Monthly Archives: March 2010

March 22, 2010 — John Hinderaker

Democratic Party Corruption

Sometimes we assume that people are aware of how corrupt the Democratic Party is, but it isn’t necessarily so. I was surprised to learn that my well-informed wife didn’t know about Alcee Hastings, the paradigm of liberalism. Hastings was once a federal judge, but he was impeached–it is hard to articulate what a difficult, cumbersome process that is–because he solicited bribes from criminal defendants. That is, he approached the criminals »
March 22, 2010 — John Hinderaker

America Rising, Redux

This seems like an opportune moment to re-post the America Rising video. If you haven’t seen it, you should. As we’ve said before, it doesn’t represent our perspective in that we were never fooled by Barack Obama. But it is inspiring, now more than ever. This video has an interesting history; it hasn’t garnered a lot of views on the internet per se, but via email, we have gotten close »
March 22, 2010 — John Hinderaker

Snazzy Data

I’ve seen more interesting presentations than this one by Swedish physician and researcher Hans Rosling–I think–but not many. He animates world-wide data to show trends over the last 40 or 50 years, thereby upending conventional wisdom at a number of points, and demonstrating that Swedish students are more likely to be misinformed than chimpanzees. It’s a fun 20 minutes: The quality of data is critical, of course, and often unknown. »
March 22, 2010 — John Hinderaker

The Shoe That Has Yet To Drop

Taxes. If Congress does not act, there will be a huge tax increase next year. Congress will act, meaning that there will be a huge tax increase for some Americans–those who are already paying nearly all the taxes–but not others. But that is only the beginning. Obamacare, tax and trade, and everything else that the Obama administration wants to do in the domestic sphere costs lots of money. Harvard economist »
March 22, 2010 — Paul Mirengoff

From zero to hero where neither tag fits

With the passage of Obamacare, it’s now quite clear that President Obama has been undervalued, and not just by critics on the right. As I wrote in January, when the likes of Eugene Robinson start bad-mouthing the Obama presidency, perhaps it’s time to buy some of those beat-up Obama shares. This is not a weak and ineffective president. This is a relentless president willing to do whatever it takes to »
March 22, 2010 — John Hinderaker

Why Wait?

This morning, Republicans Steve King and Michele Bachmann (there may be other sponsors too) introduced legislation to repeal Obamacare. Mark Tapscott points out how deep a hole the Democrats have to climb out of to get the public on board with government medicine, based on CNN polling over the weekend: * 59% oppose the Democrats’ health care bill, while only 39% favor it. * 70% say the federal budget deficit »
March 22, 2010 — Paul Mirengoff

Walking the Plank

Politico offers a list of House Democrats who most clearly appear to have walked the plank by voting in favor of Obamacare. Politico divides them into three categories: (1) tough district Democrats, (2) switchers, and (3) the upwardly mobile. The last category consists of House Dems running statewide in swing or conservative districts. Politico identifies 20 members of the House who fit into the first two categories, and two more »
March 22, 2010 — John Hinderaker

A Grim Vision

Last night I wrote a relatively optimistic assessment of where conservatives, and our country, stand after yesterday’s debacle. For a bleaker view of where America is headed, check out Victor Davis Hanson’s We’ve Crossed the Rubicon. »
March 22, 2010 — Scott Johnson

What is to be undone?

The repeal of Obamacare is the organizing principle around which we must rally to put us on a path toward the restoration of limited government. David Hogberg usefully itemizes 20 ways Obamacare will take away our freedoms. We seek to rescue limited constitutional government from the maws of national socialism into which Obama and Obama’s Democrats have inserted us. The difficulty with repeal is practical. Repeal would require Republican congressional »
March 21, 2010 — John Hinderaker

Holder on the Way Out?

Eric Holder’s tenure as Attorney General has been rocky at best, but it’s interesting that the first speculation I’ve seen that his days are numbered comes from a foreign source, AFP: US Attorney General Eric Holder took office pledging a sharp shift away from the last administration’s policies, but an apparent change of heart in the White House could see the top lawyer leave his job. … [A] series of »
March 21, 2010 — John Hinderaker

Silver Linings

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: * The health care battle is just beginning. Next, the Senate will try to enact the House’s “fixes” to the original Senate bill. Some Senators say that won’t happen. If not, then President Obama has »
March 21, 2010 — John Hinderaker

Solidarity

A roar went up from anti-Obamacare protesters when Republican members hung a “Don’t Tread On Me” flag from a balcony outside the House chamber: It’s interesting: just sixteen months ago, it was clear that the Democratic Party was more in tune with the zeitgeist than the Republicans. Now it is equally undeniable, I think, that it is the Republicans who are in tune with the spirit of most Americans. It’s »
March 21, 2010 — John Hinderaker

The Hill Says Dems Are Short

Breaking news: as of a half-hour ago, The Hill says the Democrats don’t have enough votes to pass their government takeover bill: Hours before a scheduled vote on healthcare reform, Democratic leaders don’t have the votes. The decisions of two Tennessee Democrats, Reps. John Tanner and Lincoln Davis, to vote no has put President Barack Obama, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and her lieutenants in a major bind. If every member »
March 21, 2010 — John Hinderaker

The Debate Is On

For the Democrats, it is one sob story after another. Apparently pretty much everyone in America has lost his home because of medical bills. Now we’ll get to lose our homes because of taxes and insurance premiums. Some of the sob stories don’t make any apparent sense. Sheila Jackson Lee described a 32-year-old lawyer who went to an emergency room three times but was sent away with antibiotics, and eventually »
March 21, 2010 — John Hinderaker

Annals of Government Medicine

Problems in the UK’s emergency response system have come to light. The Telegraph headlines, “Woman left to die after 999 ambulance blunder:” An investigation into a woman’s death has exposed a catastrophic decision by ambulance chiefs which may have cost hundreds of lives. The blunder arose when call centre staff were not warned of flaws with a computer system that prioritises emergencies before dispatching ambulances. Bonnie Mason, 58, fell down »
March 21, 2010 — Paul Mirengoff

The Dems are there or thereabouts

With the final floor debate on Obamacare about to commence, my sense is that the Dems either have the 216 votes they need or, perhaps more likely, are a few tweaks of a draft executive order on abortion funding away. I base this mainly on the pessimistic tone of some of what Republican members are putting out and on reports about negotiations between the Democratic leaders and members like Rep. »
March 21, 2010 — Paul Mirengoff

The Obama world order

The U.S. chastises Israel; Russia chastises the U.S. »