Health Care Vote Today In The House

Today is crazy day in the House. They plan to vote on the Health Care Bill. The Hill blog has a list of those Democrats leaning one way or another (Obviously the Republicans are all against).

Pelosi is allowing pro-life Democrats to add an amendment (which will be voted upon) to make sure the Health Care Bill will not fund abortion. God bless these Democrats. Thank you for standing up for life. Pelosi, who is staunch pro-abortion, is only allowing this because she knows she cannot pass this unless she does. The pro-life Democrats may be for universal health care, but they see a disconnect between wanting health care for all, and allowing the willful destruction of life in the same bill. For that I will always have the deepest respect for them.

Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) is the leader of the pack on this and don't think he has had it easy. The liberals Democrats have slammed him six ways to Sunday on this.

If the up or down vote is approved to block funding of abortion, the liberal Democrats will howl. If it isn't, you can rest assured that the forty something pro-life Democrats won't vote yes on the health care bill. Like I said...crazy day.

Doesn't it always come down to abortion? Yes. Because it is the horror of society and it's time we dealt with it. 9 men in black robes brought this on us with a case that was based on a lie (Norma McCorvey ( Jane Roe of Roe v. Wade) was told by her lawyers to say she was raped. She wasn't. She is pro life now btw). We, the people, never got to debate, vote on it, or look at the implications of it. And until we do, this issue will continue to be the wound that never heals.

Pres. Obama is meeting with the Democrats to show some political muscle to get this 10-year, $1.2 trillion legislation passed.

The other contentious issue is allowing illegal immigrants to be covered. You all remember Congressman Wilson's "You Lie" to Pres. Obama during his speech where Obama insisted that illegals would not be covered.

Well, it looks like he did indeed lie:

House leaders said that, in keeping with the Hispanic Caucus' demands, there was not likely to be any prohibition added to the House bill against illegal immigrants shopping in the exchange.

Or...maybe Obama won't sign it if that is in there, since he promised he wouldn't?

Ok, you can stop laughing now. Of course he will sign it.

All this backdoor game playing goes against what the Democrats and Pres. Obama promised with transparency. They promised to publish the final bill publicly 72 hours before the vote. Another lie.

Right now they are all about verbal fighting and bloviating. Watch it live on C-span.

I'll try to keep you updated, but my son's football team are in the playoffs and I've got a game to go to this afternoon. So, if nothing else, I'll wrap things up tonight.

Update(via NRO): Boehner, Cantor and Pence will all be voting YES on the Stupak amendment, and are putting the word out to members about it.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops also supports the amendment.

Update II: Here is a list of the undecided Democrats. It's basically in their hands whether this passes or not.

I really would be shocked if this didn't pass. Pelosi knows that whatever agreements she makes with moderate Democrats can be changed in conference or at the Senate or, if necessary, at the Supreme Court level. She is just giving moderate Democrats an out with their constitutes. She knows all she needs is the Democrats. I can't think of a more partisan bill that has ever been passed in the House. This will be on the shoulder's of the Democrats.

As of 1pm central time, there will be fours hours of debate on the floor.

But the probability is that we take the fight to the Senate.

Update Sunday morning: As I thought, the house bill passed 220-215, with one Republican who had told the GOP that if they took out the abortion funding that he would probably vote for it.

I, personally, have some mixed feelings. On the one hand I'm not happy that it passed of course, and it helps to know that this bill is dead on arrival in the Senate. The final bill in the Senate will look nothing like this bill. So there is comfort in that. If it passes, it will be a much more conservative bill. On the other hand my core issue won. Life won here. We have finally gotten to the point where our leaders, on both sides, have started to realize that the destruction of an unborn child is not acceptable. Maybe Americans have come to accept the legality of this horror, but they will not accept anything else about it. They will not accept that it is "health issue." It really gives me great hope that so many Democrats were willing to put their careers on the line and go against their party and their President to take a stand for life.

Today, for the first time in a long time, I actually feel some hope for my father's party.

So for everyone that was sick of this healthcare debate, it really is only just beginning.

Update: There is something that needs to be acknowledged here that will be overlooked in the coverage of this. Republicans COULD have voted "present" on the Stupak amendment barring federal funding of abortion in the bill. If they had done that, this amendment would NOT have passed and then this bill would not have passed. That would have been the POLITICAL thing to do. And don't think ALOT of Republicans aren't ticked off at this. But the Republican leadership explained this morning:

"We believe in the sanctity of life, and the Stupak-Pitts Amendment addresses a moral issue of the utmost concern. It will limit abortion in the United States. Because of this, while we strongly and deeply oppose the underlying bill, we decided to stand with Life and support Stupak-Pitts.

"The danger of this bill passing without critical pro-life language was too great a risk to do otherwise. Indeed, a number of Democrat supporters of Stupak-Pitts had privately indicated to many of our colleagues that all they needed for "cover" was a vote, and they would support final passage even if the amendment failed.

"To be clear, the Stupak-Pitts Amendment's passage is the right thing to do. We believe you just don't play politics with life.

In other words, they didn't give up their principles to win like Pelosi did. And this is why I stay Republican.

Many in the GOP will say we could have killed the bill otherwise. But that would have just been delaying the inevitable. We always knew that Pelosi would do whatever it took to get this passed, even giving up her own beliefs to do so. This fight was always going to be in the Senate.

Our leaders stood on principle instead of politics. We go to the fight in the Senate with that virtue carrying us on.....

Pres. Obama Should Be Ashamed

There is simply no excuse for Pres. Obama to turn down Chancellor Merkel’s invitation to Germany to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall next week on Nov. 9th. None. He should be ashamed. I know I am ashamed for him.

The fall of the Berlin Wall was a great victory for America because it ended the cold war. It literally defined liberty over tyranny. But liberals would rather ignore it because they know that if their policies had been in place, it never would have happened.

Presidents can't be everywhere for everything of course, but what makes this curious is that Obama finds time for many other things that are far less important. His flying off to try and get the Olympics for Chicago comes to mind. And Obama had no problems flying to Berlin while campaigning, because it was all about him.

Sadly, we will never see the moral clarity From Pres. Obama that we saw when Pres. Reagan famously demanded, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

The fall of the Berlin Wall represented freedom over totalitarianism and peace through strength. Our strength. One has to wonder why our President can't be bothered to celebrate that.

Please Offer Prayers For The Victims and families at Fort Hood

I didn't blog on this last night because there was so many rumours and mis-information. I wanted to wait until the dust settled. At the time of the shootings I was following the story on twitter. Twitter is where you want to be when something like this happens, because you get the news before the TV news announces it. It's amazing really. But you also get a lot of mis-information.

I basically always go with what Jake Tapper at ABC News twitters. He always twitters what has been confirmed, so I trust him. It's also fascinating to read tweets from where a story is occuring. I was reading lots of tweets from people in Fort Hood who were on lock down. Many didn't know where their husbands were and were scared. It was a way for us to comfort those people and let them know we were praying for them. I really like that about twitter. It may be the best thing about it.

It seems to be the act of someone who snapped. We can all speculate or dissect the reasons, but in the end one has to be crazy, in my opinion, to kill innocent people in a rampage. There is no justification for it.

MySanAntonio reported:

An imam who was the former leader of a Maryland mosque Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan attended said he was stunned when he heard about Thursday’s shootings.

Faizul Khan of Silver Spring knew Hasan for 10 years and described him as a reserved and polite person with a great sense of humor. The two lost touch when Hasan left Maryland about a year ago, Khan said.

He said Hasan visited the mosque nearly every day to pray and that they often spoke about religious matters.

Hasan was active in the Muslim community and he even registered in a matrimonial service the mosque provides to search for a wife, Khan said.

Khan said he was shocked and dismayed to find the person suspected in the incident was his old friend.

“I keep asking what could have made him do something like that? I was stunned and very surprised,” he said.

Khan said he wanted people to understand Islam condemns the killing of innocent people.

The irony. Right?

Love it!

From iowntheworld.com

Who says the left/right can't come to terms? At least on Twitter

I thought I would share this interesting exchange I just had with Anna Marie Cox . She is on The Rachel Maddow show regulary. They just love to use the crude slur "teabaggers' about the tea party protestors and giggle like little school girls who just discovered boys have different parts than they do.

Actually Anna Marie is pretty funny. And she does joke about both sides, but the teabagger thing is just disgusting and crosses the line. So I called her on it. What this exchange proves is that good can come from negativity, and we can all find something to agree on.

*For those who do not twitter. When you see RT, it means the twitterer is retweeting something someone else tweeted. The @ refers to it. When you see the // at the end of a sentence, then it means the person twittering is saying something after that at the end of the comment (It's much easier than it sounds!).

anamariecox in the Get Your Rear in Gear 5k. // It's a good cause, and involves ass! http://bit.ly/1Hx6ll

RWSparkle RT@anamariecox in the Get Your Rear in Gear 5k. // It's a good cause, and involves ass! http://bit.ly/1Hx6ll //That's good since she is one...

anamariecox @RWSparkle And who doesn't love ass? Have you considered giving to the colorectal cancer cause in Tony Snow's memory? http://bit.ly/1Hx6ll

RWSparkle @anamariecox I have a better idea. Why don't you stop using the crude term "teabaggers" in Tony Snow's memory?

RWSparkle Sorry people for breaking my rule of never calling names, but @anamariecox 's constant denigration of good people makes me crazy.

annamariecox RT @RWSparkle: Why don't you stop using the crude term "teabaggers"? // if you donate to fight colorectal cancer, I'll never use it again.

RWSparkle Why don't u stop using the crude term"teabaggers"? //RT @anamariecox if you donate 2 fight colorectal cancer, I'll never use it again// U GOT IT!

RWSparkle EVERYONE NOTE! @anamariecox promised not to use "teabaggers" anymore if I contributed. I'm the TOP contributer http://www.active.com/donate/gyrigalexandria09/amc

RWSparkle @anamariecox I'm taking you at your word. Tony Snow would approve. A good thing to do in his memory.

annamariecox @RWSparkle Personally I think Tony Snow would appreciate the joke (he loved Wonkette!), but your donation is a worthy trade. Thank you.

RWSparkle @anamariecox I love jokes too. But there is a difference between a joke & a slur. I appreciate the trade as well! Good overcomes negativity

RWSparkle @anamariecox And...I apologize for (indirectly) calling you an ass (no matter how much you enjoyed it...;-)

anamariecox Wow, thanks! No more teabagging or teabaggers. What about "teabaggist"? Is that cheating? And, really, thanks.

RWsparkle @anamariecox In reply to your DM. Yes. it would be cheating..;-) And you are welcome.

GOP Health Care Proposal Scored

From HotAir:

CBO director Douglas Elmendorf scored the new proposal from House Republicans on health-care reform and gave them plenty of ammunition to use against expansive and expensive Democratic plans for government takeovers. Their plan, which relies on interstate competition, HSAs, and tort reform, would only cost $61 billion in the first ten years of the plan — or slightly less than 6% of what Democrats plan to spend to overhaul the entire system.

From CBO Director's Blog:

CBO anticipates that the combination of provisions in the amendment would reduce average private health insurance premiums per enrollee in the United States, relative to what they would be under current law-by 7 percent to 10 percent in the small group market, by 5 percent to 8 percent for individually purchased insurance, and by zero to 3 percent in the large group market. Those are averages, however, and they are subject to a great deal of uncertainty; some individuals and families in each market would see different results.

In related news, GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann will be leading a march on Washington DC at noon today to stop the government health care takeover.

Bachmann (R-Minn.) gave the marching orders on a conference call of top activists, many of whom planned to board buses in New Jersey and North Carolina Thursday morning to attend the event that the congresswoman thought up last week. "Nothing is more influential than an eyeball-to-eyeball meeting between a freedom-loving constituent and a member of Congress," she explained. "Nothing scares a member of Congress more than freedom-loving Americans."

Twitpic of the crowd!
Bonus:

Too Funny.

A Good Day For Republiclans

A very good day indeed.

For the 2nd time in history, the GOP swept Virginia's statewide races, picking up Governor, Lt. Governor, and Attorney General.

But the biggest story of all is Republican Chris Christie's win as Governor in New Jersey over Gov. Corzine. Unbelievable. Pres. Obama went all out for Corzine.... and this is NEW JERSEY! A blue state and Corzine with more money than you or I could count.

The pundits can argue whether this is a referundum on Obama. I don't care. I'm just glad for good men/women to win.

Honestly, I think Americans are uncomfortable when either party has too much power. With that in mind, 2010 looks good for the GOP.

Also good news, buzz on the hill is that Democrats are saying there will be no Health Care Bill this year. The fight continues in 2010.


Update: I was going to write a separate post on the NY-23 race, but since so many libs here are going with the talking point that this district has been Republican since cave men times and what a loss this is for us, I thought I should address it here because, honestly, you guys don't have a clue.

Let's go back to my post last week on NY-23, which was probably the first you had heard about it. I wrote:

"People like Newt say that splitting our votes will only give the victory to the Democrat, Bill Owens. Maybe. But maybe the Republican establishment will realize if they don't back real conservatives, they LOSE. We just aren't going to take it anymore. If that means we lose a few races to prove our point, then fine. We may lose the battles, but we will sure as hell will win this war within our own party."

This district may have been Republican, but it wasn't conservative. Only LIBERAL Republicans have been elected there. What good are liberal Republicans? They don't vote with us, they vote with the Democrats. It's pathetic and we are going to put a stop to it.

We were totally vindicated with this. The Republican Scozzafava turned out to be the backstabbing betrayer we knew she would be. On the day she quit she says she will be forever a loyal Republican, and 48 hours later she switches to being a Democrat.

A better "I told you so" to the RNC could not have happened.

Here was this no name nerdy CPA with no political experience and no charisma AND running on a 3rd party ticket and he almost won??? Incredible.

Imagine if the RNC had picked someone ready to be a candidate. Imagine if they had run a conservative like that, and thrown $900,000 at him like they did Scozzafava. Imagine that, and you have a winner.

This was a message to our party. We didn't expect to win. We are amazed this guy go so close, especially since the Democrat was a goodlooking charasmatic guy whose Republican opponent BACKED him in the race.

Come on. Don't let you partisanship blind you from the truth of this.

Like I said in my post at the beginning, we will lose some of the battles, but we sure as hell are going to win this war in our party.

We are the party of Reagan. When we act like it, we win. The RNC is going to learn that.....or they lose.

Oh, and one more thing. For those who think this was telling of Palin. Yeah. She took this guy from 13% to 46% in a few weeks.

I have to add this too. Obama did get a win last night. Since he is against same sex marriage, he won in Maine. So..there is that...;-)

The Amazing North Houston Tea Party at Sam Houston Race Park

There is something so heartwarming being out under a big star filled Texas sky with thousands of people who share my passions and values.

Last night I attended The North Houston Tea Party, and helped out my man Claver T of RagingElephants.com at his booth. Since I introduced Claver here at the Chron, his passion for bringing minorities into the GOP has taken him all over the country. It's amazing how his speaking career has taken off.

Claver gave the invocation and spoke about what the tea parties mean to us. It's true we have a long way to go to bring in African Americans and Latinos. But it starts here and it starts now. Any one who reads my blogs knows what this means to me. So what happened next really warmed my heart. When Claver said that we need to "rage into the neighborhoods of the Latinos, African Americans, and Asians and say, 'You belong with us! You share our values. Come home to us!" It got the biggest cheers and yells of anything else he said.

As always the tea party started with the Pledge of Allegiance (led by the NJROTC of Spring High School) and The National Anthem and a Military salute.

Other guest speakers were Joe Pagliarulo (The Joe Pags Show of the 950am radio) and Outlaw Dave. Walton and Johnson, Jim "Mattress Mac" Mcingvale, and Lord Christopher Monckton.

This tea party was about what all tea parties are about, upholding the Constitution, limited government, fiscal responsibility, and political action.

I got to meet many fascinating people. The tea parties call for a new breed of politicians. We are tired of career politicians. Well, no group says that better than the GOOOH group I met. GOOOH is building a base of supporters in order to add a candidate to the ballet in all states to select our 435 nominees. Their goal is to evict EVERY SINGLE Representative that is there now. Wow. Their candidates would represent the district they are from. In other words, if you come from a liberal district, then a liberal candidate would be running. If you are from a Conservative district, then a conservative candidate is picked. It's up to the people. The candidates then sign a legal contract agreeing to run for no more than two, two year terms. That way they don't focus on fund-raising or pandering for the next election. It's quite an undertaking, but I have to admire this movement.

I met Debra Medina who is running for Governor of Texas. She is, without a doubt, THE conservative/libertarian candidate. With the success of people like Hoffman in New York scaring off the career/liberal Republican candidate, she is feeling pretty good about her run.

I spoke to Nina Garza who was campaigning for Republican Roy Morales for Mayor of Houston. We talked about what it means to be a conservative Latino and how to bring more Latinos into our party. I'll say this about Roy Morales. You couldn't find a more hardworking candidate anywhere. No matter how small the venue, no matter how insignificant your group might seem, Roy was there this past year. There is no doubt he cares about the people.

But the most interesting person there had to be Suzanne Guggenheim. She is the founder of the North Houston Tea party. Here is a wife, mother, and entrepreneur in her 60's who just also happens to be an immigrant to this country who is fiercely patriotic. Why? Because Suzanne was born in a part of Europe that was occupied by Hitler. Her family escaped to Paris, France. In her 20's she was a part of a freedom fighting movement against socialism. After moving to the United States in 1981 she never expected that she would be a part of another freedom fighting movement, but when she saw the government taking control from the people in the ways it is now, she knew it was time to get into the fight again.

This is what has been the most amazing thing to me. Felica Cravens of the Houston Tea Parties and now Suzanne Guggenheim of the North Houston Tea Parties. Just two women living their lives in Texas, not involved in politics before, who decided enough was enough. And now they organize events that bring in tens of thousands of people to rally for freedom. I am so proud of them.

It's an amazing American story.

She's on Fire Folks!

Palin to Biden

I love that Palin is not letting this administration get a way with ANYTHING. Who needs the New York Times to distort things you say (or refuse to publish it), when you can say it straight up on Facebook?

As the vice president knows, I have always advocated an all-of-the-above approach to American energy independence. Among other things, my alternative energy goal for Alaska sits at 50 percent because Alaska reached more than 20 percent during my term in office. The Obama-Biden administration, on the other hand, recently announced a renewable goal of only 25 percent. However, domestic drilling should remain a top priority in order to meet America’s consumption and security needs.

The vice president’s extreme opposition to domestic energy development goes all the way back to 1973 when he opposed the Alaska pipeline bill. As Ann Coulter pointed out, “Biden cast one of only five votes against the pipeline that has produced more than 15 billion barrels of oil, supplied nearly 20 percent of this nation’s oil, created tens of thousands of jobs, added hundreds of billions of dollars to the U.S. economy and reduced money transfers to the nation’s enemies by about the same amount.”

This nonsensical opposition to American domestic energy development continues to this day. Apparently the Obama-Biden administration only approves of offshore drilling in Brazil, where it will provide security and jobs for Brazilians. This election is about American security and American jobs.

There’s one way to tell Vice President Biden that we’re tired of folks in Washington distorting our message and hampering our nation’s progress: Hoffman, Baby, Hoffman!

- Sarah Palin

It's Palin, Baby, Palin!

Memo to Gov. Perry of Texas: Williams Is The One

I see The Houston Chronicle finally did a piece on Republican Michael Williams, who is running for Kay Bailey Hutchinson's Senate seat if she ever really decides to resign to run for Governor of our great state .

If and when Hutchinson resigns, Perry will appoint someone to the seat. If appointed, Williams would be the first black Senator from Texas:

Some close to Williams say it is a head-versus-heart decision for Perry — pick someone with money or someone with grass-roots support whose appointment would be historic.

Memo to Gov. Perry: Pick Williams because he is the best one for the job. The money will come and the historic aspect of it is icing on the cake, but at the heart of it, who is the best person? Without a doubt, that is Michael Williams. I've rarely met a politician who is more sincere, more down to earth, and more ready to be Senator.

He is a grassroots conservative. He is exactly what the GOP needs more of. He understands fiscal responsibility, and he is proud of his conservative values and principles.

There has been a loud voice crying out in the GOP. It's the voice of the people who are saying that we don't need any more establishment politicians. We need fresh faces and fresh voices that represent our values.

Gov. Perry, be a part of this new revolution in our party. Do the right thing. The fact that another candidate is "rich" shouldn't even factor into the equation. The Democrats are the party of the rich now. Let's let them have it. We don't need elites. We need good people. Williams is that and more. There is a reason that his endorsement list outstrips other candidates.

So if Kay decides she is ready to take you on, you need to show her right off the bat that you are ready to take this party where it needs to go, back to it's roots. Back to small government, lower taxes, property rights, gun rights, and the principles this country was founded upon. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

You can show her that by appointing Michael Williams to her seat.