Free Republic

DISGUSTING: Despite legislation passed by Congress to make it possible to sue foreign governments that sponsor terrorism, in a filing in federal court, the Justice Department is arguing that giving the money to the victims "can have significant, detrimental impact on our foreign relations, as well as the reciprocal treatment of the United States and its extensive overseas property holdings."

David Farr, CEO of Emerson Electric Co., said federal governmental policies are hurting U.S. manufacturing. He cited cap and trade, health care reform and labor rules as undermining the industry and its ability to expand and grow jobs domestically. He said that his company will continue to focus on growth overseas. Emerson, the maker of electrical equipment and InSinkErator garbage disposals with $20.9 billion in sales for the year ended September, will keep expanding in emerging markets, which represented 32 percent of revenue in 2009. About 36 percent of manufacturing is now in “best-cost countries” up from 21 percent in...

Yesterday, The Arkansas Hands-Off Healthcare Bus Tour went through Arkansas. Guest speakers included Dick Morris, Jim Miller of 60 Plus, Dr. Kathy Chenault, and Teresa Oakle. Here is some video footage of that event. More footage will come soon. http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-5433-Little-Rock-Immigration-Examiner~y2009m11d20-Healthcare-video--Events http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rho6J-7Jr6w http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skJGUUmVsRU Same video in case there are problems with youtube. http://keeparkansaslegal.blogspot.com/2009/11/hands-off-healthcare-video-footage.html Saturday November 21st. We will need as many Secure Arkansas Volunteers as possible for the Arkansas Razorbacks game. You can show up on your own or call 501-412-4063 to meet with other Secure Arkansas members. You will be called back within a few minutes. Sunday November 22nd The...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- There are 18 separate tax hikes in the Reid-Obama healthcare bill. One of them caps the amount that can be deferred in Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) at $2500 per year (a similar provision was included in the Pelosi-Obama health bill and written about by Congressman Cathy McMorris-Rogers, R-Was., for National Review Online). There is currently no limit to how much can be saved, though all monies must be used by the end of the year. Employers may put a cap in place for their employees, but this would put a cap in federal tax law...

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...

So when I heard about the latest release from the government task force not recommending mammograms until age 50, I shuddered to think what would have happened if my mom waited to have a mammogram until she was 50...

NY Activists: Join NOW NY State Dec. 4! Demand health care reform that includes full reproductive rights for ALL women! Join with the National Organization for Women New York State chapter, local activits and prominent reproductive rights advocates to say NO to any Stupak-Pitts-like amendemnts in the National Health Care Reform package. Full Reproductive Rights for Women....Nothing More, Nothing Less Location: Front of Senator Schumer's office 757 Third Avenue (at 48th Street) NYC Date: Dec. 4, 2009 Time: Noon until 2:00 pm

DC Activists: Mobilize on Nov. 23! From 12-1pm on Monday November 23, join NOW activists from the mid-Atlantic region as they campaign outside the Senate office buildings against the Stupak Amendment. Nearest metro station is Union Station. We'll be meeting at Constitution Avenue, on the block in front of Russell and the corner of Constitution and Delaware. View map

The White House is on a collision course with Catholic bishops in an intractable dispute over abortion that could blow up the fragile political coalition behind President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. ...an official of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said Sen. Harry Reid's bill is the worst he's seen so far on the divisive issue. [snip] So far, Reid has steered the Senate bill in a direction that abortion rights supporters can live with: allowing coverage for abortion in federally subsidized health care plans, provided that beneficiaries' own premiums are used to pay for the procedure. But abortion...

Surprisingly little attention has been paid to the crucial years Barack Obama spent growing up in Jakarta, Indonesia, from 1967 to 1971, ages 6 to 10 in his life. These formative years, when a child first spends significant time in the wider world beyond his family environment, must have taught him many lessons about America, some of them very unpleasant, given the particular situation of his family. It would have been brutally difficult for any child, including young Barry Soetoro as he was then known, to have been uprooted from Honolulu, where his mother raised him as a single mom...

Another Saturday health care vote appears to be in the works, this time in the Senate. While the Senate may be may be taking its cue from the "success" of the House in its' Saturday vote, there are a few differences between the two bills that could push any resolution of the health care debate well into next year. Still conventional wisdom has it that if Reid is able to pull together the 60 votes he needs in this important opening vote, some 2000 page piece of legislation will eventually make its'way to the President's desk. Holdouts can be bought...

Tuesday, the national debt hit a record $12 trillion. Wed-nesday, the Obama administration said Medicare and Medicaid fraud in 2009 accounted for more than half of the $98 billion in government waste it is willing to admit to. Wednesday, after claiming for months that huge government debt was good for America, President Obama admitted his profligate borrowing and spending threatens the nascent economic recovery. Wednesday evening, Senate Democrats wheeled out their $849 billion version of Obamacare, which would cost many times what they say it will, kill untold thousands of jobs (see Aetna), impose hundreds of billions in new taxes...

http://fleming.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=55&sectiontree=29,55 Please read and act, only takes a minute! On Tuesday, the Senate health committee voted 12-11 in favor of a two-page amendment courtesy of Republican Tom Coburn that would require all Members and their staffs to enroll in any new government-run health plan. It took me less than a minute to sign up to require our congressmen and senators to drink at the same trough! Three cheers for Congressman John Fleming of Louisiana ! Congressman John Fleming ( Louisiana physician) has proposed an amendment that would require congressmen and senators to take the same healthcare plan they force on...

Proposal packed with 17 new levies. Senate Democrats' health care bill would create a new marriage penalty by imposing a tax on individuals who make $200,000 annually but hitting married couples making just $50,000 more. That's one of 17 new taxes imposed by the bill, which also creates a levy on elective plastic surgery - some call it "botax" - and places a 40 percent excise tax on those who have generous health care plans. "If you have insurance, you get taxed. If you don't have insurance, you get taxed. If you need a life-saving medical device, you get taxed....

Stacey-Clear A, McCarthy KA, Hall DA, Pile-Spellman E, White G, Hulka C, Whitman GJ, Mahoney E, Kopans DB. Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston 02114. Comment in: * Lancet. 1992 Dec 19-26;340(8834-8835):1538-9; author reply 1539-40. * Lancet. 1992 Dec 19-26;340(8834-8835):1538; author reply 1539-40. * Lancet. 1992 Dec 19-26;340(8834-8835):1538; author reply 1539-40. * Lancet. 1992 Dec 19-26;340(8834-8835):1539-40. Great uncertainty exists about the benefit of detecting breast cancer by mammography in women under 50 years of age. We have reviewed the survival of patients aged 49 years or less whose cancers were detected by mammography alone. 117 women under the age...

Senate Democrats' health care bill would create a new marriage penalty by imposing a tax on individuals who make $200,000 annually but hitting married couples making just $50,000 more.

Few issues have caused as much of a stir this year as the question of whether illegal immigrants will be included in the Democratic healthcare bill. Rep. Joe Wilson's "You lie!" outburst after President Obama stated in September that illegal immigrants wouldn't be covered is one example of the tension. Eighty percent of Americans are loath to subsidize illegal immigrants according to a June 2009 Rasmussen poll. But there's something that might help solve part of the problem, a campaign by Mexican officials to improve the state of healthcare in their own country. Mexico's healthcare system is corrupt, unwieldy, and...

The headline says they are going to vote on the health care bill on Saturday night around 8 pm. I just can’t believe this is happening. I’ve heard the Republicans don’t even have a copy of the bill yet. The Senate bill is 2,074 pages. You know no one has read it. We know it’s full of entitlements and lays the framework for another bloated bureaucracy that will wreck our economy. We’ve all seen the Leninist quote, “Medicine is the keystone of the arch of socialism.” I’ve seen polls where 60-70% of the American people do not want socialized medicine....

Excerpt: Friend -- Right now, Sarah Palin is on a highly publicized, nationwide book tour, attacking President Obama and his plan for health reform at every turn. It's dangerous. Remember, this is the person who coined the term "Death Panels" -- and opened the flood gates for months of false attacks by special interests and partisan extremists.

Remember it for your grandchildren: Saturday, November 21, 2009—the day of the Transformation of America. That’s the day Global Marxism will begin its inexorable march to take down the Free World, starting with its leader the United States of America. There will be no shots fired, but the aim of the U.S. Senate’s poison arrow is right on target at the heart of humanity. While America’s Marxist President is abroad, Senate Majority House Leader Harry Reid is tying the red ribbon bow on his Christmas present, the Transformation, and Take Down of the United States of America. “Senate Majority...

Friend -- Right now, Sarah Palin is on a highly publicized, nationwide book tour, attacking President Obama and his plan for health reform at every turn. It's dangerous. Remember, this is the person who coined the term "Death Panels" -- and opened the flood gates for months of false attacks by special interests and partisan extremists. Whatever lie comes next will be widely covered by the media, then constantly echoed by right-wing attack groups and others who are trying to defeat reform. As we approach the final sprint on health reform, we can't afford more deception and delay. We need...

Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson announced today that he is going to vote with his party to move the debate forward. *snip* “It is only to begin debate and an opportunity to make improvements. If you don't like a bill, why block your own opportunity to amend it? “As we have seen before, obstructionists are inviting a move toward reconciliation by opposing this first procedural vote. Let's be clear. That route shrinks debate and amendments, eliminates bipartisanship and needs only 50 votes to pass a bill.

Take My Medicare Malcolm A. Kline, November 20, 2009 In the usual manner in which bad ideas become even worse reality, good chunks of what policy wonks here are calling “health care reform” are flowing out of academia. Arguably, the most pernicious of these is the notion that “the federal government can build on the success of Medicare.” Lawmakers from both parties would have winced at such a brain wave ten years ago when both President Clinton and the Republican Congress, albeit using markedly different approaches, attempted to reform Medicare. What a difference a decade makes. That the federal government’s...

Days after controversy erupted over new breast cancer screening guidelines, a US health group has said women should wait longer to get their first cervical cancer test. The New York Times reported Friday that the American College of Obstetricians is now advising women to wait until age 21 to get their first Pap smear. The advice is intended to cut down on unnecessary testing and reduce the risk of harmful invasive procedures to remove non-cancerous lesions that may show up on tests but often disappear if left alone, the group said. The new recommendations overturn previous guidance, which suggested women...

While the Senate is now preparing to debate Democratic Leader Harry Reid's 2000-plus-page version of the health care reform plan, 47% of Americans still believe the private sector rather than the federal government has the best chance of keeping health care costs down and the quality of medical care up. But a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 33% of adults think the federal government would do a better job of reducing costs and maintaining quality of care. Twenty percent (20%) are undecided. Forty-nine percent (49%) of adults who already have insurance say the private sector would accomplish...

A Reality Check from the Discipleship Front November 19th, 2009 by Archbishop Charles Chaput What the hell don’t you understand about the term separation of Church and State. Keep your evil hands off of our Health Care Bill. Mind your own business. We don’t care about your beliefs, and if you want to meddle in our affairs, we will be coming for you. If that’s how you want to play, we will come for your pedophile priests, your ill-gotten money you stole for decades. The Catholic church is just another organized crime syndicate that should be put out of business....

Should we add to the deficit or pay doctors less? That’s the question Congress is contemplating after coming up $200 billion short for Medicare providers’ reimbursement this year. he $200 billion “Doc Fix” issue is controversial because Democrats are trying to separate it off from the larger health care bill snaking its way through Congress. By separating off doc fix, they can maintain that Obamacare is budget neutral, because that’s the way it was scored by the Congressional Budget Office. They can’t maintain the bill’s budget-neutrality after a doc fix is added into the mix. “Let's be clear, House Republicans...

President Obama Again Attacks Stupak, Backs Pro-Abortion Senate Bill Washington, DC -- During an interview with Fox News, President Barack Obama again condemned the Stupak amendment added to the House health care bill to stop abortion funding. Meanwhile, the Obama administration says the president supports the new Senate health care bill that contains massive abortion subsidies. http://www.lifenews.com/nat5691.html

It was a breath of fresh air to finally hear the Democrats admit to their health care bill as “a lot of show and tell and razzmatazz,” (see Democrat talking points, in reference to my book). At least now we’re all on the same page when discussing the problems with their monstrous government health care “reform” plan. Now, tonight, more disconcerting news – the New York Times reports of new guidelines to scale back cervical cancer screenings. The recommendation from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists comes on the heels of another recommendation to limit breast cancer screenings with...

WASHINGTON — The Senate will hold its first vote on health care legislation on Saturday night and Democrats will need 60 votes to prevail.Majority Leader Harry Reid announced the schedule on the Senate floor, one day after unveiling a nearly $1 trillion bill to expand health coverage.Republicans have vowed to block passage of the measure, and Democrats must put up 60 votes to clear the way for a lengthy debate next month.

Leaders of the Republican National Committee say revised recommendations issued by a government-funded panel that say women only need to be screened for breast cancer after the age of 50 could be the beginning of health care rationing by the government. RNC Chairman Michael Steele and co-chair Jan Larimer wrote a letter to President Obama Thursday, obtained by the Washington Times, that calls the new recommendations a "thinly veiled attempt to save money by limiting mammograms has the effect of placing a dollar value on a human life." The U.S. Preventative Services Task Force, an independent panel of doctors and...

Senator Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii)Chief of Staff Joan Ohashi joan_ohashi@akaka.senate.gov Communications Director Jon Yoshimura jon_yoshimura@akaka.senate.gov Press Secretary Jesse Broder Van Dyke jesse_brodervandyke@akaka.senate.gov Legislative Director Jennifer Tyree jennifer_tyree@akaka.senate.gov Deputy Legislative Director Matt Pippin matt_pippin@akaka.senate.gov Senator Max Baucus (D-Montana)Chief of Staff Jon Selib jon_selib@baucus.senate.gov Communications Director Tyler Ryan “Ty” Matsdorf tyler_matsdorf@baucus.senate.gov Press Secretary Carolyn Bunce carolyn_bunce@baucus.senate.gov Legislative Director Paul Stockton Wilkins paul_wilkins@baucus.senate.gov Senator Evan Bayh (D-Indiana)Chief of Staff Charles Salem charlie_salem@bayh.senate.gov Deputy Chief of Staff Linda Moore Forbes linda_forbes@bayh.senate.gov Communications Director Eric D. Kleiman eric_kleiman@bayh.senate.gov Press Secretary Brian Weiss brian_weiss@bayh.senate.gov Counsel Jesse Gabriel jesse_gabriel@bayh.senate.gov Fax: (202) 228-1377 Legislative Director Jayme Roth jayme_roth@bayh.senate.gov Legislative...

Here is a video report that mentions a new study out today that says women can wait until 21 to be screened for Cervical Cancer, and only need to have "Pap Smear" tests every two years during their 20's. This report comes on the heels of a separate report that urges women not start having mammograms until age 50, and then every two years. It also says self-exam is not necessary. The video reports on a backlash brewing across the country against the new mammogram guidelines. . . . (VIDEO)

People's rights are created through political processes -- as when the brand-new American states ratified the historic Bill of Rights, or when the French Revolution proclaimed the Rights of Man, or when the new United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In a less-formal manner, most modern democracies have established another right rooted in morality and equality: the right of sick people and families to obtain medical care.

November 20, 2009 Dear Senator Bayh, I tried to call your Washington and Indianapolis offices, but the voice mail boxes were full. I am writing this email to you to plead with you not to vote to bring this health care bill up for senate vote. NOTE: A vote for it now IS a vote to allow it to eventually pass because, as you know, it is quite possible you can vote against its final version knowing full-well that there will be enough votes for it's final passage because the vote requirements are fewer. There are many reasons why you...

“The Speaker is not happy with me” --Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) commenting on Nancy Pelosi’s reaction to his amendment that would prohibit taxpayer-funded abortion in healthcare reform. The healthcare bills working their way through Congress should be opposed, and for so many reasons. They would ration care, expand entitlements, make all Americans dependent on government-approved insurance plans and add to our already stifling national debt. The bill passed by the House is horrendous. Whatever emerges from the Senate and later from the congressional conference committee should be opposed full stop. That said, there is an interesting debate taking place among...

Losing your 65% COBRA subsidyThe government discount only lasts 9 months and it may not be extended. Here's some health insurance options. November 19, 2009: 11:17 AM ET NEW YORK (CNN) -- Thousands of people will begin to lose a major discount on their COBRA health care premiums in as little as 10 days. Here's what you can do: 1. What's happening First, let's briefly go over what COBRA is. It's a health care plan that allows you to continue group health care coverage after you've been laid off. Back in February, the government provided a 65% subsidy for COBRA...

It’s easy to fall into a pattern of negative thinking and adopt a woe-is-me attitude when you’re balancing caregiving with the other demands of life. So it might be helpful to honestly assess where you fall on a positive/negative continuum. Often our attitudes, actions, and reactions need a little refurbishing. While an extreme make-over might not be in order, following are some areas to consider:

You hurt all over, and you frequently feel exhausted. Even after numerous tests, your doctor can't find anything specifically wrong with you. If this sounds familiar, you may have fibromyalgia according to the Mayo Clinic.

One of the strongest factors promoting recovery from our 10 post-World War II recessions was an unshakable conviction that, regardless of the immediate trouble, the American economy is fundamentally strong. Based on this underlying confidence, recessions and recoveries roughly conformed to the principle of the bigger the bust, the bigger the boom, and vice versa. Thus real growth in the four quarters following postwar recessions averaged 6.6% and 4.3% over the following five years. As the chief economist for Barclays, Dean Maki, said in this newspaper on Aug. 19, "You can't find a single deep recession that has been followed...

SENATE Majority Leader Harry Reid is touting the Senate's latest health-care bill as costing $849 billion over 10 years. But this uses the same accounting trick as past versions: 99 percent of the costs don't kick in until the fifth year of that "10-year" period. The true 10-year costs are well over twice what Reid's advertising: $1.8 trillion. The Democrats cite the bills' projected costs from 2010-19. Yet, as the Congressional Budget Office reports, the bill would cost just $9 billion total from 2010 through 2013 -- versus $147 billion in 2016 alone. In the first 40 percent of what...

Just in time for Thanksgiv ing, Sen. Harry Reid has given us a giant turkey of a health-care bill. At 2,074 pages and more than 370,000 words, it's officially "scored" as costing $849 billion over 10 years -- $400 million per page, or $2.3 million per word. But that doesn't come close to measuring its true cost. The bill uses various accounting gimmicks to hide its true cost. For example the bill doesn't include more than $200 billion needed to prevent a 21 percent cut in Medicare next year. [The CBO "score" actually assumes Reid cuts Medicare 23 percent --...

Cancer Screenings - Rational Advice or Rationed Care? It was a breath of fresh air to finally hear the Democrats admit to their health care bill as “a lot of show and tell and razzmatazz,” (see Democrat talking points, in reference to my book). At least now we’re all on the same page when discussing the problems with their monstrous government health care “reform” plan. Now, tonight, more disconcerting news – the New York Times reports of new guidelines to scale back cervical cancer screenings. The recommendation from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists comes on the heels of...

WASHINGTON – Most women in their 20s can have a Pap smear every two years instead of annually, say new guidelines that conclude that's enough to catch slow-growing cervical cancer.

Skip the first seconds with Letterman - after that I LOVED it! PASS IT ON to your friends and your email list.

Health care by finesBy Jay Nerger Updated: Thursday, November 19, 2009 Do not pass go, do not collect $200. There is no escaping the fact of having to shell out $15,000 for the new yet-to-be-passed-in-both-houses health care bill, H.R. 3962. Plus, you must do this regardless of any pre-existing insurance plan whether you like it or not. To me, this seems a bit on the side of authoritarian rule, where the ruling party says “jump” and you have to jump. I could have sworn that I live in the United States of America and not 16th century France. And if...

The Cook Political Report lays out what readers of this blog have been hearing a lot lately: Plenty of veteran Democrats who haven't had to break a campaign sweat this decade are quickly losing their aura of invincibility. Next fall, some in this category are likelier to face tough races than many of the 42 less tenured Democrats who populate the "Frontline" list.SnipLess than a year out from Election Day, it's time to rethink who the vulnerable Democrats are. And if President Obama is the dominant issue of the 2010 midterms (and rarely has a midterm not been a referendum...

I'm usually adept at catching the embedded politics, in tv and movies, and I usually change the station or turn it off when I do. Tonight was the first time, and I was taken aback by it, that I discerned such tactics in the series "Bones"

READ THE BILL: SENATE VERSION OF OBAMACARE NOW ONLINE Senator Jim DeMint Website ^ | 11/19/2009 | Jim DeMint staff Posted on Thursday, November 19, 2009 5:26:51 PM by snippy_about_it Read the Bill: Senate Version of ObamaCare Now Online Saturday night set for initial health care vote AP ^ | 11/18/09 | AP Posted on Thursday, November 19, 2009 5:53:08 PM by mdittmar WASHINGTON — The Senate will hold its first vote on health care legislation on Saturday night and Democrats will need 60 votes to prevail. Majority Leader Harry Reid announced the schedule on the Senate floor, one day...

Levin Surge! Say No to Reid Health Care Bill! Call These Senators & Tell Them to Vote No on Reid’s Health Care Bill (Remember Be Polite) Mary Landrieu of Louisiana 202-224-5824 Ben Nelsonof Nebraska 202-224-6551 Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas 202-224-4843 Evan Bayh of Indiana 202-224-5623