who had supported it in the West. Instead, its survivors set about creating a new socialist international which would unite “social justice” movements, radical environmental groups, leftwing trade unions, and traditional communist parties – all dedicated to the revival of utopian dreams.

The new political force made its first impression at the end of the decade when it staged global demonstrations against the World Trade Organization and the World Bank. The demonstrations erupted into large-scale violence in Seattle in 2001 when 50,000 Marxists, anarchists and environmental radicals, joined by the giant leftwing unions AFSCME and SEIU, descended on the city, smashed windows and automobiles, and set fire to buildings to protest “globalization” – the world capitalist system.

In the direct aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the anti-globalization forces morphed into what became known as the “anti-war” movement. An already scheduled anti-globalization protest on September 29 was re-redirected (and re-named) to target America’s retaliation against al-Qaeda and the Taliban. The new “peace” movement grew to massive proportions in the lead up to the war in Iraq but it never held a single protest against Saddam’s violation of 17 UN arms control resolutions, or his expulsion of the UN arms inspectors. It did, however, mobilize 35 million people in world-wide protests against America’s “imperialist war for oil.” The orchestrators of the demonstrations were the same leaders and the same organizations, the same unions and the same “social justice” groups that had been responsible for the Seattle riots against the World Trade Organization and the international capitalist system.

A second watershed came in the run-up to the 2004 elections when billionaire George Soros decided to integrate the radicals – including their political organization ACORN — into the structure of Democratic Party politics. Together with a group of like-minded billionaires, Soros created a “Shadow Party” (as Richard Poe and I documented in a book by that name) whose purpose was to shape the outcome of the 2004 presidential race. “America under Bush,” Soros told The Washington Post, “is a danger to the world,…” To achieve his goal, Soros created a galaxy of 527 political organizations headed by leftwing union leaders like SEIU chief Andrew Stern and Clinton operatives like Harold Ickes. As its policy brain he created the Center for American Progress.

Soros failed to achieve his goal in 2004 but he went on working to create new elements of the network, such as the Apollo Alliance. Four years later the Shadow Party was able to elect a candidate who had spent his entire political career in the bowels of this movement. Obama’s electoral success was made possible by the wide latitude he was given by the press and the public, partly because he was the first African-American with a chance to be president and partly because his campaign was deliberately crafted to convey the impression that he was a tax-cutting centrist who intended to bring Americans together to find common solutions to their problems. When confronted with his long-term associations and working partnerships with anti-American racists like Jeremiah Wright and anti-American radicals like William Ayers, he denied the obvious and successfully side-stepped its implications.

Just eight months into his presidency, however, a new Barack Obama has begun to emerge. With unseemly haste Obama has nearly bankrupted the federal government, amassing more debt in eight months than all his predecessors combined. He has appeased America’s enemies abroad and attacked America’s intelligence services at home. He has rushed forward with programs that require sweeping changes in the American economy and is now steamrolling a massive new health-care program that will give the government unprecedented control of its citizens.

 

Among the hallmarks of this new radical regime the appointment of Van Jones stood out for its blatant departure from political normalcy. In his White House role, the radical Jones would have represented the president in shaping a multi-billion stimulus package, which could easily function as a patronage program of particular interest to his political allies in the “Apollo Alliance,” ACORN and the leftwing unions. In the classic manual for activists on how to achieve their radical goals, Obama’s political mentor Saul Alinsky wrote: “From the moment an organizer enters a community, he lives, dreams, eats, breathes, sleeps only one thing, and that is to build the mass power base of what he calls the army.” As the president’s green jobs commissar, Van Jones had entered the trillion-dollar community of the federal government and would soon have been building his radical army. The rest of us should be wondering who his sponsors were within the White House (senior presidential advisor and long-time “progressive” Valerie Jarrett was certainly one). Then we should ask ourselves what they are planning next.

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David Horowitz is the founder of The David Horowitz Freedom Center and author of the new book, One Party Classroom.

Why I am no longer an African American

By Mary Baker

The Obama election was a milestone in our country’s history. Blacks danced in the streets, talked about feelings of finally being able to feel at home in America, and cried for the cameras. But as a black woman in the Age of Obama, I don’t see anything that reveals that Blacks in America have anything to celebrate.  I grew up in the Deep South during the 1960’s, so I’m quite aware of the issues our country faced at that time.  Blacks mourned the deaths of two of their most profound leaders, Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  This was a time when those who represented the leadership of Black Americans promoted a longing for the “Motherland.” 

There was propaganda promoting African ancestry, even the reclassifying of Blacks as African Americans. The establishment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 barred many of the practices of racial discrimination and Blacks began to believe that achieving the dreams that Dr. King hailed in his speeches was possible.  Black leaders such as Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael promoted the new image of the African American through the Nation of Islam and the Black Power Movement.  Kimani Nehusi, a lecturer at the University of East London, writes,

Many Rastafari use the term ‘repatriation’ to express this longing for Africa, and a determination to return physically. However, when we examine the practice of Rastafari, we can see that the idea of a return to Africa goes beyond just repatriation, the physical resettlement on the continent of our ancestors. It also means a return to the values, culture and history of Africa, and a particular Africentric way of seeing the world. Many of these ideas have also been expressed in the work of Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, Kwame Nkrumah and other leading fighters for the rights of Africans at home and abroad.

 

Fast-forward to November 4, 2008 — America elects her first African American President. Now, one would think that all has finally been laid to rest and America has once and for all times achieved racial reconciliation. But it appears that this election has resulted in even more racial division.  After observing the attitudes of African Americans and gaining an understanding of the drive to classify Black Americans as African Americans, I must now say that I can no longer identify myself as an African American because this classification holds several proclamations and principles to which I no longer identify with as a citizen of this country.  This title holds anti-American sentiments to which I cannot embrace. I have never held to the viewpoints of those from the Black Power Movement, Nation of Islam, or the Black Nationalist Movement. I don’t think about Africa, or what it would be like to live there, as I have always been content living in the country of my birth, where I grew up in a small town in Louisiana.

 

The classification of me as an African American says that although I live in America, my loyalty and allegiance are to Africa.  My loyalty and my allegiance are first to Jesus Christ who is the Lord and Savior of my life.  These same principles were those held by many of our Founding Fathers who held high regard for God’s protection and leadership over this nation. These are the principles that are common to the foundation of Conservatism.  As I think of my viewpoints politically, everything I believe about this country is wrapped up in my Conservative views. The tenets of the Declaration of Independence were set forth to bring equality and well being to all Americans.  And those are the principles that I embrace as an American.

 

It is my faith that drives everything that I believe and hold as dear.  The Founders of this country envisioned a nation that would secure the God-given rights of its citizens.  The desire that every citizen born in this country would not suffer the oppression they endured under England’s rule, set as the backdrop for guaranteeing freedom for all Americans.  The Founders especially desired that our nation would be one ruled and protected by our Creator God.  Many beg to differ, but the Founders’ insistence that God guide the ways of this nation is apparent in their acknowledgement of His hand in the creation of life, the rights of life, and the prosperity of life. 

 

It is these principles that make me proud to just be an American.  So, I select for my identity the title of American.  The radical ideologies of Blacks involved in the Civil Rights Movement gave birth to attitudes like those of Professor Henry Lewis Gates Jr., the Harvard professor who became livid when his identity was questioned by a white police officer. Those who embrace Professor Gate’s sentiments and attitudes today are those who still believe that America owes something to the Black population for the horrors of slavery.  They are the ones that continue to stoke the fires of racial hatred toward other races and promote the continued attitude of self pity within the Black community.  They also hold to the teachings of Black Liberation Theology, a school of thought that I never knew existed until the presidential campaign of then Senator Barak Obama.  The teachings of Black Liberation Theology run counter to the American way. They also are counterproductive to the love I hold for my country.

 

I began to think about how we all got to be categorized in the first place.  I have not noticed on any forms that the category of American is an option to be selected.  Is this division amongst us perpetrated by our very own government?  It is obvious that the inspiration for the classification of African American has nothing to do with those born of African descent.  It is a radical group of Black Americans who hold to the anti-American views of those shared by Jeremiah Wright, Professor Gates, Jesse Jackson, President Obama and many others who came out of the radical Civil Rights Movement.

 

Because of these things, I now part ways with the classification of African American because I hold no allegiance to Africa.  I embrace the American qualities of freedom to worship, freedom to have my own opinion, freedom to express my views, freedom to achieve whatever it is God has created me to achieve.  I hope that I will find others like me who are willing to break ties with the things that divide us, and embrace the timeless principles that have made this country the greatest nation on earth. That is why, when the next U.S. Census occurs, I will be making a new category just for me, the classification of being an American.

Mary Baker is a married mother of seven children, a stay-at-home mom who loves writing, and enjoys home-schooling her eight-year-old daughter, Krystal.  Mary lives in Houston, Texas.  

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