Sunday, March 21, 2010
The Stupak Mystery
Slate "Here's what I suspect. As of yesterday, the White House was willing to promise Stupak an open-ended ban on abortion funding in the exchanges. But today, either because of blowback from pro-choicers* in Congress or because Stupak lost some leverage as the health reform bill acquired more votes, it was not. So a basically meaningless executive order was issued to help Stupak save face. Just a guess, but I bet I'm right." And here: AWESOME: Anti-Abortion Susan B. Anthony List Group Will No Longer Honor Stupak With Their 'Defender Of Life Award' On Wednesday "The anti-abortion Susan B. Anthony List group announced tonight they will strip Rep. Bart Stupak of the "Defender of Life" award that he's received several times."
Silver Linings
PowerlineBlog "With Stupak's collapse, passage of the Democrats' government medicine bill is assured. This is a dark day in American history; one of the darkest. But there are many reasons for optimism. Here are a few:"...
20 Ways ObamaCare Will Take Away Our Freedoms
Investors.com "Of course, the overhaul is supposed to provide us with security. But it will result in skyrocketing insurance costs and physicians leaving the field in droves, making it harder to afford and find medical care. We may be about to live Benjamin Franklin’s adage, “People willing to trade their freedom for temporary security deserve neither and will lose both.” The sections described below are taken from HR 3590 as agreed to by the Senate and from the reconciliation bill as displayed by the Rules Committee."
"Resist" logo from Weasel Zippers
Canadian University Provost Wants to Send Me to Jail… For a Speech I Haven’t Given Yet
Ann Coulter "I was hoping for a fruit basket, not a threat to prosecute:" Click on this link to see a screen shot of the email Ms. Coulter received.
Happy Dependence Day! Updated
Mark Steyn, NRO "Well, it seems to be in the bag now. I try to be a sunny the-glass-is-one-sixteenth-full kinda guy, but it's hard to overestimate the magnitude of what the Democrats have accomplished. Whatever is in the bill is an intermediate stage: As the graph posted earlier shows, the governmentalization of health care will accelerate, private insurers will no longer be free to be "insurers" in any meaningful sense of that term (ie, evaluators of risk), and once that's clear we'll be on the fast track to Obama's desired destination of single payer as a fait accomplis." Paul: Stupak's Deal ‘Unconstitutional Outrage’ and this: Pence to Stupak: You traded 30 years of pro-life law for a promise from the most pro-abortion president in history
Iran is training the Taliban; Obama grovels
Rick Moran "Not that it matters much to Obama. He's still seeking that elusive "outreach" that has made him a laughingstock from Damascus to Tehran. His latest foray into this useless diplomacy is a message to the Iranian people on the occasion of the holiday Nowruz where he begs the mullahs to open a dialogue with him."
Liberals Getting a Taste of How ‘Balance’ Feels:
Amity Shlaes "At its most devilishly aggressive -- and whatever lines it inserts about church, state, hip-hop or the Alamo -- the board will not restore true balance. It will merely manage to make the curriculum a little less skewed to the left."
Hundreds of Israelis Protest “Obama Infitada” in Gush Etzion
Gateway Pundit "Protesters at Gush Etzion told reporters, 'Obama is an enemy of the state of Israel… The American people are on our side. They oppose what Obama is doing… We are telling the Prime Minister to ‘Crush the Obama Infitada.’ ”
Bill Clinton Mocks Goracle: "It's the Start of Spring, Otherwise Known to Al Gore as Proof of Global Warming"
WSJ "So he got loosened up at Saturday night’s white-tie dinner with a joke at his own expense: “I have been waiting to stand in for President Obama for a long time,” he said, “ and since they turned me down for Dancing with the Stars, I had nothing better to do.” He said President Obama called to asked him to fill in because the current president was busy in the White House “polishing up his Nobel Peace Prize.” Obama, he said, asked: “You’ve got one of these, don’t you?”..."
You Won’t Believe This One
Jennifer Rubin "Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) said Sunday morning that he is close to striking a deal with the Obama administration on abortion provisions. “We are close to getting something done,” Stupak said in an interview with MSNBC. Stupak said he engaged in talks late into the night on Saturday night. The possible deal would focus on an executive order that would specify there would be no public funding for abortions in the healthcare bill." Do they have the votes? Update: Nye a nay; Update: Stupak Dozen member caves; Update: Stupak says a deal is close via Hot Air.
The Take: Historic win or not, Democrats could pay a price
Washington Post "The lengthy and rancorous debate has inflicted considerable damage on the president and his party. It helped spark the grass-roots "tea party" movement and generated angry town hall meetings last summer that led to some opponents painting Obama as a socialist and a communist for advocating a greater government role in the health-care industry. The issue now is whether final passage of the legislation -- Senate leaders say they will take up the reconciliation bill this week -- will cause more harm or begin a turnaround in the Democrats' fortunes heading toward the November midterm elections."
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