seconds: Million 0.0328 years; Billion 31.7 years; Trillion 31,710 years


Visit USADebtClock.com to learn more!

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Releases from Gitmo are coming back to haunt us

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Christmas day's recycled terrorists

With reports appearing that former Guantanamo detainees played a role in the attempted Christmas Day bombing of Northwest Flight 253, President Obama's plan to shutter the facility, putting detainees back on the streets, doesn't look so popular. Nor should it. Every released detainee has the potential for political and literal blowback.

Details are sketchy, but this much we know. On Jan. 24, Guantanamo alumni Mohammed Atiq Awayd al-Harbi (aka al-Awfi, or detainee No. 333) and Said Ali al-Shiri (detainee No. 372), both from Saudi Arabia, appeared in a video announcing their leadership roles in the newly formed al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. This was the same organization that recruited Flight 253 bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. More>>

Al-Qaeda War Games

Terrorism was the aim, not bringing down the plane which would force Obama to go to war against Yemen. He certainly doesn't want to do that against the brotherhood!



Wikipedia Meets Its Own Climategate

How Wikipedia's green doctor rewrote 5,428 climate articles.

By Tom Bethell on 12.30.09 @ 6:08AM

Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, had an article in yesterday's Wall Street Journal drawing attention to the rise of "online hostility" and the "degeneration of online civility." He (and coauthor Andrea Weckerle) suggested ways in which we can "prevent the worst among us from silencing the best among us."

I agree with just about everything that they say. But there is one problem that Mr. Wales does not go near. That is the use of Wikipedia itself to inflame the political debate by permitting activists to rewrite the contributions of others. All by itself, that surely is a contributor to online incivility.

The issue that I am particularly thinking about is "climate change" -- or global warming as it was once called (until the globe stopped warming, about a decade ago). Recently the Financial Post in Canada published an article by Lawrence Solomon, with this remarkable headline:

How Wikipedia's green doctor rewrote 5,428 climate articles.

Solomon draws attention to the online labors of one William M. Connolley, a Green Party activist and software engineer in Britain. Starting in February 2003, Connolley set to work on the Wikipedia site. I continue with a two-paragraph direct quote from Mr. Solomon's article:

[Connolley] rewrote Wikipedia's articles on global warming, on the greenhouse effect, on the instrumental temperature record, on the urban heat island, on climate models, on global cooling. On Feb. 14, he began to erase the Little Ice Age; on Aug. 11, the Medieval Warm Period. In October, he turned his attention to the hockey stick graph. He rewrote articles on the politics of global warming and on the scientists who were skeptical of the band [of climatologist activists]. Richard Lindzen and Fred Singer, two of the world's most distinguished climate scientists, were among his early targets, followed by others that the band [of activists] especially hated, such as Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, authorities on the Medieval Warm Period.




For liberals, politics trumps American safety

Anti-Anti-Terrorism aka Man Caused Disasters

By Robert Stacy McCain on 12.28.09 @ 6:08AM

When Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to detonate an explosive aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day, liberals were quick to warn against the clear and present danger.

It wasn't the threat of al Qaeda-trained bombers blowing up Detroit-bound planes that concerned them. Rather, liberals feared that Americans might blame the Obama administration for failing to protect them from terrorists or -- perhaps even worse -- demand action against the violent extremists who want to kill us all.

Liberals believe most of their fellow citizens are benighted troglodytes, so there was also the frightening possibility of a xenophobic hate-crime backlash. Monitoring one reliable barometer of elite sentiment, Andrew Breitbart remarked: "Based upon my NPR listening sessions, I am fearful that reactionary Americans are going to go on a rampage against Nigerians tomorrow."

While the anti-Nigerian rampage failed to develop over the holiday weekend, there were "reactionary Americans" willing to criticize the Obama administration. Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.) said the president needs to "connect the dots," and accused the administration of trying to "downplay the threat from terrorism."

As if on cue, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told CNN that there was "no indication that [Abdulmutallab's attack] is part of anything larger," and further declared that "the system worked."

Given that the would-be terrorist got past security with explosives in his underwear, and was foiled only by a faulty detonator and a brave Dutch passenger, Napolitano's claim provoked scoffing by conservatives. Michelle Malkin depicted Napolitano with a red clown nose. "Jasper Schuringa is 'the system,' apparently," Mary Katharine Ham quipped, referring to the young Dutchman who subdued the 23-year-old Nigerian.

Napolitano's assurance that Abdulmutallab's attack was not "part of anything larger" seemed to contradict reports from ABC News that the 23-year-old Nigerian had trained for his attack in Yemen with al Qaeda, which provided him with his bomb. ABC also reported that investigators believe Abdulmutallab had been influenced by radical imam Anwar al-Awlaki, spiritual advisor to Malik Hasan, whose one-man jihad at Fort Hood left 13 dead in November. More>>




'Man Caused Disaster' news...What we have here is a failure to administrate!

Obama under fire on national security...
 

Says US intel had info ahead of attack...

'Systemic failure' allowed airline plot...
 

Breach Was 'Catastrophic'...
 

Many question 'system worked' comment...
 

BIG SIS: Will 'find and fix' vulnerabilities...
 

Cheney: Obama 'trying to pretend'...

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

I’m not a security expert but I play one in DC!

She backed Obama early, this is what political payoffs result in!


BIG SIS: No indication of larger plot...

'System Worked'...

'System Failed Miserably'...




Obama calls Americans "teabag, anti-government people"

Lawmakers Detail Obama’s Pitch

By JACKIE CALMES

In an odd coincidence, the House debate on Saturday to overhaul health care took place on the third anniversary of the 2006 election that gave Democrats majority control after 12 years of Republican dominance. It fell to President Obama and to Congressional leaders to persuade those Democrats still sweating the final vote that it would not prove the party’s undoing in next November’s midterm elections.

Both Mr. Obama and the House leaders showcased Democrats’ newest colleague, Representative Bill Owens, who last Tuesday won a special election in an upstate New York district that Republicans had held since 1872. In the campaign, Mr. Owens gave unabashed support to the pending House health care bill, despite the opposition of national conservative groups, including the new Tea Party Patriots, who backed Mr. Owens’s conservative rival.

Mr. Obama, during his private pep talk to Democrats, recognized Mr. Owens’s election and then posed a question to the other lawmakers. According to Representative Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, who supports the health care bill, the president asked, “Does anybody think that the teabag, anti-government people are going to support them if they bring down health care? All it will do is confuse and dispirit” Democratic voters “and it will encourage the extremists.” More>>




The ‘Tyranny’ of the Majority Party

If Democrats insist on passing unpopular laws, they won't control Congress for long.

 

By FRED BARNES

Alexis de Tocqueville never met Harry Reid. Had he encountered the Senate Democratic leader—or President Barack Obama or House Speaker Nancy Pelosi—de Tocqueville might have learned about a new twist on his concept of the "tyranny of the majority."

The Frenchman toured America in the 1830s and published his conclusions in the classic "Democracy in America." He noted the powerful impact of public opinion. "That is what forms the majority," he wrote. Congress merely "represents the majority and obeys it blindly" and so does the president. They are free to brush aside minority opinion, creating a threat de Tocqueville described as the "tyranny of the majority."

Democrats in Washington do have large majorities in Congress. But instead of reflecting popular opinion, they are pursuing wide-ranging initiatives in defiance of the views of the majority of Americans. This stands de Tocqueville's concept on its head.

The most striking example is health-care reform. It is intensely unpopular but was approved by the House in November and the Senate on Christmas Eve. Asked in a Rasmussen poll in mid-December if they'd prefer no bill to ObamaCare, 57% said they would. Only 34% said they'd rather ObamaCare be enacted.

Oj_Rove

Associated Press

Yet Democrats are forging ahead as if the public actually approves of their health-care reform. Why, when Republicans are preparing to hammer them on the issue in next year's elections, would they do that?

Democrats offer different explanations—besides their obsessive attachment to national health care—which suggests that they aren't quite sure of the political fallout.

After Senate Democrats locked up the 60th vote to assure Senate passage of ObamaCare, Mr. Obama sounded worry-free. Risk? What risk? The bill "is a major step forward for the American people," he said. The president didn't mention the public's disapproval as expressed in countless polls. Vice President Joe Biden, in an op-ed in the New York Times, didn't either.  More>>




Taking the National Debt Seriously

In 2009 about 40% of income taxes will go towards debt interest payments
By LAWRENCE KADISH

If you think those town hall meetings over health care were fierce, wait until Americans come to understand the threat to our national financial survival posed by the interest on the government's credit card.

When the government spends more than its revenue, there is a budget deficit. These deficits are paid for by Washington selling interest bearing Treasury securities. If the government were ever to default on its promise to pay periodic interest payments or to repay the debt at maturity, the United States economy would plunge into a level of chaos that would make the Lehman bankruptcy look like a nonevent.

It is the interest on the national debt that makes our future unstable. The exploding size of that burden suggests that, short of devaluing the dollar and taking a large bite out of the middle class through inflation and taxation, there is no way to ever pay down that bill.

As of Sept. 30, 2009, the national debt was almost $12 trillion and interest on that debt was $383 billion for the year, according to the Treasury Department's Bureau of the Public Debt. The Congressional Budget Office on Oct. 7 estimated the 2009 budget deficit to be almost $1.4 trillion (about 10% of GDP). In August, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) estimated total government revenues at about $2 trillion. The revenue estimate included $904 billion from individual income taxes. This means the cost of interest on the debt represented more than 40 cents of every dollar that came in from individual income taxes.

The National Debt Clock

It takes over 32 years to reach a billion seconds, 3,200 years for a trillion seconds. To reach our national debt would take over 38,400 years. We owe 12,000,000,000,000 dollars. That's $12 trillion!!!


The Treasury purchases, which reflects who buys/owns our debt, don't add up

This hides the fact that we cannot sustain the debt...in other words, we are in over our heads!!! What happens when we can't meet our payment obligations.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Capitalism For Dum Dums

Capitalism works. Socialism does not work. It was announced yesterday that Ford Motor Company has finally found a buyer for Volvo. That the company buying Volvo happens to be Chinese is no surprise to those of us who are paying attention. Even the Chinese are embracing capitalism, capitalism is saving their nation. Meanwhile; we are adopting what they are abandoning, they are abandoning it because, socialism, say it with me, does not work! More>>

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Copenhagen Hypocrites

December 10, 2009 11:24 AM EST by John Stossel

At the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, world leaders -- and some celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio -- are talking about how to force everyone to cut back their carbon emissions.  It's to save the world, says the repulsively alarmist opening video of the conference.

Of course, while the bureaucrats and celebs talk about how everyone must sacrifice, they live the not-so-"carbon neutral" high life:

... [T]he total number of limos in Copenhagen [this] week has already broken the 1,200 barrier. The French alone …ordered another 42. "We haven't got enough limos in the country to fulfill the demand…We're having to drive them in hundreds of miles from Germany and Sweden."

All those limousines require lots of fossil fuels.

The conference attendees also use a lot of evil jet fuel:

The airport says it is expecting up to 140 extra private jets during the peak period alone, so far over its capacity that the planes will have to fly off to regional airports – or to Sweden – to park, returning to Copenhagen to pick up their VIP passengers.

Private jet travel and gas-guzzling limousines are vilified by the high priests of the Global Warming Church, yet they gladly travel that way.

According to the organizers, the eleven-day conference, including the participants' travel, will create a total of 41,000 tonnes of "carbon dioxide equivalent", equal to the amount produced over the same period by a city the size of [British city] Middlesbrough.... [T]he politicians will bandy around grandiose targets of 80-per-cent-plus [carbon cuts] by 2050, by which time few of the leaders at Copenhagen will even be alive, let alone still in office.

They want to restructure civilization without paying the price for it.

Tonight, the first episode of my new FBN show airs at 8:00pm EST!  I now think I will do it on the climate “crisis.”

We’ll decide by early afternoon.  Stay tuned.

Copenhagen Hypocrites




ABC website tells kids when they should die

By Karlis Salna , May 26, 2008 12:00AM

AN ABC website has been accused of portraying farmers and forestry workers as evil and telling kids how much carbon they can produce before they die.

The Planet Slayer website, which can be accessed via the science section on the ABC home page, also demonises people who eat meat and those involved in the nuclear industry, a Senate estimates committee heard.

The site has several features including a cartoon series, Adventures of Greena, and a tool called Prof Schpinkee's Greenhouse Calculator to help kids work out their carbon footprint.

The calculator lets users compare their own carbon output to the "average Aussie greenhouse pig" and estimates at what age a person should die so they don't use more than their fair share of the Earth's resources.

Too much carbon production causes a cartoon pig to explode, leaving behind a pool of blood.

Victorian Liberal senator Mitch Fifield today questioned the accuracy and appropriateness of some of the imagery and content on the website.

"I know there's a little bit of goth in all of us, but this might be taking it just a little too far," Senator Fifield said of the quasi life-expectancy calculator.

"Do you think it's appropriate that the ABC portray the average Australian as a pig and is it appropriate for a website obviously geared towards kids to depict people who are average Australians as massive overweight ugly pigs, oozing slime from their mouths, and then to have these pigs blow up in a mass of blood and guts?"

Senator Fifield said the Adventures of Greena cartoon series, which follows the exploits of a young female activist, also raised questions.

He said episode two of the 12-part series, Fistful Of Woodchips, portrayed a logger as "rough and evil".

"I don't think that it's a particularly helpful way of depicting hard-working Australians who are trying to go about making an honest living, as though they're these rough and evil dudes out to do bad."

Senator Fifield said other episodes in the series portrayed people who eat meat, those involved in the nuclear industry and farmers who grow GM crops as evil.

"I'm not sure if it's helpful to portray struggling farmers who are looking at GM technology to help them improve their yield in a period of drought as some sort of evil promoters of (these) products."

ABC managing director Mark Scott said the site was not designed to offend certain quarters of the community but to engage children in environmental issues.

"The site has been developed to appeal to children and its been done in an irreverent way... to make it engaging," Mr Scott said.

"It's not an attempt to write public policy... it's an attempt to educate school students on the impact of the modern Western lifestyle on carbon emissions and the whole issue that we are dealing with."

Mr Scott said the ABC would review the content on the site.

Links

Planet Slayer – http://www.abc.net.au/science/planetslayer/




Schools Matter: What Does Secretary of Education Arne Duncan Know About Carol Spizzirri, And When Did He Know It?

Halloween season is an appropriate time to talk about rattling skeletons in the closet. US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan appears to have a noisy one dating from his years running the Chicago Public Schools.

Her name is Carol J. Spizzirri.

A little background.

Spizzirri (pdf) is a convicted shoplifter. According to a sworn affidavit by her ex-husband, a court ordered psychological evaluation (pdf) diagnosed her as a paranoid schizophrenic and pathological liar. Spizzirri claimed to be a registered nurse and a renal specialist. Her alma mater, now defunct, denied giving her an RN and reportedly she has never been a registered nurse in either Wisconsin or Illinois, as she had claimed. One of her daughters filed a protective order against because of alleged abuse.More>>

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Obama's Tree Festooned with Evil

image

I could not help but smile to myself when I got a gander of Obama's vile "Christmas" ornaments defiled with images history's most evil men like the murderer of untold millions and cultural executioner Mao Tse Dong,
And it was hard not to laugh when Michelle explained the decadent ornaments away.She and O  were unaware of the images as the ornaments were decorated and sent to them from her various groups (clearly those of a seditious and conspiratorial nature). Do you notice how there were no accidents or mistakes  like Ronald Reagan festooned to the tree, How about George Washington, or General George Patton or any of the really exceptional human beings that walked among us that were not of the red variety but of the red, white and blue schema.

image

See others>>




Where's the Bacon From My state Senator, Kay Hagan? Did your senator get much for your state for their vote?

I blogged, tweeted, emailed, Facebooked over 2000 friends, posted this atricle to several other social media sites...and am not nearly finished! I'll do this everyday until you come up for reelection. Time will not heal this for you!!!

Where's the Bacon From Hagan?
Posted: Dec 21, 2009
By: Bill Johnston, WGBR radio

If you watched the healthcare reform bill bully its way through the Senate this weekend, you learned one thing: The cost of bribing one state cannot hold back historic healthcare reform.

President Barack Obama promised that negotiations for healthcare will be on CSPAN. I want to see the episode of Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) being given an exemption for Medicaid and Medicare Expenses. I want to hear how he expressed how Nebraska is so unique that the federal government must fully fund their expanded Medicaid population. Then, I want to hear how the Democratic leadership, hearing of such a burden, agreed to do this without a quid pro quo. In other words, his vote was not being purchased, but rather the country was moving to calm this cry for his beloved Nebraska.

Nelson’s vote was clearly purchased, which means that every state in the US with a Democratic Senator other than the name of Nelson or Landrieu did not bring home the bacon.

So where was Kay Hagan in this process? Why didn’t Kay Hagan win unique concessions for the State of North Carolina? What is it that’s so special that Nebraska and Louisiana get special consideration to purchase their votes, yet the Tar Heel State is left out in the cold?

If you put it like that; if you see that the vote was clearly purchased, then put aside the fact that the Democrats accomplished something that will be described as historic. Instead ask yourself the question: Why didn’t my senator from North Carolina do her job, and bring our state these kinds of concessions too?

Answer: There was no need to buy her vote.




PMA Group and Clients Paid Out $40 Million to Current ‘Judas’ Congress

No matter how we slice and dice the data related to contributions from embattled lobbying firm PMA Group and its clients, Rep. John Murtha (D-Penn.), chair of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, remains at or near the top of the recipient list, along with Reps. Pete Visclosky (D-Ind.) and Jim Moran (D-Va.). This week, though, we took yet another look at the contributions from the firm that specializes in securing federal earmarks for its clients, this time analyzing all donations from the firm and its clients back in time to all members of the 111th Congress, plus President Obama. (Last week we focused on campaign contributions from the firm and its clients specifically to members of Murtha's defense appropriations subcommittee, which has the power to earmark federal dollars for defense projects, and before that, we analyzed contributions from the firm alone--not including its clients--to members of the 111th Congress.) Read More>>




Stop ‘The Rape America’ Bill!

Take Action Click Here

Don’t let Sens. Blanche Lincoln, Ben Nelson, Michael Bennet, Byron Dorgan, Evan Bayh, Arlen Specter or Jim Webb be Harry Reid’s 60th vote

How you can help:


The Targets

Senator Blanche Lincoln – AR

Senator Ben Nelson – NE

Senator Michael Bennet – CO

Senator Byron Dorgan – ND

Senator Arlen Specter – PA

Senator Evan Bayh – IN

Senator Jim Webb – VA



Tuesday, December 22, 2009

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Email from the AMA

The AMA sent a letter yesterday to Sen. Reid expressing support for the Senate’s passage of the bill while identifying outstanding issues that need to be resolved in the conference committee. We will also need to continue working toward a permanent repeal of the Medicare physician payment cuts that were delayed from going into effect for 60 days (from January 1, 2010, to March 1, 2010) to protect patients’ access to care.
We still have important work to do to secure additional changes in the final bill. With your help, input and support, we can continue to advance health system reform policies that will benefit both patients and their doctors.
Thank you for your involvement in the Patients’ Grassroots Network!

© AMA, Patient's Action Network | All Rights Reserved

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ObamaCare Can STILL Be Stopped! Click Below to Tell the Senate to VOTE NO on the Final Cloture Vote:

A Special Message From:

ObamaCare Can STILL Be Stopped -- Click Below to Tell the Senate to VOTE NO on the Final Cloture Vote:
https://secure.conservativedonations.com/rm_obamacare3/?a=3472

ALERT: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has won his second cloture vote on the ObamaCare bill, the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act" -- but the bill can STILL BE STOPPED!
The liberal Democrats snuck through the first vote on their socialist health care bill -- IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT, at 1:00 a.m. Monday.
Then today -- in the early morning hours -- they held another cloture vote… and barely squeaked it through.
If there had been just ONE Democrat willing to STOP this socialistic health care bill, it could have been stopped this morning -- but they have one more chance to do exactly that… on WEDNESDAY at 1:00 p.m.
That means that TODAY, it's up to YOU AND ME to STOP the government takeover of health care in America -- before the next vote!

TELL THE SENATE TO REJECT SOCIALIZED HEALTH
CARE -- BETTER KNOWN AS "OBAMACARE":
SEND YOUR FAXES NOW!

For the past two weeks, we've been leading the efforts of our members to contact every single Senator, to DEMAND that they reject Harry Reid's socialistic ObamaCare bill -- and as a result, over THREE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY THOUSAND faxes have FLOODED those Senate offices EVERY SINGLE DAY!
We've been able to keep the pressure on both Democrats and Republicans, letting them know that WE ARE WATCHING THEM and that we DEMAND they put a STOP to this radical monstrosity of a bill. And despite the fact that we lost the first votes, the good news is… we ARE having an effect on them, and WE CAN STILL DEFEAT THIS BILL!
The bill passed through so far STILL has to clear more hurdles -- and despite the fact that all 60 Democrats and Republicans voted for the first clotures, all 60 of them have NOT committed to voting for tomorrow's cloture vote!
This means that we can STILL defeat it in the Senate -- IF we can overwhelm every Senator with our demands to STOP it!
With these early-morning votes, Harry Reid has successfully moved the Obamacare bill forward. But now, he has to survive another cloture vote to end the GOP filibuster on this bill -- and again, he's going to need all 60 votes to save the bill. But this time is our BEST chance to make sure he does NOT get them!
Remember, several of the "on the fence" Democrats were convinced to vote for Reid's clotures -- not because of their principles -- but because they were BRIBED.
YOU READ THAT RIGHT. Just take a look at the PORK that was added to this monstrosity of a bill, just to bribe enough Senators to vote for it:

  • With the bill hanging in the balance, Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) won a provision exempting his state from paying the usual share of costs for new Medicaid patients. The deal, which critics have dubbed the "Cornhusker Kickback," is expected to cost the federal government $100 million over 10 years.
  • Before a close vote last month, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) won an even larger break for her state -- an estimated $300 million in extra federal spending, in a move now derisively called the "Louisiana Purchase."
  • Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) made sure that certain insurance companies in his state are off the hook from a new $7 billion dollar tax.
  • Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) got his kickback -- a $100 million bonus for the University of Connecticut… to do with whatever they want.
  • Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) was "persuaded" to drop his concerns after Senator Reid offered his state a $10 billion grant for "community health centers"-money that could easily be funneled to facilities that perform abortions.
  • Three states -- Pennsylvania, New York and Florida -- all won protections for their Medicare Advantage beneficiaries at a time when the program is facing cuts nationwide.
  • Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) won a promise from Reid to support his plan to expand eligibility for health insurance.
  • The Senators from Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming will get the "Frontier Freebie" -- they'll see an increase in Medicare payments to hospitals and doctors, because "at least 50 percent of their counties are ‘frontier counties,' defined as those having a population density less than six people per square mile."
  • Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), chairman of the Senate health committee, got a provision inserted to increase Medicare payments to certain "low-volume hospitals" in Grinnell, Keokuk and Spirit Lake, treating limited numbers of Medicare patients.
  • Even the Democrats themselves are starting to complain about this obvious "Cash for Cloture" bribing going on. When Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) couldn't get past the reporters swarming Ben Nelson on her way to the cloture vote, she quipped, "I know I'm not as important as Senator Nelson. I didn't get the money for my state. I was too stupid."
The word is getting out about these OUTRIGHT BRIBES for votes. And with that public scrutiny, several Democrats are wavering in their support for this bill -- we need to ensure that they feel the heat so that they will see the light!
We MUST NOT lose this fight. Harry Reid DOES NOT have a guarantee of all 60 votes he needs to enact cloture and force a vote on his bill -- but you can BET he's doing everything he can to GET those final one or two! If we can STOP him from getting them -- that means THE BILL WOULD DIE!
We CAN still win, by keeping the Democrats from getting the 60 votes they need on the next cloture vote... but we can't do it without YOUR help!

TELL THE SENATE TO REJECT SOCIALIZED HEALTH
CARE -- BETTER KNOWN AS "OBAMACARE":
SEND YOUR FAXES NOW!

TAKE ACTION: Here is the "Countdown To America's Doom" that we MUST STOP:
--WEDNESDAY, DEC 23rd -- 1 pm -- Cloture vote on overall bill -- WE CAN STOP THE BILL DEAD ON THIS VOTE!
--THURSDAY, CHRISTMAS EVE -- 7 pm -- Final passage vote on health care reform -- THEY ONLY NEED 51 VOTES TO PASS IT THEN!
DO NOT GET DISCOURAGED -- there are still several Democrats that we know of, who STILL might not vote for cloture. At the same time, there are a few liberal GOP RINOs who might "jump ship" and vote Yes. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THESE SENATORS NEED TO KEEP HEARING FROM US TO BE CONVINCED!
We CANNOT let the radical liberals in Congress -- and the White House -- force this plan for socialized health care on the American people! That's why we've set up our website to enable you to send a strong message to every single member of the U.S. Senate, OPPOSING this outrageous plan.
For about what it would cost you in time and telephone charges, you can send Blast Faxes to Democrats, Republicans, Independents -- EVERYONE in the U.S. Senate, DEMANDING that they REJECT this socialized health care plan NOW!

TELL THE SENATE TO REJECT SOCIALIZED HEALTH
CARE -- BETTER KNOWN AS "OBAMACARE":
SEND YOUR FAXES NOW!

This fight CAN BE WON! Please, take action right away to STOP this bill in the U.S. Senate!
Sincerely,

William Greene, President
RightMarch.com PAC
P.S. WE ARE IN THE FINAL COUNTDOWN HOURS! This is it -- if we can stop Harry Reid from getting those 60 votes on this next cloture vote, we can defeat ObamaCare
BUT WE CANNOT DO IT WITHOUT YOU!
Send your faxes right away to make sure these Senators get a STRONG message, to REJECT the socialized plan of "Obamacare" NOW -- Thank you!

TELL THE SENATE TO REJECT SOCIALIZED HEALTH
CARE -- BETTER KNOWN AS "OBAMACARE":
SEND YOUR FAXES NOW!

As always, you can also send a FREE message directly to your Senators by clicking here. Thank you.


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WHITE HOUSE DIRECTLY COMMUNICATES WITH MSNBC 'MORNING JOE' HOSTS DURING SHOW...

21 December 2009

MSNBC Libtalker: 'Morning Joe' Team Takes Direction From WH

STATE CONTROL?
Schultz: WH Contacts Team 'Joe' Directly During Program!
For anyone wondering why an increasing number of conservatives now use the term "state-controlled media" (which originated with Rush Limbaugh) to refer to television networks and newspapers, here's one that drives the point home.
During his syndicated radio show Friday, libtalker and MSNBC host Ed Schultz relayed to listeners how he observed 'Morning Joe' Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski take feedback directly from the White House during their program last week.
Schultz appeared on Thursday's Morning Joe and directly challenged Obama's David Axelrod on the current version of the health care bill under consideration in Congress. Interestingly, this particular segment has since generated a great deal of attention elsewhere, given the defensive nature of the White House advisor and the supposed conflict between the far left and the administration:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, propaganda, and state-controlled news about the economy

And here's what Ed told radio listeners the next day about the visit:

SCHULTZ (07:14): I just want to get things clear, it was not arranged for me to have a question for David Axelrod.
SCHULTZ (08:12): So Mika starts looking at her Blackberry and so does Scarborough and obviously the White House is texting them or emailing them or whatever and they didn't like the show. Because Arianna had been on there, I'm on there, Howard Dean had been on there and they wanted some balance.
Now think about that - here's the White House getting in contact with 'Morning Joe' because they're afraid there's too many lefties on the air! Now if that's not sensitivity at its highest level, I don't know what is! I told ya a few days ago they had rabbit ears! They don't like anything that's being said right now, they're getting beat up!

Is it really possible that the White House has a direct line to MSNBC's hosts, communicating with them during their live broadcasts? Now THAT'S state control!
And do MSNBC staffers actually carry out the administration's commands? In this case, they certainly made room on short notice for a lengthy segment featuring Axelrod, there to rebut comments made by Howard Dean and other recent guests.
Now, imagine if Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, or another non-"progressive" host had been caught taking orders from Bush during the program. When would we ever hear the end of that?

Monday, December 21, 2009

The Congressional Den 0f Thieves Rapes the Elderly for Their Own Benefit!

THE CONGRESSIONAL TWO-STEP:

STEP 1

According to the Trustees for the Social Security Administration,

"THERE WILL NOT BE A  COST OF LIVING INCREASE FOR THE NEXT TWO YEARS IN SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS. ADDITIONALLY THEY WILL RAISE YOUR CO-PAY FOR YOUR RX MEDICARE BENEFITS"!  

Congress, DEMOCRATS and REPUBLICANS, say no increase is warranted because of the losses in gross national product and other cute things....

NOW HERE IS THE ONE THAT WILL FLIP YOU OUT!!

STEP 2

THE SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION IS FUNDING TWENTY FOUR MILLION DOLLARS-- LET ME REPEAT THAT AMOUNT... SO YOU UNDERSTAND IT... $24,000,000.00 DOLLARS FOR NEW ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORDS PROCESSING FOR OUR CONGRESSMEN AND SENATORS!!

A QUOTE DIRECTLY FROM THE SOCIAL SECURITY WEBSITE...............

"THIS MONEY WILL COME FROM THE SAVINGS TO BE GENERATED FROM WITHHOLDING "COST OF LIVING INCREASES FOR 2010 & 2011 in SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS FOR THE ELDERLY AND A $2.00 INCREASE ON ALL MEDICARE RX BENEFIT CO-PAY"

Please excuse my FRENCH, But do the words "BULL CRAP" ring a bell ?

The death of national soverignty: New group called for to police global environment issues

The UK Prime Minister will say: “Never again should we face the deadlock that threatened to pull down those talks. Never again should we let a global deal to move towards a greener future be held to ransom by only a handful of countries. One of the frustrations for me was the lack of a global body with the sole responsibility for environmental stewardship.

UK Brown: New group to police global environment issues...

There'll be nowhere to run from the new world government

 

'Global' thinking won't necessarily solve the world's problems, says Janet Daley

By Janet Daley
Published: 7:24PM GMT 19 Dec 2009

The committee to save the world - Barack Obama, Nicolas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel, Gordon Brown and other leaders at the Copenhagen climate talks

The committee to save the world: Barack Obama, Nicolas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel, Gordon Brown and other leaders at the Copenhagen climate talks Photo: AFP/GETTY

There is scope for debate – and innumerable newspaper quizzes – about who was the most influential public figure of the year, or which the most significant event. But there can be little doubt which word won the prize for most important adjective. 2009 was the year in which "global" swept the rest of the political lexicon into obscurity. There were "global crises" and "global challenges", the only possible resolution to which lay in "global solutions" necessitating "global agreements". Gordon Brown actually suggested something called a "global alliance" in response to climate change. (Would this be an alliance against the Axis of Extra-Terrestrials?)

Some of this was sheer hokum: when uttered by Gordon Brown, the word "global", as in "global economic crisis", meant: "It's not my fault". To the extent that the word had intelligible meaning, it also had political ramifications that were scarcely examined by those who bandied it about with such ponderous self-importance. The mere utterance of it was assumed to sweep away any consideration of what was once assumed to be the most basic principle of modern democracy: that elected national governments are responsible to their own people – that the right to govern derives from the consent of the electorate

PAPER: Nowhere to run from world government...




Top Cuban official: Obama lied during Copenhagen

 

Dec 21 03:09 PM US/Eastern
By WILL WEISSERT
Associated Press Writer

Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez gestures during a press conference...

 

HAVANA (AP) - Cuba's foreign minister called President Barack Obama an "imperial and arrogant" liar Monday for his conduct at the U.N. climate conference, a reflection of the communist island's increasingly fiery verbal attacks on the U.S. government.

Bruno Rodriguez spent an hour and a half lambasting Obama's behavior in Copenhagen, telling a news conference, "at this summit, there was only imperial, arrogant Obama, who does not listen, who imposes his positions and even threatens developing countries."




Top Cuban official: Obama lied during Copenhagen

Top Cuban official: Obama lied during Copenhagen

Sinner from Nevada Reid’s Government-Run Health Plan STILL Requires a Monthly Abortion Fee

Posted by GOP Leader Press Office on December 19th, 2009

Follow @GOPLeader on Twitter for updates.

Fixed it is not.  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-NV) latest health care “manager’s amendment” would STILL levy a new “abortion premium” fee on Americans under the Democrats’ health care plan.  Just like the original 2,032-page, government-run health care plan from Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) and the last version of Senator Reid’s 2,074-page bill, this latest 383-page amendment levies an abortion premium and does not fix the problem of government funds being used to subsidize elective abortions.

Under Reid’s “manager’s amendment,” there is no prohibition on abortion coverage in federally subsidized plans participating in the Exchange.  Instead the amendment includes layers of accounting gimmicks that demand that plans participating in the Exchange or the new government-run plan that will be managed by the Office of Personnel Management must establish “allocation accounts” when elective abortion is a covered benefit (p. 41).  Everyone enrolled in these plans must pay a monthly abortion premium (p. 41, lines 5-8), and these funds will be used to pay for the elective abortion services.  The Reid amendment directs insurance companies to assess the cost of elective abortion coverage (p. 43), and charge a minimum of $1 per enrollee per month (p. 43, lines 20-22).

In short, the Reid bill continues to defy the will of the American people and contradict longstanding federal policy by providing federal subsidies to private health plans that cover elective abortions.  The new language does include a “state opt-out” provision if a state passes a law to prohibit insurance coverage of abortion, but it’s a sham because it does nothing to prevent one state’s tax dollars from paying for elective abortions in other states.

A majority of Americans believe that health care plans should not be mandated to provide elective abortion coverage, and a majority of Americans do not believe government health care plans should include abortion coverage. Currently, federal appropriations bills include language known as the Hyde Amendment that prohibits the use of federal funds to pay for elective abortions under the Medicare and Medicaid programs, while another provision, known as the Smith Amendment, prohibits federal funding of abortion under the federal employees’ health benefits plan.  Under the Reid “manager’s amendment” the new health care plan that will mirror the federal employees’ plan and be managed by the Office of Personnel Management will NOT be subject to the Smith Amendment.

Leader Reid’s latest health care proposal is an affront to the American people and drastically moves away from current policy.  In a statement released by National Right to Life Committee legislative director Douglas Johnson said, “The new abortion language solves none of the fundamental abortion-related problems with the Senate bill, and it actually creates some new abortion-related problems.”  The American people deserve more from their government than being forced to pay for abortion.  The pro-life Stupak/Pitts amendment passed the House by a vote of 240 to 194, enjoying the overwhelming support of 176 Republicans and 64 Democrats.  The Stupak/Pitts Amendment codifies current law by prohibiting federal funding of elective abortions under any government-run plan or plans available under the Exchange.  The Reid plan ignores the will of a bipartisan majority of the House, and indeed the American people, by rejecting this bipartisan amendment.

Health care reform should not be used as an opportunity to use federal funds to pay for elective abortions. Health reform should be an opportunity to protect human life – not end it – and the American people agree.  House Republicans have offered a common-sense, responsible solution that would reduce health care costs and expand access while protecting the dignity of all human life. The Republican plan, available at HealthCare.GOP.gov, would codify the Hyde Amendment and prohibit all authorized and appropriated federal funds from being used to pay for abortion. And under the Republican plan, any health plan that includes abortion coverage may not receive federal funds.

UPDATE: Here is a detailed critique of the new Reid abortion language from the National Right to Life committee.

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Where's the Bacon From Hagan? How about your senator, why didn’t they get sweetheart deals?

Where's the Bacon From Hagan?
Posted: Dec 21, 2009
By: Bill Johnston

If you watched the healthcare reform bill bully its way through the Senate this weekend, you learned one thing: The cost of bribing one state cannot hold back historic healthcare reform.

President Barack Obama promised that negotiations for healthcare will be on CSPAN. I want to see the episode of Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) being given an exemption for Medicaid and Medicare Expenses. I want to hear how he expressed how Nebraska is so unique that the federal government must fully fund their expanded Medicaid population. Then, I want to hear how the Democratic leadership, hearing of such a burden, agreed to do this without a quid pro quo. In other words, his vote was not being purchased, but rather the country was moving to calm this cry for his beloved Nebraska.

Nelson’s vote was clearly purchased, which means that every state in the US with a Democratic Senator other than the name of Nelson or Landrieu did not bring home the bacon.

So where was Kay Hagan in this process? Why didn’t Kay Hagan win unique concessions for the State of North Carolina? What is it that’s so special that Nebraska and Louisiana get special consideration to purchase their votes, yet the Tar Heel State is left out in the cold?

If you put it like that; if you see that the vote was clearly purchased, then put aside the fact that the Democrats accomplished something that will be described as historic. Instead ask yourself the question: Why didn’t my senator from North Carolina do her job, and bring our state these kinds of concessions too?

Answer: There was no need to buy her vote.




CHINA: 'The world does not have Money to buy more US Treasuries'...

Published on ShanghaiDaily.com

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2009/200912/20091218/article_423054.htm

Harder to buy US Treasuries

Created: 2009-12-18 0:13:35

Author:Zhou Xin and Jason Subler

IT is getting harder for governments to buy United States Treasuries because the US's shrinking current-account gap is reducing supply of dollars overseas, a Chinese central bank official said yesterday.
The comments by Zhu Min, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, referred to the overall situation globally, not specifically to China, the biggest foreign holder of US government bonds.
Chinese officials generally are very careful about commenting on the dollar and Treasuries, given that so much of its US$2.3 trillion reserves are tied to their value, and markets always watch any such comments closely for signs of any shift in how it manages its assets.
China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange reaffirmed this month that the dollar stands secure as the anchor of the currency reserves it manages, even as the country seeks to diversify its investments.
In a discussion on the global role of the dollar, Zhu told an academic audience that it was inevitable that the dollar would continue to fall in value because Washington continued to issue more Treasuries to finance its deficit spending.
He then addressed where demand for that debt would come from.
"The United States cannot force foreign governments to increase their holdings of Treasuries," Zhu said, according to an audio recording of his remarks. "Double the holdings? It is definitely impossible."
"The US current account deficit is falling as residents' savings increase, so its trade turnover is falling, which means the US is supplying fewer dollars to the rest of the world," he added. "The world does not have so much money to buy more US Treasuries."
China continues to see its foreign exchange reserves grow, albeit at a slower pace than in past years, due to a large trade surplus and inflows of foreign investment. They stood at US$2.3 trillion at the end of September.




SOLD: $100 Million Payoff for Senator Dodd...Can a man be a Ho?

Health bill money for hospital sought by Dodd

The Associated Press
Sunday, December 20, 2009; 11:32 PM

WASHINGTON -- A $100 million item for construction of a university hospital was inserted in the Senate health care bill at the request of Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., who faces a difficult re-election campaign, his office said Sunday night.

The legislation leaves it up to the Health and Human Services Department to decide where the money should be spent, although spokesman Bryan DeAngelis said Dodd hopes to claim it for the University of Connecticut.

The provision is included in a 383-page series of changes to the health care bill that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., outlined Saturday. Scattered throughout are numerous items sought by individual lawmakers, many of them directing money explicitly to programs or projects in their home states.

The one sought by Dodd provides $100 million for "a health care facility that provides research, inpatient tertiary care, or outpatient clinical services." It must be affiliated with an academic health center at a public research university in the United States "that contains a State's sole public academic medical and dental school."

The money can cover a maximum of 40 percent of the facility's construction costs.

Based on the criteria set out on the bill, it appeared that state-affiliated hospitals in about a dozen states could compete for the funds.

Dodd has played a key role in development of the health care bill in the Senate. He wielded the gavel earlier in the year when the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee spent weeks drafting its version of the measure. The late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., was chairman at the time, but unable to preside.

Dodd, who is chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, is seeking a new term in 2010, but polls so far show him in a tight race.




SOLD: Neb.'s Nelson sees backlash on health bill...Can a man be a Ho?

Email this Story

Health Care Reform & Cost - Cost Is the REAL Issue in the Health Care Debate. Come See Why!
www.NCHealthReform.com

Neb.'s Nelson sees backlash on health reform plan

Dec 20, 5:01 PM (ET)
By MARGERY A. BECK

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - It was the concern of Nebraska's Republican governor over expanded Medicaid costs in the proposed Senate health care overhaul bill that led to a compromise to cover his state's estimated $45 million share over a decade, U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson said Sunday.

Gov. Dave Heineman "contacted me and he said this is another unfunded federal mandate and it's going to stress the state budget, and I agreed with him," the Nebraska Democrat said. "I said to the leader and others that this is something that has to be fixed. I didn't participate in the way it was fixed."

But Heineman expressed anything but gratitude, saying he had nothing to do with the compromise and calling the overhaul bill "bad news for Nebraska and bad news for America."

"Nebraskans did not ask for a special deal, only a fair deal," Heineman said in a statement Sunday.

That criticism is only a taste of what Nelson has received since announcing Saturday that he would become the 60th vote needed to advance the landmark legislation.

Despite the perks Nelson managed to garner for Nebraska in finally agreeing to support the overhaul bill, the backlash from those who wanted Nelson to hold a hard line against the measure was immediate.

Abortion foes howled in protest. Nebraska Right to Life, which has long endorsed Nelson, issued a scathing statement that dubbed Nelson a traitor. The state's Catholic bishops followed Sunday with a statement that they were "extremely disappointed" in him.

The chairman of Nebraska's Republican Party declared Nelson's decision to be the end of his political career in Nebraska, and within hours of Nelson's announcement, the state GOP launched a Web site, , to collect funds to oust the Democrat in the 2012 election.http://www.givebentheboot.com

Nebraska's Republican Sen. Mike Johanns said he was "stunned and incredibly disappointed," and called the compromise's abortion language a "watered-down accounting gimmick that leads to Nebraska taxpayers subsidizing abortions in other states."

The compromise tries to maintain a strict separation between taxpayer funds and private premiums that would pay for abortion coverage. It would also allow states to restrict abortion coverage in new insurance marketplaces.

Nelson obtained increased federal funds to cover his state's cost of covering an expanded Medicaid population at what one Democratic official estimated at $45 million over a decade.

A group called Americans for Prosperity of Nebraska was to hold a rally Sunday in Omaha at which former GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee was to speak. Nebraska Republican Rep. Lee Terry also planned to speak in an effort to persuade Nelson to change his mind.

Nelson isn't taking the backlash lying down.

"This is all orchestrated," Nelson said Sunday. "It's so thinly disguised ... it's almost laughable.

"So far, the focus seems to have been on some people who are angry. They're ignoring the fact that not only were there good reasons to do what I did, but that there would have been a backlash the other way."

Nelson, the lone Democrat in Nebraska's five-member congressional delegation, does have supporters.

The Nebraska Appleseed Center for Law in the Public Interest, which advocates for the poor, praised Nelson's decision and urged people to thank him.

The Nebraska Democratic Party chairman called Nelson's decision "courageous" and dismissed Republican criticism of it.

"Whatever he did, they would be critical," Vic Covalt said. "They have no program and they have nothing to offer us other than more of the same."




Thursday, December 17, 2009

You LIE! USA will go bankrupt ‘with’ health bill

 
This massive 2.5 trillion dollar entitlement plan and government takover debacle is the biggest theft and power grab since the TARP/Bailouts and Stimulus plans!!!  

BIG SCARE: OBAMA WARNS USA 'WILL GO BANKRUPT' WITHOUT HEALTH BILL...




100 Billion Dollars GLOBAL WARMING (HOAX) GIVE AWAY…we are 12 TRILLION Dollars in debt. No wonder Hillary has an Alfred E. Newman grin (sh*t eating grin for you red necks) as she announces this idiocrazy!!!


$100 Billion GLOBAL WARMING GIVE AWAY announced in the midst of a blizzard in Hoaxenhagen 




SCARY HARRY HIDES THE HEALTH BILL!

PRESS RELEASE

Completely Reckless, Completely Irresponsible
from the Office of Senator Mitch McConnell

Thursday, December 17, 2009

‘And here’s the most outrageous part: at the end of this rush, they want us to vote on a bill that no one outside the Majority Leader’s conference room has even seen. That’s right. The final bill we’ll vote on isn’t even the one we’ve had on the floor. It’s the deal Democrat leaders have been trying to work out in private’

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate floor Thursday regarding the importance of getting it right on health care reform:

“Senators on both sides acknowledge that the health care bill we’re considering is among the most significant pieces of legislation any of us will ever consider.

“So it stands to reason that we’d devote significant time and attention to it.

“Indeed, some would argue that we should spend more time and attention on this bill than most — if not every — previous bill we’ve considered.

“The Majority disagrees.

“Why? Because this bill has become a political nightmare for them.

“They know Americans overwhelmingly oppose it, so they want to get it over with.

“Americans are already outraged at the fact that Democrat leaders took their eyes off the ball. Rushing the process on a partisan line makes the situation even worse.

“Americans were told the purpose of reform was to reduce the cost of health care.

“Instead, Democrat leaders produced a $2.5 trillion, 2,074-page monstrosity that vastly expands government, raises taxes, raises premiums, and wrecks Medicare.

“And they want to rush this bill through by Christmas — one of the most significant, far-reaching pieces of legislation in U.S. history. They want to rush it.

“And here’s the most outrageous part: at the end of this rush, they want us to vote on a bill that no one outside the Majority Leader’s conference room has even seen.

“That’s right. The final bill we’ll vote on isn’t even the one we’ve had on the floor. It’s the deal Democrat leaders have been trying to work out in private.

“That’s what they intend to bring to the floor and force a vote on before Christmas.

“So this entire process is essentially a charade.

“But let’s just compare the process so far with previous legislation for some perspective. Here’s a snapshot of what we’ve done and where we stand:

• The Majority Leader intends to bring this debate to a close as early as this weekend — four days from now, on this $2.5 trillion dollar mistake

• No American who hasn’t been invited into the Majority Leader’s conference room knows what will be in that bill

• This bill has been the pending business of the Senate since the last week of November — less than four weeks ago.

• We started the amendment process two weeks ago.

• We’ve had 21 amendments and motions — less than two a day.

“Now let’s look at how the Senate has dealt with previous legislation.

“No Child Left Behind (2001):

• 21 session days or 7 weeks.

• Roll Call votes: 44

• Number of Amendments offered: 157

“9/11 Commission/Homeland Security Act (2002):

• 19 session days over 7 weeks.

• Roll Call votes: 20

• Number of Amendments offered: 30

“Energy Bill (2002):

• 21 session days over 8 weeks

• Number of Roll Call votes: 36

• Number of Amendments offered: 158

“This isn’t an energy bill. This is an attempt by a majority to take over one sixth of the U.S. economy — to vastly expand the reach and the role of government into the health care decisions of every single American — and they want to be done after one substantive amendment. This is absolutely inexcusable.

“I think Senator Snowe put it best on Tuesday:

‘Given the enormity and complexity,’ she said, ‘I don’t see anything magical about the Christmas deadline if this bill is going to become law in 2014.’

“And I think Senator Snowe’s comments on a lack of bipartisanship at the outset of this debate are also right on point.

“Here’s what she said in late November:

‘I am truly disappointed we are commencing our historic debate on one of the most significant and pressing domestic issues of our time with a process that has forestalled our ability to arrive at broader agreement on some of the most crucial elements of health care reform. The bottom line is, the most consequential health care legislation in the history of our country and the reordering of $33 trillion in health care spending over the coming decade shouldn’t be determined by one vote-margin strategies – surely we can and must do better.’

“The only conceivable justification for rushing this bill is the overwhelming opposition of the American people. Democrats know that the longer Americans see this bill the less they like it. Here’s the latest from Pew. It came out just yesterday.

“A majority (58 percent) of those who have heard a lot about the bills oppose them while only 32 percent favor them.”

“There is no justification for this blind rush — except a political one, and that’s not good enough for the American people.

“And there’s no justification for forcing the Senate to vote on a bill none of us has seen.

“Americans already oppose this bill. The process is just as bad.

“It’s completely reckless, completely irresponsible.”




If you didn’t already know that the “green’ movement is the new home of the commies, socialist, liberals, progressives (same, just different names), the ‘deafening applause’ should clinch it for you!



Climate summit erupts in 'deafening applause' for Hugo Chavez...

Climate talks deadlocked as clashes erupt outside...

Summit veering towards 'farce'...

Texas Gov. jokes that Gore has 'gone to hell'...




‘Famous Comma’ Slows Climate Talks Over Punctuation

By Alex Morales and Kim Chipman

Dec. 17 (Bloomberg) -- A single contentious comma inserted into a paragraph of a United Nations climate deal two years ago is again causing squabbles among delegates from 193 nations in Copenhagen devising a method to fight global warming.

The comma was inserted on the first page, section b (ii), of the so-called Bali Action Plan at the meeting on the Indonesian island in 2007 at the insistence of the U.S. It caused a debate that ran for two hours as the punctuation mark left open to interpretation the responsibilities of rich and poor nations to cut greenhouse-gas emissions.

“The famous comma! It allowed both sides to read the text the way they wanted to,” said Jennifer Havercamp, managing director of policy and negotiations at the Washington-based Environmental Defense Fund. Havercamp was in the room during the punctuation debate in Bali.

The Bali Action Plan set parameters for two weeks of talks in Copenhagen that should conclude tomorrow when U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao arrive in the Danish capital, joining more than 100 other world leaders. They will take over the debate from envoys who have bickered and walked out over provisions for a climate deal since Dec. 7.

Issues dividing delegates include the size of cuts in greenhouse gases by developed nations, verifying emission reductions by developing countries, and possible climate aid worth $100 billion a year from rich to poor nations.

The Bali Comma

The Bali paragraph says treaty talks should yield “nationally appropriate” actions by developing countries to curb emissions “in the context of sustainable development, supported and enabled by technology, financing and capacity- building, in a measurable, reportable and verifiable manner.”

The comma after “building” was dropped and then reinserted at the Bush administration’s insistence.

Delegates from the U.S. argued for the comma to be inserted so that “actions” by developing countries and not just support from industrialized nations, would be measurable, reportable and verifiable, or MRV in UN jargon.

“It took almost two hours to debate the comma,” Quamrul Chowdhury, a Bangladeshi envoy who’s negotiated climate issues since before the Rio Earth summit in 1992, said in an interview in Copenhagen. “One comma creates a lot of trouble.”

Even with the comma, the clause is still argued over.

The U.S. considers the Bali plan clear in saying that all emissions-reducing actions by developing nations should be subject to MRV, not just those that receive financing, according to a senior Obama administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Devil in the Details

“That is definitely not what the Bali Action Plan provided for,” China’s climate change ambassador, Yu Qingtai, said in an interview in Copenhagen. Mexican Environment Minister Juan Rafael Elvira Quesada agrees.

“The actions we take, for example, the capture of methane from a garbage dump can be measurable, reportable and verifiable for international purposes if they’re going to give us financing,” Elvira said in an interview. “They can’t impose MRV on my developing country if they’re not giving us any aid.”

Such details can disrupt UN treaty-making. Text on deforestation was held up for years over whether to use the plural “indigenous peoples,” said Andrew Deutz, director of international government relations at the Nature Conservancy, an environmental advocacy group in Arlington, Virginia.

The U.S. has a history of opposing references to the rights of “peoples” because of the impact it could have on U.S. domestic law and the rights of Native Americans, said Deutz.

Senator John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat who traveled this week to Copenhagen to push for an agreement, said in an interview that when it comes to what the U.S. wants from China, verification is the “single most important ingredient.”

Tale of Two Treaties

The U.S. Senate’s view of China is crucial because it is the only U.S. body authorized to approve treaties. The chamber rejected the current Kyoto Protocol in 1998 because it required rich nations to cut carbon-dioxide pollution from factories, power plants and other sources, yet not China and other major developing countries.

“The comma is a manifestation of a massive area of disagreement still among the parties,” Havercamp of the Environmental Defense Fund said.

As delegates struggled to agree on one treaty, they also discussed having two instead. With host country Denmark trying to break an impasse in the talks yesterday, envoys were at one point considering four drafts of potential treaties.

Envoys “lost a lot of negotiating time” yesterday as they debated whether to work on two texts proposed by Denmark, or continue to debate the UN’s two official texts, Selwin Hart, a Barbadian delegate who speaks for 43 island and low-lying states, said today in a telephone interview.

“We’re prepared to work throughout the night to get a deal,” Hart said.

Verbs, Modifiers

Even U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton didn’t escape questions on word usage when she held a press conference today in Copenhagen.

Asked about the proposed climate treaty text, she noted that officials at her level are spared the headache of agonizing over every word in the negotiations.

“The advantage of being secretary of state is I’m up here at the large macro-level and they (negotiators) have to get down into the nitty gritty and determine exactly what verb and modifier needs to be used.”

Later asked how the U.S. interpreted the words “should” and “shall” in a treaty, she said it depended on the context.

“If you are referring to transparency, there shall be a transparency,” she said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in Copenhagen via amorales2@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: December 17, 2009 12:10 EST