Rare is the occasion when the nine justices of the U.S. Supreme Court gather to hear three days of arguments, and rarer still is when it is for a case like Obamacare — one that cuts to the core of the Constitution and whose outcome could fundamentally alter the role of the federal government and its power over the people. But today the Court will do just that when it open its doors and begins weighing the arguments on the constitutionality of President Barack Obama’s seminal health care law.

Wisconsin’s First District Congressman Paul Ryan provided students from Janesville’s Craig and Parker High Schools a sneak preview of the Path to Prosperity, the Fiscal Year 2013 budget proposal for the federal government.

An Albuquerque man says he successfully registered his dog to vote in Bernalillo County.

The dog owner said he saw a voter registration booth on the University of New Mexico’s campus a few weeks ago and decided to see how easy it would be to register his dog to vote.

He said he was trying to expose the problems with the registration system.  He said he just received the dog’s voter registration card in the mail Wednesday, and it was way too easy.

“They should verify.  Somebody should have verified this information and somebody should have come out and took a look at exactly who it was.  But I made up a birth date, and I made up a social security number and I had a voter registration card in my hand for Buddy two weeks later,” the dog owner said.

KOB Eyewitness News 4 contacted the Bernalillo County Clerk’s Office.  They said state law does not require proof of your social, your date of birth, or even your name.  But they said what this man did is voter fraud.

They also said they strictly look over all the applications that come from third-party registration agencies before sending out registration cards.  But this time, Buddy the dog made it through the system.

“We’re going to have a lot of people that are registered to vote that shouldn’t be able to vote,” the dog owner said.

He said he has no intention of voting under Buddy’s name.

(source, view video)

Concerned about Voter Fraud in NC? NC TEA Party endorses the True The Vote program. Contact us to find out how to get involved!

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Kay R. Hagan (NC) today voted to oppose the “Blunt Amendment,” a far-reaching provision that would have given unprecedented authority to employers and insurers to deny women access to preventive services. Senator Roy Blunt (MO) proposed the provision as an amendment to the Surface Transportation bill, important bipartisan legislation that would help jumpstart the economy and create more than two million American jobs.

“It’s insulting to the American people that instead of focusing on job growth and the economy, some members of the Senate believe it is more important to play politics with women’s health,” Hagan said. “The Blunt amendment is a vast overreach that could lead to employers denying 600,000 North Carolina women access to vital preventive services-from mammograms to prenatal care – that saves lives and saves families. While I continue to support the religious exemption endorsed by the administration, which takes into consideration the concerns of religious organizations and requires insurance companies to reach out and offer contraceptive care free of charge, I cannot support a provision that threatens health coverage for women in North Carolina and across the country.”

Under current law, individuals are guaranteed access to free preventive services such as cancer screenings, flu vaccines, diabetes and annual checkups. The Blunt amendment would allow any employer or insurer to deny these or other services for vaguely defined objections that would take the power over a women’s health care out of her hands and into her employers’.

Washington, DC – U.S. Senators John McCain (R-AZ), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Dan Coats (R-IN), Ron Johnson (R-WI), and Richard Burr (R-NC) today introduced the Strengthening and Enhancing Cybersecurity by Using Research, Education, Information, and Technology Act (SECURE IT), their proposal to protect and secure our nation against cybersecurity attacks.

“The SECURE IT Act strengthens America’s cybersecurity by promoting collaboration and information-sharing, updating our criminal laws to account for the growing cyber threat and enhancing research programs to protect our critical networks,” said Senator John McCain. “This legislation will help us begin to meet the very real threat of cyber attack.”

“We are all in agreement that we need to make our nation’s cybersecurity a top priority. I believe we have come up with a strong common sense approach that will help prevent the spread of cyberattacks from network to network and across the Internet, by removing barriers to sharing information about threats, attacks, and strategies for improvement,” Senator Hutchison said. “Our bill focuses on giving businesses the tools they need to protect themselves from the looming threat of cyber criminals, and increased requirements for notification of threats to federal agencies.”

“As our nation faces increasing cyber attacks in a critical economic environment, we must ensure that the private sector has the authority it needs to defend its own networks and share cyber threat information to prevent future attacks,” Senator Chambliss said. “Now is not the time for Congress to be adding more government, more regulation, and more debt – especially when it is far from clear that any of it will enhance our security. Our bill offers the right solution to improving our nation’s cybersecurity by encouraging collaboration, investment, and innovation.”

“Our bill represents a new way forward in protecting the American people and the country’s cyber infrastructure from attack. It’s a bill that can be supported by all partners that have an interest in cybersecurity. Instead of the heavy hand of the government, our approach promotes information sharing and keeps the taxpayers’ wallets close,” said Senator Grassley.

“Rather than arming Homeland Security with expansive new regulatory authority over every sector of our economy, the SECURE IT cyber bill we’ve introduced today emphasizes a partnership approach between the government and private entities. By focusing on those areas like information sharing where bipartisan agreement is achievable, we can tackle the cyber issue in a meaningful and constructive way,” said Sen. Murkowski.

“After September 11, we broke down the barriers to information sharing and provided our intelligence and law enforcement professionals with the tools they need to keep us safe. Today, we must break down similar barriers that exist in cyber security to respond to the increasing number of attacks against private companies and the federal government,” said Senator Coats. “The SECURE IT Act will enable robust information sharing without creating costly layers of government bureaucracy or imposing new regulatory burdens on American businesses.”

“This bill recognizes that industry is at the center of any solution. It’s a sensible step forward that allows industry to invest in innovation and job creation rather than compliance. Imposing a costly and bureaucratic regulatory regime is the wrong approach to national security. New regulations will slow down innovation and investment while companies wait years for the government to introduce outdated standards,” said Sen. Johnson. “The regulatory process simply cannot keep up with the rapid pace of technology.”

“Cyber security is essential to our national security, and this bill takes a step in the right direction to ensure that our nation has the proper defenses in place to address threats to our nation’s systems and infrastructure. This bill takes fiscally responsible measures to protect against cyber threats by enhancing research and development, updating enforcement tools and penalties to reflect current threats, and promoting voluntary information sharing between the public and private sector without creating unnecessary bureaucracy or regulations,” said Senator Burr.

Co-sponsors of the proposal are U.S. Sens. John McCain, Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Ranking Member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, Chuck Grassley, Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Saxby Chambliss, Vice Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Lisa Murkowski, Ranking Member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Dan Coats, Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, and Ron Johnson, Ranking Member of the Senate Homeland Security Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia, and Richard Burr, Ranking Member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.

The SECURE IT Act will:

• Improve cybersecurity by collaborating with industry and eliminating barriers to enhanced information sharing.

• Create expedited information sharing for private sector using existing structures and reporting relationships.

• Require federal contractors who provide telecommunications or cybersecurity services for the federal government to report to the government cyber threat information related to those services.

• Strengthen criminal statutes for cyber crimes.

• Update the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) and preserve the roles of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Department of Commerce in disseminating security standards for the federal government.

• Leverage and strengthen existing programs in cybersecurity research and development.