Justice Department Fights Release of Secret Court Opinion Finding Unconstitutional Surveillance

In the midst of revelations that the government has conducted extensive top-secret surveillance operations to collect domestic phone records and internet communications, the Justice Department was due to file a court motion Friday in its effort to keep secret an 86-page court opinion that determined that the government had violated the spirit of federal surveillance laws and engaged in unconstitutional spying.

This important case—all the more relevant in the wake of this week's disclosures—was triggered after Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a member of the Senate intelligence committee, started crying foul in 2011 about US government snooping. As a member of the intelligence committee, he had learned about domestic surveillance activity affecting American citizens that he believed was improper.

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Wyden Town Hall healthcare - 1/10/2010

To all,
Here is your opportunity to give your comments to the Senator on his recent vote on HealthCare! Bring your questions, signs etc. to help him understand how wrong headed the plan is!!

Come join U.S. SENATOR RON WYDEN
Benton County Town Hall Meeting
Date: Sunday, January 10, 2010
Time : 1 pm
Doors open at 12 pm
Linus Pauling Middle School
1111 NW Cleveland Avenue Corvallis
Questions: Call Juine at 541-431-0229 Wyden's staff

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Call Oregon's U.S. Senators [ASAP] - "Please Vote NO on HR 3590"

OREGON REPUBLICAN PARTY, 12/22/2009 from Bob Tiernan, Chairman - Oregon Republicans: The United States Senate is scheduled to hold a series of votes over the next three days on health care reform. In the rush to pass their massive health care reform bill before Christmas, Senate Democrats have inserted a last-minute provision into the bill which overtly targets the construction industry by mandating all construction companies over 5 employees offer health insurance. However, every other industry is granted an exemption if they have fewer than 50 employees. Clearly, this is payback for the unions and a potentially devastating issue for many small construction companies in Oregon and across the country.

Who is the Senator that introduced this outrageous last-minute provision? None other than Oregon's own Jeff Merkley.

Senator Merkley inserted this provision into the health care bill as a "manager's amendment" with no open debate on the concept, no vote taken and certainly no Senate hearings proceeding it. There is no logical rationale for singling out the construction industry to suddenly have to offer health care plans if they have five or more employees. If there was a logical reason for it, they would have openly discussed this issue and cast a fair vote on it. This narrow provision is an unprecedented assault on small construction employers and unjustly targets an industry trying to keep its doors open during the worst housing downturn since the Great Depression.

We're asking you to take a few minutes today to call the offices of Senator Jeff Merkley and Senator Ron Wyden to express your outrage with this provision targeting small construction employers and ask them to "Vote NO on HR 3590" (the health care reform bill).

Senator Merkley's Oregon district office can be reached at (503) 326-3386.
Senator Wyden's Oregon district office can be reached at (503) 326-7525.

Click Here to get more background information about this urgent issue - and thank you for your help!

Bob Tiernan
Chairman, Oregon Republican Party Read More......

Ron Wyden: Public option is a step in the right direction

10/26/2009 - Washington, D.C.-. U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) issued the following statement in response to Senate Majority Leader Reid’s decision to include a public option with an opt-out provision in the Senate health reform legislation:

“I agree with Senator Reid that health reform should give Americans more options. Now, I want to work with him to ensure that all Americans can choose those options. The bottom line is that the public option can’t really hold private insurers accountable if it is only competing for 10 percent of the insurance market, because private insurance companies aren’t going to change their business practices if 90 percent of their customers can’t take their business elsewhere. Real reform means empowering Americans to choose insurance that works well for them and their family, while rejecting plans that don’t. Including a public option is a step in the right direction, now let’s remove the firewalls in this bill that prevent Americans from choosing it.”

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Letter: Sen. Wyden is slippery as a greased pig on health care reform

CORVALLIS GAZETTE-TIMES/LETTERS, 10/16/2009 by Jean Nelson - Holding Sen. Ron Wyden responsible for his vote is like trying to hold on to a greased pig at a carnival booth. Wyden is a member of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, and he voted Wednesday (Oct. 14) in favor of health care legislation that he has sharply criticized for weeks.

After Wyden's vote, he made a carefully scripted statement that basically said, "I'm for it, but I'm against it," trying not to be responsible for his decision.

Wyden's vote put his stamp of approval on a huge tax increase that limits the deductibility of medical expenses on income taxes. He voted to tax the sick by raising the threshold for deducting medical expenses from 7.5 percent to 10 percent of one's Adjusted Gross Income as long as the taxpayer is under 65.

Moving according to a pre-arranged plan, now Harry Reid is merging all the health care bills behind closed doors. In a rush to push their version of "health care reform" through Congress, Democrats are ignoring surveys that say that the public wants to take their time and work the bugs out of any changes.

The Senate Finance Committee and the House Tri-Committee are estimating a price tag of around a mere $1 trillion, give or take a few billion dollars for their versions of health care reform. Honest interpretation shows all the bills are fatally flawed and will bring us high costs, government takeover, huge tax increases, major unfunded expansions in Medicaid and major cuts to Medicare.

Jean Nelson, Corvallis

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