Out of pure boredom, I've decided to monkey with the blog's colors. And in an effort to throw the environmentalists off balance, I've decided to go green. Happy New Year one and all!
Out of pure boredom, I've decided to monkey with the blog's colors. And in an effort to throw the environmentalists off balance, I've decided to go green.
I doubt it. (Link to story here.)
Ask Ben Nelson (D-Nebraska) who gave Harry Reid and Barack Obama the 60th vote they needed to pass Obamacare through the Senate on Christmas Eve in exchange for his thirty pieces of silver.
Today, a suicide bomber hit a U.S. military base in Afghanistan detonating a vest filled with explosives and killing 8 Americans. (Link to story here.)
Nathan Phillips at Missouri Today News reports that Dr. Rob Schaff, a Republican State Representative from St. Joseph has quit the American Medical Association because it has "ignored the best interests of patients, opting to protect the special interests" by endorsing Harry Reid's version of Obamacare. (Direct link to story here.) Rep. Schaff is urging his colleagues to quit too. Here's hoping they listen.
Bill Lambrecht wrote a fluff story about Senator Claire McCaskill in today's Post-Dispatch. (Link here.) It isn't much of a read - mostly talking about how she's taking on waste and standing up to her own party and being a conservative (ha!) Democrat in Washington - but buried within the piece is this quotation from McCaskill:
He's tired. At least that's what he's whining about now. (Link here.)
The U.S. Department of Agriculture analyzed the cap-and-trade emissions bill pushed by President Obama and his liberal, environmentalist friends in Congress and found that farmers would make more money by planting trees and converting their fields into forests than by growing food for us (and the world) to eat. All in the name of stopping "excessive" carbon emissions.
Yemen's Foreign Minister reported that "of course" there are 200-300 al-Qaeda terrorists training and plotting attacks on America in his country right now. And his government is powerless to stop them. (Link to story here.)
Robin Carnahan, the presumptive nominee of Missouri's Democrats for the U.S. Senate in 2010, finally spoke up about something. And, guess what, she's an Obama, Reid, Pelosi, McCaskill-liberal Democrat. On Christmas Eve, shortly after the Senate vote on Harry Reid's version of Obamacare, Carnahan issued a statement praising the bill and blasting Roy Blunt, her GOP rival. Blunt, instead, blasted the bill. (Link to Jo Mannies' story from the St. Louis Beacon here.)
Minnesota Governor Tom Pawlenty, a Republican presidential contender for 2012, is calling for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution requiring Congress to pass and the president to sign a balanced budget. (Link to Wall Street Journal article here.) As quoted by the Journal, Pawlenty said - correctly - that "government spending in the country and in many states is progressing at an unsustainable, irresponsible and reckless pace . . . the bathtub is overflowing onto the floor and the first thing we need to do is shut off the faucet."
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) talked about the deals cut by Harry Reid to secure the sixty votes he needed to break the GOP filibuster on Obamacare - including the payoff to Ben Nelson (D-Nebraska) exempting his state from having to pay for expanded Medicaid - the rest of us will pay for Nebraskans instead.
According to this post at The Hill, the aptly-named Louise Slaughter, a Democrat congresswoman from New York, the chairwoman of the House Rules Committee and co-chairwoman of the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus, is suggesting that the Senate's version of Obamacare is such a mess that it is unworthy of a vote in the House. She's suggesting that House and Senate versions of healthcare "reform" cannot be reconciled and that Congress should scrap them both and start over or, as she said, "go back to the drawing board."

Former Democrat, Congressman Parker Griffith of Georgia, has joined the Republican Party. (Link here.)
An American entrepreneur, Nathan Myhrvold, has a plan to cool the planet and "solve" the "problem" of global warming. According to this story, Myhrvold proposes "running a hose up to the stratosphere with balloons and using that hose to pump out enough sulfur particles to dim the sun's heat just enough to counteract the effects of global warming. The estimated cost would be around two hundred and fifty million dollars."
Senator Ben Nelson (D-Nebraska) has sold out. He caved and announced today that he will vote with his party to break a GOP filibuster on Harry Reid's latest version of Obamacare. (Link to story here.)
Congratulations to St. Louis City Circuit Judge Robert H. Dierker, Jr., who was found not guilty yesterday of running a red light. He - or at least his car - had been caught by one of the nearly ubiquitous intersection cameras in December of last year. (Link to story here.)
As reported in today's Political Fix, Roy Blunt and Robin Carnahan are running neck-and-neck in their 2010 race for the U.S. Senate. But same poll showed that 53% of Missourians disapprove of the job Barack Obama is doing in office and 57% oppose Obamacare (47% strongly). 81% believe that the Democrats' healthcare "reform" would result in a middle class tax increase and 61% believe that it would increase the deficit.
For the Daily Express's full list of 1oo (some better than others) reasons . . . link here.
According to Politico, Barack Obama will tell senate Democrats that now is the "last chance" to pass healthcare "reform." Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer says that if Obamacare fails he can't imagine another president trying again in the future. "For those whose life's work is reforming health care," he said, "this may be the last train leaving the station." V.P. Joe Biden chimes in saying that "if health care does not pass in this Congress . . . it's going to be kicked back for a generation."
Obamacare seems stalled in the U.S. Senate. So far, Harry Reid, has failed to secure the 60 votes needed to force his healthcare "reform" bill to a vote. So now, it seems, the big gun has beckoned all 60 members of the Senate's Democratic caucus to a meeting at the White House. (Link here.)
According to Wikipedia, "a Hooverville was the popular name for shanty towns built by homeless people during the Great Depression. They were named after the President at the time, Herbert Hoover, because he allegedly let the nation slide into depression. The term was coined by Charles Michelson, publicity chief of the Democratic National Committee."
In the late 1980's, I spent some time in Jefferson City. Elbert Walton, Jr. was serving in the Missouri House of Representatives at the time. During a debate over legislative pay raises, Walton took the floor to explain why he would vote to raise his own pay. He said that he would rather his constituents think that he was greedy than think he was stupid.
The inconvenient truth behind the environmentalist movement is the belief that human beings are parasites destroying the planet. And now, they're out to eradicate babies. Don't believe me - check out these two links . . . Chinese delegate to Copenhagen Conference calls for population control to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and a Canadian newspaper calls for "a planetary law" limiting women to birthing only one child to prevent overpopulation.
Is Barack Obama so convinced that he is the most special, most gifted, most wonderful, most loved human being who has ever walked the earth that he can snub anyone and everyone, do whatever he pleases and continue to bask in the media glow? Does he think he's all that? The end-all and be-all?
In August, in Missouri, Senator Claire McCaskill promised that she would vote against any healthcare bill that included federal funding for abortion. (Link here.)
Maybe so . . . his "job approval rating has fallen to 47 percent in the latest Gallup poll, the lowest ever recorded for any president at this point in his term." (Emphasis added - link to story here.)
Al Gore has been the Chief Nut of the Global Warming Club since An Inconvenient Truth. But there is a challenger on the horizon, straight from Austria, via Cal-ee-for-nia . . . here comes the governator!
How should the U.S. government encourage investment in American business and stimulate a sagging economy? Make investment more expensive. Yeah, that's it. Impose a new tax on stock purchases! (I'm not kidding. Two Dems in the House of Representatives are working on a bill that would do just that. Link here if you don't believe me or if you just want the details.)
The Commerce Department's estimate of growth in the American economy was overly optimistic, wrong, or a flat-out lie motivated by politics. Third quarter economic growth was significantly lower than previously stated. (Link to story here.)
I haven't missed the latest big news on "global warming," i.e. that there is a conspiracy of "scientists" to manipulate data and shun anyone asking a legitimate question from the discussion. It's true, of course, and it has now been exposed. (Link here if you've missed it.) But the most that I can add is . . . "see, I told you so."
SLC is a recovering television addict. (The first step is admitting that you have a problem.) But I haven't kicked the habit cold turkey.
Yesterday, I entered a post lamenting the latest step towards socialism in America. Yes, I'm opposed to Harry Reid's version of healthcare "reform." The post prompted this anonymous comment:
A Belgian man doctors claimed was in a vegetative state for 23 years wasn't. He was conscious and aware but unable to communicate . . . trapped in "utter powerlessness," a living hell. Now, equipped with a specialized touchscreen on his wheelchair, Rom Houben, is back in touch with the world. Alive again, as he always was.
So far, the U.S. Senate has passed nothing. The Democrats and "Independents," however, have pushed the country to the brink of socialism with their unanimous vote to break the Republican filibuster on Harry Reid's version of Obamacare. (Link here.)
On August 11, 2009, Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) promised attendees at a town hall meeting in Hillsboro that she would not support a healthcare "reform" bill that included federal funding for abortions. (Link here.)
Kansas City Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, a Democrat, has a "brilliant" idea. He wants to declare next Wednesday as "Complaint Free Wednesday." (Link to story here.)
Barack Obama was interviewed by Fox News yesterday and said . . .
As expected, and despite the pleas for leniency from his fellow Democrats (like Attorney General Chris Koster), former State Senator Jeff Smith has been sentenced to prison. (Link to story here.) (Link to backstory here.)
A government website, set up by the Obama administration to "track stimulus spending" is bragging about creating jobs in congressional districts around the country. The only problem . . . they don't exist. The congressional districts don't even exist. (Link to ABC News story here.)
Americans are worried about the high cost of healthcare "reform" a.k.a. socialized medicine. Most Democrats don't seem to care about either the cost or about what Americans think.
Souvenir t-shirts from Barack Obama's trip to China. (Interesting story about the shirts here.)