Don't Fear the Healthcare Reaper--The Real Fight Begins Now

It is always darkest before the dawn. That is what I can say about tonight’s passage of this healthcare takeover initiative. Tonight we witnessed history, certainly without any question. Healthcare reform as defined by the liberal Democrats, and only the liberal Democrats, has passed in the name of what one Congressman referred to as “social justice”. I do not want to get into the details too much in regards to “social justice” theory, but for purposes of this article let me just say it is something I have reservations about.

Healthcare has become the obsession of liberal policy. It has been for years. They went to any and every length to get this piece of legislation passed, in spite of the wishes of the American people. There has been overwhelming opposition to the legislation as it had been drafted. There have been protests nationwide. Phone lines have been jammed to the point of collapse on Capitol Hill. And despite all of this, they passed this legislation. Even with 54% of Americans disapproving and only 36% approving, they passed this legislation. Public opinion be damned.

Will of the people or fulfillment of their own personal crusade? I think we know where the truth lies. You can see it in their eyes. You can hear it in their voice. Pelosi’s face was practically glazed over with giddiness tonight. Congresswoman Slaughter’s attitude and tone of voice clearly indicated a high opinion of her own self-worth and came across very condescending. I know what narcissism looks like because I have lived it in my family, and people like Pelosi and Slaughter are showing the classic symptoms.

In the words of Chris Matthews, I think there were a lot of thrills going up the legs of the Party leadership there tonight.

It is like these people are crazily obsessed, and you could have pointed that out in any one of those liberals in the lineup tonight. They think they know what is best for you, and their body language and tone of voice clearly show that is how they think. And they think they are wonderful for it.

Let us set the record straight. There are going to be a lot of people going on a permanent vacation from D.C. this November, and I look forward to playing an active part locally in that process. When the Supreme Court hears this case (and I say “when” because they will hear this in the near future guaranteed), they will find it unconstitutional, and everyone that voted for this disaster of a bill are going to have nothing to show for it—not even their job.

You cannot in good conscience find this bill as written to be constitutional, and I believe the Supreme Court will do the right thing. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I sure as hell am happy I did not infuriate the Supreme Court on more than one occasion over the last couple of months. Unfortunately for our president, he cannot say the same thing. And no amount of judicial ass kissing is going to save him. Sell crazy somewhere else—we’re all stocked up here.

The Democratic Party and their interest groups have made a career in dragging things through court. Now we will return the favor 20 fold. By the count of Real Clear Politics, it may be 38 fold and growing. How is that for a stimulus package? The Feds are going to have to hire a lot of attorneys to defend this one.

Do not fear the reaper. Republicans will fight tooth and nail, and for every inch. We should not fear the reaper. The liberal Democrats, however, should fear the reaper. Because in their case, the reaper is going to come to them in the form of 9 Justices clothed in black robes.





The Mang
Conservative Capo of Youngstown

We're Not Gonna Take It: Battle Royale in Congress over Healthcare

It is Battle Royale in Congress, and we're not gonna take it. The healthcare debate is coming quickly down to the wire and every Congressman is now considering his or her own position in the scheme of what will be one of the most controversial votes in history. Shots are being taken at both sides of the aisle. Republicans are stonewalling, having fortified themselves in a seemingly unbreakable, unified stance. Democrats are fighting amongst themselves. Blue dogs are fending for their seats in the upcoming election against anxious and awaiting conservative candidates, but Speaker Pelosi continues to bring down the hammer with her obvious fake smiles and pandering.

President Obama himself came out to Northeast Ohio to pick off a vote from Dennis Kucinich, who politically will be safe in November but no less will likely face stiff opposition regardless of the district’s makeup. Obama even came on to FOX News of all places, the very place he and his administration has criticized up and down since 2008.

My God, the carnage! The humanity! And you thought politics was boring and uninteresting. No, this is a very real thing, and far from boring. The shady deals, arcane proceedings in Congress (i.e. “deem and pass”), the masses rising up in opposition—Yes, THIS is politics today. THIS is the transparent process Pelosi referred to in all of her hypocritical glory.

Welcome to the party. Finally, Obama and Congress have awakened the angry giant that is the American people, and they have flooded the phone lines at the Capitol and have gathered en masse across the country to boldly stand up and declare, in the words of Twisted Sister, “We’re not gonna take it!” There is even Jim Traficant, a politician and convicted felon, coming out and fighting for the voice and will of the American people, however unusual his approach.

At this point, the Democrats do not have the votes. They are shy a handful. There will be no Republican crossovers. The Democrats will need to pass this bill on their own. Madame Speaker, in all of her wisdom and desperation to pass a failing legislative initiative, is invoking the “Slaughter Rule” (so appropriately named after Congresswoman Slaughter), or more commonly known as “deem and pass”. It is a vote on the rules that would in effect deem the legislation passed. No matter how you slice it, it is a vote for or against healthcare takeover, no matter how they try to disguise it.

It is shady and underhanded, and while it is apparent that Republicans have used this approach on different legislation over the years, never has it been done on something so comprehensive and transformative for the worst. It is a sham and insulting to think the Congressional leadership is trying to pull this kind of stunt.

But Obama says the bill will be posted for three days before passage.

Well, unless you are employing a small army of people, the likelihood of getting through a few thousand page bill in a couple of days is not very good. The way you beat transparency is to fill a bill with so much legalese and in a massive number of pages and let the public go through it. It may be available, but it sure as hell cannot be examined properly in a short amount of time.

I do not know if they will pass it. I know the leadership is going to employ every tactic at their disposal to do it, but I am unsure as to how some of the Congressmen will respond. It is my understanding the lawsuits to fight this legislation have already been drafted and are ready to go to court should this bill pass.

My advice: find some time to call and email your Congressmen. Make your voice heard on this one. It is not too late to make a difference.

I leave you with the wise words of Twisted Sister to Madame Pelosi. "Oh you're so condescending, you're goal is never ending, we don't want nothing not a thing from you! We're right, we're free, we'll fight, you'll see"





The Mang
Conservative Capo of Youngstown

Mang Now Endorses Donald Allen for OH-6 Congressional District

It has been longer than I would have liked since last writing. As it happens, we have been extremely busy with the May 4th Primary Elections coming upon us quickly. In politics, a month and a half is not a lot of time, especially when you have 261 miles to travel (4 hours and 40 minutes total from Canfield, OH to Portsmouth, OH). Dinners, events, town halls, local meetings, parades, and everything in between are involved in these kinds of campaigns, and there is the strategy and fundraising that are conducted amidst all of it. It makes for a lot of late evenings and early mornings.

The 6th District is my home and it has been for the last 24 years. It has always been special to me, even in the state of disrepair many areas are in here. That is why I and others are putting in a great amount of time into this Congressional race, because we all feel the Ohio 6th District deserves better representation than what we are seeing with Congressman Wilson.

Donald Allen is running for Congress in the 6th District in the Republican Primary, and I believe he is the best man for this job. He genuinely believes in working for the people of the district and cares about the problems people are facing here in Ohio during this economy. An independent businessman and local veterinarian, Don Allen truly knows the meaning of hard work and has faced the same realities every other hardworking American has faced—making payroll every pay period, paying taxes, paying insurance benefits for employees, and dealing with the reality of an economic downtown that has hurt everyone except Big Government.

One thing I can say for Don Allen is the man is genuine. I try to work for people of great character and integrity, and everything the man said he would do in the time I have spent working with him has been done, and usually with a smile on his face. He has yet to disappoint in my eyes, and a person who says what they mean and mean what they say is good in my book, and certainly worth a chance in Washington D.C. Additionally, he has a wonderful family (and a lot of cats), and I know someone so devoted to his family and his country (having served in the military for over twenty years) will be a good fit in the Capitol.

The time demands on a Congressional candidate are staggering, and he has made every effort and accommodation to run downhill into this primary. Our task is even more complicated given the difficulty in the geographic logistics of this district—261 miles is a lot of district for anyone. And yet given the balance between work, family, and campaigning, he is still going all out.

Someone who is honest, hardworking, and knowledgeable about the issues is someone we need to have in Washington. I would encourage you to look at where Donald Allen stands on the issues of healthcare, energy policy, foreign policy, and the other different issues we are facing as a nation today. His website is: donallenforcongress.com

Mang Now! officially endorses Dr. Donald K. Allen of Boardman, Ohio.


The Mang
Conservative Capo of Youngstown

On Crime and Local Politics

I have always been intrigued by organized crime and its connection to politics. It is something I have had exposure to in the media, through word of mouth from people who have heard rumors, and through generally researching over eighty years of articles published by the Youngstown Vindicator on the subject of organized crime and politics. We all know the stories, we all know the players--Bertram de Souza usually gets a dig in at the Mob and politics whenever he gets the opportunity to do so. It is something that we will never truly forget, even if we actively try to.

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Even at Ohio State during my Fraud Examination class, Phar-Mor was the the very first thing we covered. Walking into class, late mind you, I heard the words over the speakers "Hi, this is Ron Verb, you are on 570. What do you think about the Monus scandal?", with a big panoramic image of my hometown projected onto a twenty foot screen.

There are only a handful of books out there that exclusively deal with organized crime in the Mahoning Valley, and the two that come to mind immediately are “To Kill the Irishman” which primarily was about Cleveland’s organization but directly tied in the players in Youngstown and “The Merchants of Menace” which I believe is the only historical book that covers the Mafia in Youngstown for the first half of the 20th century. “The Merchants of Menace” is a rare book that is available in the library but cannot be taken out. Any research has to be done in house. It is expensive to purchase a copy of it, as it has been out of print for a long time.

Over the years I have collected different items to include in the research, more historical of course rather than modern (old police reports, old pictures, old magazine articles, mug shots, old fingerprints, etc.). Some of the items date back to the 40s. Some of those items related to events that happened only a block or two away from where my grandfather grew up.

There is a lot of story to tell from the last thirty years alone, and unfortunately I do not believe it will be told in its entirety until twenty or thirty years from now. The reality is it is a story that cannot be told, at least not now. I do not believe enough time has passed to delve into the details well enough and to obtain accurate accounts of the events as they unfolded. While it something I would like to research further, I am still not entirely comfortable asking a lot of questions about what happened twenty years ago. And I doubt many people would be willing to answer many questions about those events. I also suspect people would not be happy with my digging around in that particular past.

It would be a phenomenal story, involving crime, law, party politics, money, and the interactions of two city crime factions vying for control of Youngstown from Cleveland and Pittsburgh.

Maybe when enough time has passed, the story will get told. Unfortunately, given the current makeup of Mahoning County, that time simply is not now.

The Mang

Conservative Capo of Youngstown