Want to protest your government by going to a Tea Party event? DENIED!

Remember this report from our nation’s history?

CNN (Continental News Network) Boston, 1773: The city of Boston canceled a proposed protest over tea taxes today, citing the fear that too many people dressed as Indians would be gathered near the wharves. Organizers expressed sadness over the cancellation, but meekly returned to their homes fearful of upsetting the officers of the Crown. Taxmen breathed a sigh of relief as the tar and feathers were put away not to be used this day.

You don’t remember that pre-revolutionary history? I should say you shouldn’t, because it didn’t happen. But flash forward a few hundred years and you’ll find it is happening today in Cape Coral, Florida where city officials canceled a tax day tea party gathering because they “feel too many people could show-up.”

That’s right, folks, the God-given, long-held American right to assemble and protest the actions of our government has been canceled due to too much popularity of the protest.

And what does it come down to? Money. You see, the city officials want an insurance policy taken out so that organizers can cover any loss that might occur as a result of the rally. And those insurance policies cost hundreds of dollars.

The tea party organizers of Cape Coral, though, aren’t the only ones to find this restriction of their free speech and rights to assemble. Tea party organizers all across the country have begun to find out just how difficult, if not impossible, it is to be “allowed” to exercise their God-given right to speak their minds against government excess and criminality. City governments all across the country are charging fees for “permits,” forcing organizers to pay out huge sums for “insurance policies,” and binding tea party organizers in all sorts of government red tape.

In many instances, organizers are being told that they aren’t “allowed” to hold rallies on government property. Imagine that? We, the taxpayers of the city/state/federal government aren’t “allowed” to gather on property that our own taxes paid for.

And then there are the “permits” required to reserve the day, arrange the police protection, and clean up afterward. Often those “permits” can only be applied for at certain times a year, precluding any spontaneous assembly. Also, these “permits” can be denied with no reason stated quashing at birth any plan to exercise the right of assembly.

Here one might wonder how it is that we so often see those lefties appearing on our TV sets engaging in their many organized protests? Don’t the flotsam and jetsam of the far left seem to have large protests all the time? One might be drawn to imagine that the government is involved in some sort of grand conspiracy to allow those with anti-American sentiment, the moonbats of the left, to march with impunity. But, hold the tinfoil hats, won’t you? Because the wackjobs of anti-war ilk and the shrill, circus acts of the Code Pinkos are expected to cut through the same red tape the tea party organizers have been confronted with. The lefties are just better at it.

You see, contrary to popular conception, the far left has some deep-pocketed backers (your George Soros types, unions and even government funds) and a raft of organizations that do “protests” as a full time job. Their protest marches and rallies are far from spontaneously organized. These groups are thoroughly knowledgeable about the red tape and governmental hoops through which they must jump to carry off a successful protest assembly. After all, the hatemongers of the left are intimately intertwined with city governments all across the country. They understand what needs to be done because, by and large, city officials used to belong to, or belong still to the sorts of groups that plan lefty protests. Your new president is one of them. Being part of government, these leftie protest marchers help write the rules, being intimately associated with government they are quite well informed about what is required and how to get around or satisfy those rules.

But the obstacles are coming as a shock to the average citizens that love this country. For their whole lives peace-loving, work-a-day Americans have taken for granted that there exists the freedom to assemble completely unaware that those rights have been eliminated by stealth regulation by governments all across the land.

And now the folks in Cape Coral, Florida have learned their lesson.

Americans do not have the rights they always thought they did. There is no right to protest government. There is no right to assemble. The people have no rights at all to voice their displeasure. Shut up people. Go home. Nothing to see here. Go quietly back to your IPods and DVDs. Big daddy government will take care of you. The Obemmessiah will decide what’s best for you. Don’t worry your little heads. Oh, and thank you for your payments on April 15th.

Put away the tar and feathers, won’t you? There’s a nice fella.

-Warner Todd Huston

In this Dec. 11, 2008 file photo, President Obama stands with former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle at a news conference in Chicago. (AP Photo)

Tom Daschle has withdrawn his nomination for health and human services secretary, after fielding mounting criticism over his failure to pay more than $130,000 in taxes.

President Obama stood by Daschle Monday, telling reporters that he “absolutely” supports the former South Dakota senator. But the president accepted Daschle’s withdrawal with “sadness and regret” Tuesday morning, according to a White House statement.

“Tom made a mistake, which he has openly acknowledged. He has not excused it, nor do I,” Obama said. “But that mistake, and this decision, cannot diminish the many contributions Tom has made to this country, from his years in the military to his decades of public service.”

Obama said he had hoped Daschle could bring his expertise on health care to his drive to make health care more accessible and affordable.

But Daschle said in a statement that his presence would have complicated that effort.

“If 30 years of exposure to the challenges inherent in our system has taught me anything, it has taught me that this work will require a leader who can operate with the full faith of Congress and the American people, and without distraction,” Daschle said. “Right now, I am not that leader, and will not be a distraction.”

“I will not be the architect of America’s health system reform, but I remain one of its more fervent supporters,” he said.

It was unclear whether Daschle, with his deep network of ties in the Senate stemming in part from his time as majority leader, would have been able to weather the criticism over his tax problems in confirmation.

Senators were reluctant to state publicly any opposition to Daschle’s nomination in recent days. But that started to crack Tuesday morning, as Republican Sen. Jim DeMint called for Obama to withdraw the nomination — becoming the first senator to say that the former majority leader’s tax problems are disqualifying.

DeMint told FOX News that Daschle’s failure to pay $134,000 in federal taxes reflects a “problem with integrity” that the government cannot afford to tolerate. DeMint spoke out against Daschle as a number of prominent newspapers, including The New York Times, called for the South Dakota Democrat to drop his bid.

DeMint said he came to that conclusion after it became “obvious” that Daschle knew about the tax problems long before his nomination and did nothing to make it right.

“The average American would likely face criminal charges with tax evasion of this size, yet he did not address the issue until he was nominated,” he said.

Daschle has since paid $146,000 in back payments and interest, and apologized on Monday for what he called income tax errors.

The New York Times, in its editorial, complained that Timothy Geithner was already confirmed as treasury secretary despite his tax problems.

“It would send a terrible message to the public if we ignore the failure of yet another high-level nominee to comply with the tax laws,” the Times wrote.

Several other newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer, Boston Globe, and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, also have called for Daschle to withdraw.

But Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer earlier said Daschle’s own admission that he had failed to pay the taxes was reason enough to forgive his sin.

“Clearly it was a bad mistake, and Daschle was the first to come up with this in June 2008,” Schumer said. “It wasn’t discovered by the administration’s vetting team but rather by Daschle himself much earlier and he brought it to the attention of the administration’s vetting team when he was chosen as a potential nominee for HHS.”

Obama’s pick to be the White House’s first performance officer, Nancy Killefer, also withdrew her nomination on Tuesday because of her own tax liabilities, namely a $946 tax lien imposed by the D.C. government for failure to pay $298 in unemployment compensation tax on household help.

Noting the importance of the post, Killefer wrote in her withdrawal letter to the president that “my personal tax issue of D.C. unemployment tax could be used to create exactly the kind of distraction and delay those duties must avoid.”

President-elect Barack Obama announced as expected that Hillary Clinton would be his top diplomat and Robert Gates would stay on as defense secretary.

President-elect Barack Obama on Monday officially introduced the members of his national security team, including former Democratic primary rival Hillary Clinton as his secretary of state and Robert Gates, who will be remain as defense secretary.

Obama also announced that retired Marine Gen. James L. Jones — a former top commander of NATO and U.S. forces in Europe — would be his national security adviser.

President-elect Obama stands with Secretary of State-designate Sen. Hillary Clinton -- calling her nomination 'a sign to friend and foe.'

“I am confident that this is the team that we need to make a new beginning for American national security,” Obama told reporters during a morning news conference in Chicago.

Obama’s team will advise him on foreign and national security issues in an era marked by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and terrorism around the globe. Obama takes office Jan. 20.

Obama said his team “must pursue a new strategy that skillfully uses, balances, and integrates all elements of American power: our military and diplomacy, our intelligence and law enforcement, our economy and the power of our moral example.

“The team that we have assembled here today is uniquely suited to do just that,” he added as his Cabinet picks stood behind him on a flag-draped stage. “They share my pragmatism about the use of power, and my sense of purpose about America’s role as a leader in the world.”

Obama named Washington lawyer Eric Holder as attorney general and Arizona Gov. Janet Naploitano as homeland security chief. He also named two senior foreign policy positions outside the Cabinet, including campaign foreign policy adviser Susan Rice as U.N. ambassador.

Obama introduced Clinton first, saying of his former presidential rival, “She possesses an extraordinary intelligence and toughness, and a remarkable work ethic. … She is an American of tremendous stature who will have my complete confidence, who knows many of the world’s leaders, who will command respect in every capital, and who will clearly have the ability to advance our interests around the world.”

Clinton will give up her seat as a senator from New York to join the Obama Cabinet. Her appointment was preceded by lengthy negotiations involving her husband, the former president, whose international business connections posed potential conflicts of interest.

The former president also agreed to disclose the donors to the foundation that built his library, as well as contributors to his international foundation.

She said to Obama, in brief turn at the lectern, “Mr. President-Elect, I am proud to join you on what will be a difficult and exciting adventure in this new century.”

Sen. Clinton had scarcely finished speaking when her husband issued a written statement.

“She is the right person for the job of helping to restore America’s image abroad, end the war in Iraq, advance peace and increase our security, by building a future for our children with more partners and fewer adversaries, one of shared responsibilities and opportunities,” he said.

Gates said he was “mindful that we are engaged in two wars and face other serious challenges at home and around the world.”

“I must do my duty as they do theirs,” he said of the men and women in uniform in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. “How could I do otherwise?”

He said he was “honored to serve President-elect Obama.”

Gates’ appointment fulfilled a campaign promise by Obama, the naming of a Republican to his Cabinet.

Obama said Napolitano understands the need to protect against terror attacks and to respond to natural disasters — and that she also understands as well as anyone the danger of unsecured borders.

Obama now has half of the 15-member Cabinet assembled less than a month after the election, including the most prominent positions at State, Justice, Treasury and Defense.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Read more at http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2008/12/01/obama-unveils-national-security-team/

President-elect to formally unveil his team of economic experts to battle the most severe U.S. financial crisis in eight decades

WASHINGTON – President-elect Barack Obama names his economic team Monday and may call for the next Congress to quickly pass a massive stimulus plan that would dwarf even his campaign proposals to salvage the country’s financial wreckage.

Timothy Geithner, left, and Larry Summers (AP Photo).

Obama speaks at a Chicago news conference against a backdrop of increasing calls for him to assert himself well before he takes office Jan. 20 in the midst of the most severe U.S. financial crisis in eight decades.

Obama senior adviser David Axelrod confirmed that the president-elect would name Timothy Geithner, the New York Federal Reserve president, as his treasury secretary. Wall Street stocks jumped on Friday when word of Geithner’s appointment began to leak. Geithner will team with Lawrence Summers, a treasury secretary under former President Bill Clinton and former Harvard University president, who will take over the National Economic Council. Both Geithner and Summers will appear with Obama at a Monday news conference in Chicago.

Democratic officials also said Obama plans to name New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson as commerce secretary, adding a prominent Hispanic and one-time Democratic presidential rival to his Cabinet. Richardson served as U.N. ambassador in the Clinton administration and later as energy secretary.

The troika will confront an economic crisis that continues to deepen in spite of hundreds of billions of dollars in federal emergency spending in recent weeks.

Top aides said Sunday that Obama also wants Congress to use its large Democratic majority when it convenes Jan. 6 to prepare tax cuts for low- and middle-income earners as part of the massive government intervention designed to pull the country out of its frightening economic nosedive.

Some economists have endorsed spending up to $600 billion to revive the economy. Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, and former labor Secretary Robert Reich, a member of Obama’s economic advisory board, both suggested $500 billion to $700 billion. Before winning the presidency Nov. 4, Obama had said he looked to create a $175 billion stimulus package. While the new plan will be significantly larger, it was expected to incorporate his campaign other ideas for new jobs in environmentally friendly technologies and tax cuts.

“I don’t know what the number is going to be, but it’s going to be a big number,” Obama economic adviser Austan Goolsbee said on Sunday. “It has to be. The point is to, kind of, get people back on track and startle the thing into submission.”

Over the weekend Obama directed his team to erect plan to create 2.5 million new jobs by the end of 2010, and aides said his broader economic program was designed to quickly offer tax relief to lower- and middle-income earners. Significantly the plan would not offer an immediate tax increase on wealthy taxpayers. During the campaign, Obama said he would raise taxes on people making more than $250,000.

Axelrod unambiguously voiced Obama’s overall expectations.

“Our hope is that the new Congress begins work on this as soon as they take office in early January, because we don’t have time to waste here, ” he said on Sunday. “We want to hit the ground running on January 20th.”

Congress will have two weeks to hold hearings and write legislation between its return to Washington in early January and Obama’s inauguration.

Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the second-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives, acknowledged a readiness for quick action.

“We expect to have during the first couple of weeks of January a package for the president’s consideration when he takes office.”

Axelrod also warned executives of the U.S. auto industry to draw up plans to retool and restructure their industry if they want the billions of dollars they are seeking from Congress. Otherwise, Axelrod said, “there is very little taxpayers can do to help them.”

Obama also delved into one of the most pressing foreign policy issues facing his presidency, calling Afghan President Hamid Karzai by telephone and telling him that fighting terrorism there and in the region would be a top priority, Karzai’s office said on Sunday.

The Saturday conversation between Obama and Karzai was the first reported contact between the two leaders since the Nov. 4 U.S. election. The United States has some 32,000 American troops in Afghanistan, a number that will be increased by thousands next year.

Fighting terrorism and the insurgency “in Afghanistan, the region and the world is a top priority,” Karzai’s office quoted Obama as saying during the conversation.

Read more at http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2008/11/24/obama-set-unveil-new-economic-team/

GLENSHAW, Pa. —  An FBI agent was shot and killed Wednesday while serving a warrant at a home near Pittsburgh.

The agent was shot at around 6 a.m. in Indiana Township, about 10 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, said FBI Special Agent William Crowley, a spokesman for the agency in western Pennsylvania.

The agent’s name was not immediately released. It’s also unclear who shot the agent and whether anyone had been arrested for the shooting. Neither federal nor county officials would confirm reports that a suspect was in custody.

Crowley would not say what the warrant was for. A roundup of drug suspects was happening in the greater Pittsburgh area and federal drug and FBI agents were at the scene, but Crowley wouldn’t comment on whether the shooting was related to the roundup.

At the federal courthouse in Pittsburgh, federal public defenders were in a courtroom Wednesday morning waiting the arrival of some 35 people who were arrested in the drug sweep. Indictments in the case were sealed, but they were expected to be unsealed once the defendants appeared in court.

The shooting happened at a cream-colored house that backs up to fields and woods. A child’s basketball net and play fort could be seen in the backyard. Authorities remained on the scene Thursday morning, blocking the street to the public. Several police cars, including unmarked cars, lined the street.

Emergency dispatchers had initially said the victim was a police officer shot in a home invasion.

The last FBI special agent killed in the line of duty was Barry Lee Bush, who was accidentally shot and killed by a fellow agent outside a bank on April 5, 2007, in Readington, N.J., according to the FBI. Bush, 52, of Forks Township, Pa., and other agents were in pursuit of three bank robbers who were armed but did not fire their weapons, authorities said.

Read more at http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,454705,00.html