The Old #1 in downtown Morris hosted the health care forum on Wednesday morning. A total of 28 members of the public are in attendance.
A very good discussion took place for about an hour following the presentation by Bart Finzel (UM-Morris) and Virginia Wolking (Center for Rural Affairs).
I'll have videos added to my Youtube page later today. You can find the videos by visiting the "Videos" page on the Herman-Hoffman Tribune website: hermanhoffmantribune.com
5:52pm...I'm beginning to add video clips from the Morris meeting on my Youtube page.
8:19pm...the Youtube website is "down" currently. I can upload videos, but they are not readable right now. Hopefully Google will get it going again soon!
8:55pm...the Youtube website is once again active, and you can view the clips from the health care forums.
Visit Herman-Hoffman Tribune and click on the "Videos" page to view them.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
West Central Minnesota Health Care Purchasing Alliance hosts forum in Alexandria
About 15 people turned out for the health care forum in Alexandria on Tuesday morning. I recorded numerous video clips that you will be able to view starting later today.
Here's a couple introduction clips that I took at the beginning of the forum.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Don't forget - Health care forum in Alexandria is scheduled for Tuesday morning (tomorrow) from 8am to 10am
• March 30 in Alexandria at the Alexandria Holiday Inn, 5637 Highway 29 South, from 8 until 10 a.m. The Alexandria Chamber of Commerce is one of the co-sponsors of the event.
To read more on the event, go to: http://m.morrissuntribune.com/article.cfm?id=21247&tag=Morris
For those on the Herman-Norcross end, a similar forum is scheduled for Wednesday morning in Morris: • March 31 in Morris at the Old No. 1 Southside, 412 Atlantic Avenue, from 9 until 11 a.m.
Fans of the Herman-Hoffman Tribune on Facebook will all receive invitations and information about this event.
RSVP by April 1st for First State Bank Kensington's Spring Women's Event
Click to enlarge for more details.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
U.S. Congresswoman's life is threatened (via a letter) over her support for health care reform
U.S. Representative Kathy Dahlkemper says she has received "threatening communication" she believes is tied to her vote in support of health care reform.
Click here to read the full story: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/dahlkemper-turns-over-to-authorities-threatening-letter-charging-she-will-never-sleep-through-night.php
Here's an excerpt from another story, talking about why Republicans are so visibly angry =
The current surge of anger — and the accompanying rise in right-wing extremism — predates the entire health care debate. The first signs were the shrieks of “traitor” and “off with his head” at Palin rallies as Obama’s election became more likely in October 2008. Those passions have spiraled ever since — from Gov. Rick Perry’s kowtowing to secessionists at a Tea Party rally in Texas to the gratuitous brandishing of assault weapons at Obama health care rallies last summer to “You lie!” piercing the president’s address to Congress last fall like an ominous shot.
Did you know...?
Demographics are avatars of a change bigger than any bill contemplated by Obama or Congress. The week before the health care vote, The Times reported that births to Asian, black and Hispanic women accounted for 48 percent of all births in America in the 12 months ending in July 2008. By 2012, the next presidential election year, non-Hispanic white births will be in the minority. The Tea Party movement is virtually all white. The Republicans haven’t had a single African-American in the Senate or the House since 2003 and have had only three in total since 1935. Their anxieties about a rapidly changing America are well-grounded.
After the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, some responsible leaders in both parties spoke out to try to put a lid on the resistance and violence. The arch-segregationist Russell of Georgia, concerned about what might happen in his own backyard, declared flatly that the law is “now on the books.” Yet no Republican or conservative leader of stature has taken on Palin, Perry, Boehner or any of the others who have been stoking these fires for a good 17 months now. Last week McCain even endorsed Palin’s “reload” rhetoric.
Are these politicians so frightened of offending anyone in the Tea Party-Glenn Beck base that they would rather fall silent than call out its extremist elements and their enablers? Seemingly so, and if G.O.P. leaders of all stripes, from Romney to Mitch McConnell to Olympia Snowe to Lindsey Graham, are afraid of these forces, that’s the strongest possible indicator that the rest of us have reason to fear them too.
Click here to read the full story: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/dahlkemper-turns-over-to-authorities-threatening-letter-charging-she-will-never-sleep-through-night.php
Here's an excerpt from another story, talking about why Republicans are so visibly angry =
The current surge of anger — and the accompanying rise in right-wing extremism — predates the entire health care debate. The first signs were the shrieks of “traitor” and “off with his head” at Palin rallies as Obama’s election became more likely in October 2008. Those passions have spiraled ever since — from Gov. Rick Perry’s kowtowing to secessionists at a Tea Party rally in Texas to the gratuitous brandishing of assault weapons at Obama health care rallies last summer to “You lie!” piercing the president’s address to Congress last fall like an ominous shot.
Did you know...?
Demographics are avatars of a change bigger than any bill contemplated by Obama or Congress. The week before the health care vote, The Times reported that births to Asian, black and Hispanic women accounted for 48 percent of all births in America in the 12 months ending in July 2008. By 2012, the next presidential election year, non-Hispanic white births will be in the minority. The Tea Party movement is virtually all white. The Republicans haven’t had a single African-American in the Senate or the House since 2003 and have had only three in total since 1935. Their anxieties about a rapidly changing America are well-grounded.
After the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, some responsible leaders in both parties spoke out to try to put a lid on the resistance and violence. The arch-segregationist Russell of Georgia, concerned about what might happen in his own backyard, declared flatly that the law is “now on the books.” Yet no Republican or conservative leader of stature has taken on Palin, Perry, Boehner or any of the others who have been stoking these fires for a good 17 months now. Last week McCain even endorsed Palin’s “reload” rhetoric.
Are these politicians so frightened of offending anyone in the Tea Party-Glenn Beck base that they would rather fall silent than call out its extremist elements and their enablers? Seemingly so, and if G.O.P. leaders of all stripes, from Romney to Mitch McConnell to Olympia Snowe to Lindsey Graham, are afraid of these forces, that’s the strongest possible indicator that the rest of us have reason to fear them too.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Pushing back against over-reaching Feds - column by Representative Torrey Westrom
The federal government yet again violated states' rights, this time by passing a mandatory health insurance bill. I joined a group of 68 Minnesota legislators challenging the constitutionality of this new law via the 10th Amendment.
We started this effort last Monday by co-authoring an amendment on the House floor which would have required Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson to file a federal lawsuit on behalf of her clients – the citizens of Minnesota. We requested she challenge the federal government’s constitutional authority to force individuals to buy health insurance and impose fines, imprisonment or both on non-participants. The majority party blocked that amendment – and avoided having to vote on the issue – by resorting to a very flimsy parliamentary procedure ruling.
So 68 of us have done the next-best thing by signing a letter sent to Swanson, requesting she protect and defend our state and its residents against unconstitutional encroachment by the federal government. Legislators and Swanson have taken the same solemn oath of office to support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Minnesota.
What we ask Swanson to do is assert states’ rights granted by the 10th Amendment to the Constitution, which indicates powers not granted to the national government nor prohibited to the states by the Constitution of the United States are reserved to the states or the people.
Simply, the federal government has the power to regulate only matters delegated to it by the Constitution. All the other powers are left to the states or its people. The federal government does not have the power to force participation in health care plans on its citizens; therefore, the states or the people have the right to make those decisions.
Federal government “creep” continues with things like cap-and-trade legislation and proposals to regulate backyard gardening; Google HR875 or HR759 and you'll see several links referring to proposed garden regulations.
Now this new federal health care legislation makes non-participation a crime worthy of fines and, theoretically, jail time. Not to mention it has the potential to add $881 million to Minnesota’s next budget deficit. We should not be forced to comply with something that is pushing our country closer to the bankruptcy cliff or a new face of socialism.
A total of 13 states have already declared the intent to sue, with as many as 24 other states considering action against this unconstitutional encroachment by the federal government. Numerous Minnesotans and Americans are fed up with this and it’s time we join those fellow statehood members by calling out the feds for overstepping their bounds.
We cannot tolerate these repeated occasions of government forcing its weight onto the people of Minnesota.
All an overreaching federal government needs is for good people to do nothing. This movement to the feds running roughshod over the states will continue gaining momentum until we do something about it. At some point – like right now – we have to stand up against big-government intrusion.
We started this effort last Monday by co-authoring an amendment on the House floor which would have required Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson to file a federal lawsuit on behalf of her clients – the citizens of Minnesota. We requested she challenge the federal government’s constitutional authority to force individuals to buy health insurance and impose fines, imprisonment or both on non-participants. The majority party blocked that amendment – and avoided having to vote on the issue – by resorting to a very flimsy parliamentary procedure ruling.
So 68 of us have done the next-best thing by signing a letter sent to Swanson, requesting she protect and defend our state and its residents against unconstitutional encroachment by the federal government. Legislators and Swanson have taken the same solemn oath of office to support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Minnesota.
What we ask Swanson to do is assert states’ rights granted by the 10th Amendment to the Constitution, which indicates powers not granted to the national government nor prohibited to the states by the Constitution of the United States are reserved to the states or the people.
Simply, the federal government has the power to regulate only matters delegated to it by the Constitution. All the other powers are left to the states or its people. The federal government does not have the power to force participation in health care plans on its citizens; therefore, the states or the people have the right to make those decisions.
Federal government “creep” continues with things like cap-and-trade legislation and proposals to regulate backyard gardening; Google HR875 or HR759 and you'll see several links referring to proposed garden regulations.
Now this new federal health care legislation makes non-participation a crime worthy of fines and, theoretically, jail time. Not to mention it has the potential to add $881 million to Minnesota’s next budget deficit. We should not be forced to comply with something that is pushing our country closer to the bankruptcy cliff or a new face of socialism.
A total of 13 states have already declared the intent to sue, with as many as 24 other states considering action against this unconstitutional encroachment by the federal government. Numerous Minnesotans and Americans are fed up with this and it’s time we join those fellow statehood members by calling out the feds for overstepping their bounds.
We cannot tolerate these repeated occasions of government forcing its weight onto the people of Minnesota.
All an overreaching federal government needs is for good people to do nothing. This movement to the feds running roughshod over the states will continue gaining momentum until we do something about it. At some point – like right now – we have to stand up against big-government intrusion.
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