An ominous parallel from ObamaCare?

From Eric Dondero:

Michigan Democrat Congressman John Dingell, Senior Member of the United States House of Representatives, on WJR - Detroit, Paul W. Smith morning show, March 24.

Remarks:

Paul W. ... Let me remind you. This has been going on for years... the harsh fact of the matter is when you're going to pass legislation... it takes a long time to do the necessary administrative steps that have to be taken to put the legislation together to control the people.

Dingell represents the area West of Detroit. He has served longer in the United States House of Representatives than any other single member.

John Dingell's father represented the same District for over 20 years, before Dingell II took the seat. The older Dingell introduced nationalization of health care legislation as part of Roosevelt's New Deal in 1934. To honor his father's memory, John Dingell II introduced a similar nationalization bill each year since he was first elected 50 years ago.

Over the years Dingell has racked up one of the most consistently pro-statist voting records in Congress. He made headlines a couple years back for comparing the tactics of Israeli Jews in the Middle East conflict to the Islamic Terrorist organization Hezbollah. Dingell's district includes a heavy concentration of Islamic voters in Dearborn.

Hear the full interview segment at YouTube.

Shouts of "Tyranny" and "Resist!"

From Eric Dondero:

What is the most horrific day ever for American citizens in our 234 history? At least one Republican candidate for Congress in Iowa, says March 21, 2010 is a day that will live in infamy.

(Video of the Tea Party protest at Univ. of Iowa at IA Republican.)

From IowaPolitics.com March 25:

"We’re here to stand up in one voice and say ‘No more Mr. President, not without a fight’," GOP 2nd Congressional District candidate Christopher Reed of Marion said Wednesday night, likening the backlash of health care health care reform to the emotions Americans felt following the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. “Now our government is usurping the Constitution. We have to stand up and say, ‘You have awoken a sleeping giant.’”

The crowd booed as speakers mentioned prominent Democrats who orchestrated the passage of health care reform that was signed into law on Tuesday. Protesters shouted “tyranny!” and “resist!” throughout the 90-minute event. But the crowd, comprised mostly of working adults, remained peaceful despite the frustration and anger expressed in the rhetoric.

“I would like to hear [Obama] say logic rather than rhetoric, and explain how this really affects Americans,” said Micah Doty, an uninsured woman from Williamsberg who describes herself as a strict Libertarian. “We have no control over our home anymore and I want to know why he thinks he has a right to usurp that power. I feel my future has been taken away from me.”

Protesters and speakers echoed the rally’s themes of “taking the country back” and “individual freedom” in opposing both the nationwide reach of the bill and the mandate on individuals to have insurance.

Obama in Iowa City today; another Protest planned for Airport to greet him

Congressman Mike Pence of Indiana, considered by some to be a 2010 presidential contender, also made an appearance at the Univ. of Iowa Tea Party protest. (Photo previous Iowa Tea Party in Cedar Rapids). Pence told the crowd:

This fight is not over... We can reform health care without putting our country on a path toward socialism."

Obama will be in Iowa City today holding a rally for his recently enacted Health Care legislation. According to IowaPolitics, 16,000 tickets were given out, but only 3,000 are expected to attend.

A second Tea Party protest is scheduled for the Quad Cities Airport to greet him.

Note - Christopher Reed is a Navy Veteran, "regular guy," inspired by the Tea Party to run for Congress. The incumbent is liberal colledge professor Rep. Dave Loesbeck. District 2 which stretches through southeastern Iowa is considered to be the most liberal in the State. ReedforCongress.com

Editor's Note - LR is currently conducting an informal poll of our readers on the sidebar, "What's the worst day ever for America?" listing Pearl Harbor, 9/11 and ObamaCare/Socialism day. Please take a moment to participate.

Hat tip IowaPolitics.com for Reed photo.

What happened to the goal of a color-blind America?

By Clifford F. Thies

Perhaps you also noticed it. On this decade’s census form, there’s a space for Guamanians. Finally, my brother and sister qualify for special status! They even have the birth certificates to prove it.

With the adoption of the Constitution, several classes of persons were recognized. There were natural-born citizens who, as distinct from naturalized citizens, qualified to be President. There were citizens, both naturalized as well as natural-born, who, by reason of the privileges and immunities clause, enjoyed the same rights of all other citizens. There were persons subject to servitude. They were counted six-tenths for representation and taxation. Finally, there were Indians not subject to taxation. These persons were considered to be members of other, subordinated nations (their tribes).

Originally, the distinction between persons subject and not subject to servitude was not the same thing as color. In early colonial Virginia , people of European and African origins intermingled by class as distinct from color. Indentured whites worked alongside indentured blacks. And, free men of color alongside free men of … how should I put this … paleness. But, over time, servitude and color came together. Servitude degraded into what is called American Negro Slavery and, by the 1840s, most of the states of the South took away the rights of free men of color. Thus, instead of perfecting our experiment in democracy, we became a nation divided, north and south, and white and black.

Slavic descent, Irish, Swedes, southern Mediterraneans don't count as "diversity"?

Following a Civil War and three Amendments to the Constitution designed to protect the freedom and equality of all of our citizens, a new form of racism emerged: Jim Crow and the doctrine expressed in Plessy v. Ferguson, of “separate but equal.” Under this doctrine, states could create separate institutions, such as public schools, for those it categorized as belonging to this or that race.

It would take another hundred years of struggle, but, eventually, through the grace of God, we would enshrine into law the principle expressed in the Declaration of Independence, that all men are created equal. That the government should be color-blind. Or, did we? What do all the classifications of racial or national origin on the census form indicate, but that our rights depend on our race, color, national or linguistic origin?

Why should it matter to the government that I was born in New York and that my brother and sister were born in Guam ? Why should they and their children have any advantages when it comes to matters such as admission to college, home mortgage loans, and government contracts? For that matter, what about my cousins who are, partly, of black and Arabic African, and Puerto Rican and Argentine descent?

And, why am I supposed to check off a box merely described as “white,” when other Americans get to check off much more descriptive boxes? Why isn’t the government as interested in the diversity of the people of this country of European origin? Could it be that, to the government, all white persons are created equal?

Dr. Thies has a Ph.D in econometrics and statistics.