This Congressman Doesn’t Know the Constitution

-By Warner Todd Huston

What the heck is that old Constitution thingie, anyway? Does anyone in Congress know? Of course we’ve been railing about those leftist members of Congress who both don’t know anything about the Constitution, nor care a whit about it. But it isn’t just the lefties that don’t know anything about the Constitution.

Here we have a patriotic American schooling Congressman Frank A. LoBiondo (2nd District, New Jersey) on what is contained in Article One of the Constitution. LoBiondo is a Republican.

Sad as it is, it is sort of grimly amusing that LoBiondo started out sounding like a 5th grade child trying to wrack his brain after being asked a question by the schoolmarm. It’s the old, “The Constitution is a particular piece of paper with Constitutiony things in it, intended to act as a Constitution” sort of answer that Congressman LoBiondo started out with.
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This Congressman Doesn’t Know the Constitution”


Tea Party Express Hits Rockford, Illinois

-By Warner Todd Huston

No posts have emerged from me today because I was away for most of the day witnessing the Tea Party Express as it rolled into rolled into Rockford, Illinois.

Rockford is situated about 90 miles west (and a bit north) of Chicago in Northern Illinois. It’s a region that has been hit particularly hard by this recession and has the highest unemployment rate in a state that has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country.

The Tea Party Express is ranging across the country in an effort to keep the Tea Party spirit alive. If you want to find out if the Tea Party Express is coming to a town near you, check out the itinerary at www.teapartyexpress.org.

The Rockford Tea Party folks had hoped to get 1,000 Illinoisans to attend their rally, but there was at least 2,000 that actually came (some say 3,000) so they most certainly met their goals. These were some great Constitution-loving Americans that were very concerned about the downward direction that their country is taking. These people were worried, of course, but all seemed buoyed by their shared fellowship in patriotism. These are all great Americans. With citizens like this, we may yet bring our nation back from the brink of the leftism that is destroying Europe… unless Obama, his regime and their co-conspirators can help it.

The pre-event was held by the Rockford Tea Party folks (www.rockfordteaparty.org). And they had a nice line-up of local Illinois pols and political folks.
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Tea Party Express Hits Rockford, Illinois”


8th District Health Care Forum April 8th

From the Walsh for Congress campaign (8th District)…

Please join Candidate for Congress Joe Walsh and an expert panel in a public forum to discuss the recent health care vote and and how it will effect the lives of 8th district families and businesses. Unlike the private forums held by Rep. Bean behind closed doors, all concerned 8th district residents are invited.

What: Health Care Forum
Sponsored by: Candidate for Congress Joe Walsh
When: Thursday, April 8, 2010
Time: 7 – 8:30 pm
Where: Wauconda American Legion, 515 South Main Street, Wauconda, IL

Panelists:
Dr. Arie Friedman, MD, Pediatrician, Premier Pediatrics, S.C.
Dr. George W. Christy, MD, Cardiologist, Advocate Christ Medical Center
Peter Fotos, Director of Government Relations, The Heartland Institute
Joe Fehsenfeld, President CEO, Midwest Printed Circuit Services, Inc.
Joe Walsh, Candidate for Congress, Illinois 8th district

For More Information Contact: Whitney Schlosser
whitney@joewalshforcongress.com
217-638-3543

http://walshforcongress.com/


Illinois Rep. Halvorson: Tea Partiers are ‘Fringe’

-By Warner Todd Huston

Attention citizens of Illinois 11th Congressional District. If you have attended a Tea Party event or are inclined to support them YOU are a “fringe” element according to your Representative, Debbie Halvorson.

Halvosron’s office told CBS News Channel 2 in Chicago, “The voters in the 11th District are not easily influenced by the rhetoric of fringe organizations like the tea party.”

On the other hand, Halvorson’s opponent is very appreciative of the support he’s gotten from tea party groups. Adam Kinzinger (www.electadam.com) has been very much in touch with the tea party movement having attended some events and worked with them to get the word out there about his campaign.

But the solid fact remains, Illinois, that your representative in Congress dismisses you as a fringe element. I’d say that this flies in the face of the facts on the ground when we have protests that country over that regularly turns out thousands of attendees.

Just as in its day the anti-war groups represented a sizable number of Americans and just as they had their effect on the debate about the war on terror, the tea party groups represent an even larger swath of everyday Americans who are similarly having their own effect on the public debate.

But here is the very eft-wing Halvosron pooh-poohing a sizable number of her own constituents saying that they are “fringe” and not worth worrying about.

vLike many Democrats she may well ind just how mistaken she actually is in November. But even now it is looking like she should be paying attention as the latest poll shows Mr. Kinzinger is leading with a large majority.
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Illinois Rep. Halvorson: Tea Partiers are ‘Fringe’”


Hayes on the Unemployment Report

From the Hayes for Congress campaign (2nd District)…

CHICAGO – The Republican Nominee for Illinois 2nd Congressional District Isaac Hayes released the following statement today:

“For the past year, Americans have suffered the collateral damage of unemployment due to a deaf ear from partisan ideologues who were more concerned with taking over the health care industry than putting people back to work. Still it appears Democrats haven’t gotten the message as they are now seeking to take over the energy industry. This administration’s number one priority should be jobs, jobs, jobs. Americans recognize this political power grab at their expense and they will deliver pink slips to Congressional Democrats in November.”

For more information on Isaac Hayes’ run, please go to: www.isaac4honesty.com


Walsh to Obama: I’m Going For It

From the Walsh for Congress campaign (8th District)…

(Grayslake, Ill)– “They’re actually going to run on a platform of repeal…My attitude is, go for it… If they want to have that fight, we can have it.” – President Barack Obama, speaking on the GOP in Iowa last week

This is the typical, single-party combative nature of this administration and those starry-eyed individuals who follow it like my opponent, Rep. Melissa Bean.
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Walsh to Obama: I’m Going For It”


GOP’s Hayes: Coastal Drilling Long Welcomed News

From the Hayes for Congress campaign (2nd District)…

CHICAGO: The following statement was released today by Isaac Hayes, GOP Nominee for Congress in Illinois’ 2nd district, in response to President Obama’s announcement to open American coastlines to oil and natural gas drilling.

“The President’s announcement to allow drilling along America’s coastline is long welcomed news. The off shore drilling ban has been an unwanted and unneeded moratorium on energy exploration. For years, Republicans have pushed for energy independence by utilizing the vast resources God has blessed our nation with. While I am pleased that America’s plea for freedom from dependence on sponsors of terror is finally being heard, I am cautiously optimistic that this is not a smoke screen for a soon to come cap-and-trade bill jammed down our throats.”

http://www.isaachayesforcongress.com/


Walsh: ‘I’m NOT A Career Politician’

From the Joe Walsh for Congress campaign (8th District)…

With just 48 hours left before our quarterly filing deadline, I am asking you today to contribute $ 20.10 to our campaign for Congress to commemorate this historic year in which we take our country back.

We are going to take it back from those in Congress like my opponent, Melissa Bean, who have built their careers by serving special interests rather than their constituents’ interests.

We are going to take it back from those who seek to contract our personal freedoms and expand government’s control over our lives.
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Walsh: ‘I’m NOT A Career Politician’”


Government Is Not Our Friend

-By Warner Todd Huston

Small-government conservatives have always been suspicious of government. Whether city, county, state or federal all government is looked on as a troublesome but necessary evil that must be tightly controlled and oft times opposed. This anti-government attitude, of course, is a complete mystery to socialist Democrats. They just don’t understand why conservatives mistrust government and why they eye it suspiciously. So, looking for a way to explain in real terms why conservatives loathe government is sometimes not an easy task as the ideas are often very esoteric. Thank God the corrupt governments in Barack Obama’s Illinois are always there to supply a ready example of why government is often the enemy of a free people.

In that mien, here is another perfect example of how government often does not serve the voters, how it does what ever it wants to do despite the voters, and how government often thinks it knows better than the very voters that it is supposed to serve.

In 2009 the Illinois State legislature in its Springfield-based capitol passed a video gambling law that for the first time legalized video poker machines across the state. The progress of this law was very contentious with most Republicans and some Democrats standing in opposition to this immoral legislation and a sop to the opposers was put in the bill as sweetener to assure passage. An “opt out” clause was put in the bill so that those conservative districts that were so opposed to video gambling could exclude themselves from allowing the immoral act of video gambling in their jurisdiction.
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Government Is Not Our Friend”


Roskam: Healthcare Bill’s Enormous Costs to Illinois Manufacturers John Deere and Caterpillar

From Congressman Peter Roskam’s Office (6th District)…

Roskam: “When two pillars of the Illinois business community, Caterpillar and John Deere, are forced to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in new costs for next year alone thanks to the health bill, it sends an ominous message about Illinois’ economic future.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Peter Roskam released the following statement today following the John Deere company’s announcement that the new healthcare legislation signed by President Obama this week will increase their taxes by $150 million in the first year, after Caterpillar announced it would cost them $100 million in their first year:
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Roskam: Healthcare Bill’s Enormous Costs to Illinois Manufacturers John Deere and Caterpillar”


Hayes: Open Letter to Jesse Jr. ‘No Leadership, No Integrity’

From the Hayes for Congress campaign (2nd District)…

CHICAGO: The following is an open letter released today by Isaac C. Hayes, GOP nominee for Congress in IL-2, in response to Jr.’s “moment of truth” on news radio WLS 890am.

Yesterday morning, Mr. Congressman, you told Dan Proft and Bruce Wolf, who were guest-hosting the Don Wade and Roma Show on WLS, “There’s probably going to have to be a significant reform of other social programs as the Federal Government assumes more responsibility for health care for the nation’s people, there are other social programs that are probably going to undermine some elements of social cohesion, there’s no doubt about that.”
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Hayes: Open Letter to Jesse Jr. ‘No Leadership, No Integrity’”


Walsh to Bean: How is raising their taxes doing small businesses ‘due diligence’?

From the Walsh for Congress campaign (8th District)…

“This is about doing due diligence on behalf of small businesses and families that I represent in the 8th District,” -Rep. Melissa Bean, on her vote for Obamacare, March 23, ABC Link

Perhaps as part of her “due diligence”, Rep. Bean should have considered talking to actual small business owners in the district or small business trade associations like the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB).
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Walsh to Bean: How is raising their taxes doing small businesses ‘due diligence’?”


New Jersey’s Gov. Taking on Unions

-By Warner Todd Huston

Barbara Hollingsworth of the Washington Examiner has a piece celebrating the efforts of New Jersey’s new Governor Chris Christie in his effort to take on the state’s over indulged public employees unions.

Christie has taken on one of the worst budgets in the country and the task ahead of him will be difficult in every way imaginable. Unfortunately, the former Governor, John Corzine, made matters worse by negotiating a deal that will prevent Christie from furloughing state workers until 2011.

But Christie is forging ahead making the cuts he can.
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New Jersey’s Gov. Taking on Unions”


Dold: Healthcare, an Historic Missed Opportunity

From the Bob Dold for Congress campaign (10th District)…

The healthcare bill recently passed by Congress and signed into law by the President is an historic missed opportunity that will adversely affect the 10th Congressional District and chill the creation of new jobs. While nobody disputes that healthcare reform is needed, this legislation is the by-product of a corrupt and partisan process that ignored the voices of job creators throughout our country. By more than a 2-to-1 margin, Americans have voiced their opposition to this bill. Unfortunately, their voices fell on the deaf ears of Congress. When presented with an opportunity to work together and craft reforms with consensus, the U.S. Congress chose politics over policy.

I have always supported healthcare reform. Specifically, I have advocated the merits of addressing medical malpractice costs, and have promoted consumer-driven care as a means to reduce costs and expand coverage. However, this new healthcare reform addresses neither of these issues. This legislation threatens to bankrupt our great nation through tax increases, and places new and expensive burdens on small businesses. In short, this legislation does not address the root cause of the problem – healthcare is too expensive. Instead, it simply shifts the burden on to businesses, taxpayers and seniors.
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Dold: Healthcare, an Historic Missed Opportunity”


Liberals Value Good Intentions Above Both Truth and Outcomes

-By Warner Todd Huston

Amusingly enough the Washington Post has a blog called PostPartisan. I say amusing because it is obvious that there is nothing “post” partisan about it if a rant against tea partiers by Jonathan Capehart is any indication. He thinks that Obama was speaking to the tea partiers in his latest healthcare address and so posted his titled, “A message from President Obama to Tea Party America.”

In an effort to come rushing to the aid of the president and in an effort to castigate all those racist tea partiers he so dislikes, Capehart excerpted a segment of Barack Obama’s recent healthcare speech (what is this one, like number 200 or so?) and pointedly asked tea party activists what was wrong with it — or rather what is wrong with them for not being in thrall to this president?

Capehart is mad at those tea partiers that think Obama is a “Manchurian candidate sent here to destroy the United States” and found the following segment of Obama’s millionth healthcare address particularly inspiring, claiming that it spoke to the “true character of this nation.”
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Liberals Value Good Intentions Above Both Truth and Outcomes”


New Cook County, Illinois Republican Group Has First Meeting

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Republican Assembly of Northern Cook County held its first meeting this week in Des Plaines. 10 people attended and three candidates for office spoke to the group.

Cook County Board President candidate Roger Keats spoke as did 8th District Congressional candidate Joe Walsh. Cook County Board of Review candidate Dan Patlak also attended. Keats told the group that he’s the best candidate for Cook County Board President because “Alderman Preckwinkle is closely tied to corrupt politicians, including Speaker Madigan and Mayor Daley.”

Also in attendance was Jim Leahy, the executive director of the Republican Assembly of Illinois and Jerry McDaniel, the chairman of the Illinois Conservative Action Network.
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New Cook County, Illinois Republican Group Has First Meeting”


Kinzinger Tops Polls in 11th District

From the Adam Kinzinger for Congress campaign (11th District)…

Adam Kinzinger is currently holding townhalls across the district and after Wednesday night, he will have held 11, Debbie Halvorson, who voted yes for healthcare, has held zero. This is the first poll conducted on the Congressional Level after the Healthcare vote.

NRCC Memo
Adam Kinzinger currently leads on the ballot test 44%-38% over Congresswoman Halvorson, with 16% of voters undecided. Among high interest voters (8-10s), Kinzinger’s lead improves to 49%-35%, with 13% undecided.
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Kinzinger Tops Polls in 11th District”


Walsh to Bean: How is Spending a Trillion Dollars Being Fiscally Conservative?

From the Walsh for Congress campaign (8th District)…

“For moderates like myself who are fiscally conservative, this is a win,”–Rep. Melissa Bean, The Daily Herald, March 20. Link

A moderate who votes her party not her district? A fiscal conservative who votes to spend a trillion dollars of money we don’t have for something 8th district families don’t want?
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Walsh to Bean: How is Spending a Trillion Dollars Being Fiscally Conservative?”


Secret Back Room Deals is NOT Democracy!

-By the Illinois Conservatives FaceBook Group

Turns out, yes he can. President Obama has shown the country that yes, he can do the secret backroom deals and kickbacks that he promised to eschew. That yes, he can confuse and complicate a process and fog it over with last-minute “emotional pleas.” Yes, he can force Americans to buy a product. And yes, he can orchestrate a government take-over of 1/6 of the American economy.

While President Obama once campaigned on transparency and bi-partisan cooperation, he and Nancy Pelosi have shown us that not only is it politics as usual with them—but on a bigger, more jaded and oppositional level than we’ve ever seen.
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Secret Back Room Deals is NOT Democracy!”


8th District: Joe Walsh Responds to Healthcare vote in Congress

“Melissa Bean voted to take us further down this spending path which will bankrupt future generations. It doesn’t matter what political persuasion you are, that’s not right!”

www.JoeWalshForCongress.com


Randy Hultgren: Bill Foster’s Vote Betrays the Trust of the 14th District

From the Hultgren for Congress campaign (14th District)…

Tonight, Bill Foster dealt the 14th Congressional District a devastating blow!

Foster’s vote to takeover health care doesn’t only run contrary to the wishes of his constituents, it delivers on the commitment he made to HIS real boss, Andy Stern, head of the Service Employees International Union.

In the Washington Post this week, Stern boasted of the debt owed to SEIU by Foster saying that “Foster, who we ran a significant independent expenditure for, we’re telling him what it is our workers thought they were working for him for” in reference to the Pelosi/Reid health care bill.
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Randy Hultgren: Bill Foster’s Vote Betrays the Trust of the 14th District”


Civil Disobedience

-By Dan Scott

ObamaCare has managed to pass the House of Representatives and it is only a matter of a few days before they complete the package with their reconciliation bill. Those who passed the Law had very little respect for those they claimed to represent given they were unwilling to present themselves and their bill to the electorate in November for their judgment. So cowardly were the bill’s backers for a while they actually contemplated passing the Law without voting on it, however, with their fig leaf of deception exposed they realized such an action would give them no political cover. Obviously filling Washington, DC’s streets with protestors was not effective, neither was vocally opposing ObamaCare at Town hall meetings. Do we quit and give up to let the usurpers have their way? Or do we step up to the next level of expressing our discontent and opposition to this imposed Law against the consent of the governed?

Will making legal challenges in Court be sufficient? Are we really confident to leave such matters to the Courts when in the past they have repeatedly failed the American People (Kelo Decision, EPA to regulate CO2) when it concerns the consent of the governed? Yes there will be legal challenges, but in the meantime the most egregious parts of the Law will go into effect immediately such as the annual billions of dollars in taxes to further suppress the economy by robbing businesses and individuals of investment income.

Many of you now having woken up to a radical agenda that has been foisted upon the country may now consider either running for office or becoming volunteer staff at a local political campaign office this November. If you are upset at the outrage that occurred in the night hours of March 21st, then get involved at the local level in your county and purge those who are not faithful as representatives. Choose your political representative carefully, there were 34 Democrats in the House of Representatives who voted against this monstrosity and therefore deserve at minimum your consideration of the positions they hold on other issues. Healthcare was only the tip of the iceberg that will be foisted upon the country to its harm in the months to come. This November, some Senatorial Republicans may not deserve your vote and need to be removed during the primaries.
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Civil Disobedience”


Trials for bin Laden? Why?

-By Warner Todd Huston

There has never been a trial of a fallen national leader that would stand up to the scrutiny of good criminal law. They have always been politically motivated, full of passion, and short on legal niceties or any observation of technical precision. Because of this, should the United States capture Usamma bin Laden, she should quickly and immediately execute him. Period. End of discussion.

From the absurd trial of Charles I by Cromwell’s Roundheads, to the Nazi trials at Nuremberg, to the Soviet Show Trials all the way to the execution of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, no political trial has been legally legitimate. Moral legitimacy is another subject, but the truth is that every one of these trials mentioned was bad on legal procedure.

Not only are these trials bad on technical law, but they set bad precedents. The Nuremberg trials, for instance, should never have happened because they emboldened those miscreants that had the idea that an “International community” could possibly have the legal power to try and convict a leader of a fallen state or deposed government.

Better that the Nazis should have been taken out back of a death camp and summarily executed as befits any fallen, evil foeman. The Romans were right. Kill those fallen leaders and move on. There is no need to justify it via some warped appeal to “the law.”
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Trials for bin Laden? Why?”


Give ‘Em Hell, John

Watch it and weep…

The United States of America was murdered today by a vote of 219 to 212.

I should note how ill-mannered the Democrats are by their hoots, catcalls, and generally immature behavior the evidence of which can be heard on this video.


GOP Chairman Elected to Full Term

-By Warner Todd Huston

GOP Party Chairman Pat Brady was elected to a full term as chairman at the State Central Committee meeting this weekend.

Brady was appointed to the position by the state GOP after former Chairman Andy McKenna stepped down in an unsuccessful attempt to run for Governor last year. Brady served the final months of McKenna’s term and now begins his own full four-year term.

Congratulations to Chairman Brady and let’s hope that he can do more for the party long-term than the failed former chairman, McKenna. Brady would be smart to heed the conservative groundswell in this nation and stop the habit of past Illinois GOP powermongers of isolating, ignoring, and working against Illinois conservatives.


Bean Puts Party Politics Ahead of Constitution, Constituents: Votes to Sanction Shady ‘Deem-and-Pass’

From the Walsh for Congress campaign (8th District)…

(Lake Zurich, Ill)– Yesterday, Melissa Bean voted down a bi-partisan effort that would have forced members of the House to cast their vote for or against Obamacare in the light of day. In so doing, Melissa Bean, who voted for an even more expansive government takeover of health care last year, has endorsed the so-called “deem-and-pass” sleight-of-hand House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appears intent on employing to get Obamacare passed on Sunday. Twenty-eight Congressional Democrats joined every Congressional Republican in voting against allowing the use of this procedural gimmick.

Former U.S. Attorney Generals Ed Meese and William Barr had this to say about the “deem-and-pass”,

The “deem and pass” and similar options under consideration in the House of Representatives plainly violate at least the spirit of the Constitution’s bicameralism and presentment requirements. Those constitutional requirements were intended to ensure democratic transparency with a straightforward up-or-down vote in each House on all bills that become law. More importantly, these requirements were designed to ensure that the new national government actually followed “the consent of the governed,” which the Declaration of Independence had declared before the world to be the only basis of legitimate government.
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Bean Puts Party Politics Ahead of Constitution, Constituents: Votes to Sanction Shady ‘Deem-and-Pass’”


Some Healthcare Tweets on My Feed

-By Warner Todd Huston

Of course, nothing could be better than the Tweet I saw from Sky_Bluez: “Stupid is as Stupak does.” That about sums up the whole day so far.

But here are a few others from various folks on my Twitter feed that are worth noting…

  • buelldawg said: “Tea Party protesters who gathered on the Capitol lawn 2 sing “We Shall Overcome” stole the show” http://tinyurl.com/yf4h53u
  • JimDeMint said: What’s happening in the Capitol today gives a whole new meaning to “March Madness.”
  • Sky_Bluez said: “I’ve never been prouder to be a Republican” Powerline has some good “Silver Linings” http://www.bit.ly/dcbD4t
  • RepMikePence said: It is disappointing to see Members exchange 30 years of pro-life law for a piece of paper from the most pro-abortion president in history
  • JonHenke said: Prediction: This health care legislation will not reduce the deficit or health care costs.
  • sanuzis said: Stupak opponent Republican Dan Benishek jumped from 166 fans to 1743 on Facebook in one hour!! http://ping.fm/ROi1X
  • JonHenke said: 2nd Prediction: Before too long, Democrats will insist we need another #HCR to fix the problems this #HCR will cause.
  • riley1999 said: Complete SEIU thugs forcing way into middle of #killthebill crowd. Potty mouthed as they are told to leave #tcot
  • warnerthuston said: We are well on our way to a new USA, one more like Europe. The old US is now dead. Was a grand ride, but the Great Experiment is over!
  • ChiNewsBench reminds us: Dems aren’t voting for Health Care. They are voting for the pork & entitlements they were promised
  • BobGriggs said: John Lewis mocked the work of MLK.Jr when he locked arms with Pelosi in a pseudo-civil rights march through healthcare protesters.
  • LarrySabato said: Did Dems have 216 firm on Friday? No. Was it virtually guaranteed they would by today’s vote? Of course. Party matters. Just Kabuki theater.
  • warnerthuston said: Fla A. G. Bill McCollum will file lawsuit with SCOTUS to have Obamacare thrown out as soon as bill passes
  • warnerthuston said: Just a reminder, Exec. Orders are only temporary and can be rescinded or changed at ANY time, by ANY president.

This was all in the space of an hour or so. Tweets like this have been going on all day long!


Democrats Don’t Care About ‘Health,’ It’s All About Politics

-By Warner Todd Huston

Robert Creamer of the HuffyPost penned a very revealing piece that proves that Democrats simply don’t care at all about anyone’s “health,” but that this whole fiasco is solely about political “wins” and power. If someone happens to get a little healthcare out of the thing, that is purely incidental to the actual purpose of Obamacare.

Creamer’s piece describes the top 10 reasons why voting yes on Obamacare is “good politics for Democrats.” Tellingly, not one of the reasons is because healthcare “reform” is good for the people. In fact, most of his “reasons” that Dems should vote for Obama’s socialist take over of our healthcare system is because it’s good for Obama’s political fortunes.

One would think that Democrats should vote for this “reform” because it’s good for the people, but that idea doesn’t seem to factor into Creamer’s reasons at all. And from the political calculations we’ve seen during this last year of healthcare debate, he isn’t much different than those whose vote will create this socialized healthcare program.
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Democrats Don’t Care About ‘Health,’ It’s All About Politics”