Archive for September, 2009
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So there you have it. If only America could drop its inefficient and antiquated system, designed in the age before globalization and modernity and, most damning of all, before the lantern of Thomas Friedman's intellect illuminated the land. If only enlightened experts could do the hard and necessary things that the new age requires, if only we could rely on these planners to set the ship of state right. Now, of course, there are "drawbacks" to such a system: crushing of dissidents with tanks, state control of reproduction, government control of the press and the internet. Omelets and broken eggs, as they say. More to the point, Friedman insists, these "drawbacks" pale in comparison to the system we have today here in America.
I cannot begin to tell you how this is exactly the argument that was made by American fans of Mussolini in the 1920s. It is exactly the argument that was made in defense of Stalin and Lenin before him
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At least 44 more moderate Members of the Democrat Caucus have gone on the record in opposition to the current health care bill in the House, a Hill source claims. Likewise, at least 57 liberal Members of the Democrat Caucus have gone on the record saying they will vote against a health care bill without a strong public option.
Unless multiple Democrats flip on their stated position on health care, Speaker Pelosi lacks the votes to pass a bill through the House on the strength of Democrat votes alone.
WHIP COUNT
44 Democrats Opposed
1. Rep. Altmire
2. Rep. Adler
3. Rep. Barrow
4. Rep. Boren
5. Rep. Boucher
6. Rep. Boyd
7. Rep. Bright
8. Rep. Carney
9. Rep. Childers
11. Rep. Cleaver
12. Rep. Cooper
13. Rep. Costello
14. Rep. Cuellar
15. Rep. Dahlkamper
16. Rep. Davis
17. Rep. Driehaus
18. Rep. Ellsworth
19. Rep. Gordon
20. Rep. Griffith
21. Rep. Halvorson
22. Rep. Hill
23. Rep. Holden
24. Rep. Kanjorski
25. Rep. Kaptur
26. Rep. F Kratovil
27. Rep. Marshall
28. Rep. Massa
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Doctors left a premature baby to die because he was born two days too early, his devastated mother claimed yesterday.
Sarah Capewell begged them to save her tiny son, who was born just 21 weeks and five days into her pregnancy – almost four months early.
They ignored her pleas and allegedly told her they were following national guidelines that babies born before 22 weeks should not be given medical treatment.
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By foolishly trying to reduce all objections to healthcare reform to the malevolence of obstructionist Republicans, Democrats have managed to destroy the national coalition that elected Obama and that is unlikely to be repaired. If Obama fails to win reelection, let the blame be first laid at the door of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who at a pivotal point threw gasoline on the flames by comparing angry American citizens to Nazis. It is theoretically possible that Obama could turn the situation around with a strong speech on healthcare to Congress this week, but after a summer of grisly hemorrhaging, too much damage has been done. At this point, Democrats' main hope for the 2012 presidential election is that Republicans nominate another hopelessly feeble candidate. Given the GOP's facility for shooting itself in the foot, that may well happen.
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Obama's poll numbers have been improving steadily over the last week. Theory: people like Democrats much better when they are not talking about health care. Corollary: the liberal commentators saying that no, really, health care is in a good position to pass are indulging in wishful thinking. (To be sure, it is possible to level exactly the same accusation at me).
The Townhall ruckuses were not the end of the Republican opposition on health care. They were the beginning. There is an observed regularity in politics so consistent that I am tempted to dub it Megan's First Law of Politics: intentions are more popular than concrete proposals. As long as there was no one Obama Plan on the table, people could project their fondest dreams onto the president. Once there are plans on the table, Republicans will be able to attack specific propositions that are specifically attached to the president.
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In a pep talk that kept clear of politics, President Barack Obama on Tuesday challenged the nation's students to take pride in their education – and stick with it even if they don't like every class or must overcome tough circumstances at home.
"Every single one of you has something that you're good at. Every single one of you has something to offer," Obama told students at Wakefield High School in suburban Arlington, Va., and children watching his speech on television in schools across the country. "And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is."
Presidents often visit schools, and Obama was not the first one to offer a back-to-school address aimed at millions of students in every grade.
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Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.), the Blue Dog congressman who battled with Democratic Party leaders for much of July before reaching an agreement on health-care reform legislation, said Tuesday that he could no longer back the government-insurance option included in the bill he voted for before the congressional recess.
"I have been skeptical about the public health insurance option from the beginning and used August to get feedback from you, my constituents," he wrote in a statement his office released publicly. "An overwhelming number of you oppose a government-run health insurance option, and it is your feedback that has led me to oppose the public option as well."
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Writing in the New York Times last month, President Barack Obama asked that Americans "talk with one another, and not over one another" as our health-care debate moves forward.
I couldn't agree more. Let's engage the other side's arguments, and let's allow Americans to decide for themselves whether the Democrats' health-care proposals should become governing law.
Some 45 years ago Ronald Reagan said that "no one in this country should be denied medical care because of a lack of funds." Each of us knows that we have an obligation to care for the old, the young and the sick. We stand strongest when we stand with the weakest among us.
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While White House spokesman Robert Gibbs today refrained from telling reporters whether President Obama in his speech Wednesday night will set a deadline for passing health care reform, sources tell ABC News that in his private meeting with Democratic congressional leaders this afternoon the key word was urgency.
The president told House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., that it is important for them to pass health care reform bills soon, the sources said.
Both leaders told the president that despite the difficult rough and tumble of the legislative process in the last few weeks, they are optimistic that both the House and Senate can pass health care reform legislation.
What will be in the bill remains an open question, though after the meeting, Reid told reporters that “we're going to do our very best to have a public option or something like a public option before we finish this work.â€
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It may be over for Obamacare as the President envisions it as his speech tonight before a Joint Session of Congress falls way short.
Republicans even heckled the President.
The nastiness of August reached from the nation’s town halls into the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday as President Barack Obama tried to move his health care plan forward.
South Carolina Republican Rep. Joe Wilson shouted “You lie!” after Obama had talked about illegal immigrants.
It wasn’t the only interruption during Obama’s speech to a joint session of Congress in the House of Representatives. Earlier, Republicans laughed when Obama acknowledged that there are still significant details to be worked out before a health overhaul can be passed.
The poll:
Public disapproval of President Barack Obama’s handling of health care has jumped to 52 percent, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll released hours before he makes his case for overhaul in a prime-time address to Congress.
With his health revamp moving slowly and unemployment edging ever higher, Obama’s overall approval rating has also suffered a blow. The survey showed that 49 percent now disapprove of how he is handling his job as president, up from 42 percent who disapproved in July.
The grade people give Obama on health care also has worsened since July, when just 43 percent disapproved of his work on the issue.
The poll underscores how the president has struggled to win public support to reshape the nation’s $2.5 trillion health care system and to put the brakes on a deep recession.
Forty-nine percent say they oppose the health overhaul plans being considered by Congress, compared to just 34 percent who favor them.
People are about evenly split over what lawmakers should do now on health care: About four in 10 say they should keep trying to pass a bill this year while about the same number say they should start over again.
Some incremental health care reform on pre-existing conditions and portability of private medical insurance coverage MAY happen but a universal government run health care system is NOT in the cards, nor is a Trojan Horse backdoor “Public Option” or “Co-Op”plan.
If Pelosi and Reid ram Obamacare with a “Public Option” through the U.S. Senate with reconciliation, Obama may very well lose a Democrat majority in the House in 2010.
Then, the program will be reversed because the House would then refuse to fund it or raise the debt ceiling.
Will Obama roll the dice?
Technorati Tags: Obamacare, Barack Obama
Tags: Barack Obama, Joe Wilson, Obamacare
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On Wednesday, President Obama makes a last-minute desperate attempt to salvage his widely rejected government-run health care plan. After a bruising reality check from the American public, the Democrats are now scrambling in disarray as they figure out what do to about their rejected push for government-run health care.
Now, I hear that Obama is backing away from a “public option” over concern for the federal deficit.
Is this Obama’s way out of his nationalization of American private health care? Or more obfuscation?
Disarray is a kind term.
The LEFTISTS know what they want (government run health care) and the American public is NOT buying it.
Something will have to give.
Stay tuned…..
Technorati Tags: Obamacare
Tags: Obamacare
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Day By Day by Chris Muir
President Obama will be calling in his political chits tonight as he and Congressional Democrats attempt to RAM through their nationalization of private American health care. Obama will deliver a speech before a Joint Session of Congress to be broadcast throughout the nation.
Groan – another campaign speech.
This time the White House is spinning the fact that Obama will spell out DETAILS.
The American people understand what Obama and his merry band of Congressional Leftists ultimately want to accomplish – the end of private medical care. So, what details?
Calling Obamacare in and making a campaign speech ain’t going to cut it.
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Day By Day by Chris Muir
President Obama’s address to america’s school children next week is a classic left-wing symbolism over substance event.
Obama is cratering in the polls with the nation’s unemployment rate reaching historic records. So, why is he bothering with the kids?
Are Obama, Rahm and Axelrod in denial? Do they REALLY think a fancy speech like the Hope and Change mantra from the 2008 campaign will turn America around?
Delusions of grandeur.
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In blogging matters, Flap is on a Labor Day vacation in Nevada. Blogging will be interspersed with twitter —–>, poker and
lots of exercise.
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California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner’s campaign sent out a Web video Friday knocking former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, his chief rival for California's Republican nomination for governor, for past statements praising White House green jobs czar Van Jones.
Jones apologized Thursday night for a series of controversial statements on race and politics that came into focus after a video surfaced of him calling Republicans “a**holes.â€
Since Jones’ comments went viral, Whitman has been under fire in state political circles for telling the San Francisco Chronicle in May that she is a “huge fan†of Jones.
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From a Nexis search a few moments ago:
Total words about the Van Jones controversy in the New York Times: 0.
Total words about the Van Jones controversy in the Washington Post: 0.
Total words about the Van Jones controversy on NBC Nightly News: 0.
Total words about the Van Jones controversy on ABC World News: 0.
Total words about the Van Jones controversy on CBS Evening News: 0.
If you were to receive all your news from any one of these outlets, or even all of them together, and you heard about some sort of controversy involving President Obama's Special Adviser for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, your response would be, "Huh?" If you heard that that adviser, Van Jones, had apologized for a number of remarks and positions in the recent past, your response would be, "What?" And if you were in the Obama White House monitoring the Jones situation, you would be hoping that the news organizations listed above continue to hold the line
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kf hears today is the day the MSM (not just Tapper) officially turns on Van Jones, the White House "green jobs" adviser who signed a 2004 Truther petition. 'Gone by midnight' is the prediction. He's on the Liverpool Care Pathway! Soon he'll meet with his death panel and be under the bus! … Obama presumably doesn't want the controversy to bleed into post-Labor Day Speech Week. … Update: Ambinder's page hears the same tom toms. …
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Nevada's unemployment rate jumped a half percentage point in July to reach 12.5 percent, setting a new record, the Nevada Department of Employment, Training & Rehabilitation reports.
For the Reno-Sparks area the rate was 12.2 percent while the Las Vegas area was at 13.1 percent.
There's an estimated 179,300 Nevadans unemployed and seeking work, DETR said.
“Nevada is in the midst of the longest, deepest recession since World War II, and recent labor market trends show no sign of improvement, particularly unemployment, which has surged at a record pace in recent months,†William Anderson, DETR chief economist, said in a statement. “Since April, the jobless rate increased 1.9 percentage points, adding 27,600 to the ranks of the unemployed. It’s the largest three-month surge on a percentage basis going back to 1976.â€
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The unemployment rate jumped almost half a point to 9.7 percent in August, the highest since 1983, reflecting a poor job market that will make it hard for the economy to begin a sustained recovery.
While the jobless rate rose more than expected, the economy shed a net total of 216,000 jobs, less than July's revised 276,000 and the fewest monthly losses in a year, according to Labor Department data released Friday. Economists expected the unemployment rate to rise to 9.5 percent from July's 9.4 percent and job reductions to total 225,000.
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Yesterday, news broke out that Barack Obama's communist Green Czar was a 9-11 Truther. The administration much later in the day released a statement saying Van Jones was "not now or ever" involved in the 9-11 Truther movement.
Jones said the petition he signed in 2004 did not reflect his views and that he did not carefully review the language in the petition before agreeing to add his name.
Not true.
This article at Rense.com from 2002 links Van Jones to the 9-11 Truther movement at its infancy:
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Day By Day by Chris Muir
Well, Chris, screaming for attention today on the LEFT is the Van Jones, Obama’s “Green Job’s” Czar or adviser FLAP.
Now, even the Republicans are picking it up like buzzards over “dead meat” with GOP Rep. Mike Pence calling for Van Jones’ resignation and examination of all of Obama’s 30 some odd Czars who have not been vetted by the Congress.
Another “distraction” for the President?
Plus Ca Change.
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In blogging matters, Flap is on a Labor Day vacation in Nevada. Blogging will be interspersed with twitter —–>, poker and lots of exercise.
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