Author: Craig Schulz

Ed Rendell, the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania and former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, told Fox News on Saturday that the Tea Party movement reflects the anger many Americans feel about the current state of the economy, but dismissed the notion of the Tea Party as a legitimate political movement.

“What’s happening,” Rendell said, “is the mainstream media – I’m not blaming the conservative media – I think the mainstream media has fallen for this… hook, line and sinker.”

Rendell specifically mentioned two recent Tea Party rallies in Washington to illustrate his point – the one held a week before the health care vote, and the other on Tax Day. Rendell said neither attracted more than a couple of thousand people to the National Mall.

“There’s just no clout behind this movement,” Rendell said. “It reflects what people feel, but the actual movement itself has no infrastructure, has no ability to bring a lot of people to key sites at key moments in time. If I organized a rally to have stronger laws to protect puppies, I would get 100,000 people in Washington without breaking a sweat.”

A recent Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll found 17% of the registered voters consider themselves a part of the Tea Party movement.

“They identify with the anger,” Rendell said. “I don’t think they identify with the movement. I don’t think the Tea Party has been very successful in fielding their own candidates. I don’t think they’ve been very successful in getting the number of signatures on petitions – we’ll see as we go through.”

Rendell did not question the suggestion that many Democrats identify with the Tea Party.

“There are Democrats who are angry about what’s gone on – they think the government should have done a better job watching Wall Street. Of course there is legitimate anger out there. The Tea Party is representative of a slice of that anger but to say that this is a political movement just doesn’t comport with the facts and the reality.”

An Ohio Congressmen who successfully passed legislation in his home state protecting military families from hate protesters at the funerals of U.S. soldiers is pushing to make his law a national precedent. Representative John Boccieri (D-OH) and fellow military veteran Duncan Hunter (R-CA) have introduced a House resolution that urges the Supreme Court to rule in favor of military families seeking to restrict the First Amendment rights of protestors at military funerals.

Boccieri told Fox News on Saturday “As a military veteran and current reservist, we would fight over and over again for their right to spew their venom and their hate. But they have to do it at a respectful distance. The right to free speech ends where the privacy of a family mourning the loss of a service member begins.”

While in the Ohio Legislature, Boccieri introduced and successfully passed House Bill 484, the Let Them Rest in Peace Act. It creates a 300 foot buffer between protestors and grieving families at funerals. The bill was signed into Ohio law May 2006.

Boccieri, a former C-130 pilot who flew missions during Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, says his law doesn’t prevent what he calls “hate groups” from “spewing their venom.” But he told Fox News the law keeps them at a respectful distance. “This is personal for me. I have flown wounded and fallen soldiers in and out of Baghdad.”

Boccieri said he wants the same protections guaranteed to other groups “Over and over again, and just as recently as 2000 in Colorado versus Hill Supreme Court case, they said whether it’s abortion clinic or whether it’s at a protest for political rally, they have to be at least 300 feet away. We are suggesting that the states that enacted these provisions, where they have said that the grieving family has a right to privacy, make the minimum distance 300 feet.”

The resolution was introduced Friday — just a few weeks after the Supreme Court announced it would hear the case of Snyder v. Phelps during its next term. The case focuses on a military father, who told a Baltimore jury how picketing by members of the Westboro Baptist Church at his son’s funeral in 2006, with signs like “Semper Fi Fags” and “Thank God for Dead Soldiers” stripped the dignity from the proceeding. Snyder was awarded $10 million, which was then cut in half on appeal. The judgment was ultimately reversed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, which ruled the group’s speech, offensive as it was, was constitutionally protected. The case was one of three the court announced it will consider in its new term that begins in October.

65 years after liberating six million Jews from Nazi concentration camps, 120 World War II veterans were honored in Washington on Thursday, perhaps the last time many of them will be able to gather together. With the average age of the World War II vets lying somewhere around 86 years old, no one knows how many Liberators will be here for the 70th anniversary.

CENTCOM Commander General David Petraeus led the ceremony at the U.S. Capitol and told the veterans in attendance that today’s servicemen and women stand on the shoulders of their generation. “The liberators with us here today should know that their actions continue to inspire those who wear our nation’s uniform,” Petraeus said. “Their units remain proud of their noble actions. Their courage and compassion feature prominently in the histories of the storied divisions whose colors are represented here today, and those qualities are etched in the hearts of all who hear of their valiant deeds.

“A generation of Americans fought in World War II and hundreds of thousands of them died, staring evil in the face, in the effort to defeat the Nazis and bring the Third Reich to an end,” Petraeus went on to say. “We, and indeed all of humanity, owe them an eternal debt of gratitude for accomplishing their mission in Europe and for giving Holocaust survivors the greatest gifts of all – their lives and their freedom.”

As a former commander of the 101st Airborne Division, Petraeus is keenly aware of the key role that unit played in the war against the Nazis. During World War II, members of the 101st division liberated Landsberg, a subcamp of Dachau.

“I know that some of you have arrived at a point in your lives when individuals inevitably begin to wonder what kind of footsteps they’ve left in the sands of time,” Petraeus said, addressing the Liberators. “Well, all of us here today and all those watching around the world want to assure you that you have written an extraordinary chapter in the history of mankind, that you have left huge footsteps and a clearly marked path of accomplishment, sacrifice, service, and compassion.

Today’s ceremony is part of a weeklong series of events. In a private ceremony at the National Holocaust Memorial Museum on Wednesday, Petraeus presented each Liberator with a coin, in the shape of the patch for the U.S. Central Command. On the back of the coin was the four-star flag of a U.S. Army General and the inscription “For Excellence.”

After Wednesdays’ tour, Petraeus spent the time taking photos and listening to the personal stories of many Liberators including Thomas Humphries of the 42nd Infantry Division. Humphries has a message for anyone who denies the Holocaust, “Don’t say it didn’t happen. I was there. I saw the bodies.”

Bill Creech of the 2nd Infantry Division summed his feelings about the weeklong event by saying “I’m honored to be in his (Petraeus’) presence.”

Fox News was there to see these WWII veterans honored this week. Tune into America’s News Headquarters this Sunday at 12:50PM ET to see the piece we put together.

Amid a climate of bitter partisanship, and following a bruising year-long congressional battle over health care, the newly-formed Coffee Party USA is attempting to counter the grassroots Tea Party movement with an organization committed to what it calls “open and civil” political discourse.

This weekend, the group held a Coffee Summit, encouraging interested parties to come together in local coffee houses across the country and discuss strategies for engaging members of Congress during the April recess.

Speaking to Shannon Bream on America’s News Headquarters, Annabel Park, the group’s founder explained that the basic principle of the group is very simple “it’s all about wanting to see civility in political discourse and seeing cooperation in the government.”

Park formed the group with a simple post on her Facebook page, then quickly realized there were a lot of other people who felt the way she did – that the political discourse had degenerated into shouting from both sides. To date, almost 200,000 people have signed up. She credits the group’s quick growth to the fact that “people want to be a part of the decision-making process.”

Some bill the group as a liberal alternative to the Tea Party, but Park says the group welcomes Americans from all political parties who are frustrated by government gridlock.

As for the Tea Party, Park says she doesn’t feel they are going about it the wrong way, just a different way.

She says the difference is that the Coffee Party “doesn’t want to declare war on the federal government. It wants to make sure the federal government is truly responsive to us.”

For more information on the Coffee Party click here.

Lexi Stemple contributed to this report.

Amtrak is setting its sights on high-speed. The government-owned corporation that provides a majority of intercity rail service in the U.S. is forming a High-Speed Rail Department, the primary focus of which will be the heavily traveled Northeast Corridor. The goals are to reduce travel time between Washington, DC and Boston, provide more frequent trains, and study the feasibility of increasing top speeds to 220 miles per hour.

In January, following his State of the Union Address, President Obama announced an $8 billion investment of Recovery Act funds for the development of high-speed rail corridors. The first major projects to receive these funds are in Florida, where planning is underway on a high-speed rail line linking Tampa and Orlando, and California, where planners are working on a project that would connect Los Angeles and San Francisco with trains running up to 220 miles per hour.

The California project, in particular, has been the subject of some criticism lately, as projected ticket prices have nearly doubled, pushing ridership estimates down and raising concern even among some supporters. At issue are financial promises made to voters in 2008 that no local, state or federal subsidies would be required to keep the trains operating. Now some are concerned that the project may require more than the $9 billion in bonds California voters approved.

Other critics suggest the Obama Administration’s relatively paltry outlay of funds for the two massive projects in California and Florida represents a flawed strategy for spending on high-speed rail development. In a blog post for the Progressive Policy Institute, noted rail expert Mark Reutter argues that more funds should have been allocated to these projects to help get them off the ground. And, he points out, many of the other projects in the Obama plan wouldn’t qualify as high-speed rail by international standards.

“Amtrak is the unparalleled leader in high-speed rail operations in America today and we intend to be a major player in the development and operation of new corridors,” said Amtrak President and CEO Joseph Boardman, noting the railroad is the only one in America to operate passenger trains at 150 mph. “New high-speed rail services, linked together with conventional intercity passenger rail and local transit, are a key part of a sustainable future for America.”

Photo courtesy Associated Press