Promoting "God's Holy Values and American Freedoms"!
"Daily Motivations"
"The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings." -- Eric Hoffer
Before attempting to help any client, ask yourself these three questions: 1.) Why do people buy my products or services? 2.) What is the result if I do not help them? 3.) How could I improve their experience with my company? -- Linda Byars Swindling
Gratitude takes three forms: a feeling in the heart, an expression in words, and a giving in return." -- John Wanamaker
"Daily Devotions" (KJV and/or NLT)
"The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease." (Lamentations 3:22)
What's your future look like? If you were to list the three items that worry you most, what would they be?
John Brentz, who lived nearly five hundred years ago, had a few worries of his own. Since he was a friend of Martin Luther, the German theologian and unbending reformer, the local prince was severely angry with him. At one point, Brentz heard rumors that a squad of soldiers were on their way to kill him.
Brentz knelt and prayed, placing his well-being and even his very life totally in God's hands. Instantly an impression came to his mind; he knew what God was telling him to do. He was to grab a loaf of bread, walk into town, look for an open door, enter, and hide beneath the roof.
Brentz easily found the door and hid high up in the loft. There he hid while the soldiers sought him. The bread lasted a few days, but just as the last crumb was gone, a hen began to enter the garret and lay one egg each day. On the fifteenth day, there was no egg---but he heard the cries outside: "The soldiers are gone!"
Most of us are worriers. We may have the things we want today, but what about tomorrow? What if there are more layoffs at work? What if the economy doesn't improve?
It's often easy to forget that a faithful God watches over us, but His tender loving kindness has never failed the test yet.
"The Patriot Post"
"It is a very great mistake to imagine that the object of loyalty is the authority and interest of one individual man, however dignified by the applause or enriched by the success of popular actions." -- Samuel Adams
Editorial Exegesis
"After hemming and hawing for weeks, Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe did what many knew she'd do: support the abominable Baucus health care overhaul. The GOP has a big problem. Some who march under its banner don't really accept the basic philosophy it espouses -- one of low taxes, small government and support of the Constitution. Snowe is one of those. Her decision to vote 'aye' on the Baucus [health care] bill, which passed out of the Senate Finance Committee on an otherwise partisan 14-9 vote, was called a 'surprise' by some. It wasn't. She's done this for years, undercutting her party and lending support to the opposition. Don't look for some transcendent reason. 'My vote today is my vote today,' Snowe said, clarifying nothing. 'It doesn't forecast what my vote will be tomorrow.' Nothing like standing firmly on principle. What's galling is Democrats could have passed this without Snowe's help. By lending her voice and senatorial prestige, she weakened her party's otherwise resolute stance against the health care bill. In short, she gave Democrats badly needed bipartisan cover to ram Baucus -- or something worse -- down all our throats. As we've said before, the Baucus bill will lead, inevitably, to higher taxes, lower-quality care, rationing and the intrusion of government into the most sensitive decisions we make. ... There are lines in the sand for both parties, and this bill should be one. A person can't support Baucus and still say he or she's for small, or limited, government. This is Leviathan writ large. ... The GOP must be wondering: With members like [this], who needs Democrats?" -- Investor's Business Daily
Upright
"The CBO provides 10- year projections of a bill's cost.. But most provisions of the health bill don't take effect until 2014. So the '10-year' cost projection only includes six years of the bill. Plus, the costs ramp up slowly. In its first year, the House bill would only cost about $6 billion; in its first three, less than $100 billion. The big costs are in the final years of the 10-year budget window -- and beyond. In fact, over the first 10 years that the House bill would be in existence (2014 to 2024), its costs would be closer to $2.4 trillion." -- Cato Institute scholar Michael Tanner
"If the Medicare cuts won't materialize, and the revenues won't grow as expected, and the subsidies (already projected to grow at 8 percent per year) will expand, the Baucus bill is merely the thin wedge of another out-of-control entitlement. We already have several of those, and already are slated to run $1 trillion annual deficits before the advent of a new one. The Baucus bill is faux fiscal restraint on the road to budgetary Armageddon." -- columnist Rich Lowry
"The best thing government can do for us is to get out of the way and let us care for ourselves. These [deficit] numbers are unsustainable. They are outrageous. And they will become a reality unless enough Americans rise up and say they are not going to take it anymore. It's our money, not theirs. They are now stealing it before we make it. Let's hear some outrage about this." -- columnist Cal Thomas
"I'm not all for Americans winning international prizes, especially the Nobel Peace Prize. In fact, I'm vigorously against it. The transnational progressives who pass out these accolades believe America is the problem in the world, the main threat to peace, the impediment to 'progress,' etc. The award is a symbolic statement of opposition to American exceptionalism, American might, American capitalism, American self-determinism, and American pursuit of America's interests in the world." --columnist Andy McCarthy
"The Peace Prize judges won't see it this way, but America has gone to Europe twice in the past century to fight for peace. This is an old concept, and has to do with killing killers so they can't kill anymore. It cost America a lot to do this, and we kept no territory, as they say, beyond the graves where our soldiers lie. America then taxed itself and gave its wealth not only to its allies but to its former adversaries, to help them rebuild. We didn't actually have to do this. We did it to make the world better. We did it to foster peace. (They should give us a prize.)" -- columnist Peggy Noonan
"Over the weekend, still another outpost was attacked in the distant reaches of Afghanistan, and still more American soldiers -- and Afghan ones -- were lost. An undermanned and overstretched international force struggles on in that graveyard of empires. And waits for word from Washington. And waits and waits. ... All wait to see what course the president will choose, or will let others choose for him. In the meantime he dithers -- and Americans fight and die." -- columnist Paul Greenberg
Insight
"The essential characteristic of Western civilization that distinguishes it from the arrested and petrified civilizations of the East was and is its concern for freedom from the state." -- economist Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973)
"The great non sequitur committed by defenders of the State, including classical Aristotelian and Thomist philosophers, is to leap from the necessity of society to the necessity of the State." -- economist Murray Rothbard (1926-1995)
"I never could believe that Providence had sent a few men into the world, ready booted and spurred to ride, and millions ready saddled and bridled to be ridden." -- British colonel Richard Rumbold (1622-1685)
The Demo-gogues
Such humility: "I am both surprised and deeply humbled by the decision of the Nobel committee. Let me be clear, I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments but rather as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations." -- Barack Obama
Said through gritted teeth? "His willingness to really kind of challenge everyone ... restores a kind of image and appreciation of our country." -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton explaining why she believes Obama deserves the Nobel Peace Prize
"Maybe I better do something now": "Throughout history, the Nobel Peace Prize has not just been used to honor specific achievement, it's also been used as a means to give momentum to a set of causes, and that is why I will accept this award as a call to action -- a call for all nations to confront the common challenges of the 21st century." -- Barack Obama, admitting that the Nobel Prize didn't acknowledge any actual accomplishments, only "hopes"
Just blame Bush: "Every major policy enacted during this period [the Bush administration] violated the principle of paying for new proposals. These policy decisions were the primary driver that turned historic projected surpluses into record deficits." -- White House chief economic adviser Lawrence Summers
Village Idiots
Grasping at straws: "[W]e simply disagree that [Barack Obama] has done nothing. He got the [Nobel Peace] Prize for what he has done." -- Nobel committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland
More terrorist comparison: "The Republican Party has thrown in its lot with the terrorists -- the Taliban and Hamas this morning -- in criticizing the president for receiving the Nobel Peace Prize." -- DNC Communications Director Brad Woodhouse on a prize previously given to terrorists
War on Fox: "I think what is fair to say about FOX and certainly the way we view it is that it really is more a wing of the Republican Party... [When President Obama] goes on FOX, he understands that he is not going on -- it really is not a news network at this point. He's going to debate the opposition." -- White House communications director Anita Dunn
Too much information: "I've always said -- [Barack Obama] is a man who is full of hope and he really is. I mean, and that's what was so attractive. .... He actually ... his nipples are bursting with hope. He's the first man and the first president in my life who is lactating hope. He continues to lactate hope." --comedian Lewis Black
Broken record plays again: "We're very close to that political tipping point. Never before in human history has a single generation been asked to make such difficult and consequential decisions. ... I am optimistic. I think there has been a very powerful recognition, not only in this country, but in many countries, that there is a linkage between the climate crisis and the economic crisis and the national security crisis that is in part derivative of the world's ridiculous over-dependence on carbon-based fuels." -- Algore
Short Cuts
"In a decision as shocking as Friday's surprise peace prize win, President Obama failed to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences Monday. While few observers think Obama has done anything for world peace in the nearly nine months he's been in office, the same clearly can't be said for economics. The president has worked tirelessly since even before his inauguration to wrest control of the U.S. economy from failed free markets, and the evil CEOs who profit from them, and to turn it over to wise, fair and benevolent bureaucrats. ... It is unclear whether the president will now refuse his peace prize in protest against the obvious slight to his real achievements this year." -- MarketWatch assistant managing editor Tom Bemis
"[T]he Nobel Prize committee would with this decision have forfeited its reputation for seriousness if it had a reputation for seriousness." -- columnist George Will
"It is said that great men often stand upon the shoulders of giants, but Obama is a first -- a man who has ridden to greatness on the shoulders of an army of fawning dwarves -- and now the Nobel committee can be counted among this low-slung throng." -- columnist Mac Johnson
"The word czar, which came from Caesar, traditionally referred to an emperor, a singular leader. It makes no more sense to describe people assigned specific fiefs within the government as 'czars' than it would to describe each one of them as a 'president.' Shouldn't we call them something else instead -- say, commissars or liege lords?" -- Wall Street Journal columnist James Taranto
"Borowitz Report.com"
Obama Named Country Music Entertainer of the Year
Surprise Selection Shocks Nashville
If Obama can win the Nobel Peace Price after twelve days in office as President, he should be able to win "Country Music Entertainer of the Year" just by listening to one record. - oyh
http://www.borowitzreport.com/article.aspx?ID=7062#
NASHVILLE (The Borowitz Report) - President Barack Obama stunned the country music world today by picking up its highest honor, Country Music Entertainer of the Year.
Mr. Obama was chosen unanimously, according to the Country Music Association, beating out such favorite as Carrie Underwood and Toby Keith.
In Nashville, country music insiders were shocked by Mr. Obama's selection, given that he has only been in office for eight months and during that time has yet to record a single country song.
But Mr. Obama was gracious in receiving the honor, saying that he was "honored and humbled" by the award before excusing himself to accept this year's Heisman Trophy
"The Web"
Demographic problem
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysBJ5G4m67s
The Human Clock
http://billychasen.com/clock/
Health Care Bill's Plan to Cut Medicare Payments to Hospitals that Readmit Ill Seniors Could Have ‘Serious Consequences,’ Says Hospital Association
By Matt Cover, Staff Writer
http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=56046
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., successfully steered his health care reform bill through the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2009. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
(CNSNews.com) – Slashing Medicare payments to hospitals that readmit ailing senior citizens--a component of the health care reform bill under consideration in Congress--could have serious consequences for the hospitals, including raising costs on hospitals an estimated $19 billion over 10 years, according to the American Hospital Association.
A plan to reduce preventable hospital readmissions is included in all of the health care bills before Congress and would impose a fee on hospitals that readmit patients for certain conditions, such as pneumonia and heart failure.
The details on how the readmissions policy would work, however, are largely left up to the Health and Human Services Department (HHS), a fact that concerns the nation’s hospitals. The penalties would only apply to hospitals where the readmission rates were well above the national average.
The measures are designed to improve the delivery of health care to Medicare patients by realigning the government’s payments to hospitals away from the current fixed-rate system--where the government pays for everything--to one that better rewards quality and efficiency.
“The bill creates quality and efficiency incentives that will improve care and cut down on waste, such as unnecessary hospital readmissions,” Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said in a press release accompanying the introduction of the Senate Finance Committee’s version of health reform.
Baucus’ version of the readmissions policy would penalize hospitals 20 percent of their Medicare reimbursement rates if patients are readmitted for the same condition within seven days and by 10 percent if readmitted within 15 days.
“Starting in FY 2013, hospitals with readmission rates above a certain threshold would have payments for the original hospitalization reduced by 20 percent if a patient with a selected condition is re-hospitalized with a preventable readmission within seven days and by 10 percent if a patient with a selected condition is re-hospitalized with a preventable readmission within 15 days,” the summary text of Baucus’ bill reads.
The Senate Finance Committee left the definition of a “selected condition” up to the HHS, specifying only that the government use eight conditions with a high rate or cost of readmission. The government can expand the list of selected conditions after three years, in 2016.
As the summary states, “Three years after implementation of the readmissions policy, the [HHS] Secretary would have the authority to expand the policy to other conditions. Additional conditions would be selected based on: (1) high spending on readmissions or high rates of readmissions; and (2) other criteria as determined by the Secretary.”
The American Hospital Association (AHA), in comments submitted to Baucus May 15, said that the Finance Committee’s plan could lead to “serious consequences” if the government does not get the details right.
“Hospital leaders and clinicians who care for patients recognize that some readmissions can be prevented,” the AHA said.
“But there are a number of factors beyond the hospital’s control that affect whether a patient is readmitted, including the natural course of the disease, the limited availability of post-acute and ambulatory health care services, high levels of poverty among some hospitals’ patients, and a lack of community-based social services,” it added.
“If these factors are not accounted for, they will lead to payment penalties, inequities and other serious consequences--intended and unintended--for hospitals, particularly safety-net hospitals,” said the AHA.
The health care bills in the House, similar to the Baucus bill, differ in that the penalty would apply to hospitals that have readmission rates above their expected rates for three diseases: pneumonia, heart disease, and heart attack, regardless of whether the patient was originally treated for one of these conditions. Also, starting in 2013, the HHS could expand the list of selected conditions without limit.
The AHA said that the proposed penalties, the lower reimbursement rates, could cost hospitals an estimated $19 billion over 10 years, and it urged House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to adjust the penalties to avoid wrongly punishing hospitals for readmissions they could not control.
“The policy in the House reform bill would link hospital performance on readmissions to
Medicare payments, and represents a potential cut of $19 billion dollars to America’s hospitals over 10 years,” AHA President Tom Viselac told Pelosi on Sept. 15in testimony before the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee.
“Beginning in FY 2012, it would reduce payments to hospitals, including critical access hospitals, with higher-than-expected 30-day readmission rates for heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia,” testified Viselac. “This payment cut would apply to all Medicare discharges--not just cases involved in a readmission. Madam Speaker, we believe that this proposal is overly aggressive.”
Robert Book, senior research fellow in Health Care Economics at the conservative Heritage Foundation, told CNSNews.com that readmissions were a serious problem and that Congress’ method was “relatively crude.”
“These bills are addressing a real problem,” he said. “The thing with hospital readmissions is a real problem that gives hospitals perverse incentives, and they get paid more when they have lower quality. On the other hand, this is a really blunt instrument to try to use to correct it.”
“It’s not clear that this is the right way to do it, but it’s not obvious what a better way might be,” he said.
We Need Watchmen to Sound the Alarm
http://www.americanvision.org/article/we-need-watchmen-to-sound-the-alarm/?awt_l=CQsGV&awt_m=1ZE8eb_Hr9P5qC
We Need Watchmen to Sound the Alarm
by Valerie Head
In recent months, I’ve been noticing how young families are taking action within their own circles of influence to return our nation to its founding principles. They’re learning that the place to start is in the home. They understand that to rebuild a nation a proper foundation must be laid. The leadership we have in Washington and in our state houses is a reflection of what we have in our homes. Change the family and you will change the nation. G. K. Chesterton said it well “The most extra extraordinary thing in the world is an ordinary man and an ordinary woman and their ordinary children.” So what do you think will happen when we have extraordinary men, women, and children? Last week I spoke at a gathering of concerned Christians who can no longer remain quiet and passive. The event was sponsored by Julian and Valerie Head of Franklin, Tennessee. Valerie opened the evening with a statement of her own. With her permission, I’ve reproduced it below.
—Gary DeMar
We want to thank each of you for coming tonight, we are the Head Family. Standing with my husband, Julian, and me is our Posterity, Rose, Sonny and Andy. These are who our Constitution and Declaration of Independence were designed to protect and provide for. And that brings me to why we are here, because that protection and provision have ceased.
Nothing New is Under the Sun. The church is today, as it was in the days of Peter and John, held captive by the Romans, “allowing” us to practice our religion as long as it does not conflict with Rome’s teachings, as long as we conform to their education. We have been told they will not tolerate our intolerance. So, like the Sanhedrin, we have learned how to practice within their boundaries, not stirring their anger against us. From our pulpits we teach relativism that we all worship and serve the same god! That we should be tolerant, learn from one another, and that there is not one absolute truth!
We refrain from issues that might single us out as radical, judgmental, or intolerant, issues such as teaching a literal six-day creation, young Earth position and pointing out sinful practices and unjust laws practiced by our government and its leaders. We have been told we can’t have the Ten Commandments posted or speak the name of Jesus in any government building. Thank God HIS WORDS have been etched in stone all over the Nation’s Capitol because “IF THESE MEN ARE SILENT, THE VERY STONES WILL CRY OUT.”
I believe we need a “WARRIOR” mentality, willing to die for the cause of Christ, or at least be willing to suffer a little criticism. Second Timothy 3:12 says that ALL WHO DESIRE TO WALK WITH CHRIST, WILL BE PERSECUTED. Our Founding Fathers well understood that this was a battle that would require every generation to contend with it, in order to preserve our God-given Liberties. As in the War for Independence, this is not an offensive war; this is a defensive war. America did not fire the first shot then, nor have we today. Do not be deceived, this battle is of a spiritual nature; it has existed since the Garden of Eden. And let me be clear, this battle is NOT against the “institution of government” which is established by God but against those leaders who have themselves rebelled against God and have ceased to be “a minister of God,” serving God by promoting the good and punishing the evil and using “just weights and measures.”
We no longer hold weekly Sunday services in the U.S. Capitol. Some elected officials can even take their oath of office using the Koran. We invite Hindu Priests to pray over our congress. Will our new national motto be “In gods we trust”? Or will we sign our historical papers “in the Year of our lord Krishna?” Not on my watch. Lord forbid it!!! This country was founded by and for Christianity.
This Nation in two hundred years has outdistanced the world in discoveries and inventions in medicine, housing, education, power-energy, transportation, space, aircraft and agriculture. We’ve been the bread basket of the world; we have created more wealth than all the rest of the world combined. We have fought wars throughout the world in defense of freedom, asking nothing for our efforts and sacrificing the lives of loved ones in return. We have always been the first nation to provide relief in natural calamities, sometimes even providing aid to our enemies. We have given more dollars in aid and relief than most of the world nations combined. And in spite of our efforts, WE ARE THE TARGET OF THE HATE AND ENVY OF MANY IN THE REST OF THE WORLD. Why do you think we have been and acted differently than the rest of the world? Why do you think we are more despised than any other nation? It is because the Lord built this house, and we have allowed the enemy to plunder what He has given us. It is time that we acknowledge our duties and responsibilities of our citizenship. America’s future depends on us accepting and demonstrating God’s government!!!
We need watchmen on the wall to sound the alarm. The enemy has not only approached without warning but has entered our gates, having taught our children, having counseled our leaders and slipped irons on our ankles while we slumbered.
Tonight, our family raised this flag, that my daughter Rose, my little Betsy Ross made. She modeled it after the American Patriots of the Revolution who flew a similar flag over their Navy and Army service men who understood who they are accountable to. It is our family’s appeal to heaven and to God. May He Grant His servants Boldness, to speak the truth in opposition, even when it’s from the Sanhedrin, and May we approach God with sincerity seeking His aid and blessings.
Victory for Jesus Prayers -- Lodi CA Votes 5-0 to Defeat Atheist Complainers
Contact: Chaplain Klingenschmitt,
www.PrayInJesusName.org
LODI, Calif., Oct. 1 /Christian Newswire
The victory vote came after months of lobbying, petitioning, protesting, and pro-Jesus rallies, both in Lodi and nationwide, organized by The Pray In Jesus Name Project.
An atheist group from Wisconsin has threatened a lawsuit if the city allows Jesus prayers, but the Mayor and four other councilors found their back-bone, and handed the atheists a resounding defeat.
This month four California cities, Tehachapi, Tracy, Turlock, and now Lodi have all heroically voted unanimously to allow free speech and public prayers "in Jesus name," even under threat of lawsuit.
"This victory should inspire legislators across America, that 85% of polled voters want you to allow public prayers 'in Jesus name,' even in public venues," said Chaplain Klingenschmitt. "Don't cave-in to empty threats of lawsuits by atheist complainers. Christian voters will rally to support you, and Jesus is not an illegal word!"
Secret emails now available at www.prayinjesusname.org
"The timeline on our web-site, quoting Mayor Hansen's own emails and words, clearly shows he suddenly changed his vote upon hearing of our plan to purchase billboards," said Chaplain Klingenschmitt who led a 400-person Jesus rally in Lodi last month.
"Although the Mayor complained of our plan, and called us unchristian names, we're grateful for his change of heart, whatever his reasons, he voted for Jesus and free-speech in the end. Perhaps the success of our billboard plan proves Ronald Reagan's adage: 'When you can't make them see the light, make them feel the heat.'"
Chaplain Klingenschmitt is available for nationwide media interviews at 719-360-5132 or email chaplaingate@yahoo.com.
The Bachmann burr
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/23/AR2009102303193.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
By George Will
When Marcus Bachmann came home that Saturday evening in 2000, he checked the telephone answering machine and was mystified by the many messages congratulating his wife for something. "Michele," he said, "do you have something to tell me?" She did.
The state senator from her district in suburban Minneapolis-St. Paul had been in office for 17 years, had stopped being pro-life and started supporting tax increases, so that morning Michele Bachmann had skipped washing her hair, put on jeans and a tattered sweatshirt and went to the local Republican nominating caucus to ask the incumbent a few pointed questions. There, on the spur of the moment, some similarly disgruntled conservatives suggested that she unseat him. After she made a five-minute speech "on freedom," the caucus emphatically endorsed her, and she handily won the subsequent primary.
After six years in the state Legislature, she ran for Congress and now, in her second term, has become such a burr under Democrats' saddles that recently the New York Times profiled her beneath a Page One headline: "GOP Has a Lightning Rod, and Her Name Is Not Palin." She is, however, a petite pistol that occasionally goes off half-cocked.
For example, appearing on MSNBC's "Hardball" 18 days before last year's election, she made the mistake of taking Chris Matthews's bait and speculating about whether Barack Obama and some other Democrats have "anti-American" views. In the ensuing uproar -- fueled by people who were not comparably scandalized when George W. Bush was sulfurously vilified -- her opponent raised nearly $2 million and her lead shrank from 13 points to her winning margin of three.
Some of her supposed excesses are, however, not merely defensible, they are admirable. For example, her June 9 statement on the House floor in which she spoke of "gangster government" has been viewed on the Internet about 2 million times. She noted that, during the federal takeover of General Motors, a Democratic senator and one of her Democratic House colleagues each successfully intervened with GM to save a constituent's dealership from forced closure. One of her constituents, whose dealership had been in the family for 90 years, told her that the $15 million dealership had been rendered worthless overnight, and, Bachmann said, "GM is demanding that she hand over her customer list," probably to give it to surviving GM dealerships that once were competitors.
In her statement, Bachmann repeatedly called such politicization of the allocation of economic rewards "gangster government." And she repeatedly noted that the phrase was used by a respected political analyst, Michael Barone, principal co-author of the Almanac of American Politics, who coined it in connection with the mugging of GM bondholders in the politicized bankruptcy. Bachmann, like Barone, was accurate.
Because Walter Mondale was saved by 3,761 Minnesota voters from losing his home state to Ronald Reagan in 1984, it is the only state to have voted Democratic in nine consecutive presidential elections. Minnesota is a blue state but is given to idiosyncratic political flings. Minnesotans, Bachmann says, like "authentic" people of whatever political inclinations, from the cerebral Eugene McCarthy to the visceral Jesse Ventura.
Bachmann, an authentic representative of the Republican base, had quite enough on her plate before politics. She and Marcus, a clinical psychologist, were raising their children -- they had four then; they have five now -- and, as foster parents, were raising some other people's children, 23 of them, a few teenagers at a time.
Born in Iowa but a Minnesotan by age 12, Bachmann acquired what she calls "her family's Hubert Humphrey knee-jerk liberalism." She and her husband danced at Jimmy Carter's inauguration. Shortly thereafter, however, she was riding on a train and reading Gore Vidal's novel "Burr," which is suffused with that author's jaundiced view of America. "I set the book down on my lap, looked out the window and thought: 'That's not the America I know.' " She volunteered for Reagan in 1980.
Looking toward 2012, she is not drawn merely to Sarah Palin or other darlings of social conservatives. She certainly is one of those, but she knows that economic hardship and government elephantiasis now trump other issues.
When she was a teenager in Anoka, Minn., she was a nanny for a young girl named Gretchen Carlson. Today, Carlson, a Stanford honors graduate who studied at Oxford, is a host of "Fox & Friends," the morning show on -- wouldn't you know -- Fox News Channel. See how far ahead the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy plans?
Liberals Open Fire on Harry Reid
Liberal Advocacy Groups Say Majority Leader Will Lose His Reelection Bid if There's No Public Option in Health Care Bill
By Stephanie Condon
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/22/politics/main5408951.shtml
Play CBS VideoPlay CBS Video http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5384101n&tag=related;photovideo
Video Unplugged: Breaking Down Health Care Bills
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5382777n&tag=related;photovideo
CBS News Capitol Hill Correspondent Nancy Cordes and Capitol Hill Producer Jill Jackson join Sharyl Attkisson to break down everything you need to know about the five health care bills in the House and Senate.
Video Health Care Reform Milestone
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5384101n&tag=related;photovideo
Five Congressional bills have now been passed concerning health care reform even though, as Nancy Cordes reports, Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) was the only Republican to vote in favor of this.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev., accompanied by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., holds a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 20,2009, following the weekly policy luncheons. (AP Photo/Harry Hamburg)
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is feeling the heat
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/20/AR2009102003709_pf.html
from his liberal colleagues to include a government-run health insurance plan, or "public option," in the Senate health care bill.
Now, as Reid and other negotiators move closer to unveiling their health care plan, liberal advocacy groups are ratcheting up the pressure, saying they will run Reid out of Washington if he does not bring a public option to the Senate floor. With a tough re-election bid ahead of Reid next year, the liberal "Netroots" could potentially make good on their threat. Coming from a purple state, that puts Reid between a rock and a hard place -- and has some local progressive activists at least somewhat worried.
One television ad pressuring Reid to support the public option is already out: The Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) is running a spot for at least five days in Las Vegas called "Is Harry Reid Strong Enough?" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgj0FbPxSiY&feature=player_embedded
"I'm your typical swing voter," Lee Slaughter, a Las Vegas nurse says in the ad. "I voted for Republicans for president, and I voted for President Obama. I also voted for Senator Harry Reid many times. But in 2010, I'll only be voting on one issue.
I'm watching to see if Harry Reid is strong and effective enough as a leader to pass a public health insurance option into law."
FDL Action, the political action committee for the progressive group FireDogLake, is also planning to pressure the majority leader on the subject. The group has already targeted a handful of other moderate Democrats for not supporting a public option, like Arkansas Rep. Mike Ross, who has since come under a firestorm of scrutiny http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1009/28313.html from all directions.
The message from the left is that a large Democratic majority in Congress is meaningless if the caucus is unwilling to support liberal causes.
"I'll take a Chuck Schumer-run Senate with 57 Democrats (bye bye Reid, Lieberman, and Lincoln) than a Harry Reid-run one with 75 Democrats," Markos Moulitsas Zúniga wrote http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/10/14/793218/-Harry-Reid-abdicates-his-leadership-role last week on the liberal blog network Daily Kos.
Bob Fulkerson, the state director for the nonprofit Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, disagrees with that reasoning.
"Certainly we'd all like to see a barrage of progressive legislation get passed left and right, but even if we elected a more liberal senator than Reid -- likely impossible given Nevada's conservatism -- that would do nothing to change the dynamics of the Senate, where there's a number of conservative Democrats and Independents," Fulkerson told CBSNews.com. "And, would these lefty blogger types be happy with a right-wing senator to replace Reid who is openly hostile to all of our interests? Because that's where their strategy could lead."
Reid wouldn't necessarily hold up against a Republican opponent any stronger than a new Democratic candidate would, contends Ben Tribbett, executive director of the Accountability Now PAC. In fact, he said, having a relatively unknown Democrat in the race could be a good thing.
"There's an oft-quoted statistic that 98 percent of incumbents win re-election, but that's not the case with Senate incumbents in recent years," he told CBSNews.com. "People are able to mobilize earlier, and a lot of those incumbent advantages no longer exist."
Excluding senators who never draw strong challenges, he said, the chances for re-election are closer to 50-50. Furthermore, Tribbett said, a Republican candidate would be able to raise more money running against Reid than against another Democrat.
"Harry Reid's only chance to win this election is representing his own base and bringing a strong public option on the floor," he said.
Indeed, if liberals in Nevada do not get behind Reid next year, he could see his four-term Senate career come to an end. A recent Mason-Dixon poll showed the Nevada senator trailing two possible, relatively unknown, Republican challengers
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/10/12/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry5379681.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody.
Real estate developer Danny Tarkanian led Reid 48 percent to 43 percent in a hypothetical matchup, while those polled favored former GOP party official Sue Lowden over Reid by 49 percent to 39 percent.
CBSNews.com Special Report: Health Care
http://www.cbsnews.com/2718-250_162-209.html
Health Care Progress Report: Track the Progress of Health Care Reform
http://www.cbsnews.com/2718-250_162-209.html
Fulkerson contends that national liberal advocates are not considering the clout Reid can bring to local progressive issues and are underestimating the number of conservative and moderate voters in the state.
"Why would Nevada want to give up the power of being represented by the Senate Majority Leader? [Reid] has skillfully used that power to kill coal plants, plug state budget holes, and to kill Yucca Mountain, among other things," he said. "If the looney left wants to get rid of Democrats like Reid for not being more like [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi, they should move here and help us transform our state from conservative/libertarian to more liberal/progressive."
How Much will the Public Option Matter in Nov. 2010?
Jennifer Duffy, senior editor of the Cook Political Report, said that health care will certainly play a role in the 2010 election but that it will most likely be overshadowed by the state of the economy. As for whether ads targeting Reid on the public option could sway voters, she said it is too early to tell. Furthermore, she said, there have been ads running in Nevada on both sides of the issue for months.
"Voters are bound to be affected by it to some degree," Duffy said.
Polling on health care has had mixed results. A survey http://www.lvrj.com/news/nevadans-see-tax-hikes-in-plan-63916877.html of Nevadans conducted by Mason-Dixon & Research earlier this month showed 43 percent supported President Obama's health care reform plans while 49 percent were opposed to them. Twenty-five percent listed a public option as "the best" way to reduce the number of uninsured Americans and reduce long-term health care costs.
Meanwhile, a new Research 2000 poll http://boldprogressives.org/reidpoll?refcode=bp_main commissioned by PCCC shows 54 percent of Nevadans in favor of a public option and 39 percent opposed to the idea. Thirty-one percent said they were less likely to vote for Reid next year if a public option is not a part of health care reform while 17 percent said that would make them more likely to vote for him.
While they may be somewhat split on the issue, Nevada voters clearly care about health care reform. Nevada residents packed an auditorium on Monday night, leaving standing room only at a town hall meeting with Democrat Rep. Dina Titus to discuss health care.
While Fulkerson has reservations about the tactics of national progressives, he acknowledges health care will be a critical issue for Reid.
"I think if a good bill is passed, with a public option, Reid's standing with the base will skyrocket. I think it will also increase his standing with Independents," he said. "Nevada leads the nation in uninsured, and we rank among the worst states in per capita health care spending, so this is a really big issue here. The campaign [targeting Reid] does further raise expectations of liberal voters, who will feel demoralized if the public option is not part of the bill that Obama signs."
Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said the issue is a game-changer for Reid.
"Reid would be politically devastated back home if he's weak and caves on the public option," he said.
"The e-mail Bag"
Curtis & Leroy saw an ad in the Starkville Daily News Newspaper in Starkville, MS. and bought a mule for $100.
The farmer agreed to deliver the mule the next day.
The next morning the farmer drove up and said, "Sorry, fellows, I have some bad news, the mule died last night."
Curtis & Leroy replied, "Well, then just give us our money back."
The farmer said, "Can't do that. I went and spent it already."
They said, "OK then, just bring us the dead mule."
The farmer asked, "What in the world ya'll gonna do with a dead mule?"
Curtis said, "We gonna raffle him off."
The farmer said, "You can't raffle off a dead mule!"
Leroy said, "We shore can! Heck, we don't hafta tell nobody he's dead!"
A couple of weeks later, the farmer ran into Curtis & Leroy at the Piggly Wiggly grocery store and asked.
"What'd you fellers ever do with that dead mule?"
They said,"We raffled him off like we said we wuz gonna do."
Leroy said,"Shucks, we sold 500 tickets fer two dollars apiece and made a profit of $898."
The farmer said,"My Lord, didn't anyone complain?"
Curtis said, "Well, the feller who won got upset. So we gave him his two dollars back."
Curtis and Leroy now work for the government. They're overseeing the Bailout Program.
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