Congressman works with constituency on border security

[StokeyBob]

The congressman in Fremont, California works with his constituents on border security.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qVpMwqv7QM

[wetibbe]

Stark is another Pelosi mentality panderer. Obviously if he has been in office for 38 years he has a good understanding of what many of his constituents want.

The most astonishing thing about Starks comments is that he seems to actually favor illegal aliens over his own fellow countrymen.

I can't recall such a smug, arrogant politician that so abusively mocked and derided the people.

You would know it, Starks district borders San Francisco. Pelosi is his neighbor. He is open borders amnesty.

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Fortney Hillman "Pete" Stark, Jr. (born November 11, 1931) is an American politician from the state of California. A Democrat, he has been a member of the U.S. House of Representatives since 1973 (37 years), currently representing California's 13th congressional district in southwestern Alameda County. Currently he is the sixth most senior Representative as well as 8th most senior member of Congress.

The 13th district includes Alameda, Union City, Hayward, Newark, San Leandro and Fremont, as well as parts of Oakland and Pleasanton. Stark lives in Maryland, although he maintains a townhouse in Fremont, California.[1]



Controversial statements
Stark has been known to make controversial statements through his political career.

In an August 23, 2008 video taped interview with Jan Helfeld concerning the size of the national debt, Stark stated that the size of the national debt is a reflection of the nation's wealth. When pressed if the nation should take on more debt in order to have more wealth, Stark threatened Helfeld and said, “You get the fuck out of here or I’ll throw you out the window.”[5]

In August 1990, Stark drew controversy for calling Health and Human Services Secretary Louis Wade Sullivan, an African American, "a disgrace to his race" for supporting Bush Administration policies that Stark called "bankrupt and damaging to minority members". Stark was criticizing a speech by Sullivan. Sullivan opposed proposals for federally-sponsored national health insurance when Stark had introduced legislation for national health insurance at the time. Stark said that Sullivan had been influenced by George H. W. Bush administration officials such as Office of Management and Budget Director Richard Darman and White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu to change his positions on both abortion and health care. Sullivan replied in a statement, saying in part, "I guess I should feel ashamed because Congressman Stark thinks I am not a 'good Negro.' As a Cabinet member who has spent almost four decades of my life dedicated to healing,…[I] am unable to express my own views without being subject to race-based criticism by those who are not ready to accept independent thinking by a black man." Stark later apologized for the controversy.[6][7]

In May 2004, Stark responded to a constituent Army National Guard member's letter critical of Stark's recent vote on the war in Iraq by immediately calling the service member's telephone and leaving a feisty response on voicemail which was later broadcast on San Francisco's talk radio station KSFO. Stark's harsh voicemail was transcribed as follows:

“ Dan, this is Congressman Pete Stark, and I just got your fax. And you don't know what you're talking about. So if you care about enlisted people, you wouldn't have voted for that thing either. But probably somebody put you up to this, and I'm not sure who it was, but I doubt if you could spell half the words in the letter, and somebody wrote it for you. So I don't pay much attention to it. But I'll call you back later and let you tell me more about why you think you're such a great goddamn hero and why you think that this generals [sic] and the Defense Department, who forced these poor enlisted guys to do what they did, shouldn't be held to account. That's the issue. So if you want to stick it to a bunch of enlisted guys, have your way. But if you want to get to the bottom of people who forced this awful program in Iraq, then you should understand more about it than you obviously do. Thanks.[8][9] ”

On October 18, 2007, Stark made the following comments on the House floor during a debate with Congressman Joe Barton of Texas: "Republicans sure don't care about finding $200 billion to fight the illegal war in Iraq. Where are you going to get that money? Are you going to tell us lies like you're telling us today? Is that how you're going to fund the war? You don't have money to fund the war or children. But you're going to spend it to blow up innocent people if we can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the President's amusement."[10][11] Following the initial criticism to his statements, when asked by a radio station if he would take back any of his statements, Stark responded "Absolutely not. I may have dishonored the Commander-in-Chief, but I think he’s done pretty well to dishonor himself without any help from me."[12] The same day, his office also issued a press release, saying in part, "I have nothing but respect for our brave men and women in uniform and wish them the very best. But I respect neither the Commander-in-Chief who keeps them in harms [sic] way nor the chickenhawks in Congress who vote to deny children health care."[13] Five days later on October 23, after the House voted down a censure resolution against Stark sponsored by Minority Leader John Boehner, he said, "I apologize for this reason: I think we have serious issues before us, the issue of providing medical care to children, the issue about what we’re going to do about a war that we’re divided about how to end."[14]

Other controversies include singling out "Jewish colleagues" for blame for the Persian Gulf War and referring to Congressman Stephen Solarz of New York (who co-sponsored the Gulf War Authorization Act) as "Field Marshal Solarz in the pro-Israel forces." in 1991.[15] In 1995, during a private meeting with Congresswoman Nancy Johnson of Connecticut, he called Johnson a "whore for the insurance industry" and suggested that her knowledge of health care came solely from "pillow talk" with her husband, a physician. His press secretary, Caleb Marshall, defended him in saying, "He didn't call her a 'whore,' he called her a 'whore of the insurance industry.'"[15] In 1999, he said to former California State Welfare Director Eloise Anderson, herself a former welfare mother, that she would "kill children if she had her way" for her advocacy of welfare reform.[7] In a 2001 Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health hearing on abstinence promotion, he referred to Congressman J. C. Watts of Oklahoma, an African American, as "the current Republican Conference Chairman, whose children were all born out of wedlock."[15] In 2003, when Stark was told to "shut up" by Congressman Scott McInnis of Colorado during a Ways and Means Committee meeting due to Stark's belittling of the chairman, Bill Thomas of California, he replied, "You think you are big enough to make me, you little wimp? Come on. Come over here and make me, I dare you. You little fruitcake."[15]

On August 27, 2009, Stark suggested that his moderate Democratic colleagues were "brain dead" for proposing changes to the health care reform bill being considered by Congress. Saying that they "just want to cause trouble," Stark claimed, "they're for the most part, I hate to say, brain dead, but they're just looking to raise money from insurance companies and promote a right-wing agenda that is not really very useful in this whole process" during a conference call. Stark believes that a public option which pays doctors rates based on Medicare would be less expensive for the government and for patients than a public option which negotiates rates itself.[16]

The San Francisco Chronicle editorialized on Stark, "Only a politician who assumes he has a job for life could behave so badly on a semi-regular basis by spewing personalized invective that might get him punched in certain East Bay taverns. Would-be challengers sometimes sense a whiff of opportunity, but the reality of taking on a 16-term Democrat in solidly liberal terrain is nothing short of daunting. Surely there must be someone along the shoreline between Alameda and Fremont who could represent the good citizens of the district with class and dignity. It's not the case now."[17]

During a town hall meeting, a constituent who opposed Barack Obama's health care plan told Stark, "Mr. Congressman, don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining." Stark responded with, "I wouldn't dignify you by peeing on your leg. It wouldn't be worth wasting the urine."[18]

In June 2010, when questioned on border security by a member of the Northern California Minutemen, Congressman Stark said "Who are you going to kill today?" and also accused the Minutemen groups of shooting innocents. Minutemen groups have not been recorded to have murdered anyone. [19] Congressman Stark also stated that "our borders are quite secure," which is contradicted by statements like those of Democrat Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick of Arizona that local police forces in border communities are being targeted by Mexican drug cartels. [20]

[StokeyBob]

At times it is kind of embarrassing having him represent me in Congress.

Here is a link to the Jan Helfeld video you mentioned.

The only way a bigger debt equals bigger wealth is if you take into account all of the people world wide that are having their savings devalued because we've printed up fiat money. It may be ripping off wealth for the nation but it has just about brought all of us that have been banking on the dollar to out knees.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjbPZAMked0

[StokeyBob]

P.S. Personally if a country resorts to counterfeiting and it results in the destroying of its citizens personal economies I think it is a sign of weakness. A very destructive weakness.

But then I don't have me one of them there prestigious economics college diploma's.

(luckily I do have spell check though.)