Tea party groups nationwide pray for our nation on the last Saturday of each month.  This month’s prayer takes place at 10:00 a.m. Saturday, June 26^th  in Vassar.  The location is the pavilion on West Street behind the historical museum.  If you can’t join us, feel free to pray in your home, place of work or car on Saturday.

 

Have you seen tea parties in the news and wondered what they were?  You will have an opportunity to find out on June 28, 2010.  The Western Thumb TEA Party is meeting at the Rawson Memorial District Library, 6495 Pine St. Cass City, MI 48726.  The goal is to spread their message of shared values, free markets, fiscal responsibility, and limited government.   The meeting is 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.  Speakers will have information on cap and trade, immigration, and health care.  The meeting includes a question and answer period.  

Western Thumb TEA Party members are ordinary citizens with jobs and families who do this in their spare time because they love America and passionately believe in the values of the Founding Fathers and the United States Constitution.  Volunteers donate hundreds of hours building this movement to spread their message.  They believe freedom and our country are worth fighting for.  The Tea Party Movement protests started in Feb. 2009, in response to several Federal laws and policies containing pork barrel spending and earmarks.  The Boston Tea Party was a protest against British policies on imported tea.  On Dec 16, 1773, American colonists boarded three British ships in Boston Harbor and dumped the cargoes overboard. 

The Western Thumb TEA Party is committed to educating family, friends and neighbors.  Part of the TEA party experience is gaining enough information to make knowledgeable choices.  The doors open ant 6:00 p.m. and everyone is welcome.  For more information call 989-272-5416 or visit  www.tuscolatea.org or email tuscolatea@yahoo.com.

The impact of immigration on our public health system is often overlooked.  The cost of medical care for uninsured immigrants is passed onto the taxpayer, and strains the financial stability of our health care community.  The public is invited to hear Retired Lieutenant Commander John L McKenney of the United States Public Health Service present an overview of America’s Health Care delivery to detained illegal and criminal aliens.  The presentation is Thursday, June 17, at the Bullard Sanford Memorial Library, 520 W Huron, Vassar  from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m..
 
Vassar resident LCDR McKenney (ret) served 12 years in the United States Air Force. He  obtained his Bachelor's degree in Nursing and was commissioned in the USPHS.  He was detailed to the Department of Justice Immigration and Naturalization Service Health Care Program which provides health care to alien detainees.  He also accompanied the deportation of aliens with health and mental conditions while serving as the Chief Flight Nurse for the Immigration and Naturalization Service. 

LCDR McKenney gained first hand experience of American Immigration working with U.S. 
Border Patrol.  While under The Secretary of Health and Human Services, LCDR McKenney assisted in the establishment of the Refugee Health Clinic for the Haitaiin Refugees at Guantanamo, Bay Cuba in 1992.  He participated in the Repatriation Program of Mariel Cubans making 72 flights to Havana, Cuba returning 1,500 criminal and mentally ill Cubans. The Mariel boatlift was a mass exodus of Cubans who departed from Cuba's Mariel Harbor for the United States between April 15, and October 31, 1980.  The exodus started to have negative political implications for U.S. president Jimmy Carter when it was discovered that Castro emptied his prisons during the boatlift period.  Many released inmates were eventually arrested, convicted and jailed nationwide for crimes they committed after their arrival in the US.

LCDR McKenney served as a liaison officer for three Federal Prisons and multiple jails thru out Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee,  and Eastern Texas. As the liaison officer and Program Management officer for the New Orleans District INS office,  he  was responsible for the medical care, coordination and movement of criminal aliens outside the contract jail, investigation of suspected fraud cases with referral to US Attorneys for prosecution and alien deaths and assaults.  McKenney worked with Bureau of Prisons health providers when an alien was being released to Immigration custody.

The meeting is sponsored by The Western Thumb TEA Party which is committed to educating family, friends and neighbors.  Part of the TEA party experience is gaining enough information to make knowledgeable choices.  There will be information on immigration, health care, cap and trade.  Everyone is welcome.  For more information visit www.tuscolatea.org or email tuscolatea@yahoo.com or call 989-272-5416.

Lisa informed us that there are still openings for precinct delegates in the Republican Party.  That would be a way to influence the direction of the party and its choice of candidates the party would present to run in the general election in November for certain offices, like attorney general and secretary of state.  It is too late to get your name on the ballet, but there is still time to become a write-in.

Information of how to become a delegate is on the party page.

Information about how many precinct delegate positions are still available in the Democratic Party is unknown, but send us a message and we will get that information up as well.