Cash for Cloture: Demcare bribe list, Pt. II
A month ago, I compiled Part I of the Demcare bribe list as Harry Reid rushed before Thanksgiving to secure his first cloture vote on the government health care takeover. (Quick re-cap: $300 million Louisiana Purchase for Landrieu; $300 million California doctor payments; AARP goodies; abortion and union lobby concessions.)
Here’s Part II of the Cash for Cloture bribe list all in one handy place (hat tip again to my friend ChristinaKB for the apt phrase she first coined on November 21 for the Demcare wheeling and dealing).
GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell alluded to all this backroom dealing on the floor early this morning before the cloture vote, but lamely refused to name names on the Senate floor.
Screw Senate collegiality. Let the sun shine in.
1. Sen. Ben Nelson’s “Cornhusker Kickback.” The CBO says the Nebraska Democrat sellout’s special Medicaid expansion subsidy will initially cost an estimated $100 million. The Hill reports that while Nelson credited Nebraska’s governor for giving him the idea to lobby for the government preference, Nebraska’s governor assailed the payoff:
“Nebraskans did not ask for a special deal, only a fair deal,” Heineman said in a statement Sunday. In response, Nelson fired off a letter Sunday to Heineman saying he’s prepared to ask that the provision covering Nebraska’s Medicaid share “be removed from the amendment in conference, if it is your desire.”
2. New England’s Special Syrup. Vermont and Massachusetts will get similar (though less generous) special treatment by the feds in covering Medicaid expansion costs. Combined with Nebraska’s tab, the exclusive clique’s payoffs will cost taxpayers $1.2 billion over 10 years. At least.
3. Corruptocrat Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd’s Christmas wish: Hospital helper. He’s plunging in the polls and in need of a little bacon to bring home.
A $100 million item for construction of a university hospital was inserted in the Senate health care bill at the request of Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., who faces a difficult re-election campaign, his office said Sunday night. The legislation leaves it up to the Health and Human Services Department to decide where the money should be spent, although spokesman Bryan DeAngelis said Dodd hopes to claim it for the University of Connecticut. The provision is included in a 383-page series of changes to the health care bill that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., outlined Saturday. …The one sought by Dodd provides $100 million for “a health care facility that provides research, inpatient tertiary care, or outpatient clinical services.” It must be affiliated with an academic health center at a public research university in the United States “that contains a State’s sole public academic medical and dental school.” The money can cover a maximum of 40 percent of the facility’s construction costs.
4. “Some insurers are more equal than others” tax exemption. The WSJ reports that nonprofit insurance companies will be exempt from a new, nearly $7 billion tax to pay for Demcare. Democrat Sens. Ben “Blank Check” Nelson and Carl Levin of Michigan pushed hard for the tax exemption, which will exempt insurers in their states.
5. The Frontier freebie. Several lucky states will see an increase in Medicare payments to hospitals and doctors, the NYT reports, — “where at least 50 percent of the counties are ‘frontier counties,’ defined as those having a population density less than six people per square mile. And which are the lucky states? The bill gives no clue. But the Congressional Budget Office has determined that Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming meet the criteria.”
6. More Democrat hospital bennies. Also via NYT: “Another provision of the bill would increase Medicare payments to certain “low-volume hospitals” treating limited numbers of Medicare patients. Senator Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa and chairman of the Senate health committee, said this ‘important fix’ would help midsize Iowa hospitals in Grinnell, Keokuk and Spirit Lake. Another item in Mr. Reid’s package specifies the data that Medicare officials should use in adjusting payments to hospitals to reflect local wage levels. The officials can use certain new data only if it produces a higher index and therefore higher Medicare payments for these hospitals. Senate Democrats said this provision would benefit hospitals in Connecticut and Michigan.”
7. Bernie Sanders’ socialized medicine sop. He wanted a public option. Instead, he got socialized medicine satellite clinics funded to the tune of at least $10 billion. In his remarks early this morning before the cloture vote, he gloated about the funding as a crucial step toward universal care. Via the Burlington Free Press:
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., scored a big victory, too, with the inclusion in the amendment package of $10 billion to expand community health centers across the country — including at least two more in Vermont.
“We are talking about a revolution in primary care here,” Sanders said. Funding community health centers in an additional 10,000 communities would extend primary care to 25 million more Americans. The $10 billion, added at Sanders’ request, would also ensure there would be medical professionals to provide primary care by expanding the National Health Service Corps by an additional 20,000 slots. Doctors, dentists, nurses and other medical professionals who agree to work in areas where there are limited medical services get help paying off their school loans. The House version of the health care reform bill contains $14 billion for these initiatives. Sanders said he was hopeful the final amount, which will be hammered out in negotiations between the House and Senate, would be closer to $14 billion.
Vermont has 8 community health centers and 40 satellite offices. “New funding would make it likely centers could be opened in Addison and Bennington counties,” Sanders’ home state paper reports.
8. Fla.-Pa.-NY Protectionism. Via Politico: “Three states – Pennsylvania, New York and Florida – all won protections for their Medicare Advantage beneficiaries at a time when the program is facing cuts nationwide.”
And you know there are many more untold payoffs — paid by stealing your money — yet to be stuffed into this bureaucratic monstrosity.
To quote our Chicago Way President: “Don’t think we’re not keeping score, brother.”
Like the president says: Make your voice heard.
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While we stew over the Obamacare rip-off, another “too big to fail” rip-off of taxpayers. Transferring wealth upwards to the wealthiest.
#74
I am sorry Happy but- Yes He Is!
What’s with this need for so-called “collegiality”? You have people on one side accusing the others of being like slaveholders and murderers and on the other, you have someone whining about his “friends” and maintaining “comity” in the chamber. You have people openly trying to subvert our way of life into a fascist state and you have the other side using language like “our friends across the aisle”??
Yes, everyone is deserving of respect as they are made in the image of God. I do not wish any evil on those who disagree with me politically, but that does not make them MY FRIENDS. They are pursuing a course that, ultimately, will lead to the weakening and possible end of this country as we know it. This is a time for bold, unflinching naming of names. It is so discouraging that we are asked to go to foreign lands and possibly lose life and limb in “defense of the country” but these guys have subversion RIGHT IN THEIR FACES and they can’t even muster the courage to fight as the troops they supposedly support.
Can we get some senators on the GOP side who actually have some testes to speak up??? What IS IT about the GOP that they are afflicted to a person with the same disease that afflicted Bush such that they don’t seem to know how to SPEAK UP AND BE HEARD for conservative principles????
Roland,
I like your endorphin theory.
I was also intrigued by your comment that “[the libs] create the definition of what is intelligence.” For various reasons, including our greatly enhanced “intellectual connectedness” with modern communications and computers, and, also, the high demand for workers who are “symbol manipulators,” IQ is a much greater determinant of who has power and influence in the world than it was in previous eras. In short, the geeks are increasingly running things.
I believe that it is a fact that satisfaction in life correlates with an increase in IQ but only up to a certain, fairly modest level. Being a little smarter, being able to succeed at school and in many occupations, etc., seems to enhance life.
But beyond a certain point — I think it may be around 130 or so — increasing IQ does not correlate with increasing life satisfaction. In other words, technocrat wonks who have genius IQs and are designing our world — Hillary’s heathcare guru, Ira Magaziner comes to mind — are rather inept at life.
I think this poses a real problem for us. Those are the people who are saying — as you say — what intelligence is. They are also writing our history and, generally, acting as the voices of wisdom and authority in the culture. (Because NPR and CNN and the NYT go to them to get their heavy questions answered!) We are in the position of trying to argue that the ~wise(ist)~ people in the culture are not those people with the highest IQs but maybe your neighbor or somebody in the next pew at church who knows how to raise a successful family and live a good life. These people, of course, tend not to be in the professions of telling other people what they should believe and what directions mankind should take; they don’t write books; they don’t get attention. I wonder if we don’t really need to tell some of our smarty-pants types to shut up and let people with wisdom lead instead of people who went to Harvard.
I think it is the simple biblical distinction of knowledge vs WISDOM. Liberals by and large lack wisdom (based on simply looking at their political proposals and general world view) .
Note to Michelle:
Senator Bayh’s staff is not answering their phones anywhere in the state. I have called every single office he maintains, and NO ONE is answering. At a couple of the offices, you can’t even leave messages.
They haven’t been answering the phone at his DC office for months, and you can’t leave a message there either (the mailbox is always “full”). But you could usually get someone on the phone in Indianapolis or one of the other satellite offices. Not now.
The gutless coward and his minions are cowering under their desks, hiding from the people they are supposed to represent and instead have betrayed.
HOOSIERS, KEEP THE PRESSURE ON!!!
Call the Pharma company where his wife is on the board and ask for him..
That would be Wellpoint, if memory serves. She is also on a half-dozen or so other corporate boards, and rakes in about a million bucks a year doing so.
Tempest > Teabaggers > Teapot.
Ms. Malkin points out that this bill is larded like a holiday ham, and it is… But you people are acting like this is the first time this has ever happened. How ignorant are you? Every bill that successfully passes Congress can be exposed to this level of scrutiny and turn up state- and interest-specific earmarks galore. If you want to be mad about reforming health care in America, fine; direct your energy at THAT. Whining and crying about how Senators were “bought off” with special provisions in the bill makes you look like idiots who basically have no idea how legislation works.
You are morally obtuse, monkey.
It is one thing to trade legislative favors on things on which you have deep doubts about your own opinion or on which you think it doesn’t much matter. It is quite another to go directly against what you claimed were your most basic principles in exchange for thirty pieces of silver.
Monkey is just plain obtuse. A 60-40 vote strictly along party lines indicates that ONE party was NOT “bought off”. It’s the first time THAT has happened.
Better to risk looking like an idiot, than to put up an obnoxious, haughty, know-all post like yours and prove beyond a doubt that one is a jerk.
Amoral> Morose > Moronic.
BTW, MonkeysHotRod, did you notice that the NYT has a front-page story on the topic of how remarkably larded up this piece of porkulus is?
OneMonkeysUncle,
Get off this site, troll! We know what fecal matter like yourself thinks, we do not want to read it here. Take your fecal thoughts back to the pimple faced, runny nosed punk trash at FDL and the Kos Kiddies.
I wonder when someone will wake up in the Massachusetts legislature and reconcile this against any impending federal law?
I won’t hold my breath but that seems to be real 10th Amendment issue.
Please do not foret our beloved Arkansas senator Blanche Lincoln. When she was waffling on health care a few months ago she was awarded with the chairmanship of the Agriculture Committee. Hmmmmm.
I am pretty proud of some of our senators; they are showing a lot of fight. And a lot of them have been on their feet for many hours speaking against this corrupt legislation. This is good in many ways, not the least being that they are honing their arguments and their fluency in making them.
Cornyn was just making a delicious point that has been made many times: Obama promised to have all the players around a table with C-Span cameras on them as they worked out the health care bill. And, Obama said, the citizens would see the special interests at work.
This is priceless! Hypocrisy does not get more naked than this. Let the people be reminded again and again of the incredible bad faith on Obama’s part and what a BS artist he is, how different his governance is from his campaigning. I hope we’ll see the video tape many times.
Sigh. What’s the point anymore of scrutinizing legislation, exposing these scumbags, making phone calls, etc.? The people in Washington just don’t give a flying &%$# what we thing. They. Just. Don’t. Care. And they never will. And there’s nothing we can do about it. Sure we can vote in a Republican majority, but what did that get us the last time? Huge deficits; new entitlement programs; more government control of our money and our lives. So screw it; I’m over it.
Another sigh. I never thought that the day would come when I pick up an American history book and read it with nostalgia.
Jay Cost at RealClearPolitics has a devastating critique of the Reid bill with lots of info that was new to me. For example, Florida seniors get to keep their Medicare Advantage and longshoremen get a special break on the insurance tax hike. The head spins…
Democrats Risk Another Jacksonian Moment
OneMonkeysUncle said:
A hoot from the simian. Where, and ever, has any bill been written and passed that mandates any citizen is subject to fines and emprisonment for not purchasing a product? And I do mean Federally you dolt. Where is the equal protection being applied here? Some states receive payoffs while others do not to buy a vote? Go crawl back under that rotting log and fester there Libtard.
Let me try that link again…
Democrats Risk Jacksonian Moment
Prediction: No HC bill will reach the president’s desk before the State of the Union. I doubt that anything passes before the elections, although something face-saving may be cobbled together.
The Dems have jumped the shark, corruption-wise. And, Obama’s teflon is melting…the MSM is covering the story. This may be all partisan in congress but Republicans and Democrats alike, all over the country, who are getting screwed over by the special deals are going to blow this thing up. It is not like it has any popular support anyway.
How is a senior who is not living in Florida and is going to lose his Medicare Advantage going to accept the fact that seniors who are in Florida will get to keep theirs because of corrupt politics in Washington? This bill is going down in flames…the Democrats snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory.
sbw…One can be highly intelligent, yet not have a lick of common sense. They are mutually exclusive. My son-in-law is a perfect example of that. He just graduated from college Magnum Cum Laude, but voted for AL FRANKEN!! When he announced his final grades, I e-mailed to him…”So what? You still don’t have any common sense.” He knows I am just ribbing him, so he takes it well. But I mean every word of it. A college degree does not guarantee a person can reason intelligently. Far from it. Usually the opposite is the case.
I wrote my last post before I read yours. We do think alike!!
I feel exactly the same way. It is literally impossible to listen to them for more that a minute. I worry about my blood pressure and have to switch channels. They are just so stupid and say such outrageous things, it is sickening. Now, if they feel the same way when they watch conservative commentors, you can see why we are headed for big trouble. There doesn’t seem to be ANY meeting of the minds there. Neither side is about to give in. I sure as hell won’t!
BINGO!! Your post is worth reading again.
Yes, Happy, I believe we do! Don’t neglect to read the Jay Cost piece…it gave me a huge lift. I really believe we are going to kill this thing now, as late as it is.
I understand your point. We are in agreement. Many liberals can be book smart; but have not an ounce of common sense. But there is an aspect of the mind of a liberal, this irrational belief that if non-liberals would just get out of their way, they could create Utopia; perfection on earth, that is the root of their insufferable hubris in thinking they are justified in running (through government) every aspect of everyone’s lives (but their own of course). As Ronald Reagan famously once said, the most distressing words one could hear are: “I’m from the government and I’m here to help you”.
I believe they do, and I believe we are.
You are right…wisdom does not mean “educated” or even “highly intelligent”. It just means “wise”. I think that is the most important trait in a leader. Obama has fooled the people into thinking that he is “wise”, when it is just a huge ego fueled by the adoration of the masses to the point where he actually believes all the hype.
I knew that the Leftist masses would fall all over this guy when I saw him speak at the 2004 DNC. A silver tongued anti-christ with the Chiclet smile. Here we go. Was I a prophet or what?
That was a good article. Personally I think we are going to see an unprecedented firing of dem senators and congressmen next November. The ground swell of disgust is becoming so great, that it will be a tidal wave by election day.
On December 21st, 2009 at 3:31 pm, happyscrapper said:
And where does wisdom begin?
On December 21st, 2009 at 3:14 pm, happyscrapper said:
That’s funny stuff right there!
don’t feed the animals.
Forget health care. He’ll make good use of them as hospices since Vermont has the oldest citizens in the country. It is a dying state.
Submitting to that which causes you fear is the opposite of seeking wisdom.
Courage is the beginning of wisdom.
Too little, too late. By election day, this “reform” will be law and like all government entitlements, it’ll be set in stone. The Republicans will talk for a while about dismantling it, and then they’ll talk for a while about reforming the reform, and then they’ll talk for the rest of forever about managing it better than the Dems can. (You need look no further than the Department of Education to find a perfect example of this.) And the Dems right now know this. They know that they are about to create a government entitlement that’ll live forever and government control over more of your life will be set in stone. So unless the tidal wave results in a veto-proof and very conservative Republican majority (extremely unlikely), then the next election doesn’t matter in terms of health care. The damage will be done.
There are only 18 Democrat Senate seats up for election in 2010. They can lose 8 seats and still hold the Senate. It would take a landslide of unprecedented proportions to take even 8 of those seats.
Even if they lose more than 8, they’ve still got the filibuster (and Snowe and Collins, etc). And even if filibusters can be overridden, there is still Obama’s veto.
So the repeal path will go nowhere until 2012. If ever. That is in stone.
The only effective strategy for 2010/2011/2012 is to take the House by a conservative landslide (hard, but now possible) followed by a two year pitched battle over the budgets.
The House controls the purse. It can shut off funding to anything it regards as unconstitutional.
It must be aggressive in defunding since the Democrats/Obama will be in full battle mode, using funds they should not be using to fund whatever the House tries to shut down.
Whoever is leading the House must have the guts and wisdom to shut down the government even in the face of what will be the dinosaur media’s most blatant and hostile propaganda ever.
I doubt this is going to happen, but it is the only hope until 2013, and by then I fear it will be much too late.
Oops. The Democrats can lose 10 seats and still hold the Senate.
I took a different message from the article than was really intended; I found the addition “carve outs” so obnoxious that I don’t believe we will have to wait until next November for a reaction.
This bill has a lot of difficulty coming as the House grapples with what the Senate has done. In the meantime, the critters will have been home where the angry voters live. The MSM is exposing the corruption, for a change. The bill has few real friends.
Unless the House accepts the Senate version exactly as written — which is extremely doubtful — every Senator will have an excuse to get off the bus saying, “I could not live with the new version hammered out in conference.” I believe some will take that opportunity.
One of the strong reactions seems to be coming from Nebraska where the generally conservative voters neither like the bill nor, especially, do they like receiving the contempt of the whole country for a special deal that they didn’t want. If it is perceived that all of this puts Ben Nelson is serious trouble, he and others are likely to bail out.
Rich Lowry has a lot of detail about the complications that the bill faces. Five Reasons the Bill Might Not Pass
Does anybody no for sure: Will the Senate need 60 votes for cloture again on final passage in January after the conference to reconcile the Senate and House versions?
I thought that I had understood that they would. This is crucial, though. If they need only a simple majority in January my optimism would be severely curtailed.
This is best you can do? No wonder those Teabagger stunts never got your people anywhere…
I do believe that they would need 60 votes for cloture on debate of the Reconcilled bill to allow a simple majority vote to follow.
Lots of teeth gnashing over the politicians but not so much on the people who elected them. Obama won the election. Democrats won the election. In giving the White House, House of Reps and the Senate to the Democrats, we voted these policies in. Now, we want to complain?
I saw the polls a couple of months ago that had half the country supporting these heath care reforms.
The number supporting the health care bills is still 40% or so, even in the face of all the current idiocy relating to not reading the bill, multiple versions, pork, bribery, payoffs, abortion funding, huge government entitlement program that can not be funded just like social security and medicare, increased deficit spending, old people death panels, etc.
Sounds to me like Americans voted these guys in to do these things and still support them doing it. If someone could show me that only 20% of the people wanted it, it might be dead, but 40% is a LOT of people.
That 40% is what the politicians are hanging their hat on. A little cajoling and favorable press can turn that 40% into a Democrat win in 2010.
Since our politicans are not listening, perhaps we should turn our attention to the people who still think this utopian pipe dream is a good idea. Who are these fools? 40% of the country, thats who.
Politco says Health Plans on Collision Course
It ain’t over until the fat lady sings; she isn’t even warmed up. Everything, IMO, depends on how badly the senators get beaten up over the break. I think that beating will be fairly severe.
Thanks, Truesoldier. That does seem clearly to be true from the Politico article.
Lets shine the light on the cockroaches who want the rest of us to pay their bills. Lets see some real world examples of who these 50 million uninsured people are.
Are they bums? What jobs do they have? How hard are they looking for work? Do they drink, smoke, visit prostitutes, do drugs? Do they lie on their unemployment benefit form about looking for work? Are they here illegally? Who are they and why do they not have insurance?
And more importantly, why does the government think I should be forced to transfer my earnings to them. Someone in need is one thing. Bums, drug addicts, and bad actors do not deserve my money. Thats just common sense.
Shine the light and watch them scurry away. Lets start with Rev Wrights church members. If the government can have a say on CEO compensation, then they should have a say on the spending habits of the beneficiaries of a government entitlement program.
That is a very pessimistic read, IMO, T-Bone. I am hearing much lower numbers, but it depends dramatically on how you ask the question.
Yea, about 40% on a generic question regarding health care reform…or even much higher. But considerably lower numbers on this particular bill. And we really don’t yet have public opinion numbers that take into account all the corrupt deals. This is a very unpopular bill.
T-Bone, here is a little extract from Rich Lowry’s column:
1. Public Revulsion. The bill was already under water in every major public-opinion poll, and opposed by a margin of almost 2 to 1 in the latest CNN poll. The latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll put its support at freezing, 32 percent. A few ticks downward and the bill will be in the 20s.
Freezing. Love that line.
Good article. Gives one hope.
5 reasons it may not pass vs 2 reasons it will. The House and Senate both passed versions of health care reform that were atrocious. The whole process was sick, yet they did it. I wouldn’t put it past them to vote in a conference bill that is equally atrocious.
They are betting that the economy improves and people are getting jobs in 2010. People will forget about the heathcare debacle and give them high praise for finding them a job so they can pay bills. Everything else is water under the bridge.
“They gave me a job, and free healthcare, and are cleaning up the environment while making me less dependent on Iran so we don’t have to attack them. They are so awesome, they deserve another term.”
Its all about the freebies.
Well, certainly that might happen…that is the expected outcome.
But you must concede that the Democrats were in a frantic rush and that rush has been for only one reason: They realize that their margin is so fragile that they might not be able to hold it together through another go-round with an aroused public. That is what we are about to have, I hope, and we’ll see what happens.
Below is what I sent to my POS (Piece of Senator) Nelson. Sorry to offend the other POS acroynm.
Oh, we can do a lot better. And we will, O One Who Is Derived From That Which is Under the Monkey’s Tail.
Ignatius, sbw999, Chap, I just wrote a long post on the Sunday Showdown thread from 12/20 (Post #112), but it looks like the thread may have died. I hate a good post to go to waste, so if you will go over there and read it, I would appreciate it. Pasadea Phil can go there too if he dares, but it is about him!
Poor, Phil! ~grin~ And I was feeling kinda guilty! I kept trying to ignore him, but it just got too much. Like most of us here, I feel a ton of anger and frustration at the GOP leadership and at many of our senators in particular. I am perfectly capable of punishing them financially and even at the polls in a few, strategically selected races. I have to admit that I was not sure that I could vote for McCain before Palin got in. Defecting from the party on the presidential ballot might seem pretty close to Phil’s position but McCain is barely a Republican, except when it suits him. How could we have a presidential candidate who had toyed with the idea of running as Kerry’s veep? Refusing to vote for McCain wouldn’t have been abandoning the GOP, it would have been defending it. But after Palin lit us on fire, it was easy.
At the end of the day, it is irrational to come to any other conclusion than the one we have come to, Happy, and that all the other people you mentioned have come to: The solution is to reform the party, not to try to bring it down.
I tried to let Phil know that I understand his anger and exasperation. At least in my mind, he made a fool of himself when he called me a “lib,” although certainly I provoked him enough that I can’t really blame him for hitting back at me, he just missed. I’m a lot of things…some of’em not so nice. But I ain’t no “lib.”
BTW, we both made the Michael Steele error. I didn’t really know much about him, and I let him win me over with his gift of gab. Obviously, he has proven not to have the right stuff.
A GOP upbeat item: I’ve had C-Span 2 on all day (as all weekend) and I am really impressed with some of our senators. It infuriates me that “our network,” Fox, always goes to McCain and Graham as the voices of the Republican Party, as does the MSM. Remember after John Kerry got beaten…he couldn’t catch a cab in Washington but McCain is ~still~ Mr. Republican in the media’s eyes. The media wants to decide who the leading Republicans are, which is one of our problems. Anyway, a lot of these new guys have been fierce, relentless, and articulate on health care. They just will not shut up. Even old McConnell has made a pretty good showing.
Ignatius…I may have come down a bit stong on Pasadena, but he has called some of us some pretty bad things and I think he needs to be taken down a peg once in a while. He does have some very valid points to make on other subjects. It’s just that he is so hung up on his hatred of anything republican that he allows it to take over his judgement. Hopefully,he will back off a bit.
As for the media choosing our candidate, yes…that is what we allowed them to do. I was flabergasted when he ended up with the nomination! It was only a few months before that he seemed dead in the water and heading home, even hauling his own luggage. Remember? I told my husband how relieved I was that McCain was through because he would have been the absolute worst candidate ever! Then all of a sudden…heee’s baaack!! It just sickened me and I knew we couldn’t win. We mustn’t let that ever happen again. I love FOX News because they are the “conservative/moderate” voice we desperately need. But you are right…they have the same talking heads on all the time and McCain still seems to be thier “darling”. I can’t for the life of me figure out WHY!! And his girlfriend Lindsey Graham is just as bad. There are so many better representatives in Congress to choose from. They did have Rick Santorum on today and I love him!
Anyway, I have to leave for a while, but will check back later if I can.
It’s fun chatting with you, Happy. I’m probably out for the evening.
First time I came across the creep (on this thread) but I think, after reading his other posts, he is just a common dime-a-dozen attention starved troll.
Heh. Sen. Cornyn just used the term “Cash for Cloture” on the Senate floor.
This is the reason why I think many of the so-called Republicans up there are just as responsible for this theft.
How quickly these idiots forget the ‘Crats would crucify them in a heart beat for any minor little infraction, whether true or not, to beat the Republicans.
Bunch of limp-wristed buffoons.
send this little video to all your friends…the results of 50 years of dimocrap misadventures and unionism…the real detroit…
http://www.pjtv.com/video/Louder_With_Crowder/Detroit_in_Ruins%3A_Crowder_Discovers_No_Town_in_Motown/2876/
Regarding my 9:03pm comment: I didn’t realize that C-SPAN2 was replaying the session from earlier today. I was listening but not watching. Oops.
“The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of ‘liberalism’ they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.”
-Norman Thomas, six-time U.S. Presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America.
Norman Thomas and Gus Hall, the U.S. Communist Party Candidate, both quit American politics, agreeing that the Republican and Democratic parties had adopted every plank on the
Communist/Socialist and they no longer had an alternate party platform on which to run.
’nuff said…
Darn, I thought that meant something else!!
Hold onto it – it will be burned and the replacement nothing like you ever learned.
Tar.
Feathers.
Senator.
Some assembly required.
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
There is alot more to Chris Dodd’s corrupt deal and an enterprising reporter should dig in and get to the bottom of it. Dodd inserted a provision for a 100 million dollar “hospital and research center” that could only be built in a state with “one public university medical and dental school”. That only applies to 12 states, including Ct. All of the senators know that the money will go to Ct. The general wording of the bill was a fig leaf to cover the corruption. But Connecticut is the one state that DOES NOT need a new hospital research center. In the 1970s, the politicians decided to build a hugely expensive hospital and research center affiliated with the University of Connecticut. It was called the John Dempsey Medical Center and the construction of the project was marked by corruption and wastes of millions of dollars. Today the enormous John Dempsey Medical Center is largely unused. It has hundreds of hospital beds that are never used and it has dozens of doctors and nurses and researchers with little to do all day.There has been talk in Ct. of closing the boondoggle that is Dempsey Center. So how on earth does Connecticut need another huge costly mecial center? It doesn’t. This should be publicized as another Dodd corrupt deal.
Dodd nees a little…uh…correction, as do a number of his colleagues. (Since it has become so difficult to communicate with them by telephone or email, we may need to think of some new way to get their attention.)
The biggest Blimp in the world with the flashing sign on the side – Hands off my Healthcare.
My God, it’s true. We are governed by prostitutes, sluts, gigolos and pimps. How could this have happened? Simple. We elected Democrats in large numbers. Every Democrat has at his/her core those traits. They disguise them quite well most of the time, but when the crunch comes their true nature takes over their behavior. And Obama is the quintessential Democrat. Electing him will prove to be the most destructive decision we have ever made.
I have read all the comments… Each one shows a certain distdane for this Govt. The light of Freedom is dimming fast, and everyone is standing by talking about it. I am one of very many who BELIEVE strongly the B Hussein Obama is NOT Elligible to be President of the United States according to the U.S. Constitution. We still live in a Country where we are allowed our Opinions, and since I have Lost ALL hope in our Government, I will never lose what I have seen and heard and read about Obama. If all of Michelles readers would do this one small thing:
Get a copy of the Democrat Certification of Nomination from your State ( except the people in Colorado, yours is the ONLY correct one).
Ask the tough question “WHY IS OBAMA ONLY CONSTITUTIONALLY ELLIGIBLE IN CO.?”
I have seen the one signed and NOTORIZED Aug.28th 2008…And it is NOT THE SAME ONE YOUR STATE RECIEVED!!!!!
There were TWO Nominations signed and NOTORIZED Aug. 28th 2008, ONE for Eye Candy and ONE for the DUMB VOTERS of America. So my only faith for the Future for my kids lies in God,and with them and with what I have seen with my own two eyes. PLEASE… Just Look for yourselves, dont believe me, believe your own eyes. God Bless, Merry CHRISTmas.
Oh my, pokenhorn…the things you say. You must be [irony] one of those racist extremist that Rhode Island senator Sheldon Whitehouse was speaking about on the Senate floor on Sunday:
Why all this discord and discourtesy, all this unprecedented destructive action? All to break the momentum of our new young president.
They are desperate to break this president. They have ardent supporters who are nearly hysterical at the very election of President Barack Obama. The birthers, the fanatics, the people running around in right-wing militia and Aryan support groups, it is unbearable to them that President Barack Obama should exist. That is one powerful reason. It is not the only one.”
And ~you~, McCloud9, you — needless to say — take it to the next level! ~grin~
How angry do you want to be this morning? Check out this at Hot Air. Reichs Chancellor Reid is trying to make it so future Congresses can’t repeal or change ObamaScare.
It’s okay Dexter. At least McSHAMNESTY!!!! lost, and that’s all that mattered from the campaign. Right? We’re screwed 08. No matter who got elected. Right?
So who cares if our nation is damaged by the democrats for generations. It was all worth it, to see that we saved the GOP bt defeating McCain. *spit!*
I think that I am going to go and sign up over at Stormfront. I’m no kind of a racist, but I am so tired of having the charge flung at me (as Sheldon Whitehouse did on the Senate floor Sunday) merely for being an anti-socialist conservative that I half feel like I belong there. And I need to say some angry, borderline violent things that really aren’t suitable for a polite forum like this one. I don’t care that Obama is black, but I will sure as heck will stand up and say that it is no great honor, either. I need a place like this one for the well-behaved Ignatius to chat and another place for the potty-mouthed, raging Ignatius to vent against the devils who are destroying our country.
Thomas, I don’t know wth you’re talking about. Perhaps you’re mistaking me for someone else. I voted for Sarah. Even McLame wouldn’t have been this bad.
Oh really? Check out Drudge, Obama’s disapproval now stands at 56%!
WHO has read this bill? NOBODY…Yet EVERYBODY can tell what it is going to do? or not do? The lords of washington would not even dream of doing this to their OWN medical care. But they HAVE to do it to us, the little ones. This kind of reasoning and action is Not survivable
Maybe we could have MM start a GOP vs third party thread so Thomas and Phil and a few of the others can have a place to spew their tired rhetoric.
So, you are one of those “birthers”, huh? Me too. And another thing…does Obama have any relatives that actually were born here or live here? (legal ones, that is) All his relatives were born and live in Kenya or wherever. How did he happen to be born in the U.S.? I don’t believe he was. It all boils down to WHY WON’T HE RELEASE THE INFORMATION ABOUT HIS BIRTH AND OTHER RECORDS? WHAT IS HE HIDING? OBVIOUSLY THERE IS SOMETHING HE DOESN’T WANT US TO KNOW ABOUT HIM.
I see a lot of new posters on here lately and that is really encouraging!! It means more and more are talking and working together. A couple new trolls, but we can deal with them.
The anger in this country is building to a fever pitch. The more we hear about details in Reid’s bill, the more angry we become. There is SO MUCH in there that is corrupt, unconstitutional, and just plain illegal. For one thing, they cannot legally force people to purchase health insurance under threat of jail. I hope MM will start listing some of the unbelievable provisions in this bill as they come out. Michele Bachman was just on the radio and she laid out what kind of healthcare bill would work…it is simple. Tort reform, competition across state lines, tax breaks for businesses to purchase, and if you can’t afford health insurance and want it, there would be a fund for those people. Simple…and probably would only take about 10-20 pages.
Please, just about every day there is a
discussiontired rhetoric about how much McCain sucks and/or how the GOP is dead and we should all be real conservatives and vote third party.It never ceases to amaze me as to how people who got what they wanted, Obama as the president over the evil McSame … and continue to shed the crocodile tears over the damage being done to our nation as the result.
I totally agree! I know more than one person who voted for Odumbo and now are very very sorry!! I tell them they need to actually dig into a candidate’s positions and record before blindly voting because of PR and hype. I hope it is not too late for those who regret their vote to vote the right way next time. It is one of our most valuable rights and it is done sloppily! A candidate can promise anything they think you want to hear. But people should be required to take a text on the actual record of the candidate and pass it before they are allowed into the voting booth. Millions of idiots vote based on “looks”, “race or skin color”, “religion” or empty promises. Millions of others don’t bother to vote at all. How tragic that the best country in the world is being destroyed by stupidness and laziness.
Yeah, Thomas, we all voted third party.
My point was to take the “third party or bust” crowd and the “GOP above all” crowd and move them out into the family room so the grown ups can talk here in peace.
For the record, I voted for McCain and given the same choices, would do so again. So let’s make sure we have a better choice this time, eh?
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HI HAPPYSCRAPPER–Long ago–when I was teaching Confirmation Class to my 2 sons and the other kids getting ready for it–I had them read and discuss the Bible Wisdom literature. Proverbs and Ecclesiastes.
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My older son commented that whoever wrote this was very smart. I explained how King Solomon became ruler at a young age and knew he needed real help–and asked God for wisdom. Solomon used the knowledge well and passed it along to us to help us out.
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My son is a cancer doctor in Phoenix now. He and his 4 kids pray for our family together at bedtime. Then they pray for my son’s cancer patients by name.
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Education can give you more knowledge–but basic intelligence and wisdom come from God. You can’t get them in university.
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John Bibb
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