About Me

Name: Defend America
Email: guy.ratki@gmail.com Biography
Loading...

Create Your Own Blog Find Other Townhall Blogs

Comments

Archives

Search

Health Care Bill Vote in the House (Updatedx2)

Posted by Defend America on Saturday, November 07, 2009 4:47:06 PM
I will update the proceedings that are taking place in the House here.

4:46:34 PM: It could go on to until tomorrow because the vote on the amendment that would prevent tax-payer funding of abortion in the bill (Stupak amendment) will take place at 9pm tonight along with the vote on the House Republican substitute.

Michelle Malkin is liveblogging today's House debate and you can follow her here:

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/11/07/the-new-imperial-congress-votes-on-pelosicare/

Update: (4:54:53 PM) John Boehner just discussed how the Stupak amendment won't really do much. He also asks Charlie "I'm So Ethical" Rangel if the Democrats will guarantee that the Stupak amendment would stay in the final bill, but Rangel says he can not answer that because it might be an ethics violation. Since when did he ever start caring about ethics.


Update 2: (6:16:32 PM) I will be out for a couple hours, but it is not looking like I will be missing anything important because only later tonight are the votes scheduled to take place. New link for Michelle Malkin's liveblog:

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/11/07/liveblogging-pt-2-the-hurry-up-house-debate-on-health-care/
Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

2010 Democrat Outlook on Those Who are Voting No on PelosiCare

Posted by Defend America on Saturday, November 07, 2009 4:42:22 PM

The 2010 Outlook For the Confirmed Democrat 'No' Votes

The known Democratic "No" votes on Pelosi-care, with a quick comment about their 2010 outlook:

• John Adler, N.J.: Counties in his district swung heavily to Christie Tuesday.
• John Barrow, Ga.: Always among most vulnerable Democrats. He's survived in recent years, but 2010 will probably be much tougher than 2006 or 2008.
• Dan Boren, Okla.: Classic red state Democrat represents district with a R+14 Partisan Voting Index.
• Allen Boyd, Fla.: Represents Florida's eastern panhandle, an R+6 district.
• Bobby Bright, Ala.: Been a top NRCC target all year long, has top tier challenger in Martha Roby.
• Travis W. Childers, Miss.: North Mississippi district with a R+14 rating.
•Artur Davis, Ala.: Off to run for governor.
• Bart Gordon, Tenn.: See his flip-flop-flip here.
• Parker Griffith, Ala.: Represents northern edge of Alabama, R+12 district.

For the complete list, go here:

http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MTJlNmI2M2NlYzkyMzUxMDYzMWRiYzQ3MzlmMmU1NWQ=
Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

Coburn Plans His Own Filibuster

Posted by Defend America on Saturday, November 07, 2009 1:09:33 PM

Dr. No threatening to have bill read on Senate floor

Sen. Tom Coburn, the Oklahoma Republican who developed a close friendship with President Obama when they served together in the Senate, is threatening to have the entire health care bill read on the Senate floor.

Senior Senate Democratic aides had heard Coburn was considering having potentially thousands of pages read aloud in effort to stall passage. “If he did this it would be even outrageous for a guy who’s become known as Dr. No around here,” one of them told POLITICO.sen
Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

List of Democrats Who are Nervous

Posted by Defend America on Saturday, November 07, 2009 12:54:36 PM

The Republican List of 55 Nervous Democrats

Republicans are now using robocalls, urging voters to call their congressman to express their concerns about Pelosi's health care legislation, in the following House districts, grouped by position:

http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZmVkNjc1MWQ3YWQ4YjQ4M2VlNDA4MjBlMmVmYzBlZmY=


Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

Democrats Have to Act Fast in New Jersey if They want to Recognize Same-Sex Marriage

Posted by Defend America on Saturday, November 07, 2009 12:52:04 PM

Gay-Marriage Fight Heads to New Jersey


By KEITH J. WINSTEIN

The battle over gay rights will move to New Jersey and the federal government, advocates said, after Tuesday's narrow rejection of same-sex marriage by Maine voters in a hard-fought contest.

The Democrat-controlled legislature in New Jersey, which currently recognizes same-sex couples in civil unions, is under pressure to pass a bill authorizing gay marriage before Gov. Jon Corzine ends his term in mid-January.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125754593369434611.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsTop


Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

Best Troops, But No Strategy

Posted by Defend America on Saturday, November 07, 2009 9:11:15 AM
The Hole at the Heart of Our Strategy
We’re scrupulously non-judgmental about the ideology that drives terrorism.

By Mark Steyn

Thirteen dead and 31 wounded would be a bad day for the U.S. military in Afghanistan, and a great victory for the Taliban. When it happens in Texas, in the heart of the biggest military base in the nation, at a processing center for soldiers either returning from or deploying to combat overseas, it is not merely a “tragedy” (as too many people called it) but a glimpse of a potentially fatal flaw at the heart of what we have called, since 9/11, the “War on Terror.” Brave soldiers trained to hunt down and kill America’s enemy abroad were killed in the safety and security of home by, in essence, the same enemy — a man who believes in and supports everything the enemy does.

And he’s a U.S. Army major.

And his superior officers and other authorities knew about his beliefs but seemed to think it was just a bit of harmless multicultural diversity — as if believing that “the Muslims should stand up and fight against the aggressor” (i.e., his fellow American soldiers) and writing Internet paeans to the “noble” “heroism” of suicide bombers and, indeed, objectively supporting the other side in an active war is to be regarded as just some kind of alternative lifestyle that adds to the general vibrancy of the base.

When it emerged early on Thursday afternoon that the shooter was Nidal Malik Hasan, there appeared shortly thereafter on Twitter a flurry of posts with the striking formulation: “Please judge Major Malik Nadal [sic] by his actions and not by his name.”

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YjVmN2E4MjQwZTZkMDgyNTZiMTIxNzhjYzcxZTAxNzI=
Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

Time for More Negotiations

Posted by Defend America on Saturday, November 07, 2009 8:56:08 AM

Iran: No Shipment of Uranium Abroad

Iran appears closer to rejecting U.N.-backed nuke plan, saying Tehran won't send uranium abroad for enrichment
Tags: UN   nuclear   Iran  
Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

MoveOn Raises a Lot of Money to Attack Party Moderates

Posted by Defend America on Saturday, November 07, 2009 8:55:04 AM

Democratic civil war update: MoveOn raises $3.6 million to attack party moderates

By: Byron York
Chief Political Correspondent
11/06/09 5:43 AM EST

A few days ago, the left-wing activist group MoveOn.org began sending out emails seeking contributions to fund primary challenges against any Democratic senator who does not fully support "health care reform with a public option." Now there's an update: MoveOn executive director Justin Ruben says the group has raised $3,578,117 for the project and is thinking of new ways to punish errant Democratic lawmakers.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Democratic-civil-war-update-MoveOn-raises-36-million-to-attack-party-moderates-69360167.html

Tags: Democrats  
Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

Myth of Realignment is Over

Posted by Defend America on Saturday, November 07, 2009 8:49:53 AM
The Myth of '08, Demolished
by Charles Krauthammer

WASHINGTON -- Sure, Election Day 2009 will scare moderate Democrats and make passage of Obamacare more difficult. Sure, it makes it easier for resurgent Republicans to raise money and recruit candidates for 2010. But the most important effect of Tuesday's elections is historical. It demolishes the great realignment myth of 2008.

In the aftermath of last year's Obama sweep, we heard endlessly about its fundamental, revolutionary, transformational nature. How it was ushering in an FDR-like realignment for the 21st century in which new demographics -- most prominently, rising minorities and the young -- would bury the GOP far into the future. One book proclaimed "The Death of Conservatism," while the more modest merely predicted the terminal decline of the Republican Party into a regional party of the Deep South or a rump party of marginalized angry white men.

This was all ridiculous from the beginning. 2008 was a historical anomaly. A uniquely charismatic candidate was running at a time of deep war weariness, with an intensely unpopular Republican president, against a politically incompetent opponent, amid the greatest financial collapse since the Great Depression. And still he won by only seven points.

http://townhall.com/columnists/CharlesKrauthammer/2009/11/06/the_myth_of_08,_demolished


The End of an Era That Never Began
by Jonah Goldberg

It's all so terribly sad.

To listen to liberals and the White House spin election results, you'd think all was well with the world. Barack Obama is still personally popular! The evil right-wing extremists lost in New York's 23rd congressional district and a Democrat (who was arguably more conservative than the Republican nominee) won. Virginia was always a red state (no matter what we all said about it turning blue with Obama's victory), and the election hinged on local issues. Defeated New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine was personally unpopular (let's all forget that the White House tried to turn the race into a referendum on Obama's agenda).

In short, the White House spin is: "There's nothing to see here, folks. All is well."

By now, those interested in such things have already heard the rebuttal to these desperate talking points. And there's no need to rehearse them again.

In fact, what is sad is not the spin war. This happens after every election. The partisans and pundits race for the election results like kids charging the disgorged contents of a piñata, claiming convenient facts like candy and shouting "mine!" It's always an unseemly process.

No, what's sad is how far Obama's defenders have had to move the goalposts just to keep up their morale.

http://townhall.com/columnists/JonahGoldberg/2009/11/06/the_end_of_an_era_that_never_began



Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

Unions are the Biggest Losers in Tuesday's Election

Posted by Defend America on Saturday, November 07, 2009 8:49:42 AM

Tuesday's Biggest Loser: the Union Agenda

The GOP victories reveal fissures in the coalition that elected Barack Obama.


By MICHAEL BARONE

If you were watching television on Tuesday night as the election returns came in showing Republicans capturing the governorships of Virginia and New Jersey, you probably missed seeing the biggest losers of the evening. You may have caught the concession speech of Creigh Deeds, who ran 12% behind Barack Obama's winning percentage of the vote in Virginia, and that of Jon Corzine who, after spending over $100 million of his own money on three campaigns, ran 13% behind Obama's winning percentage in New Jersey and got evicted from Drumthwacket, the governor's mansion in Princeton.

But you missed seeing the guy who may have been the biggest loser of all—a man who according to recently released White House logs has been a guest in the White House 22 times since Barack Obama became president, more than any other single individual.

That man is Andy Stern, who has boasted that the Service Employees International Union, which he heads, ponied up something like $60 million for Barack Obama and other Democrats in the 2008 campaign cycle. Altogether, Mr. Stern and other labor union leaders reportedly gave Democrats some $400 million last year.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704013004574515681098665524.html


Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

Democrats Can't Go Home

Posted by Defend America on Saturday, November 07, 2009 8:49:26 AM

Democrat trap: Pelosi's wrath or voter backlash

By: Byron York
Chief Political Correspondent
November 6, 2009

The House is in the final rush toward passage of a national health care bill, and there's one thing Speaker Nancy Pelosi absolutely, positively does not want her Democratic lawmakers to do: Go home.

"You meet constituents and get an earful from them -- that's the last thing she wants," says a key House Republican aide. "If you were a Democrat, and you went home last weekend and were asked about the health care bill, you could say, 'I'm still looking at it.' Well, now you've had it for a week, the vote is any day now. What are you going to say?" Better just to stay in Washington and avoid potentially uncomfortable scenes.

The problem is, those constituents, perhaps 10,000 of them, came to Capitol Hill Thursday to raise the issue in person. They came to the "House Call" rally organized by Republican leaders, but they desperately wanted to get a message to the 52 moderate Blue Dog Democrats who hold the fate of PelosiCare in their hands

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Democrat-trap_-Pelosi_s-wrath-or-voter-backlash-8491417-69329187.html
Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

Obama Signs Another Stimulus Bill into Law

Posted by Defend America on Saturday, November 07, 2009 8:49:08 AM

Obama signs bill assisting homebuyers, jobless


By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer Jim Abrams, Associated Press Writer – 3 mins ago

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama signed a $24 billion economic stimulus bill into law Friday, giving tax incentives to prospective homebuyers and additional jobless benefits to those idled by the business slump.

The bill-signing came a day after the House, displaying rare bipartisan agreement over the troubling employment picture nationally, voted 403-12 to pass the measure. The Senate had approved it unanimously on Wednesday.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091106/ap_on_bi_ge/us_jobless_benefits_homebuyers



Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

Where is the Most Ethical Congress?

Posted by Defend America on Saturday, November 07, 2009 8:48:30 AM
The Death of Deliberative Democracy
by Michelle Malkin

In 2006, the minority party in Congress issued a dire report on the "unprecedented erosion of the democratic process." Democratic Rep. Louise Slaughter, then the ranking member of the House Rules Committee, authored the scathing document. She blasted the majority Republicans' violations of "procedural fairness," short-circuiting of debate, and late-night meetings "to discourage members and the press from participating" in legislative deliberations. My, how history repeats itself.

Fast-forward to 2009. The Imperial Congress has returned. The oppressed have become the oppressors. Democrats have met the enemy of deliberative democracy, and it is they.

Three years ago, the Democrats complained of House Republicans rushing through conference reports "before members could read them." Sound vaguely familiar? They urged their colleagues in power to "spend more time on major, substantive legislation" instead of ramming things through. Deja vu, anyone?

The Slaughter report pleaded for more transparency and public access: "Regular order should be the rule, not the exception." Instead of meeting late at night or early in the morning, the Dems called on the majority to operate "during regular 'business' hours so that members and the press can attend and participate."

Three years later, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is jamming a 1,900-page health care takeover bill through Congress for a hasty Saturday vote while members of her own party revolt against strong-arm tactics. Upward of 40 pro-life Democrats have objected to the plan's government subsidies for abortion. Majority leaders evaded sunlight by keeping a compromise amendment on the matter out of the version of the bill made available to the public. As of Thursday afternoon (fewer than two days before the scheduled vote), Pelosi had yet to decide whether to permit an abortion ban amendment to her health care bill.

http://townhall.com/columnists/MichelleMalkin/2009/11/06/the_death_of_deliberative_democracy

Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

Up-or-down Vote on Abortion in Health Care Bill Allowed

Posted by Defend America on Saturday, November 07, 2009 2:36:10 AM

Up-or-down vote on an amendment to block abortion funding OK'd

By Molly K. Hooper and Mike Soraghan - 11/07/09 01:27 AM ET
House Democratic leaders will allow an up-or-down vote on an amendment blocking any money in its healthcare overhaul from funding abortions, risking the votes of members who support abortion rights.

Anti-abortion Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) had told a bleary-eyed Rules committee panel that a deal struck earlier in the day to move forward on the issue was off.

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/66789-stupak-to-get-up-or-down-vote-on-amendment-to-block-abortion-funding
Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

Alan Grayson Tells Fox to Make an Appointment

Posted by Defend America on Friday, November 06, 2009 11:36:00 PM
Tags: Grayson   Media  
Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive
« Previous12345678910…315316Next »