Free Republic

Let's face it, Pelosi is going to stip this language out in committee. She offered it to push the bill along the process. If the Republicans kill the Amendment they might stop the bill today. It also puts the blue dogs in even more of a quandry to vote yes or no without the abortion provisions.

<p>Washington (CNN) - President Barack Obama Saturday said members of the House of Representatives face the chance of a lifetime as they consider legislation on health care reform.</p> <p>In a meeting with the House Democratic leadership, the president said he told lawmakers "that opportunities like this come around maybe once in a generation.</p>

House Dems strike abortion deal – Immigration still an issue – The politics of no: Pelosi has a 17-vote buffer and 20 Dems lean "no," meaning she needs virtually every undecided It’s Saturday. Welcome to the Pulse Weekend Vote Edition. “Saturday night’s alright for Pulsing.”THE RULE, included in a six-page, 1:51 a.m. press release from Vince Morris, House Rules Committee communications director: "Attached is the rule which we just approved; we expect to be on the floor [Saturday] morning. For planning purposes, we still expect to do the rule after suspensions; [Chairman Louise] Slaughter will speak on the Rule and...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi all-but-predicted passage of a House health reform bill Saturday, following an emotional appeal from President Barack Obama to fellow Democrats, urging them to “answer the call of history” and vote yes. “Now’s the time to finish the job,” Obama said in the Rose Garden, following a 45-minute closed-door meeting with the House Democratic caucus on Capitol Hill. “I reminded them that opportunities like this come around maybe once in a generation,” Obama said. “This is their moment, this is our moment, to live up to the trust the American people have pledged in us.” Obama left...

Dan Riehl checks the President's schedule and learns that Obama's not going to Fort Hood, but rather to Camp David for the weekend. In an update, Dan notes that his predecessor is more sensitive to the situation. Fox Reports GWB and Laura spent a few hours at Fort Hood, no photo ops. Now that's a CIC. Are you kidding me? Camp frickin' David? What, does he have a tee time close by? For heaven's sakes, he's the CIC. And he's taking the weekend off? This guy simply doesn't care. Unbelievable via Fox. 11:25AM THE PRESIDENT addresses the House Democratic Caucus -...

When the US Constitution was first adopted there was no Federal Income Tax. The Federal government was fortunately limited in the amount of taxes it could take in. One form of taxation was a tax on goods called an excise tax which is still in existence. Another was the Poll tax which is a direct tax on individuals. The Federal Income Tax was added to the US Constitution in 1913. Everyone reading this who has ever had a job knows how it works so I won’t elaborate. For you younger readers, it basically works this way. The Federal government lets...

Tough-as-nails former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina kicked off her U.S. Senate campaign this week with defiant words for a ruthless opponent - her cancer. "Let me start with the most obvious question: What's with the hair?" she asked a crowd in Orange County, motioning to the graying buzz cut that replaced her auburn wigs of recent months."I'm happy to tell you that having been through surgery and chemotherapy and radiation, breast cancer is officially behind me. I feel absolutely great and I am raring to go."In California, where politics and drama are wedded, the Republican candidate's public embrace of a...

Senator Gregg stated, “The CBO estimate released last night finally sheds light on the smoke and mirrors game the majority has been playing with the cost of their health care reform proposal. Over the first 10 years, this legislation builds in gross new spending of $1.7 trillion – and most of the new spending doesn’t even start until 2014. Once that spending is fully phased in, the House Democratic bill rings up at more than $3 trillion over ten years. “Additionally, this bill cuts critical Medicare and Medicaid funding by $628 billion, accounts for nearly $1.2 trillion in tax and...

Dede Scozzafava, the Republican nominee who issued an election eve endorsement of Democrat Bill Owens in the Nov. 3 New York special election, will meet with Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb Monday to discuss whether she will be stripped of her Assembly leadership position. POLITICO has learned that Kolb will announce after the face-to-face meeting whether Scozzafava, the Minority Leader Pro Tempore, will remain as the GOP floor leader. “Fundamentally my members are very disappointed with her endorsement of Bill Owens and aiding him in helping achieve the Nancy Pelosi health care plan in Washington,” Kolb said. Scozzafava’s last-minute endorsement,...

House Democrats who have announced they are voting against the Obama-Pelosi-Health Care bill.The list is compiled from various news sources. Please add confirmed 'no' votes with a source link to the thread.The 'Rats have 258 members. They can lose 40 votes and still reach the 218 votes needed to pass the bill on a simple majority.It is expected that all 177 Republicans will vote against the bill. No Republican has announced they would vote for the bill.TN, John Tanner and Bart GordonSD, Stephanie Herseth SandlinNY, Mike McMahon and Eric MassaWA, Brian BairdNJ, John AdlerNC, Larry Kissell and Mike McIntyreMS, Travis...

BALTIMORE -- Baltimore mayor Sheila Dixon is about to put her political future in the hands of a jury. Dixon goes on trial Monday on theft charges. She's accused of hitting up her wealthy developer pals to donate thousands of dollars' worth of gift cards to needy families. Prosecutors say she used those gift cards for her personal shopping instead.

US Bishops: Abortion Isn't Health Care Send Urgent Message to Congress WASHINGTON, D.C., NOV. 6, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Keep abortion funding out of health care reform. That is the key message the U.S. episcopal conference communicated today in an urgent letter sent to the nation's House of Representatives. In the letter, sent as House members debated procedures related to abortion and the health care reform bill, the bishops "strongly urge" the lawmakers to "vote for essential changes and a fair process in the House of Representatives to ensure that needed health care reform legislation truly protects the life, dignity, health and...

Democratic U.S. Rep. Michael Arcuri, whose district includes a large portion of Cayuga County, said Saturday that he will support the health care reform bill now under consideration in the House of Representatives.

I have long been mystified as to why Americans and Canadians do not understand Islam. It is very simple. While most Christians and Jews pay only lip service to their bibles the Muslims believe in the koran with every part of their being. They rise before dawn to pray and they pray five times a day. They mean business in their worship of the false god allah. They believe in every verse of the koran and the Hadith. But Americns have never read the koran so they are shocked by such carnage as was caused at Fort Hood. So let...

Below is a list of selected Democrats and their positions on the House healthcare reform bill based on media accounts, press releases and spokesmen for the lawmakers. UPDATED 11/7/09 9:45 a.m. YES OR LEANING YES Howard Berman (Calif.) Leonard Boswell (Iowa) G.K. Butterfield (N.C.) Steve Cohen (Tenn.) Called the measure "America's bill" Gerry Connolly (Va.) Had expressed concern about tax provisions in initial bill Henry Cuellar (Texas) Got tort provisions added, though still wary of costs Kathy Dahlkemper (Pa.) Sam Farr (Calif.) Gabrielle Giffords (Ariz.) Leaning yes, would like to see more on tort reform Debbie Halvorson (Ill.) Alcee Hastings...

Some moderate Democrats still are “really anguished” over voting for the energy bill, Rep. Jason Altmire told Fox News, and they “would be reluctant now to vote for health care and take a second vote that might be unpopular in their district.”With Republicans raising the volume of their protests and House Democratic leaders uncertain if they have enough rank-and-file support, some moderate Democrats sense that passing a health care reform bill will be as difficult as the House’s energy bill, which was approved by a slim margin June. That has caused quite a bit of hand-wringing among the Democrats. Some...

Julian Robertson wins one for taxpayers. For every Sunbelt refugee who has tried to leave high tax bills behind in the cold Northeast, Julian Robertson scored a victory this week. By proving that he was outside New York City for half the days in the year 2000, the former hedge-fund titan avoided $27 million in city taxes, thanks to a ruling by New York's tax court. No thanks are due the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, which had ruled he was a resident and therefore liable for the multimillion-dollar tab. In the upside-down world of tax law,...

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. Coburn’s office confirmed that he is indeed thinking about having the bill read. “That’s a possibility,” Coburn spokesman John...

Texas Gov. Rick Perry comments on the Ft. Hood shooting, noting that “there were three shooters”.

The House tries to pass Obamacare in a big hurry, breaking how many Constitutional rules/regulations?? FOX news coverage can be seen online at http://www.blinkotv.com/ (select "HD Test")

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama has made a last-minute personal appeal to Democrats to pass landmark health care legislation. His appeal came during a visit to Capitol Hill on Saturday as the House began debating a bill to expand coverage to millions who lack it. Obama made his trip to the Capitol complex as abortion rights lawmakers voiced anger at a last-minute concession granted to foes of the procedure. WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama's landmark health care overhaul moved toward a vote in the House Saturday after anti-abortion lawmakers won a chance to knock out language that would let...

So the Treasury threw a party, or a press conference or something, and I was not invited. Geez, it's not like I am against covering Treasury officials. I did, for example, breakdown Phil Swagel's skills as Deputy Secretary of the Treasury. And, it is not like I am not curious about the Treasury. I do want to know how many times Treasury Secretary Geithner's father me with President Obama's mother in Indonesia. I do want to know if Geithner's father was a CIA operative working Asia and if his influence helps in keeping Geithner in a position where he is...

ST ANDREWS, Scotland (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said high unemployment rates show that economic recovery is still perilous and governments need to maintain stimulus as long as necessary to ensure sustained growth. "If we put the brakes on too quickly we will weaken the economy and the financial system, unemployment will rise, more businesses will fail, budget deficits will rise, and the ultimate cost of the crisis will be greater," Geithner said in a statement issued at the conclusion of a two-day Group of 20 meeting. He said that with some growth beginning to become apparent in...

John Reed, who originally helped merge Traveller's Group with Citibank with Sandy Weill, is performing a mea culpa for creating megazombie Citigroup (C): Bloomberg: “I’m sorry,” Reed, 70, said in an interview yesterday. “These are people I love and care about. You could imagine emotionally it’s not easy to see what’s happened." “I would compartmentalize the industry for the same reason you compartmentalize ships,” Reed said in the interview in his office on Park Avenue in New York. “If you have a leak, the leak doesn’t spread and sink the whole vessel. So generally speaking you’d have consumer banking separate...

State District Name Rating Phone Party Blue Dog 1st Term  Pennsylvania  4th   Jason Altmire R+6 225-2565 D Yes    New York  24th   Michael A. Arcuri R+2 225-3665 D Yes    Washington  3rd   Brian Baird EVEN 225-3536 D      Georgia  12th   John Barrow D+1 225-2823 D      Arkansas  1st   Marion Berry R+8 225-4076 D Yes    Georgia  2nd   Sanford D. Bishop Jr. D+1 225-3631 D Yes    New York  1st   Timothy Bishop EVEN 225-3826 D      Ohio  16th   John A. Boccieri R+4 225-3876 D      Oklahoma  2nd   Dan Boren R+14 225-2701 D Yes    Iowa  3rd ...

WASHINGTON, DC - C-SPAN is carrying live the debate on socialized health care in the United States House of Representatives live. Members of Congress have had their phone lines flooded all week as opposition by the American people has mounted. Most of the Democrat members from North Carolina phone lines have either been busy or, once a caller gets the voice mail message, the caller gets a message that their voice mailbox is full and cannot receive any messages. Rep. John Dingell, a Michigan Democrat, has taken over chairing the House as debate becomes contentious as the Democratic leadership tries...

How bad is it?

An open letter to the local daily paper — almost every local daily paper in America: I remember reading All the President's Men and thinking: That's journalism. You do what it takes to get the truth and you lay it before the public, because the public has a right to know. This housing crisis didn't come out of nowhere. It was not a vague emanation of the evil Bush administration. It was a direct result of the political decision, back in the late 1990s, to loosen the rules of lending so that home loans would be more accessible to poor...

Celente says we are going into a manufactured depression and in America we will call it obamageddon.

Rather than post the entire foolish set of BS, here are the outlines--- and the outright lies "Passage of health-care reform will be defining moment for US" By U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords Special to the Arizona Daily Star: Published: 11.06.2009 It was 45 years ago that Congress passed the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 — a historic measure that for the first time outlawed all racial segregation in schools, public places and employment. We are poised to make another historic decision that for the first time would guarantee access to health care for all Americans. NO, It will guarantee...

What would you not want to happen if you were pushing legal-marijuana legislation? Oh I don’t know, maybe you wouldn’t want the fact that you were present when your boyfriend was arrested for possession of marijuana come out? That’s exactly what Rep. Barney Frank is going through right now; Frank is pushing the passage of legalized medical marijuana and now it comes out that Barney Frank was at his boyfriend’s house in 2007 when the man was arrested for possession. According to a report out of Boston, Barney Frank was present when his boyfriend, James Ready was arrested for marijuana...

DALLAS — Seventy million dollars worth of federal, state and city funds are pouring into the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. Supporters hope the span will be a signature for the city. But it may be remembered for something else, because the key jobs in its construction -- tens of thousands of man hours of work — are going to Italians. On the construction site in the Trinity River bottoms, an American inspector told News 8: "If you don't speak Italian, it's going to be tough to communicate." In broken English, a man who appeared...

The Treasury recently reported that the federal government recorded a total budget deficit of $1.4 trillion in fiscal year 2009, about $960 billion more than the deficit incurred in 2008. CBO notes, in its latest Monthly Budget Review, that the federal deficit rose as a share of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) from 3.1 percent in 2008 to 9.9 percent in 2009—the highest deficit as a share of GDP since 1945.As shown in the figure below, federal spending and receipts diverged dramatically in 2009, reflecting the weakening economy and the federal response. The increase in the deficit of...

Until the mass murder at Fort Hood intervened, I’d intended to write about Thursday’s bingo night to benefit the Girl Scouts. It was a cold and stormy night. Almost all of the summer visitors are gone. We thought there’d be sparse attendance at the monthly charity bingo game put on by the Rotary Club. But the place was packed, wall to wall. Dozens of Brownies and Girl Scouts in uniform were scurrying about, serving the players. Final figures weren’t available on the spot. From prior experience, however, I’m sure more than $1,000 was raised for the Scouts. How ordinary is...

"Or worse: When Sarah Palin's memoir, "Going Rogue," hits bookstores later this month, will the ideologically impure be required to read -- and commit to memory -- every golden word? Her publisher might consider culling the highlights into a pocket edition. That way, any Republican caught without a copy of "Quotations From Chairman Sarah" could be summarily expelled from the party." As a fan of The Boxcar Children series, let’s dub this one The Case of the Pol Pot Calling the Kettle a Communist. Let the record show that Eugene Robinson has a way with words, although what way that...

I just called my rep...just to make double sure his NO vote is solid. No live person there. Can't leave a msg either because his mailbox is full ! grrrr

Israel on Friday rejected a United Nations General Assembly resolution urging an investigation into a report saying war crimes were committed in Gaza, and condemned the world body vote as "completely detached from realities". In a statement, the Foreign Ministry said in response to Thursday's vote that Israel "maintains the right to self-defense", and would "continue to act to protect the lives of its citizens from the threat of international terrorism". The resolution, endorsing a report on the Gaza war commissioned by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council, was nonbinding and seen as unlikely to force either Israel or Islamist...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are burning a huge hole in the Treasury's pocket. But the Obama administration is getting something very valuable in return: the ability to provide immense support to the housing market with only limited interference from Congress. The credit crunch has displayed yawning democratic deficits, like the inability of Congress to get a proper handle on the Federal Reserve's emergency lending programs. But with Fannie and Freddie, it is the Treasury that gets to freely commit massive amounts of money. Both companies have bought most of the mortgages written in America this year and are modifying...

Taking candy from a baby: A consortium of Chinese and American companies goes to Washington and announces plans to build a $1.5 billion windmill farm in West Texas using $450 million in U.S. Stimulus funds, which will create 2,330 jobs – 2,000 of them in China. The baby – Washington -- doesn’t cry or whine or spit in the consortium’s face. That’s what’s really wrong with this story. So accustomed to being bought and sold, Washington simply begins processing forms so it can hand over your tax dollars to create jobs in a turbine factory in the city of Shenyang,...

A drive for a Personhood Amendment has been launched in Alaska. The proposed amendment would call for recognition of all human beings from the biological beginning of their development. Chris Kurka, who is leading the campaign, talked with television station KTUU. "The state's responsibility is to protect our rights -- and the most fundamental of those rights is the right to life," he explains. "So what we're doing...is asking the people of the state to sign this initiative to get it on the ballot, and then to vote for it so that the unborn will be recognized as a person...

House Democrats may finally be taking note of voters' fears of ObamaCare. The Dems were planning to pass their bill today, but Speaker Nancy Pelosi & Co. yesterday realized it might fail, and mulled delaying the vote. Here's a better idea: Give it up. There's no reason, after all, for them to follow the White House like lemmings down a path as dangerous to their party's electoral future as it is to the country. Indeed, that their trillion-dollar bill even remains a priority -- while unemployment has hit 10.2 percent, highest in 26 years, as was reported yesterday -- is...

The House healthcare bill has taken more twists and turns and has zig-zagged its way through more Democratic districts than the Mississippi River. And after a month’s worth of legislative wrangling and deal-making, the bill is approaching its final destination: a vote on final passage, expected sometime before the sun rises on Sunday. Pressing toward dawn on Saturday, the Rules committee passed a rule after nearly 12 hours that would set up a vote on the healthcare bill at 6 p.m. No Congress has ever come this close to the goal – first proposed by President Theodore Roosevelt – of...

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...

Investigators believe that the gunmen had "political and religious motives." Meanwhile, Obama is set to give a major speech in Cairo in which, among other things, he's going to point out Muslim many contributions to America. "This individual appears to have been upset with the military, the Army in particular, and that's why he did what he did," Little Rock Police Lt. Terry Hastings said in a phone interview. "He has converted to Muslim here in the past few years," Hastings said. "To be honest we're not completely clear on what he was upset about. He had never been in...

The plan to attack the Fort Dix Army Base in New Jersey this year, they wanted to "kill as many soldiers as possible!" Five Muslim immigrants accused of scheming to massacre U.S. soldiers at Fort Dix were convicted of conspiracy Monday in a case that tested the FBI's post-Sept. 11 strategy of infiltrating and breaking up terrorist plots in their earliest stages. The men could get life in prison when they are sentenced in April. The five, who lived in and around Philadelphia for years, were found guilty of conspiring to kill U.S. military personnel. But they were acquitted of...

FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) ― Former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, visited wounded soldiers and their families near the site of the worst mass shooting on an Army post in the United States. The Bushes made their private visit to Fort Hood's Darnall Army Medical Center on Friday night. Bush spokesman David Sherzer said in an e-mail that the couple thanked Fort Hood's military leaders and hospital staff for the "amazing care they are providing."

Earlier this week, Huntington Mayor Steve Updike held a press conference relaying information of coming citywide layoffs. The only position, at that date, to be announced in the layoff was the Mayor's secretary. He went on to say that six more layoffs were expected this week. Yesterday it was announce that......

Neither Barack Obama nor Nancy Pelosi can be as clueless as they want us to think they are. The White House said the president was so uninterested in the results on election night that he watched a documentary on the '08 presidential campaign, no doubt eager to see who won. Mzz Pelosi, as oblivious of the scoreboard as a ditzy cheerleader unaware of which team has the ball, insists her side won the night. Mr. Obama continues to campaign for the job the rest of us thought we gave him a year ago. The day after the Republicans sent wake-up...

<p>The dollar will get "utterly destroyed" and become "virtually worthless", said Damon Vickers, chief investment officer of Nine Points Capital Partners.</p> <p>"We don't have resources. Neither does a lot of Asia to be quite frank," Vickers said on CNBC's Asia Squawk Box. "Countries that have resources -- the Brazils, the Canadas, Australia -- their currencies are doing well."</p>

With Monday marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Ronald Reagan's son Michael tells Newsmax that his father was deeply troubled by the wall from the night it was first erected. Michael Reagan also said President Barack Obama's decision not to attend the anniversary ceremonies in Berlin is "sad," but "completely consistent" with Obama. On June 12, 1987, President Reagan delivered a rousing speech near the Berlin Wall in which he challenged the leader of the Soviet Union: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" Less than 2 1/2 years later, on Nov. 9, 1989, the wall...