The Bush Administration is finally set to alter regulations to allow doctors and other health care professionals a “right to conscience,” allowing them not to participate in medical procedures, such as abortion and infanticide, which stand opposed to their moral underpinnings.

To wit:

The ‘provider conscience’ rule applies to any procedure performed in a federally funded medical setting that “violate(s) an individual’s conscience,” but it most pointedly singles out abortion. It goes beyond existing laws that bar religious discrimination against workers and protect medical professionals who refuse to perform tasks they find morally repugnant.

It is a rule which protects individual workers from the fascist dictates of the state, and the incoming Administration opposes it and is plotting already to undo it.

This is not all the Obama crew are readying for all of us, born and unborn.

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We have been instructed by Newt to stop talking stop including Obama in the Cook County Political Mafia (Daley-Blago-Obama-”Rahmbo”-etc). We must leave Barack alone and allow him to transcend our lives and vanquish our sufferings.

In a time when America is facing real challenges, Republicans should be working to help the incoming President succeed in meeting them, regardless of his Party.

From now until the inaugural, Republicans should be offering to help the President-elect prepare to take office.

If the man and/or his cronies are corrupt, the tale must be told. The ends do not justify the means, Newt.

Likewise, if the man with his cronies wishes to lead our country down the path which leads to oppression, the story has to be broadcast.

I understand the high road, Newt, and the push for civility, and I back the sentiment in the instances it is deserved and to the extent it deserves. This could be too serious for the sloppy bandaid.

[CAUTION: The vid might contain an indecorous word or two.]

[This is just a parody.]

Rahmbo Number Five

(as rendered by President-elect Barack Hussein Obama)

Bloggers and G-Men,
This is Rahmbo’s number five

Five, four, three, two one,
I might be the President with the Smoking Gun,
From Cook County near the river.
My pals say they want a Senate seat
But I really don’t wanna
Pay-for-play. It’s not in my range,
So I keep telling ‘em it’s all about change.
I like Daley, and Blago, Madigan, and Quinn
And as I continue, the deeper I’m in.
So what can I pay to get my guy?
If Rezko’s squealing, does it mean I’ll fry?
No one’s gonna say I look like dumbo,
I’ll just summon my Rahmbo.

A little bit of Blago in my life
A little bit of Emil Jones by my side
A little bit of Ayers is all I need
A little bit of Daley’s what I see
A little bit of Madigan in the sun
A little bit of Rezko all night long
A little bit of Khalidi battling mange.
A little bit of talk ’bout hope and change

Rahmbo’s number 5!

Talk up and down, obfuscate all around
Beguile the press with your sultry sound
Tap your foot on the ground
Make a promise to the left, fill a post on the right
Axelrod up front, leave Biden behind
Click your heels once and click your heels twice
And if you’re still in Kansas, you ain’t doing it right.

A little bit of Blago in my life
A little bit of Advisor A by my side
A little bit of Senate Candidate 2′is all I need
A little bit of Plaintiff’s what I see
A little bit of Nixon late at night
A little bit of Harding, what a sight!
A little bit of Biden (can’t get mange)
A little bit of talk ’bout hope and change

Rahmbo!
Hey, Rahmbo!
Rahmbo’s number 5 !
(heh heh heh ha)

A little bit of Blago in my life
A little bit of Emil Jones by my side
A little bit of Ayers is all I need
A little bit of Daley’s what I see
A little bit of Madigan in the sun
A little bit of Rezko all night long
A little bit of Khalidi battling mange.
A little bit of talk ’bout hope and change

I see all do
Fall for the lines from a guy like me
Why does Jesse Jr. have to take the dive?
Rahmbo’s Senate Candidate Number 5

Rhambo’s Number Five!

Sunday, December 14, 2008

PREFACE:

On ABC’s This Week, John McCain said that he was the “loyal opposition,” stressing “loyal.” He insisted that now was the time when everyone should “work together” to solve our nation’s problems. No, there was nothing about “stand up and fight.” That was yesterday’s cry.

On FOX News Sunday, Senator Bob Corker still insists that they can deal with the auto industry bailout legislatively, but he said that the President could include the necessary conditions on the TARP money if he so chose. Senator Deb Stabenow blamed the “Republican leadership” and insisted that “only the workers have sacrificed.” Corker said that the UAW wouldn’t deal because, they said, they knew they’d get the money from the White House regardless of what Corker wanted.

Next on FNS, Illinois State House Republican Leader Tom Cross stated the need for a special election to fill the Senate seat left vacant by Obama’s sudden but expected resignation. Abner Mikva was amenable to this if it is what the legislature chose, but he pointed out that it would take time and cost money.

On NBC’s Meet the Press, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan of Chicago said that she was not politically conflicted in this matter because she is the “lawyer for the people of Illinois.” Their Lieutenant Governor, Pat Quinn, said that we should ignore his earlier statement that Blago is both “honest” and “of integrity,” because Blago once threw him out of his administration. Also, he thinks that either he or Blago should appoint a temporary Senator until the real one can be selected by special election, giving an advantage to the appointed Dem.

On CBS’s Face the Nation, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, a Chicago Democrat, told host Bob Schieffer that the term “disability” she’s using in her suit to have Blago (D) removed is not defined only as a physical or mental disability. In his next segment, Senator Bob Corker said his failed Senate compromise bill was to imitate the Chapter 11 process without the stigma of having to declare bankruptcy. Senator Carl Levin intoned that the Chinese auto industry was asking the PRC government for loans. Senator Sherrod Brown emitted a low-pitched buzz and a shrill squeak. Communication, yes, but not as we know it.

On CNN’s Late Edition, I saw host Wolf Blitzer talk to journalists about the Blagojevich (D) situation then turned to Stephen Moore and Gene Sperling. Moore favors the bankruptcy route as it would help the auto industry by forcing real restructuring, while Sperling said that he’s tired of everybody picking on the UAW.

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Oh, man.

Well, this one is described as being: “Dan Rostenkowski, the son of a ward boss who became a legendary congressman, on why Gov. Blagojevich shouldn’t tar a whole city.”

Dan Rostenkowski begins:

During my career as a public official, I always tried to steer away from the minority of my colleagues who viewed public service as a potential commercial enterprise. They’ve always been there and can be found in state capitols and in Washington.

Oh, man.

For Sunday, December 14, 2008

FOX News Sunday (FNS): Host Chris Wallace talks with Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee and Democrat Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan.

This Week (ABC): Host George Stephanopoulos has John McCain.

Meet the Press (NBC): Moderator Tom Brokaw, I think, talks to Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, Mitt Romney, former HP President Carly Fiorina, Wal-Mart President and CEO Lee Scott, and Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

Face the Nation (CBS): Host Bob Schieffer has Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Dem Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, Senator Corker, and Attorney General Madigan.

Late Edition (CNN): Host Wolf Blitzer has Senator John Ensign of Nevada and Dem Senator Bob Casey Junior of Pennsylvania. And his cast of thousands.

—–

Corker and Stabenow will argue the Detroit bailout on FNS, and Corker and Levin will do the same on FTN. That is probably what Ensign and Junior Casey will discuss on LE, given Ensign’s role in the measure’s defeat in the Senate, but I don’t know what Junior did besides stand in the corner and drool.

John McCain’s back on TW, and I’m sure Steph will ask him why he has not seemed to do a thing about the auto bailout when he went so far as to suspend his campaign for the financial bailout. (Then again, I doubt Steve Schmidt is still advising the guy.)

For Sherrod Brown on FTN, see my reaction to Junior Casey on FTN.

Lisa Madigan, Illinois’ Attorney General, has been outspoken about Blago getting the hook. She is a Chicago Democrat, so perhaps this is in furtherance of whatever career she wants. (Perhaps she can succeed Junior Daley at the top of the city.)

I’ll catalog these things and post the results Sunday afternoon.

[NOTE: I wrote this story, but Brian beat me to the front page report. I offer it here as a diary, something of a diversion.]

Raise a stein for Franken! The Minnesota Board of Canvassers has voted unanimously to suggest that county boards to count all ballots which Norm Coleman tried to have thrown out as inconclusive to which comedian Al Franken replied, Nuh-huh!” Ballgame over? Raise the Franken stein and drink deeply? Rise and make yourself known, Mr. Senator Alan Stuart Franken? Nope. The Board of Canvassers is technically impotent in this matter. Their “ruling” was more like a “pretty please,” if that.

In Minnesota, the DFL take care of their own.

The decision came after Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson (D) recommended their inclusion.

“They followed the rules,” she said of the voters whose ballots were disqualified. “They had their votes rejected through no fault of their own.”

Also Friday, the Board of Canvassers demanded that an vote count from election night from a Minneapolis precinct be used instead of a later hand recount during. (Between the first count and the recount, 133 ballots disappeared.) This move, the Board believes, will also help Franken.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune says Senator Coleman is leading by 192 votes, while Team Franken had decided that Al is winning by five. The Board meets next week to determine the validity of some 4,500 other ballots that have been challenged.

The Minnesota Canvassing Board is chaired by extreme partisan Democrat Secretary of State Mark Ritchie. Members are Chief Justice Eric J. Magnuson of the Minnesota Supreme Court, Associate Justice G. Barry Anderson, Minnesota Supreme Court; Judge Kathleen Gearin, District Court Judge; and Chief Judge, Second Judicial District Judge Edward J. Cleary. Chris Steller of the Minnesota Indpendent liveblogged their meeting this morning. It shows that hyper-partisan Secretary of State Ritchie gung ho for counting the ballots which might lead to his candidate’s victory, while Chief Justice Magnuson takes the rational approach: “I’m uncomfortable with us as board whose job is to review even recommending that election officials take certain actions. I’m uncomfortable directing them to do anything.”

If Secretary of State Ritchie gets his way, we may soon be raisin the stein for Franken. And who knows, perhaps Richie can get around the residency requirement and join Franken as the new U.S. senator from Illinois

When Illinois’ Republican State Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka challenged not-so-popular Dem Governor Rod Blagojevich in 2006, she lost by 10 points. The Illinois electorate so wanted to vote Democrat that they got this — from the Daley, Obama, Rahmbo, Blago Democrat machine — as described in Topinka’s final political ad.

(HT, Chris Cillizza via Hoosier Access.

Mitt Romney’s hometown paper, the Boston Globe, reports that Romney is already moving towards a Presidential run in 2012. You see, Romney opened a PAC, the Free and Strong America political action committee, ostensibly for helping other Republican candidates. Romney has raised $2.1-million for such purposes, said he, but only 12% has been used for such. The rest, the paper reports, has gone to Romney’s upcoming Mitt ’12 campaign.

Instead, the largest chunk of the money has gone to support Romney’s political ambitions, paying for salaries and consulting fees to over a half-dozen of Romney’s longtime political aides, according to a Globe review of expenditures.

Romney founded the Free and Strong America Committee shortly after dropping out of the 2008 presidential primary. He filled its coffers by telling conservative contributors around the country that their money would be used to support Republican candidates and causes.

According to the Globe analysis, he spent $244,000 on contributions to congressional and other candidates between April and the November elections. He has spent more than twice as much on staff salaries and contracts to hire professional fund-raisers, who are compiling contributor lists that will serve Romney well in a future presidential campaign.

In essence, Romney is financing a political enterprise that he can use to remain a national GOP leader and use as a springboard should he decide to launch another presidential bid for 2012.

That’s what political candidates do, but the Globe attributes nefarious motives and impersonates the rumblings of a Romney Machine.

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Maybe we could offer to lend them cardboard boxes for shelter.

The Old, Gray Drunk Lady has run out of money and is running out of options to remain solvent:

The New York Times Company plans to borrow up to $225 million against its mid-Manhattan headquarters building, to ease a potential cash flow squeeze as the company grapples with tighter credit and shrinking profits.

[ . . . ]
Standard & Poor’s recently lowered its credit rating on the Times Company below investment grade, and Moody’s Investors Service has said it was considering a similar move. Times Company stock, which has lost more than half its value this year, closed on Friday at $7.64, down 30 cents.

They can save themselves with a promotional campaign: “We Will Keep Our Opinions to Ourselves.” That will get attention, then if they strip all editorial opinion from their hard news items, they might be able to pull something off.

Pinch Sulzberger might have learned that a snide but shoddy product doesn’t sell. Advertisers know this. (But maybe he have Hank Paulson’s cell number. Dodd and Barney won’t demand that Pinch submit plans and lie prostrate with his nose in his well-raked muck.)

December 7, 2008.

PREFACE:

On FOX News Sunday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told host Chris Wallace that she thinks the Mumbai attacks plot might have originated “on Pakistani soil,” but she believes that the government of Pak was not involved. The two countries but now work together in concert with the United States.

Next on FNS, Carl Levin demanded that the execs of the financial corporations be subjected to the same humiliation as is now being doled out onto the bosses of the Big Three. Richard Shelby would have none of that, saying that the Big Three should work to save themselves. But they both agreed that Eric Shinseki was a great choice for the Veterans Affairs post in Obama’s administration, saying that he “spoke truth to power” and “we should have listened to him.”

Over on ABC’s This Week, Rice wouldn’t play a hypothetical game with host George Stephanopoulos involving Saddam, no WMD, better intelligence, and a do-over. UAW President Ron Gettelfinger then told Steph that the UAW was willing to talk.

On NBC’s Meet the Press, moderator Tom Brokaw asked President-elect Obama (PEBHO) to raise lots of taxes, but PEHBO resisted until we’re out of this economic crisis. But he added: “Our economy grows best when the benefits of the economy are more widely spread.”

On CBS’ Face the Nation, Chris Dodd blamed the problems of the Big Three on a “foreclosure crisis” in America, with people losing their homes. He said that if this we about only the Big Three, he would “let them fail in a New York minute.” Jeff Sessions wants the Big Three to go the Chapter 11 Reorganization route, but the two agreed that the leadership of the Big Three ought to be replaced.

And on CNN’s Late Edition, Governor Tim Pawlenty described each of the Big Three auto makers as being in different conditions and in need of different solutions. Ed Rendell reiterated that Janet Napolitano has no life and added that Tim Pawlenty has no life.

(The complete, show-by-show review is beneath the fold.)

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For Sunday, December 7, 2008

FOX News Sunday (FNS): Host Chris Wallace will talk to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, then he turns to Carl Levin & Richard Shelby about the auto bailout.

This Week (ABC): Host George Stephanopoulos chats with… Condy Rice.

Meet the Press (NBC): Moderator Tom Brokaw talks to the President-elect of the United States, Barack Obama.

Face the Nation (CBS): Host Bob Schieffer listens to Chairman Chris Dodd of the Senate Banking Committee and Senator Jeff Sessions of the Senate Budget Committee.

Late Edition (CNN): Host Wolf Blitzer has Rice, Tim Pawlenty & Ed Rendell, and his usual cast of thousands.

= = = = =

This is Dr. Rice’s week, it seems, and there will be some auto bailout – and it is almost automatic these days – prattle.

And I can almost guarantee you – knock on wood – that we will learn that Wolf Blitzer, Condoleezza Rice, and Tim Pawlenty have no lives.

I’ll have the stuff here on Sunday afternoon. I have no life, either.

The Times of London has for the first time revealed that former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro (deceased) has offered to meet with U.S. President-elect Obama.

“With Obama, talks could happen anywhere he wants,” the former head of the Communist regime wrote in the latest of a series of columns he has published in state-run media since falling ill in 2006.

His remarks follow an offer from his brother, President Raul Castro, to meet Mr Obama “on neutral ground” to try to end the 40 year long conflict between the two countries.

Which means that someone wrote something and put the late Fidel’s name to it.

President Kennedy pulled his ambassador from Havana on January 5th of 1961. In the interim, the Cuban government has not returned the stuff it has confiscated.

While campaigning, expressed a willingness to let Cuba off the hook for its human rights abuses, and Raul Castro has told Obama-friend actor Sean Penn that he wants to meet Obama in Gitmo. The stars may be aligning for the Cuban government finally triumphing over nearly fifty years of U.S. human rights policy. Gee, it’s too bad Fidel didn’t live to see it.

(President-elect Obama, I know it goes against your nature, but please reject this nonsense!)

- And for more on the redoubtable Mr. Penn, see Pejman’s earlier post.

He’s too stoopid, or so said NBC News Washington Bureau chief Mark Whitaker to MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, Wednesday:

WHITAKER: I don’t think one of the least intellectually curious presidents we’ve had is going…is going to spend his retirement writing books or probably even reading books. However, look…

MATTHEWS: This is why they hate us, Mark. This is why–this is why they hate us.

The media have done what they see as their jobs, and President Bush is leaving office an unpopular President succeeded by je ne sais quoi, but Whitaker’s venom continues to make him appear the incurious dunderhead he wishes to potray the President to be. I’d say that these buffoons don’t get it, but it appears Chris Matthews is beginning to do so.

Perhaps we did not purchase the bill of goods, but 68,588,471 American voters, most still alive and voting only once, were sold the campaign schtick – hopeCHANGEhope – and now they’re learning about it from Karl Rove. On their home turf, NBC’s Today program, Karl Rove reviews their messiah’s national security & foreign policy team and tells them this:

The team represents, to a substantial degree, continuity.

Ouch. Continuity = More of the Same. (Gates, btw, is not a Republican.)

(There’s more beyond the vid.)

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For Sunday, November 30, 2008

FOX News Sunday (FNS): Host Chris Wallace, or someone, talks to Senator Lindsey Graham and Governor Claire McCaskill about Obama’s foreign policy team.

This Week (ABC): Host George Stephanopoulos, or someone, talks to Senators Jack Reed and Dick Lugar about the terror attacks in Mumbai.

Meet the Press (NBC): Moderator Tom Brokaw, or someone, talks to Laura Bush and Ted Turner. Not at the same time, I’m certain.

Face the Nation (CBS): Host Bob Schieffer, or someone, hosts one of those “A Look At An Historic Election: Annual Books and Authors Show”

Late Edition (CNN): Host Wolf Blitzer, or someone, talks to a thousand people about the news.

~ ~ ~

They’ve run out of things to say. I’m taking the day off from the review, but I will watch some of this if possible.

It’s an old Ramones song, ‘cept that one was about Sheena (is a punk rocker). This is about New York Times columnist Tom Friedman, who has proposed that Hank Paulson resign and President Bush replace him at the Treasury Department with this Geittner fellow. Otherwise, he intones, we’re all gonna die.

Okay, Friedman, let’s replace the entire cabinet with Obama’s peeps! And we’d replace Josh Bolton with Rahmbo, of course, and they could make Bush-Cheney hide in an undisclosed location.

Better yet, Friedman: How about Vice President Cheney resigns, Bush replaces him with Obama, then Bush resigns? Obama could serve the remaining two months of Bush’s term and his own first term, then he would be eligible to run for a second.

Think of the beautiful precedent! Why didn’t Jemmy Madison think of this?

These giddy folks can’t wait for the implementation of hopechangehope, and the expectations are high. Obama has been very reassuring and Presidential in his recent pressers, and I’ll just be that translates into actually running the country. Right?

When your Keynesian solution fails, Friedman, you won’t be able to blame Bush. You can always listen to the Ramones, though.

“LOBOTOMY!”

Unnamed Senator talks to Roger Simon of Politico.com:

“I don’t think we have learned much from the election in terms of what people want to see,” he says. “We have the same gridlock.”

By the “same gridlock,” he means that party hard-liners, both Democrats and Republicans, will remain in control of the machinery of Congress. And that means more of the same. It means more politics as usual — especially in his party.

“We need someone who speaks from the center,” he says. “Sarah Palin is not the voice of our party.”

You lament is typical of your ilk, Senator Collins, Specter, Snowe… or whomever. Gordon Smith is still there, as is that Chuck Hagel guy from Nebraska, but they’re both on the way out. Linc Chafee’s been gone. Your breed is a dying breed, electorally: the watery Republican. Where have you gone, Lowell Weicker, Senator Anonymous turns his lonely eyes to you.

Boo-hoo-hoo.

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Sunday, November 23, 2008

PREFACE:

On FNS, David Axelrod said that his role in the Obama Administration will be working with the President on the communications end of it, not policy formation. Next on FNS, House Republican leader John Boehner refused any blame for the House Republicans’ 50-seat losses in the last two elections. He said that the GOP has to again become a party of solutions based on “our principles.” Sitting next to him, House Dem leader Steny Hoyer argued that Obama will cut taxes for 95% of Americans and that tax cuts have given us the worse economy “since Herbert Hoover.” Go figure.

On TW, Axelrod said that Obama won’t give an answer on Hillary as Sec of State until after the holidays. Next up, Senator Richard Shelby said that the government should not bail out Citibank. Senator Schumer argued that the government should have bailed out Lehman Brothers.

On MTP’s first segment, James Baker said that the Republicans could support what moderator Tom Brokaw described as a “massive public stimulation program that is directed by the government,” suggested by Obama for the start of his term, depending on what is in it. Obama advisor Bill Daley said that it was more likely that Obama let the Bush tax cuts expire in 2010 than repeal them next year.

Next segment, Joe Lieberman smacked Brokaw’s derisive tones around on whether or not he insulted Barack Obama at the RNC. Lieberman also seemed to tacitly accept the Tina Fey-David Frum notion of Governor Sarah Palin.

On FTN, Austen Goolsby suggested that the government could provide “bridge financing” to the auto industry while credit was tight, provided it was not a “bridge to nowhere.” Next on FTN, Nancy said that federal government wanted to be a “partner” to the auto industry but that at some point, Congress might have to fire the Big Three auto execs.

On LE, Mitt Romney favored a bailout package for the auto industry provided they detail a plan for success. (This was contrary to his NYT op/ed and in line with the Pelosi plan.) Next, Michigan Governor Jenn Granholm seemed caught off guard by Romney’s sudden reversal, prepared as she was to attack his op/ed.

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For Sunday, November 23, 2008

FOX News Sunday (FNS): Host Chris Wallace hosts Obama political op David Axelrod and House Republican Leader John Boehner & House Dem Leader Steny Hoyer.

This Week (ABC): Host George Stephanopoulos chats with Axelrod, Chuckie Schumer, and Senator Richard Shelby.

Meet the Press (NBC): Moderator Tom Brokaw (?) talks to James Baker, former Clinton commerce secretary William Daley, and Joe Lieberman.

Face the Nation (CBS): Host Bob Schieffer hosts Nancy and someone named Austan Goolsbee.

Late Edition (CNN): Host Wolf Blitzer talks to Carl Levin (Michigan, Senator), Jenn Granholm (Michigan, Governor), and his usual cast of thousands and thousands.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Axelrod is going to be a White House Senior Advisor, the Karl Rove of the Obama Administration but beloved of the media. On TW, Schumer and Shelby will argue about the Auto Bailout plan. Chuckie’s all for it, but Senator Shelby has been steadfast agin it.

I don’t know what’s going on with MTP.

On FTN, Nancy’s persona grates and Austan Goolsbee is an Obama economic advisor. (David Brooks will wet himself. Goolsbee is a product of Yale with a PhD in economics from M.I.T.)

I’ll have the review of this stuff right here at RedState.com. Bookmark this site.