Stupak Out

House Democrat Bart Stupak hangs a "No Sale" sign on the Senate abortion language, prompting fear among the Firedogs.

Comments

[Jack is Back!]

He is also leading the congressional charge agains Toyota today at the hearings. Of course, Michigan is primed and pumped up getting a chance to chase down Toyota and make them look like complicit criminals. They very well may be but there is something conflicting to have the US who owns two major competitors of Toyota plus a UAW paid for congressman controlling the agenda and narrative.

[anduril]

you can bet he's not the only dem out there looking for a principled reason to allow this latest incarnation of obamacare to die a slow death. if they managed it before, they can do it again, and motives to do so get stronger every day.

[narciso]

Are we going for the football, yet again, the abortion provision is only one of the things
wrong with it; Sometimes I get this strange
feeling of deja vu, Sometimes I get this strange. . .

[anduril]

And I'm betting this will play into it all as well: America Just Declared The Recovery Over So You'd Better Get Ready For The Double Dip.

This is a very lengthy blog, and the news is all bad. People will be asking--hopefully at the "summit"--why isn't the WH doing something for the economy instead of trying to further trash it with more socialism?

[anduril]

Abortion is a good reason objectively and subjectively. Subjectively, because it allows the Rep to look principled, instead of telling the voters: the only reason I voted against this was because you scare the shit out of me.

[And they hope to be on the ballot with Obama in '12.]

The House Dems say what have you done for me lately?
==================================

[anduril]

Anybody here have a Kindle? This should piss you off: Amazon pays Microsoft for Linux.

What was Jeff Bezos, Amazon's CEO, thinking? Amazon just signed a patent cross-licensing deal that pays Microsoft intellectual property fees for, among other things, patents that cover Amazon's Linux-based Kindle e-reader and its Linux servers. Too bad Microsoft has never, ever been able to show that its patents cover anything to do with Linux.

This should disgust you.

[anduril]

John Fund--after reviewing how far the Dems are from the necessary votes to pass their Big Bluff--offers his view of what they're up to:

The most likely explanation for what President Obama and his Democratic allies are up to by pressing forward with a bill is the following: 1) They are hoping his "bipartisan" summit meeting this Thursday will somehow be a game-changer and give health-care reform new momentum; 2) Democrats are trying to show unions and other allies that the Democratic leadership is making a maximum effort on health care before pivoting and blaming GOP obstructionism for its failure.

The best health-care analysts I know say Democrats have perhaps a 15% chance of threading the needle and getting a comprehensive bill signed into law. But even that success could be costly politically if voters came to believe Democrats had ignored the public's feelings and rammed through a bill anyway. The most recent surveys show that 61% of the American people want Democrats to put aside the existing bills and start over.

[matt]

This is starting to sound like a combination of Custer's Last Stand and the Charge of the Light Brigade.

I hope the Republicans either go and stand their ground or simply stare at the Idiot King until he cries.

[MikeS]

The Administration's obsession with health care is a little frightening. Our economy is in the tank. Consumer confidence is in a free fall. Our international allies we treat like adversaries. Our adversaries laugh in the President's face. Our energy plan is rainbows and unicorns. Yada yada.

It's a little like finding out that Jack Nicholson's character in the Shinning is Captain of the ship of state.

[Sue]

Dick Cheney had a "mild" heart attack. Yoweee! Not good news.

[Captain Hate]

The Administration's obsession with health care is a little frightening.

Maybe Barry Soetoro was a petulant little bastard who never would take "No" for an answer which was why Stanley Ann and Lolo sent his whiny ass packing back to his commie grandparents in Hawaii.

[Pofarmer]

I hope the Republicans either go and stand their ground or simply stare at the Idiot King until he cries.

I suppose that pointing and laughing would be too big a break in decorum?

[DebinNC]

List of Republican Senators who'll be there, including two MDs. They seem a rather inoffensive bunch to me, maybe purposely so to thwart BO's demonizing them.

[Extraneus]

I suppose that pointing and laughing would be too big a break in decorum?

"You lie" might be ok, though, seeing as it's not a joint session of Congress.

[Thomas Collins]

Address POTUS as Professor Obama. That probably won't affect Obama, but Ogletree will go wild.

[MikeS]

"You lie" might be ok..."

The President usually a strawman and knocks down the strawman's non-existent claims.

The Republican's don't have to create strawmen. They can knockdown real claims that have been made by the Dem leadership and the Administration by saying, "that's not true."

[Ignatz]

Here's a Powerline story on the efficacy of the knothead running the Republican party [into the ground].
A good day for Michael Steele is when he doesn't do something to embarrass himself or his party by not being in the news. It is apparently impossible for him to do anything actually productive.
Fire him.

[Thomas Collins]

In the Powerline story on Steele linked by Ignatz, it is stated that:

"According to this report, Steele is spending twice as much as his recent predecessors on private planes, and paying more for limousines, catering and flowers. This development is said be infuriating the party's major donors. Imagine how it will play among members of the Tea Party movement, many of whom already look askance at the Republican party."

Private planes? Perhaps Steele should form a third party with Nancy Pelosi.

[narciso]

I have only one thing to say, doh

[Extraneus]

Doesn't she only travel on military jets?

[anduril]

Mickey Kaus pokes fun at the True Believers:

Obama's compromise health care plan is out, and "the impact on the politics will be tremendous," gushes WaPo's health care cheerleader Ezra Klein. "The release of this plan marks the end of the Scott Brown election and the resumption of the health-care process." It enables the Democrats to "take back control of the media's narrative," just as they did when they waited out the Tea Parties last August, then "used the president's big speech to pivot to the release and subsequent passage of the Senate Finance Committee's bill." ...Remember the stunning success of the president's speech? It's right here on this graph--if you squint hard you can see the temporary pause in the seemingly ineluctable rise in public opposition to Obama's health care reform right around the beginning of September. It lasted a couple of weeks. Then opposition started rising again. Now it's over 50%, with support ten points lower. ... The Dems must have lost "control of the media's narrative"! Does Klein really believe this stuff? I don't know which answer would be more embarrassing.

And Hugh Hewitt piles on, riffing off Obama's terrible polls:

Whatever his standing --terrible, or worse-than-terrible-- among Buckeye voters, it will decline even more with this Thursday's stunt summit. The president's handlers are persuaded that the American people are as dumb as cement, and that tricks and fast talk will persuade them that Obamacare is new and improved when it is in fact only even bigger and more expensive than in December. Every time the president pushes this or any other plan to swell government even more and increase the debt on the next generation even more obscenely, his numbers will fall, and with those numbers the future of Democrats in the House and Senate.

The Washington Post describes the president's plan in a headline as "staying on the offensive," and then in the body of the report as Obama's decision "to go big one last time." What it really is is undeniable proof that this president is hard left to the core, indifferent to public opinion, and willing to sacrifice scores of his Democratic allies in the House and Senate to try and push through a remake of American society via its health care systems.

Michael Barone quotes on Beltway insider as suggesting the summit is really just a dance of the exit strategies. That is not what the netroots are seeing. They are cheering the attempt to drive the destruction of American medicine forward.

Here I'm with Hewitt and the netroots: Obama really is Left to the Core and really does want to jam this through--it's not just political positioning.

[Danube of Thought]

I understand Coburn is encyclopedic on this stuff, with the added cred of actually being a doctor. I hope he does most of the talking for our side.

[Danube of Thought]

Love this jewel from Fund:

"Senators have yet to be convinced Ms. Pelosi can pull this off. Privately, Democratic members tell me she doesn't have anywhere near the votes yet."

[Thomas Collins]

That's why they'd be such a great pair for the new party, Extraneus. Steele would use fundraising proceeds for planes, and, Pelosi would continue to score trips on military aircraft.

[Extraneus]

Speaking of new parties, if this last-gasp attempt at HCR goes down in flames, we might see some distressed libs run their own candidates, too. They can call it the Milk & Cookie Party or something catchy and indicative like that.

[DebinNC]

Reuters: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will attend the summit, joined by Democratic Senators Dick Durbin, Chuck Schumer, Patty Murray, Max Baucus, Chris Dodd, Tom Harkin, Jay Rockefeller and Kent Conrad.

McConnell must have a a direct line to God.

[Extraneus]

Sweet timing here, too:

[Newfoundland and Labrador Premier]: 'My heart, my choice,' Williams says, defending decision for U.S. heart surgery

[glasater]

Patty Murray

Heh

I hope the D's let her speak at length......

[anduril]

Via Powerline:

How is this for a triple whammy for the Democrats? By 56-41 percent, voters oppose Obamacare. Those numbers have barely moved since November. On the generic Congressional ballot, Republicans lead Democrats by nine points. And President Obama's approval index stands at an anemic -19. Overall, only 45 percent of likely voters approve of the President's performance.

[bolitha]

DebinNc--I don't think the senators (Repub) are inoffensive--with the exception of Drs. Coburn and Barrasso, the other senators going are really ones IMO who will try, try to compromise!! EEKK.

[Jon]

I seems more likely to me that the Democratic leadership doesn't expect, or even want, Obamacare to pass at this point. I think they're putting it up for another vote so that vulnerable congressmen can switch to "no" votes in the hope that such votes will inoculate them against their constituents' anger in November.

[U-R-Cool]

If I appear learned, it is because I have followed the footprints of philosophers like Rod Serling.

The word that Mrs. Bronson is unable to put into the hot, still, sodden air is doomed, because the people you've just seen have been handed a death sentence.

One month ago, the Earth suddenly changed its elliptical orbit and in doing so began to follow a path which gradually, moment by moment, day by day, took it closer to the sun. And all of man's little devices to stir up the air are now no longer luxuries - they happen to be pitiful and panicky keys to survival. The time is five minutes to twelve, midnight. There is no more darkness. The place is New York City and this is the eve of the end, because even at midnight it's high noon, the hottest day in history, and you're about to spend it in the Twilight Zone.
==========================

[Porchlight]

History repeats the old conceits
The glib replies the same defeats
Keep your finger on important issues
With crocodile tears and a pocketful of tissues

Works for all things Obama.

[U-R-A-Hottie]

Unable to cope with the literally unbearable conditions of the raging sun, Mrs. Bronson collapses to the floor and perishes. The thermometer surges past 120°F, and eventually shatters. As Norma's oil paintings melt from the extreme heat, Norma screams and also collapses.

The scene cuts to the apartment at night. In the inconceivably frigid darkness outside, the weather is anything but hot. The same thermometer reads -10°F and there is a blizzard outside. Norma is bedridden with a high fever, and is accompanied by Mrs. Bronson and a doctor. She was only dreaming that the Earth was moving closer to the sun. In reality, the Earth is moving away from the Sun, which will eventually lead to the earth freezing over. Norma tells Mrs. Bronson about her nightmare, adding, "Isn't it wonderful to have darkness, and coolness?"
==========================

[MikeS]

If I appear learned...

No. Not yet.

[PaulV]

U-R-Cool
At the end it is revealed that the earth is getting farther from sun and the doctor will go south to avoid global cooling

[glasater]

Didn't we all have to memorize this poem"

Some say the world will end in fire;
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

--Robert Frost

[Cecil Turner]

Good grief. anduril on topic (more or less) with practically every comment? I think I'm gonna join Cheney in hospital.

[PaulL]

Well, as my pappy used to tell me, it's better if it's cold, because you can always put on more clothes; whereas, if it's hot, there's a limit to how much you can take off.

[PaulL]

Porchlight,

I recognize that as Elvis Costello, from his last good work.

[Ignatz]

--Good grief. anduril on topic (more or less) with practically every comment?--

And no condescending put downs.
Obvious sockpuppetry.

[anduril]

From the Tele:

Providing fresh details yesterday about the identity of a second group involved in the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mahbhouh, Dubai’s police chief disclosed that up to three of the killers carried documents identifying themselves as foreign diplomats.

“There is information that the Dubai police will not make public for the moment, especially regarding diplomatic passports,” Lt Gen Dahi Khalfan told a local newspaper.

Although he did not elaborate, the disclosure is certain to increase diplomatic tensions between Israel and European countries, including Britain. Any fraudulent use of diplomatic passports would be considered a grave security breach by the country, or countries, that issued them.

He says "especially" but not "exclusively." So there may be more information of interest out there.

[anduril]

Steve Sailer re Obama and religion:

Look, wouldn't the simplest explanation be that Obama was just yanking our chains about the Jesus stuff? That, as he admitted he was told in 1985, he'd need to join a church in Chicago if he expected to have a political career on the South Side. So he picked out the most radically leftist upscale one available? That he gave $53,770 to Rev. Wright's Church in 2005-2007 in gratitude for helping him establish his blackness? As Alison Samuels reported in Newsweek on why Oprah quit Wright's Church in the 1990s but Obama would not:

Friends of Sen. Barack Obama, whose relationship with Wright has rocked his bid for the White House, insist that it would be unfair to compare Winfrey’s decision to leave Trinity United with his own decision to stay. “[His] reasons for attending Trinity were totally different,” said one campaign adviser, who declined to be named discussing the Illinois senator’s sentiments. “Early on, he was in search of his identity as an African-American and, more importantly, as an African-American man. Reverend Wright and other male members of the church were instrumental in helping him understand the black experience in America. Winfrey wasn’t going for that. She’s secure in her blackness, so that didn’t have a hold on her.”

[Porchlight]

Porchlight,

I recognize that as Elvis Costello, from his last good work.

Bingo, PaulL. I'm not sure it's his very last - I really like Blood and Chocolate - but it sure is a great one. That might be my favorite Costello song ever, which is saying something. Bass and drums are incredible.

[Old Lurker]

Best thing for me about Elvis Costello is he is married to Diana Krall.

[PaulL]

Porch, I first saw E.C. in concert in 1979 in Columbus, Ohio. He was super, still in his punk period. This was earlier the same night of his infamous brawl with Stephen Stills.

I was a fan of his first few albums but Imperial Bedroom was great, no question.

But after that I could barely stand him. Punch the Clock was unlistenable, his Brodsky Quartet stuff was godawful with his studied over-emoting, then collaborating with Bacharach, geez.

[Porchlight]

Paul, I'm with you. I enjoyed a few things after King of America and Blood and Chocolate but it fell off fast.

I saw him about 6 years ago and was unimpressed. The Attractions sounded fantastic, but he couldn't keep up with them - so many lyrics he couldn't stay on the beat. Everyone else thought it was great, but I wished I hadn't gone.

Totally agree about his pretentious later BS. Yuck. But his early output was so substantial that it doesn't matter. Very few people have put out 7 albums of that quality in 5 years (My Aim Is True through Imperial Bedroom). 8 if you count some of the non-album singles.