Today we vote whether to even discuss one of the greatest issues of our generation - indeed, one of the greatest issues this body has ever face: whether this nation will finally guarantee its people the right to live free from the fear of illness and death, which can be prevented by decent health care for all.
#2
The Pharaohs of Egypt spent the entire GDP of a nation in seeking immortality. Now we all are little pharaohs. To paraphrase someone else - we had a choice of bankrupting future generations or death, we've chosen bankruptcy and will still die.
#3
The Pharaohs of Egypt spent the entire GDP of a nation in seeking immortality.
Nancy's succession of facelifts has assured her that part of her anatomy will outlive the process of natural decay. But I resist using the term "mummy" in association with her, given that her disposition seems inimical with a term which invokes notions of nurture and self sacrifice.
#5
Reid didn't promise to eliminate death, only the fear of it. Last time I checked, there are plenty of drugs which, given at the right time & in the right amounts, eliminate fear entirely. Some of these drugs then go on to cause death. I think he is referring to government-mandated euthanasia rather than government-supported immortality.
#6
I think Senator Reid was going for the soaring rhetoric rather than giving any thought to the meaning of the words whatsoever -- in the 'baffle them with bullshit' mode, since brilliance has never been his forte'.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
11/22/2009 8:33 Comments ||
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#2
[from the article above:]
"The appointment of Herman Van Rompuy and Catherine Ashton to the European Union's top spots has many scratching their heads. The two are relatively unknown, but expectations are so low, they can only exceed them."
I doubt calling for MORE taxes exceeds those expectations. :-(
Europe, ya'll can start fighting back anytime now....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
11/22/2009 8:36 Comments ||
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#5
BHARAT RAKSHAK > [Tax.com]TIME FOR A WAR TAX?; + [Prison PLanet] OBAMA'S ALLIES WANT NEW TAX TO PAY FOR THE COST OF PROTECTING AFGHAN OPIUM FIELDSS/CROPS, BRIBING TALIBAN.
ARTIC > AFPAK Conflict agz Milits-Terrs is just ONE GIANT GLOBAL PYWAR = "FALSE FLAG" DIVERSION for the US to protect + engage in worldwide illegal drug proliferation, laundering???
And so it came to pass that Landrieu walked onto the Senate floor midafternoon Saturday to announce her aye vote -- and to trumpet the financial "fix" she had arranged for Louisiana. "I am not going to be defensive," she declared. "And it's not a $100 million fix. It's a $300 million fix."
It was an awkward moment (not least because her figure is 20 times the original Louisiana Purchase price). But it was fairly representative of a Senate debate that seems to be scripted in the Southern Gothic style. The plot was gripping -- the bill survived Saturday's procedural test without a single vote to spare -- and it brought out the rank partisanship, the self-absorption and all the other pathologies of modern politics. If that wasn't enough of a Tennessee Williams story line, the debate even had, playing the lead role, a Southerner named Blanche with a flair for the dramatic.
Even when she finally announced her support, at 2:30 in the afternoon, Lincoln made clear that she still planned to hold out for many more concessions in the debate that will consume the next month. "My decision to vote on the motion to proceed is not my last, nor only, chance to have an impact on health-care reform," she announced. No, I'm sure it's not.
#1
It appears the difference between moderate democrats and liberal ones is a $300mm surcharge.
Posted by: regular joe ||
11/22/2009 8:34 Comments ||
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#2
"It appears the difference between moderate democrats and liberal ones is a $300mm surcharge using other people's money."
Fixed that for ya', joe.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
11/22/2009 8:38 Comments ||
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#3
Just "spreadin' the wealth" like Obumble promised.
Posted by: regular joe ||
11/22/2009 9:12 Comments ||
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#4
a smelly pirate hooker
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/22/2009 9:44 Comments ||
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#5
I wonder if she's obligated to vote on the actual bill as well or if they just bought her vote to get it into debate.
It is exactly this kind of trading favors and pork that has gotten us into this mess. I'd love to see everyone taking pork thrown on on their butts next election.
#6
We all need to ask our congressmen what they are bringing home for us and tell 'em that if it isn't at least 50M they're not working hard enough for us. Raw, blatant corruption is what it is.
#8
I wonder if she's obligated to vote on the actual bill as well or if they just bought her vote to get it into debate.
The honourable senator has made it clear this only rented her vote to bring the bill to the floor for discussion, rjschwarz. They'll need to pay another installment to get her to go along with each step along the way to cloture.
WASHINGTON Invoking the memory of Edward M. Kennedy, Democrats united Saturday night to push historic health care legislation past a key Senate hurdle over the opposition of Republicans eager to inflict a punishing defeat on President Barack Obama. There was not a vote to spare.
The 60-39 vote cleared the way for a bruising, full-scale debate beginning after Thanksgiving on the legislation, which is designed to extend coverage to roughly 31 million who lack it, crack down on insurance company practices that deny or dilute benefits and curtail the growth of spending on medical care nationally.
The spectator galleries were full for the unusual Saturday night showdown, and applause broke out briefly when the vote was announced. In a measure of the significance of the moment, senators sat quietly in their seats, standing only when they were called upon to vote.
In the final minutes of a daylong session, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., accused Republicans of trying to stifle a historic debate the nation needed. "Imagine if, instead of debating whether to abolish slavery, instead of debating whether giving women and minorities the right to vote, those who disagreed had muted discussion and killed any vote," he said.
Remember which party was against slavery back then, and which one was for it?
The Republican leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said the vote was anything but procedural casting it as a referendum on the bill itself, which he said would raise taxes, cut Medicare and create a "massive and unsustainable debt."
For all the drama, the result of the Saturday night showdown had been sealed a few hours earlier, when two final Democratic holdouts, Sens. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, announced they would join in clearing the way for a full debate.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/22/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Remember which party was against slavery back then, and which one was for it?
Abolishing slavery and women's suffrage were noble causes and were constitutional. I wouldn't soil these causes by putting the healthcare takeover bill in the same class.
#2
But Dinty Harry would (and did). This should make a great campaign ad - it'll show Ried for what it is and remind people who, exactly, opposed slavery.
#7
get set for the grand betrayl. By getting this to the floor the dems can now let the wobbly Senators like Landrieu and Lincoln vote against the final bill, and Reid just passes this with the nuclear option. It goes to committee and we are all toast. By the time 2012 rolls around it will be imp[ossible to dis-establish the agencies, laws, rules and regulations that have been put in place. Welcome to the workers paradise my friends, the era of government interference in every aspect of your lives has now arrived. In a generation, we will be just like Germany or France....and in two, no one will remember what actual freedom felt like.
#9
If they push it through on reconciliation it will be repealed in 2013 as the long promised first act of the incoming trunk president after the 2010 congress refuses to appropriate the necessary funds to implement the legislation in 2013.
Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin has banned Rep. Patrick Kennedy from receiving Communion, the central sacrament of the church, in Rhode Island because of the congressman's support for abortion rights, Kennedy said in a newspaper interview published Sunday. I'm sure this will really cramp his style on Easter and Christmas. The rest of the year? Probably not so much.
The decision by the outspoken prelate, reported on The Providence Journal's Web site, significantly escalates a bitter dispute between Tobin, an ultra orthodox bishop, and Kennedy, a son of the nation's most famous Roman Catholic family.
"The bishop instructed me not to take Communion and said that he has instructed the diocesan priests not to give me Communion," Kennedy told the paper in an interview conducted Friday.
Kennedy said the bishop had explained the penalty by telling him "that I am not a good practicing Catholic because of the positions that I've taken as a public official," particularly on abortion. That seems clear enough. Respect for life is a central tenet of the Church. If you vote for abortion you're going to have trouble staying within the Church. It's not like it's a new policy.
He declined to say when or how Tobin told him not to take the sacrament. And he declined to say whether he has obeyed the bishop's injunction.
The paper said the bishop's spokesman declined to address the question of whether he had told Kennedy not to receive Communion. But the bishop's office cast doubt on Kennedy's related assertion about instructions to state priests.
"Bishop Tobin has never addressed matters relative to public officials receiving Holy Communion with pastors of the diocese," spokesman Michael K. Guilfoyle told the paper in an e-mailed statement. Perhaps Patrick found a message in a bottle ...
Kennedy did not return messages left on his cell phone by The Associated Press, and his staff refused to make the congressman available for comment. Tobin's spokesman told the AP that the bishop would not comment on the issue.
Church law permits Tobin to ban Kennedy from receiving Communion within the Diocese of Providence, which covers Rhode Island, but he cannot stop Kennedy from receiving Communion elsewhere. It was unclear whether bishops overseeing Washington and Massachusetts, where Kennedy's family has a seaside compound, would issue similar bans.
Kennedy could appeal the decision to officials in the Vatican, but the hierarchy of the Catholic church is unlikely to overturn a bishop, said Michael Sean Winters, a church observer and author of "Left At the Altar: How Democrats Lost The Catholics And How Catholics Can Save The Democrats."
"It's really bad theology," said Winters, who opposes abortion. "You're turning the altar rail into a battle field, a political battlefield no less, and it does a disservice to the Eucharist." A little background on this disinterested observer....former top speechwriter for Wesley Clark, thinks that average Catholic voters need to go back to the Democrat party in spite of their stand on abortion because of "peace and justice" issues... The whole point of communion is that it's shared with believers. If you don't believe you don't share.
The dispute between the two men began in October when Kennedy in an interview on CNSNews.com criticized the nation's Catholic bishops for threatening to oppose a massive expansion of the nation's health care system unless it included tighter restrictions on federally funded abortion.
Kennedy voted against an amendment to a Democratic health care plan sought by the bishops. But he voted in favor of a health care plan that included the amendment he opposed.
Tobin, the spiritual leader of the nation's most heavily Roman Catholic state, demanded an apology from Kennedy after learning of his remarks and requested a meeting.
"While I greatly respect the Catholic Church and its leaders, like many Rhode Islanders, the fact that I disagree with the hierarchy of the church on some issues does not make me any less of a Catholic," Kennedy wrote in a letter to Tobin, agreeing to a sitdown. "I embrace my faith which acknowledges the existence of an imperfect humanity." Patrick me boyo, there's a name for westerners who can't abide by the teachings of the holy and catholic church. They're called, 'protestants'. Go find a church that will take you.
Their meeting fell apart. While Tobin called it a mutual decision, Kennedy accused Tobin of failing to abide by an agreement to stop discussing the congressman's faith publicly. Why would the good Bishop agree to do that? It's his job.
Tobin followed up with a biting public letter published in a diocesan newspaper.
"Sorry, you can't chalk it up to an 'imperfect humanity.' Your position is unacceptable to the Church and scandalous to many of our members. It absolutely diminishes your Communion with the Church," Tobin wrote.
In subsequent interviews, Tobin said Kennedy should not receive Communion like other Catholic politicians who support abortion rights. Still, the bishop stopped short of ordering Kennedy not to receive the sacrament.
#1
About time the Bishops started enforcing the tenets of the Magisterium. The whole Kennedy clan should've been called on this decades ago.
Posted by: Mike ||
11/22/2009 11:35 Comments ||
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#2
Young Patrick's stance is sort of Thomas More in reverse. He stays in the Church so as to keep his political power inst of chucking power and remaining loyal to the Church.
#3
Patches is a substance-abusing idiot. The good Bishop kept the discussion to himself and Patches, but dumbass has to take it public in a newspaper interview. Raised the stakes with no cards in his hand.
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/22/2009 11:55 Comments ||
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#4
I hear the C of E is looking for members. Maybe the Pope could put in a word with the Arch Druid.
#5
Ole Patches actually had a decent Pub opponent once or twice in the House race. Wonder if the Pubs could get someone in for the 2010 race? At some point even a Kennedy is vulnerable ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/22/2009 14:58 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
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Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
And so it came to pass that Landrieu walked onto the Senate floor midafternoon Saturday to announce her aye vote -- and to trumpet the financial "fix" she had arranged for Louisiana. "I am not going to be defensive," she declared. "And it's not a $100 million fix. It's a $300 million fix." 
