ConservativeChristianRepublican-Report - 20100323

Motivational-Inspirational-Historical-Educational-Political-Enjoyable

Promoting "God's Holy Values and American Freedoms"!



"Daily Motivations"

"Today is not yesterday: we ourselves change; how can our works and thoughts, if they are always to be the fittest, continue always the same? Change indeed is painful; yet ever needful; and if Memory have its force and worth, so also has Hope." -- Thomas Carlyle

"Happiness is the only good. The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so." -- Robert G. Ingersoll

In all things, be willing to listen to people around you. None of us is really smart enough to go it alone. -- John Clendenin



"Daily Devotions" (KJV and/or NLT)

So the men did as Joshua told them. They took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan River, one for each tribe, just as the LORD had commanded Joshua. They carried them to the place where they camped for the night and constructed the memorial there. (Joshua 4:8)

Have you ever had something so good happen to you that you had to tell everyone you met? When you understand just how good God is to you, you will naturally share your experience of God's goodness with others.

After the Israelites crossed the Jordan River on dry ground, Joshua, the leader of Israel, asked a man from each tribe to retrieve a stone for a memorial (Joshua 4:1-8). Later, when their children asked what the stones meant, the Israelites could tell of God's miraculous work in bringing them to the Promised Land.

King David also beckoned others to share their stories: "Let the whole world know what He has done. . . Tell everyone about His wonderful deeds." (Psalm 105:1-2)

Jesus gave similar orders to a demon-possessed man who walked among tombs, screaming and hitting himself with stones (Mark 5:5). Jesus cast out the demons, restoring the man to his right mind. When the healed man wanted to accompany the Lord, Jesus told him, "No, go home to your family, and tell them everything the Lord has done for you and how merciful He has been." (Mark 5:19)

Bragging about God is a simple way to serve Him and encourage others. And when you really understand how good He is, it will be the easiest thing you've ever done.

Your View of God Really Matters …

Brag a little today. Yes, that's right ... brag a little today about something God has done in your life.



"The Patriot Post"

"[T]he Constitution ought to be the standard of construction for the laws, and that wherever there is an evident opposition, the laws ought to give place to the Constitution." --Alexander Hamilton



This Week's 'Braying Jackass' Award

"[Republicans] should stop crying about reconciliation as if it's never been done before." --Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)



Video of the Week

In 2005, when Republicans were considering the "nuclear option" to stop Democrats' filibuster of dozens of President George W. Bush's judicial nominees, Democrats lined up at every microphone in sight to denounce the idea, claiming it was a "naked power grab," a "constitutional crisis" and "how democracy ends." Times sure have changed. Watch the video .http://www.breitbart.tv/obama-dems-in-2005-51-vote-nuclear-option-is-arrogant-power-grab-against-the-founders-intent/.



This Week's 'Braying Jackass' Award

"[Republicans] should stop crying about reconciliation as if it's never been done before." --Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)



Video of the Week

In 2005, when Republicans were considering the "nuclear option" to stop Democrats' filibuster of dozens of President George W. Bush's judicial nominees, Democrats lined up at every microphone in sight to denounce the idea, claiming it was a "naked power grab," a "constitutional crisis" and "how democracy ends." Times sure have changed. Watch the video http://www.breitbart.tv/obama-dems-in-2005-51-vote-nuclear-option-is-arrogant-power-grab-against-the-founders-intent/.



The BIG Lie

"It's about jobs. In its life, [the health bill] will create four million jobs -- 400,000 jobs almost immediately." --House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

We're still waiting for all those jobs promised by the stimulus bill.



Hope 'n' Change: That Demo Culture of Corruption

The White House is being accused of offering juicy government jobs to two Democrats in exchange for their withdrawal from potential primary battles in this year's election cycle. The charges, which come from the Democrats themselves, are quite serious and carry punishments including jail time, assuming anyone would prosecute.

Read more here http://patriotpost.us/perspective/2010/02/26/hope-n-change-that-demo-culture-of-corruption/ .



National Security - Warfront With Jihadistan: Justice and Jihad

"Last November, Sen. Charles Grassley [R-IA], a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, asked the Justice Department how many of its lawyers had defended terrorist detainees over whom the department holds sway," reports Investor's Business Daily. "Grassley knew from earlier press reports of two such lawyers who worked on behalf of detainees at the liberal organization Human Rights Watch. He wanted to know how many more there were."

According to Attorney General Eric Holder, there are nine. "To the best of our knowledge, during their employment prior to joining the government, only five of the lawyers who serve as political appointees in those components represented detainees," Holder said. "Four others contributed to amicus briefs in detainee-related cases involved in advocacy on behalf of detainees." Holder himself was a partner at Covington & Burling, a firm that gave 3,000 hours to detainee litigation -- in 2007 alone.

Now we know why Justice chose to Mirandize the undi-bomber and hasn't announced an official plan should Osama bin Laden one day be captured. How many amicus briefs will be submitted by Justice on his behalf? Debra Burlingame, whose brother was the pilot of the plane terrorists flew into the Pentagon on 9/11, said, "It's like they're bringing al-Qa'ida lawyers inside the Department of Justice." Precisely.



Profiles of Valor: U.S. Army Col. Robert Howard

Ret. Col. Robert Howard was laid to rest Wednesday at Arlington National Cemetery. He died Dec. 23 at age 70. Howard served five tours in Vietnam, was wounded 14 times, and was the most decorated soldier from that war, including eight Purple Hearts, four Bronze Stars, four Legion of Merit awards, the Silver Star, the Distinguished Service Cross (twice) and the Medal of Honor -- a medal for which he was nominated three times for three separate actions in a 13-month period.

Howard's Medal of Honor citation reads, "1st Lt. Howard (then SFC.), distinguished himself while serving as platoon sergeant of an American-Vietnamese platoon which was on a mission to rescue a missing American soldier in enemy controlled territory in the Republic of Vietnam. The platoon .... was attacked by an estimated 2-company force. During the initial engagement, 1st Lt. Howard was wounded and his weapon destroyed by a grenade explosion. 1st Lt. Howard saw his platoon leader had been wounded seriously and was exposed to fire. Although unable to walk, and weaponless, 1st Lt. Howard unhesitatingly crawled through a hail of fire to retrieve his wounded leader. ....

"Through his outstanding example of indomitable courage and bravery, 1st Lt. Howard was able to rally the platoon into an organized defense force. With complete disregard for his safety, 1st Lt. Howard crawled from position to position, administering first aid to the wounded, giving encouragement to the defenders and directing their fire on the encircling enemy. For 3 1/2 hours 1st Lt. Howard's small force and supporting aircraft successfully repulsed enemy attacks and finally were in sufficient control to permit the landing of rescue helicopters. 1st Lt. Howard personally supervised the loading of his men and did not leave the bullet-swept landing zone until all were aboard safely. 1st Lt. Howard's gallantry in action, his complete devotion to the welfare of his men at the risk of his life were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit on himself, his unit, and the U.S. Army."

Rest in peace, Colonel.



Business & Economy - Confidence Crunch

"Americans' confidence in the economy has suffered a sudden relapse, dimming hopes that they will start spending -- and spurring job growth -- any time soon," the Associated Press reports. Indeed, Tuesday's release of the latest Consumer Confidence Index figures revealed attitudes that are still rather negative about job growth and the economy in general. The index fell almost 11 points to 46 in February, the lowest level since April 2009. Since consumer spending accounts for roughly 70 percent of the economy, analysts watch this number closely.

The AP further notes, "The overall economy expanded at an annual rate of 5.7 percent in the fourth quarter, but only about one-fourth of that growth came from consumers. Most of the growth came from companies replenishing low inventories."

As we explained at the outset, this economic recession is largely the result of a crisis of confidence. A year after the so-called stimulus, headline unemployment remains at nearly 10 percent and total unemployment remains over 17 percent. Despite Congress' recent crowing about helping "create" jobs, businesses aren't hiring because of uncertainty about the future. A few billion dollars in temporary tax breaks won't change that. Neither consumers nor businesses have confidence that government will leave the economy alone to grow on its own. Until that changes, real recovery will take a mighty long time.



Culture & Policy - Climate Change This Week: More Retractions

Whoops! Scientists have had to retract yet another a study on global warming -- this time, one purporting to show that sea levels will rise by 7 to 82 cm (3 to 33 inches) by 2100. The study, published last year in Nature Geoscience, echoed warnings issued in 2007 by the global warming indoctrination arm of the United Nations: the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Apparently, there were a couple of not-so-minor mistakes that mean the study's earth-shattering (or earth-flooding) conclusions aren't so accurate after all. Citing two mistakes -- a "miscalculation" and "not .... allow[ing] fully for temperature change over the past 2,000 years" -- the authors retracted the paper, stating they would "invest in the further work needed to correct these mistakes."

According to author Mark Siddall, though, it's just "one of those things that happens. People make mistakes and mistakes happen in science." The problem is, global warmists want to redistribute our nation's wealth and hamstring the world's economy based on theories full of such mistakes.

Despite the expanding evidentiary void, the UN is set to restart negotiations on a global climate change treaty. UN Climate Head Yvo de Boer (who recently announced his resignation, effective July 1) said the negotiating schedule would be intensified in hopes of reaching an agreement by year's end -- an agreement based, of course, on an ever-growing pile of mistakes.



Sen. Inhofe Calls for Climate Investigation

Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), long a leading skeptic of man-made global warming, has asked the Justice Department to investigate what he called "the greatest scientific scandal of our generation." Inhofe believes climate scientists and honorary weatherman Al Gore have deliberately misled Congress and the public regarding the case for anthropogenic climate change. Now, he wants them held accountable.

Read more here http://patriotpost.us/perspective/2010/02/24/sen-inhofe-calls-for-climate-investigation/ .



This Week's 'Alpha Jackass' Award

"[The climate change debate] reminds me in some ways of the debate taking place in this country and around the world in the late 1930s. And during that period with Nazism and fascism growing -- a real danger to the United States and democratic countries all over the world -- there were people in this Congress, in the British parliament saying, 'Don't worry! Hitler is not real! It'll disappear! We don't have to be prepared to take it on.'" --Socialist Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders

Wall Street Journal columnist James Taranto responded, "Wow, that's a great analogy! The only difference between the two situations is that the Nazis were real."



To Keep and Bear Arms

A woman and her mother were tied up in their Indiana home after a man broke into the house. The intruder then sexually assaulted the daughter. According to Police Sgt. William Snead, the mother was able to send her neighbor a text message alerting her of the situation. Sonny Osborn, the neighbor's boyfriend, heard the disturbance, grabbed his gun and headed for the victim's home.

Osborn warned the suspect and told him to leave, but to no avail, so he shot him three times in the leg. After being treated at a local hospital, the perpetrator is now locked up in the Sullivan County Jail.

In other Second Amendment news, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly showed his opposition to select portions of the Bill of Rights when he interviewed Oath Keepers Founder Stewart Rhodes and the subject of gun confiscation during Hurricane Katrina came up. When Rhodes explained to O'Reilly that, even during a state of emergency, it's unconstitutional to confiscate lawfully owned guns, the Fox News Pinhead responded, "That's a pretty extreme position." Tell that to the Founders, Bill.

Meanwhile, law-abiding citizens began carrying concealed firearms in national parks this week. To the shock and awe of anti-Second Amendment nuts across this great nation, there were no shootouts.


And Last...

Some congressional leaders were so bent on making their case at Thursday's "Healthcare Summit" that they resorted to what Barack Obama called "props" that "prevent us from having a conversation." While Republican Congressman Eric Cantor used the 2,400-page bill itself as a "prop," one of his Democrat colleagues wielded a deceased woman's dentures. No kidding. New York Rep. Louise Slaughter lamented, "I even have one constituent -- you will not believe this, and I know you won't, but it's true -- her sister died. This poor woman had no dentures. She wore her dead sister's teeth, which of course were uncomfortable and did not fit. Did you ever believe that in America that that's where we would be?"

Clearly, Slaughter and her ilk believe that the only solution to this rampant denture problem is to redistribute $1 trillion of other people's money. We are, after all, guaranteed life, liberty and the pursuit of properly fitting false teeth. But this episode of daytime drama also prompts a serious question: Aren't liberals supposed to be in favor of recycling?



"Boortz"

"When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that justifies it."

Frederic Bastiat

AN AMERICA WITH OBAMACARE

By Neal Boortz

http://boortz.com/nealz_nuze/2010/03/an-america-with-obamacare.html

Are you impressed how the Democrats managed to create two new entitlement programs and yet still decrease the deficit with their healthcare bill? At least, that is what they claim. But anyone with an ounce of brains knows that this is simply too good to be true. So considering all of the gimmicks and new taxes, The Heritage Foundation sums up with America will look like in the aftermath of Obamacare.

A Massively Engorged Government, to the tune of $2.5 trillion in new entitlement spending. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), new entitlement spending in the plan would cost $216 billion by 2019, then increase by 8 percent every year thereafter.

A Cornhusker Kickback for All. No, special deals aren't removed from Obamacare this time around. Instead, the House bill extends new federal funding for Medicaid to all states. Incidentally, you're paying for it.

A Freight train of taxes, slamming the American people in 2018. You've heard of the "Cadillac" tax on high-cost insurance plans? It will be pushed back to 2018, and given the way "high-cost" plans will be defined, a large segment of the middle class would get hit with the tax over time.

Beware the shape-shifting tax monster. New taxes will take many forms, including taxes on prescription drugs, medical devices (like wheel chairs), and health insurance.

Unconstitutional mandates, courtesy of Congress. Don't want to buy health insurance? Congress will penalize you if you don't, regardless of income.

Lock your back door. Higher health care costs will be sneaking in. The plan gives subsidies to low-to-moderate wage families, but the subsidies will increase at a lower rate than the rate at which premiums increase. In other words, those families will pay more every year.

Lights out for small businesses? Companies that hire certain low-income Americans will have to pay $3,000 per employee, per year, even if the company offers insurance. Oh, and if a company employs 50 or more workers, they'll face higher tax penalties to the tune of $2,000 per full-time employee.

Abortions. You will pay for them, like it or not. The House bill includes major funding for community health centers with no restrictions on federal taxpayer funding of abortions. (Supposedly to be undone by Obama's executive order he has promised to issue after healthcare reform is law).

Want to play the stock market? Maybe not, after you hear this. The House bill slaps a 3.8% tax on investment income.

It's not a federal system, after all. States will have less power. They'll no longer have authority to regulate health care premiums. Instead, the federal government will take on the job. States and local governments won't be able to control their own employee health plans; they'll have to abide by new federal regulations.



"The Web"

ZoNation: The Fall of America

http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/arachel/2010/03/21/zonation-the-fall-of-america/



Congress Votes to Socialize Health Care in United States

By Terence P. Jeffrey, Editor-in-Chief

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/63118

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) listens to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) during a health care news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. in October 2009. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

(CNSNews.com) - The U.S. House of Representatives voted 219-212 on Sunday night to socialize health care in the United States, making the government the paymaster of, and giving it sweeping regulatory authority over, the U.S. health care industry which represents one-sixth of the U.S. economy.

The legislation also enacts a dramatic and unprecedented diminution in the individual liberty of citizens. It does so by mandating that all Americans buy a government-approved health care plan while redistributing wealth on a massive scale by promising annual federal insurance subsidies to all Americans who earn less than 400 percent of the poverty level, which is currently $88,200 for a family of four.

The new health-care system the legislation will put in place over the next four years amounts to a massive and mandatory new welfare program that will ensnare middle-class and middle-aged Americans in dependency on the federal government for a vital element of their lives.

The health care legislation approved by Congress Sunday gives the administration sweeping power to regulate health insurance companies. These regulations will include instructing insurance companies on what benefits they must provide and what rates they can charge.

The mandate that all Americans buy health insurance represents a fundamental change in the relationship between individuals and the federal government in the United States. According to the Congressional Budget Office, this is the first time in the history of the country that the federal government has ever ordered American citizens to buy any good or service.

Many members of Congress, including former Senate Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch (R.-Utah), have argued that this unprecedented mandate is unconstitutional. Hatch told CNSNews.com last fall that if the federal government could constitutionally force individuals to buy health insurance there wasn’t anything the federal government could not force individuals to do.

Many congressional advocates of the individual mandate interviewed by CNSNews.com over the past year could not say where the Constitution authorized the federal government to force people to buy health insurance.

The final votes that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Obama needed to push the legislation through the House came on Sunday when Rep. Bart Stupak (D.-Mich.) and a small group of other Democrats abandoned their insistence that congressional health care legislation include language that would prevent any federal dollars from going to any health care plan that covers abortion.

Instead, Stupak and his allies accepted President Obama’s promise that he would sign a draft Executive Order that simply instructs federal agencies to set accounting rules for how the health care plans that people purchase with federal funds will theoretically “segregate” the federal money they receive from other dollars that would theoretically pay for abortions.

President Obama’s draft Executive Order speaks of this “segregation” mechanism as if it were the effective equivalent of the Hyde Amendment. However, the Hyde Amendment prohibits any federal funds funneled through various annual appropriations bills from going to any health plan that covers abortion. The health care bill that Congress passed Sunday and the Executive Order that Obama is promising to sign will allow federal funds to go to health care plans that cover abortion. It will only theoretically “segregate” these fungible funds from other dollars going to the same insurance plans that pay for abortion.

Five self-professedly “pro-life” Democratic congressmen joined Stupak at a Sunday press conference to say that they would vote for the health care plan after President Obama promised he would sign this Executive Order dealing with the accounting mechanisms that will be used by abortion-providing, federally subsidized health insurance plans. These congressmen were Rep. Marcy Kaptur (Ohio), Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper (Pa.), Rep. Steve Driehaus (Ohio), Rep. Alan Mollohan (W.V.), Rep. Nick Rahal (W.V.)

According to the CBO, by 2016, the cheapest family health care plan that Americans will be required to buy under the law will cost $12,000 per year. The average family plan will cost $15,200. A family of four making $88,201 per year—or more than 400 percent of the poverty level—will not receive any federal subsidy to purchase such a plan. They will pay taxes, however, to subsidize the health care purchases of people earning less than 400 percent of poverty.

According to the Treasury Department the Medicare system faced about $37 trillion in unfunded liabilities before Sunday’s bill was passed.



Morning Bell: Repeal

http://blog.heritage.org/2010/03/22/morning-bell-repeal/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell

Fellow Americans,

Late last night, in a narrow and partisan vote, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the most significant piece of social legislation in over seven decades. It did so in the face of overwhelming and principled opposition from the American people. Large majorities of Americans oppose this legislation because it offends the historic American dedication to the principle of self-government. They understand that this new law will accelerate Washington’s intrusion into our most personal and private decisions.

This is why opposition to this bill will only grow. Supporters of this bill argue that popular hostility will recede upon its passage. But, rather than cementing our descent into a European-style welfare state, last night’s passage of Obamacare is best seen as a historic turning point, a true catalyst for real change.

I write to reassure our supporters, the conservative movement, and the American people at large that The Heritage Foundation will do all within its power to keep this issue alive in the public square and make the intellectual case for the repeal of this act. We will bring all our resources to bear on behalf of those who believe America is and will always remain the Land of the Free.

This, rest assured, can be done. The American people are never permanently thwarted. President Obama’s health care legislation can and will be repealed.

Those who supported this bill are our fellow Americans, and we do not question their good will or patriotism. In public policy, however, good intentions alone do not suffice. And let there be no mistake, our philosophical differences with supporters of this bill are profound. The reason government-run health care has been the holy grail of the left for decades is that liberals realize as much as we do that it is a giant step toward the creation of a European-style welfare state. This is an evolution Americans have always resisted because it is alien to our national character.

If there is one good thing about the past year—one in which we have witnessed unprecedented horse-trading, press stunts, midnight votes and political manipulation in both houses of the U.S. Congress—it is that the American people have come away educated as never before about the differences between these two visions for America. Americans are strongly opposed to this bill not because they have been hoodwinked but because they understand this bill both in its particulars and at an instinctive, gut level.

They understand this health care bill forces individuals and employers to buy insurance policies designed by government bureaucrats. This intrusion is intended to follow us from cradle to grave.

Instead of empowering families and individuals to make their own choices, Obamacare empowers the bureaucracy to make those decisions for them. It is this unelected bureaucracy, unanswerable to the electorate, that will determine the content of health benefits packages, including medical treatment and procedures, and how much will be paid for those services. Yesterday’s legislation brings us one step closer to fully government-run medicine, with expanded government power over the financing and delivery of medical services that is sure to ration care in the name of cost control.

You will hear the left say this new entitlement will be popular with the American people. Do not believe them for a second. Yes, 32 million people will gain the theoretical right to health insurance. But over half of that coverage comes from placing at least 16 million more Americans into Medicaid, an unpopular and overextended welfare program that already rations care.

Americans will not stand for it. The American love for liberty prevailed in our founding, and will prevail once again.

In December of 1773, to protest unjust taxation, a group of American colonists dumped tea in Boston Harbor. The punishment for that first Tea Party was a series of intrusive laws passed by Parliament that were so oppressive that they could only be described as the “Intolerable Acts.”

Obamacare is today’s Intolerable Act. And just as the colonists banded together to enact change after those acts were passed, so should America respond to Obamacare. This law must be repealed.

Much of the fight against this bill will be led by the individual states, a process we encourage. All told, 33 states have already taken steps to challenge various aspects of Obamacare, including its unprecedented mandate that every American purchase health insurance or face a steep penalty for noncompliance. Four additional States will have this question on the ballot in November.

On Capitol Hill, the initial battle over Obamacare will occur when Congress considers whether to fund the tens of thousands of new federal bureaucrats necessary to implement the new law. In the tradition of the Hyde amendment, which prevented federal funding for abortions through annual limitations appended to appropriations bills, conservatives should look to the appropriations process as our first line of defense. Straightforward funding limitations would prevent any Administration official or any bureaucrat from implementing the law.

Our health care system requires reform, and we have long advocated measures to improve our system. We can and should strengthen the ability of American families to choose the coverage they want, rather than giving that power to Congress and its agency bureaucrats. We can also spur competition and choice to bring efficiency and lower costs to the health system, in place of the bill’s deadening regulation and damaging price controls. And, above all, we should foster state innovation rather than Washington-based central planning.

But such reforms can only be considered once this tragedy of arrogance has been fully and completely repealed.

Fortunately, there are no permanent victories or defeats in Washington. For millions of Americans and for Heritage, Round One of this fight is over. Today, the Heritage Foundation is answering the bell for Round Two. Join our fight; become a part of our mission. Help us educate our lawmakers, as well as those who aspire to become tomorrow’s lawmakers. Together we can make the persuasive case for repeal of this Intolerable Act and thereby return us to our American destiny.

Onward!

Sincerely,
Edwin J. Feulner, Ph.D., President, The Heritage Foundation



Schlafly: Health Care Vote Set to Expose the Myth of the 'Pro-Life Democrat'

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnw/20100321/pl_usnw/DC74083_1

WASHINGTON, March 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Phyllis Schlafly, president and founder of the conservative grassroots public policy organization Eagle Forum, made the following remarks after the public announcement that formerly pro-life Democrat Bart Stupak (D-MI) will cast a "yes" vote for the Senate health care bill today in the House:

"It is naive for any elected official, especially one who describes himself as 'pro-life,' to expect that a promise to issue an Executive Order that reasserts the intentions of the Hyde Amendment will be fulfilled by the most pro-abortion president to ever sit in the White House. Perhaps Mr. Stupak and his fellow pro-life Democrats forget that President Obama's first Executive Order was the repeal of the Mexico City Policy to allow for international funding of abortion."

"Not only would an Executive Order be rendered meaningless in the face of Congress passing legislation which actively provides for the massive expansion and funding of abortion services, but anyone who doubts the abortion tsunami which awaits this bill becoming law lives in a fantasy world."

"Barack Obama has lined every existing federal agency with the most dedicated pro-abortion ideologues, and we know that he will continue this pattern of pro-abortion appointments when it comes time for him to fill the over-100 bureaucracies created to administer his socialized health care program."

"Any formerly pro-life Democrat who casts a 'Yes' vote for this Senate health care bill tonight will be forever remembered as being among the deciding votes which facilitated the largest expansion of abortion services since Roe v. Wade."

"Mr. Stupak and his Democrat followers have now clarified that you cannot be pro-life and be a Democrat. If abortion was truly their biggest issue, they wouldn't willfully align themselves with the Party of Death."

"This vote will expose the myth of the 'pro-life Democrat.' With this single vote, the Democratic Party will divide our nation into the Party of Death and the Party of Life, and future elections will never be the same.



Obama: Fame Junkie

by Larry O'Connor

http://biggovernment.com/sright/2010/03/21/obama-fame-junkie/

Last week, while trying to rally support for last minute maneuvers designed to push his health care “reform” scheme through the House of Representatives, President Obama made a revealing statement. “We are going to make history!” he exhorted a crowd at George Mason University.

Just like that comforting, exhilarating little buzz his brain experiences each time he takes a drag on his ubiquitous cigarettes, and like the electrical surge he probably felt during the days when he experimented with “blow” in his youth, President Obama has found a new addiction to satisfy his undisciplined cravings: The President is addicted to making history.

In a way, it’s understandable. Imagine being a state senator from Illinois and within four years you stand astride the world as the most famous political figure of your time. It’s a rush, baby… here… take another hit, dude.

Oh, he dabbled with some street-level stuff in his youth. First African-American Editor of the Harvard Law Review? Yeah, that’s some good stuff. That’ll give you a good buzz for a while. But then, he had to settle for some real retro-grade stuff. Community organizing on the South-side of Chicago? Man, that’s like Marion Barry level stuff. That’s not going to satisfy a guy who was raised around all that “Maui-wowie” notoriety.

But then he got a bit of an upgrade with his election to the Illinois statehouse. But he was clearly bored with that job. It’s just not history-making enough to be an African-American State Senator of an African-American district in Chicago. His next big fix was the U.S. Senate.

Now you’re talking some serious buzz. Especially that high-end rush he got when delivering the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention. I mean, he was only a candidate for Senate at the time, but he felt that first big high. That taste of the really primo stuff. Tens-of-thousands shouting his name. Screaming for him to save the party… no, the country… oh come on… THE WORLD!

But then, with any addict comes the horrible lows after the monumental highs. The Senate win was anti-climatic. And once in the Senate, he was bored within a year. His Senate seat wasn’t even historical in any real sense since Carol Moseley-Braun had already become the first African-American Democrat elected to the Senate (and she was a woman to boot). No, it was time for another hit off of that “History-Bong” again.

The Presidential primary campaign delivered an amazing rush. Must have been like a constant snort of amyl nitrate. All of those crowds, screaming and fainting for him like he was a rock star. He must have been so stoned on his “History Dope” when he delivered this speech:

I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal… This was the moment — this was the time — when we came together to remake this great nation…

And then, he became President. History. More and more history. The first African-American President in history. What a rush. What a buzz. What a high. Then, the morning after. Like any addict searching for his next big fix, President Obama has been appearing desperate, craven, aggressive and hostile. He is willing to do whatever it takes for that next big high.

He finally found it. Like Roosevelt with Social Security and Johnson with Medicare, Obama focused on a huge social service entitlement for the next “History-Fix”. He was so close to getting that fix in December. When Oprah asked him to grade his first term, instead of demurring like any other President would have and given the appropriate response like “Oh, I don’t worry about things like that. I’ll let others grade my performance. And, the American people will have their chance to give me a grade in 2012.” he jumped right out and gave himself a B+! And, he gave himself an indulgent little taste of the big drug binge he was about to go on by predicting that if he could push through Health Care “Reform”, he deserved an “A”. History! Oh man… he must have had the bed spins!

And right when it looked like Scott Brown had stolen his “primo stash” he turned ugly. Like any junkie who is denied their next big fix, he did the political equivalent of knocking off a 7-11: He turned to desperate acts which, to the American people, looked petty, conniving, dishonest, and unconstitutional. He resorted to changing the rules of the game in the last minute of play. Desperate moves like “Reconciliation” and “Deem and Pass”, free trips on Air Force One, all designed to cram this bill through so he can… make history.

And so now he has. And let the super-high commence. This will be a nice trip for a while. But, we should all be worried about the inevitable crash. A fame-junkie like this won’t be satisfied by a one-vote win on a flawed law that will likely be over-turned by courts or repealed by the next two election cycles. No, as soaring as this high is, he’s going to want something new, something big and something even more historic. Let’s hope it doesn’t involve our troops.



Insurers, doctor-owned hospitals get late help

By ALAN FRAM

Associated Press Writer

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9EJD2500&show_article=1

WASHINGTON (AP) - Tucked into President Barack Obama's health care bill are several 11th-hour changes that help major insurance companies and doctor-owned hospitals.
Among the beneficiaries, according to lobbyists and congressional aides, are Kaiser Permanente, the giant California-based insurance company; Geisinger Health Plan based in Pennsylvania; and doctor-owned health facilities in about a dozen states, including Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee.

House leaders hoped to approve the revisions Sunday when lawmakers vote on the health care legislation. They were included in a 153-page bill revising the giant Senate-passed overhaul package, and in separate language that Democrats plan to add.
Some of the special deals in the health care bill have been widely derided by Republicans and Democrats, and a few have been dropped.

Last year, to help win the vote of Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., the massive Senate measure had included $100 million that only Nebraska would get in added federal Medicaid assistance. Dubbed the Cornhusker Kickback, it was eliminated in the revisions bill.

The latest changes to the bill include:

_Tax-exempt insurers would have to pay a new fee levied on insurers on only half their premiums. Kaiser Permanente and Geisinger are both tax-exempt. Chris Stenrud, a Kaiser spokesman, said Sunday that his company believes the revisions hurt them because they may been exempted from the entire fee under a different provision in the health legislation that the revisions killed.

_An Aug. 1, 2010, deadline on new doctor-owned hospitals to apply to the government for eligibility to serve—and get paid for—Medicare patients would be extended to Dec. 31. Aides and lobbyists said this would help roughly 13 facilities. These include Mercy Hospital in Monclova, Ohio; Scranton Orthopedic Specialists in Dickson City, Pa.; and Paragon Rehabilitation in Goodlettsville, Tenn.

The three facilities are represented, respectively, by Democratic Reps. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, Paul Kanjorski of Pennsylvania, and Bart Gordon of Tennessee. Gordon has switched to support the health legislation after opposing an earlier version and Kaptur said Sunday she would stick to her "yes" vote. Kanjorski hasn't indicated how he would vote. Aides to all three said the lawmakers had nothing to do with the provisions and their votes would not be affected by inclusion of the language.

A new 2.9 percent excise tax on medical devices would be lowered to 2.3 percent. But it will be broadened to apply to some lower-cost devices it hadn't initially covered, though hearing aids, contact lenses and other items consumers buy retail would be excluded. According to one medical industry official, the changes were made at the insistence of Reps. Baron Hill and Brad Ellsworth, both Indiana Democrats, and Scott Murphy, D-N.Y., who are all now supporting the legislation.

_The 153-page bill would have allowed the state-owned Bank of North Dakota to continue making federally financed student loans to students, even though the health care overhaul ends that system nationally in favor of direct government lending. Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., who initially supported the exemption for the bank, decided to seek its removal when it was criticized, and revisions to the 153-page bill would delete that provision.



UPDATE 2-Venezuela punishes 80 firms for power use

* Sanctions against Caracas companies planned for Monday

* Chavez says opposition personalizing power crisis

By Andrew Cawthorne

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2150251320100321?type=marketsNews

CARACAS, March 21 (Reuters) - Venezuela announced on Sunday 24-hour power cutoffs for dozens of companies that have failed to reduce usage in the first punitive measures of a nationwide drive to save energy amid an electricity crisis.

Restaurants, liquor stores, hotels, gyms, car dealerships and a yacht club were on the list of 80 firms in the capital Caracas due to have their power cut on Monday for failing to bring consumption down 20 percent, the state utility said.

The local unit of Japanese firm Sony Corp (6758.T) will also be among those sanctioned.

President Hugo Chavez's government has introduced rationing, and demanded power cuts across the South American OPEC member, to cope with an electricity shortage that is jeopardizing Venezuela's ability to pull out of a recession.

Drought has hit the hydroelectric sector that produces more than 70 percent of Venezuela's electricity. Rains are due in weeks, with some showers already starting in recent days, and the government says fears of a "collapse" are unfounded.

The opposition, preparing for a September legislative election being cast as a referendum on Chavez and a curtain-raiser for the 2012 presidential vote, says he is to blame for incompetent management of the power sector.

Polls show Chavez's traditionally high popularity, especially among the poor, is suffering from the power crisis.

The latest survey, by Alfredo Keller and Associates, which is perceived by many to favor the opposition, gave Chavez a 43 percent approval rating, saying it was his lowest since 2003.

Only 26 percent thought the government was taking the right measures in the electricity campaign, according to the poll, made public on Sunday by private TV network Globovision.

THERMOELECTRIC HOPES

"This (opposition) campaign has, of course, one single aim: declare Hugo Chavez guilty of everything, even the drought," the leftist leader wrote in a regular Sunday column he pens.

"Indeed, I would love to have the powers I'm accused of by the opposition to defeat this situation which not only hurts Venezuela but the whole world as a result of the destructive voracity of the capitalist system."

Chavez said Venezuela's planned addition of nearly 6 gigawatts of thermoelectric energy this year, taking national capacity to around 30 gigawatts, would help solve the crisis.

In a carrot-and-stick approach to businesses, state power firm Electricidad de Caracas also published a list of 81 companies that had surpassed the 20 percent reduction target.

If the companies to be sanctioned on Monday do not improve their energy-saving performance in the future, they face a three-day cutoff then possible indefinite power suspension.

Most attention in the energy crisis has centered on the Guri reservoir, which normally supplies more than half of Venezuela's electricity but has been drying up at the rate of about 6 inches (15 cm) a day in recent months.

Media have been showing pictures daily of lowering waters, and counting down to a danger-level of about 240 yards (metres) -- from 252 now -- when output would drop drastically.

But Environment Minister Alejandro Hitcher said imminent rains, energy-saving measures, and extra thermo-electric capacity would prevent the disaster some were predicting.

"Guri is not going to collapse," he said. "To the disappointment of those generating this campaign, ignoring the environmental disaster we are suffering and subjecting the population to a sort of state of terror."



"The e-mail Bag"

Dear Lord,

This past year you have taken away my favorite actor, Patrick Swayze.

My favorite actress, Farah Fawcett.

My favorite singer, Michael Jackson..

My favorite salesman, Billy Mays.

I just wanted to remind you that Obama is my favorite President.

Amen