Remembering the Gipper...

"It's always a struggle for those of us in political life to take the long view and to brave decisions without regard to personal political cost. There are times when we fail in the struggle and times when we succeed. And I suspect the next few years will test us more than usual, but I know we're up to it. ... We'll have our battles ahead of us, but they're good battles, and they're worth fighting for. ... I hope the loyal opposition realizes exactly how committed I am and you are to changing the status quo and improving our national life. We won't be resting on our laurels, even if we were so inclined, which we're not. History wouldn't allow it. We've been handed great opportunities and great challenges, and we intend to meet them together."

Ronald Reagan

The Patriot Post: The Global Warming Debate.

The Patriot Post: U.S.S.A.: The Democrats' Dream

New CBO Analysis Shows Higher Premiums Under Democrat Bill

(By Daniel Foster, National Review Online) - The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has released new estimates that suggest individual premiums would rise under the Democrat health care bill currently being debated in the Senate.

According to the findings, by 2016 the average per-person premium on individual health care plans would be 10 to 13 percent higher under the Senate bill than they would be under current law. Americans enrolled in small or large group plans under the proposed legislation would see modest cost changes in premiums, ranging from about +1 to about -3 percent.

The new scores provided ammunition to Senate Republicans as the floor debate on the bill began today.

“The bottom line is this: after 2,074 pages and trillions more in government spending, massive new taxes and a half-trillion dollars in cuts to Medicare for seniors, most people, according to the Congressional Budget office, will end up paying more or seeing no significant savings," said Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell during remarks on the floor.

This is not what the American people are asking for. And it’s certainly not reform.”

Gibbs On Climategate: "There's No Real Scientific Basis" Refuting Global Warming

(By Greg Hengler, Townhall.com) - What's most astonishing is Gibbs' lack of reaction to the list of 31,000 scientists (6,000 of them are PhDs) opposing man-made global warming. It truly is faith wrapped in the name of science.

Will Washington shooting damage Huckabee bid?

Willie Horton within the GOP primary.

(By Ed Morrissey, Hot Air) - How could it not? It’s the second time that a man granted clemency by Mike Huckabee over the objections of prosecutors has committed a violent act that would have been prevented otherwise. Maurice Clemmons had his lengthy prison sentence commuted by Huckabee in 2000, despite a lifetime pattern of violent crime and erratic behavior, nine years before Clemmons shot four Seattle police officers to death in a coffee shop:

Maurice Clemmons, the 37-year-old Tacoma man being sought for questioning in the killing this morning of four Lakewood police officers, has a long criminal record punctuated by violence, erratic behavior and concerns about his mental health.

Nine years ago, then-Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee granted clemency to Clemmons, commuting his lengthy prison sentence over the protests of prosecutors.

“This is the day I’ve been dreading for a long time,” Larry Jegley, prosecuting attorney for Arkansas’ Pulaski County said tonight when informed that Clemmons was being sought for questioning in connection with the killings.

Clemmons’ criminal history includes at least five felony convictions in Arkansas and at least eight felony charges in Washington. The record also stands out for the number of times he has been released from custody despite questions about the danger he posed.

Huckabee, who ran for the Republican presidential nomination last year, issued a statement tonight calling the slaying of the police officers “a horrible and tragic event.”

If Clemmons is found responsible, “it will be the result of a series of failures in the criminal justice system in both Arkansas and Washington State,” Huckabee said.

Democrats at odds over health care

WASHINGTON (AP) - The 60 votes aren't there anymore.

With the Senate set to begin debate today on health-care overhaul, the all-hands-on-deck Democratic coalition that allowed the bill to advance is fracturing already. Yet majority Democrats will need 60 votes again to finish.

Some Democratic senators say they will jump ship from the bill without tighter restrictions on abortion coverage. Others say they will go unless a government plan to compete with private insurance companies is tossed overboard. Such concessions would enrage liberals, the heart and soul of the party.

There is no clear course for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to steer legislation through Congress to President Obama.

Chelsea Clinton engaged to be married

NEW YORK (AP) - Chelsea Clinton, the 29-year old daughter of former President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, has become engaged to her longtime boyfriend, investment banker Marc Mezvinsky.

The couple sent an e-mail to friends Friday announcing the news. They said they were looking at a possible wedding next summer. Matt McKenna, a spokesman for the former president, confirmed the engagement Monday.

Mezvinsky is a son of former Pennsylvania Rep. Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky and former Iowa Rep. Ed Mezvinsky, longtime friends of the Clintons. Ed Mezvinsky was released from federal prison last year after pleading guilty in 2002 to charges of bank and wire fraud.

Last summer, Hillary Clinton was forced to tamp down speculation that her daughter and Mezvinsky were already engaged and would marry in August on Martha's Vineyard. Those rumors proved to be false.

The couple became friends as teenagers in Washington and both attended Stanford University. They now live in New York, where Mezvinsky works at Goldman Sachs and Clinton is attending graduate school at Columbia University's School of Public Health.

After shunning the public spotlight for years, Chelsea Clinton became a fixture on the campaign trail during her mother's presidential bid in 2008, visiting colleges and universities around the country.

Cindy Sheehan & Code Pink Get Physical With Elderly Veteran at Anti-Drone Rally

Build your own custom video playlist at embedr.com

"None of you have got the vaguest idea what you are advocating."

Foxx toes own line

She is credited with hard work, personal touch

RALEIGH (By James Romoser, Winston-Salem Journal) - In the post-Jesse Helms era, it's hard to find a North Carolina politician more polarizing than Virginia Foxx.

A three-term congresswoman from Avery County, Foxx is seen by some as offensive and others as courageous. At 66, she clearly hasn't lost her zest for the thrust and parry of congressional politics.

"I'm a small-government conservative, and that's not very fashionable in Washington," Foxx said last week during a wide-ranging telephone interview. "The liberals have no new ideas, and so they're reduced to character assassination."

Health Bill’s Faulty Price Tag

(By John Hood, Carolina Journal Online) - Anyone who believes that ObamaCare will actually cut the federal budget deficit over 10 years is indulging a dangerous fantasy.

Rand Key Player in Easley Property Swap

It’s unclear how Easley paid for his house on Bald Head Island

RALEIGH (By Don Carrington, Carolina Journal Online) — New information developed by Carolina Journal shows that former Gov. Mike Easley’s 2005 Cannonsgate real-estate deal was not the first time Easley was involved in a deceptive land transaction.

The information shows that Easley acquired a lot and a home on exclusive Bald Head Island some years earlier with the assistance of state Sen. Tony Rand of Fayetteville.

In addition, it’s unclear from the public records how much Easley paid for the property. In 2007, CJ reported that Easley paid less for his Bald Head Island home than a nearly identical house sold for at the same time.

Wednesday Funnies :-)

Passing major legislation on Saturday night is a symptom of Potomac Fever

Navy SEALs Face Assault Charges for Capturing Most-Wanted Terrorist

March 31, 2004: Iraqis chant anti-American slogans as the charred and mutilated bodies of U.S. contractors hang from a bridge over the Euphrates River in Fallujah, Iraq.

(Fox News) - Navy SEALs have secretly captured one of the most wanted terrorists in Iraq — the alleged mastermind of the murder and mutilation of four Blackwater USA security guards in Fallujah in 2004. And three of the SEALs who captured him are now facing criminal charges, sources told FoxNews.com.

Ed Begley Jr. Loses It On Fox News

(Big Hollywood) - Yikes. Someone got the talking points. Can you say, “Peer reviewed studies?” Methinks those leaked emails that pretty much show Global Warming is … what’s the best way to put it?… the big fat freakin’ lie we all knew it was, has stirred our friend Ed up some.

You know what he sounds like? Someone who believes the Earth is 6,000 years old trying to explain away a dinosaur fossil.

Oh, that old time religion…

Obama Shatters Spending Record for First-Year Presidents

The federal government spent $3.5 trillion during President Obama's first year in office. This far exceeds the spending for any other first-year president.

(Fox News) - President Obama has shattered the budget record for first-year presidents -- spending nearly double what his predecessor did when he came into office and far exceeding the first-year tabs for any other U.S. president in history.

In fiscal 2009 the federal government spent $3.52 trillion -- $2.8 trillion in 2000 dollars, which sets a benchmark for comparison. That fiscal year covered the last three-and-a-half months of George W. Bush's term and the first eight-and-a-half months of Obama's.

That price tag came with a $1.4 trillion deficit, nearly $1 trillion more than last year. The overall budget was about a half-trillion more than Bush's for 2008, his final full fiscal year in office.

Video: The greatest rock cover 'evah'?

(By Allahpundit, Hot Air) - For your enjoyment as we transition to a holiday state o’ mind, a palate cleanser that’s destined to go mega-viral. Three possible explanations: (1) there’s some 'heavy' drug use going on these days at the Muppets Studio; (2) this is actually a clip of Queen’s video and I’m seeing it as Muppets because my takeout order tonight was laced with something; (3) I can’t think of a third. Bottom line, someone’s tripping balls here. I hope it’s not me!

As always, Animal is the star of the show. Just wait for it.

Education Secretary Rejects D.C. Voucher Program As Parents Press Congress to Continue It

(CNSNews.com) – U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan says no more low-income, mostly minority children will get taxpayer-funded scholarships to attend private or parochial schools in the District of Columbia.

Duncan told CNSNews.com that school vouchers are “not the solution” to fixing D.C.’s failing public schools.

Duncan made the comments just days after concerned parents made another trip to Capitol Hill to press U.S. lawmakers to continue funding the city’s Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP).

Sen. Conrad Suggests That People Who Don’t Believe in Civilian Trials for Terrorists Should Leave America and ‘Go Somewhere Else’

(CNSNews.com) – Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) told CNSNews.com that civilian courts are well-suited to prosecute al Qaeda terrorists and that "if people don't believe in our system, maybe they ought to go somewhere else.”

Conrad also dismissed a question about the rights of terrorists captured on foreign battlefields and the rules of evidence in terms of a civilian court trial as not serious.

Attorney General Eric Holder announced on Nov. 13 that five suspects in the 9/11 attacks would be tried in a civilian court in New York City instead of facing a military trial.



Related Material...

• (CNSNews.com) - McCain: Obama Administration Giving 9/11 Mastermind ‘His Wish’ by Giving Him Civilian Trial in New York

• (CNSNews.com) - Sen. Feinstein: Whether Osama bin Laden Should be Read Miranda Rights is a 'Murky Area'

• (CNSNews.com) - Sen. Dodd: Civilian Courts Better Than Military Tribunals for Prosecuting Terrorists

Krauthammer: 9-11 trial like OJ trial

"By the time Obama came to office, KSM was ready to go before a military commission, plead guilty and be executed. It's Obama who blocked a process that would have yielded the swiftest and most certain justice. Indeed, the perfect justice. Whenever a jihadist volunteers for martyrdom, we should grant his wish. Instead, this one, the most murderous and unrepentant of all, gets to dance and declaim at the scene of his crime. [Attorney General Eric] Holder himself told The Washington Post that the coming New York trial will be 'the trial of the century.' The last such was the trial of O.J. Simpson."

Charles Krauthammer

We Pay Them to Lie to Us

(By John Stossel, Townhall.com) - When you knowingly pay someone to lie to you, we call the deceiver an illusionist or a magician. When you unwittingly pay someone to do the same thing, I call him a politician.

President Obama insists that health care "reform" not "add a dime" to the budget deficit, which daily grows to ever more frightening levels. So the House-passed bill and the one the Senate now deliberates both claim to cost less than $900 billion. Somehow "$900 billion over 10 years" has been decreed to be a magical figure that will not increase the deficit.

It's amazing how precise government gets when estimating the cost of 10 years of subsidized medical care. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's bill was scored not at $850 billion, but $849 billion. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said her bill would cost $871 billion.

How do they do that?

ClimateGate Hoax: The Universe of Lies Versus the Universe of Reality

Rush Limbaugh: Corners of Deceit: Gov'ment, academia, science, media.

Rush Limbaugh's Morning Update: Legacy

Rush Limbaugh: Well, whoopee. A joint study issued by the UN Development Program and the World Health Organization reports that almost half of the world's population has no modern sources of energy.

Broken down by the numbers, two billion people have no access to natural gas or propane (including Obama's brother), and over a billion live without any electricity (including Obama's brother). Summarizing the findings, a UN spokesman said: "Half of humanity is completely disconnected" from the green energy debate, and their needs have to be central to the climate agreement being worked on in Copenhagen.

Now, this is 180 degrees out of phase. We know what works, and what doesn't work. Free markets work. Capitalism works. The profit motive works. Freedom works. Why, in less than 300 years, America rose from that principle to become the most powerful nation on earth. Individual freedom, capitalism, free markets, and the ability to profit from one's own efforts unleashed a wave of prosperity unmatched in human history.

But liberals in the UN -- and sadly, now in our government -- seek to impose wealth-redistribution schemes, rather than wealth-creation policies. They want to constrain affordable energy sources, rather than develop them. They heap blame and scorn on us, rather than take the American freedom model and emulate it.

What this report shows is the utter failure of liberalism, worldwide. And half the world's population living in poverty is their legacy -- including Obama's brother!

Read the Background Material on the Morning Update...
• AP: UN pushes electricity, fuels lack in climate talks

Pelosi Won't Say If Bin Laden Has 'Right To Remain Silent'

(CNSNews.com) - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) refused to answer whether terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, if captured, should be told he has a right to a lawyer and a right to remain silent.

Related Material...

• (CNSNews.com) - Osama bin Laden Should Be Prosecuted in Civilian Court, Sen. Menendez Says

Despite Obama’s Repeated Claims That Enacting $787-Billion Stimulus Was Urgent, 78 Percent of Money Remained Unspent by End of Fiscal 2009 Says Federa

(CNSNews.com) - After his election last November and until the $787-billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was passed in February, President Barack Obama repeatedly insisted that it was urgent for Congress to enact his economic “recovery” bill immediately. Yet, by the end of fiscal 2009 fully 78 percent of the federal spending authorized by that bill had not yet taken place, according to the Government Accountability Office.

In the meantime, the national unemployment rate climbed 26 percent, from 8.1 percent in February to 10.2 percent in October.

NYC Tavern Serves Up 100-Proof Thanksgiving Bird

(AP) - You'll need to be 21 to take a bite out of this Thanksgiving turkey. New York City tavern owner Paul Hurley unveiled what he is calling the nation's first 100-proof turkey on Monday.

Katie Couric's Forbidden Dance of Gin

(Gawker) - When CBS News anchor Katie Couric isn't asking Sarah Palin gotcha questions, she's doin' Da Butt, or the Lambada, or whatever white ladies do when the Black Eyed Peas are on the sound system.

UPDATE: We've learned that these are from the after-party celebrating Couric's debut as anchor of the CBS Evening News. Oh, lord.

Cheney Slams KSM ‘Show Trial’ & Calls Obama Bow ‘Fundamentally Harmful’

“I can’t for the life of me figure out what Holder’s intent here is in having Khalid Sheikh Mohammad tried in civilian court other than to have some kind of show trial. They’ll simply use it as a platform to argue their case – they don’t have a defense to speak of – it’ll be a place for them to stand up and spread the terrible ideology that they adhere to."

Related Material...

• (The Weekly Standard) - Holder Wants "Show Trial" for KSM

Gibbs on gigantic national debt: Hey, don’t forget the savings in ObamaCare

(Hot Air) - Pity this poor bastard, left with no choice but to resort to just the sort of lamer-than-lame talking point that made that SNL skit over the weekend so grimly funny. Click the image and skip ahead to -2:03 for Tapper’s segment on our mind-boggling national debt, where you’ll find Gibbs enthusiastically reminding him that Reid’s health-care bill will produce a whopping $130 billion in savings over 10 years. Minor point one: As previously noted, $130 billion is less than the deficit incurred just last month. Minor point two: As hopefully everyone knows by now, the only reason Reid’s bill costs as “little” as it does is because it doesn’t go into effect until 2014. The “10-year cost” is actually the five-year cost from 2014 to 2019. A true 10-year projection would score the bill at … $1.8 trillion.

Minor point three: Our debt is now so astronomical that, by 2019, the interest on it alone will amount to $700 billion annually — the equivalent of one new TARP per year. And that’s if interest rates stay low.

Video: The Tiffany Network’s tradition of objective journalism

(By Ed Morrissey, Hot Air) - Just in case you might be wondering about the kind of coverage the CBS Evening News will give the health-care bill in the coming weeks of Senate debate, Noel Sheppard of Newsbusters caught this big signal from Katie Couric on CBS’s website. Couric offers this little poem, based very loosely on “A Visit from St. Nicholas” by Clement Clark Moore, on CBS.com’s Notebook, and gives a cutesy endorsement to Olympia Snowe and any aisle-crossing she might to do save Harry Reid’s bacon:

Rush Limbaugh's Morning Update: Proof!

Rush Limbaugh: Last Thursday, computer servers used by researchers at England's Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia were accessed by what appears to be whistleblowers. Over 3,000 documents and e-mails were then posted on the Internet, exposing the way "climate change science" is conducted.

The documents show climate researchers knew the evidence for global warming wasn't there, but they passed it off as "settled science" anyway. Some of the e-mails discuss how these global warming advocates could paper over inconvenient truths to present a "unified" view on global warming. The Wall Street Journal even reports: "On at least one occasion, climate scientists were asked to 'beef up' their conclusions" because "environmental officials in one country were planning a 'big public splash.'"

The documents also reveal plots to shut down all opposing views by pressuring scientific journals not to publish the work of dissenting scientists, or by boycotting journals that dared make raw data available for scrutiny. The e-mails also discuss ways to foil the Freedom of Information Act, to prevent access to the data that these researchers claimed support their global warming theories -- which the e-mails prove doesn't!

In other words, there's proof -- genuine proof -- that the "consensus science" on global warming is, and has been, a total hoax (as I have stated for years). Now, let's see if any of this evidence makes its way to the "cap-and-tax" scheme the Democrats are trying to foist on us -- in the name of fraudulent science.

Read the Background Material on the Morning Update...
• WSJ.com: Climate Emails Stoke Debate

Khalid Sheikh Mo to Plead Not Guilty, Attack US Foreign Policy

Rush Limbaugh: Obama, Holder and KSM seek to try the Bush team.

Terrorist Parody: New York, New York!

Spiegel Online: Germans Balk at Helping Execute KSM

Chart: The Real 10 Year Cost of Reid's Health Care Bill Is $1.8 Trillion

The Weekly Standard: Harry Reid and his fellow Democrats claim that the cost of the Senate's health care bill is $849 billion over the first ten years. But, as Jeffrey Anderson pointed out in the New York Post on Friday, they get this figure by using "the same accounting trick as past versions: 99 percent of the costs don't kick in until the fifth year of that "10-year" period. The true 10-year costs are well over twice what Reid's advertising: $1.8 trillion."

Here's a chart Anderson made using CBO projections to show that the Senate health care bill costs $1.8 trillion during the first ten years that the program is up and running (download the PDF here)...

McCain Tells Sr. Citizens To Cut Up Their AARP Cards

Greg Hengler, Townhall.com: McCain's bright moment on the Senate floor

Stokes sheriff will retire next year

'You need time off,' Joyce says after 40-year career

Winston-Salem Journal: Mike Joyce, the sheriff of Stokes County since 1990, will not seek re-election next year, he said yesterday.

"At the end of the term, I'll have 40 years in law enforcement," he said. "The time comes for all things to end."

Joyce said he made his announcement now to give people who might run a chance to make their decision.

Joyce said he hasn't decided what he will do when his job ends.

"I have no plans at this point, but I'll stay active with something," he said.

Palin dines, prays with Rev. Billy Graham

AP: Sarah Palin on Sunday dined and prayed with the Rev. Billy Graham, who has counseled presidents and other politicians for decades.

Graham had never met Palin, who is scheduled to stop at Fort Bragg in eastern North Carolina on Monday to promote her memoir, "Going Rogue: An American Life." The former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee and members of her family flew into Asheville in the western part of the state, then went to Graham's mountaintop home in nearby Montreat for dinner.

Billy Graham said it was an honor having Palin in his home to join his family for dinner and that they took the opportunity to pray together.

Saturday Vote to Ration Health Care, Fine Any Without Insurance

Rush Limbaugh: Do you think there's any chance they won't get 60?

Rush Limbaugh's Morning Update: Dismantle

Rush Limbaugh: Oh, folks. Get this. Last week, the Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee passed a measure giving the government power to "dismantle" private financial firms they believe are "too big." We're not just talking about firms that are insolvent or inches away from declaring bankruptcy; the target firms can be healthy and well capitalized. But if Democrats -- for whatever reason -- say that a company would hurt the economy if it failed, they want to march in and be able to destroy it.

Pennsylvania Congressman Paul Kanjorski, the author of the provision, said: "Financial firms that want to play in a casino need to have their own resources to cover their bets and not assume tax dollars are available in reserve if their bets fail." The legislation sets up a council to determine if a company's "scope, scale, exposure, leverage, and interconnectedness" make it too big.

Congressman Kanjorski: You Democrats play casino with peoples lives on a daily basis! You don't have the money to play yourselves; you take the money from taxpayers, you spend it without consequence, and when you run out, you borrow from future generations without batting an eye. (Or you print it!) The size, scope, and "interconnectedness" of the federal government is beyond measure. It is leveraged to the hilt, and it fails every day at almost everything it attempts.

Americans don't want your grubby hands dismantling businesses on your enemies list; we want the power-mongering, freedom-crushing, anti-capitalist, socialist Democrat Party that's now in charge dismantled... for the good of the country. Thank you, sir!

Read the Background Material on the Morning Update...
• AP: Panel -- US can dismantle 'too big to fail' firms

Was Walpin on the trail of hush money when Obama fired him?

Ed Morrissey: Why did the White House act so quickly to fire Gerald Walpin and attempt to discredit him with allegations of senility? Until now, it appeared that the Obama administration got angry with Walpin for publicly opposing a settlement with Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson on allegations of fraud in handling federal funds that would have allowed Johnson to continue to receive such funds. Now, however, the Washington Examiner reports that a Congressional inquiry has discovered that Johnson may have used that money to pay off women accusing him of sexual harassment — and that Walpin had gotten too close to the truth:

In the spring of 2008, Walpin’s office received a tip that Johnson had misused AmeriCorps money. Walpin sent two investigators to Sacramento to check the story out. They discovered that money had in fact been misused, and also learned of the allegations of inappropriate sexual conduct by Johnson.

In August 2008, at the time Walpin referred the matter to the U.S. Attorney, he also presented the evidence of misuse of federal money to officials at the Corporation for National and Community Service, the federal agency that oversees AmeriCorps. In September 2008, those officials barred Johnson from receiving any more federal money.

All this was happening as Johnson was running for mayor of Sacramento, a race he won in November 2008. Johnson’s suspension from receiving federal money became a hot issue in early 2009 after Congress passed the $787 billion stimulus bill. Many people in Sacramento worried that the city would not be able to get its share of that money if the mayor was banned from receiving federal dollars. …

The new report strongly suggests that Walpin was in fact fired because of the dispute over St. Hope and concludes that the White House “orchestrated an after-the-fact smear campaign to justify” Walpin’s dismissal.

The report says the allegations of sexual misconduct and a cover-up “provide important context for Walpin’s insistence that the St. Hope matter should not have been settled without further inquiry.” In light of those allegations, the report says, complaints that Walpin was being too aggressive seem unfounded. “The content of the referral tends to undermine any notion that the [inspector general's] investigation was driven by inappropriate motives on the part of Walpin,” the report says. “Rather, it appears to have been driven by non-political, career investigators simply following the facts.”

Who allegedly arranged for the transfer of hush money? In one of the stranger twists in an already strange story, Johnson’s fiancee Michelle Rhee — better known now as the head of the Washington DC school district...

The Louisiana Purchase: $100 Million Payoff to Buy Sen. Landrieu's Vote...

ABC News: What does it take to get a wavering senator to vote for health care reform?

Here’s a case study.

On page 432 of the Reid bill, there is a section increasing federal Medicaid subsidies for “certain states recovering from a major disaster.”

The section spends two pages defining which “states” would qualify, saying, among other things, that it would be states that “during the preceding 7 fiscal years” have been declared a “major disaster area.”

I am told the section applies to exactly one state: Louisiana, the home of moderate Democrat Mary Landrieu, who has been playing hard to get on the health care bill.

In other words, the bill spends two pages describing would could be written with a single world: Louisiana. (This may also help explain why the bill is long.)

Senator Harry Reid, who drafted the bill, cannot pass it without the support of Louisiana’s Mary Landrieu.

How much does it cost? According to the Congressional Budget Office: $100 million.

President Reagan Clears Brush on the Reagan Ranch

The Death Tax: Burden on American Business

Pelosi: Wall Street Tax Must Be International

Reuters: Any tax imposed on financial transactions would have to take effect internationally to keep Wall Street jobs and related business from moving overseas, U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday. "It would have to be an international rule, not just a U.S. rule," Pelosi said at a news conference. "We couldn't do it alone, we'd have to do it as an international initiative."

A $4.9 Trillion Spending Increase

James C. Capretta: The health-care plan unveiled yesterday by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has some in the mainstream media gushing because, on paper at least, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says it will reduce the federal budget deficit by about $130 billion over ten years, and more in the second decade.

But the supposed fiscal prudence of the Reid plan is a complete mirage, for a number of reasons.

Rush Limbaugh's Morning Update: Fade-Out

Rush Limbaugh: I warned you. The unelected and unaccountable environmentalist wackos who comprise the California Energy Commission are prohibiting stores from selling television sets that don't meet certain energy requirements. The ban takes effect in 2011, targeting LCD and plasma TVs, which the public loves -- and the wackos hate.

Before the vote (which was unanimous), Art Rosenfeld, one of the commissioners who has spent 30 years advocating such bans, claimed the action would be "a very good deal for society." He said his agency wanted to put a damper on energy demand since TV sets have gradually morphed into home-entertainment centers. You see, Art doesn't approve of that.

The commission claims the TV ban won't cost consumers anything because manufacturers already make over a thousand products that meet the requirements. But how can that be? If manufacturers and consumers won't be affected, there'd be no reason for the ban!

The Consumer Electronics Association warns the ban will cost California jobs and sales tax revenue; that it will stifle competition and harm consumers. I'll tell you what else. Businesses across the California state line are going to sell the banned TVs, and if the ban is too invasive, a black market is going to flourish.

So a question for you hardworking California taxpayers: What's it going to take before you reach your breaking point out there with the loss of freedom under these liberal tyrants? I mean, you've got a little over a year to buy the TV of your choice. Make the best of it, because time -- like your liberty -- is fading out fast... into a test pattern.

Read the Background Material on the Morning Update...
• WSJ.com: New California Rules to Make TVs Greener

Leahy: We wouldn’t bother to interrogate … Bin Laden?

A clown.

(By Ed Morrissey, Hot Air) - If you want to see why a law-enforcement approach is absolutely the wrong way to defend the US against dangerous terrorists abroad, look no further than this asinine statement from Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT). Lindsey Graham asked Eric Holder how he would go about interrogating any terrorists captured by military and intelligence personnel in the future if the DoJ would have them tried in civil courts rather than military tribunals, including the most notorious man of all, Osama bin Laden. Leahy scoffed at the notion that we would need to interrogate him at all:

If the U.S. captures Osama bin Laden, there’s no need to interrogate him, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Thursday.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the chairman of that committee, said that arguments raised by Republican senators about whether bin Laden would be afforded Miranda rights if he were captured amount to a “red herring.”

“The red herring that my friend [Sen.] Lindsey Graham [R-S.C.] was covering is not realistic,” Leahy said during an appearance on “Washington Journal” on C-SPAN.

“For one thing, capturing Osama bin Laden — we’ve had enough on him, we don’t need to interrogate him,” Leahy added.

Really? No need to interrogate him at all? The US would not be interested in discovering, say, any current plots to attack the US and its allies? Perhaps the location of Ayman al-Zawahiri? The identities of sleeper agents in the US?

Video: Health Care Hoops

(By Ed Morrissey, Hot Air) - I’ve tried to make this point a few times in the debate over a government-run private option, but this video from the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest gets it across in an entertaining and clear manner. Public-option advocates insist that they only want to provide competition to insurers by providing a government-run insurance plan, but that means that the regulator will also be competing in the marketplace. I’ve used the analogy of having Wal-Mart take the place of the FTC; no matter how ethical Wal-Mart may or may not be, they will make decisions in regulation that benefit themselves and burden their competition. But the basketball analogy works better visually:

When the ref is also a player …

Incidentally, anyone doubting the end result of having a government “option” should recall what the Obama administration and Democrats want to do with student loans. That went from a government-encouraged private market, to a market with a government “option” (direct loans), to a single-payer loan system if the Senate passes the House bill as expected. And that is exactly what will happen with health care, too, once the refs start playing the game themselves.

CBO: Reid plan increases deficits $89 billion in first ten years

Whoops!

(By Ed Morrissey, Hot Air) - Whoops! The Congressional Budget Office has contradicted Harry Reid’s claim that his new ObamaCare bill will reduce the deficit, even in the first ten years of the program. A letter to Rep. Paul Ryan explodes Reid’s deficit myth and categorically states that Democratic policies will add to the national debt, and do so almost immediately as well as in the foreseeable future. The CBO considered the “doctor fix” that has already passed the House and is backed by the White House as part of their calculations...

Reid stripped Stupak language from Senate ObamaCare bill

(By Ed Morrissey, Hot Air) - Let the games begin:

The Senate healthcare reform bill includes new language designed to prevent taxpayer money from financing abortions, an anti-abortion-rights Democrat said Wednesday.

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), who was briefed on the healthcare bill by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) in advance of a Wednesday meeting of all Senate Democrats, said he received assurances that his concerns about abortion had been met. …

Nelson emphasized he had seen no legislative language on abortion and specified that the provisions would not be the same approved by the House. Those provisions have triggered an outcry from pro-abortion-rights Democrats in both chambers, who vowed to strip them from any legislation that reaches President Barack Obama. …

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), who supports abortion rights, said Reid’s new provisions would preserve the Hyde amendment while enabling people to buy insurance plans with abortion coverage on the exchange.

“We’re basically going to keep current law, which is what we ought to do,” Kerry said after the Democratic caucus meeting.

Sen. Graham knocks around AG Holder on KSM.

(By Moe Lane, Red State) - I know that Senator Lindsey Graham (R, SC) is not on a lot of people’s Christmas card lists, but this exchange between him and Attorney General Eric Holder was four minutes, forty seconds’ worth of pure schooling:

Senate to Vote Thursday on Appeals Court Nominee Who Said Judges Can Amend the Constitution with Judicial ‘Footnotes’

(CNSNews.com) – U.S. senators on Thursday will debate and vote on the nomination of Judge David F. Hamilton, President Obama's first judicial nominee.

Hamilton, who would sit on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago if confirmed, has said his decisions as a federal judge can “amend” the U.S. Constitution by adding “footnotes” to it.

Reid Introduces Senate Health Bill That Mandates Federally Subsidized Abortion

(CNSNews.com) - Senate Majority Harry Reid (D.-Nev.) late Wednesday published the final text of a Senate health care bill that would mandate federally subsidized abortion.

The mandate appears on page 120 of the 2,074-page bill under the seemingly innocuous heading: ‘Assured Availability of Varied Coverage Through Exchanges.”

Specifically, the provision requires that the secretary of Health and Human Services make certain that at least one health insurance plan offered in government-regulated insurance exchanges where people will be able to purchase health insurance using government subsidies must provide coverage of abortion. The secretary also must make certain that at least one plan available in the exchanges not cover abortions.

Senate bill includes the Botox tax

(Politico) - The bill levies a 5 percent tax on elective cosmetic surgery. The provision raises $5 billion and was needed to make the numbers work, according to a Democratic Senate aide.

The Finance Committee considered the tax but dismissed it, in part because it was a public relations battle that senators were not willing to wage.

Jesse Jackson: 'You can't vote against healthcare and call yourself a black man'

(The Hill) - The Rev. Jesse Jackson on Wednesday night criticized Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.) for voting against the Democrats’ signature healthcare bill.

“We even have blacks voting against the healthcare bill,” Jackson said at a reception Wednesday night. “You can’t vote against healthcare and call yourself a black man.”

The tax increases of the Reid plan on ObamaCare

(By Ed Morrissey, Hot Air) - What do the Reid and Pelosi plans for ObamaCare have in common? Taxes, taxes, taxes — and Keith Hennessey breaks them down for us this morning. The Joint Committee on Taxation identified six major new taxes or tax increases that will, according to Harry Reid, suck more than $370 billion out of the economy...

MSNBC’s Matthews Comments on ‘Monochromatic’ Crowd at Palin Book Signing

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

"I think there's a tribal aspect to this thing, in other words, white vs. other people."

Failed anti-depressant drug could be 'women's Viagra'

(Breitbart) - A drug that failed to fight the blues could be the female answer to the little blue pill Viagra, the lead North American investigator analysing tests of the drug said Tuesday.

Women who took the drug flibanserin when it was being tested as an anti-depressant said it didn't help them beat the glums, but did give them "an increase in libido that they liked," John Thorp, one of the investigators analyzing data from three clinical trials of the drug, told AFP.

Lack of desire is the most common sexual problem in women aged 30 to 60, just as erectile dysfunction, for which Viagra is one of a choice of treatments, is the most common sexual disorder among men in the same age bracket, Thorp said.

Lieberman slams public option, taunts critics...

(Politico) - Sen. Joe Lieberman’s threat to filibuster any health care bill with a public option could kill health reform this year — and embolden Democratic challengers who’d like to send him packing in 2012.

But Lieberman doesn’t seem worried.

“I don’t think about that stuff,” Lieberman told POLITICO this week. “I’m just — I’m being a legislator. After what I went through in 2006, there’s nothing much more that anybody [who] disagrees with me can try to do.”

British health care: It’s come to this

Liver cancer drug 'too expensive'

(BBC News) - A drug that can prolong the lives of patients with advanced liver cancer has been rejected for use in the NHS in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) said the cost of Nexavar - about £3,000 a month - was "simply too high".

But Macmillan Cancer Support said the decision was "a scandal".

Rush Limbaugh's Morning Update: Breakfast!

Rush Limbaugh: Folks, before delving into today's update, let me issue a warning to those of you who consider yourselves responsible parents. When you hear what you're about to hear, you might have a negative reaction, so stifle it.

Let's begin. Educators in Washington, DC have a problem. Many of the students who eat "free" or "reduced-price" skrool lunches don't show up to the skrool for breakfast. Two reasons are cited. First: kids would have to get up earlier and make their way to the skrool cafeteria. Second: taking part in the breakfast program carries with it the stigma of a government program -- which is news to me, given how beloved government programs are.

So the educators came up with a plan: a pilot program allowing DC students to be served breakfast in the classroom. At least nine skrools have implemented the program. The AP news report doesn't specify the menu selections, or mention if the students are allowed to tip their waiters, but hey: the skrools give out condoms -- why not serve breakfast to the kids who are too tired to get up early for a free meal?

Look. I understand -- and you should too -- that today's parents don't have time or the inclination to pop open a cereal box and pour some milk on it to feed their own kids before school. I mean, this is the new America: old rules no longer apply. The words "individual responsibility" have no meaning. So, I guess, with that, pass the Pop-Tarts, and have a nice day... eating breakfast served at your desk. Sheesh!

Read the Background Material on the Morning Update...
• AP: Some DC schools serve breakfast in classrooms

Obama: Too much debt could fuel double-dip recession

BEIJING (Reuters) - President Barack Obama gave his sternest warning yet about the need to contain rising U.S. deficits, saying on Wednesday that if government debt were to pile up too much, it could lead to a double-dip recession.

With the U.S. unemployment rate at 10.2 percent, Obama told Fox News his administration faces a delicate balance of trying to boost the economy and spur job creation while putting the economy on a path toward long-term deficit reduction.

His administration was considering ways to accelerate economic growth, with tax measures among the options to give companies incentives to hire, Obama said in the interview with Fox conducted in Beijing during his nine-day trip to Asia.

AARP Received $18 Million In Stimulus Money

(By Philip Klein, The American Spectator) - AARP, which has given its full-throated support to Democratic health care legislation even though seniors remain largely opposed, received an $18 million grant in the economic stimulus package for a job training program that has not created any jobs, according to the Obama administration's Recovery.gov website.

Top Democrats eye stock trade tax

(The Hill) - House Democratic leaders are considering imposing a new tax on stock transactions to fund a jobs bill, leadership sources tell The Hill.

Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.) has been making the case for such a Wall Street tax, and House leaders have started paying attention as they look for a way to pay for the jobs bill, leadership sources said.

Senator Presses Holder: Would Osama Bin Laden Be Mirandized?

"I think you've made a fundamental mistake here," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said.

Video: The Goracle on geothermal temperatures

(By Ed Morrissey, Hot Air) - Yesterday I featured the science stylings of John Kerry, who apparently can’t do math or research in his quest to sound like Chicken Little on carbon-dioxide emissions. The self-appointed dean of the American global-warming hysteria movement, Al Gore, didn’t do much better when trying to explain geothermal energy to Conan O’Brien. Gore tells Conan that geothermal energy is plentiful, because the Earth’s core temperature is millions of degrees (via John Derbyshire):



The interior of the Earth is extremely hot … but as Derb notes, it’s estimated to be between 5000 – 9000 degrees Celsius, not “several million degrees.” The surface of the Sun is only estimated to be 6000º C, while 'its' core really is several million degrees Celsius. If the Earth’s core temperature was that hot, we would have had a “global warming” crisis a few billion years ago, and this debate would never have taken place.

1500 wait in freezing weather to meet Palin on book tour

Phenomenon.

(By Ed Morrissey, Hot Air) - In case anyone needed an example of the drawing power and political energy that Sarah Palin wields, the Detroit Free Press report on the start of her book tour should fill the gap nicely. Despite freezing temperatures, people gathered by the hundreds early this morning to greet Palin in person at a Grand Rapids bookstore. By 5 am, 'five hundred' people stood outside the Barnes & Noble — and two hours later, the numbers had swelled to 1500:

And that’s 4:55 this morning when the thermometer had dipped into the 30s. But the 500 or so people in line didn’t mind the sleepless night or the onset of winter.

“What she represents is what we’re standing in line for,” said Robin Case, 44, of Traverse City, who set up a chair and sleeping bag at 9 p.m. Tuesday to make sure she got the chance to meet Sarah Palin, former Alaska Governor and vice presidential candidate. “She’s real and she’s standing up for what we believe in.”

Palin was scheduled to begin her “Going Rogue” book tour at the Barnes & Noble Booksellers in suburban Grand Rapids.

By 7 a.m., the line had swelled to more than 1,500 people as Barnes & Noble wrapped orange wristbands around Palin fans’ wrists.

Most authors would be pleased to get 1500 people in 'total' to show up for a book tour. (Heck, most authors would kill to 'sell' 1500 books.) Even the 'Lord of the Rings' openings didn’t attract 1500 fans for a 7 am show. 'Star Wars' didn’t get this kind of response. And if Massachusetts is any indicator, not even Barack Obama can pack a house like this any more.

Recovery chief: Yeah, I can’t back up those numbers

(By Ed Morrissey, Hot Air) - Over the last couple of weeks, the media and the blogosphere has dissected the numbers coming from Recovery.gov and found them laughably phony. The 'pièce de resistance' came when Watchdog.org noticed that the government-run accountability website appeared not to know that the US has only 435 Congressional districts, instead of the 875 listed on the website — but listed almost $6.4 billion in spending in the phantom districts. However, as we have seen here, phony “saved or created” numbers are the norm, not the exception, and most of the jobs data are insupportable.

And even Earl Devaney, the man in charge at Recovery.org, can’t deny it. In a response to Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), Devaney says that he cannot certify any of the jobs data published by the government:

The chairman of the Obama administration’s Recovery Board is telling lawmakers that he can’t certify jobs data posted at the Recovery.gov Web site — and doesn’t have access to a “master list” of stimulus recipients that have neglected to report data.

Earl Devaney, the chairman of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, responded to questions posed by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., late yesterday to say the board can’t vouch for the numbers submitted by recipients of stimulus funding.

“Your letter specifically asks if I am able to certify that the number of jobs reported as created/saved on Recovery.gov is accurate and auditable. No, I am not able to make this certification,” Devaney wrote, in a letter provided to ABC News.

Devaney rejected Issa’s suggestion that the site include a more prominent disclaimer, such as an asterisk or a footnote. He said the site already does mention in a note to users that “errors and omissions” are likely.

Wonderful: Obama already giving KSM grounds to demand a mistrial

More Obamateur Hour

(By Andy McCarthy, National Review Online) - In a meeting with the press in China, President Obama said that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed would be "convicted" and had "the death penalty applied to him" . . . and then said he wasn't "pre-judging" the case. He made the second statement after it was pointed out to him — by NBC's Chuck Todd — that the first statement would be taken as the president's interfering in the trial process. Obama said that wasn't his intention. I'm sure it wasn't — he's trying to contain the political damage caused by his decision — but that won't matter. He has given the defense its first motion that the executive branch, indeed the president himself, is tainting the jury pool. Nice work.

Health 'Reform' Gets a Failing Grade

The changes proposed by Congress will require more draconian measures down the road. Just look at Massachusetts.

(By JEFFREY S. FLIER, The Wall Street Journal) - As the dean of Harvard Medical School I am frequently asked to comment on the health-reform debate. I'd give it a failing grade.

Instead of forthrightly dealing with the fundamental problems, discussion is dominated by rival factions struggling to enact or defeat President Barack Obama's agenda. The rhetoric on both sides is exaggerated and often deceptive. Those of us for whom the central issue is health—not politics—have been left in the lurch. And as controversy heads toward a conclusion in Washington, it appears that the people who favor the legislation are engaged in collective denial.

Our health-care system suffers from problems of cost, access and quality, and needs major reform. Tax policy drives employment-based insurance; this begets overinsurance and drives costs upward while creating inequities for the unemployed and self-employed. A regulatory morass limits innovation. And deep flaws in Medicare and Medicaid drive spending without optimizing care.

Sarah Palin gives Oprah biggest audience in two years

(The Live Feed) - Oprah Winfrey’s interview with former vp candidate Sarah Palin scored the talk show host her highest rating in two years.

Monday's episode of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" drew a 8.7 household rating and 13 share -- the best since Oprah had the entire Osmond family on the show in 2007.

That means Palin also topped Oprah's heavily viewed interviews with Whitney Houston at the start of the season.

U.S. Rep. Etheridge protests pork putdown by police

RALEIGH (AP) - A North Carolina congressman says police got their facts wrong when they denied a Capitol Hill protest against corporate hog farms out of concern about spreading swine flu.

The News & Observer of Raleigh reported Wednesday that U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge scolded the reasoning of U.S. Capitol Police after they blocked the protest by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

PETA wanted to fill thousands of buckets with pig waste to give politicians a whiff of what it's like near sprawling hog operations.

When police said the protest could spread swine flu, Etheridge squealed.

The part-time farmer from the nation's No. 2 pork-producing state says hog growers are hurting from the mistaken belief that pigs or their meat spreads swine flu.

Krauthammer: Mr. Hopenchange Is Offering Al Qaeda 9-11, Act II

Worse Than Taxes: The Spending

(By John Stossel, Real Clear Politics) - Bill O'Reilly is mad at me because I'm not mad enough about taxes.

Last week on "The O'Reilly Factor", we talked about California's and New York's enormous budget deficits and planned tax increases. Those states would have big surpluses had they just grown their governments in pace with inflation. But of course they didn't. Now the politicians act like their current deficits are something imposed on them by the recession.

But that's nonsense. They created the problem with their reckless spending.

Can Sue Lowden Knock Out Fightin' Harry Reid in Nevada?

(Politics Daily) - I have been around enough campaigns to know that you can usually identify the front-runner as the candidate who gets attacked first. If that rule of thumb applies in Nevada, then Majority Leader Harry Reid must figure he'd really have his hands full with former Republican state senator Sue Lowden.

Democrats starting to panic as independents abandon ship

(Politico) - Mounting evidence that independent voters have soured on the Democrats is prompting a debate among party officials about what rhetorical and substantive changes are needed to halt the damage.

Following serious setbacks with independents in off-year elections earlier this month, White House officials attributed the defeats to local factors and said President Barack Obama sees no need to reposition his own image or the Democratic message.

Since then, however, a flurry of new polls makes clear that Democrats are facing deeper problems with independents—the swing voters who swung dramatically toward the party in 2006 and 2008 but who now are registering deep unease with the amount of spending and debt called for under Obama's agenda in an era of one-party rule in Washington.

Buncombe County's Martin Nesbitt gains No. 2 spot in NC Senate

Buncombe legislator to boost influence for WNC

RALEIGH (Asheville Citizen-Times) - Martin Nesbitt isn't known for toeing the party line. Over nearly three decades in the House and Senate, he has been a loyal lieutenant of some Democratic leaders and a thorn in the side of others.

But in his new job, the Asheville senator will try to keep 30 Senate Democrats speaking with one voice.

“I'm changing roles right now. I've been a warrior,” Nesbitt said, emerging from the room where Democratic senators voted unanimously Tuesday to name him Senate majority leader.

AP Digs for Dirt in Palin Autobiography; News wire assigns 11 reporters to fact-check former governor's book, but didn't fact-check Obama's...

(Fox News) - Sarah Palin is no normal politician, and at the Associated Press, apparently "Going Rogue" is no normal book.

When the former Republican vice presidential candidate and former Alaska governor wrote her autobiography, the AP found a copy before its release date and assigned 11 people to fact check all 432 pages.

The AP claims Palin misstated her record with regard to travel expenses and taxpayer-funded bailouts, using statements widely reported elsewhere. But it also speculated into Palin's motives for writing "Going Rogue: An American Life," stating as fact that the book "has all the characteristics of a pre-campaign manifesto."

Palin quickly hit back on a Facebook post titled "Really? Still Making Things Up?"

Federal Term Limits: DeMint Is Not Deterred

(By Jillian Bandes, Townhall.com) - Sen. Jim DeMint's (R-S.C.) is resurrecting the debate about federal term limits with a new push to limit service by Members of the House and Senate to a maximum of twelve years. The main reason he is renewing efforts on this front is to curb the growth of government.

"We know a number of states have gone to this, and we know the reason for this," said Demint. "Accumulated power corrupts. And it's certainly corrupted the current Congress."

Rush Interviews Sarah Palin

Rush Limbaugh: A discussion focused on the future of conservatism.

• Buy Her Book: Going Rogue, An American Life

Rush Limbaugh's Morning Update: Word Up!

Rush Limbaugh: According to OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the rate of workplace injuries and illnesses has been declining since 1992.

Did Democrats welcome the good news? No, no, no, no! They ordered an investigation! The Government Accountability Office went hunting for bad news, and they found some.

The GAO report, released Monday, blames businesses for pressuring workers not to report illnesses or injuries in order to avoid trouble with OSHA. That's right, my friends: evil business owners are apparently conspiring with evil health providers, who are pressured to withhold medical treatment for injured or sick employees. Half the occupational health workers that the GAO talked to now claim they were pressured to downplay serious illnesses or injuries.

The GAO also points the finger at OSHA inspectors for not verifying the data. They said OSHA could catch some of the supposed underreporting by auditing employer records, instead of relying on the data provided by businesses.

But with this bad news, Democrats were finally happy. Senator Patty Murray said the report confirms employers cannot be "taken at their word."

Speaking of taking people at their word in reports. Did you know in Arizona's 9th Congressional District, $800,000 of Democrat stimulus money "saved or created" 30 jobs? Did you also know there is no 9th District in Arizona? Did you know that Recovery.gov lists hundreds of millions spent and hundreds of jobs created in Congressional districts that don't exist?

So, Ms. Murray: Why should we believe any of you -- Democrats, that is?

Read the Background Material on the Morning Update...
• AP: Report -- Companies not reporting all injuries
• ABC News: Exclusive -- Jobs 'Saved or Created' in Congressional Districts That Don't Exist

Carter Defends Handling of Hostage Crisis

30 Years Later, Ex-President Says He Used Right Tactics

CHIANG MAI, Thailand (AOL News) - Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said Monday that he had no regrets about his handling of the Iran hostage crisis more than 30 years ago, saying he didn't attack the country as his advisers proposed because thousands of people would have died.

Islamic militants stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on Nov. 4, 1979, and seized its occupants. Fifty-two Americans were held hostage for 444 days.

Video: Kerry was against correct data after he was for it

(By Ed Morrissey, Hot Air) - Democrats crowed that they would “restore science to its rightful place” once they controlled both Congress and the White House, but science usually requires the use of 'correct' data. The Institute for Energy Research catches John Kerry using hyperbolically wrong numbers on carbon emissions in the US as a means to use the Chicken Little approach to passing legislation:

Stupak: Don’t test me on abortion, Democrats

(By Ed Morrissey, Hot Air) - After the House adopted the Pelosi Plan for ObamaCare with the Stupak amendment barring any federal funds for abortion coverage, Democrats attempted to assuage pro-abortion advocates by committing to changing the language in conference committee. Even the White House got in on the act, with David Axelrod promising that Bart Stupak’s language would be “adjusted” before any bill came to the Oval Office. Today on Fox News, Stupak threatened to kill the bill entirely if Democrats “adjusted” his amendment — and took a shot at David Axelrod as well:

Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) pledged this morning to defeat healthcare reform if his abortion amendment is taken out, saying 10 to 20 pro-life Democrats would vote against a bill with weaker language.

“They’re not going to take it out,” Stupak said on Fox and Friends, referring to Senate Democrats. “If they do, health care will not move forward.”

Stupak’s amendment prohibits any insurance plan on a potential healthcare exchange from accepting federal subsidies if it covers abortion. Pro-choice lawmakers say that language is too broad and would drastically reduce access to abortion. …

“[T]hat is why Mr. Axelrod is not a legislator, he doesn’t really know what he is talking about.”