Tonight on Hannity — a world-exclusive, the first televised interview with Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United States.

Hannity: Sir, thank you so much for meeting with us. It’s a unique honor and privilege.

Jefferson: You’re welcome, young man. Your industrious society has created many marvels worthy of the American people.

Hannity: Mr. President, President Obama enters office with a huge amount of “hoopla” and an almost messianic belief that he can “heal the environment”, fix the economy, and solve problems like global terrorism. Is some sort of reckoning certain?

Jefferson: No man will ever carry out of the Presidency the reputation which carried him into it.

Hannity: His immense, trillion-dollar “stimulus” package puts control of the people’s money in the hands of a few central planners. What is your reaction to that strategy?

Jefferson: Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories… I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion.

Hannity: So you are generally opposed to a top-down stimulus package and prefer that the spending decisions reside with the people who pay taxes?

Jefferson: I own that I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.

Hannity: What about Democrats’ tendency to grow the size of government and intrude in every aspect of our lives… from the New Deal’s entitlement programs, transportation, energy, health care, etc.?

Jefferson: My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.

Hannity: And increasing taxes on the highest earners — the “progressive” income tax?

Jefferson: A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor and bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government.

Hannity: How troubling is it that the amount of debt that the Federal Government is undertaking — combined with entitlement programs that are massively underfunded — means that we are passing huge amounts of debt to our children and grandchildren.

Jefferson: It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world… Never spend your money before you have earned it.

Hannity: What would you like to say to the those of our current leaders who are operating under ethical clouds: from Rangel, to Dodd, Murtha, Frank, Mollohan, Clinton, Geithner, Holder and Reid.

Jefferson: Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence.

Hannity: You’ve seen one of my “man-in-the-street” interviews, where we ask random people simple questions about current events, like ‘who is the Vice President’? We found during the Obama campaign that many of those voting for him were completely uninformed and various surveys confirm that general ignorance about the man and his motives. Is that troubling?

Jefferson: If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.

Hannity: Mr. President, what are your thoughts about President Obama basically ignoring Republican requests for a bi-partisanship approach to the stimulus package, stating “I won” and to get over themselves?

Jefferson: Bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.

Hannity: The concept of welfare, where the state redistributes wealth to the poor even though many could easily work, has been statistically shown to increase single-parent families, a culture of dependency and crime. What are your thoughts on welfare?

Jefferson: Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.

Hannity: Moving to the First Amendment: this concept of blogging, where anyone can be a well-read author or pundit, is a new innovation for politics. Do you believe that blogging is a useful tool to promote Democracy?

Jefferson: Information is the currency of democracy… Educate and inform the whole mass of the people… They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.

Hannity: Interestingly enough, the whole newspaper business has suffered mightily with the rise of the Internet. Your reaction?

Jefferson: I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it.

Hannity: Regarding the Second Amendment, Barack Obama has historically opposed private ownership and possession of firearms. In fact, his home city of Chicago has onerous regulations that effectively prohibit guns altogether, yet the city has the highest number of murders per year of any state in the Union. Your thoughts?

Jefferson: No man shall be debarred the use of arms… Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state. For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well-organized and armed militia is their best security.

Hannity: How do you respond to Democrats who have made a variety of moves to revive the ill-named “Fairness Doctrine”, which threatens conservative free speech and which was already ruled unconstitutional once in our history?

Jefferson: I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man… It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others: or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his own.

Hannity: Final question, sir. What about the Democrats’ massive dependency programs, entitlement programs, and efforts to censor free speech such as the “Fairness Doctrine”? Doesn’t this violate the principles of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution?

Jefferson: Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.

Hannity: Thank you so much for your valuable time, Mr. President.

Next on Greta, breaking news regarding some teen who killed some other teen on some island…

Note: Every Jefferson response is verbatim as reported by BrainyQuote. If statements were made at separate times, they are separated by an ellipsis when combined into a single response.

Having been a physician who has worked 20 years in government run county hospitals, veterans hospitals, and private hospitals there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that further government interdiction into healthcare will only lead to more waste, fraud, debt, and weakening of the quality of healthcare delivered to Americans.

Mr. Obama has tried to push this ludicrous bill through congress the same way a used car salesman tries to sell a clunker to a unsuspecting customer. Only the cost of this particular lemon is one that can sour our lives for generations. He spent far more time searching for a pet dog that he is allowing America to scrutinize this haphazard bill.

The obvious problem in our system is the one the politicians continue to ignore over and over again. 15-20 millions illegal aliens rob our system every day of valuable healthcare resources that should be devoted to our own citizens. No other healthcare system in the world could support 15-20 million extra non-paying patients in their systems. Not Canada, not England, not France, etc. The fact that our system has been able to absorb such a burden is a testimony of the strength of private healthcare - not weakness!

This current administration has failed in every endeavor it has pitifully tried to address - banking, Wall Street, automotive industry, community organization/Acorn, diplomacy with Iran and North Korea, and even the Olympics. Please wake up America and tell Washington we don’t want anymore of this idiocy.

Mark Vargas Department of Defense Operative on the ground in Iraq

As of October 4th, 2009 1,381 coalition members have been killed in Afghanistan. Mark Vargas, former Defense Department official and candidate in the 14th Congressional district asks President Obama not make life and death decisions for political gain and to listen to the commanders on the ground.

President Obama’s poll numbers are slipping as 2009 is the deadliest year of the Afghanistan mission. As the President delays making a decision, terrorists and insurgents are planning their next attack on us.

Mark Vargas has worked for the Department of Defense at the Pentagon and also on the ground in Iraq, Middle East, and Africa. Violence has been reduced drastically in Iraq. Iraqi’s have begun building infrastructure, businesses, and educating their children again. General McChrystal has similar and attainable goals for Afghanistan. Currently politics is getting the way of initiating these plans and is putting soldiers at risk. Mark Vargas, like all Americans wants to see a quick end to hostilities and for our soldiers to return home.

Mark Vargas urges everyone to remember the brave men and women serving their country and to mourn the ones we have already lost on this anniversary. He also urges voters to take a moment this afternoon and let President Obama and Congressman Foster know where you stand. Call the White House comment line at 202-456-1111, Congressman Foster at 202-225-0697 and share your thoughts on this issue.

Mark Vargas for Congress
P.O. Box 1218
Saint Charles, IL, 60174
Vargas4congress@gmail.com
www.Vargas4Congress.com

Watch Full Screen slide show here.

-Drew

GENEVA — If you’ve been absent during the discussion on universal health care coverage in
America over the past year, two hours at a congressional constituent meeting here Thursday
afternoon could have caught you up.

Almost every aspect of the debate came to the fore during a sometimes contentious,  sometimes loud,  sometimes angry exchange of ideas at an office hours program run by U.S. Rep. Bill
Foster, D-Geneva. The office hours program is run ostensibly for people to bring in problems, most likely dealing with Medicare, Social Security, veteran benefits or the like. Congressional staff members man
the two-hour events to answer questions from constituents. But at Thursday afternoon’s meeting at the Geneva Library, about 150 people showed up with one thing in mind: health care.

For some, their No. 1 question was: where was Foster? The congressman is with 20 other
legislators on a junket to Israel, which Dan McDonald, Foster’s press representative and one of
the staffers at the meeting, called “a fact-finding trip” regarding the situation in the Middle East.
But that did not sit well with many at Thursday’s event, who said he should be in his district,
listening to the people.

“This is the biggest bill of our lives, and he should hear what we have to say,” said one woman.
Richard Lau, a North Aurora man, accused Foster of “running out” on his constituents.
“He put you between me and him, and he should have been here himself to hear from the
people,” Lau said.

McDonald said with so many people interested in stating their opinions on health care, staffers
would collect comments on sheets of paper and would video Thursday’s event to show Foster.
The sheets will show that people were concerned about the quickness with which the current
government health care debate is moving through Congress.
And they will show that people are concerned about issues across the board, including illegal
aliens receiving taxpayer-funded health care; getting tort reform addressed before looking at
universal health care; creating a huge bureaucracy to administer health care; using health care
to take away individual freedom; giving the government access to private health information;
making sure people with pre-existing conditions can get insurance; using taxpayer money to fund
abortions; and making members of Congress have to accept the same health care as the
general public.

What the sheets will not show, but the video will, is the passion and the downright anger some
expressed toward the direction the government is headed. They called for Foster to publicly oppose Obama and government-sponsored health care. “Relay to him that if he votes for this bill we will vote him out of office,” said Doug Henry, a member of the Kane County Young Republicans who attended the meeting.

McDonald said Foster has not made his mind up on any health care legislation, and has said he is opposed to a single-payer system. But he did sign a letter saying he favors “a public option,” and many at Thursday’s meeting said that is tantamount to a government program. McDonald said Foster will return from Israel on Aug. 21 and will at some point hold a telephone town hall meeting. But with so many people telling Foster’s staffers Thursday that they want a town hall meeting in person, that might change.

The dictionary defines the word Czar as; an emperor or king, the former emperor of Russia, an autocratic ruler or leader, and any person exercising great authority or power in a particular field. The Obama administrations likes this nick-name and happily appoints Czars of industries and sectors of the economy on a whim.

Two of these Czars; Van Jones and Carol Browner are self proclaimed a communist and a socialist. Both have publicly claimed to be reshaping the American economy, empowering the poor, and reducing our dependence on oil. All admirable goals, but at what cost? Could reshaping the American economy mean giving more control to congress and taking control away from the consumer? Will empowering the poor mean more class warfare against the successful? Could higher energy taxes and higher prices effectively snuff out the US energy industry?

As the average and semi-quiet majority, we need to listen carefully to what this administration is saying. Sometimes we need to call a spade, a spade.

by GEORGE F. BALL

Based on my years in the real world of tort lawsuits, largely spent defending automotive product cases against General Motors and Suzuki, the inescapable conclusion I reached years ago is that most lawsuits involving personal injuries or health conditions are not caused by product defects or professional negligence.

Simply put, most often tort lawsuits are frivolous in that they result from too many lawyers chasing too few bona fide cases, and too many plaintiffs, because of the painless contingent fee agreement with their friendly trial lawyer, rolling the dice and filing a lawsuit on a meritless case because they have no skin in the game.

If the Obama administration and our legislative leaders were really interested in lowering health care costs, the all-too-obvious anecdotal and survey evidence points to billions of dollars of annual savings that could result from dramatically limiting the costs of unnecessary medical tests and practices that are forced on doctors due to liability fears stemming from our U.S. tort system.

Peter Orszag, director of the Office Of Management and Budget, recently spelled out the administration’s prescription for higher quality-lower cost health care. It involves “four key steps”: health information technology, more research to cull out the most effective treatments, prevention and wellness efforts, and targeted financial incentives for providers.

The culling out of “the most effective treatments” will most assuredly result in rationing of health care in order to reduce the enormous financial burden of universal health care.

Unfortunately, while his administration is not willing to put aside the possibility of rationing health care to save costs, President Obama has only paid lip service to medical liability reform inasmuch as he has ruled out even considering a modest reform involving limits or caps on high damage awards.

Click here for more…

Last week federal government regulation won a battle against Illinois workers and every Illinois resident. “Energy prices will skyrocket under Obama’s Cap & Trade plan” says columnist Kerry Picket. Illinois still has hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs. Currently the Illinois unemployment rate is figured to be 10.1%.

The debate over climate change is not over. Many scientist point towards the declining temperatures for the last decade (declining to 1983 levels). Despite reports to the contrary, Polar Bear populations have actually increased 150% in the last two decades. Yet the House of Representatives have decided to wage war on domestic manufacturing and average American families. Clearly no American is for polluting the air, water, or land. Heavy taxes, fewer jobs, and slower economic recovery will not help anyone, but the Chinese and a few companies with earmarks in the Cap & Trade bill.

Illinois Representatives Mark Kirk (R), Melissa Bean (D), Danny Davis (D), Luis Gutierrez (D), Debbie Halvorson (D), Phil Hare (D), Jesse Jackson (D), Daniel Lipinski (D), Michael Quigley (D), Bobby Rush (D), and Jan Schakowsky (D) should be ashamed of themselves for passing a bill they did not even read! For more details about the rushed nature of H.R. 2454, click here.

Illinois voters sent these ten Democrats and one Republican to Washington. They will be repaid with significantly higher utility costs, higher gasoline costs, fewer domestic jobs, and continued economic recession. Illinois voters are shocked that their values are not represented in Washington. Inner city residents and blue collar workers will see even higher unemployment. Farmers will see smaller profit margins. Large Illinois manufacturing will relocate production to foreign countries. Ultimately Illinois families will bear the largest burden with higher prices, less opportunity and higher utility taxes. Illinois voters, call your representative and voice your displeasure in being betrayed by these eleven career politicians today. To contact your Representative click here.