Breaking: SCOTUS won’t fast-track Obamacare challenges
Coming across the wires just now is news that the Supreme Court has rejected a request by Virginia's AG to directly take up the case of Obamacare's constitutionality. Via NBC:
The Supreme Court has rejected a request from the state of Virginia to take up a challenge to the Obama health care law on a fast track.
The court's decision means the issue will continue working its way through the federal appeals courts. Several cases are pending, including challenges to the law from Virginia, Florida, and 25 other states.
The cases are moving quickly through the appeals courts. The two Virginia cases will be heard by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals on May 10th. The Michigan case will be heard by the 6th Circuit on June 1st, and the case from Florida, with the challenges from over half the states, will be argued before the 11th Circuit appeals court on June 8th.
Well, that's, er, interesting eh? So it seems that unless all decisions rendered in these appeals are in agreement, definitive, and go unchallenged by the involved parties (fat chance!), the SCOTUS will probably take up the issue next fall; just in time for the 2012 election cycle to get into full swing. But really, that's neither here nor there-so to speak, since only in fantasy-land would informed voters not think that Obamacare would be part of the campaign 2012 debate.
As an aside, the NBC article notes that the press release didn't indicate that any of the justices would be recusing themselves from hearing the case. I personally don't think that it is as a definitive a reading-between-the-lines as NBC's Pete Williams took it to be; after all, the case hasn't actually made it to their docket yet. And while I ultimately don't expect Justice Kagan to recuse herself based on her service as Solicitor General, that bridge will be crossed when SCOTUS actually takes up the case. Regardless, forces on the port side of the political spectrum have been occasionally pre-emptively arguing that should Kagan have to sit this one out, then so too should Thomas based on his wife's past employment and activism.
As always, that's a specious apples-to-oranges rhetorical comparison, but, hey, some things never change...
Your thoughts,comments, and insight are always appreciated.
Federal Judge declares Obamacare unconstitutional and not severable
Which in plain english means that the entire law is null and void. Some of Judge Vinson's opinion via Dave Weigel at Slate:
Because the individual mandate is unconstitutional and not severable, the entire Act must be declared void. This has been a difficult decision to reach, and I am aware that it will have indeterminable implications. At a time when there is virtually unanimous agreement that health care reform is needed in this country, it is hard to invalidate and strike down a statute titled "The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act."
But what is really sweet is this sentance which lends some insight into the Judge's thinking:
It is difficult to imagine that a nation which began, at least in part, as the result of opposition to a British mandate giving the East India Company a monopoly and imposing a nominal tax on all tea sold in America would have set out to create a government with the power to force people to buy tea in the first place.
Wow...What do you bet, that in the coming interval until SCOTUS takes up the almost certain appeal of this ruling, that Judge Vinson is decried as an obviously partisan filthy teabagger, by the CIVILITY NOW! crowd that Obama counts among his allies on the progressive left? Let's just say if one could bet on that possibility, like one can on sporting events in Vegas, that I would be taking the "over"...
Now I wouldn't be throwing any victory celebrations just yet, as this still has to go through SCOTUS. But it seems as if Judge Vinson has provided a lot of considered thought here in his decision. And, God willing, maybe the Robert's court can use this as a basis to not only declare Obamacare dead, but establish more firm limits on the oft-abused commerce clause of the US constitution.
As an addendum, I'll just present this observation by AllahP:
A fun fact about ObamaCare: Unlike virtually every other federal statute, it contains no “severabililty clause” at the end requesting that if any part of it should be held unconstitutional in court, the rest should be preserved as good law. Vinson actually mentions that fact in the opinion and notes that an earlier draft of the law did contain such a clause, suggesting that it was deliberately dropped because even Congress agrees that you can’t sever any one part from such an elaborate scheme. The truth, however, may be more prosaic: According to a Democratic aide who spoke to the Times back in November, the clause was omitted because of … an “oversight.” Oops!
I guess Madame Pelosi was right after all, stopped clocks being such occasionally; we really did have to pass the bill to find out what was in it.
Thoughts? Opinions? I'd love to hear them.
(H/T JeffG. Pablo in the PW comments, and Drudge)
Good News! Obama saved us
The savior, or, well, you know...
From the economic mess we're in; or at least, that's what he said today:
Obama tells NBC in an interview that "nobody in the White House is satisfied" with continuing high unemployment.
But he also says the midterm congressional elections could come down to "a choice between the policies that got us into this mess and my policies that got us out of this mess."
Right...Policies like the new "financial reform" bill, to be sure. A bill that, according to Chis Dodd, one of it's primary authors, "we won't really know what's in it until it's passed..."
Now, where have I we heard that one before, kind reader? Oh, right, from Granny Rictus McBotox Implants Cruella DeVille wanna-be, Pelosi, in regards to Obamacare. I feel real secure knowing that, just as with Obamacare, very few legislators actually know what's in the 2300 page bill-including one of its authors!; and that whatever scrumptious unintended consequences do arise, a certainty you can, er, take to the bank, will effect each of us on an intimate level. But, the financial bill itself will have to be a subject of another post; you know, after we actually find out what's in it. For now though, my instincts tell me that I'll probably be in agreement with Senator Shelby of Alabama who succinctly says, "Repeal it".
Still, I'm glad that Captain Kickazz and Sergeant Smartass are telling anyone who will listen how their redistributive, socialistic, policies have "got us out of this mess".
Too bad they didn't let anyone on Wall street know; or on Main street for that matter...
When masks slip, part…
Oh hell. we'd all better just get used to it; because the masks have seemingly come off since the passage of Obama's "historic, landmark" healthcare legislation. Do you recall how during the debate the mere allusion that Obamacare was essentially national medical care in the finest Euro-socialist tradition engendered the howling, screaming, crying and gnashing of teeth by any of it's supporters; and the subsequent labeling of the person making that observation as being among the RACIST!, hating, hicktard rubes, that, at once, didn't understand what was in their own economic interest as well as, you know, clearly wanting sick children to die?
Well, now that legislation has become "the law of the land", and there is no longer any need for such misdirection; at least as far as the Chairman of the Senate Finanace committee Max Baucus is concerned. Darleen at Protein Wisdom has the text of his breathtaking, but not surprising, remarks:
In an unusual speech on the Senate floor moments ago, Max Baucus declares that the “healthcare bill” to be “an income shift, it is a shift, a leveling to help lower income middle income Americans.” Baucus continued, “[t]oo often, much of late, the last couple three years the mal-distribution of income in America is gone up way too much, the wealthy are getting way, way too wealthy, and the middle income class is left behind. Wages have not kept up with increased income of the highest income in America. This legislation will have the effect of addressing that mal-distribution of income in America.”
[emphasis Darleen at PW]
So in Baucus' own words, the bill was about addressing the "maldistribution" of wealth in our society; gee, and here all of us rubes thought it was about healthcare. But I guess that's what we get for listening to Palin and the RETHUGS! Thanks for clearing that up Max! But while you're clearing things up, maybe you and Boss Obama will be so kind as to tell us just how many people are allowed to be wealthy in our society, and are non Obamites allowed to be rich? Or, is it only the Democrat Apparatchicks like yourself...
This is no real surprise though, at least for anyone who actually listened to the blather of the candidates during the primaries, and general, campaign. In addition to Obama's slip while speaking to Wurzelbacher, there was the very public allusion to penalizing the successful during the debate with Hillary in Philadelphia. Asked pointedly by ABC's Charles Gibson why then Candidate Obama so strongly supported raising capital gains taxes, when there is a large body of evidence correlating increasing rates with falling treasury revenues, the Presidential contender esentially answered, "because of the fairness!". And went on to elucidate, if that's the proper word to describe his characteristic "Wizard of Uhhhhhs" performances when he is sans teleprompter, that regardless of the effects on treasury revenues that it was time for the wealthier Americans to pay more of their income in taxes. Indeed this has been a strong meme among the Democrats since Al Gore lost in 2000; because as we all know, America is always socially fair and enjoying booming economic prosperity when Democrats are in the White House; and especially so when they control 1600 Pennsylvania avenue as well as both houses of Congress.
The Obamacare vote in the House last Sunday night was a shameful perversion of the very nature of "the people's house". Instead of acting as conduits for the exercise of the people's will, the Democrats overwhelmingly voted against it; indeed "our betters" were deciding what was good for us RAAAAAAAACIST!, hicktard plebes who had been duped into opposing the measure. And for those who blanched at both the arrogation of power by the House Democrats as well as the rising spectre of socialism that this bill really represents? Well good ol' Reverend Al was happy to remind us that, if this is indeed socialism, the majority of Americans voted for this last year anyway when they elected the wO!n.
But nothing could be further from the truth, Reverand Al. Obama went out of his way to masqerade as a centrist during the 2008 campaign, but has revealed himself to be the most socialistic leader this country has ever had-bar none. And while some of you may posit FDR as a strong contender for that crown, I'll remind you that despite taking advantage of the Great Depression, you know, not letting that good crisis go to waste and all, in order to place dramatic wage and price controls, hamstring business, and institute social security, he didn't go as far as the Obamacrats have. Obama is a compulsive liar who is bent on enacting his agenda by any means necessary-regardless of the effects on the American people. He and the other Marxist Democrats are willing to pull out all the stops in order to institute an agenda that they are convinced will bribe enough of the electorate to cement socialist Democrat majorities in perpetuity.
See more details at Hot Air and Ace's
(H/T AllahP at Hot Air)
New from the, “YOU LIE!”, department
YOU LIE!
Obama's been telling some real whoppers lately when it comes to characterizing the effects of his healthcare plan on insurance premiums, as outlined in this "AP fact check" piece. Now, I've been real critical of AP for spinning most reportage about the President and his agenda in the most favorable light possible, like the way the metrics on unemployment, retail sales, mortgages, and housing data always seem to be "unexpectedly" moving in the opposite of the desired direction. And that's exactly what makes this AP/Obama fact check piece so much more interesting; because they actually point out the liberties that Obama has taken with the truth about premiums under his proposed plan. Didn't he hear Rachel Maddow recently demanding that when debating Obamacare, we stick to the facts!
Buyers, beware: President Barack Obama says his health care overhaul will lower premiums by double digits, but check the fine print.
Premiums are likely to keep going up even if the health care bill passes, experts say. If cost controls work as advertised, annual increases would level off with time. But don't look for a rollback. Instead, the main reason premiums would be more affordable is that new government tax credits would help cover the cost for millions of people.
Listening to Obama pitch his plan, you might not realize that's how it works.
The plain "facts" are that Obamcare's mandates would essentially do away with the more modest benefit, high deductible, plans that are available today as well as preclude consideration of pre-existing conditions; 2 factors that are guaranteed to increase the individual, pre-tax-credit, costs. Last year, the CBO said as much, that premiums would increase, something that seemed to be missed amongst the flurry of legislative cost estimates for, what was at that time, several parallell, rapidly evolving, Senate Obamacare plans being considered. Heck, even Dick Durbin, a man known less for reality based pronouncements than party-line talking points, recently conceded that, "of course healthcare premiums will still go up, anyone who would stand before you and say 'well, if you pass healthcare reform that your next years premiums will go down ' I don't think is telling the truth..."
But, you know, I guess he didn't get the memo that day.
Still, it gets even better.
Obama asked his audience for a show of hands from people with employer-provided coverage, what most Americans have.
"Your employer, it's estimated, would see premiums fall by as much as 3,000 percent," said the president, "which means they could give you a raise."
A White House press spokesman later said the president misspoke; he had meant to say annual premiums would drop by $3,000.
It could be a long wait.
...
An analysis by the Congressional Budget Office of earlier Senate legislation suggested savings could be fairly modest.
It found that large employers would see premium savings of at most 3 percent compared with what their costs would have been without the legislation. That would be more like a few hundred dollars instead of several thousand.
Wow. I don't know what to think. Is this a typical Obama play-it-fast-and-loose-with-the-facts kind of gaffe? Does it show the desperation to avoid a political "Waterloo"; to convince people that Obamacare is in their "economic interest" (his fave euphamism for an entitlement bribe) regardless of just how far he needs to stretch the truth? Could it be that he's decided to pull out all of the bamboozling stops, in conjunction with all of the legislative chicanery going on in congress, in order to pass his plan? Or, could he and Robert Gibbs be playing a good-ol'-boys game of, "can you believe those hicktard rubes bought that whopper?". I mean, they could have a dinner at Ruth's Chris or Bobby Van's bet on it. Or maybe they're just doing it for the lulz...
Considering episodes like this, along with his disastrous interview appearance on Fox last night, one where he looked shifty, evasive, small, petty, and disingenuous, it's no surprise that even Gallup has him upside down in the polls. Effin' Gallup !
Gallup? AP? Who's next?
Obamacare Senate vote “incentives”: benevolence or bribery
A Trio of Trifling Twits
Virtuous or vogorish? I'll let you make the call, but any fair assessment will have to wait until Lord Reid allows us plebeians, and his fellow Senators to, you know, actually see the bill being voted on.Â
Still, some of the details of the compromises payoffs are out there already, and Cap'n Ed features a list of them:
Recall the moments in 2008 when Democrats like Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Barack Obama campaigned on the platform of — must … control … gag … reflex — “Honest Leadership, Open Government� This picture should jog your memories, and your own gag reflexes, especially that sanctimonious pose by Reid. The trio have managed to make themselves either satirists of the highest order or influence peddlers of the lowest while struggling to pass the second item on their legislative agenda.
It seems to me that if ObamaCare really reformed the process, we wouldn’t need all of these exceptions to its rules. After all, it’s supposed to “bend the cost curve downward†for everyone. If it does that, then why does Hawaii need a DSH extension? Why does Connecticut need exemptions for its hospitals and a $100 million grant, if we’re leveling the playing field?
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Cap'n Ed makes a great point in that last paragraph. Make sure you read the entire piece to get an idea of the magnitude of coin dropped on select members of the most ethical party-EVAR!,  enough that it caused them to see Obamacare in a whole new light. I won't invoke the old joke about prostitutes and prices, but it seems that the Senators detailed have revealed how much their individual ethoses (ethoi, ethe?) are worth.
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Some though, like Tom Harkin, are more up-front about it. He didn't need a bribe, because the way he sees it he's part of a putsch that is creating a whole new category of rights in America:
Harkin dismissed deals dubbed vote-buying by GOP senators as "small stuff" that distracted Americans from the primary focus of the overhaul bill. "We have to keep our eyes on what we're trying to do here. We're trying to cross a demarcation line," Harkin told "Early Show" co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez. "On one side is health care as a privilege, on the other side is health care as a right. With these votes, with the vote that we'll take before Christmas, we will cross that line finally and say that health care is a right of all Americans."
Imagine if you can...Creating a whole new class of constitutional "rights",but without all of the messy business of actually amending the constitution. What progress! And all it took was a few bucks inserted in the correct vest pockets. At ACE's site Slublog points out Harkin's particular flavor of hypocrisy by quoting him chastizing Boooooooosh! in 2004:
"The President must stop gambling with taxpayers' money and get the country back on the path of fiscal sanity."
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I wonder what's changed since then. Oh, that's right, one of his guys is the President now. Now that's integrity my friends...
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But, it's Christmas after all and I should be more charitable, and less suspicious. So, I'll just characterize this instead as the cost to fall on their sword, so to speak, in the next election; because according to Quinnipiac and Rasmussen the majority of the public oppose this abomination of a bill-and oppose the public funding of abortion by a 3 to 1 ratio! In fact, according to Scotty Ras', just 34% believe that passing this bill would be better than doing NOTHING! The President and the congressional Democrats are counting on the public having a short memory at the polls next year, a phenomenon they generally count on. It's up to all of us to keep the presure on our Representatives and Senators, call them today and every day until the Obamacare vote is actually taken. Tell them to vote NO!; and if you want, remind them that your vote, ergo-their job, depends on how they vote on this bill. Help to bring OPERATION WATERLOO to a successful conclusion.
In any case, during the coming election season prior to the 2010 vote, you need to remind everyone you talk with to hold these people accountable. Remember all the grand promises they made, and how they violated them all to drag Obamacare across the finish line; that they traded all of their principles for a political victory. Those who feel that they have the latitude to impose what they feel is "best for us", as opposed to executing our will, must be treated like the unprincipled hacks that they are and fired-by rejecting them at the ballot box next year if they impose this legislation, that is opposed by the majority of the public, on to all. Remember their 2008 mantra, and make them pay for resorting to disingenuous sloganeering.
Ethics!, Leadership!,Judgement!,Transparency!
O!
(H/T Cap'n Ed)
The Devil wears…Bauer?
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A Trifecfta of Trifling Trickstering Twits (Click to enlarge)
Ol' Nick must be lacing 'em up right now, 'cuz there will surely be a lot of ice skating going on in hell tonight. Why? Because on this day I find myself to be in agreement with not only one, but two of the demi-gods of the nutroot left; Howard Dean and Keith Olbermann, and surely that must mean that Hell is freezing over! The Devil you say!?! No, that would be the guy who'll be leading the all skate...
What in Heavens the world would I be  in agreement with Messers Dean and Olbermann over?  Why, Obamacare of course. Sit a spell, while I explain this extraordinary confluence of opinions on what the Senate's course of action should be; after all, the Devil is in the details.
Last night during his Speshul KKKomment segment Keith Olbermann declared that he'd  go to jail before complying with any federal mandate to buy health insurance:
“We must not buy federally-mandated insurance, if this cheesy counterfeit of reform is all we can buy. No single payer, no sale. No public option, no sale. No Medicare buy-in, no sale. I am one of the self-insured, albeit by choice, and I hereby pledge that I will not buy this perversion of health-care reform.â€
I am one of the self-insured, albeit by choice. And I hereby pledge that I will not buy this perversion of health-care reform. Pass this at your peril, senators. And sign it at yours, Mr. President. I will not buy this insurance. Brand me a law-breaker if you choose. Fine me if you will. Jail me if you must.
Ooooooooh, how edgy and bad-boy of modern day Murrow; I'm sure that'll get him a load of chicks at the Daily KKKos KKKafe. After reading this quote, Cap'n Ed shrewdly observed:
What Olbermann says here is that while he’s self-insured by choice now, he doesn’t think that’s a choice other Americans should be able to make if the federal government offers a public plan along with the mandate. Does that make any sense at all? Would Olbermann dump his self-insurance, presumably taking advantage of HSAs and market-based competition for his health-care dollars, in favor of a Medicare buy-in or a public option? After all, Olbermann seems blessed with good health, and withholding himself from the risk pools could be arguably skewing costs upwards (infinitesimally) for other Americans. And if that seems like a silly argument, well, that’s the argument for insisting on a mandate in the first place.
[emphasis-ed.]
By itself, this far-left flagellant's declaration of opposition to Obamacare alone would be enough to schedule a 4 hour program of "So You Think You Can Ice Dance With Beelzebub", but the addition of MarKKKos and former Presidential candidate, darling of the fightin' nutroots, Howard Dean to the kvetching chorus is enough to buy at least another few episodes. From Dean's Washington Post op-ed:
If I were a senator, I would not vote for the current health-care bill. (...) In Washington, when major bills near final passage, an inside-the-Beltway mentality takes hold. Any bill becomes a victory. Clear thinking is thrown out the window for political calculus. In the heat of battle, decisions are being made that set an irreversible course for how future health reform is done. The result is legislation that has been crafted to get votes, not to reform health care.
Can you hear her singing? (Click to enlarge)
This is all just too good to check. But wait! There's more! Not only has this touched off a low level, but high intensity, war between the White House, "face" work provided by spokes-tool Robert Gibbs, and the "Dean" of the nutroots, but as ACE reports, it now comes complete with it's own "Dean is just bitter over Obama snubbing" meta-narrative. That's not all though, today on "Morning Joe" Josef Goebbles David Axelrod said that those on the left who wanted to kill this bill were "insane"; well at least he's got Dean pegged right. What a bargain! Better than Sham-Wow!
In spite of how sweet all of this schadenfreude tastes, don't forget about all of the tasty side dishes, one being the major labor union's absence at a major Obamacare rally and instead holding an "emergency meeting" to decide their position on the bill; a development AllahP likened to, "the Kiss army turning on Gene Simmons". Another would have to be both Howard Dean and the leader of the Congressional progressives, Lynn Woolsey,  vowing to not only oppose the bill but to also sit on their hands in 2010 and 2012!  I wonder if the legacy media will be as interested in the Democrats civil war as they were with the Republican "purity" tests? Don't. Make. Me. Laugh...
But I can't help it really. Don't these idiots remember recent history?  This is the analogue of the formula that killed the immigration amnesty bill in 2007; just enough of the far-left opposing the bill because "it didn't go far enough!1!1!!eleventy" joined with the Republicans to defeat the President's bill. And all of the Sanders/Olbermann/Dean/MarKKKos drama doesn't even take into account Ben Nelsons declaration this afternoon that the compromise language on Abortion didn't go far enough; a sure signal for other blue dogs, who are looking for guidance, that it will be safe for them to vote against Obamacare too. If Reid compromises further with conservatives in order to get the blue dog votes, he will certainly lose any of the far left that are willing to grit their teeth and vote for a bill with no public option in both the Senate and the house. Add to all of this the President's, and the health care bull's, deflating poll numbers, and with that it seems that the stalemate is set.
I never expected to be relying on guys like these as purely political allies. And I wonder if it's safe to think of them like members of Wellington's army, lying on the unseen far side of rolling terrain, waiting to spring a surprise attack on Obama L'empereur just when he thought he was winning the day. Whatever role they're playing is unimportant really, as long as they're playing on our side; and adding their sway in the effort to see OPERATION WATERLOO through to it's successful conclusion.
So stay strong, remember to do your part to make your voice heard and fan this firestorm. Call your representatives and tell them to vote NO! on this bill; if they're liberal tell them it's due to the lack of public option, if they're conservative tell them you oppose it's lack of free market mechanisms. In either case, tell them that should they vote for this abomination, not only will you not vote for them in the next election, but will actively and tirelessly work to oppose their re-election.
Although we now have a few of the big guns of the far-left joining the call to kill this bill, only you can ensure that OPERATION WATERLOO is a success through your continued pressure on the politicians. Stay strong, and stay vigilant, stay vocal, stay committed, and stay active because they may be trying to sneak a vote through on Christmas Eve!
A picture truly is worth a thousand words, and maybe several trillion dollars
Because in addition to ridiculing the preposterous comparison made by Dingy Harry of opponents of Obamacare to proponents of slavery, this cartoon speaks volumes about the imperious Democrats in control of all three branches of our government and the statist direction they seek to take us in. Especially so, in light of the attempted slight of hand that would call expansion of the nearly bankrupt programs of medicare and medicaid, as a proxy for a bridge to a single payer government healthcare system, a "compromise" solution, while at the same time quietly assuring your own that it is indeed a "public option". And even moreso when you consider the chilling talk about the "command and control economy" spoken of by the haughty EPA director after announcing the institution of regulations that are effectively a back-door to cap-n-trade, with all of the taxes and none of the trade; a sterling example of the executive branch gone wild, governing by fiat, arrogantly bypassing Congressional authority and oversight in flagrante delicto.
I can't say it any more succinctly than Cap'n Ed:
Our founders wrote the Constitution to limit the power of Congress to avoid precisely this kind of outcome. When elected officials tell their serfs subjects constituents that Congress has the power to write any kind of laws they want, it exemplifies the founders’ most basic fear of centralized, federal governments. They knew that serfdom could come through the ballot box, and they’re about to be proven prescient.
I'll remind all that the debate is raging on, but that the Democrats are hoping that waning public attention during the holiday season will allow them to sneak this abomination of personal liberty, as well as the certain destruction of the best on-demand health care system in the world, through "under the radar". So call, write, and/or e-mail your Representative and Senator on a near daily basis reminding them of your desire that they vote "No!" on this legislation; perhaps reminding them that of they do so against your wishes that you will not only vote against them in the next election, but will work tirelessly for their opponents. Don't give up now, continue with Operation Waterloo.
(H/T Cap'n Ed and Darleen at PW)
Related [from Dan]: Federal salaries explode
An uplifting photo spread
Of the U.S. Navy's Blue Angel's aerial demonstration team, representative of the best-of-the-best; your US Naval aviators. Courtesy of "The Chive"; see more amusing and unusual photos there.
Also from the encouragement department, Rasmussen reports that public support for Obamacare has plummeted to an all-time low, 38/56 (approve/disapprove of Obamacare); a result that might just give some of the participants in Dingy Harry's Saturday night massacre some pause. Cap'n Ed at Hot Air delves into some of the more gruesome crosstabs and what that may mean for any Democrats who choose to commit electoral Sepuku by voting for the bill as written.
And of course there is always the Presidential approval index, a metric that doesn't look too good for the O! team; especially in light of his disastrous and unproductive Asian trip. Add to that the Presidents free fall in Iowa, the state that served as his springboard to the limelight as well as his Democratic primary victory, and the Republicans steady lead in the generic balloting and it all add up to some serious agita for the Democrats.
Exacerbated all the more by prominent Democrat pundits and friendly domestic and  foreign news outlets using the dreaded "C" word when speaking about Obama's foreign policy; Carter-esque !
Remind you of anyone?
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But that's OK. I'm sure that the Obama Defense Force of internet operatives will be out in force to obfuscate, misdirect, misrepresent, or derail any thread where criticism of the won! gains too much steam or, you know, speaks too much trooooof! to pow-ah. And, if none of that is consoling? Well I know a good coffee house in Oregon where all of their cares and worries can be whisked away, up in smoke...
Dingy Harry plans a Saturday night “under the radar” vote on Obamacare
Just as in the House of Representatives, the top Democrat in the Senate, majority leader Reid, plans to try and sneak through an important vote late at night over this weekend, in a bid to minimize public scrutiny. This is understandable, as many of the latest opinion polls place the public sentiment squarely against the enactment of Obamacare; so much so that Senators such as Blanche Lincoln, Mary Landrieu, Ben Nelson, and even Reid himself face the difficult choice of staying on Obama's, and the Democratic party's, good side and actually, you know, being re-elected. The key issues seem to be the familiar ones; the public option, public abortion funding and facilitation, and the substantial tax increases that are woven into the 2000+ page legislative tome.
The vote is tentatively planned for Saturday at 8 pm, following just 10 hours of debate:
One swing Democrat, Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, said he still has a range of concerns but suggested he might at least be willing to begin debate. "If you don't like the bill, then why would you block your own opportunity to amend it?" he said. Two other Democrats on the fence, Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Sen. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, remained noncommittal Wednesday evening.
Still to be fought out is the issue of abortion. The Senate bill provides wider insurance coverage for abortion than the House legislation. Among other things, the Senate's proposal would allow women who receive government subsidies to buy insurance to enroll in a plan that covers abortion, while the House bill would bar that. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R., Utah) said he wanted to force the Senate to vote on whether to adopt the House limits. "We'll have a major debate," he said.
While this bill is still far from Senate passage, it would be better if debate were never opened on this nearly 1 trillion dollar government takeover of the best health care system in the world; one that 85% of Americans are currently happy with.  Now I'll grudgingly admit that Senator Nelson has a point about needing to open the debate in order for it to be possible to even amend the current legislation. But with the Stupak legislation neutered through watered-down language and the cost of this masked by tax increases and false promises of medicare cuts that will never come, my considered opinion is that this bill is an economic disaster wating to happen, an abomination of initiative sapping and freedom grabbing de-motivation, and the licensce for the government to intrude into, and regulate, some of the most intimate decisions regarding your most private property-your physical self.
Make no mistake. Regardless of how little fiscal sense this makes, it does represent Obama's political Waterloo since he has committed most of his energy and political capital to it's passage; at the expense of many other responsibilities and concerns of his office. It has become more about the President exerting his will upon the nation and so much less about what is good for our nation. He needs to pass something, anything !, that can be pointed to as a Success! of the first historic year of the Obama agenda; he needs to show progress . It's all about the optics; about style over substance...
I urge all to call their Senators and register your dissatisfaction with this legislation. Tell them in no uncertain terms that if they vote for it, you will work as hard as it takes to ensure their electoral defeat. Better yet, put it in writing...
It's all on the line now, which explains this cowardly parlaimentary move, coming in the dark of night, as far out of the public eye as possible-save for CSPAN. Call your Senators, tell them to vote No! on this stealthy incremental step towards removing a fundamental part of your freedom and personal liberty. Do it for yourself, in the short term, and to save your children and grandchildren from both their share of additional crushing public debt and so that they may enjoy the same level of medical care we do now; one that can only exist in a free market system which incentivizes research, innovation, efficiency, and professional participation.
Number of AP reporters assigned to story:
• ObamaCare bills: 2
• Palin book: 11Number of pages in document being covered:
• ObamaCare bills: 4,064
• Palin book: 432Number of pages per AP reporter:
• ObamaCare bill: 2,032
• Palin book: 39.3
Mindboggling bias and a painfully obvious agenda? Yes... Surprising? Not at all...
Follow Dan!
All the Kool Kidz are doing it...
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