Free Republic

Democrats at odds over health billMonday, November 23, 2009 8:43 AM CST WASHINGTON (AP) — Moderate Senate Democrats threatened Sunday to scuttle health-care legislation if their demands aren’t met, while more liberal members warned their party leaders not to bend. The dispute among Democrats foretells of a rowdy floor debate next month on legislation that would extend health care coverage to roughly 31 million Americans. Republicans have already made clear they aren’t supporting the bill. Final passage is in jeopardy, even after the chamber’s historic 60-39 vote Saturday night to begin debate. “I don’t want a big-government, Washington-run operation that...

Not that it matters politically because obviously she's a female Republican dunce and he's obviously a male Democratic genius. But Sarah Palin's poll numbers are strengthening. And President Obama's are sliding. Guess what? They're about to meet in the 40s. Depending, of course, on which recent set of numbers you peruse and how the questions are phrased, 307 days into his allotted 1,461 the 44th president's approval rating among Americans has slid to 49% or 48%, showing no popularity bounce from his many happy trips, foreign and domestic. Riding the wave of immense publicity and symbiotic media interest over her...

Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., chairman of the purse string-controlling House Appropriations Committee, is calling the idea a "war surtax."

It is a TIME to CHALLENGE EVERYONE involved with taking over 1/7th of the economy. Challenge the media. Challenge your friends. Challenge the congress-critters. And yes, challenge yourself. We’ve pointed out specific sections of current health care legislation that will make things worse for Americans. We’ve given you the page numbers. We’ve told you exactly what it means and what it will do. Why don’t the statists (lefties) point out sections that will make things better? You might think they don’t care, but in reality the sections we have pointed out that will increase costs, decrease quality and yes, ration...

Last week, the body of Chicago school board president Michael Scott was found in the Chicago River with a single bullet wound in his head. The big story was that this powerful, well-connected public official had, according to the Cook County medical examiner, committed suicide. The less-noticed story was that he did it with an illegal weapon. After all, handgun ownership is not allowed in Chicago, which has one of the strictest gun control laws in the country, and Scott killed himself with a .380-caliber sidearm. Unlike most Chicagoans, Scott could have been a legal handgun owner. Because he had...

Last week had to be a bit awkward for Democrats. They labored to pass a health care bill that, among other things, establishes a government advisory panel to curb health care costs with industrywide medical recommendations. And at just the wrong moment, a similar government advisory panel provoked outrage by recommending that women stop getting so many breast cancer screenings. Unruffled, the Democrats pressed on with their 2,000-page health care bill, going so far as to hold a rare Saturday night vote on whether to proceed to debate. There's a good reason they are in such a rush to pass...

The truth is out. Illegal immigrants commit crimes at a much higher rate than Americans and legal immigrants. A new Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) report nails it. It proves the lies and smashes the myths of the “noble” illegal immigrant who only wants to “do the jobs Americans won’t do.” Using Freedom of Information Act requests to access otherwise embargoed government data on immigrant crime, the CIS establishes the fact that illegals commit “relatively high rates of crime.” The phony “academics” that’ve made careers of lying about the destructive impact of illegal aliens on our society are proved wrong....

Rob Port at Say Anything noticed this story yesterday, which may explain to Barack Obama why his Porkulus bill hasn’t generated new jobs … well, one of the reasons, at least. The Associated Press reports that the increases in unemployment benefits have placed new burdens on businesses in the form of higher unemployment taxes — in Florida, a twelve-fold increase for next year. The result? Capital that may have gone towards hiring new employees will get sucked up by government instead:

The Service Employees International Union on Sunday reported spending nearly $1 million on an independent expenditure television campaign praising eight House Democrats for backing a health care bill earlier this month. Here's how the SEIU spent $998,000 among the eight districts: Baron P. Hill, Indiana's 9th district ($162,000); Dina Titus, Nevada's 3rd ($157,000);

Rep. Obey Warns President Obama He Will Ask Taxpayers to Pay for War, Should More Troops Be SentThe powerful chairman of the House Appropriations Committee has a stark message for President Obama about Afghanistan -- sending more troops would be a mistake that could "wipe out every initiative we have to rebuild our own economy." "There ain't going to be no money for nothing if we pour it all into Afghanistan," House Appropriations Chairman David Obey told ABC News in an exclusive interview. "If they ask for an increased troop commitment in Afghanistan, I am going to ask them to...

U.S. Rep. Dennis Moore, a Democrat who confounded the GOP by winning six consecutive elections in a heavily Republican district, will not seek re-election next year, key Democrats said Sunday.

Or....."How liberalism screws the economy"! The Master Conservative Economist of our time explains what happened in the Great Depression; quite to the contrary of what you may have been led to believe.

The Obama Democratic Party demonstrated their desire to help the poor, unfortunate victims of Hurricane Katrina by giving them $100 million - provided that their U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu votes in favor of legislation they want enacted. How's that for hope and change. Makes the Visitors in the television series seem downright altruistic. These Obama Democrats are the same people who derided Bush and the Republicans as racist and callous to the problems of Louisianans. They ridiculed Bush's response. They clamored for more federal money because of Hurricane Katrina when Bush was in office. Now the only way the Katrina...

More than 150 Christian leaders, most of them conservative evangelicals and traditionalist Roman Catholics, issued a joint declaration Friday reaffirming their opposition to abortion and gay marriage and pledging to protect religious freedoms. The 4,700-word document, called "The Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience," sounds familiar themes from political and social debates over the health care overhaul and gay marriage battles. While acknowledging that "Christians and our institutions have too often scandalously failed to uphold the institution of marriage," the group rejects same-sex marriage. The declaration states that opening a legal door for gay marriage would do the same...

Sometimes, not even a politician can be all things to all people. With Saturday night's vote to bring Harry Reid's health-care bill to the floor, "moderate" Senate Democrats like Ben Nelson (Neb.), Mary Landrieu (La.), and Blanche Lincoln (Ark.) had to choose between pleasing party leaders and their reputations for moderation. Moderation lost. Of course, some will say that this was merely a vote to proceed, not a vote on the merits of the bill. They were just "moving the debate forward," will try to improve the bill on the floor, and, as Seinfeld would say, yada, yada, yada. But...

It is time to cast aside all remaining doubt. President Obama is not trying to lead America forward to recovery, prosperity and strength. Quite the opposite, in fact. In September of last year, American Thinker published my article, Barack Obama and the Strategy of Manufactured Crisis. Part of a series, it connected then presidential candidate Barack Obama to individuals and organizations practicing a malevolent strategy for destroying our economy and our system of government. Since then the story of that strategy has found its way across the blogosphere, onto the airwaves of radio stations across the country, the Glenn Beck...

Is Congress, behindhand on Barack Obama's deadlines on health care and cap-and-trade legislation, and flummoxed by the failure of the stimulus package to hold unemployment below 10.2 percent, prepared to address the immigration issue next year? Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says it better be. The current situation, she told the Center for American Progress on Nov. 13, "is simply unacceptable." We need a "three-legged stool," with provisions to strengthen enforcement, legalize some illegal immigrants and improve "legal flows for families and workers." Ironically, the push for legalization in 2006-07 resulted instead in stronger enforcement measures. Some 600 miles of...

The Obama Democratic Party demonstrated their desire to help the poor, unfortunate victims of Hurricane Katrina by giving them $100 million ...

Five men facing trial in the 9/11 attacks will plead not guilty so they can voice their criticisms of U.S. foreign policy, a lawyer for one of the defendants said Sunday. Scott Fenstermaker, a lawyer representing accused terrorist Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, said the men would not deny their role in the 2001 attacks, but "would explain what happened and why they did it." Ali and four other men face a civilian trial just a few blocks from the World Trade Center site in the coming weeks. The men are accused of murdering nearly 3,000 people in the deadliest terrorist...

A few weeks ago seven of the eight incumbent Democrats in the Virginia House of Delegates who lost their seat to a Republican had one other thing in common - a lower National Rifle Association (NRA) rating that their opponent . . . [and] the disparity in support for gun rights between the parties seems to have sharpened.

U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., warned of major cuts to Medicare and large tax increases as the U.S. Senate neared its first votes this weekend on health care reform. McCain opposes health reforms pushed by Democrats and President Barack Obama that would create a public-option government system to cover the uninsured and operate alongside private insurance companies. "I don't think Americans really understand the scam that's going on here of beginning to collect taxes, tax increases and Medicare cuts of approximately $1 trillion beginning 40 days from now," McCain said Saturday. "In other words, the first of January, according to...

President Obama is facing a bruising battle with moderates in his own party after the Democrats narrowly avoided a humiliating setback in their bid to overhaul America’s healthcare system. Two women senators took party leaders right down to the wire before finally agreeing to back the bill. The strictly partisan 60-39 vote allowed the Democrats to squeak through a key procedural hurdle to clear the way for a full debate on the £513 billion health reforms in the US Senate. The Democrats needed at least 60 votes to overcome a Republican-led 'filibuster' – a delaying tactic designed to block consideration...

For Sen. Blanche Lincoln, the moderate Arkansas Democrat, the nation’s health-care woes may lead to more headaches than any medicine could alleviate. Lincoln is a pivotal vote on the motion to begin debate on Senate majority leader Harry Reid’s health-care legislation; if the motion passes, she could be the swing vote on the eventual motion to close debate. Her decision isn’t simply a calculation about winning the right number of concessions, as perhaps President Obama and the Democratic leadership hope; it’s about her political survival. The pressure in Washington may be significant — Lincoln has had sit-down meetings with Obama...

Representative Barney Frank (D-Mass.) has gotten the Consumer Financial Protection Act through his House Financial Services Committee. This bill will create a new federal agency to oversee consumer credit. “Too many people are frivolously abusing credit,” Frank alleged. “They’re buying things they don’t need with money they don’t have. This is a recipe for bankruptcy. We have to stop it.” Under the legislation, a Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA) would review all current credit cards, as well as applications for new cards, to determine whether the cards are, or would be, used appropriately. Cards intended for uses that don’t meet...

Well they did it. Not out in the open, of course. Under cover of a Saturday night "procedural vote." After the $100 million according to the press, $300 million according to her ("I am not going to be defensive. And it's not a $100 million fix. It is a $300 million fix,") Louisiana Purchase of Senator Mary Landrieu. Hundreds of millions of OUR dollars used to pay off the wavering Louisiana Senator in order to secure her vote. I don't have words for this. None that won't get me in trouble. I worked with a guy who once said to...

... [Geraldine Davie] joined 12 other 9/11 family members at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the Obama administration's decision to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) and four other 9/11 planners not as enemy combatants and war criminals before a military commission, but as civilians in federal court in New York City. They brought with them more than 100,000 signatures gathered by three 9/11 and national security websites--TheBravest.com, 911Familesfor-America.org, and Keep-AmericaSafe.com (on whose board this magazine's editor serves). Holder spoke of the trials as a correction of Bush-era delays and an overdue attempt to seek justice for the victims of...

An anti-Palin screed somehow ended up on Psychology Today's website. I know, I know, it's shocking that Psychology Today could sponsor something that is less science than it is PC, hatespeak against conservatives, what with psychology being so scientific and all -- but, there you have it. Penned by one Bella DePaulo, the piece really has little worth as a work of science and is little but a political rant filled with name calling and hate for Governor Sarah Palin and anyone that might support her. In the piece Palin is termed a "special liar" by the writer and conservatives...

SCHULTZ: Sen Harkin, I appreciate your time. HARKIN: Well, I‘m telling you, Ed, we‘re going to get this job done. SCHULTZ: Hey, you‘re my source. I‘m counting on you, buddy. I mean, every time I talk to somebody I say, my friend Tom Harkin keeps telling me this is the way it‘s going to be. HARKIN: Well, I‘m off a little bit, Ed. I said we were going to have it to the president before Christmas, but I didn‘t anticipate all the delays of the CBO. But I‘ll tell you what—this bill will be signed into law before the president...

Chicago, Ill. -- The president of the Chicago Police Sergeants' Association has been caught stealing over $600,000 in union funds, authorities say. Sgt. John Pallohusky, 53, spent the stolen funds on gambling trips, lavish dinners, and online stock trading. He spent more than $163,000 on Ameritrade and $75,000 at restaurants including Ruth’s Chris, Smith & Wollensky, Kinzie Chophouse, Petterino’s, Gibson’s and Lawry’s, the arrest warrant said. This is just another example of the illegitimacy of unions, really. This guy has been doing this for two years. Did no one miss all that cash for two years? Were there no other...

SNIP"If you get to the final point and you are a critical vote for health care reform and every piece of evidence tells you if you support the bill you will lose your job, would you cast the vote and lose your job?” CNN’s John King asked Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado on Sunday’s State of the Union. “Yes,” Bennet bluntly and simply replied. Bennet was appointed by Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter to replace Sen. Ken Salazar, who stepped down from the Senate to serve as President Obama’s Interior Secretary.SNIPNote from Kristinn:Media Matters excoriated Rush Limbaugh last week for saying...

The state that propelled Barack Obama to the presidency now has a majority of voters displeased with his performance. A new Des Moines Register poll shows Barack Obama's overall job approval sinking....

The 2008 national election clearly shows our next generation of leaders must possess something that many recent and current elected officials lack: intellectual courage. President Nixon believed all leaders, regardless of their time, needed “brains, guts and heart.” Others have defined those character traits as “the right stuff.” “Given what is likely needed to right our ship of state, I don't think that it will come as a great surprise to many that our current men and women in the military are likely going to be the ‘right’ individuals for the job when they come home,” said Lara Brown, a...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid eked out 60 votes on a procedural motion to start the health care debate Saturday night – so there’s no guarantee he can pass a bill on the merits. And if he struggles, the reasons will be clear: deep divides among Democrats on a public insurance plan, abortion, tax hikes and cost-cutting. Liberals want the plan to be generous enough. Moderates fear a budget-buster. And everyone is trying to avoid angering seniors. Even in the blush of Saturday’s victory, Reid (D-Nev.) is far from having the votes to move his $848 billion package to final...

In the upcoming Copenhagen Climate Change Summit, the global Environmentalists have had high hope in President Obama’s promise to sign a Treaty, in which will benefit their cause: more taxes input from America. For these Environmentalists’ America is the biggest prize for realizing their goal to redistribute America’s prosperity to other nations, thus rewarding cushy and high status jobs among themselves within the non-profit global institutions. If this money dries up what’s left to do? The “Don’t You Dare Tax Me” movement to fight this unnecessary added expense has reached its peak largely due to the Environmentalists insipidity in presenting...

Congratulations to Harry and the Pelosicrats for advancing Dear Leader's Long March!  That $300 million bribe to Senator Landrieu was classic!  Chicago Democratic machine politics comes to Washington...  Lord only knows what dirty deals will never see the light of day... Here we are in the age of hyper-freedom.  Top 40 DJs who told us what to listen to are a thing of the past.  Fan clubs?  What's that?  You can start your own site dedicated to whatever or whoever you want on the internet. Those Nostalgic Democrats! We're in the age of iPods, indy music, facebook, ultimate internet freedoms,...

MSNBC's Nora O'Donnell, reporting from a book store selling Palin's book Going Rogue, was astonished how "white" those people who were standing in line to buy the book, and how "no minorities" could be seen in the autograph line (of course, we know MSNBC cameramen are trained, maybe by Scientologists, not to video blacks mixing with whites - like at Tea Parties, especially if the black person is carrying a weapon on his person at political events). Nora, as a member in good standing of that Proud White Self Loathing Liberal Club, went on to report to Chris Matthews, "I...

A magazine in Tokyo is reporting that President Obama's summit with Japanese Prime Minister Hatoyama was a frosty disaster, precipitated by incompetence on both sides and an entirely avoidable diplomatic slight to the Japanese side by Obama. The visit was abruptly re-scheduled, seriously inconveniencing the Emperor of Japan, as well as the Prime Minister, whose intricate schedules require meticulous planning and coordination. Japanese weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun cites an unnamed insider at the Foreign Ministry, who delivers a devastating account of not merely a failure to agree, but figurative slaps in the face of the rude president, delivered in retaliation....

Yesterday they underlined this message by pointing to reports showing that Mr Obama had failed to convene a single policy meeting of the Senate European subcommittee, of which he is chairman. There was also strikingly robust criticism from an independent Washington think-tank about a “disconcerting void” over transatlantic relations in Mr Obama’s foreign policy, as well as from a former British Minister for Europe. Mr Obama’s advisers say that he has an “intuitive grasp” of world affairs because he spent part of his childhood abroad. “The benefit of my life of having both lived overseas and travelled overseas is, I...

Sarah Palin is back, using her book, Going Rogue, as a prop. From all indications she ain't going away -- which may be why passions, pro and con, are so intense about her. There seems no middle ground when it comes to Palin -- some of it understandable, most of it puzzling. If she's a ditz, an airhead as some insist, someone without the depth or substance to be president, why worry about her? The electorate will catch on. So why do Democrats slag her at every opportunity? If she's a genuine threat to be a contender for power on...

Today healthcare vote in the Senate was so badly represented by many on our side and of course by the media and was blown way out of proportion. In reality it is a meaningless vote. The vote today was only to start the debate and it is absolutely does not guarantee at all that the current bill in the Senate with it current version of public option aka socialized medicine is going to pass. In fact as it stands now this current bill is assured to be defeated because the socialists are not going to get 60 votes for cloture...

Barack Obama played golf for over four hours today at Andrews Air Force Base, according to the AP.Our troops in Afghanistan have been waiting months for reinforcements urgently requested by Obama's hand picked Afghan commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal.Millions of Americans have lost their jobs under Obama--and they're not getting new ones--as unemployment has skyrocketed to 10.2% with no sign of abating anytime soon.Obama has blown out the budget and deficit.His foreign policy from the Middle East to Asia is in a shambles.His approval rating is below 50%, including in swing states he won last year like Iowa, Ohio and Virginia.He...

A 60-39 vote moved the monstrous Reid health care take-over bill to the next phase. The rare Saturday session was a first round fight to pass the bill in the full Senate. This spells trouble for freedom-loving Americans, as bills that make it to debate ultimately pass the full Senate 90 percent of the time. All Democrats and Independents Joe Lieberman (CT) and Bernie Sanders (VT) voted for the measure, and all Republicans voted no, except for George Voinovich (OH) Read more ...

It's no coincidence that the second major vote to Nationalize our health care system takes place also on a Saturday night. The Democrats strategy here is clear. AGAINST PUBLIC OPINION, this power grab of another one sixth of our economy proceeds almost under the cover of darkness, by design on a Saturday night when their phones are disconnected and their Emails unacknowledged. TV NEWS goes largely unwatched on Saturday nights. The Dems know few are watching them on the weekends, so (just like last time) they chose this day so they could HIDE from us as they pull their dirty...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/readout-vice-president-biden-s-call-georgian-president-saakashvili Home • Briefing Room • Statements & Releases The White House Office of the Vice President For Immediate Release November 19, 2009 Readout of Vice President Biden’s Call to Georgian President Saakashvili Vice President Biden called Georgian President Saakashvili on November 18, 2009, to discuss democratic reform in Georgia and to reiterate the United States’ strong support for Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. The Vice President underscored the importance of sustaining the commitment to democratic reform to fulfill the promise of the Rose Revolution. He also emphasized that all parties should live...

This video should be a warning to everyone at the Palin book signings... Not everyone is there for the same reason. This is a video from a liberal blog site Video At Site [Warning some language]

Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) said she’d deliver the deciding vote to push forward with a sweeping health reform plan in the Senate Saturday, ending days of speculation over whether President Barack Obama’s signature priority would proceed to the floor or suffer a debilitating blow. As with several centrists before her, Lincoln’s yes vote to start debate came wrapped in series of serious concerns about the current bill – and she said it would require major revisions before she could cast a similar vote in favor of final passage. "I'm prepared to vote against moving to the next stage of consideration...

RALEIGH -- North Carolina's unemployment rate rose slightly to 11 percent in October, a fraction off its historic peak earlier this year and the ninth straight month in double digits.

Notice Filed Hollister v Soetoro I. JURISDICTIONAL STATEMENT A. The Basis for the District Court’s Subject Matter Jurisdiction The District Court had jurisdiction pursuant to the Federal Interpleader Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1335. Alternatively Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 22 and diversity under 28 U.S.C. § 1332 existed. In addition, in a proposed amended complaint the plaintiff Hollister asserted jurisdiction also for a direct violation of the constitutional requirement in Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 concerning the eligibility of an individual to be President of the United States if he is not, as is there stated, a “natural born...

Pure evil. As if the parents of special needs children don’t suffer enough. Dems will increase taxes on the parents of special needs children in their nationalized health care bill. LifeSite News reported: The statistics are scary when it comes to the percentage of unborn children born with special needs who become victims of abortion. One fiscal conservative group says the task for parents raising such children is made more difficult by extra taxes found in Harry Reid’s new Senate health care bill. The measure has already been condemned by pro-life groups and the Catholic bishops for its abortion funding...

Read the full billRead the tax revenue score from the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) Read the budget and tax score from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) PDF of this DocumentIndividual Mandate Tax (Page 324/Sec. 1501/$8 bil): Starting in 2014, anyone not buying “qualifying” health insurance must pay an income surtax according to the following schedule (capped at 8 percent of income): ==============> Check out this important piece, at ATR.org...