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The House passed their healthcare bill by 220-215, which is appalling on dozens of levels. But still more sickening and reprehensible was the final pre-vote speech made to reluctant Democrats by Barack Obama.
In order to encourage the (few) conscientious Democrats to vote against the will of their constituents, the president said “sacrifice is not casting a vote that might lose an election for you; it is the sacrifice that someone makes when they wear the uniform of this country and that unfortunately a number of people made this week.”
Yes, the president used the dead and wounded of the brutal Fort Hood massacre to push his own self-serving political agenda. The dead who are not yet buried...the wounded who have only begun their long, painful road to recovery.
Mr Obama, these deaths were not "unfortunate." The victims weren't simply unlucky - they were gunned down by a radical, fundamentalist Muslim who praised suicide bombers online and shouted "Allahu Akbar!" as he executed our unarmed service men and women.
But the president continues to defend the man who committed the murders, saying he doesn't want to "jump to the conclusion" that ideology had anything to do with the shootings. But it's abundantly clear; our troops died because of Major Hasan's beliefs...and their deaths were then used by the president to advance his own beliefs.
Mr Obama, you are a disgrace to your office. And invoking the dead of Fort Hood at this time and in this way is an obscenity beyond words.
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This weekend, the Democrats are planning to vote on the legislation that the Wall Street Journal accurately called "The Worst Bill Ever."
If the 1,990-page bill passes as currently written, tens of millions of currently insured people will lose their existing plans...costs for both health insurance and medical treatment will soar...Medicare will be slashed...racial preferences will be set for the training and certification of medical personnel...the government will overrule physicians' choices about procedures and services...and there will be huge fines or prison terms for anyone who doesn't buy health insurance except illegal aliens.
Then on page two...
Click Cartoon for Larger SizeNo jokes today. No politics. Only deep sadness, and another reminder that every day we need to appreciate and applaud the men and women who put their lives on the front lines of freedom both domestically and abroad.
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Al Gore, the self-proclaimed messiah of global warming, has created business interests which will potentially make him a billionaire if his impassioned testimony can help ram through the economy-busting "cap and trade" carbon tax on virtually all human activity.
But Gore himself admits that carbon (in the form of CO2) isn't as harmful as previously thought, and further admits that his "Inconvenient Truth" presentation isn't entirely fact-based. That's why he's now added religion to his sales pitch, offering his global warming tent revival in different versions tailored for Christians, Jews, and environmentally conscious Muslims.
The surprisingly capitalistic Mr. Gore is obviously a proponent of the White House's strategy that you should "never let a good crisis go to waste"...even if you have to invent the crisis yourself.
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Despite the urgent need for more troops in Afghanistan, Barack Obama insisted on delaying any decision until the results of the Afghan election were in. But now, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs says "I think the decision will be made in the coming weeks." And because "thinking" it will happen wasn't lame enough, Gibbs emphasized that the decision "may" get made... which leaves open the possibility that it may not.
The timetable for a decision is not artificial: the longer the president stalls, the lower morale plunges in the armed forces, the more soldiers die, and the less likely that there will be time for additional troops to be trained and deployed effectively.
This president, who enjoyed great political success by simply voting "present" on many issues as a senator in Illinois, needs to learn that this isn't an option when it comes to presidential decisions. Ironically, he told re-elected Afghan president Karzai that when it comes to showing leadership "the proof is not going to be in words, it's going to be in deeds." In this, he's entirely right - and his lack of deeds clearly shows that Obama is unfit for the critical job of Commander in Chief.
Click Cartoon for Larger SizeAlthough the CBO said that tort reform (limits on trial attorneys' fees and damage claims) would reduce consumer healthcare costs by half a TRILLION dollars over 10 years, Nancy Pelosi's enormous "healthcare" bill actually imposes penalties on any state that dares to put tort reform into action.
All of which goes to remind us that A) the "healthcare" bill is not about healthcare, B) that healthcare "reform" isn't really about saving money, and C) if you give enough campaign money to the Democrats they'll be sure to keep your fat, wriggling ass happy.
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With not enough Swine Flu vaccine to go around, the government is making the really tough choices about who will get it first: the poor, the prisoners, and the politically favored.
It's a good thing the government isn't getting ready to make those really tough choices about the rest of our healthcare, right? Right...?
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When the president made a whirlwind trip to have his picture taken with the coffins of fallen soldiers, the New York Times accidentally published a little too much truth. They said that "The images...were intended by the White House to convey to the nation that Mr. Obama was not making his Afghanistan decision lightly or in haste." In other words, he wasn't there for the soldiers who gave their lives...he was there for a photo-op and to use these fallen heroes for his own political cover.
The New York Times, for reasons currently unexplained, quickly pulled that portion of the story and rewrote it (or took dictation over the phone?) so that the online version now reads "The image of the commander in chief standing on a darkened tarmac, offering a salute to one of the soldiers, highlighted the poignancy of a decision he is facing." Interesting that the original story is phrased like news...while the revision reads suspiciously like a press release.
There's no punchline today, folks. We just have to say that the collaboration of the White House and the media to use our war dead as props for a staged and cynical photo-op is the lowest depth of obscenity.
