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THURSDAY,  MARCH 18,  2010

THE OBAMA WE'VE COME TO KNOW – AT 10:14 P.M. ET:  As we count down to Sunday, High Noon in the health debate, Peggy Noonan reflects on Obama and his choir.  Noonan has been in good form recently, after a dry spell, and I think her remarks find the truth and hit it hard:

Excuse me, but it is embarrassing—really, embarrassing to our country—that the president of the United States has again put off a state visit to Australia and Indonesia because he's having trouble passing a piece of domestic legislation he's been promising for a year will be passed next week. What an air of chaos this signals to the world. And to do this to Australia of all countries, a nation that has always had America's back and been America's friend.

How bush league, how undisciplined, how kid's stuff.

How true, how true, ah yes.

You could see the startled looks on the faces of reporters as Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, who had the grace to look embarrassed, made the announcement on Thursday afternoon. The president "regrets the delay"—the trip is rescheduled for June—but "passage of the health insurance reform is of paramount importance." Indonesia must be glad to know it's not.

After a week of bashing Israel, what's one or two more allies? 

Noonan then goes on to discuss the rather stunning interview Obama gave to Bret Baier of Fox News, which the White House tried to banish from the immediate Universe only months ago.  Guess they decided they needed the Fox audience.

Baier was tough, respectful of course, but determined not to do the traditional puff piece of the in-the-tank mainstream media.  And the president was less than impressive, or effective.  He overflowed with no information.  Examine the following for the depth, knowledge and subtlety displayed by the leader of the Free World:

"Mr. President, you couldn't tell me what the special deals are that are in or not today."

Mr. Obama: "I just told you what was in and what was not in."

Mr. Baier: "Is Connecticut in?" He was referring to the blandishments—polite word—meant to buy the votes of particular senators.

Mr. Obama: "Connecticut—what are you specifically referring to?"

Mr. Baier: "The $100 million for the hospital? Is Montana in for the asbestos program? Is—you know, listen, there are people—this is real money, people are worried about this stuff."

Mr. Obama: "And as I said before, this—the final provisions are going to be posted for many days before this thing passes."

Mr. Baier pressed the president on his statement as a candidate for the presidency that a 50-plus-one governing mentality is inherently divisive. "You can't govern" that way, Sen. Obama had said. Is the president governing that way now? Mr. Obama did not really answer.

Not exactly a Lincoln.

And so it ends, with a health-care vote expected this weekend. I wonder at what point the administration will realize it wasn't worth it—worth the discord, worth the diminution in popularity and prestige, worth the deepening of the great divide. What has been lost is so vivid, what has been gained so amorphous, blurry and likely illusory. Memo to future presidents: Never stake your entire survival on the painful passing of a bad bill. Never take the country down the road to Demon Pass.

COMMENT:  Will Obama learn?  What has he learned in his first year?  About the same amount that Jimmah Carter learned in four years.  We know how that turned out in the 1980 election. 

Many warned, during the 2008 campaign, that Mr. Obama was not ready for prime time, or even mid-afternoon.  The many were ignored by the few in the mainstream media, who assured us that gods don't act like mere mortals.  Sometimes I wish this one did.

March 18, 2010   Permalink

END GAME – AT 8:10 P.M. ET:  The health-care vote is scheduled for Sunday.  This, we think, is the end game.

But maybe not.  Apparently, the Dems are now fully prepared to use every gimmick in the book, and some that are not in the book, to get the health plan through.  But lawsuits will be filed almost immediately if the bill passes, using any of these unusual measures.  The president, as reported earlier, has cancelled his trip to Asia and Australia – he doesn't need the kangaroo vote – to be present for the action.

Dems claim they're gaining votes.  The GOP doubts it.  There is a feeling of momentous history, but also open warfare, on Capitol Hill.  The president who came to office promising to end bitter partisanship is presiding over the worst partisanship of our lifetime, and seems not to mind it.

In three days we may have one sixth of the American economy essentially under federal control.  Ironically, that's when the bloodletting may just begin.  But maybe we shouldn't say "bloodletting" about a health bill. 

March 18, 2010   Permalink

CLINTON IN MOSCOW - AT  5:23 P.M. ET:  Hillary Clinton knows when to get out of town.  She's in Moscow, getting absolutely nowhere with another country we've reach out to.  The New York Times has all the exciting details, not:

MOSCOW — In a tart public clash over Iran, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said here Thursday that the planned opening this summer of a Russian-built nuclear power plant in Iran would send the wrong signal at a time when the West was trying to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin said the much delayed plant, near the Iranian city of Bushehr, would go into operation this summer, though he did not give a date. His comments, made at a meeting of nuclear officials, came on the day that Mrs. Clinton arrived here for talks with Russian leaders about an arms control agreement, Iran, the Middle East, and other issues.

“We think it would be premature to go forward with any project at this time, because we want to send an unequivocal message to the Iranians,” Mrs. Clinton said at a news conference after meeting with Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov. But Mr. Lavrov insisted that the Bushehr cooperation played “a special role” in keeping international inspectors inside Iran, and “ensuring that Iran is complying with its nonproliferation obligations."

COMMENT:  Our Iran policy is as dead as Hillary's marriage.  We have gotten nowhere, and the Russians have been no help. 

I wonder when Hillary starts looking for the exits.  She's become Barack's poodle, not the "strongest man in the Cabinet" that had been advertised.  Time to check the jobs at Craigslist.

March 18, 2010   Permalink

HEAVYWEIGHT DEM SAYS "NO" – AT 4:02 P.M. ET:  The floor whips are supposed to keep the House members in line.  But what one of them isn't in line?  From the Boston Herald:

Even one of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s floor whips, U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch, says a proposed parliamentary move to pass health-care reform would be “disingenuous” and harm the credibility of Congress.

In a sign of how tough it’s been for Pelosi to round up votes for the massive bill, Lynch - a South Boston Democrat who supported a House reform package last year - said he’ll probably vote against a key Senate version of the legislation, unless unexpected major changes are made soon.

Lynch, who serves as one of Pelosi’s key vote counters, said he also can’t support a proposed “deem and pass” procedure that would allow Democrats to vote to strip out controversial portions of the Senate bill and then “deem” that the entire package has passed without a second, direct vote.

COMMENT:  Nightmare weekend is coming up.  They're going to try to slam this through, with the president staying in town as chief enforcer.

The leader of North Korea must be sitting at his TV saying, "So that's how you do it."

March 18, 2010   Permalink

STAY HOME, YANKEE! – AT 3:55 P.M. ET:  The president has cancelled his trip to Asia so he can remain as an Obamacare-covered midwife to the health-care bill:

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama has postponed his trip to Asia until June so he can stay in Washington for a possible Sunday vote on his health care overhaul plan.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Thursday the president is disappointed and regrets having to delay his visits to Indonesia and Australia but has told the leaders of those nations that health care is a crucial priority.

"The president believes right now the place for him to be is in Washington seeing this through," Gibbs said.

Obama had already delayed the trip to Indonesia and Australia, pushing back a Thursday departure until Sunday so he could help Democrats on Capitol Hill rally last-minute votes for the plan.

COMMENT:  We really must look great to foreign nations.  We can't even schedule things well enough to allow the president to take an important foreign trip.  The Australians, who never get enough credit for standing by us, must be privately appalled. 

Real change we can believe in.  Total incompetence.

March 18, 2010   Permalink

SPEAKING OF HEALTH CARE, CORRUPTION, SCAMS, COSTS – AT 9:36 A.M. ET:  You can be sure that, if Obamacare passes, the global warmers will get their hands on it somehow in order to protect us from our own planet.  But a Canadian scientist is determined to stand in the way.  From NRO:

Ross McKitrick, the Canadian economist who helped expose the “hockey stick” diagram for overstating the modern warming trend, has just published a paper questioning another article of faith among environmental extremists: the notion that government regulations to combat smog would result in significant health benefits. McKitrick looked carefully at the available data and can’t find the claimed effect:

"For his study, he looked at breathing-related hospital admissions and pollution levels in 11 Canadian cities between 1974 and 1994. The period covered a time when pollution was worse and there were more dramatic changes in air quality, which he said would produce more robust results...

"...The results were clear: lower smoking rates meant fewer respiratory-health hospital admissions, higher income levels were sometimes linked to slightly more admissions and air-pollution had no effect, he said."

Advocates of increased regulation have always counted on the fact that, because asserted links between pollution reduction and health benefit appear plausible, no one will check them out.

With the likes of McKitrick on the case, don’t count on it.

One of the dangers of Obamacare, rarely discussed, is that money will be spent on the wrong things simply because some trendy cause group demands it.  It will be up to real scientists, and real physicians, to point out the difference between a fashionable idea and science.  And yes, there will be career risks.  Ross McKitrick has already paid a career price in Canada for exposing some of the problems in "global warming."

March 18, 2010   Permalink

THE SCOTT BROWN OF ILLINOIS – AT 8:20 A.M. ET:  Republicans dream of taking Barack Obama's former Senate seat in the blue state of Illinois this November.  It appears they have a solid shot.  From The Washington Times:

It worked in Massachusetts, so Illinois Republicans are looking for a repeat.

"This is not Obama's seat, it's the people's seat," Rep. Mark Steven Kirk, the Republican candidate running for Illinois' Senate seat vacated by the president, declares at campaign stops.

Eager to tap the voter angst and stump lines that propelled Sen. Scott Brown to unexpected victory in another Democrat-dominated state, Massachusetts, Mr. Kirk has made it clear that even though the president remains popular in his home state, his policies aren't.

And with just 38 percent of all Illinois voters giving Mr. Obama good or excellent ratings for his handling of health care reform, the five-term lawmaker is actually putting the Democratic stronghold in play.

"For the first time in a long time, the Republicans have a good chance of winning this Senate seat," said Paul Green, a professor of policy studies at Roosevelt University in Chicago.

And...

A Rasmussen poll last week showed the race statistically tied, with Mr. Kirk trailing Democrat Alexi Giannoulias, the treasurer of Illinois and a basketball-playing friend of Mr. Obama's, by just three points, well within the survey's margin of error.

The Democrats in Illinois have some image problems, extending to Mr. Giannoulias:

He has been under scrutiny as state treasurer for his handling as of a college savings program that lost $150 million. His family's bank, Broadway Bank, where he worked as a lending officer before entering politics, is on the verge of takeover by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The bank made hundreds of millions of dollars in bad loans and shortly before the mortgage crisis, the Giannoulias family withdrew $70 million from the bank in 2007 and 2008, according to news reports.

Mr. Giannoulias also made millions of dollars in loans to Tony Rezko, a political fundraiser for Mr. Blagojevich who is awaiting sentencing on convictions of fraud and money laundering. He also made loans to Michael "Jaws" Giorango, a convicted prostitution-ring operator.

The sad fact is, though, that these things have been known for quite some time, and Giannoulias still got the Democratic nomination and still leads in the polls.  Corruption tends to be accepted in Illinois.

Mark Kirk is an excellent candidate, but this will be a very tough fight.  The Democratic Party does not want to be humiliated by losing Obama's seat.  You will see how rough Chicago politics can be.  The cemeteries will empty on election day as the faithful go to the polls, and return for a second visit.

March 18, 2010   Permalink

FOREIGN AFFAIRS?  WHO NEEDS 'EM? - AT 8:04 A.M. ET:  Mr. Obama has already delayed his Asian trip by three days, meaning all the caterers in Indonesia and Australia have to buy fresh beans, and those little girls who greet foreign leaders at airports need new flower bouquets.

But the Dems want him to postpone again.  This must look great to other countries.  From the Washington Post:

Some Democrats in Congress are worrying that President Obama may be making a mistake by traveling overseas next week, just when his year-long push for a health-care overhaul could come up for a final vote in the Senate.

"The timing is ill-advised. We need all hands on deck," said Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.). "If nothing else, the atmospherics it creates by being on the foreign trip when we're doing the heavy lifting on this is wrong. If I were asked, I'd tell him to postpone it."

Few lawmakers were willing to voice such criticism of their president, who will leave Sunday for a five-day excursion to Indonesia, Guam and Australia. The trip has already been delayed by three days so Obama could be in Washington for the House's vote, but the timing for that vote keeps getting pushed back.

I hope that surgery, under Obamacare, runs more smoothly.

As planning for the trip races ahead, one top Democratic aide on Capitol Hill said conversations between the White House and lawmakers about his departure have been tense.

"It's fair to say that when the White House staff broached this with House and Senate leadership staff, they heard very serious concerns about it," said the aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private strategy talks. "They know damn well that we have concerns."

Those concerns grew more urgent Wednesday as Democrats continued to wait for the Congressional Budget Office to "score" the cost of the health-care legislation, raising fears that a vote may be delayed until Sunday.

What do you tell the prime minister of Australia?  "Kevin?  This is Barack.  Say, Kevin, I've come down with that swine flu you sent us..."

This administration does not exactly present an image of precision and competence.

March 18, 2010   Permalink

HEALTH CARE – THE COUNTDOWN – CUE DRAMATIC MUSIC – AT 7:52 A.M. ET:  The deadline is slipping.  From The Hill:

House Democratic leaders on Wednesday night said the long-awaited Congressional Budget Office score of the reconciliation bill will not come out until Thursday, forcing an acknowledgement that a Saturday healthcare vote is likely off the table.

But leaders are still hoping for a score on Thursday, and are still preparing for a possible vote before the end of the weekend.

The "score" is the CBO's estimate of what the bill, and its various components, will cost the nation.

The release of a CBO score on Thursday – triggering the Democrats' 72-hour clock – would mean that voting on the reconciliation bill would “most likely happen on Sunday, if that scenario plays out,” Assistant to the Speaker Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) told reporters after leaving Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) office Wednesday night.

Dear Leader is scheduled to leave for Indonesia, or, as he calls it, the old country, at noon on Sunday.  Would he leave before the vote is complete? 

Maybe we could have a guest president, like a guest host, acknowledge the result of the vote.  "Barack couldn't make it this afternoon, but sitting in for him is...Jimmy Carter." 

Many sources say the Dems are still five votes or so, maybe a few more, away from sealing the deal.

March 18,  2010   Permalink

WEDNESDAY,  MARCH 17,  2010

STATES START THE REBELLION – AT 8:26 P.M. ET:  Those lazy, uninformed, we-don't-care-'bout-nothin'-but-fuh-ball Americans just won't learn their place.  What's gotten into these creatures?  Now the states (do the finer European countries have states?) want to inject themselves into health care, surely a province of the better educated.  From AP:

BOISE, Idaho — Idaho took the lead in a growing, nationwide fight against health care overhaul Wednesday when its governor became the first to sign a measure requiring the state attorney general to sue the federal government if residents are forced to buy health insurance.

Similar legislation is pending in 37 other states.

Constitutional law experts say the movement is mostly symbolic because federal laws supersede those of the states.

But the state measures reflect a growing frustration with President President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. The proposal would cover some 30 million uninsured people, end insurance practices such as denying coverage to those with pre-existing conditions, require almost all Americans to get coverage by law, and try to slow the cost of medical care nationwide.
Democratic leaders hope to vote on it this weekend.

With Washington closing in on a deal in the months-long battle over health care overhaul, Republican state lawmakers opposed to the measure are stepping up opposition.

Otter, a Republican, said he believes any future lawsuit from Idaho has a legitimate shot of winning, despite what the naysayers say.

"The ivory tower folks will tell you, 'No, they're not going anywhere,' " he told reporters. "But I'll tell you what, you get 36 states, that's a critical mass. That's a constitutional mass." 

COMMENT:  Federal law does supersede state law.  However, a revolt of the states can have two effects:  First, it can have a powerful political influence in Washington.  Members of Congress are influenced by what their states do and feel.  Governors may not have the bully pulpit of the president, but they do have pulpits.  They also have the ability to propose state health plans that can be adopted nationally if enough people get behind them.

Second, and it's a real nuclear option, a revolt of the states can lead to a Constitutional amendment.  Remember, we repealed prohibition through an amendment.  If Americans really come to despise a national health plan, it can be Constitutionally amended out of business.  While I would be reluctant to see the amending process used for that purpose, the Obamans are pushing hard, against public opposition, and it might just come to that. 

March 17, 2010   Permalink

REPEAL!  REPEAL! – AT 7:28 P.M. ET:  Like good Boy Scouts, Republicans want to be prepared.  Anticipating the nightmarish possibility that the health-care monstrosity might actually pass, the GOP is organizing its next step, as the Washington Post reports.  Unlike Hollywood actors, Republicans aren't threatening to leave the country:

Can Republicans win election this fall by campaigning to repeal the health-care legislation now nearing passage in Congress?

Even as House Democrats search for the votes to send the bill to President Obama, dozens of Republican lawmakers and candidates have signed a pledge to back an effort to repeal the bill, should the GOP take control of either house of Congress after this fall's elections.

Started by the conservative activist group Club for Growth, the "Repeal It" movement first won the backing in January of some of the most conservative Republicans in Congress, such as "tea party" favorite Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.). It has since expanded to include some of the party's Senate candidates in liberal-leaning states such as New Hampshire and Illinois.

Congressional Republicans are currently battling the Democrats over the House procedures they could use to pass the health-care bill. But they are promising this fall to continue the spirited debate over the substance of the bill that has dominated the last year on Capitol Hill. And the repeal will likely be a key issue, even as lawmakers on both sides acknowledge any repeal would be highly unlikely as long as President Obama remains in office, as he could veto any such legislation.

True.  But let him veto it.  It will further the argument that he must be replaced in 2012. 

March 17, 2010   Permalink

THE NON-WANTING OF OBAMA – AT 6:38 P.M. ET:  For the first time, the Gallup poll shows more voters disapproving of Obama's performance than approving.

Some 47% disapprove, and 46% approve in the poll released today.

Compare please with the latest Rasmussen survey, released this morning:

Overall, 44% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President's performance. Fifty-five percent (55%) disapprove.

The big difference is in the "disapprove" category.  But the approval numbers, 44% in Rasmussen, 46% in Gallup, are remarkably close.  It appears that Obama's approval numbers are now hovering in the mid-forties.  This is not a great tribute.  Mr. Obama is dragging down his party, not enhancing it.

March 17, 2010   Permalink

AIR FORCE ONE, AND ITS INFLUENCE ON WHETHER YOU GET THAT LIFE-SAVING OPERATION – AT 11:30 A.M. ET:  Congressman Dennis Kucinich, the far-left loon from Cleveland, has shifted his vote from "no" to "yes" on health-care reform, after getting a ride on Air Force One.

Kucinich had opposed the Dem leaders' health bill all along because he felt it wasn't leftist enough.  But now, after the magic-carpet ride, he's suddenly had a change of heart.  The brain was not involved.  From Fox:

Developing: Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, announced Wednesday that he would vote for the Senate health care bill, becoming the most prominent House Democrat to reverse his opposition.

With Kucinich's switch, Democrats now have 212 votes in favor of the bill, four shy of the 216-threshold needed for passage.

That 212 number may be a bit high, if other news sources are to be believed.

"This is not the bill I wanted to support even as I continued efforts into the last minute to try and modify the bill," he said at a news conference. "However, after careful discussions with President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, my wife Elizabeth and close friends, I've decided to cast a vote in favor of the legislation."

Kucinich voted against the House bill in November and has opposed the Senate bill because it doesn't include a government-run insurance plan.

But Kucinich has been under enormous pressure in recent weeks to lend his support to the bill, especially from Obama, who visited Kucinich's district on Monday.

Kucinich flew with Obama on Air Force One to a rally where members of the audience chanted at Kucinich to support the bill.

COMMENT:  I wonder what they fed him on the plane.  I wonder what movie they showed.  Probably "Reds."

March 17, 2010   Permalink

THE FUTURE OF FOX NEWS – AT 10:15 P.M. ET:  Those on our side have come to depend on Fox News as one of the few outlets where our views get a fair hearing.  But will that always be the case?

There have been some disturbing signs in recent days.  Fox, of course, is under the control of Rupert Murdoch, pro-American stalwart and something of a media genius.  But Murdoch is aging, and it's widely reported that his son, James, who's becoming increasingly powerful in the parent News Corporation, which owns Fox, has views rather different from those of his father.  In particular, James has an affinity for the Arab world, despite the fact that freedom of the press doesn't exactly thrive in that culture. 

Fox News has received an infusion of Saudi money, primarily from a Saudi prince who spreads money around the United States to buy influence.  Fox announced a few weeks ago that its Mideast headquarters would be in Abu Dhabi.

The obvious question is whether these changes will affect Fox's reporting.  Several commentators have already noticed, as have I, a subtle change to a more pro-Arab line in some Fox news reports.  A report by Amy Kellogg about the Golan Heights last night was particularly disturbing, coming from a reporter who's been reliable in the past.  Left out completely, and shockingly, was the fact that the Golan had been used as an artillery platform by Syria to pound villages in Israel proper before Israel seized the Heights in the 1967 Six-Day War.  Some of the reporting from Jerusalem has also been leaving out the context that Fox has normally supplied in the past. 

How far will this go?  Hard to say.  But I'm afraid the signs aren't good.  Rupert Murdoch will fade away.  Money talks.  It is frightening to think of the influences that may come into play in the Murdoch empire in the future, an empire that includes Twentieth Century Fox studios, the Times of London, and the The Wall Street Journal.  We may find Fox taking the side of the very people who would deny it the freedom to report freely.

So far I haven't seen any anti-American slant creeping into Fox's reporting, but one can legitimately have concerns.  James Murdoch is British, but educated in the United States at Harvard, from which he dropped out.  His wife works for a Bill Clinton-sponsored organization, the Clinton Climate Initiative. 

March 17, 2010   Permalink 

BARONE ON DEM TACTICS – AT 8:45 A.M. ET:  Michael Barone, a truly distinguished political analyst, dissects the health-care drama on Capitol Hill, one of the most exciting (and depressing) legislative battles of our lifetime:

Even when the party's president and policies are widely popular, some of its House members will be representing districts where that is not so, where they win because of personal popularity or historical tradition, constituency services or generous earmarking. Of the 253 current House Democrats, 45 represent districts that voted for John McCain. Even Democratic policies that are popular nationally aren't popular in most of these districts.

But the Democratic health care legislation is not popular nationally. Barack Obama won nationally 53 percent to 46 percent, but the RealClearPolitics.com average of recent polls shows disapproval of health care at 49 percent to 41 percent. Health care 2010 is polling 12 points behind Obama 2008.

And...

...there are only 115 Democratic members in seats where the putative support for the health care legislation is 50 percent or higher — 101 votes short of the 216 votes needed for a majority in a House with vacancies in four Democratic seats.

Barone points out that the Dem leaders in the House represent safe districts.  Not so their troops:

For many Democratic members — especially the 37 Democrats who voted no last November — the best thing to happen is for the bill not to come to a vote on the floor and just go away...

...My sense is that the current Democratic leadership is at least 10 votes short of the 216-vote majority. So far none of the 37 November no votes has publicly committed to voting yes, not even Dennis Kucinich, who objects to the legislation because it doesn't go far enough. And some of the yeses, like Bart Stupak, sponsor of the abortion funding ban in the House bill, are committed noes.

Finally...

Speaker Nancy Pelosi and White House press secretary Robert Gibbs confidently insisted last weekend that the bill would pass this week. Maybe not.

COMMENT:  The obscenity here is to try to seize one sixth of the nation's economy, and a sector where life and death is involved, with so little support from the public.  The arrogance of the Democratic leadership is breathtaking.  Normally, major, nation-changing legislation has at least some bipartisan support.  The civil rights laws of 1964, which changed the nation, had bipartisan backing.  So did Medicare.  What's happening now is almost unprecedented, and dangerous.

March 17, 2010   Permalink

TURN LEFT AND COUGH – AT 8:15 A.M. ET:  President Obama is scheduled to leave for Asia at noon on Sunday.  The House, at least according to the Pelosi Plan, will vote on health care no later than Saturday.  But are the votes there?

Actually, no one seems to know.  But momentum, as of this morning, appeared to be with the opponents:

Washington (CNN) -- Five more House Democrats said Tuesday that they will vote against Senate health care legislation, which puts opponents of reform just 11 votes shy of the 216 needed to prevent President Obama from scoring a major victory on his top domestic priority.

An ongoing CNN analysis shows that opposition in the House to the Senate health care plan has reached 205 members.

A total of 216 would be needed to block the bill.

Dem leaders are floating a controversial plan to have the House pass the legislation without actually voting on it.  Under this maneuver, members would vote on only certain provisions of the Senate bill, avoiding a vote on the entire, unpopular package.  The bill would then be "deemed" to have passed. 

As we reported yesterday, many Constitution experts consider the maneuver unconstitutional, but Dems may try it anyway so Obama can sign the bill before going on his Asian adventure.

We're following this hour by hour.  The whole process is a shambles.  Human lives depend on how we run health-care "reform."  Foreigners must be impressed by what they see.  That is a joke.

March 17, 2010   Permalink

OH YES, THERE'S THAT TERROR BUSINESS – AT 8:01 A.M. ET:  From the Washington Post:

Five Northern Virginia men arrested in Pakistan in December were charged Wednesday with six counts of violating state and anti-terror laws, several of which carry potential sentences of life in prison.

The men, ages 18 to 24, pleaded not guilty. A judge said the evidentiary phase of the trial will begin March 31.

The judge granted a request from prosecutors to charge the men with using Pakistani soil for terror attacks against a friendly country, attempting to use Pakistani soil for terror acts against a friendly country and directing a person or an organization to commit terrorist activities, all of which carry potential life sentences; and with criminal conspiracy to commit terror attacks in Pakistan, using and possessing money or property for committing terrorism and inciting other people to commit terror activities, all of which carry sentences of up to seven years.

Lawyers for the men said the trial should take about six months, and would be held in a special anti-terror court inside a sprawling prison in the dusty midland town of Sargodha, in central Punjab province.

Since there are no jury trials in Pakistan, the trial will be held before a judge. Prosecutors could request that it be held in secret.

And...

Pakistani police and intelligence officials who have interrogated the five men have said they were in contact for months with a Taliban recruiter and were trying to join up with al-Qaeda. They were hoping to battle U.S. troops in Afghanistan, the Pakistani officials said. The men's family members, friends and spiritual advisers in Northern Virginia have said they never saw any sign of radical activities or beliefs.

COMMENT:  Curious, but there's nothing in the piece about the attitude of the United States Government.  We'll play Devil's Advocate for a moment:  We despise terrorists and jihadism, but these are American citizens.  Will we try to have them shifted to the U.S. for trial, or will we accept Pakistani justice?  What will the attitude of the American left be? 

We'll study the case.  We'd also like a follow-up on why friends, relatives and "spiritual advisers" in the U.S. saw nothing unusual about these chaps.  You mean, they suddenly got up one day and went to Pakistan?  Did they really mean to go to Disneyland?  Travel-agency mixup?

March 17,  2010   Permalink