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Recent New York Blogs
August 07, 2009 - 07:04 PM
An Impassioned Plea For Reason, Peace
by Patrick S. Ziegler - New York Coordinator
Choices Act of 2009."
After a viewing of various Town Hall meetings disrupted by protesters, Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina allegedly threatened that if they get hit, they "will punch back twice as hard." Undoubtedly, spokespeople for the White House and others will claim that Messina was speaking figuratively and not seeking to incite violence, but how can we not question the wisdom of even uttering such comments when video clips ofprotesters being assaulted are now available online and airing on media networks? Both elected officials and mainstream media commentators have openly questioned the role insurance companies, lobbying firms and right-wing talk show hosts have played in garnering support for these protests, inferring that the outpouring of popular resentment is not true grassroots activism but an orchestrated effort to deny the right to free speech and "shout down" health care reform. And yet, no one is questioning the legitimacy of counter-protests organized by MoveOn.org, the Daily Kos and Organizing for America. Worse yet, no one is commenting on some of the blatant threats being made against opponents of this bill on their message boards.
Just a few of the posts made on the Daily Kos within the past few days
include:
"We need to make them sorry they ever tried to shout down reform."
"Somebody needs to put the fear of God in these people."
"I'm an ex-college football player and if some foaming at the mouth corporate-sponsored Wingnut started getting in my face, just by reflex I would plant him."
"When I read about that woman being shouted down, I wanted to break someone's nose."
"There will be blood."
How have Americans who have different opinions on health care reform decided that they must resort to felony assault to support their cause? How have we allowed Chicago Gangland politics to claim our nation's most hallowed halls,threatening violence against those who disagree? How can we counter the propaganda machines of Nancy Pelosi claiming that we are bringing swastikas to Town Hall meetings? And why does our President not ask the American people for civility, restraint and intelligent discourse rather than calls for the blood of fellow Americans?
We may be facing the greatest crisis in leadership since this country's founding. In their endless bid for power, the powerbrokers and our elected aristocracy have succeeded in turning Americans against each other in violent confrontation. I have organized protests and met with representatives of groups who support this reform bill and, although I vehemently disagree, not once have I felt the urge to physically assault a neighbor and fellow American as a result of our disagreement. But I fear that those forces coordinating these counter-protests have no such reservations. I will stand my ground and respectfully, yet forcefully, voice my concerns about the House proposal but our rapidly fracturing country needs a President who will do as Barack Obama promised-heal the rift between conservatives and liberals and seek bipartisan support of his reform agenda. Sadly, rather than bipartisanship, we have had six months of escalating tension now highlighted by the threat of a senior White House official to punch back.
A large group of protesters will be greeting Congressman Scott Murphy tomorrow at an open forum in New York and we have already learned that the opposition is hoping to arrive in force to oppose us. Obviously, Democratic officials should not be shouted down but average Americans need not be shown such courtesy. I hope for the best and fear for the worst, in the firm belief that we have no choice but to make our stand. I know that the good people of Huck PAC stand with me, wherever they may be.
On August 22nd Huck PAC supporters will gather to meet one another and make phone calls on behalf of Huck PAC endorsed candidate Bob McDonnell. Bob is running for Governor of Virginia. He has what it takes to be a great leader for Virginia.
Our goal for the day is to make 10,000 calls to Virginia voters. We are asking participants at each House Party to make a few calls using their cell phones. You do not have to make calls to attend a Party and participation is FREE. We will provide the lists of voters names and phone scripts for everyone willing to participate.
First though, we need House Party hosts. If you are interested in hosting a House Party or want more information please contact Katie Beth Harris at Huck PAC or call Huck PAC at 501-324-2008. Her email is katiebeth.harris(at)mikehuckabee.com.
As we identify House Party Hosts we will add their party information to the map below.
View August Huck PAC House Parties - Aug. 22nd in a larger map
Perhaps the most eloquent explanation of virtual representation comes to us courtesy of Harvard scholar Bernard Bailyn in his Pulitzer Prize-winning text, The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution. The English argument, according to Bailyn, was a logical extrapolation of the Parliament’s right to levy taxes in England itself, where the franchise was limited to perhaps one-tenth of the people of Britain. In theory, the American colonists were as equally represented in Parliament as the majority of Englishmen and women who were not permitted to vote. As one defender of the Parliamentary right to legislate on behalf of the colonies wrote, “None are actually, all are virtually represented.”
Not surprisingly, the colonists themselves disagreed, arguing famously for “no taxation without representation.” Pamphleteer Daniel Dulany aptly noted that virtual representation was impossible without shared interest between representatives and constituents—an arrangement which did not exist between Americans and members of Parliament. “Not a single actual elector in England,” wrote Dulany, “might be immediately affected by a taxation in America imposed by a statute which would have general operation and effect upon the properties of the inhabitants of the colonies” (Bailyn, 168). In the mother country, the situation was quite the opposite where the security of the non-electors against oppression was that the oppression would likewise fall upon electors and representatives (Baily, 167). Such an unhappy result, Dulany argued, provided English freemen—even those outside the franchise—with a measure of protection against tyranny not shared by their American cousins.
It is my contention that a modern, domestic version of this very grievance has led our country to its present disenchantment with the performance of Congress and many of our respective state legislatures. As working-class American families have watched their retirement plans and children’s college accounts decimated by a preventable financial crisis, our elected representatives rest assured in the knowledge that our tax dollars guarantee the financial security of their golden years. While Congress bemoans the inevitable collapse of the Medicare/Medicaid system barring dramatic intervention, the health care plan enjoyed by federal officials remains unscathed, subsidized by taxpayers who can ill afford a medical emergency or unforeseen health crisis. When gas prices soared above $4 a gallon, Americans were treated to lectures praising the environmentally friendly, mass transportation options many of us do not even have available to us. For her part, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi protested that her taxpayer-fueled private jet could not be waiting on the tarmac at all times in the event Ms. Pelosi decided to spend a long weekend on the Coast. And, despite the recent influx of stimulus funds, school districts across the country are facing budget cuts and layoffs while our elected aristocracy avoids public education entirely.
In these distressing economic times, it has become only too obvious to struggling American families that the burden of rescuing the national economy has not been shared by our representatives. The global economic meltdown resulting from the sub-prime mortgage crisis further underscores the need for a citizen legislature as opposed to a national Congress composed of career politicians. It is difficult to imagine the fiscal recklessness of the past year being foisted on an unwilling body politic by elected officials who would return to their districts and employment in the private sector at the conclusion of their term. Nevertheless, two successive Presidential administrations passed unpopular stimulus packages which will cost the American taxpayer nearly one trillion dollars and burden even our grandchildren with an estimated $36,000 in debt.
Perhaps the most insightful analysis our present situation was written in 1765 by Massachusetts lawyer James Otis who wrote of the colonists’ virtual representatives in the English Parliament, “Does he know us? Or we him? No. Have we any restriction over his conduct? No. Is he bound in duty and interest to preserve our life and liberty? No. Is he acquainted with our circumstances, situation, wants, etc.? No. What then are we to expect from him? Nothing but taxes without end” (Bailyn, 169 from Considerations on Behalf of the Colonists, James Otis).
April 29, 2009 - 12:09 PM
Caution: Social Engineer At Work
by Patrick S. Ziegler - New York Coordinator
In discussing the Democrats’ budget proposal, Assemblyman Richard Brodsky of Westchester said, “There’s a lot social engineering going on. There should be. That’s what a budget is. This is the Assembly’s social vision. This is our stimulus. Budgets are social documents. They explain whether you value education or mass transit. They are not merely a question of numbers.”
To some extent, of course, the Assemblyman is correct. Budgets do reflect the legislature’s funding priorities. On this, I believe we can all agree. But Brodsky’s brutally honest commentary illustrates a dangerous trend among modern Democrats to use the levers of governmental power to wield immeasurable control over the lives of American citizens. In barely 100 days, the Obama administration has emboldened anti-Constitutional forces across the country who now threaten our religious freedom, our Second Amendment rights and the independence of our banking and financial system. Those who dare oppose the administration’s radical goals are labeled potential terrorists.
Never in our nation’s history have the very principles on which the United States was founded been in greater jeopardy. In the simple yet eloquent words of Thomas Paine, “These are the times that try men’s souls.” As our own Department of Homeland brands Constitutionalists, pro-life conservatives and even the returning heroes of our armed forces as threats to our national security, Team Huck must stand united in the face of increasing hostility and remain steadfast in our support of conservative values. Social engineering is not the prerogative of a President, a State Assemblyman or any elected body in this great nation. We cannot allow the tyrannical tendencies of one party’s leadership compromise the liberties for which Americans have fought and died for over two centuries. Join Team Huck and take an active role as a State or County Organizer or even a Fundraising specialist—for your state, for your country and for your Constitution.
Patrick S. Ziegler, New York Coordinator
April 01, 2009 - 07:10 PM
Not Just Another Spring Day . . .Yet!
by Patrick Ziegler, New York Coordinator
New York State Governor David Paterson, seemingly oblivious to the suffering of working families across this great State, today unveiled yet another disgraceful, pork-laden budget which will distress cash-strapped New Yorkers even further. The back-room deal worked out between Paterson, Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver actually increases State spending by 9% in the midst of an economic crisis which has hit New York especially hard. To add insult to injury, the proposed bill includes a single “member item” project in the amount of $85 million which lawmakers will undoubtedly divide among party favorites for pet projects in their respective districts.
The spending package—which is truly not even deserving of the term budget—also dishes out taxpayer dollars for more than 3,500 projects according to the New York Daily News, including $2,500 for the Doll and Toy Museum of New York City, $5,000 to the Urban Yoga Foundation and $2,500 to the Brooklyn Cricket League. No, I’m not kidding. Worse yet, the proposal simultaneously eliminates the STAR property tax rebate which offers New York homeowners tax relief to the tune of $1.5 billion a year. But take heart, my beleaguered fellow citizens, at least the savings will be used to fund vital community programs such as the Harlem Honeys and Bears senior citizen swim team, which is slated to receive $6,000 of your hard-earned money.
Fortunately, there are millions of hard-working Americans just as outraged by the unjustifiable, even unconstitutional spending of our federal and state governments as we are at HuckPAC. This April 15, hundreds of Tea (Taxed Enough Already) Parties will be held across the country and here in Albany, New York just a few hundred yards from our State Capital. The Albany Tea Party gives fiscal conservatives an opportunity to voice our dissatisfaction with the liberal economic policies that are forcing our young people, our retirees and, increasingly, working class New Yorkers out of state. Albany needs to hear us and to do more than “feel our pain.” Team Huck NY supports both the Tea Parties and drastic tax reform, preferably through the implementation of a Fair Tax system which would, as Governor Huckabee so eloquently describes, nail a “Going Out of Business” sign on the front door of the IRS!
Join Team Huck NY at www.huckpac.com and stand with us in Albany or at a Tea Party near you. More information can be found at www.teapartyday.com at www.albanyteaparty.com or by e-mailing Patrick Ziegler at patrickziegler@huckpacvolunteer.com.
Regardless of the outcome, the support of Governor Huckabee and the Executive Director of Huck PAC, Sarah Huckabee, the HuckPAC executive team and all of the volunteers across the country who made phone calls, placed donations and sent well-wishes is greatly appreciated by Huck PAC NY and the Tedisco campaign.
When the absentee ballots have been tallied and Jim Tedisco is named the next Congressman from the 20th Congressional District, Team Huck can take pride in the role we played in sending a proven social and fiscal conservative to Washington. Perhaps more importantly, the Assemblyman is an honest, reputable and hard-working public servant who will not forget his blue collar, upstate roots while serving our interests in the nation’s capital.
Thank you again Huck PAC for your thoughts, prayers and kind assistance in support of Jim Tedisco.
March 19, 2009 - 03:17 PM
Constitutional Principles - Under Attack
by Patrick Ziegler, New York Coordinator
My name is Patrick Ziegler and I am serving as the HuckPAC coordinator for New York’s Northern Tier which includes the scenic and historic Adirondack Mountain Range. As I live within an hour’s drive of the battlefields of Saratoga—the site of the American victory which propelled the colonies to independence—I thought it appropriate to borrow an anecdote from the noted Revolutionary historian Joseph J. Ellis to help explain my reasons for joining HuckPAC.
In his book, “Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation,” Ellis recounts a conversation between Benjamin Harrison of Virginia and Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts soon after the Declaration of Independence was completed. As the story goes, the portly Harrison teased his much thinner colleague that when the British stretched their necks for their roles in the affair, Gerry would take an hour or two to die as a result of his slight stature whereas Harrison’s weight would ensure that he would die in but a few minutes. This brief interchange between two of our lesser-known revolutionaries captures the incredible courage of this small group of men who gathered in Philadelphia that stiflingly hot summer to affix their names to a document which they all understood could cost them their lives.
In comparison to the risks taken by our forefathers—in the meeting halls and on the battlefields—our support of a beleaguered conservative movement may appear somewhat trivial in comparison. And yet, as a nation, we now face many of the same threats to our liberties as did Harrison and Gerry. We were reminded only last week of just how brazen, how emboldened our political opponents have become when a bill was introduced in the great state of Connecticut to strip Catholic bishops of control of their bishoprics and replace them with an appointed board of laymen, in clear violation of the First Amendment. In truth, while we may not risk the gallows pole for taking a leadership role in HuckPAC, we once again find ourselves in the cross-hairs of history. I volunteered for this position not as a token gesture of my commitment to the principles put forth by Governor Huckabee but to play even a small, supporting role in protecting the freedoms made possible by the bravery of Benjamin Harrison and Elbridge Gerry.
Patrick Ziegler
New York Coordinator
There are several reasons why I joined the team at HuckPAC. One, I simply love what I have seen of Mike and across the board embrace his views. The most important reason for joining up with HuckPAC is that I have seen the need for traditional values, as so many others in HuckPAC likely have. Before September 11, I did not think it was necessarily important for a public official to have values. That event and the months that followed showed me that this was the only way that America can be effective in truly being a Union of States.
My personal recognition of bringing values back to America is centered around my senior year of high school. Liberal teachers kept myself and friends from supporting conservative candidates in school during breaks or during our homecoming parade (threatening legal action), though it was plenty fine for liberals to be endorsed with no consequence. I was personally kept from representing my school at civic functions, kicked out of the National Honor Society unjustly (as its sitting President no less!) and was threatened by teachers of giving my valedictorian speech, which contained a quote by Mother Theresa with the word God in it because of my values. No one with my beliefs or otherwise should have to suffer as I have for my values. Because of my suffering and personal convictions, I am prepared to win this war of values, realizing that destruction of all values is at stake.
Sincerely
Eric Roth
HuckPAC Coordinator
Western New York
What a blessing to open our home to others in the area that share our passion for the need for godly men and women to lead our government!
We have a network of great friends that when we look back in a few years - we will marvel at how with just a few - we were able to gain such greatness for our nation and the world.
Thank you Governor Huckabee for prompting us to action!
Joanne Hohenstern
New York