I sent the letter below to JD begging him to run and ask those who agree with me to do the same at jdhayworth@clearchannel.com

That snorting you hear are the oxen straining at the yoke hoping to see McCain in a fight for his life. After the indignity we all faced at having the choice between Obama or McCain foisted upon us by an out of tough Republican Party, conservatives across this country are kicking against the pricks dreaming of a serious challenger to run against McCain!

If you run, you’ll have money coming in from every state in the union….Please JD…You’re close without ever having announced….take on this challenge for your country, for the 9/12ers, for the tea partiers, for conservatives, and finally for disaffected and disillusioned Republicans from across this great land who are dying to see the message a McCain primary defeat would send!

But….(There’s always a but isn’t there?)

But, Sarah is back and everything ugly from the end of that campaign is back with her.

I haven’t gotten my hands on her book yet, so all I can do is comment second hand on what is purported to be in it and from what I’ve heard, she’s been nothing but gracious toward John McCain the man and the candidate despite the fact that he refused to stand up for her and rebuke his staffers for leaking unflattering reports about her under the cover of anonymity.

Which, in the end, is what this is all about. After all the speculation about who was anonymously leaking to the press about what a Diva Sarah Palin is, and how she liked expensive cloths and all the other viscous innuendo.

After all the discussion and argument back and forth about whether McCain was behind it all. Whether he supported the attackers, whether he agreed with the leaks…or the leakers..after all our calls to show some loyalty to the person he launched into the national spotlight in a desperate bid to save a pathetic and sinking campaign…..after all our begging that he come to the defense of a lady that is still being a loyal soldier to him to this very day

WELL NOW WE KNOW!!!

All these attacks from the shadows went on over a period of weeks and to this day he’s never called for these back biting gutter snipes to come to heel. He’s always chosen to stay above it all…and play like he was happy with her contribution all the while letting his lackeys tear at Palin hammer and tong.

Yet, here we are. One single day after she finally get’s a chance to tell her side of the sordid story…Here’s the great war hero, this great icon of conscience and virtue jumping to the defense of Schmidt and Wallace.

McCain goes rogue

McCain on Wednesday strongly defended the top advisers from his 2008 presidential campaign in the face of sharp criticism from his vice presidential running mate, Sarah Palin.

McCain, in a telephone interview with Reuters, singled out campaign manager Steve Schmidt and senior adviser Nicolle Wallace for praise after Palin blasted the pair in her memoir, “Going Rogue: An American Life.”

“There’s been a lot of dust flying around in the last few days and I just wanted to mention that I have the highest regard for Steve Schmidt and Nicolle Wallace and the rest of the team … and I appreciated all the hard work and everything they did to help the campaign,” he said.

“I think it’s just time to move on,” he said.

It’s time to move on John?

Well…I guess it is…now that we know what a small and pathetic little man you really are!

Cross Posted to The Minority Report

I would also note that most news reports still refer to this terrorist as b>Major Hasan and I would ask those reading this to refrain from using his rank as part of his name/title.

As the perpetrator of such a crime of Terror and treason against the United States of America I submit to you all that he has lost the right to be known as an officer in the United States military and has no right to expect the respect that such a title bestows upon a faithful and true individual whom this nation has entrusted with her protection.

And with that, it’s time to look at the recent election in NY23 and the continuing fall out from it.

Politico has a story this weekend: GOP mulls stripping Dede of top post which discusses the “possibility” that the Republican Party of NY “might” strip Dede Scozzafava of her position as minority leader pro tem for the NY General assembly. My understanding was that she was Minority Whip, (Maybe someone could clarify her status for me). What ever her rank, she’s either the number 1 or number 2 ranked Republican in the NY assembly. A fact I might add which went largely unreported in the run up to last Tuesday.

I did a post Wednesday: NY 23 And What It Should Mean to ALL Republicans Going Forward pointing out how ridiculous I consider it to be that a person could rise to the highest leadership positions in the NYGOP with the kind of ideology required to become a George Soros/SEIU/ACORN/Workers Family Party endorsed person, so I won’t belabor it here.

But what does the leadership of the NYGOP think about it?

“Fundamentally my members are very disappointed with her endorsement of Bill Owens and aiding him in helping achieve the Nancy Pelosi health care plan in Washington,”

Disappointed? Really? is that all? THIS IS AFTER SHE ENDORSED THE DEMOCRAT!!!

At least one NY Republican has enough backbone to say what he thinks. Listen to Jefferson County Republican Party Chairman Donald Coon.

“I campaigned for her. I played the loyal soldier and held my nose as I worked for her and then what does she do?” “She doesn’t care about the GOP. She doesn’t care about the people who worked for her. She just cares about herself.”

Well…here’s where the hand-wringing comes in:

State Republican Party Chairman Ed Cox said that when he spoke to Scozzafava soon after she dropped out of the race Saturday “she was sobbing over the phone.”

“It was a difficult decision obviously and she was very concerned over losing her Assembly seat. I tried to assure her that that wouldn’t happen,” he said, speculating that Democrats may have been offering her protection if she endorsed Owens.

“Without talking to her great political friends, without contacting me and influenced by her husband who is the head of the central labor council up there, she decided to support the Democratic candidate, which was a betrayal of everything she said she was,” Cox added. “She had assured my every step of the way that she was a solid Republican.”

Well…I’m Shocked..Shocked I tell you!!!

So Poor Dede was scared and didn’t know what to do…and we’re supposed to feel sorry for her now that she’s thrown an election to the Democrats?

One person who isn’t second guessing and wringing her hands is Dede herself:

“I do not regret, at all, the endorsement,” she told the Watertown Daily Times. “And I do not regret running.”

Many of us struggled with the decision whether we could pull the lever for John McCain last November. In the end I pulled the lever in his favor because of his VP pick…but during all my agonizing, there was NEVER any thought to actually calling for the election of Obama.

I spent a lot of time agonizing over that decision and kept coming back to JFK’s admonition that “sometimes party loyalty demands too much”.

Now I’m asking a much simpler question:

“Is it too much to ask that you NEVER EVER EVER Give your direct support and endorsement to a Democrat? “

Is It Mr. Kolb?

Is it Dede?

Many here would argue about how loyal I or other Conservatives would have been if we had refused to pull the lever for McCain…but in Dede’s case…there is no question…there is no room for debate. withholding your vote is one thing…but endorsing the Democrat and advocating for his election is an entirely different can of worms….and leaves ZERO room for debate!!

A “Loyal” Republican would NEVER endorse the Democrat! EVER!!! Maybe she was hurt…maybe she was confused…whatever the reason makes not a bit of difference to me. Whatever her excuse, positions in leadership should be reserved for loyal soldiers in the party and the leadership of the NY GOP should be ashamed of themselves for not dealing with this before now…and with every passing day they let this cancer fester it just heaps more and more disgrace upon them!

Do the right thing Assemblyman Kolb! Dede needs to step aside for the good of the party and for the good of those loyal Republican Assemblymen under her!

If she refuses to step aside, it is your duty sir, to show her the door! Anything less is a betrayal of the good Republicans in NY, those Assemblymen who look to you for leadership, the national GOP and ultimately the good people of New York!

Finally I would once again remind you all…that the NY-23 race is not over. The enemy has seized our keep, but he is by no means in control of it. We have less than a year now to take it back with Hoffman, and the Democrat has already started breaking promises before he cast his first vote so…keep your powder dry and lets take the NY 23 hill in 2010 shall we?

Cross Posted to The Minority Report:

Stand by for updates!

Correction: First shootings began at processing center for injured and general check in.

Update: unclear if shooter at theater was same shooter who escaped the processing center.

Update: This is really driving me batty…they all talk like they every military person on base is armed every minute of the day. We need disparately need journalists who have served and have a clue to report on things like this!

Update: Unclear of second shooter opened fire from accross the processing complex or clear across the base?

Question: From commenter below: Do you call it terrorism if you have a planned and coordinated attack on a military installation by 2 or 3 individuals? If you don’t call it terrorism…what do you call it?

Udate: confirmed 3 shooters involved in the Ft Hood mass shootings. 1 arrested, 1 surrounded, 1 at-large.

Update: 2 suspects captured. 4 Swat officers wounded per DRUDGE

Update San Antonio FBI en route to Ft Hood

Update Army spokesman Lt. Col. Nathan Banks says the first shooting began at about 1:30 p.m. at a personnel and medical processing office. The facility, called a Soldier Rating and Processing center, handles administrative details for soldiers.

Update Numerous sources say graduation was scheduled at the Theater area where several of the shootings occurred.

Update Fox reports 30 Wounded

Update Fox now Reports 9 dead 27 wounded

Update I’m beginning to think reports of third gunman are incorrect.

Update Press jumping to conclusion it is because of battle stress and to many deployments without considering any other possible cause. This is obviously an isolated incident and has no connection to several cells broken up recently with plans to attack military facilities!

Update First shooter killed according to Army Spokesman. Shooter was a soldier. several other suspects have been apprehended…apparently reports of a second shooting scene is in error.

Update All casualties occurred at the soldier readiness center

Update CNN now confirming 11 killed in Fort Hood shootings. 1 gunman dead 2 in custody

12 dead 31 wounded

Update ABC identifies shooter as Major Malik Nadal Hasan.

Update Ouch…Rick Perry is reporting 3 shooters…I think he just screwed up Ft Hood Commander said 1 shooter confirmed dead

Update Congress observing moment of silence

Update Shepard Smith says Hasan shot Own men….Hasan is a Major…I’m not sure if shep meant to say the victims were specifically from Major Hasan’s own unit but I wouldn’t be surprised.

Correction: Eye Witnesses reported two additional shooters who are now in custody and listed as suspects.

Update Congressman Carter on Cavuto reporting another gunman is lose on the base and is being pursued

Update Hasan is reported to be a Psychiatrist….that kind of rules out battle fatigue doesn’t it?

Away from the computer for a while...below are updates:

Former colleague of Hasan said on Fox News Hasan once said “Muslims should stand up to the aggressors” in Iraq and Afghanistan

Cousin says he’s always been a Muslim

The NRCC spent almost a million dollars backing Scozzafava,

I hear pundits and commentators saying that over and over…but that’s not the whole story.

The NRCC didn’t just spend it backing Scozzafava, they spent it attacking the conservative and gave the Democrat a pass at least till Dede finally backed out. Her endorsement of the Democrat can’t be ignored as a factor as well.

Then there is something which points out an even bigger problem for the party.

I’ll quote Dan McLaughlin from his front page post, “Yes, All Politics Is Local” for a little background before I lay out my points, (besides…this post began as a comment to his thread):

And perhaps worst of all, and a desperately under-covered aspect of this special election as well as the one to fill Kirsten Gillibrand’s seat in New York’s 20th District in April, Scozzafava has spent more than a decade in New York’s State Assembly. ACORN ties are bad enough, but the most radioactive association possible right now in the State of New York is with the notoriously corrupt, dysfunctional state legislature. Yet the GOP ran the State Assembly Minority Leader, Jim Tedisco (a 23-year veteran of the Assembly), for Gillibrand’s seat, and now Scozzafava. Unsurprisingly, in a climate of pervasive anti-Albany sentiment, both went down to defeat in otherwise winnable races. The nominations of Tedisco and Scozzafava represent a catastrophic failure to understand local sentiment. Conservatives who supported Hoffman, while recognizing that he, too, was an imperfect candidate, saw that at least as a political outsider, he’d have the credibility to speak to the populist revolt against the unholy alliance of Big Federal Government, Big State Government, Big Labor, and Big Business against the ordinary taxpayer.

My question here is several fold…Dan Talks about the anti-Albany sentiment and rightly diagnoses the problem I think but ignores the 800 pound gorilla in the tent…

Dede Scozzafava was the second most powerful Republican in the NY assembly!

Scozzafava was minority whip and right out of leadership just like Jim Tedisco. So she wasn’t picked out of a hat or out of the clear blue sky! Once again, the party’s proclivity to promote the next in line because it’s “their turn” has come back to haunt us. What’s more, Pete Sessions has said she was selected because “The Money was happy with her” meaning the big money donors in NY.

How is that possible? I mean…here we are having drummed her out of the race because of her ties to Acorn, The socialist Working Families Party and a record that clearly put her to the left of the Democrat in this race and no one will even ask how it is that someone with that kind of record could become the second most powerful Republican in the NY legislature?

I find it hard to believe that every Republican in the New York legislature is so liberal that they would elect a George Soros type Republican to represent them…but if they are…what does that say about the state of the NYGOP and the work to be done to clean it up?

NY 23 didn’t happen in a vacuum…it came after the 2006 and 2008 elections…Conservatives are steaming mad after being ignored for two straight elections and being forced into a Hobsian choice for POTUS last year. then the party throws up something like this for us to look at in an off/off year election.

I guess what I am saying about it is this. It happened because the people in control of the party have stopped looking at what this is all about. Scozzafava was picked because she was Minority Whip of the NY general Assembly in Albany. She was picked because the big money donors liked her. She was picked because 11 county chairs reportedly had their arms twisted by the NRCC to nominate her because she fits the big tent mold…Most Importantly…She was picked NOT elected!

My thing is this…in all this debate about….”Who is the best fit for what district and what race”…”Who can self fund?”…”What does ‘the money’ think?”…”How do we appeal to moderates and independents” What get’s lost is…”What does it mean to be a Republican?” “What is it that makes one a Republican and what’s the point of going through this exercise every 2, 4, or 6 years?” “Will she get it right?” “Will her candidacy and the things she stands for hurt or help the United States of America?” “Will she help or hurt the Republican Party.” “Will she advance or roll back the advances of Republican ideals?”

With that last I could take this in another completely different direction by asking those questions about the Republican Party, “What does the Republican Party stand for?”, “Do the Republican Party’s current policies help or hurt the United States of American and all that has made her the greatest nation in the history of the world?” “Does the Republican Party have the right motivations in the candidate she picks?”…I could go on and on so I’ll leave that for a different Diary.

Bottom line? The Republican Party is making headway right now because we’re not the Democrats…but that won’t sustain us over the long haul. What we need to decide right now what we are going to be about. Why do we exist? What policies are we going to advance? Do we care about our liberties any more and what can we do to protect and defend them?

If I were to ask you right now to tell me, (aside from simply winning elections) what the Republican Party stands for today, what her goals are, and if she has a vision for what she want’s this country to be…and where she want’s this country to be 100 years from now…could any of you give me an honest answer?

Answer these questions and we’ll be able to make it when we’re suddenly standing at the top of the key with the ball in our hands the clock winding down and the game on the line. If we don’t answer them…we’ll justifiably find our behinds warming the bench again in a couple years and fighting amongst ourselves while we wait for our leadership to come up with a reason for our existance!

I could go on and on…but I’ll leave it there and leave those who read this to think and ponder on it. Let’s figure out where were are headed and what minimum standards we are willing to accept in our candidates and leadership. Let’s get to work reshaping this party to the positive force for good that we all know she should be! Most importantly…The Democrats need to hold this seat in one short year from today…so…let’s finish the job!

Hoffman 2010 kicks off NOW!!! The Road to redemption in NY 23!

PS Fred smacked one out of the Park on Cavuto today.

The Big tent analogy isn’t the correct one…the correct one is a magnet…we need to be a magnate that draws these independents in who are sick and tired of what’s going on in Washington

Brilliant Fred…Simply BRILLIANT!

Cross Posted to The Minority Report

Who knows..but they deserve credit for this:

So here we are. It’s now five years since the Republican Party crushed the Democrats in a base election doing something that had only been done a few times in History.

And that is?

We re-elected a Republican President while expanding Republican majorities in both houses of Congress. By focusing on activating and turning out all factions of the GOP base Republicans made sweeping gains despite the Democrats turning out their voters in record numbers and despite the fact that they met all their fund raising and GOTV goals!

It’s three years since America threw those Republican majorities out on their ears for betraying the base that brought them to the ball by spending like drunken sailors and expanding government faster than almost any Democrat in history. After Amnesty, the Bridge to Nowhere, Harriot Myers, protecting crooks and pedophiles and clinging to Donald Rumsfeld and his minimalist approach to the war on Iraq!

Now, it’s approaching a year since Americans went to the polls and elected the weakest, most inexperienced, most far left candidate the Democrats put on the field in 30 years after the Republicans put up a Democrat light candidate and doubled down on their big spending, social conservative rejecting, left leaning moderate and independent pandering strategy that had lost them the election just two years before earning them an even more devastating, seat clearing spanking from the American People.

In that year we’ve watched corporations being nationalized including banks, the auto industry, and others I’m sure you’ll remind me of. We’ve watched the largest single year deficits in American history balloon from $450 Billion to over $1.5 trillion dollars with some of which was passed along by a Republican President and voted for nearly unanimously by Republicans in the House and Senate.

We’ve watched the Democrats arrogantly cram one piece of socialist trash after another down our throats with nary a peep from the Republican Party accept to say…”we’re for that too…just not as fast…or not as much!”

Pretty dark times to be sure…and out of the middle of that darkness comes a spontaneous. leaderless revolt against the insanity coming from both parties in Washington.

The Tea Parties!!!

I call it a spontaneous/leaderless movement because…without being told…or directed how to do so, millions of Americans have shown up at town halls and courthouse lawns across the nation in a tea party revolt that has stopped the Obama juggernaut in it’s tracks. All that and it was done without ANY help from the Republican Party.

And what’s the result?

After the Republican Party, (more accurately a collection of establishment hacks), nominates a far left, union loving, Daily KOS endorsed, ACORN lackey to represent the Republican Party in NY-23, the Conservatives…Tea Party warriors decide not to play ball and manage to push a conservative candidate forward who has a legitimate chance to win a traditionally Republican seat, the Party goes on the attack.

Never mind this candidate is a Republican who tried to be the Republican nominee who was stiff armed by far left Republican Party officials…and never mind that he has stated he would caucus with the party…the RNC decides it’s a good idea to throw a bucket of warm spit on the tea party goers and conservatives who have managed to stifle the Obama, Pelosi, Reid triumvirate with little to no help from the Republican party at all.

Now keep in mind…there are other races where the RNC and NRCC could help the Republican Party pick up blue seats like CA-10 where Doug Harmer is within striking distance of the Democrat running to fill Ellen Tauscher’s seat who is stalled due to lack of funds!

Brilliant aren’t they?

But where are we in NY-23 you ask? Hoffman has a lead against the Democrat AND the establishment Republicrat. Good news you might think…except the RNC has chosen not to let the Conservative who would caucus with Republicans…and has said he’d be running as a Republican in 2010 win.

Help Harmer take a blue seat? let a conservative hold on to a red seat?

NO!…we’d rather protect the perks and power of a couple local bosses. and to hell with taking over a Dem seat when we can attack a conservative and hand the seat to a Democrat.

My proof?

So my fellow Republicans…how does it feel to have your funds used against you?

But it get’s better…You’ll remember I started out talking about the Tea Parties and the ground swell of activism that has done so much to stop Obama…well…it turns out that our party seems to have decided it would be a good idea to attack them too.

Keep in mind…this is Newt’s cheif of staff. and I’ll add…that litany of liberal Republicans he names off aren’t in the House or Senate any more…They haven’t been in a long time…and it’s not because conservatives voted them out of office…they ran their races…the way they wanted to run their races…and they lost.

The decision was made decades ago that conservatism couldn’t win in their areas so they had to run left…there has been no effort to sell fiscal, or social conservatism at all. They’ve had their way…and these areas are a wasteland devoid of Republican governance!

But the line is….Conservatives and Tea Party goers are to blame for the total lack of Republicans in the North East and in California? it couldn’t possibly be the failing of those who have followed a losing strategy for decades!

Before I move on…let me say this about not practicing the politics of division or subtraction…(like nails on a chalk board when you hear it isn’t it?)…Just who is practicing the politics of subtraction by giving the base of this party a backhanded slap? and since your strategy has failed so miserably in the last 3 decades…please tell me why we should blindly follow you all off the cliff in the rest of the country?

I’ve had my fill of this crap. These are the people who have taken us from a sweeping base election in 2004 when Republicans gained it all for the first time in 70 years…to the very bottom and the pit of near irrelevancy in 5 short years…yet they continue their condescending and arrogant attacks on us.

But hold on…I’m not done yet…

Here’s a couple gems from Politico from the usual suspects from the left wing of the Republican Party:

…after Pawlenty’s endorsement Monday, some in the party voiced concern that the 2012 GOP field was moving too far to the right, too early.

“For a lot of moderates who look at Pawlenty as reasonable, it’s kind of disappointing,” said former Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), a former NRCC chairman. “What Republicans have to realize is that they have to form a broad base of support. But that’s not how you win the Republican primary.”

For those of you not familiar with my writings, Tom Davis is current chairman of the Republican Main Street Partnership who most recently is the proud recipient of over $50,000 from the AORN/Rathke backed Service Employees International Union….you may also recognize them as the mob muscle in purple shirts responsible for roughing up citizens apposed to Obama’s takeover of one seventh of the US Economy.

“This underscores a major issue the party is facing. How to win general elections, when the primaries are getting more and more conservative?” said Carl Forti, who served as political director on former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s 2008 presidential bid and who has ties to upstate New York. “The primary winners are often too right-wing to win a general election. This trend can’t continue if the GOP hopes to become a majority party again.”

How about saying what you mean…and doing what you say Carl…I know it’s a foreign concept to the establishment…but this crap of running to the right to win the primary and running left to win the general doiesn’t work…As the Democrats who figured out a couple years ago that you run to the right all the way to get elected…and then govern from the left!

Then there is this:

Davis argued that while the Democrats were losing support among independents, Republicans risked losing that support if their leaders were seen as rushing to the right.

Heh…so in one breath we have Davis saying moderates and independents are fleeing from the Democrat Party and then saying Republicans will chase them away unless the act like the Dems!

Brilliant!

Finally…from a gutless wonder who doesn’t have the testicular fortitude to spew his pap in public and would prefer to gutter snipe instead of standing up and clearly state what he believes:

A senior GOP strategist, granted anonymity in order to speak candidly, lamented that in endorsing Hoffman, the contenders had delivered to the White House an early victory in their efforts to brand the Republican Party as dominated by its conservative wing.

“The Obama White House has made a lot of mistakes, but they’ve certainly gotten the Republican Party’s number,” said the strategist.

The rush to back Hoffman, this strategist said, is “proof that the Obama political strategy is working.”

The strategist further argued that in supporting a candidate who is a favorite among tea party activists, Pawlenty and others are pandering to a faction that has yet to prove it is willing to actively support the GOP in elections.

Do what? If this kind of genius is all it takes to make a hundreds of thousands of dollars running political campaigns, where do I sign up?

First off…wetting the bed and crapping your pants worrying what your enemy thinks about you isn’t a strategy for winning a position as hall monitor. Second of all…if the White House has anyone’s number…it is this pin head’s.

Then this so called strategist ends his brilliant insite that the Tea Party has yet to show it’s loyalty to the Republican Party after wasting good air explaining why the Republican Party shouldn’t show any loyalty to them!

I’ll close with this from Politico concerning the grass roots uprising that has become known as the tea parties:

“We need more voices,” said House Minority Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia, one of the party’s up-and-coming leaders. “Our party’s challenge has been that we need to be more inclusive — we need to attract the middle again. … When one party controls all the levers of power in Washington, they’re going to try and villainize whoever they can on our side. It gives us an opportunity now to try and harness the energy and point it in a positive direction, so that we can attract the middle of the country to the common-sense conservative views that we have been about as a party.”

A word of caution Mr Cantor…I’d be careful stepping onto the tracks and trying to redirect the power and energy of this movement in a “positive direction” if you are of a mind to turn it in the direction the Republican Party has been going over the last 5 years. As far as I’m concerned, we’re headed in the right direction…and any effort to turn us in a leftward direction will only get you run over!

Virginia Democrats are highlighting this video of GOP gubernatorial nominee Bob McDonnell from a rally-the-base speech earlier today at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University in Lynchburg.

McDonnell’s promise to be a champion for traditional marriage and anti-abortion stalwart comes on the morning following the final debate of the governor’s race Tuesday night — a debate where the Republican said that, if elected, his focus would be on issues such as jobs, transportation and energy.

Pressed about his opposition to abortion at the debate, McDonnell was far less expansive than in front of the evangelical students at Liberty.

And, it should be noted, the Republican’s cultural message today has been notably absent from his just-a-suburban-dad TV ads in the Washington, D.C. market.

So if you’re a Christian and dare to talk about your faith, about your values…or anything besides the economy…you’re unfit to hold office I suppose? What’s the Point here Ben…and where are the Dems taking this is what I’d like to know!

And what are we to take from this brilliant piece of journalism:

And, it should be noted, the Republican’s cultural message today has been notably absent from his just-a-suburban-dad TV ads in the Washington, D.C. market.

Maybe he’s too ashamed to mention his faith? or is it that he’s just Pandering to the EEEEVIL Christian Conservatives? Good thing he didn’t have a Cross behind him because we wouldn’t want him sending off any subliminal messages would we? Oh…I know…He’s a closet Christian who is really hell bent on creating “THEOCRACY” and forcing every American to subscribe to his brand of faith!

Burn Him!!!!

Smith throws it out there and draws no conclusion…I mean…what’s the point….maybe we’re supposed to draw a conclusion that speaking at Liberty University is bad…or being a Christian should disqualify one from holding office?

I’m not one that likes the victim industry in this country and I don’t want to play the victim here…but this is smarmy and disgusting and I find it offensive in the nth degree!

Anti Christian bigotry on full and naked display for all to see from Politico and the VA Democrats….

DISGUSTING!

Cross Posted to The Minority Report

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!

and what’s her brilliant reasoning?

She told her colleagues she has misgivings about the bill, but “when history calls, history calls.”

“Is this bill all that I want? Far from it. Is it all that it could be? No,” Snowe said. “But when history calls, history calls. And I happen to think the consequences of inaction dictate the urgency of Congress to take every opportunity to demonstrate its capacity to solve the monumental issues of our time.”

heh…really? When history calls, history calls? What kind of mindless tripe is that….my question is this…Just what the hell will history call you when this is all said and done Senator? I have a few names in mind…but they don’t fly too well in polite company…and my sunday school class would certainly think less of me for giving in to their use!

She goes on to state the following which says to me…”I’ve had a grand time having the press and Democrats court me and sing my praises over the last months…and I’m holding my hand forth as an invitation for you to continue”…

She said she supports the bill with reservations, and shares the Republican concerns about how Democrats will shape the bill after it leaves the committee.

In a subtle warning, Snowe said: “My vote today is my vote today, it doesn’t forecast what my vote will be tomorrow.”

but my question is this…does anyone here doubt how she’ll vote for whatever hits the floor since it’s leaving the committee with her blessing?

To top it off…Baucus appeared to be struck speechless that she actually decided to pander to his slobbering outreach to her trying to bribe her to his side of the isle…Even he seemed flabbergasted by her colossal stupidity!

Give me a break already. I and SoCons like myself have been relentlessly pounded by Snowe and her groupies since 1994 for being what’s wrong with the Republican Party. We’ve been told we’re the reason the all important moderates and independents have abandoned the Republican Party and that we need to sit down and shut up so you can drive us to a permanent Republican Majority…

And from what I’m seeing…you’ve succeeded in shutting us up…I don’t hear ANYONE talking about social issues now…We’re all to busy to notice Obama’s new push to scrap don’t ask don’t tell…and funding abortion in the health care bill…and all the rest of it…we’re all too busy trying to hold the line against the greatest expansion of centralized federal power over our most basic every day lives since FDR…and here we have exhibit #1 as to why appeasing the RINOs of this party will never gain us ANYTHING…

At this point I wish to welcome my libertarian and FisCon brethren to my little corner of the “STUPID PARTY”…now you’re the reason the Republican Party is in trouble…it’s you {snear}”Principles”{/snear} and unwillingness to compromise that are to blame for our current straights!

In less than a year we’ve bailed out banks, taken over private industries, increased the deficit from $400 billion dollars to nearly two trillion dollars with the help of the RINO wing of this party and along comes one of the ladies from the great white north with her stamp of approval to yet $829 billion more in government largess and control over out lives…

Keep in mind folks…this is just health care…we still have Amnesty and Cap and trade coming up…Of course, Snowe will slink back into the wings and let McCain, Grahamnesty, and Collins take the lead in selling us down the river on those issues…

So…hows that argument about needing 40 votes in the Senate working out for you all out there!

Bahh! Why do I even bother!

Cross Posted to The Minority Report

Of Course…it doesn’t stop there….because if you don’t pay the $1900 fine because you spent your last $500 buying food and shelter…the good Senator has decided you should face one year in federal prison and $25,000 in fines….God only knows how someone who couldn’t afford to pay for a $500 insurance premium or a $1900 fine after that is supposed to pay an additional $25,000….and I can only assume there would be a potential for additional jail time for refusing to pay the $25,000…but one could go on and on from there.

But who are we to worry ourselves about all this because Senator Snowe has decided she knows best how individual citizens should spend their hard earned dollars and sees no reason to bother herself with that pesky Constitution which she swore to uphold and defend against “ALL enemies; both foreign and DOMESTIC“.

There is no thought or consideration as to whether the FEDERAL government SHOULD be telling people how to live their lives on the most basic level let alone whether it has the AUTHORITY under the Constitution to do so. Her imperial proclivity to foist a big government nanny state government bureaucracy on Texas from the wintry wonderland of Main coupled with her sycophantic desire to be bigger than the rest of flyover country with her “BIPARTISANSHIP” is all that matters here.

And for everyone last week who was jumping up and down congratulating each other because she decided to act like a Republican for a change and speak out against a public option…where are you now? Do you really think we’re not going to get our public option if she has her way?

Think again….let’s not forget…she’s the genius behind the “trigger” option that would stop a public option now….yet would implement it later “should it become necessary”….of course NONE of the geniuses out there from Rush, to Hannity, to Beck and the rest of the “conservative” talking heads have ever put it together that this is a ploy which will tamp down everyone’s objection to HCR in the short term because we’re all supposed to think the public option is dead. Yet see it enacted over the long term because….Once enacted…the whole thing is already set up to be implemented without any Senator or Congressperson having their fingerprints on it and without the people being able to object because it will be implemented automatically once the inevitable trigger is pulled.

BTW…I read yesterday and can’t find the link….that Harry Reid is posing about giving up on a public option and has now signed off on Snowe’s idea for a trigger and Co Ops and is praising her for bringing them to the table.

No doubt, a couple of months or maybe years hence…we’ll all be looking around staring death panels and rationing in the face…losing our private insurance and being forced into a public health option all the while looking for someone to blame…and the clowns in DC will be shrugging their shoulders telling us it wasn’t their fault…it was already in the law…and it was the last Congress that screwed us all! Of course…I and many like me will be saying…I told you so” and pointing the finger at Snowe where the blame lies…and the establishment will be looking down their noses at us because we couldn’t possibly know better than they, since we didn’t go to Harvard or Yale…Oh…and besides…nothing else matters beyond having another seat with an R on it no matter the fact it means nothing when it comes to actually governing…“Winning” is all that matters don’t you know?

Finally…please spare me the sanctimonious crap about how I prefer to attack Republicans over Democrats which is an over simplification…The issue is…I expect more out of Republicans than Democrats and I’m outraged when people do crap like this when they should darned well know better!

I just can’t figure out for the life of me what we gain by having Snowe doing this because with her…even when we win…WE LOSE!

Cross Posted at The Minority Report

McCain to host Romney fundraiser
Posted: September 25th, 2009 11:07 AM ET

From CNN Political Producer Peter Hamby
McCain and Romney were at times bitter rivals during the 2008 campaign.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Sen. John McCain is co-hosting a fundraiser for his former 2008 Republican primary rival Mitt Romney next Wednesday in Phoenix.

McCain and his fellow Arizona senator Jon Kyl will headline the event at Chase Bank Field, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The fundraiser will benefit Romney’s Free and Strong America PAC, and features a $3,000 per person VIP reception along with a $300 per person luncheon.

I said the day the announcement of Romney’s “shocking” resignation from the race that a deal had been made in a smoke filled room at the CPAC meeting and here we are. We have watched McCain play coy concerning the attacks by his underlings on Sarah Palin refusing to defend her and call off is dogs and sing the praises of Tim Paulenty as his kind of Republican but in the end…I contend the first installment in the deal has just been made.

We’ll see if this is all we’ll see from John (Crap & Tax) McCain in helping Romney or if he’ll consider his debt paid and go prancing off to his beloved Pawlenty…My guess is this will be it for McCain because the contempt he has for Romney is palpable…McCain’s petty vindictiveness is legendary and the fact that he even did this fundraiser is proof to me that this is real…

As for the rest of the establishmentarians of OUR party…you can expect to see McCain’s campaign operatives and closest advisers signing up for jobs with ROMNEY 2012 as the rest of the Republican Party establishment continues in it’s back slapping, underhanded dealings while simultaneously giving the base the back of it’s hand! You can expect to see Romney’s profile begin to rise and we’ll see him all over the talk circuit…this is where it starts kids…

I’ll point out here that McCain has received a contribution to his Senate Campaign from SARAH PAC and I don’t see a dime coming into his coffers from Romney’s Free and Strong America PAC. Palin’s contribution shows her to be either a loyal soldier who is thankful to his Campaign Financeness or a sucker of the highest order…

Maybe I’m full of crap…Many here already think so anyway…only time will tell…I’m sure Steve LA will remind me if I’m wrong…so pass the pop corn and hand me the remote!

Cross posted at THE MINORITY REPORT

Victoria Hays, who lives in Byrd’s neighborhood, said she saw three fire trucks, two ambulances, a uniformed police officer and security personnel on the driveway of the senator’s house Tuesday morning.

“We’ve all kind of noticed there have been a lot more nurses” in recent days at Byrd’s house, she said. “I’ve never seen anything like this around his house before. We’re hoping for the best.”

Byrd is 91 years old and has been in failing health for some time. He’s reportedly been absent from the Senate for much of this year.

Having grown up in WV I know Byrd as kind of a legend who is revered for his ability in recent years of funneling Pork to WV. I recall sometime in the late 90s he funneled 70% of all Federal Highway funds to WV road projects. He also moved the FBI Fingerprint center to Clarksburg WV, and NASA to Fairmont. There isn’t a town in WV that doesn’t have something named for the Senator.

Of course everyone remembers him for his days as the WV Grand Dragon of the Kinights of the Klu Klux Klan, and for his rambling speaches in the Senate of late.

While my Prayers are with the Byrd family and for a return to good health of Senator Byrd as well as a prayer for his immortal soul, one can’t escape the political consequences of a second vacancy of a powerful Senate Seat.

Byrd has been known as a traditionalist in the Senate and someone who holds the Constitution in high regard though I think that’s been over blown, (He is a Democrat after all), and I wonder how his absence will effect the way things go on Health Care Reform because of the obvious problem caused by 2 Democrat Vacancies in the Senate as well as the loss of his voice holding Democrats to a slightly more moderate path in ramming their socialist agenda through for the sake of tradition if nothing else.

One other question would be how Governor Joe Manchin will replace him if it becomes necessary. I know a little about Joe having grown up about 10 miles from his home in Farmington WV. I am acquainted with him though not close by any means. He’s a Democrat but not a rabid leftist unless he’s changed in the last ten years I think we could see another Blue Dog in the Senate if an appointment becomes necessary.

I’d be laughing if I weren’t choking back tears of utter frustration.

You all Remember Mitt…he’s the current front runner for 2012. He’s the genius of the business world, the FisCon’s FisCon. He’s the guy that saved the 2002 Winter Olympics. He’s the champion of the free market and the engineer of the “Market Based” health Care plan in Massachusetts.

So…What does Mitt think of his work as Governor of Massachusetts in passing Socialized Health Care Reform?

When it comes to suggesting that Republicans are the party of “no, ” I hope people remember that there is only one state that has coverage for all of its citizens, and it’s Massachusetts and it’s something that a Republican governor was able to accomplish. So Republicans have views and plans and our plans have a number of positive features.

First, every one I’ve seen gets our citizens insured, and does so without establishing a government insurance program. And also does so without creating a trillion dollar obligation of the taxpayers of the nation. And that’s what I think is critical. We have proven in Massachusetts that you can get everyone insured without having to break the bank. You can get everyone insured without having government institute an insurance plan. And whether you like our Massachusetts plan or not, it proves those two things, and there are some others that have other features that are perhaps just as good or better than those that we devised in Massachusetts. They ought to be evaluated, scored by the CBO and given the kind of thorough analysis that a topic as big as healthcare deserves.

And this:

There’s a frequent confusion between two different topics. One is the topic of the Massachusetts Plan which was designed to get people who were uninsured into the insurance system, and that’s working as planned, and almost precisely as budgeted, as forecast by the conferees who put the final bill together. As I indicated, the forecast for FY 2009 was a gross cost of $725 million and it turns out that next fiscal year the forecast of the actuaries is going to be slightly less than that, about $723 million. That’s about as close as it gets. The net cost is about half that figure, about $350 million.

Duck Tape please…My head is going to explode! “We have proven in Massachusetts that you can get everyone insured without having to break the bank. are you !@#$ing %^&%ing me!!!! I can’t think of anything dumber a politician could say when the facts are considered. And this is the guy FisCons are championing for 2012?

First of all…”Without Breaking The Bank”.

Already the state is having to adjust it’s payments for hospitals, doctors and other health care providers. Care is being rationed and emergency services curtailed. Waiting periods to see a doctor are increasing, (some waiting lists are up to a year for the better doctors) despite Massachusetts having more doctors per capita than any state in the country and there are now discussions in the state legislature of paying Doctors a set fee directly and eliminating fee for service billing. Some of you may remember the recent dust up when Massachusetts announced it would be illuminating benefits to 30,000 illegal immigrants.

Additionally, Here’s just one Article from over a year ago discussing the effects of Mass Care after two years and projections of exploding costs for this year! Please note, the projections were from Feb 2008 and don’t factor in the effect of the shrinking economy and the loss of revenue that has resulted:

Cost of Massachusetts Health Overhaul To Double Over Three Years

Enrollment and costs for Commonwealth Care, Massachusetts’ subsidized health insurance program, are expected to double by June 2011, the Boston Globe reports.

The growth “would far outstrip the original plans” for the program, mainly because state officials underestimated the number of residents without health insurance, the Globe reports. Commonwealth Care provides no-cost or subsidized health care coverage to state residents who do not qualify for MassHealth, the state’s Medicaid program, and do not have access to employer-sponsored health insurance.

When the program was authorized in 2006, the state Legislature projected total eventual enrollment of 215,000 people at a cost of $725 million annually, but officials in late 2006 reduced the estimate to between 140,000 and 160,000.

However, state projections obtained by the Globe estimate enrollment of 342,000 people at a cost of $1.35 billion annually within three years. Currently, about 169,000 residents are enrolled in the program.

Total spending on the state’s health care initiative will equal $1.95 billion this year, with just less than half being funded by the federal government. Two unforeseen problems have contributed to the funding shortfall:

• The state had expected to shift money from no-cost care for the uninsured to insurance subsidies, but the decline in charity care has been slower than expected; and

• The state had expected to collect tens of millions of dollars from the penalty on businesses that do not offer health coverage to workers, but it expects to collect about $5 million this year.

Ohh…the interview get’s even more mind numbingly asinine from there when Romney says the following:

There is no government option in Massachusetts: there is simply the availability of the various insurance programs that are offered by the private market-based insurance companies doing business in the state. So if people were happy with the system they had, and the insurance they had, rather, then they are certainly welcome to keep that, and if people who are coming into the system want to choose a plan, they are given access to all of those available in the state.

This is simply an out and out lie, if not a distortion of the facts worthy of the most slick and polished used care salesman. I remember Romney hitting Giuliani and McCain with his cute statement that “Facts are stubborn things”…well Mitt…here are some facts for you!

The reform law authorized the development of an independent state agency, known as the Connector, to implement the reform. The Connector offers a menu of insurance options and serves as an intermediary to assist individuals in acquiring health coverage. It manages two similarly named but different health insurance programs, Commonwealth Care and Commonwealth Choice…..

In addition to managing these two programs, the Connector is charged with developing several policy and regulatory components of reform. Among its most important policy tasks are the establishment of the benefits packages and premium contribution schedules for the Commonwealth Care program, the development of regulations defining what constitutes coverage for purposes of the mandate, and the construction of affordability guidelines.

Well…OK…Technically it’s not a lie because maybe Romney didn’t set up a “government option” but it set up a government agency that dictates what options would be available and what insurance customers are allowed to purchase or face fines for not purchasing them!

In the last three years the “Connecter” has virtually eliminated competition in the insurance market mandating coverage that must be provided amongst insurance companies which has increased the cost of premiums and added to the control of the state over the market. In addition, the state has had to slash spending for health care in its network of “Safety-Net”, (read public), hospitals.

Escalating Costs Make the Reform Unsustainable
The reform has been more expensive than expected (as shown below), costing $1.1 billion in fiscal 2008 and $1.3 billion in fiscal 2009. The plan does nothing to control skyrocketing healthcare costs. Even before the health reform, health costs in Massachusetts were among the highest in the world, approximately 25% higher than the U.S. average.
Since the reform’s passage, premiums have continued to escalate. The costs for the four (subsidized) Commonwealth Care plans rose 9.4 % in 2009, significantly higher than increases in inflation or wages.
The health reform has actually increased administrative costs and waste, already a major cause of high health care costs in the U.S. The Connector adds an additional 4.5% administrative cost to each policy it brokers. This is on top of the overhead of individual insurance plans, an average of at least 10%.

There is so much I could throw it this fool I can’t find the time, the room, or the organization to put it all together…but I’ll leave it at this!

Romney toots his horn about how his pet project has controlled costs, provided universal coverage, (though there are still 3% to 5% of Mass’s citizens still uninsured), and all at no additional cost and then throws out this pile of white washed excrement!

Then there’s another issue, however, and that’s the fact that the cost of health care, generally in Massachusetts, like the rest of the nation, continues to rise at a very high rat. Health care inflation in America is very, very high. In Massachusetts, it’s higher than average even. That is not something which we were able to deal with at the state level, and, in my view, that’s something that can be dealt with in Washington in part because the federal government sends out Medicare and Medicaid, which comprise about 50% of all health care spending in this country.

Umm…excuse me Governor…but wasn’t the whole point of this fiasco to control the rise in costs…yet rates are still raising at a very high rate? By the way…according to several studies, costs are rising in Massachusetts at a faster rate than any other state in the union! So what did you really accomplish with your little foray into socialized medicine and central planning? with this you actually want to explain away your plan’s inability to control the rise in health care costs because health care costs are rising to fast?…uhh…OK?!

The Human Events interview goes way beyond what I’ve covered here and I’d encourage everyone here to read it…especially those who want to cling to the notion that Romney is a fiscal conservative. This interview proves what I’ve said all along…Romney isn’t ashamed of his big government health care solution for Massachusetts. In fact…he’s proud of it. From Mass-Care, to his call for a Detroit Bailout and on and on he has proven he is anything but a small government fiscal conservative and if he had a chance, he’d proudly enslave us all in a government health care bureaucracy by signing legislation with a Republican stamp of approval on it!

Just to review…I came here as a Huckster during the primary season and it might surprise some of you but I was pretty confrontational and strident in my support for the Huckster in Chief.

I know…I know…It’s hard to believe I could be controversial in my approach to anything given my mild mannered approach to all things politics and my moderating attempts to never give offense which you’ve all become accustomed to from me.

I’ll add here that I supported Huckabee as the less bad of a bunch of REALLY bad choices though I defended him to the hilt as I would any candidate I believed in!

Some of you may remember the hard time I had being blammed several times but by the grace of GOD and the understanding and nurturing guidance of Adam C and a few of the moderators, I managed to survive to become the mild mannered, calm, big tent Republican who stands before you today.

In all seriousness, I’ve loved the time I’ve had here and hope it continues for many years to come. For those of you who have been on the receiving end of my barbs and rhetorical flourishes Please know none of it has ever been personal for me…I’m of the old school where two testosterone filled bulls can face off in the front parking lot and sit down for a beer together after both our noses have been bloodied. To me…such is the natural way of things and as I’ve said hundreds of times here, the back and forth between us only serves to strengthen and refine our arguments even if we never convince each other of the rightness of the other’s cause.

Finally, to those of you who have doubts about my commitment to my party, and the Conservative values it represents, please know that for all my rantings, slings and arrows aimed at “RINOs”, “Rockefeller Republicans”, “Eisenhower Republicans”, “Country Clubbers”, “Elites”, “Ivy Leaguers” and “Big Tenters”, My rantings are based on my honest beliefs that the way back for this Party is by lifting up, selling, and standing by Conservative values and Principles. It is my earnest belief that we have lost our way as a Party and lost track of what it is that has made America the Greatest nation on the face of the Earth and the “last best hope of mankind”. I love this Party and have sacrificed my time and money to her and I will continue to do so even if and long after I’m labeled a trouble maker, a problem child, a back biter, a traitor, a quasi Democrat, a KOSac, or any of the other things I’ve been labeled as.

For me, it takes all kinds to build a successful team. I’ve been accused of firing at the wrong target, sometimes justifiably so…but there is a necessity for a whistle blower to point out the enemies in our midst or the holes in our defensive lines just as there is for the front line troops, the planners, the organizers and the Generals who lead the army into battle. That seems to have become my roll, sometimes despite myself because I write when I’m ticked off and there is little that ticks me off more than my own so called leaders giving away the store!

Hope that clarifies for some of you what makes me tick!

That said, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO ME!!!

Here’s praying I survive another two years as a devoted Red Stater and thanks to all those who have kept me around and followed me over the last two years!

Aside from the obvious question, “If the Dems have the upper hand here and Sotomayor is a forgone conclusion, why is Leahy bringing out the big guns” which I want asked and answered, because If they’re having problems maybe a push by Republicans would scuttle her, I want to focus on Leahy’s slurs and Sessions cowardice in facing it!

“You have one leader of the Republican Party call her the equivalent of the head of the Ku Klux Klan. Another leader of the Republican Party called her a bigot,” the Vermont Democrat said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “The leadership of the Republican Party came out against her long before we had the hearings, long before they looked at her record. I think that’s unfair.”
“I hope we don’t go back to the day when we used to have African-Americans up for confirmation and say yes, but you belong to the NAACP so we’re really suspicious of you,” said Leahy. “Come on, stop the racial politics. …”

Of course Senator Sessions the semi-effective minority leader on the judiciary committee made a stammering, whining attempt to object:

“Come on, Pat, I want to disagree …”

But on goes Leahy:

“That’s what comes across. It comes across that if you belong to a group that tries to help Hispanics, … somehow you’re suspicious. The same arguments were used against Thurgood Marshall, and I think it’s wrong.”

Sessions response to the usual vapid crap from the Democrats? Well…What’s a Republican to do but snivel and lend credence to the intolerable and incessant cat calls of racism from the Democrats on every issue that comes down the pipes!

“No Republican leader said she was a bigot,” said Sessions. “There’s nothing wrong with us asking about her personal views about legal positions that she took as a member of any organization. That’s a normal thing to do.”

Hey Senator Sessions…has the possibility that she is a bigot ever occurred to you and/or any “Republican Leader” and that maybe she should be opposed because she’s part of a group that is actively leading a secession movement.

I would argue there is ample evidence of her bigotry and I would additionally argue she should be opposed as a bigot first and foremost and that’s before we even consider her activist philosophy and comments that the courts are where policy is made!

Instead of sniveling like a little child who just got caught with his hand in the cookie jar, maybe you should try and counter Leahey’s lies instead of making excuses!

As to Leahy, I’m not a violent man but this is his modus operadi. His comments and arrogant insistence and reliance on insult and vicious smears was once upon a time considered a punchable offence if not something to be settled in a duel.

I can think of very few I would derive more pleasure from seeing them roundly smashed in the mouth. Leahy is near the top of that category.

In Leahy’s world it’s perfectly fine to accuse Republicans of the most vile and despicable motives such as racism, wanting to starve women and children or destroy our planet and poison our air and water for opposing any Democrat on any issue. Conversely, it’s not ok for a Republican to call an obvious Democrat Racist a Racist. Oh contraire, for a Republican to do so is proof positive that the Republican is a bigot!

I don’t know who I hold more in contempt on this, Leahy who is following a deplorable and infuriating tactic that has worked so well for the Democrats of 70 years or Sessions and the Republican leadership who have been beaten by the same tactic for 70 years and are either too stupid to come a counter to the tactic after 70 years or if they are simply cowards who don’t have the guts or the testicular fortitude to call a gutless and sniveling piece of crap out to the front parking lot for the beating they’ve so obviously earned!

By the way, before anyone goes and accuses me of physically threatening a sitting United States Senator, I’m speaking hyperbolically.

I will say the picture of SC Cong. Preston Brooks taking his cane to MA Sen. Charles Sumner in 1856 keeps dancing in my head. That said, I’m not threatening anyone…simply pointing out this behavior would have resulted in such a beating back when honor and integrity still meant something in America.

In the interest of full disclosure, due to business commitments cropping up at the last minute I will admit I have yet to do my part aside from writing this diary compiling the info gathered from those committed to reading the bill. I will be cutting and pasting in the work the others have done and then read a portion to post here in an update. With the bill being 1,018 pages long we need help. I’ve posted an index of the bill at the end of this and will mark the portions already read and co0mmented on in bold colors. If you are interested in helping us in this endeavor, please check the index and let me know in the thread which parts you would like to tackle. I’ll keep track of what’s already been covered so we don’t duplicate work.

For those who have already done a section, please do a commentary on the portion you read that covers items you found, what you believe will be the result, how they apply to the Constitutional roll of government and or any other opinions you’ve formed from reading your section.
I’m simply cutting and pasting in what other authors have written in the original thread with attribution so please don’t hold me responsible for inaccurate content but let us know if you identify any mistakes so we can debate and correct them as appropriate. I’ll also point out the excellent work done so far by thersites. His is by far the most comprehensive and is so packed with information to be studied and commented on.

Ok I read title one up to subtitle b
kyle8 Wednesday, July 15th at 4:16PM EDT

It gives out the usual definitions and then begins to describe what sort of plan will be accepted after the law comes into effect.

Essentially Employer based plans will be grandfathered in ONLY if there are no changes to the plan or premium increases. And only if the plan meets the minimum standards for the new “basic Plan” to be defined later in the bill.

Private plans will be disallowed unless they are part of the new national coverage. Here is the section;

{{(1) IN GENERAL.—Individual health insurance

2 coverage that is not grandfathered health insurance

3 coverage under subsection (a) may only be offered

4 on or after the first day of Y1 as an Exchange-par5
ticipating health benefits plan.}}.page 19

It also sets up a “Health Insurance Exchange” to become an authority over health insurance.

Sec. 102 “promise” to let you keep your current coverage. You didn’t expect them to acually let you keep it forever, did you?
ddstrain Thursday, July 16th at 1:58AM EDT

I’ve just read Section 102, which purports to preserve our right to keep our current health coverage. As far as I can tell, any such right is EXTREMELY limited and VAST numbers of people will start to be forced into the government plan on or about January 1, 2013.

I don’t regularly engage in statutory interpretation, but it is really not that hard to parse this screed. I think I’m giving a fair interpretation and accurate description of what will happen in 2013 and 2018. If someone out there thinks I’m wrong, please give me a more plausible interpretation.
SHORT VERSION: We will ALL (you, me, the paperboy, the grocery cashier, Rosie O’Donnell, EVERYONE) will be suffering together with Obamacare by Jan. 1 2018, with next to no exceptions. The “you can keep your current coverage” is true in a very short term sense…otherwise IT IS A LIE.
LONG VERSION: My interpretation is that…

NOTE: I use “government plan” throughout below. By government plan, I mean the public option that will mimic Canada or the UK or a “private” plan that is effectivly under massive government control and oversight (e.g. bureaucrats in charge).

Sec. 102(a) “grandfathers” any private insurance plan in effect on or before Jan. 1, 2013. This means that any entity wishing to implement a health plan after Jan. 1, 2013 must use the government health plan. So if you have any aspiration of owning your own business and want to offer private health benefits to your employees … do it before 2013. [[[ Well ... actually ... it doesn't matter. Sec. 102(b)(1)(A) makes it a waste of time to establish a new plan if you plan to still be in business in 2018.]]]

Sec. 102(a)(1) (a) prohibits an employer with a “grandfathered” private plan from adding new employees to that plan after Jan. 1, 2013. So if a company expands and adds people it will be forced to place them on the government plan. More directly, if you change jobs on or after Jan. 2, 2013, you will be put on the government plan, whether your new employer has a “grandfathered” plan or not.

Sec. 102(a)(2) prohibits a “grandfathered” private plan from making any changes to the policy
coverage on or after Dec. 31, 2012. So an employer is PROHIBITED for amending the plan to meet the needs of the business or the employees effective Dec. 31, 2012. Even INCREASING COVERAGE is banned. Seems to be a perfect paragraph to include if you want to sped the obsolescence of existing private plans.

Sec. 102(b)(1)(A) was drafted by someone who clearly wants to hide it’s true intent. Basically this paragraph essentially says that on Jan. 1, 2018 all “grandfathered” private plans must be made identical to the government plan. Sure it’s still privately run…but it’s the same as the government plan. Sooooo, why would a company keep it’s private plan come 2018?

Sec. 102(b)(1)(B) - provides some very specialized and limited exceptions to the 2018 deadline to become just like the government plan. Specifically, COBRA coverage extended under the Porkulus and special purpose insurance coverage like long-term care. However, these excepted plans shall “[i]n no case…be treated as acceptable coverage…]. So there will be a very limited number of truly private special purpose plans that exist after 2018, but the government doesn’t like them because they are not acceptable. Who wants to bet that by 2018, they’ll have eliminated those special purpose private plans?

Sec.102(b)(2) says that the “grandfathered” private plans existing on Jan 1, 2013 enter a “grace period” until 2018, when they need to become clones of the government plan. During this grace period the private plans are “treated as acceptable”, meaning they are inherently unacceptable and only the good graces of the government allows them to exist between 2013 and 2018. Again, bets on how quickly this grace period will be shortened or how nebulous “acceptable” is interpreted?
Sec. 102(c) has a title that says it all … “LIMITATION ON INDIVIDUAL HEALTH INSURANCE COVERAGE” How much more clear does this need to be for people to wake up?

Sec. 102(c)(1) says that if a health plan isn’t “grandfathered” it must be a government plan. Recall my above inpretation of Sec. 102(a) that all entities offering new health coverage aftr Jan 1, 2013 must be on the government plan.

Sec. 102(c)(2) provides another very limited exclusion for specialty coverage.
Sure we can keep our current superior private coverage … for a little while. Should this get enacted say goodbye to insurance coverage as you want it, how you want it and where you want it.

Maybe I’ll make this a Diary entry…

What’s the point in having private coverage ? None says Section 403.
lholsenbeck Thursday, July 16th at 8:34PM EDT

Section 403, TAX ON INDIVIDUALS WITHOUT ACCEPTABLE
HEALTH CARE COVERAGE.

Quote:
“TAX IMPOSED.—In the case of any individual
who does not meet the requirements of subsection (d) at
any time during the taxable year, there is hereby imposed
a tax equal to 2.5 percent of the excess of—
the taxpayer’s modified adjusted gross in2
come for the taxable year, over
the amount of gross income specified in
section 6012(a)(1) with respect to the taxpayer.”
Meaning:

If you aren’t paying what some governement committee decides is your share in private insurance, they’ll be taxing you an additional 2.5%

Oh, and illegals(those who are one heck of a big cost to the US health system, but pay relatively nothing); they’re exempt.

Don’t tell me this isn’t an attempt to buy immigrant votes(amongst all the other vile things going on in here).

Ok, off to looking for the next floater.

Hey vets, Obama’s taking over the VA(and you thought the VA couldn’t get worse) - Sec 401.
lholsenbeck Thursday, July 16th at 9:05PM EDT

ACCEPTABLE COVERAGE.—

Quote:
“(F) VA.—Coverage under the veteran’s
health care program under chapter 17 of title
38, United States Code, but only if the coverage
for the individual involved is determined
by the Secretary in coordination with the
Health Choices Commissioner to be not less
than the level specified by the Secretary of the
Treasury, in coordination with the Secretary of
Veteran’s Affairs and the Health Choices Commissioner,
based on the individual’s priority for
services as provided under section 1705(a) of
such title.”

Meaning:
Obama’s appointed health commissioner and Obama’s chosen HHS secretary are determining what VA acceptable coverage is.

Considering I think Obama’s actions or non-actions for vets so far have been shameful; i’m not optimistic.

I need a drink, but i probably shouldn’t have one. If my liver goes bad and i’m not paying enough taxes to keep this monster afloat; that may be it for me. Well, as long as I still have “hope”.

Review of Title IV Subtitle A
thersites Thursday, July 16th at 11:12AM EDT

TITLE IV – AMENDMENTS TO INTERNAL REVENUE CODE OF 1986
Subtitle A—Shared Responsibility
Tax on persons without health insurance
Persons without “acceptable health care coverage” will be taxed at 2.5% of modified adjusted gross income. But the amount paid may not exceed the average premium for the taxable year, as determined by the Secretary of HHS. If the taxpayer has dependents, average premium for “family coverage” will be the limit. If the person is not covered for part of the year then their tax will be prorated.

The following persons are exempt from the tax.
Persons who could be claimed as a dependent on another persons tax filing.
Non-resident aliens living in the US.
Persons living outside the US.
Persons living in a possession of the US.
Persons with religious conscience exemption granted by the HHS Secretary
Persons have “acceptable coverage” if they are covered by one of the following.
A “qualified heath benefits plan”.
A grandfathered employer-based health insurance plan.
Medicaid.
Medicare.
Members of the armed forces (including Tricare).
Veterans Administration.
Other coverage as specified by the HHS Secretary.

The Secretary of HHS may make regulations regarding exemptions from the tax and a process for applying for a hardship waiver.

Persons must file reports every year proving that they provided coverage for themselves and dependents. There is an unspecified penalty for failure to file.

The tax described in this section shall not be treated as a change in tax rate. (Thus not breaking Obama’s pledge not to raise taxes on the middle class. Apparently, if you say it isn’t a tax then it doesn’t count. ).

Employer Responsibilities

Employers who claim to cover employees under a private health care plan must ensure that all are covered. They may be fined $100 per day per employee for failure to comply with the universal coverage requirement. Employers must pay the government for past uncovered periods if it is found that they have uninsured employees.

Employers who do not claim to cover their employees under a private plan must pay an excise tax equal to 8% of of employees’ wages. Small employers get a break depending on the size of their payroll: $350-400K=6%, $300-350K=4%, $250-300K=2%, <$250K=0%.

Review of Title IV Subtitle B
thersites Thursday, July 16th at 11:12AM EDT

TITLE IV—AMENDMENTS TO INTERNAL REVENUE CODE OF 1986
Subtitle B—Credit for Small Business Employee Health Coverage Expenses
Small businesses get a credit of up to 50% of the average cost of employee health care coverage.
But the section goes on to say that the deduction will be reduced by “a number of percentage points which bears the same ratio to 50 as such excess bears to $20,000?. I’m pretty good at math but poor at tortured english. I interpret this to mean that the deduction goes down from 50% as the average employee compensation goes up from $20,000 until the deduction drops to 0% at $40,000 annual average compensation. The deduction dwindles in the same fashion as the number of employees goes up from 15 to 30. (But in a later section the bill states that the business does not qualify as a small employer if they have more than 25 employees.) The two types of reductions to the deduction are cumulative.

Health coverage expenses of employees who make more than $80,000 (referred to as “certain highly compensated employees”) do not count toward the credit. Employees are not “qualified employees” unless they make more than $5000 per year.

In partnerships and sole-proprietorships the owners are considered employees.
The dollar amounts used to calculate deductions described above are subject to cost of living adjustments rounded down to the nearest $50.

Review of Title IV Subtitle C & D
thersites Thursday, July 16th at 11:52PM EDT

TITLE IV—AMENDMENTS TO INTERNAL REVENUE CODE OF 1986
Subtitle C—Disclosures to Carry
Out Health Insurance Exchange
Subsidies
(sec 431)
The Secretary of HHS will have access to and may share the information in your yearly tax filing but only for the purpose of determining the “appropriate amount of any affordability credit”.
Subtitle D—Other Revenue
Provisions
(sec 441) Surcharge on high income individuals
Individuals with modified adjusted gross income in the following brackets must pay the corresponding additional income taxes.
More than $350,000 but not more than $500,000 - 1% tax
More than $500,000 but not more than $1,000,000 – 1.5% tax
More than $1,000,000 – 5.4% tax

The dollar amounts above are halved for married persons filing separate returns. The dollar amounts above are reduced by 20% for surviving spouses.

After December 31, 2012 the 1% and 1.5% taxes described above are increased to 2% and 3% unless the excess health reform savings are greater than $150 billion but not more than $175 billion. If the excess health reform savings are $175 billion or greater then none of the taxes above will be collected.

Excess health reform savings are defined as the health reform savings over $525 billion. Health reform savings are defined as the “reduction in Federal expenditures which have been achieved as a result of … the America’s Affordable Health Choices Act” as determined by the Office of Management and Budget. For the purposes of determining the reductions in expenditures, the “investments” under this act are not counted as expenditures.

Modified adjusted gross income (the income taxable under this act) is defined as gross income reduced by any deduction allowed for investment interest.

The dollar amounts above shall be adjusted by yearly cost of living adjustments with the result being rounded down to the nearest $5000.

The income of non-resident aliens and citizens living abroad that is normally taxed under the existing tax code is also taxable under this act.
Charitable trusts are not taxed under this provision.
The change in tax rates defined in this section are not changes in tax rate.
The tax provisions in this section take effect after December 31, 2010.
The deadline for international financial entities to declare themselves to be a “worldwide affiliated group” is extended to December 31, 2019. (What does this have to do with health care?)
(sec 451) Limitation of treaty benefits for certain deductible payments
The taxes in this section can not be reduced by treaty unless the payments were made directly to a foreign parent corporation. I think this means that a treaty agreement can not affect domestic companies.

This section ends with some vague language defining foreign entities.

(sec 452) Codification of economic substance doctrine (sounds ominous)
The economic substance doctrine is a set of IRS rules used to deny the validity of certain tax shelters. In short, the transactions involved must have some business purpose other than to avoid taxes. This section expands the language in the tax code. It has nothing to do with health care except that the money involved will now be taxable under this act as well.
This is the end of Division A of the act.

Table of Contacts. I’ve highligthed only those Titles and sections that have been covered comprehensively…again, Good job thersites, I hope my comprehensiveness will compare to yours.

1 (b) TABLE OF DIVISIONS, TITLES, AND SUB2
TITLES.—This Act is divided into divisions, titles, and
3 subtitles as follows:
DIVISION A—AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE CHOICES
TITLE I—PROTECTIONS AND STANDARDS FOR QUALIFIED
HEALTH BENEFITS PLANS
Subtitle A—General Standards
Subtitle B—Standards Guaranteeing Access to Affordable Coverage
Subtitle C—Standards Guaranteeing Access to Essential Benefits
Subtitle D—Additional Consumer Protections
Subtitle E—Governance
Subtitle F—Relation to Other Requirements; Miscellaneous
Subtitle G—Early Investments
TITLE II—HEALTH INSURANCE EXCHANGE AND RELATED
PROVISIONS
Subtitle A—Health Insurance Exchange
Subtitle B—Public Health Insurance Option
Subtitle C—Individual Affordability Credits
TITLE III—SHARED RESPONSIBILITY
Subtitle A—Individual Responsibility
Subtitle B—Employer Responsibility
TITLE IV—AMENDMENTS TO INTERNAL REVENUE CODE OF 1986
Subtitle A—Shared Responsibility
Subtitle B—Credit for Small Business Employee Health Coverage Expenses
Subtitle C—Disclosures to Carry Out Health Insurance Exchange Subsidies
Subtitle D—Other Revenue Provisions
DIVISION B—MEDICARE AND MEDICAID IMPROVEMENTS
TITLE I—IMPROVING HEALTH CARE VALUE
Subtitle A—Provisions Related to Medicare Part A
Subtitle B—Provisions Related to Part B
Subtitle C—Provisions Related to Medicare Parts A and B
Subtitle D—Medicare Advantage Reforms
Subtitle E—Improvements to Medicare Part D
Subtitle F—Medicare Rural Access Protections
TITLE II—MEDICARE BENEFICIARY IMPROVEMENTS
Subtitle A—Improving and Simplifying Financial Assistance for Low Income
Medicare Beneficiaries
Subtitle B—Reducing Health Disparities
Subtitle C—Miscellaneous Improvements
TITLE III—PROMOTING PRIMARY CARE, MENTAL HEALTH
SERVICES, AND COORDINATED CARE
TITLE IV—QUALITY
Subtitle A—Comparative Effectiveness Research
Subtitle B—Nursing Home Transparency
Subtitle C—Quality Measurements
Subtitle D—Physician Payments Sunshine Provision
Subtitle E—Public Reporting on Health Care-Associated Infections
TITLE V—MEDICARE GRADUATE MEDICAL EDUCATION
TITLE VI—PROGRAM INTEGRITY
Subtitle A—Increased Funding to Fight Waste, Fraud, and Abuse
Subtitle B—Enhanced Penalties for Fraud and Abuse
Subtitle C—Enhanced Program and Provider Protections
Subtitle D—Access to Information Needed to Prevent Fraud, Waste, and
Abuse
TITLE VII—MEDICAID AND CHIP
Subtitle A—Medicaid and Health Reform
Subtitle B—Prevention
Subtitle C—Access
Subtitle D—Coverage
Subtitle E—Financing
Subtitle F—Waste, Fraud, and Abuse
Subtitle G—Puerto Rico and the Territories
Subtitle H—Miscellaneous

As I write this I am listening to the hearings for Sotomayor on Fox news. Dick Durbin has just completed blowing the horn for Sotomayor.

While listening, I’m smacked right between the eyes with his quote from Senator Paul Simon of Illinois during the 1993 Hearings to confirm Roth Bader Ginsburg to the Supreme Court:

You face a much harsher judge than this committee. That’s the judgment of history. And that judgment is likely to revolve around the question “Did she restrict freedom, or did she expand it?

Of course..Durbin being Durbin…he went on to declare:

It is the Supreme Court that defines our personal rights to privacy…and decides the restrictions that can be placed on the most personal aspects of our lives. The court decides the rights of the victims of discrimination, immigrants, consumers. The nine justices decide whether Congress has the authority to pass laws to protect our civil rights and our environment. It decides what checks will exist on the Executive Branch in war…and in peace

Ehem…Excuse me?

Senator Simon was wrong in his assessment, and Durbin is even more wrong in repeating it.

Fist of all…I don’t know about the not so esteemed Senators, but I know Ginsburgh, Suiter, Stevens and Kennedy are powerless to expand my freedom….as is Justices Roberts, Alito, Thomas and even my favorite, Justice Scalia.

Earl Warren was powerless to expand a single freedom that is mine by right and even the first chief justice or the most powerful Supreme Court Justice who has ever lived are powerless to bestow upon me one single solitary freedom that isn’t already mine!

The heroes of my faith are powerless to bestow a single right on me. King Solomon couldn’t do it, David couldn’t do it. Neither could Moses. Mohamed couldn’t do it, nor could Buddha. The great Maharishi couldn’t do it…nor could the great prophet Elijah Mohammed could do it. And no…”The ONE”….The Honorable and beloved leader NEObama could do it!

Even Jefferson, Madison, The Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention was powerless to give me a single liberty!

MY RIGHTS COME FROM GOD NOT NINE JUDGES, OR 100 SENATORS WHO EMPOWER THEM TO JUDGE ME
.
This is what these Senators miss and those on the left who support them. This is what the moderates/liberals/Vichy Republicans on our side of the isle miss when they compromise away our freedoms for political gain and self aggrandizement.

I’m convinced…and am always in trouble here for refusing to compromise on the idea that the Republican Party will not be in power again until the party establishment gets this through their thick heads.

The Democrats are Democrats…and they will do what they will do…but what I’m about to say has to be the rallying cry of the Republican Party from this day forward and our every action must be guided by this one simple truism or we are doomed as a nation and as a free people.

My simple statement?

MY RIGHTS ARE DIVINE RIGHTS. THEY ARE ENDOWED UPON ME BY MY CREATOR! NO SENATOR, CONGRESSMAN, PRESIDENT, OR EVEN SUPREME COURT JUSTICE CAN ADD ONE JOT OR ONE TITLE TO THE RIGHTS THAT ARE GIVEN TO ME BY MY CREATOR! THESE JUSTICES ARE NOT GOD, (LET ALONE A GOD I WOULD WORSHIP) AND THEY CAN NOT GIVE ME ONE RIGHT THAT IS NOT MINE BY RIGHT OF BIRTH AND DIVINE APPOINTMENT!

Failure to understand this one simple fact is to place the chains of bondage upon every neck in this great land and upon the generations that follow us. On this one point there can be no compromise!!!

Why is that?

Because even a tacit acknowledgment that any government, agent of government or even the highest court in the land is the wellspring from which my rights flow is an admission that those agents are the ultimate arbiter of how my liberties can be restricted and which of those rights I will be permitted to exercise.

If the Supreme Court is the ultimate determiner of my rights…my rights to speech, to be secure in my property, to petition my government, self defense, my rights against self incrimination, search and seizure, and on and on are one decision away from being eliminated based on the fashions of the day, the passions of those currently sitting on the bench, and the President and Senators responsible for placing them there!

THIS, my friends is what these hearings are all about.

THIS is what drives me from my core!

There is no other principle that guides me in everything I believe or do in politics, in my relationships and treatment of those around me, and in my constant battles against those in MY PARTY who would compromise on this issue and sell me and mine down the river to accumulate more power unto themselves…

I despise those who are in politics to keep score in this game of life and death as if the number of seats we hold is more important than the rights I am being stripped of.

I fight because I am sick of being told the rights I am losing don’t matter and the only thing that matters is which party is taking them away.

The founders were clear when they ratified the Constitution that it existed not to define our rights as much as it exists to restrict the government from infringing on those rights.

The wisdom of ratifying the Bill of Rights was questioned by many of the founders for the very reason that by making a list of those rights the Constitution could some day be interpreted to define limits those rights encompass and to determine that the rights we enjoy are limited to those listed in the Bill of Rights.

This is why the final amendment to the original Bill of Rights was added stating:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

The very meaning of this one Amendment makes clear that the Constitution limits the Federal Government to certain limited areas and that all else is left to the States or the People…not that an all powerful panel of nine oligarchs hold absolute sway over all branches of the federal government let alone the states and the people!

So…Senators…you are simply *WRONG*WRONG*WRONG*WRONG*WRONG*!

The Supreme Court, (let alone a single justice) can not “expand” my freedom.

THAT has already been determined by my GOD and is already mine.The Supreme Court is not the bestower of my rights. Only GOD above and the maker of the universe has the power to do that!

Any group, organization, government, Congressman, President, or Supreme Court Justice who asserts otherwise is illegitimate!

Do you hear that Senator Graham?!

Finally…on Durbin’s line:

The nine justices decide whether Congress has the authority to pass laws to protect our civil rights and our environment. It decides what checks will exist on the Executive Branch in war…and in peace

Again Senator… you are simply *WRONG*WRONG*WRONG*WRONG*WRONG*!

War Powers are specifically given to the Executive by the Constitution. The Supreme Court has no jurisdiction in matters of war as the Constitution was originally written and as practiced for over 150 years!

The Supreme Court is not the final authority on what the Legislative or the Executive Branches can do.

The founders are clear…Under the concept of checks and balances, the Legislative and Executive branches act as a check against the excesses of the Judiciary. Like wise, the Supreme Court has no authority by itself as a check on either one of the other branches without one of those other branches joining it in dissent!

It’s high time those two branches set to work reigning in the over reaching arrogance of the Supreme Court.

So…let’s make a start by highlighting these simple truths in this “confirmation” shall we…

Oh…and Mr.s Grahm…will you commit to uphold and defend the Constitution you promised to uphold and defend against “ALL ENEMIES BOTH FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC”? or are you going to vote for an enemy of the principles set forth by our founders who believes she has a right to tell me what rights I am entitled to depending on whether I am a Latino or a woman, a liberal or a conservative, a Democrat or a Republican, rich or poor?

And how do you square your objection to the idea of dispensing with blind justice yet reconcile yourself to the possibility of voting for a person who has openly stated she has and intends to continue to determine those who obtain justice by how much money they make, or the color of their skin, whether they wear a skirt, or whether the speak with an accent?!

Or are you already determined to do the Devil’s bidding by voting for her unless she “melts down” as you implied in your statement?

Interesting thing is this…These huge multi-thousand page bills that aren’t being written before consideration are required to be read before they can be voted on. It is custom in the House that a member stand up and asks that the reading of the bill be dispensed with by unanimous consent. Barring unanimous approval, the bills must be read.

In addition, any and all amendments from a member to the legislation are to be placed with the committee table on his or her side of the isle where he/she stands until they are recognized at which time the Congressman states he/she has an amendment to be considered.

As with the Bill being debated, all Amendments are supposed to be read as well. The custom is for the Congressman offering the amendment to request that the amendment be dispensed with by unanimous consent.

It is my understanding, (I have a question about a particular section of the rule that I will address shortly), that when the motion to dispense with the bill or amendment by “unanimous consent” is requested, one Congressman raising an objection is all that is required to force a reading of the bill.

The item I have question about is this:

A Member requesting a recorded vote must get at least 25 Members to stand in support of the request, and will usually simultaneously make a point of order that a quorum is not present as a safeguard for rounding-up sufficient support. However, the Member will usually ask unanimous consent to withdraw the no-quorum point of order when it is clear that a sufficient number of members are present and standing to demand the recorded vote

My understanding is that the chair will either be required to have the clerk read the bill, (again which doesn’t exist, or is still warm from the printing process), or a member can request a vote be taken in order to dispense with the reading of the bill. The member wishing the bill to be read can then object to the absence of a quorum. Nothing can proceed from that point until 25 members are present and standing to call the roll.

There are hundreds of activities that are dispensed with by unanimous consent including member speeches being included in the Congressional Record as read, or to revise and extend remarks etc.

I haven’t dug into the Senate Rules but I’m certain the opportunities to object to unanimous Consent rules are readily available as well. In addition, I’m pretty sure these rules are much the same in every committee of the House and Senate

So what’s my point in bringing up this boring and wonkish drivel?

Given the bad faith of Ried and Pelosi in cramming so much legislation down the nation’s throat with no opportunity to read let alone debate bills that haven’t been written or reach the floor minutes before the vote, Republicans should be objecting to every single unanimous consent request that comes before every committee and the Committee of the Whole!

Were I the Minority Leader, I’d be assigning members to sit on the floor every minute the House is in session who would stand to raise an objection to every unanimous consent request that comes down the pipes. Those members should read a statement concerning the legislation to be voted on objecting to the fact that the legislation or Amendments haven’t been available for the members to read.

In addition, this strategy would be followed to the maximum extent possible in the committees of the House and Senate and every effort would be made to force the Democrats to vote on every single unanimous consent request no matter how trivial.

The beauty of this is, (unless I misunderstand the process), only one member can tie the Democrats up for minutes, hours, or even days and would tie in knots the Democrat Juggernaut being crammed down our throats.

In addition, each Amendment to a bill can have amendments to the amendment being debated up to four Amendments before a vote is taken.

So, What am I saying?

Despite the protestations to the contrary, Republicans are not powerless to stop some of the Obama agenda in Washington. This work can be done and at the very least Pelosi and Ried would be forced to deal with them in some good faith or face having the Congress and Senate locked up for months with nothing being done.

Of course we’ll have the usual suspects whining about the lack of decorum in the Congress, and the Vichy Republicans telling us we need to be careful with this type of strategy lest the Dems use it on us when we’re in the Majority…but what of it. Does anyone doubt for a minute the Democrats wouldn’t employ these tactics were they in the position we currently find ourselves occupying?

Besides…if this strategy were followed…What chance would the whining stand if the Republicans were ready with a response to be repeated over and over again to media outlets and their constituents that, “How can we in good conscience vote on a bill we’ve never laid eyes on without having the clerk read it to all the members since there is usually only one written copy brought to the floor when the rules require 10!”

No war was ever won by being nice to the enemy or without a steadfast refusal to fight. My call is for Congressman Boehner to use any means necessary to muck up the works and force the Dems to deal with the Republican Caucus. Should he not, if I am correct, my strategy doesn’t require the approval of the leadership. It can be employed buy one member to force a Quorum call, or twenty five Republicans unified in their resolve to force the Majority into roll call vote after roll call vote to the Dem’s ever living frustration!

I say “Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!

I think ole Joe has really stepped in it this time and his early exit is sure to be in the engineering phase.

“The truth is, we and everyone else misread the economy,” Biden told me during our exclusive “This Week” interview in Iraq.

Biden acknowledged administration officials were too optimistic earlier this year when they predicted the unemployment rate would peak at 8 percent as part of their effort to sell the stimulus package. The national unemployment rate has ballooned to 9.5 percent in June — the worst in 26 years.

“The truth is, there was a misreading of just how bad an economy we inherited,” said Biden, who is leading the administration’s effort to implement it’s $787 billion economic stimulus plan.

Say it ain’t so Joe! You mean the smartest, most talented and messianic figure ever to hold office in this great land is capable of a mistake? You mean the all knowing Messiah wasn’t able to read the tea leaves and see into the future? You mean Mr. HOPE and CHANGE didn’t know Bush messed things up so bad that there was no HOPE of CHANGE in the economic fortunes of this country? Come on man…where is your faith in “THE ONE“?

It’s been fun and entertaining having you around Joe…but I fear you are about to have a sudden need to spend some time with your family or some such other excuse used by disgraced and rejected politicians…or maybe you’ll have a sudden need to visit your mistress in some back woods South American country…or maybe an extended stay at an “Undisclosed Location”!

Now for the Red State pool on the stated reason why and when Joe will make his exit:

I’m guessing in three weeks Joe will say his commute from CT has become too burdensome…my only question is what gaff he’ll make while announcing his early retirement!

Anyone else?

The move by DeMint shows increasing discontent and anger at the party establishment’s endorsement of the liberal Charlie Crist and adds fuel to the fire still blazing since being ignited by Crists endorsement by the NRSC and the once conservative Senator from Texas, one John Cornyn.

True to form, Politico mouths the talking points of the liberal wing of the Republican party that “Conservatives are playing a strategy of backing conservative candidates against more liberal candidates with a better chance of winning in the general election.”

Of course there is no attempt to prove the assumption made by the inside the beltway talking heads that the more liberal candidate is the best choice in most general elections…an ommission all the more glaring because of the obvious failure of this assumption to prove true over the last couple of election cycles…but hey…they….the Republican establishment, the so called objective press, and Democrats like Bob Beckle have all said it…so that should be enough…right?

Which brings us to the second tidbit mentioned in the title. “Conservatives” Are Single-Largest Ideological Group in yet another poll Gallup shows that despite increasing numbers of people who refuse to identify with the Republican or Democrat Parties, the number of Americans self identifying as conservatives has increased over the last few years.

40% of Americans interviewed in national Gallup Poll surveys describe their political views as conservative, 35% as moderate, and 21% as liberal. This represents a slight increase for conservatism in the U.S. since 2008, returning it to a level last seen in 2004. The 21% calling themselves liberal is in line with findings throughout this decade, but is up from the 1990s.

These annual figures are based on multiple national Gallup surveys conducted each year, in some cases encompassing more than 40,000 interviews. The 2009 data are based on 10 separate surveys conducted from January through May. Thus, the margins of error around each year’s figures are quite small, and changes of only two percentage points are statistically significant.

Pointing to a potential opening for the Republican Party for the 2010 election is this little tidbit:

While these figures have shown little change over the past decade, the nation appears to be slightly more polarized than it was in the early 1990s. Compared with the 1992-1994 period, the percentage of moderates has declined from 42% to 35%, while the percentages of conservatives and liberals are up slightly — from 38% to 40% for conservatives and a larger 17% to 21% movement for liberals.

The rest of the conclusions drawn in the article shows more moderates, (when pressed to identify their political alignment to either Republican/Conservative vs Democrat/Liberal)…identified as Republican/Conservative by significant margins.

As I’ve pointed out incessantly in the last year and a half that I’ve been blogging, Republicans have to present an alternative to the liberals in the Democrat Party which they haven’t gone in the last couple of elections. Sadly there seems to be no inclination to do so going forward.

As a parting shot on this tidbit let me say this…Only in the Republican Party is it seen as smart electoral politics to give the back of the hand to the 40% of the American electorate in a mindless pursuit of the ever elusive and mythical beast know as “Moderates and Independents” who are fiscally conservative and socially liberal making up at best 17% of the electorate!

I’ve heard recently that such a creature was recently sighted prancing through the green fields of Avalon alongside the Unicorns and Pegasus but I’ve so far been unable to confirm these reports…I’ll keep you informed should I acquire the information and documentation I need to confirm them.

Now we get to a thought that has bounced around inside my head lately…that being, we’ve gone from famine to feast.

As I work from my office doing research for my commercial clients, I always have Fox News playing in the background. I’ve been struck lately by the contrast between the current President and his predecessor.

I know….there is a huge difference between the policies of President Bush and President Obama which isn’t news…but I’m not talking about policy….I’m talking about the contrast in time spent pushing and explaining their respective policies…

My thoughts run to the days of Bush when there was nothing for the press to focus on besides missing beauties in Aruba, mothers murdered by ex cops, OJ trials, Micheal Jackson’s bizarre behavior and all the rest because we had a president who didn’t give a fart in a wind storm about what he could accomplish with the bully pulpit and chose to toil away in the oval office in silence, obscurity and near secrecy.

Now I am endlessly bombarded with the preaching and proselytizing appearances of “The One” on a daily basis! I mean…come on already!…I can’t sit down and eat lunch without gagging because Barack (Neo) Obama is on the friggin matrix (Lame Stream Media) pushing yet another bailout, socialist program or seizure by his government of one aspect of the once free market or the other in yet another hour long speech…I’m at the point of saying…”all right…I surrender already…just SHUT THE HELL UP!”

With that…I’ll close with a question to you all. I’ve been kicking things around a lot lately about my single minded rantings about Squishes and RINOs starting with the nomination of McCain last year and going into the aftermath of the elections.

I can’t help but think that a large number of you are sick of hearing about it from me…but at the same time…I’ve spent the last 7 months gathering data about many of the groups and individuals who I believe are responsible for our current state of affairs.

There are plenty of bloggers out there taking on the Obama Administration but precious few who are keeping Conservatives informed about the shenanigans of our more liberal party leadership and holding our leader’s feet to the fire to make sure conservatives are afforded the representation we deserve as the majority of not only the party..but the electorate as a whole.

That said, I had a discussion this week with a friend who suggested I was in danger of marginalizing myself and becoming the conservative version of a Paultard because of my single minded obsession with RINOS. I highly esteem this person and his/her opinions. Given the fact that I was already thinking I needed to step back and take a breath…I can’t help but think he/she is correct.

That said, my question is this…how many of you agree with that sentiment and think I should forget all the data I’ve gathered over the last 7 months about RINOS, their organizations and their shadow lurking in the party and join the chorus of those talking endlessly only about what the Dems are doing…or should I continue to expose what RINOs are doing to help the Dems further their agenda?

If I keep swinging the hammer…will I marginalize myself with you all?

Would I be contributing something that is missing to a large extent?

Would I become a Paultard because of clinging to a single issue?

Thanks all!