A protest was held against Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Gold River) before Tuesday's town hall meeting at with the protesters voicing their disapproval of the congressman.
Mark Hefflinger of the CREDO SuperPAC helped organize the protest along with other constituents. Hefflinger said the main message that he and the protesters hoped to get across is Lungren's "extreme" views makes him unfit to run for congress.
"Congressman Dan Lungren is a leader in the Republican war on women," he said. "He has voted to redefine rape, he has voted to de-fund Planned Parenthood and Californian women need to hold him accountable for these stoned-aged views and vote him out in November."
Hefflinger also said that Lungren and his members of Congress are far behind in science because he claims they do not believe in climate change.
"We are also an awareness campaign to tell these five members of Congress, who aren't even accepting the basics that scientists agree on, which is that climate change is real," he said.
Scott Sanders, a U.S. Navy veteran who is now a sophomore at American River College, also protested against Lungren before the town hall meeting because he does not agree with his views.
"Everything he's for, I'm against and everything he's against, I'm for it," Sanders said. "He's part of the war on women and I find that hypocritical because I feel that if you truly believe in smaller government, which is what the Tea Party believes in, then that should mean that government should be out of our lives without exception, and for him to say that, 'Oh we want government out of everything, except women's lives and their ability to make a choice,' I find that very hypocritical."
During the town hall meeting, dozens of Elk Grove and Sacramento County citizens came up to voice their opinions, most of them disapproving of Lungren. There was only one instance where the protesters heckled Lungren and he immediately asked for order and civility. The few supporters of Lungren in the crowd applauded him for restoring order.
The supporters of Lungren included Lisa Garcia, a Sacramento County resident and state employee. She praised Lungren for supporting Megan's Law and the Three Strikes Law.
"We need to live in a society that keeps us free from criminals and although there are some flaws of the Three Strikes Law obviously, I think we need to be able to protect our communities and get people off our streets, especially when they're habitual offenders," Garcia said.
Garcia also said she does not believe money should be taken out of her paycheck to pay for entitlement programs that most of the protesters were asking for.
"I work part-time because of a back injury yet I've been furloughed, they take money out of my paycheck and tell me how to live without it, but yet I hear these people constantly asking to be given more and more and more. We can't sustain this entitlement.
"Don't get me wrong, we got a lot of people who got a lot of issues, but our government isn't going to be able to fix it all because there isn't enough money to go around. We're broke in the state of California. Where do these people think that money is going to come from?"
Jake Rambo of the Elk Grove Unified School District Board of Education told Lungren that George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind Act needs revision because it is a broad, nationwide act that does not focus exactly on each cities' school district's individual needs specifically.
"The needs of Elk Grove are different than the needs of Waukesha, Wisc. The challenges that each school system faces in other cities are different than the challenges of south Sacramento," Rambo said. "We've got to have a system in place that addresses all that so that the kid in Rancho Cordova is getting the education that the kids in Rancho Cordova need, while the kids in Sandy, Utah, are getting the education they need–not the education that's designed one-size-fits-all in Washington by the bureaucrats."
Lungren will also hold a town hall meeting Thursday in Folsom at the Folsom Community Center and one in Carmichael on Aug. 22 at the John Smith Hall of the La Sierra Community Center. The protesters plan to be at those meetings as well.
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Of course, as Mr. Rambo states, each area of our country has distinct educational needs. However, the most crucial skills students need to master are reading comprehension, writing, and math. Those are the universal skills necessary for success no matter where one lives. That's what the Obama Administration recognized and is now attempting to improve upon with the "Race to the Top" and the "Common Core Standards". Dr. Bera recognizes this and will work with the Obama Administration and our state to advance education for all our kids. Congressman Lungren, on the other hand, is lock-step with the other republicans in Congress: "If it's an Obama idea, it's got to be bad!"
Meanwhile, Republican Senators vote against anti-domestic violence legislation, … Romney, Ryan, and the Congressional GOP leadership vow to "kill ObamaCare", including all of the components within the ACA that provide affordable preventative health care for women and children, … Congressional and state Republican legislators strive to make affordable access to contraception and breast cancer screenings more difficult with their assault on PP and employee health insurance coverage, … female state legislators are shunned and silenced for uttering the word "vagina" (gasp) during an abortion debate, … GOP-controlled state legislatures mandate that women seeking an abortion provide social conservative politicians with "a womb with a view". … and none other than Paul Ryan advocated a federal ban on abortion, in-vitro fertilization, and most forms of birth control, as well as a national mandate on the forced ultrasound requirement for women. So much for the tea party/conservative movement's mantra: "small, non-intrusive government". The 2012 GOP campaign slogan: A chicken in every pot and a spy-cam in every uterus. American women to Republican Party: "WE will decide whether or not our rights are being assaulted by conservative policies, thank you very much."
We can sign up with the FCC to make sales people leave us alone but not our own government officials. They are free to harass us as much as they want.
"Due to the Mississippi River's low water levels, salt water has been moving far upriver and was at the outskirts of New Orleans by Wednesday, nearly 90 miles north of the mouth of the Mississippi. Also Wednesday, Plaquemines Parish issued an advisory to parish residents that high levels of sodium and chloride were being measured in drinking water." (http://blog.gulflive.com/mississippi-press-news/2012/08/salt_water_encroaching_low_mis.html). Brain-dead zombie denial idiots! We'll ALL die for their stupidity.
Require the rich to pay up to 100% for social security will save that and the affordable health act will save medicare. Don't be concerned the liars are a small group who just wants to cause trouble. Many teapugs don't even understand that medicare is a federal program but is handled by the states. Smaller govt, but don't touch my medicare is a teapug refrain. The press should stop its following of these fools around because they may say something inflammatory but actually they just say stupid thought they should keep to themselves.
http://www.countercurrents.org/cd150812.htm If you own beachfront property, I'd sell it NOW.