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Karzai Angry at the Arrest of Taliban Boss Baradar

Posted by Defend America on Tuesday, March 16, 2010 12:40:23 PM

Aide: Karzai 'very angry' at Taliban boss' arrest


By DEB RIECHMANN and KATHY GANNON, Associated Press Writers Deb Riechmann And Kathy Gannon, Associated Press Writers – Tue Mar 16, 6:38 am ET

KABUL – The Afghan government was holding secret talks with the Taliban's No. 2 when he was captured in Pakistan, and the arrest infuriated President Hamid Karzai, according to one of Karzai's advisers.

The detention of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar — second in the Taliban only to one-eyed Mullah Mohammed Omar — has raised new questions about whether the U.S. is willing to back peace discussions with leaders who harbored the terrorists behind the Sept. 11 attacks.

Karzai "was very angry" when he heard that the Pakistanis had picked up Baradar with an assist from U.S. intelligence, the adviser said. Besides the ongoing talks, he said Baradar had "given a green light" to participating in a three-day peace jirga that Karzai is hosting next month.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100316/ap_on_re_as/as_afghan_talking_to_taliban


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Stupak: House Democrats 16 Votes Short of Passing Health Care

Posted by Defend America on Tuesday, March 16, 2010 12:37:39 PM

Stupak: House Dem leaders at least 16 votes short on healthcare reform

By Bob Cusack - 03/15/10 10:20 PM ET

Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) said Monday he thinks House Democratic leaders are not close to having the votes to pass health reform.

In an interview with Fox News' Greta Van Susteren, the anti-abortion rights lawmaker said, "I'd be surprised if they have 200 votes."

House Democratic leaders need 216 to pass the bill.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/86947-stupak-house-dem-leaders-at-least-16-votes-short-on-healthcare-reform
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Rep. Altmire: House Democrats Still Not Close on Getting Enough Votes

Posted by Defend America on Tuesday, March 16, 2010 12:36:29 PM

Altmire: leadership even working the hard nos

Rep. Jason Altmire, a Pennsyvlania Democrat who has positioned himself as a key swing vote, said he thinks leadership is seriously struggling to marshal the votes.

"They're calling the hardnosed people...who have put out firm statements saying no," he said. "They wouldn't be doing that if they were anywhere close."

That means Democrats like first-term New Jersey Rep. John Adler should still expect a phone call from party leaders, even after they tell the hometown press they're voting against the bill. Adler, who voted against the first bill but who many members believed to be in play on this round, told the Courier-Post (N.J.) Monday that he'd vote against the final bill because it doesn't do a good enough job cutting costs.

http://www.politico.com/livepulse/0310/Altmire_leadership_even_working_the_hard_nos.html
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Justice Stevens to Make Decision about His Future in about a Month

Posted by Defend America on Tuesday, March 16, 2010 12:34:28 PM
March 15, 2010, 3:42 pm

Justice Stevens Weighs Retirement Date

By ADAM LIPTAK

Justice John Paul Stevens will soon decide whether he will stay on for another Supreme Court term, the justice told Jeffrey Toobin of The New Yorker.

“I still have my options open,” Justice Stevens said in the interview, which was conducted on March 8. He added that he would make up his mind in about a month.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/15/justice-stevens-weighs-retirement-date/?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Obama Might Veto Intelligence Bill

Posted by Defend America on Tuesday, March 16, 2010 12:32:55 PM

Obama threatens to veto intel bill



By KASIE HUNT | 3/15/10 6:36 PM EDT

President Obama will veto a major intelligence funding bill unless lawmakers remove provisions that would toughen congressional oversight of spy agencies and require more stringent congressional notification of intelligence activities.

Three sections of the bill are of "serious concern to the intelligence community," OMB Director Peter Orszag wrote to Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Vice Chairman Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.), House Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes (D-Calif.) and ranking member Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.). The three sections are "so serious that the president's senior advisors would recommend that he veto the bill if they are included."

At the top of the list are Senate provisions that expand congressional notification requirements when the intelligence community changes to covert actions. Current law requires the president to notify the Gang of 8 — the top eight lawmakers on the two congressional intelligence committees — when the most dramatic actions are taken. The new funding bill would require the president to notify the eight when an administration makes any changes to covert action policy, and it would require intelligence officials to notify every intelligence committee member of the "main features" of all intelligence activities.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/34447.html



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Liberals Threatens Democrats on Health Care

Posted by Defend America on Tuesday, March 16, 2010 12:30:19 PM

Liberals warn Democrats on health care



By BEN SMITH & GABRIEL BELTRONE | 3/15/10 10:23 PM EDT

Labor and progressive leaders are threatening House Democrats who oppose health care legislation with potentially destructive third party challenges in November.

The discussions have already taken concrete form in New York State, where a handful of votes hang in the balance. They’re part threat, part an early attempt to channel what liberal leaders expect to be a wave of anger if Congress fails to pass health care.

New York and a handful of other states have “fusion” rules that allow candidates to run on multiple ballot lines, giving minor parties like the Working Families a great deal of political leverage. For wavering Upstate New York moderates like Reps. Michael Arcuri, Scott Murphy, and Bill Owens, the line could mean the margin between victory and defeat.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/34466.html



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Republicans Did Use the "Slaughter Option" to Raise the Debt Ceiling Back in 2005 and Democrats Opposed Using the "Slaughter Option" in 2005

Posted by Defend America on Tuesday, March 16, 2010 12:14:11 PM

Pelosi, Slaughter went to court against GOP's self-executing rule in 2005

By: Mark Tapscott
Editorial Page Editor
03/16/10 7:54 AM EDT

You've been hearing a lot this week about the Slaughter Solution, the rule devised by House Rules Committee Chairman Louise Slaughter of New York whereby the House would pass an Obamacare reconcilliation bill via a rule that "deems" the chamber to have voted for the Senate version of Obamacare even though no such recorded vote was actually taken.

It's been dubbed the "Slaughter Solution in the media. I prefer to call the Alice in Wonderland way of passing Obamacare.

But put aside the present for the moment and step into my time machine. Dial the date selector back to 2005 when the Republican majority in Congress approved a national debt limit increase using a self-executing rule similar to the Slaughter Solution.

Guess who went to federal court to challenge the constitutionality of the move? The Ralph Nader-backed Public Citizen legal activists. Here's the argument they made:

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Pelosi-Slaughter-went-to-court-against-GOPs-self-executing-rule-in-2005---87773712.html

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Looks Like Democrats will Attempt to Pass the Senate Bill without Voting

Posted by Defend America on Tuesday, March 16, 2010 12:03:08 PM

Dems move closer to passing Senate bill without actual vote

By Ian Swanson - 03/16/10 09:48 AM ET

House Democrats are marching forward with plans to move the Senate healthcare bill through their chamber without actually voting on it.

The House Rules Committee on Tuesday morning released a memo defending the so-called “deem and pass” procedure, which the memo said has a long precedent in the House and is used commonly.

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/86985-rules-memo-outlines-dem-plan-to-pass-healthcare-bill-without-actual-vote
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'Without Firing a Shot?'

Posted by Defend America on Tuesday, March 16, 2010 6:04:31 AM
Without Firing a Shot?
by David Limbaugh

During the height of the Cold War, some feared the communists would take over the United States without firing a shot. Could it be that nearly a half-century later, we're on the verge of that becoming a reality?

President Barack Obama and Democratic congressmen won their respective elections -- no shots were fired -- and they are feverishly attempting to dismantle this nation's institutions, brick by brick.

The American people are getting a bird's-eye view of what the left, which completely dominates the Democratic Party, thinks of the Constitution, freedom and the right of the people to self-governance.

The people now attempting to govern us with an iron fist are Marxist-leaning in terms of not only the policies they support but also the ruthless tactics they employ to enact those policies into law.

As long as it served Obama's Machiavellian purposes to maintain a semblance of unity for his ambitious agenda, he donned his bipartisan cap. But as soon as he encountered intractable opposition from Republicans, God bless them, he began to show his true political colors.

http://townhall.com/columnists/DavidLimbaugh/2010/03/16/without_firing_a_shot


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Just More Bad Ideas to Help Destroy This Country

Posted by Defend America on Tuesday, March 16, 2010 6:02:41 AM
Not Just One Terrible Idea, But Two!
by Mona Charen

It's interesting that the Democrats are attempting to roll two of their highest priorities into one bill this month. The labyrinthine legislative legerdemain called health care reform now includes a reconciliation package that would fold in student loan reform. And by reform, the Democrats mean increasing direct lending to students by the federal government.

Though the two issues may seem utterly unrelated, they do have this in common -- both health care and higher education are realms of American life in which government has undermined the operation of market forces and caused artificially high prices. These are two arenas in which the Democrats now propose to do exactly the wrong thing. Their reform reinforces old errors and will infinitely compound the problem of rising prices.

In health care, as Andrew Biggs outlines in National Review, the third-party-payer problem (created when government made health insurance deductible to employers) has insulated consumers from the true costs of their purchases. Whereas 47 percent of health care purchases were out-of-pocket in 1960, only 12 percent are today. In addition, programs like Medicare and Medicaid are on autopilot, automatically increasing expenditures in response to demand without further appropriations from Congress. When someone else is paying, whether the federal government or the employer, consumers are heedless of cost. Have you seen the TV ads for The Scooter Store? "My scooter didn't cost me a dime!" exults a customer. "Medicare and my insurance covered the whole thing." Multiply that by several million and you have a sense of the incentives.

But the world of supply and demand, competition and price is alien to the Democrats. Their explanation for rising health care costs is the greed of insurance companies.

They don't seem to ask themselves why health care costs have risen so much faster than other costs -- that is, faster than the overall rate of inflation. Are health insurance companies greedier than computer makers, restaurateurs, airlines, or other businessmen? Devotees of free markets don't deny the existence of greed, but simply want to make it work for the consumer through increased competition. And that brings us to student loans.

http://townhall.com/columnists/MonaCharen/2010/03/16/not_just_one_terrible_idea,_but_two!


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'Liberal Violence'

Posted by Defend America on Tuesday, March 16, 2010 6:01:07 AM
Liberal Violence: Five Names You Should Know
by John Hawkins

Unfortunately, there are dangerous kooks, trigger-happy wackos, and lone gunmen out there. Bad people exist. Crazy people exist -- and every so often, one of them snaps and there's a resulting body count. To most people, this is just a tragic fact of life.

However, to liberals in the media who are forever baffled by events that the average person has grasped since he was a child, these killers tend to break down into three groups. If they're devout Muslims and are connected to terrorists, then they must have killed for some reason OTHER than their religion. If they're conservative murderers, then they must have killed because of Glenn Beck, talk radio, the Tea Party movement, or whoever the hot conservative villain of the moment is and they're obviously part of a wider trend. On the other hand, if they're liberal, well then, at best the killer in question must be some random wacko who should immediately be forgotten. At worst, liberals try to paint leftward leaning killers as conservatives. They did this with Pentagon shooter John Patrick Bedell, who was a registered Democrat and the Holocaust museum shooter, James Von Brunn, who was an "anti-Christian, 9/11 'truther' who hated the Bushes and 'the neo-cons'".

This is actually quite ironic given that openly violent groups have been tolerated, if not embraced by the Left. ELF, ALF, the Black Panthers, G8 rioters, the black bloc at anti-war rallies, and even the Weathermen are looked upon favorably by liberals.

Still, it's not enough to simply point out that liberals wink at leftist groups that engage in violence. When the next nutjob kills someone -- and regrettably, there will always be a next time -- conservatives need examples to point towards when the MSM tries to once again convince the public that only right-wing wackos do that sort of thing. Here are a few worthy examples to throw back at them when they try it.

http://townhall.com/columnists/JohnHawkins/2010/03/16/liberal_violence_five_names_you_should_know


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'Private in New Jersey'

Posted by Defend America on Tuesday, March 16, 2010 6:00:14 AM
Private in New Jersey
by Cal Thomas

New Jersey's new Republican governor, Chris Christie, is creating a commission that will recommend what state government functions could be done better -- and cheaper -- by the private sector. The commission will examine hundreds of regulatory bodies to see which might be closed or privatized as part of the governor's plan to reduce an $11 billion deficit left by his Democratic predecessor, Jon Corzine.

Christie may also suspend civil service rules to make it easier to lay off higher paid workers. This would be a switch from the way things are usually done in a state dominated by unions, which demand a last-hired, first-fired priority. The grip of the unions was most recently evident when Corzine instituted a temporary layoff of "nonessential" state workers, but then paid them for their time away when they returned to work. If those employees are nonessential, maybe the commission could start by privatizing them.

Given that it is New Jersey, watch for the predictable hyperbole from the left with forecasts of starving poor, homeless seniors and irreparable harm to children. Republicans have never developed an effective strategy for countering this long-running political road show. Maybe Gov. Christie will.

http://townhall.com/columnists/CalThomas/2010/03/16/private_in_new_jersey


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