Heathcare hobbled for now

The Video:

The Story via WaPo:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that the Senate will have to amend its version of a health-care reform bill before Democrats in her chamber would be willing to vote for it.

“I don’t think it’s possible to pass the Senate bill in the House,” Pelosi told reporters after a morning meeting with her caucus. “I don’t see the votes for it at this time.”

Pelosi (D-Calif.) has been struggling for days to sell the Senate legislation to reluctant Democrats in order to get a health-care bill to the president’s desk quickly. But House liberals strongly dislike the Senate version, while moderate Democrats in both the House and Senate have raised doubts about forging ahead with the ambitious legislation without bipartisan support.

The only way to keep the Senate bill alive, Pelosi said, would be for senators to initiate a package of fixes that would address House concerns about the bill. In particular, Pelosi described her members as vehemently opposed to a provision that benefits only Nebraska’s Medicaid system. Also problematic are the level of federal subsidies the Senate would offer to uninsured individuals and its new excise tax on high-value policies, which could hit union households.

“There are certain things the members simply cannot support,” Pelosi said.

Aides said later that the House would not act on the Senate bill until the fixes are made, shifting responsibility for completing the bill across the Capitol. But the Senate has not agreed to move forward with such changes.

Congressional leaders also are considering starting from scratch on a new bill, an undertaking that many Democrats fear could consume months of effort as they brace for a tough 2010 election battle.

There are some on the right who are saying that Obamacare is dead. My message to them, you do not know Democrats that well, at all. They will get something. But not the radical plan that they wanted to pass. So, for now, the idea of Nationalized Healthcare is most likely dead. But they will pass something. Most likely they will go back to square one and start over again. Which I feel is a very good thing. But it is not over, until they finally table the bills and say forget it.

Bottom Line: The radical Obamacare plan is basically dead, but the Democrats will do something, what it is, is anyone’s guess at this point. The radical stuff is gone, which will cost the Democrats in the 2010 and 2012 elections. The far left is rife with anger, but it does score a minor victory for free enterprise and for personal choice.

The Scott Brown victory, what it all means

I have been trying to piece together something to write about this victory for the Republican Party and more importantly for the people of Massachusetts.  This victory means a great deal of things; some that can be articulated well, and some — you would just have to feel.  However, being that I am writer, I will try to do my best to bring those thoughts out in writing.

  • This victory means that the far left progressives in the Democratic Party have suffered a major setback; and yes, that does include the President.
  • This victory means that the Democratic Party is about to get, or already has gotten a major message; not only from the people of Massachusetts, but from the American people as well, that Government is not supposed to be from the top down, but rather from the bottom up.  They also will figure out, that if you try to impose something on the American people, that is not wanted, you pay for it at the ballot box.
  • This victory should be an open message to the Democratic Party; Never, ever, under any circumstances run political campaigns with any sort of entitlement attitude.  No one, regardless of what party you represent, is entitled to any sort of political office.  If you do attempt to run a political campaign with that sort of idiotic attitude, you will pay for it at the polls and you will lose horribly in that election.

Now to the Republicans, I have some thoughts for you as well:

  • This is not the time for the Republican Party to get arrogant.  You all have to remember, you all just got your tails kicked in 2008.  Under no circumstances should you repeat the same stupid mistakes of the Bush era — This will lead to your humiliating defeat in the 2010 elections and in the 2012 elections. The Bush-Karl Rove “Center-Right Coalition”  had one fetal flaw, it was blind arrogance; which ultimately lead to its demise.
  • Scott Brown did not run a Republican Senate campaign; Scott Brown ran a campaign for the people of Massachusetts.  The Republican Party would be wise NOT to try to capitalize on his victory, because right now, the Republican Party, in the eyes of the American people, especially among independent voters, is damaged goods now.  They will be able to recover from that, it will take time and you cannot rush that at all. If you attempt to rush that along, you will utterly fail at a comeback.

This victory, while small, is a sweet one.  I just hope and pray that for once in their lives that the Republican Party establishment uses this victory to their advantage and does not louse it up —  Because at this point, we the American people, have just too much lose, if Republicans screw this comeback up.  On the other hand, America has much to gain, if the Party does things right.

So, please, Republicans, for once…  Do the Republican Party’s return to its rightful place in American politics the proper way, please?

IT HAS HAPPENED! – SCOTT BROWN WINS!!!!

It has happened:

Via the AP:

BOSTON (AP) — In an epic upset in liberal Massachusetts, Republican Scott Brown rode a wave of voter anger to win the U.S. Senate seat held by the late Edward M. Kennedy for nearly half a century, leaving President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul in doubt and marring the end of his first year in office.

The loss by the once-favored Democrat Martha Coakley in the Democratic stronghold was a stunning embarrassment for the White House after Obama rushed to Boston on Sunday to try to save the foundering candidate. Her defeat signaled big political problems for the president’s party this fall when House, Senate and gubernatorial candidates are on the ballot nationwide.

“I have no interest in sugarcoating what happened in Massachusetts,” said Sen. Robert Menendez, the head of the Senate Democrats’ campaign committee. “There is a lot of anxiety in the country right now. Americans are understandably impatient.”

Brown will become the 41st Republican in the 100-member Senate, which could allow the GOP to block the president’s health care legislation and the rest of his agenda. Democrats needed Coakley to win for a 60th vote to thwart Republican filibusters.

One day shy of the first anniversary of Obama’s swearing-in, the election played out amid a backdrop of animosity and resentment from voters over persistently high unemployment, Wall Street bailouts, exploding federal budget deficits and partisan wrangling over health care.

For weeks considered a long shot, Brown seized on voter discontent to draw even with Coakley in the campaign’s final stretch. His candidacy energized Republicans, including backers of the grass-roots “tea party” movement, while attracting disappointed Democrats and independents uneasy with where they felt the nation was heading.

AllahPundit and the readers at Hot Air are over the moon. Allah says that this changes everything; I sort of agree. I believe that there is much work to do. I would not get cocky, if I was everyone. I think we should measure our happiness, because the Democrats, especially these Democrats, know no bounds at all. So, while this is a wonderful moment, it really does not change much, just like Glenn Beck said, The Democrats still have a majority and could still push Healthcare through. So, I will not gloat, just yet. Now come the normal 2010 elections and more importantly 2012, that will be the huge decider. Update: Ed Morrissey Basically says the same thing as me, but in much longer form.

Anyhow, Congratulations to Scott Brown, The Brown Campaign and more importantly the American people in Massachusetts, you have done well. Let this be just the beginning! 😀

Jon Stewart NUKES the Democrats, Obama and Coakley

This comes from my friend Ed Morrissey over at HotAir.com:

The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Mass Backwards
www.thedailyshow.com
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Political HumorHealth Care Crisis

The 9:15 mark has a hilarious crack that made me laugh so darned hard, that I just about blacked out and of which I am still recovering. 😀

On a more serious note, Ed Morrissey adds the following:

So why do Democrats need 60 votes? Democrats will claim it’s because the Republicans are more obstructionist than Democrats were under Bush, but that’s not the case. Democrats were happy to be obstructionist on their core issues, especially on judicial appointments. They didn’t need to be obstructionist on most other issues, because Bush was a lot more centrist than they liked to paint him. Bush went out of his way to court Democrats like Ted Kennedy on education and others on spending and government expansion, because Democrats like those policies.

Democrats had the same option, which was to work with Republicans and craft more centrist approaches to issues like health-care reform and carbon emissions. Instead, they chose a radical agenda, which has not only pushed Republicans into obstructionism but has alienated voters to such an extent that Massachusetts looks ready to elect its first Republican Senator in almost 40 years. That’s not the fault of Republicans — it’s the fault of overreaching Democrats.

Amen. I could not have put it any better, if I tried. The Democrats have been overreaching since this election started. Hell, the overreach started during the primary! I remember when Barack Obama shot forward during the primary and I remember thinking, if the Democrats fall for this guys rhetoric, they are going to pay for it dearly later on. Turns out I was massively correct. We are at this point, the American people are extremely angry and the Democratic Party is just about ready for civil war.

Needless to say, It is going to be a very interesting 2010.

America tries to help Haiti, gets accused of occupation

No, I am not kidding.

I have two stories, first this story via the U.K. Telegraph:

Video:

The Story:

The French minister in charge of humanitarian relief called on the UN to “clarify” the American role amid claims the military build up was hampering aid efforts.

Alain Joyandet admitted he had been involved in a scuffle with a US commander in the airport’s control tower over the flight plan for a French evacuation flight.

“This is about helping Haiti, not about occupying Haiti,” Mr Joyandet said.

Geneva-based charity Medecins Sans Frontieres backed his calls saying hundreds of lives were being put at risk as planes carrying vital medical supplies were being turned away by American air traffic controllers.

But US commanders insisted their forces’ focus was on humanitarian work and last night agreed to prioritise aid arrivals to the airport over military flights, after the intervention of the UN.

The diplomatic row came amid heightened frustrations that hundreds of tons of aid was still not getting through. Charities reported violence was also worsening as desperate Haitians took matters into their own hands.

Let me get this straight —- The United States of America’s last two Presidents get together, put political differences aside and begin to raise all sorts of funds for people of Haiti and now we are the bad guys? Unreal. 🙄

And then, there’s this by Paul Goodman:

The humanitarian catastrophe in Haiti is turning out to be a classic illustration of anti-Americanism in seven easy steps.

  1. Calamitous events take place in a chaotic place (think Bosnia, think Somalia, think Iraq in 1991).
  2. The U.N and the U.S intervene.
  3. The civil government proves to be useless or malign, or both.  The U.N isn’t up to the job.  The only effective force in sight is the U.S.  According to today’s Guardian, John O’Shea, the head of Goal, a medical charity, has called on the U.S to take charge of the whole operation.  So has a major U.S aid agency (“which declined to be named for political reasons”).
  4. There are only two possible outcomes.
  5. The U.S takes over.  If this happens, it will be accused of “creating a military occupation under the guise of humanitarian aid” and “occupying” the country outright.  (Apologies, my memory’s failing me.  These criticisms have been aired already.  The first quote’s from President Chavez of Venezuela.  The second’s from Alain Joyandet, France’s “Co-operation Minister”.)
  6. The U.S doesn’t take over.  If this happens, it will be criticised for “not doing enough” – and isolationism.
  7. So either way, the U.S loses.

I’m not a fully signed-up member of the Stars-and-Stripes fan club.  But there are times when I think: who’d be an American?

Sorry, I am just going to say this, and I know that some identity politics type of jackass or some minority serial complainer will bitch about it; fine, screw ’em, I just don’t give a damn anymore. What needs to happen right about now, is this — The United States of America needs to get all those supplies off of those ships and planes and get back on their ships and planes and get the hell out of Haiti now. I mean, we have ponied up for these people and other such people long enough, let them idiots deal with their problems themselves, why the hell should WE have to be the ones to go in and play captain? Not like they are going to appreciate what we do any damn way. If the U.N. does not like our forces being there, LET THE U.N. TAKE OVER THE MISSION AND LEAVE!

Yeah, I know, some liberal asshat is going to call me a racist bigot for saying it. I got two words for you: Screw You. The United States of America has wasted more money on Countries that do not like us, for whatever reason and we are doing it again; and again we are being fingered as the bad guys. Enough is Enough! It is time for the United States to say home and take care of its own problems and stop trying to help everyone who has a Earthquake or other kind of natural disaster.

It just so happens that the United States of America is going through its own sort of disaster, A man-made one, its called our Economy — and instead of us watching what we spend and keeping what we have, which is not much, when you figure that China is buying our debt, we are sending it off to a bunch of idiots, who really do not like us anyhow! No, this is not sarcasm, I am quite serious. What do we get for all this sort of charity? The above nonsense that I just quoted.

Bottom Line: I believe it is high time that the United States of America reevaluated its role abroad and got out of the rescue and charity business for Countries that really do not like us anyhow.

Others: Mudville Gazette, Fausta’s Blog, Neptunus Lex,  and The Jawa Report

Someone who knows the TRUTH about MLK

That would be Texas Fred.

While he might have been a noble person in what he wanted to accomplish. He was nothing more than a two-bit phony, just like the rest of race hustlers today. Not to mention the civil rights act that he pushed for was declared unconstitutional by great Conservatives like Senator Barry Goldwater.

Police State? – Presidential Heckler Frog-Marched out of Obama Appearance

So, is THIS what happens when you elect a Marxist President? Do we live in Communist Russia or the United States of America?

This is what you didn’t see, at the Presidential Speech for Coakley: (H/T Dan)

Repression of Freedom of Speech… courtesy of the Socialist Liberal Democrats.

Barack Hussein Obama stealing your freedoms, one day at a time. Remember this come 2010 and 2012. Continue reading “Police State? – Presidential Heckler Frog-Marched out of Obama Appearance”

Massachusetts race for the 'Kennedy' Seat is heating up!

Looks like the run for the Senate seat in Boston is making some headway for the Republicans.

The Boston Herald Reports:

Riding a wave of opposition to Democratic health-care reform, GOP upstart Scott Brown is leading in the U.S. Senate race, raising the odds of a historic upset that would reverberate all the way to the White House, a new poll shows.

Although Brown’s 4-point lead over Democrat Martha Coakley is within the Suffolk University/7News survey’s margin of error, the underdog’s position at the top of the results stunned even pollster David Paleologos.

“It’s a Brown-out,” said Paleologos, director of Suffolk’s Political Research Center. “It’s a massive change in the political landscape.”

Even Liberal Nate Silver is befuddled:

Earlier today I tweeted about how there wasn’t enough evidence to describe the Massachusetts special election as a “toss-up”, as some other forecasters have done, based on the information available to us at that time.

Well, now there’s some new evidence. And it isn’t good for Martha Coakley.

[…]

That’s a toss-up, ladies and germs! Both candidates are tied at 48 percent on the nose.

You can still argue that Coakley is favored — and I might even believe you. Hell, I might even wind up making that argument myself. But at this point, you can’t really cite the public polling as a data point in favor of your argument.

I have an idea why Coakley is diving in the polls, might have something to do with this here:

Ken Pittman: Right, if you are a Catholic, and believe what the Pope teaches that any form of birth control is a sin. ah you don’t want to do that.

Martha Coakley: No we have a seperation of church and state Ken, lets be clear.

Ken Pittman: In the emergency room you still have your religious freedom.

Martha Coakley: (…stammering) The law says that people are allowed to have that. You can have religious freedom but you probably shouldn’t work in the emergency room.

Audio of that little stupid blunder, can be found here. Does this woman have any remote clue as to her constituents religious leanings in her area? From what I have read, a good 90% of the people in Boston are Roman Catholic. Not a smart idea to insult your constituents Religious beliefs, if you are going to attempt to represent them. No wonder Scott Brown is surging in the polls.

But of course, the Democrats are already circling the wagons:

Here in Massachusetts, as well as in Washington, a growing sense of gloom is setting in among Democrats about the fortunes of Democratic Senate candidate Martha Coakley. “I have heard that in the last two days the bottom has fallen out of her poll numbers,” says one well-connected Democratic strategist. In her own polling, Coakley is said to be around five points behind Republican Scott Brown. “If she’s not six or eight ahead going into the election, all the intensity is on the other side in terms of turnout,” the Democrat says. “So right now, she is destined to lose.”

Intensifying the gloom, the Democrat says, is the fact that the same polls showing Coakley falling behind also show President Obama with a healthy approval rating in the state. “With Obama at 60 percent in Massachusetts, this shouldn’t be happening, but it is,” the Democrat says.

Given those numbers, some Democrats, eager to distance Obama from any electoral failure, are beginning to compare Coakley to Creigh Deeds, the losing Democratic candidate in the Virginia governor’s race last year. Deeds ran such a lackluster campaign, Democrats say, that his defeat could be solely attributed to his own shortcomings, and should not be seen as a referendum on President Obama’s policies or those of the national Democratic party.

Heh. Yeah, “We just got our tails kicked in the Massachusetts senate race, but that has nothing to do with the President!” Wow… Talk about spinning like a top. On the contrary, it has everything to do with this President and his socialistic nonsense that he is trying to foist on the American people. For once, the American people have stood up and said NO MORE!

Today, Massachusetts. Tommorow, The White House. The Clock is ticking Mr. President.