<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" ><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;"><DIV>I wonder if they are also aiming to abolish the rule of only one wife at a time.</DIV>
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<DIV>Your Friend,</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Donovan Arnold<BR><BR>--- On <B>Tue, 1/19/10, Tom Hansen <I><thansen@moscow.com></I></B> wrote:<BR></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="BORDER-LEFT: rgb(16,16,255) 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px"><BR>From: Tom Hansen <thansen@moscow.com><BR>Subject: [Vision2020] New Idaho House group, Tea Party Back Same Ideals<BR>To: "Moscow Vision 2020" <vision2020@moscow.com><BR>Date: Tuesday, January 19, 2010, 4:37 PM<BR><BR>
<DIV class=plainMail>This would be a great topic to bring before the state Democratic Caucus,<BR>but I understand their doors are closed.<BR><BR>Ah, well, as my friend stated . . .<BR><BR>"So much for transparency!"<BR><BR>With special thanks to a friend and long-time Viz subscriber, courtesy of<BR>the Idaho Statesman at:<BR><BR><A href="http://www.idahostatesman.com/531/story/1046455.html" target=_blank>http://www.idahostatesman.com/531/story/1046455.html</A><BR><BR>-------------------------------------------------------<BR><BR>New Idaho House group, Tea Party back same ideals<BR>By JOHN MILLER - Associated Press Writer<BR><BR>As 400 Tea Party activists rallied outside the Idaho Capitol on Monday to<BR>shout down federal government, more than a dozen lawmakers have quietly<BR>formed a smaller but equally conservative new group inside the building to<BR>pursue similar goals: promote gun rights, kill health care reform, maybe<BR>even abolish the Federal
Reserve.<BR><BR>Members of this ad-hoc state House group, which has drafted a charter<BR>called "Platform for Prosperity" after a similar Republican movement in<BR>Colorado, said they aren't directly linked to the organizers of the<BR>hourlong Tea Party gathering on the Capitol's south steps.<BR><BR>Still, at least four Platform affiliates were featured speakers:<BR>Republican Reps. Raul Labrador of Eagle, Pete Nielsen of Mountain Home,<BR>Phil Hart of <SPAN>Athol</SPAN> and Lynn Luker of Boise. Others in the group included<BR>Reps. Steve Thayn of Emmett, Steve Hartgen of Twin Falls, Janice McGeachin<BR>of Idaho Falls and Marv <SPAN>Hagedorn</SPAN> of Meridian.<BR><BR>After three meetings since late last year, its members are promising<BR>legislation in 2010, including measures aimed at cutting Idaho's income<BR>tax rate; requiring that silver mined from northern Idaho be accepted as<BR>payment for taxes; abolishing mandatory licensing for midwives;
and<BR>scuttling President Obama's health care reform, should it pass Congress.<BR><BR>"I think we have an ear for what the Tea Party movement is saying," said<BR>Hartgen, on how these two groups' interests have converged. "People are on<BR>fire about these issues. These people aren't protesters. They are American<BR>citizens."<BR><BR>In November, about 25 current and former GOP Colorado lawmakers, including<BR>ex-U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, unveiled their own conservative "Platform for<BR>Prosperity" to oppose tax hikes and new fees, back loosening oil and gas<BR>regulations, and win back the governor's office.<BR><BR>Thayn, a second-term lawmaker from southwestern Idaho, said the Colorado<BR>message resonated so much with the Idaho House's conservative wing that<BR>some of them decided to follow suit.<BR><BR>Their platform includes strengthening the economy, defending U.S.<BR>citizenship and pushing back against a "federal government that is too<BR>big,
too intrusive and all too eager to seize power from the states."<BR><BR>In a letter Thayn intended for Platform for Prosperity members last week<BR>and obtained by The Associated Press, he also wrote of efforts to "alter<BR>and repair some of the damage done during the Lincoln years and shortly<BR>after the Civil War."<BR><BR>Thayn said he was referring to unchecked expansion of government he<BR>believes began in the mid-19th century.<BR><BR>"What we're seeing is the growth of the federal government - and the loss<BR>of power at the state level," he said.<BR><BR>That same frustration boiled at Monday's Tea Party rally, with protesters<BR>carrying signs still questioning if Obama was born on U.S. soil and<BR>accusing fat-cat bankers of profiting from bailouts while bankrupting<BR>America. The event drew just a fifth of the 2,000 people who attended a<BR>Boise Tea Party event last April, but many remain angry.<BR><BR>"I want to support and/or foster the
nonviolent overthrow of the Obama<BR>administration," said Boise resident Roger Wood.<BR><BR>Wood had just heard Rep. Phil Hart, another Platform for Prosperity<BR>member, rail against the Federal Reserve banking system as "offensive to<BR>scripture" in the Bible, including the Old Testament's Leviticus.<BR><BR>Hart, who in the 1990s refused to pay personal income tax for seven years<BR>while unsuccessfully challenging the constitutionality of federal tax<BR>laws, described the new House group as a bulwark to promote ideals shared<BR>by many Tea Party members inside the state Capitol.<BR><BR>"We are for nullifying anything coming out of Washington, D.C., where they<BR>don't have constitutional authority to act," he told the AP.<BR><BR>-------------------------------------------------------<BR><BR>Seeya round town, Moscow.<BR><BR>Tom Hansen<BR>Moscow, Idaho<BR><BR>"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change<BR>and the
Realist adjusts his sails."<BR><BR>- Unknown<BR><BR><BR>=======================================================<BR>List services made available by First Step Internet, <BR>serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994. <BR> <A href="http://www.fsr.net/" target=_blank>http://www.fsr.net</A> <BR> mailto:<A href="http://us.mc447.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=Vision2020@moscow.com" ymailto="mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com">Vision2020@moscow.com</A><BR>=======================================================<BR></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></td></tr></table><br>