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2009-11-21T14:53:00.000-08:00

At Train Town in Sonoma

Will Sarah Palin Be Called On to Try and Save John McCain...Again?

2009-11-21T14:46:00.000-08:00

JD Hayworth is a conservative former member of the House of Representatives and now a successful talk show host in Phoenix. He's considering a run against John McCain for the Senate in 2010, and according to early polls, is within a couple of points of Ol' Maverick.

So, with a challenge from a much more conservative and much younger candidate, how could McCain hold onto his seat? With Sarah Palin's help. HotAir has the details.

Personally, I think Palin should stay as far away from that race (if it develops) as possible. McCain and his people didn't show a lot of loyalty to her during the campaign and since then, why should she bother trying to save his saggy old butt now? A more conservative senator from AZ would be preferable to Mr. Moderate "let's all get along" McCain.

Obamacare By the Numbers

2009-11-21T13:44:00.000-08:00

From Rep. Mike Pence (via Red State):

5.5 million — Number of jobs that could be lost as a result of taxes on businesses that cannot afford to provide health insurance coverage, according to a model developed by Council of Economic Advisors Chair Christina Romer

$729.5 billion — Total new taxes on small businesses, individuals who cannot afford health coverage, and employers who cannot afford to provide coverage that meet federal bureaucrats’ standards

$1.055 trillion — New federal spending on expanded health insurance coverage over the next ten years, according to a Congressional Budget Office preliminary score of the bill

0.7% — Percentage of all that new spending occurring in the bill’s first three years-representing a debt and tax “time bomb” in the program’s later years set to explode on future generations

$88,200 — Definition of “low-income” family of four for purposes of health insurance subsidies

114 million — Number of individuals who could lose their current coverage under the bill’s government-run health plan, according to non-partisan actuaries at the Lewin Group

43 — Entitlement programs the bill creates, expands, or extends-an increase from H.R. 3200

111 — Additional offices, bureaus, commissions, programs, and bureaucracies the bill creates over and above the entitlement expansions-more than double the number in H.R. 3200

3,425 — Uses of the word “shall,” representing new duties for bureaucrats and mandates on individuals, businesses, and States-also more than double the number in H.R. 3200

$60 billion — Loss sustained by taxpayers every year due to Medicare fraud, according to a recent 60 Minutes expose; the government-run health plan does not reform the ineffective anti-fraud statutes and procedures that have kept Medicare on the Government Accountability Office’s list of high-risk programs for two decades

Zero — Prohibitions on government programs like Medicare and Medicaid from using cost-effectiveness research to impose delays to or denials for access to life-saving treatments

$634 Billion — Amount that could be saved by denying individuals access to treatments that are not “cost-effective,” according to a report by the liberal Commonwealth Fund; Section 1160 of the bill gives bureaucrats in the Obama Administration virtual free rein to develop a new “high-value” reimbursement system for Medicare by May 2012

2017 — Year Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund will be exhausted-an entitlement crisis exacerbated by the bill, which according to the Congressional Budget Office will increase the federal budgetary commitment to health care by $598 billion in its first ten years alone

$2,500 — Promised savings for each American family from health reform, according to then-Senator Obama’s campaign pledge-savings which the Administration’s own actuaries have confirmed will not materialize, as the Pelosi health care bill would increase the growth of health care costs.

Keep all that in mind as the Senate votes tonight.

Global Warming Video of the Day

2009-11-21T12:46:00.001-08:00

We won, you lost, get a life:

Sarah Palin Headline of the Day

2009-11-21T11:47:00.000-08:00

Watch the lefty's heads explode (from Hot Air):

Wow: Palin’s publisher boosts print run from 1.5 million to 2.5 million

No wonder she scares them so badly.

Meanwhile, the idiot father of her grandchild is being treated like the pariah he is...by the Hollywood crowd. Interesting. It looks like he's in minute 14:59 of his 15 minutes of fame.

Boy Scout 1, SEIU Minus 7

2009-11-21T10:40:00.000-08:00

And that's the way it should be:

Allentown union official Nick Balzano has been a political punching bag all week because he threatened to file a grievance against the city for allowing a Boy Scout to clear a walking path in a city park.

Three days of taking body blows nationally from conservative pundits, a rebuke from the Lehigh Valley's congressman and even a lashing from his own union led Balzano to voluntarily resign his position Thursday as head of the local Service Employees International Union.

Balzano said he and seven other executive officers of the local SEIU stepped down.

''I am proud of the work I and the rest of the executive board have done over the years,'' he said.

He had ''nothing against Boy Scouts'' and was just ''trying to protect my jobs,'' said Balzano, who had served as union president for nearly a decade.

The controversy began last week when Balzano warned that the union may file a grievance against the city after officials allowed a local Boy Scout to clear a 1,000-foot walking path in Kimmets Lock Park.

"We'll be looking into the Cub Scout or Boy Scout who did the trails," Balzano said, and told council that given the layoffs of 39 union members, no one except union members may pick up a hoe or shovel, plant a flower or clear a walking path.

Kevin Anderson, 17, is doing the volunteer work to help earn the rank of Eagle Scout. He said he'd already toiled for more than 200 hours on the project, which he said will keep people from having to traverse a busy road.

Anderson could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Don't mess with an Eagle Scout candidate. Not only did he clean up a trail in the local park, but he took out the trash too.

Another Saturday Night Massacre in the Works

2009-11-21T09:19:00.000-08:00

They did it in the House a couple of weeks ago, and now Harry Reid will try to ram through the first vote on Obamacare in the Senate tonight:

A crucial first Senate vote on President Barack Obama's health care overhaul in a rare Saturday night session looms as a test of Democratic unity and the president's prestige.

Democratic leaders are optimistic of success, but they need every Democrat and both independents to vote "yes," and two moderates remained uncommitted ahead of the roll call, which is expected around 8 p.m. The vote will determine whether debate can go forward on Majority Leader Harry Reid's 2,074-page bill to dramatically remake the U.S. health care system over the next decade.

Most everyone would be required to purchase insurance under Reid's legislation, and billions in new taxes would be levied on insurers and high-income Americans to help extend coverage to 30 million uninsured. Insurance companies would no longer be allowed to deny coverage to people with medical conditions or drop coverage when someone gets sick.

The two holdouts are Sens. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana. A third centrist, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, announced Friday that he'd be supporting his party on the test vote, while cautioning that it didn't mean he'd be with them on the final vote.

"It is not for or against the new Senate health care bill," Nelson said. "It is only to begin debate and an opportunity to make improvements. If you don't like a bill, why block your own opportunity to amend it?"

If that same reasoning holds with Lincoln and Landrieu, Reid, D-Nev., will have the 60 votes he needs to prevail in the 100-seat Senate. The 40 Republicans are unanimously opposed.

Landrieu has made comments suggesting she'll support the move to debate, but Lincoln, who faces a difficult re-election next year, carefully avoided taking any public position Friday.

Landrieu's already been bought off, so she's not going to be the one to stop this thing. Blanche Lincoln in Arkansas is the last hope. She knows her re-election chances will drop to near zero if she votes for this thing, but there are plenty of rich Democrats out there who could promise her something better in exchange for her vote. I don't think we can count on any Democrat to oppose this thing.

As I said in the previous post, elections matter.

The argument tonight from the Democrats will be that this vote isn't about the merits of the bill, but just about opening debate, and after all, who is against debate? In reality, according to a recently released report, 97% of the bills that pass this first test vote in the Senate go on to be approved by the entire Senate, so this vote is more than just a vote about whether or not to open debate.

I was hoping that perhaps Joe Lieberman would be the one to oppose this since he has come out strongly against the public option that's included in this bill, but he has only promised not to let the merits of the bill come up for a vote, not to block initial debate. He won't be the one to stop it.

And Republican Tom Coburn, who at one time promised to force the Senate to read the bill aloud, a process estimated to take 34 hours, has backed down. That's just sad.

So, what happens after tonight's vote? If it passes, as I expect it will, the fight starts in earnest as Democrats will be crafting all sorts of amendments designed to buy votes of scared candidates facing 2010 elections, and the Republicans will need to do everything they can to shine a light on the insidious nature of this legislation and turn the public against it more than they already are. Public support for Obamacare is tumbling, but listening to the public is something Democrats aren't interested in.

But what if the bill fails? There are many that think that Harry Reid will pull out all the procedural stops and will take the bill down the reconciliation road which requires only 51 votes, and we'll have open warfare in the Senate. Reid probably realizes now that his re-election is in such serious trouble that nothing he can do at this point will change it. Like the kamikaze's of old he's going to go out with a bang.

Stay tuned. Oh, and don't miss the photo of Harry Reid expressing his true thoughts about the taxpayers of this country.

This is Why Elections Matter

2009-11-21T08:12:00.000-08:00

Because presidents get to appoint federal judges to lifetime positions:

As consolation prizes go, Louis Butler can't complain. After being twice rejected by Wisconsin voters for a place on the state Supreme Court, the former judge has instead been nominated by President Obama to a lifetime seat on the federal district court. If he is confirmed, Wisconsin voters will have years to contend with the decisions of a judge they made clear they would rather live without.

Judge Butler served on the state Supreme Court for four years, enough time to have his judicial temperament grow in infamy. Having first run unsuccessfully in 2000, he was appointed by Democratic Governor Jim Doyle to the seat vacated by Justice Diane Sykes in 2004. But after serving four years, voters had seen enough of his brand of judicial philosophy, making him the first sitting justice on the Wisconsin Supreme Court in four decades to lose a retention election last year.

All those conservatives who thought it might be better for John McCain to get beat and come back with a better candidate in 2012 should keep this in mind for future elections. There's no virtue in losing, especially when you're losing to a radical like Obama. The nation will get stuck with judges like Butler...and for that matter Sonia Sotomayor... for a long, long time.

Throwing My Hat in the Ring in CA-64

2009-11-21T06:25:00.000-08:00

I've decided to follow Republicans in several other states and announce my candidacy for the House of Representatives in one of California's phantom congressional districts. These are the districts which, according to the official Recovery.gov website, received stimulus funds even though such districts don't actually exist.

In perusing the phantom districts of California I've decided to choose the 64th District which received $1,350,000 in stimulus funds. That should be enough for me to live on comfortably for quite awhile. When you add in the congressional salary plus office and travel expenses it's a pretty sweet gig. And the best part of it is - you don't have to deal with actual constituents.

Is this a great country or what?

Since no such 64th congressional district has ever been actually drawn, I'm going to draw it myself. None of those squiggly gerrymandered districts that look like a refugee from a Rorshach test for me - mine's going to be a nice clean square, just like they all should be:

Now, how can I have no constituents when I just drew a line around hundreds of thousands of them? That's the secret of CA-64 - all those people already have a congressman so they won't be bothering me. They'll never know I'm here.

Your campaign donations cheerfully accepted.

Email Joke of the Day

2009-11-20T19:02:00.000-08:00

From Don Surber:

A driver is stuck in a traffic jam going into downtown Dallas.

Nothing Is moving north or south.. Suddenly a man knocks on his window.

The driver rolls down his window and asks, ‘What happened, what’s the hold Up?’

‘Terrorists have kidnapped Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Rosie O’Donnell. They are asking for a $10 Million ransom. Otherwise, they are going to douse them with gasoline and set them on fire. We are going from car to car, taking up a collection.’

The driver asks, ‘On average, how much is everyone giving?’

‘About a gallon.’

Tax Increase for Afghanistan

2009-11-20T17:46:00.000-08:00

Once again the only solution a Democrat can come up with is "tax the rich":

Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said higher-income Americans should be taxed to pay for additional troops sent to Afghanistan and that NATO should provide half of the new soldiers.

An “additional income tax to the upper brackets, folks earning more than $200,000 or $250,000,” could fund more troops, Levin, a Michigan Democrat, said in an interview for Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital With Al Hunt,” airing this weekend. White House Budget Director Peter Orszag has estimated that each additional soldier in Afghanistan could cost $1 million, for a total that could reach $40 billion if 40,000 more troops are added.

That cost, Levin said, should be paid by wealthier taxpayers. “They have done incredibly well, and I think that it’s important that we pay for it if we possibly can” instead of increasing the federal debt load, the senator said.

How about imposing some sort of "defense fee" on the 40%+ of Americans who don't pay any income tax and don't contribute dime one to the national defense of this country they enjoy? Shouldn't we all be in this together?

Thanksgiving Table Planning Headline of the Day

2009-11-20T14:30:00.000-08:00

Put this on your calendar for all your Thanksgiving table needs (from the Mission Viejo Dispatch):

Platters & Coasters Revue Saturday

Sunday we'll be working on cups, saucers and flatware.

Answer to Prayer Headline of the Day

2009-11-20T13:19:00.000-08:00

From the OC Register:

Oprah Winfrey: Prayer, careful thought influenced exit

Shoot, if I had known prayer would get her off TV I'd have prayed for that a long time ago.

Crime of Passion Headline of the Day

2009-11-20T12:15:00.000-08:00

From the OC Register:

Huntington crime: man, woman steal KY Jelly from store

Stop in the name of love!

The Global Warming Fraud

2009-11-20T11:56:00.001-08:00

I don't have time for long posts right now, but this is a must read story on the fraud being perpetrated on all of us via the globalony activists. Looks like they've gotten caught in the act.

We're in Soggy Northern California

2009-11-20T11:46:00.000-08:00

475 miles in 6 1/2 hours - not bad, especially since the last 90 minutes were in rain. We had 5 hours of beautiful blue skies and some wind as we got north of the halfway point, but then we had to plunge into the big storm hitting up here right now. Pretty wet for 90 minutes or so, but we made it. The white Charger we're riding (I guess that sort of makes me a knight) got us here in good fashion.

Now to lunch with the college girl.

The Triangle Trip

2009-11-20T05:28:00.000-08:00

Regular readers will recall that on October 30th the Mrs. and I planned to drive to Northern California to join our daughter on her 21st birthday. We got exactly 40 miles from home when a health crisis forced me to turn around and take my wife to the hospital. Instead of spending the day in Rohnert Park, we spent the day at Mission Hospital. At a cost to our health plan of $13,589. Needless the say, the trip was kaput.

My mom and my sister's family did get to enjoy the weekend with the girl, but we missed out and decided we needed to try again as soon as possible. The following two weekends were committed other events, and on the third weekend (this weekend) we already had plans to take advantage of the ridiculously low rates in Las Vegas for a several day trip to start on Sunday. Do we cancel Vegas and go north instead, or.....do we figure out how to do both.

We went with Plan B. We've added a couple of days to the trip and as you read this we should be on our way north again (hopefully we'll get farther than 40 miles this time). The plan is to drive up today, spend the rest of Friday and all day Saturday with the girl (including a choir concert she'll be performing in), and then early Sunday morning we'll start a 610 mile drive south and east to Vegas. Hence the name "Triangle Trip".

By the time we return home on Thanksgiving Day we'll have traveled about 1,400 miles and spent six nights on the road. We can't wait.

Blogging will be more sporadic than usual during this travel period. I'll try to post up some photos along the way. I'm giving myself a project for the Las Vegas part of the trip. In July, 2008, we were over there and I spent part of each evening walking along The Strip and taking photos of the various hotels in their nighttime splendor. I created a little web page for my shots which were taken with my old Kodak camera.

Since then I've gotten a new camera and on this trip I'm going to try and update all those photos with better ones. At least this time the sun will be down by 5pm instead of 9pm, so I can get more shots in each night without being out there until all hours of the night. I'm curious to see how well the Panasonic camera does in capturing the lights of the city.

Lots of travel ahead, but we really enjoy that stuff. See you from Northern California and Vegas!

Happy Birthday Joe Hairplugs!

2009-11-20T05:22:00.000-08:00

Today is Joe Biden's birthday. As I understand it he doesn't blow out the candles on his cake, he just keeps talking until they go out from lack of oxygen.

Coburn Backs Down

2009-11-19T20:47:00.000-08:00

Now this is a shame:

Republican Sen. Tom Coburn is backing off his threat to require that the Senate read the 2,074-page health care bill because some GOP colleagues aren't supporting the effort.

The Oklahoma lawmaker said there's uncertainty about whether reading the bill during Thanksgiving week would be productive. He also said that if the Republicans do decide to tie up the Senate for the dozens of hours it would take, six GOP colleagues have committed to pitching in on reading duty.

Coburn also said in an interview with The Associated Press that he questions whether Americans who might be listening in would understand a line-by-line reading.

This is about stopping the bill, not about making sure Americans watch a 34 hour reading marathon. The GOP have a chance to showcase how ridiculously large and bloated this thing is and they're blowing it.

If this thing passes because the GOP chickened out, there won't be a safe incumbent from either party next year.

$100 Million for One Vote

2009-11-19T18:15:00.000-08:00

How much does it take to buy off a Senator from Louisiana? Harry Reid is spending $100 million of your tax dollars:

ABC News' Jonathan Karl reports:

What does it take to get a wavering senator to vote for health care reform?

Here’s a case study.

On page 432 of the Reid bill, there is a section increasing federal Medicaid subsidies for “certain states recovering from a major disaster.”

The section spends two pages defining which “states” would qualify, saying, among other things, that it would be states that “during the preceding 7 fiscal years” have been declared a “major disaster area.”

I am told the section applies to exactly one state: Louisiana, the home of moderate Democrat Mary Landrieu, who has been playing hard to get on the health care bill.

In other words, the bill spends two pages describing would could be written with a single world: Louisiana. (This may also help explain why the bill is long.)

Senator Harry Reid, who drafted the bill, cannot pass it without the support of Louisiana’s Mary Landrieu.

How much does it cost? According to the Congressional Budget Office: $100 million.

As will often be the case, this bill is spending way too much for way too little. You could probably buy off a Louisiana Democrat for as little as $20 bucks.

Economic Stimulus Cartoon of the Day

2009-11-19T16:17:00.000-08:00

Seen on Facebook:

Another Crisis Hits the Breakfast Table

2009-11-19T15:39:00.000-08:00

This is now clearly a depression in the United States. There's a shortage of Eggo frozen waffles:

Kellogg Co. says there will be a nationwide shortage of its popular Eggo frozen waffles until next summer because of interruptions in production at two of the four plants that make them.

The company’s Atlanta plant was shut down for an undisclosed period by a September storm that dumped historic amounts of rain in the area. Meanwhile, several production lines at its largest bakery in Rossville, Tenn., are closed indefinitely for repairs, company spokeswoman Kris Charles said in an e-mail.

It will take until the middle of 2010 before shelves around the country are stocked at pre-shutdown levels, Charles said.

Already customers are noticing near-empty Eggo shelves on the freezer aisle at many grocery stores.

Stay-at-home mom Joey Resciniti says she bought one of the last two boxes of Eggos at a Walmart in Cranberry Township, Pa., on Monday. The frozen waffles are a favorite of her 4-year-old daughter, Julia.

“We have eight of them, and if we ration those — maybe have half an Eggo in one sitting — then it’ll last longer,” said Resciniti, who blogs about being a mother. “I told my husband that maybe I need to put them on eBay.”

Glenn Reynolds joins everyone in the White House and blames the failed policies of the Bush Administration. Personally, I'm waiting for my Eggo stimulus check.

Obamacare is About Saving Money, Not Saving Lives

2009-11-19T14:23:00.000-08:00

A federal government panel has done the cause of Obamacare great damage by changing the recommendation for mammograms, based not on saving lives, but saving money. Don Surber offers this:

A federal government panel recommended no mammograms until a woman is 50. Only 1 in 1,900 women would die from breast cancer under this approach. This the first step toward rationing mammograms. I figure the government could save $3.8 billion if women wait until they are 50 to get mammograms. That is what Obamacare is all about: Saving money, not lives.

Of course, 10,000 women would die of breast cancer to pay for those savings.

Liberals like Katie Couric are putting aside their pink ribbons to defend a policy move that they would have railed against if it had been suggested by a task force under a Republican president.

Couric wrote: “The reasons make sense. Roughly ninety percent of abnormal screenings are ultimately benign. These false alarms lead to invasive tests and major anxiety, not to mention billions of dollars of unnecessary care.

“Still, those mammograms could save the life of one woman in 1,900 hundred. If she happens to be your daughter, your mother, your wife — or you — that’s the only statistic that will matter.”

For a nation so obsessed by breast cancer every October (I've written about that before here and here), this is a change in policy that should be nearly universally opposed. This isn't a right versus left issue, but a right versus wrong issue.

Opponents to Obamacare need to shout this long and loud as the debate in the Senate gets underway. This is what rationing will look like, and although the term "death panel" is mocked and scorned, having these types of health care decisions made by a bunch of clerks who are only interested in the financial bottom line could certainly make the mockery come to life.

$1 a Month for Abortion

2009-11-19T14:00:00.000-08:00

That's the minimum fee you'll be charged on your Obamacare policy to cover the cost of abortions (from Rep. John Boehner):

Just like the original 2,032-page, government-run health care plan from Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-NV) massive, 2,074-page bill would levy a new “abortion premium” fee on Americans in the government-run plan.

Beginning on line 7, p. 118, section 1303 under “Voluntary Choice of Coverage of Abortion Services” the Health and Human Services Secretary is given the authority to determine when abortion is allowed under the government-run health plan. Leader Reid’s plan also requires that at least one insurance plan offered in the Exchange covers abortions (line 13, p. 120).

What is even more alarming is that a monthly abortion premium will be charged of all enrollees in the government-run health plan. It’s right there beginning on line 11, page 122, section 1303, under “Actuarial Value of Optional Service Coverage.” The premium will be paid into a U.S. Treasury account – and these federal funds will be used to pay for the abortion services.

Section 1303(a)(2)(C) describes the process in which the Health Benefits Commissioner is to assess the monthly premiums that will be used to pay for elective abortions under the government-run health plan and for those who are given an affordability credit to purchase insurance coverage that includes abortion through the Exchange. The Commissioner must charge at a minimum $1 per enrollee per month.

A majority of Americans believe that health care plans should not be mandated to provide elective abortion coverage, and a majority of Americans do not believe government health care plans should include abortion coverage. Currently, federal appropriations bills include language known as the Hyde Amendment that prohibits the use of federal funds to pay for elective abortions under the Medicare and Medicaid programs, while another provision, known as the Smith Amendment, prohibits federal funding of abortion under the federal employees’ health benefits plan.

Harry Reid is trying to force through a procedural vote this weekend that would pave the way for debate and a vote on the bill, possibly before Christmas.

It's time for Republican Senators to demand this vote be read, out loud, in full, every time the rules require it. No unanimous consent to waive the reading. Tie that place up for months.

Stupid Marijuana User Story of the Day

2009-11-19T13:23:00.000-08:00

This is the second day in the row I've had a story about a stupid marijuana user. Yesterday's entry is here, and today we have this:

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) -- A man and woman who reported to police that robbers stole their marijuana are now facing charges themselves. The 32-year-old man and 29-year-old woman told police five armed men came to their Wichita apartment late Monday night and took marijuana.

Police said one suspect accidentally fired his gun and spooked the other suspects. They ran from the apartment to a white Cadillac, dropping marijuana along the way.

Police found more marijuana inside the apartment.

The couple were booked on suspicion of various drug charges, including selling drugs within 1,000 feet of a school.

They should have reported it as a theft of medicine. That's what they'd do in California.