Zak: It was Harry Reid who Proposed the Committee of Twelve

Michael Zak - [Excerpt]: The Democrats have thought several steps ahead of the Republicans with their Committee of Twelve. They'll use this Super Committee to create a huge crisis -- for President Obama to resolve. They hope to blame the GOP for an impasse of their own making. Read the full article at Grand Old Partisan... Read More......

History: Voter Fraud and Intimidation

GRAND OLD PARTISAN, 5/8/2011 by Michael Zak - "He said he was going to vote Republican, and they shot and killed him on the spot." Read More......

Reason to be very proud of the Republican Party

More on Emancipation Day...
MICHAEL ZAK, 4/16/2011 - DC Emancipation Day, thanks to the Republican Party "Today [April 16], the nation's capital celebrates "Emancipation Day" -- commemorating the Republican Party's abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, on April 16, 1862. ∴ That's right, the Republican Party freed the slaves in Washington, DC. It was the GOP that passed the DC Emancipation Act, despite fierce opposition from the Democrats. Of course, the Democrat mayor of DC and the Democrat president of the USA don't mention that fact.

One of the nation's leading abolitionists was Senator Henry Wilson (R-MA), who would later serve as vice president during President Grant's second term. In December 1861, Senator Wilson introduced a bill to abolish slavery in the District. The measure met with parliamentary obstacles from the pro-slavery Democratic Party.

The senator most responsible for outmaneuvering Democrat opposition was Ben Wade (R-OH). If in 1868, the racist Democrat president, Andrew Johnson, had been convicted during his impeachment trial, Senator Wade would have become president.

Overall, 99% of Republicans in Congress voted to free the slaves in the District of Columbia, while 83% of Democrats voted to keep those 3,100 African-Americans in chains.

While serving his one term in the U.S. House of Representatives, Abraham Lincoln had sponsored a bill to abolish slavery in DC. As president, he proudly signed the District of Columbia Emancipation Act, announcing "I have never doubted the constitutional authority of congress to abolish slavery in this District; and I have ever desired to see the national capital freed from the institution." Finally, it happened, thanks to Republican majorities in Congress.

Due to the fact that DC Emancipation Day is observed on April 15 this year, the federal tax filing deadline has been postponed to April 18. So, for these three extra days, we can also thank the GOP.

Here is a link to this article at Grand Old Partisan.

Michael Zak is a popular speaker to Republican organizations around the country. He is the author of Back to Basics for the Republican Party, the acclaimed history of the GOP cited by Clarence Thomas in a Supreme Court decision.

See www.grandoldpartisan.com for more information.

Michael Zak's Email: grand_old_partisan@hotmail.com Read More......

GOP: Yes, Jackie Robinson was a Republican

GRAND OLD PARTISAN, 1/31/2011 by Michael Zak - "Grand Old Partisan salutes a great Republican, Jackie Robinson, born this day in 1919. He is shown here with the man who hired him, Brooklyn Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey. ∴ Branch Rickey was also a Republican. The Missouri Republican Party later offered to nominate him for Governor and Senator, but he preferred baseball to politics. One of the reasons that Branch Rickey selected Jackie Robinson to break the color barrier in major league baseball was their compatible political beliefs. It is beyond dispute that Robinson was a Republican.

Jackie Robinson campaigned for Richard Nixon against John Kennedy in 1960. After Nixon was defeated for governor of California in 1962, Robinson wrote to console the future Republican president:

“The only regret I have in supporting you twice is that I was unfortunate not to have been able to help more than I did. I am sorry also that most Negroes were unwilling to believe the promises you made. I personally was, and still am, convinced that you were the best candidate for the presidency in 1960 and a man we need very much in Government Service.”

“Do not let your critics cause you to give up your career. Each of us came into this world for a purpose. I believe that yours is service to our country.”

In 1964, Jackie Robinson accepted a position in the administration of the Republican governor of New York, Nelson Rockefeller. That year, he campaigned for Rockefeller in the Republican presidential primaries. Like many Republicans, Robinson expressed dissatisfaction with the Goldwater nomination. Nonetheless, in 1966, he campaigned for Governor Rockefeller’s re-election and continued to work as his special assistant for civil rights for another two years."

The Republican Party welcomes a comparison of its history since 1854 with that of the Democrats -– the party of slavery, Jim Crow, and the Ku Klux Klan.

The Republican National Committee published a version of my article on the RNC website. Journolistas pounced, but Republicans shall know the truth and the truth shall set them free. Read More......

A Republican President issued the Emancipation Proclamation

"On this day in 1862, President Abraham Lincoln (R-IL) issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Effective at yearend, all slaves in Confederate-controlled territory would be "forever free." ∴ Ill-informed critics of the first Republican President Lincoln fault the Emancipation Proclamation for only freeing slaves in areas not yet under the control of the U.S. government, but -- because of the Democratic Party's resolute defense of slavery -- the federal government had the necessary authority only over so-called "property" of the rebels. ∴ Within two years, the Republican-controlled 38th Congress followed up this great advance by enacting the 13th Amendment, banning slavery throughout the nation."

Michael Zak is a popular speaker to Republican organizations around the country. Back to Basics for the Republican Party is his acclaimed history of the GOP, He is also the author of the 2005 Republican Freedom Calendar. His Grand Old Partisan website celebrates more than fifteen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Visit www.grandoldpartisan.com for more information. Read More......

Zak: Ronald Reagan sums it up very nicely

GRAND OLD PARTISAN by Michael Zak - Addressing the Republican National Convention on this day [August 15th] in 1988, Ronaldus Magnus said: ∴ "Our party speaks for human freedom - for the sweep of liberties that are at the core of our existence. We do not shirk from our duties to preserve freedom so it can unfold across the world for yearning millions. ∴ We believe that lasting peace comes only through strength and not through the goodwill of our adversaries. ∴ We have a healthy skepticism of government - checking its excesses at the same time we're willing to harness its energy when it helps improve the lives of our citizens. ∴ We have pretty strong notions that higher tax receipts are no inherent right of the Federal Government. ∴ We respect the values that bind us together as families and as a nation. ∴ I believe that God put this land between the two great oceans to be found by special people from every corner of the world who had that extra love of freedom that prompted them to leave their homeland and come to this land to make it a brilliant light beam of freedom to the world."

Michael Zak is a popular speaker to Republican organizations around the country. Back to Basics for the Republican Party is his acclaimed history of the GOP, cited by Clarence Thomas in a Supreme Court decision. He is also the author of the 2005 Republican Freedom Calendar. His Grand Old Partisan website celebrates more than fifteen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Read More......

Republicans repealed the Fugitive Slave Act

GRAND OLD PARTISAN, 6/28/2010 by Michael Zak - On this day in 1864, the Republican-controlled 38th Congress repealed the notorious Fugitive Slave Act. The law had enabled slave catchers to operate freely in northern states and to kidnap any African-American residing there. Merely by attesting that the person was an escaped slave, a slave catcher could chain him and drag him away to a southern slave market. Moreover, the law required all free people as well as all local and state and federal government officials to assist slave catchers. ∴ A pair of Democrats, Senator James Mason (D-VA) and Senator Andrew Butler (D-SC), had written the Fugitive Slave Act. ∴ The bill repealing the Fugitive Slave Act was written by a Republican congressman from Ohio, Rufus Spalding [pictured]. A Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, signed it into law.

If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. --Abraham Lincoln, 1864 Read More......

Zak: The Republican Roots of the 1964 Civil Rights Act

Via email from Michael Zak, 6/1/2010 - Rand Paul's controversial remarks about the 1964 Civil Rights Act illustrate what I have been saying for years, that Republicans would benefit tremendously from knowing and appreciating the heritage of our Grand Old Party. That landmark legislation was the culmination of a century of efforts by Republicans to protect African-Americans from their Democrat oppressors. Let's look at the facts.

On his deathbed in 1874, Senator Charles Sumner (R- MA) told a Republican colleague: "You must take care of the civil rights bill - my bill, the civil rights bill. Don't let it fail." In March 1875, the Republican-controlled 43rd Congress followed up the GOP's 1866 Civil Rights Act and 1871 Civil Rights Act with the most comprehensive civil rights legislation ever. A Republican president, Ulysses Grant, signed the bill into law that same day.

Among its provisions, the 1875 Civil Rights Act banned racial discrimination in public accommodations. Sound familiar? Though struck down by the Supreme Court eight years later, the 1875 Civil Rights Act would be reborn as the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

During the twenty years of the FDR and Truman administrations, the Democrats had refused to enact any civil rights legislation. In contrast, President Dwight Eisenhower signed the 1957 Civil Rights Act, which had been written by his Attorney General, a former Chairman of the Republican National Committee. The original draft would have permitted the federal government to sue anyone violating another person's constitutional rights, but this powerful provision would have to wait until the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The bill had to be weakened considerably to secure enough Democrat votes to pass, so violations would be civil, not criminal offenses, and penalties were light. Vice President Richard Nixon helped overcome a Democrat filibuster in the Senate. The GOP then strengthened enforcement with its 1960 Civil Rights Act.

Clever strategizing had won him the support of most African-American voters, but it took President John Kennedy (D-MA) nearly two years to make good on even one of his promises to them. He refused to attend a dinner commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation and turned down Martin Luther King's invitation to speak at the March on Washington. He did name Thurgood Marshall to the federal bench, but that was to an appeals court in New York, far from the fray in southern states. Kennedy did not honor his campaign promise to submit to Congress a new civil rights bill soon after taking office.

While the Kennedy administration was ignoring its campaign pledges, the Republican minority in Congress introduced several bills to protect the constitutional rights of African-Americans. In January 1963, congressional Republicans introduced a sweeping civil rights bill to enact what Democrat opposition had prevented from being included in the 1957 and 1960 laws. Threatened by this initiative, the president finally acted. Hastily drafted in a single one- nighter, the Kennedy bill fell well short of what the GOP had introduced the month before. Many Democrats were preparing a protracted Senate filibuster of this civil rights bill, which was in a committee of the House of Representatives when John Kennedy was murdered in November 1963.

The 1964 Civil Rights Act was an update of Charles Sumner's 1875 Civil Rights Act. In striking down that law in 1883, the Supreme Court had ruled that the 14th Amendment was insufficient constitutional authorization, so the 1964 Civil Rights Act had to be written in such a way as to rely on the interstate commerce clause for its constitutional underpinning. The 1964 Act guaranteed equal access to public facilities and banned racial discrimination by any entity receiving federal funding, thereby extending coverage to most every hospital, school and government contractor. Also banned was racial discrimination in unions and in companies with more than twenty-five employees. Enforcement provisions were much more rigorous than those of the 1957 and 1960 Acts.

Republicans supported the 1964 Civil Rights Act much more than did the Democrats. Contrary to Democrat myth, Everett Dirksen (R-IL), the Senate Minority Leader - not President Lyndon Johnson - was the person most responsible for its passage. Mindful of how Democrat opposition had forced Republicans to weaken their 1957 and 1960 Civil Rights Acts, President Johnson promised Republicans that he would publicly credit the GOP for its strong support. Johnson played no role in the legislative fight. In the House of Representatives, the 1964 Civil Rights Act passed with 80% support from Republicans but only 63% support from Democrats.

In the Senate, Dirksen had no trouble rounding up the votes of most Republicans, and former presidential candidate Richard Nixon lobbied hard for passage. On the Democrat side, the Senate leadership did support the bill, while the chief opponents were Senators Sam Ervin (D-NC), Al Gore (D-TN) and Robert Byrd (R-WV). Senator Byrd, whom Democrats still call "the conscience of the Senate," filibustered against the 1964 Civil Rights Act for fourteen straight hours. At a meeting held in his office, Dirksen modified the bill so it could be passed despite Democrat opposition. He strongly condemned the Democrat-led 57-day filibuster: "The time has come for equality of opportunity in sharing of government, in education, and in employment. It must not be stayed or denied. It is here!"

Along with most other political leaders at the time, Johnson, credited Dirksen for getting the bill passed: "The Attorney General said that you were very helpful and did an excellent job. I'll see that you get proper attention and credit." At the time, for instance, The Chicago Defender, a renowned African-American newspaper, praised Senator Dirksen for leading passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

The struggle for civil rights was not finished, however, as most southern states remained under the control of segregationist Democrat governors, such as George Wallace (D-AL), Orval Faubus (D-AR) and Lester Maddox (D-GA). Full enforcement of the 1964 Civil Rights Act would not arrive until the Republican political ascendancy in the South during the 1980s.

To quote from Back to Basics for the Republican Party, "The more we Republicans know about the history of our party, the more the Democrats will worry about the future of theirs." See Grand Old Partisan for more information.

You can help me to help the GOP, by sending this link for the article to your contacts nationwide. It is on my Grand Old Partisan website.

The purpose of Back to Basics for the Republican Party and my speeches around the nation is to show Republicans how they would benefit tremendously from appreciating the heritage of the GOP. Read More......

Newsletter: Your Dearest Interests of Freedom are in Peril

March 28, 2010 Newsletter
“But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that if the British Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, “This was their finest hour.” --Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of Great Britain, as the British Commonwealth was drawn into World War II.

You can make a difference for the future of freedom in America. - Recognize voter dissatisfaction with the Obama Administration and... act on it!
Before the 2008 election, Acorn went through Oregon to recruit Democrat voters. After the D’s trashed President Bush for eight years, people were sick of negativity and wanted a different approach.

Disaffected Republicans (lured by years of the media trumpeting every accusation and negative thing they could imagine about President Bush and Republicans in general), unaligned voters were easy marks for Acorn to cause them to change their voter registration.

In Benton County in June of 2008, Dem voters outnumbered Republicans by nearly 3,000. ACORN tried to meet every voter. They scoured the county three different times. The result? Republicans lost 2,000 registered voters. Democrats gained 4,000 voters. Today, the Democrats outnumber the Republicans by 8,500 voters!!!

What to do? We must recognize the general voter dissatisfaction with the current administration.

NOW IS THE TIME TO INVITE VOTERS TO JOIN THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, WHOSE BASIC PRINCIPLES ARE FREEDOM TO DETERMINE OUR OWN DESTINY and FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY. The Democrat Party is pulling us into Socialism and slavery. WE MUST ALL ACTIVELY RESIST!


VOLUNTEERS ARE NEEDED TO TELEPHONE AND TO TAKE BALLOTS TO VOTERS WHO WANT TO CHANGE

WE NEED YOU to do the telephone contacting. WE NEED YOU to be standing by, ready to deliver ballots to voters who want to re-register.

• Beginning on April 1, those who may be open to changing Party registration will be telephoned on M-F from 5 to 8 p.m., on Saturday from 3-6 p.m. and on Sunday from 2-5 p.m.
  
• When callers find a person who wants to change their party registration, drivers will be contacted, and they will take a voter registration form to the person you just contacted, wait for the voter to fill out the form, and bring it Republican HQ to be turned into the county Elections Office.
  
• Telephoning must be completed by April 23, because in order to vote in the Republican Primary election you must be registered by April 24.
  
• You choose when you can call. You may call from Benton County Republican Headquarters or from home.
  
• You determine the hours that you are available to deliver ballots and return them to us.
  
• You determine how much calling you can do, but know that WE NEED YOU. As long as voters are registered Democrat, they will receive a continuing barrage of Democrat propaganda.

Let’s work together and invite those folks who are beginning to see the Obama administration’s fallacies to register REPUBLICAN. INVITING PEOPLE TO REREGISTER AS REPUBLICANS CAN MAKE A HUGE DIFFERENCE IN THE RESULTS OF THE 2010 AND 2012 ELECTION.

To volunteer to be a caller, or if you have questions about this effort, please e-mail us with your name and contact information. In advance, we thank you for working with us to save our nation.

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BENTON COUNTY REPUBLICAN CALENDAR

THURSDAY, APRIL 1: Benton County Republican Central Committee Meeting, 7:00 p.m., King Tin Restaurant meeting room, 1857 NW 9th Street. Come hear our featured speakers with their message and their vision for Oregon and our country. Portland’s own Victoria Taft, conservative talk radio host on KPAM 860am and Scott Bruun, candidate for US House of Representatives, District 5. You’re invited to join us for a no-host dinner and meet and greet social hour at 6 p.m.

THURSDAY, APRIL 15: Join the National Tea Party Rally from 4 to 6 p.m. in Corvallis.
All across the nation, patriots will be speaking out with signs expressing their concerns about what is happening to our nation. Meet in the Hollywood Video parking lot (don’t park in front of the store… save space for their customers), then spread out to surround the block on Harrison, VanBuren, 3rd and 4th Streets. This will be a gigantic rally, and you’ve got a lot to say! Make signs on the issues that concern you. We need YOU to help save this nation!!

THURSDAY, APRIL 15: Benton County Republican Executive Committee meets at 7 p.m. at Republican Headquarters, 1760 S.W. Third Street in the Millrace Center.

FRIDAY, APRIL 16: Hear Karl Rove, former Deputy Chief of Staff and Advisor to Pres. George W. Bush. Mr. Rove will speak at the Ronald Reagan Tribute Gala, Friday, April 16, 2010, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., Riverhouse Convention Center, 3075 N. Business 97, Bend, OR 97701. Tickets for dinner, silent auction and book signing are $50 each. Mr. Rove is author of “Courage and Consequence—My Life as a Conservative in the Fight”
Tickets may be ordered by going to the Oregon Reagan PAC website.

MONDAY, APRIL 26: Benton County Republican Women meet at 277 NE Conifer Blvd. in the Club House at 11:30 a.m.

TUESDAY, APRIL 27: Americans For Prosperity (AFP) meets at Belle Vallee Wine Cellars, 804 NW Buchanan St. (upstairs), 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Directions: Turn east of the old Jiffy Lube building, follow the Belle Vallee signs around to the back.

SATURDAY, MAY 1: Primary election ballots arrive in your mailbox. They must be returned to the Benton County Elections office by 8 p.m. on Tuesday, May 18.

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IS THERE A WAY OUT OF GOVERNMENT-RUN HEALTH CARE?

Oregon’s Attorney General John Kroger announced this week that Oregon will not be among the states who will sue the federal government to reject Obamacare. However, attorney generals for 37 other states are looking at joining the lawsuit.

Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats in Congress have begun a campaign to tell you how wonderful Obamacare is.

INVESTORS.COM TELLS HOW OBAMACARE WILL TAKE AWAY OUR FREEDOMS
From an article by David Hogberg posted 3/23/2010

1. You don’t want health insurance…you’re young, you need to minimize expenses because you’re starting a business. TOUGH. You must pay $750 annually anyway. (Sec 1501)
   
   
2. You are healthy and want to pay for insurance that reflects that status. TOUGH. You must pay for coverage not only for yourself but for the guy who smokes three packs and drinks a gallon whiskey a day.(Sec 2701)
   
   
3. You’d like to pay less in premiums by buying insurance with limits on coverage. TOUGH. Insurers will no longer be able to offer such policies. (Sec 2711)
   
   
4. You want a policy that’s cheaper because it doesn’t cover preventive care. TOUGH. Even if customers wants that kind of policy, insurers can’t offer it. (Sec 2712)
   
   
5. You’re an employer and want to offer coverage that doesn’t allow your employees’ slacker children to stay on the policy until age 26. TOUGH. Not allowed. (Sec 2714)
   
   
6. You MUST buy a policy that covers ambulatory patient services, emergency services, hospitalization, maternity and newborn care, mental health and substance use disorder services, including behavioral health treatment; prescription drugs; rehabilitative and habilitative services and devices; laboratory services; preventive and wellness services; chronic disease management; and pediatric services, including oral and vision care. Hey, you’re a single guy without children. TOUGH! Your policy must cover pediatric care. You’re a woman who can’t have children! TOUGH. Your policy must cover maternity services. You’re a teetotaler. TOUGH! Your policy must cover substance abuse treatment. (Sec 1302)
   
   
7. You want a plan with lots of cost-sharing and low premiums. The best you can do is a “Bronze plan,” which provides benefits that are actuarially equivalent to 60% of the value of the benefits of the plan. Lower than that, TOUGH. Sec 1302(d)(1)(A)
   8. You’re a small business and want to offer policies with deductibles higher than $2,000 for individuals and $4,000 for families. TOUGH. (Sec 1302(C)(2)(A))
   
   
8. If you are a large employer (at least 50 employees) and you do not want to provide health insurance to your employees, TOUGH. You will pay at least a $750 fine per employee. (Sec 1513)
   
   
9. You are an employer who offers health flexible spending arrangements and your employees want to deduct more than $2,500 from their salaries for it. TOUGH. No can do. (Sec 9005 (i))
   
   
10. You’re a physician and you don’t want the government telling you what to do. TOUGH. The Secretary of Health and Human Services is authorized to use your claims data to issue you reports that measure the resources you use, provide information on the quality of care you provide, and compare the resources you use to those used by other physicians. Of course, this will all be just for informational purposes. It’s not like the government will ever use it to intervene in your practice and patients’ care. Of course not. (Section 3003(i))
    
    
11. If you’re a physician and want to own your own hospital, you must be an owner and have a “Medicare provider agreement by December 31, 2010. If you don’t have these by then, you are out of luck. Sec 6001(i)(1)(A)
    
    
12. If you are a physician owner and want to expand your hospital, TOUGH. Well, unless it is located in a country where, over the last five years, population growth has been 150% of what it has been in the U.S. (Sec 6001(i) (3) (C))
    
    
13. You are a health insurer and you want to raise premiums to meet costs. If that increase is deemed “unreasonable” by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, TOUGH. (Sec 1003)
    
    
14. The government will extract a fee of $2.55 billion from pharmaceutical companies in 2010 (this fee increases to $3 billion in 2012, $3.5 billion in 2017, $4.2 billion in 2018, then settles at $2.8 billion in 2019), based on the percentage of brand-name drugs they sell in the U.S. If you have 10% of the market, you’ll pay $255,000,000 to the government in 2010. Think you, as a pharmaceutical executive, know better how to use that money, say for research and development? TOUGH. (Sec 9008 (b))
    
    
15. The government will extract a 2.9% excise tax from medical device makers. A company’s share depends on its share of medical device sales in the U.S. You’d rather use that money for R&D? TOUGH. (Sec 1405)
    
    
16. The government will extract a fee of $6.7 billion annually from insurance companies. A company’s share is based on net premiums + additional charges. Don’t like it? TOUGH.
    
    
17. If you go for cosmetic surgery, you will pay an additional 5% tax on the cost of the procedure. Think you know how to spend that money better than the government? LIKE YOU NEED TO ASK. (Sec 9017)

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THIS ARTICLE BY MICHAEL ZAK APPEARED AT ANDREW BREITBART'S BIG GOVERNMENT

Has the Democratic Party ever enacted a law as atrocious as its government takeover of the American people's healthcare? Has the Democratic Party ever enacted a law so unpopular? Yes and Yes.

In 1854, Democrats controlled both houses of Congress and the presidency. Their top priority was to repeal the Missouri Compromise prohibition of slavery in the northern territories. The author of this infamous legislation, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, was Stephen Douglas, a Democrat Senator from Illinois and owner of a slave plantation in Mississippi.

Senator Douglas claimed the law would be a final solution to the slavery question, so that Congress could move on to other issues. In fact, the Kansas-Nebraska Act sparked a political firestorm. Opponents of slavery - and the police state and economic stagnation that went with it - understood that, if unchecked, the slave system would expand throughout the territories and then the entire nation.

As the Democrat-controlled Supreme Court would soon prove with its 7-2 Dred Scott decision (both Republicans dissenting), pro-freedom Americans feared that the judiciary would uphold the expansion of slavery. Many Democrats were already touting slavery (not for themselves, of course) for poor whites, too. "Free Society!" declared a prominent Democrat newspaper, "We sicken at the name!"

Every American was forced to choose sides. One was either for the free market system or against it; there was no middle ground.

As Alexis De Tocqueville observed: "Socialism is a new form of slavery." Today's congressional Democrats who voted to impose socialized medicine on the nation while exempting themselves should bear in mind Abraham Lincoln's words: "Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally."

Denouncing the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Lincoln warned against submitting to political masters: "If there is anything which it is the duty of the whole people to never entrust to any hands but their own, that thing is the preservation and perpetuity, of their own liberties, and institutions."

Not all Democrats went along with the Kansas-Nebraska Act. In protest, Charles Sumner, Salmon P. Chase and others - who would soon join the Republican Party - issued an Appeal of the Independent Democrats in Congress to the People of the United States:

"We arraign [the Kansas-Nebraska Act] as a gross violation of a sacred pledge; as a criminal betrayal of precious rights; as part and parcel of an atrocious plot to exclude from a vast unoccupied region immigrants from the Old World and free laborers from our own States, and convert it into a dreary region of despotism, inhabited by masters and slaves.

We appeal to the people. We warn you that the dearest interests of freedom and the Union are in imminent peril.

For ourselves, we shall resist it by speech and vote, and with all the abilities which God has given us. Even if overcome in the impending struggle, we shall not submit. We shall go home to our constituents, erect anew the standard of freedom, and call on the people to come to the rescue of the country from the domination of slavery. We will not despair; for the cause of human freedom is the cause of God."

Hey, America! They're talking to you.

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This newsletter was sent by e-mail to subscribers by Benton County Republicans, P.O. Box 808, Corvallis OR 97339. Our office is located in the Millrace Center at 1760 S.W. Third Street, Corvallis. Our telephone number is 754 9155. Please visit our website at http://bentongop.blogspot.com.

If you would like to subscribe to our e-mails, please make your subscription request HERE. Thank you. --J. Nelson Read More......

Zak: The Republican Party began as a Tea Party Movement

GRAND OLD PARTISAN BLOG, February 2010 by Michael Zak - Republicans should welcome a comparison of their party’s history with that of the Democrats – the party of slavery and socialism, Big Government and the Ku Klux Klan. ∴ As Republicans try to repel the socialist onslaught, the way to win – and to deserve to win – is to embrace our party’s original reform agenda. The patriots who created our Grand Old Party did so in order to preserve the vision of the Founding Fathers. And the way they did it has valuable lessons for us today. ∴ Let’s first look at the party currently in power. Democrat ties to the legacy of Thomas Jefferson are negligible. In fact, the Democratic Party was established in 1832 at a national convention organized by Cabinet secretaries and other prominent supporters of the Andrew Jackson administration. From the start, the Democratic Party was a top-down organization. Submission to the grand leader and astroturfing – that is, fake grassroots activity – for the Democrats it’s the same old same old. ∴ In contrast, the Republican Party began as a truly grassroots movement very similar to the Tea Parties now sweeping the nation. Ordinary people doing extraordinary things – that’s what created the GOP. For example: Read more at the Grand Old Partisans'"Know Your Republican Heritage"...

We all need to spend some time on this site; our GOP history has been perverted by liberal historians wanting to block out their horrendous history. Michael Zak is the author of "Back to Basics for the Republican Party." --bc Read More......