Three soon-to-be-former congressmen talk about how bad things have gotten.

Published December 28, 2012 | By Iowadawg

Ran across this one earlier this morning and man, what a good read! I would urge you to read it all, every single word. Whether you agree with any or all of the three congressman or not, they do tell it all from their side.

Rep. Steven C. LaTourette (R-Ohio), Rep. Brad Miller (D-N.C.), and Rep. Hansen Clarke (D-Mich.)
Photo by Paul Morigi/Getty Images for Ovation; Photo by Andy Kropa/Getty Images; MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images

The next House of Representatives will contain 233 Republicans, 200 Democrats, and 80 freshmen. Redistricting, primaries, and retirements have culled a few centuries’ worth of political experience. So in November and December, I talked to a few representative soon-to-be-former congressmen about what it’s been like to serve in an institution 85 percent of Americans can’t stand. Excerpts of their thoughts follow.

Rep. Steven LaTourette was elected in the 1994 Republican wave, taking over a seat in the eastern suburbs of Cleveland. On paper, Democrats occasionally sketched theories of how he could be beat. But they never got close. LaTourette established himself as a pragmatic conservative and ally of John Boehner, there when the party needed him, and there to shame extremists when they blew up a compromise. Last week, after Boehner’s conference refused to pass a fiscal cliff “Plan B,” LaTourette told reporters that the “continued dumbing-down of the Republican Party” had done them in. He’d decided to retire months ago.

The campaign against earmarks really started with Jeff Flake. He’d pick out the ones that had the funniest names, and force votes on them, before we could vote on spending bills. At the outset, he’d lose 300 or more votes, and the exercise seemed pretty much impotent. It never really got legs until the “Bridge to Nowhere,” probably, in 2005. That became the symbol for earmarks. It became a symbol beyond a big amount of money going to a home state. It was something going to for-profit entities.
Anytime you’re explaining, you’re losing. You can explain Article 1 Section 7 of the Constitution. You can explain that this money will be appropriated whether or not members of Congress earmark it. But this new class that came in, in the last Congress, they’re looking around, they see the stimulus package, they see the administration handing out tiger grants or whatever it may be, 70 percent of them go into districts controlled by Democrats, and [these freshmen Republicans] stop earmarks. Eventually they want to rescue some scenic area in the district, and they’re told that earmarks were the way to do that. They say: Oh, I didn’t realize that.
We have too many “message” votes. I don’t need to have a vote on abortion every month, a vote on guns every month. I have a good relationship with labor. Labor wants one thing: Davis-Bacon. And these new guys, no matter what the bill was, wanted to put repeal of Davis-Bacon in it. It didn’t bother me, but it might have bothered some of the freshmen. Is anybody confused that someone from North Carolina or Georgia is right-to-work? No. Then why have the vote?
You’ve had people for a generation running against the Congress. It’s not just enough that you have an honest disagreement with the Democrats. You have these groups—Heritage Action, Club for Growth—shooting at Republicans. It’s a constant pounding, people saying, “You’re a RINO, you sold us out.” The Red State blog guys, I know that after I announced, they wrote: “Best news of the century, LaTourette to retire.” How could that be the best news of the century?

Continue reading all of this HERE.

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Links to sites you should check out soon:

Twitchy Interesting site that tracks what is going on in the twitterverse (twitter to you all).

Weasel Zippers (yesh, I know I put this link in almost daily, but worth it)

Patriot’s Corner (another one that is well worth your time to read every day)

Drudge Report (funny how there they make up their own headlines and then link to the real story)

LMAO (funny and to the bone true cartoons, etc. I borrow from here now and then)

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Asparagus may accelerate the body’s ability to metabolize alcohol and also protects liver cells.
Jason Webber

Excellent Idea of the Day: Asparagus Hangover Prevention Power

A little asparagus may help to ensure you don’t wake up on the first day of the new year with a pounding headache.

Spiciest soup on the menu burns hole through Chinese man’s stomach lining

Daily Mail UK

Doctors in China were left dumbfounded when they discovered a hole in a man’s stomach wall after he ate a notoriously spicy bowl of soup.

The 26-year-old unnamed male had consumed a mala soup, meaning ‘numbing hot’, a traditional Chinese dish.

After choosing the spiciest version of the dish from the menu, the man soon experienced a piercing pain in his stomach.

Deadly: After consuming a dish of mala soup, the 26-year-old male was admitted to hospital in Wuhan, China. Doctors concluded that the notoriously spicy soup had burned a hole through his stomach

The unlucky customer soon found himself vomiting blood before being rushed to a local hospital in Wuhan.

Despite having no medical history of ulcers or other gastrointestinal disorders, doctors concluded that the spicy soup had burned a hole through his stomach wall.

According to a report on Japanese site Rocket News 24, 15 per cent of incidents involving stomachs at the hospital are related to hot pot dishes.

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Gun Myths Busted: Automatic Weapons, Buying Guns Online, Background Checks, Assault Rifles and Other Fictions of the Liberal Media

by Mike Adams
Natural News

Recently by Mike Adams: If Obama Is Opposed To Guns, Why Did His Administration Just Purchase 1.6 Billion Rounds of Ammunition and Sniper Rounds?

People who don’t own guns are wildly ignorant about them, and they’re easily suckered into liberal media myths that willfully repeat total lies such as being able to “buy guns online” or the idea that you can easily buy “automatic weapons” or “assault rifles.” These are all complete lies.

Read the Whole Thing Here.

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Florida.

Imam Musri Deceives the Audience

Over the years we at The United West have attended scores of Interfaith dialogues. This video will review how Imam Musri like many before him say how the doctrine and theology of Islam teaches there is pluralism/equality between Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.

The majority of Interfaith dialogues follow this script. A Christian, Muslim, and Jew will each address an audience giving their religions teachings. The objective is to present the three faiths side by side and let the audience come to their own conclusions.

The representatives of each faith are not there to interact, argue, or defend their positions, in most cases.

Many believe that academic debate would be “unhelpful” in building bridges of trust, friendship, and unity between the 3 Abrahamic faith doctrines. The United West believes that talking, dialogue, and debate are important but not the end all for peace and mutual respect or pluralism.

In this video we expose Imam Musri, a Sunni Muslim, telling the audience lies abut Islam’s tolerance towards the “others” Christians and Jews as sourced from the Qur’an, Hadith, and Sira(life of Mohammed). I realize “lies” is a strong word but the videos prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Imam Musri’s words are deceptive. I challenge anyone to prove otherwise.

These lies are exposed where in March of 2012 the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia called for the destruction of all the Churches in the region. It is inconceivable a Sunni Imam of Mr. Musri’s importance was not aware what the most powerful Sunni Sheikh said – plus if you google it there are over 30 pages of links and stories. This was big news back in March of 2012

From there we used current “MIddle East” video footage of Christian houses of worship being attacked in Muslim Lands for the crime of being Christian. We learned in Egypt the government stopped the building of a new church – illustrating that Islam and State are one in the same.

From there we show video of Christians in America being arrested in 2010 and the escalation of violence in 2012 exposing how Shariah blasphemy laws are being practiced here in America to silence the voice of the “others”. Western Free Speech and Shariah Blasphemy Laws are not compatible.

Next we show Sunni Muslim Al-Qaeda and Free Syrian Army Muslims burning down a Shia Muslim Mosque. Muslim on Muslim violence and the destruction of “Muslim houses of worship” further contradicts Imam Musri’s words at this Interfaith Dialogue.

These examples contradict the message Imam Musri was articulating to the audience who would otherwise be pacified by Imam Musri’s message of equality between the faiths. Imam Musri is telling the non-Muslim audience exactly what they want to hear.

This video exposes the danger of Interfaith dialogue when religious doctrine goes unchallenged and the audience only gets half the truth.

Found HERE.

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Study Confirms That Democrats Destroyed the Economy

Examiner -

A new study from the widely respected National Bureau of Economic Research released this week has confirmed beyond question that the left’s race-baiting attacks on the housing market (the Community Reinvestment Act–enacted under Carter, made shockingly more aggressive under Clinton) is directly responsible for imploding the housing market and destroying the economy.

The study painstakingly sorted through failed home loans that caused the housing market collapse and identified an overwhelming connection between them and CRA mortgages.

Again, let’s review:

-President Bush went to Congress repeatedly for years warning them that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were going to destroy the economy (17 times in 2008 alone). Democrats continuously ignored him, shut down his proposals along party lines and continued raiding the institutions for campaign contributions on their way down.

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