Cassy has a bravo zulu post* about Obamacare, specifically, the GOP Senate strategy:
It’s not just a game. It’s strategy, and it was a brilliant move by Senate Republicans. Think about it: if the reconciliation bill is changed in any way, it has to go back to the House for yet another vote. And the Democrats want this passed right now. However, this amendment puts them in a sticky situation: vote against it, and you’ve just said that you want to give Viagra to kiddie rapists. The campaign ads would practically write themselves.
OK, so, Tuesday’s deed was an act of legislatus interruptus. The proper Article I motion of law has been altered here. BHO has signed what should be a final product. As Congress does this reconciliation dance, and another bill emerges, what does it mean?
Will there be another score of pens expended to re-sign the dastardly document?
What if a poison pill were inserted, such that BHO felt compelled to veto the thing? Would the veto cover the full monty, or just the edits after Tuedsay?
Can Congress hold the Executive accountable for details in the bill that differ after the first signing, or are they as meaningful as the Stupak EO?
The Constitution and the relatively known process were good enough. The collaboration of the 111th Congress and Obama Administration on creative, hyper-partisan, ultra-pragmatic work-arounds for the established process are indicators of a process in dire need of re-affirmation.
Ol’ Cousin TO President, United States (I just had the acronym machine calibrated), who was brilliant last weekend here in DC, sends some rather pointed mail to the American Medical Association:
On the personal side, George and Barbara Bush employed a live-in Mexican maid, Paula Rendon, of whom W. has said, “I have come to love her like a second mother.” He went on to employ another Mexican immigrant, Maria Galvan, to raise his two daughters. Younger brother Jeb married a Mexican girl, Columba Garnica, who had spent some years as an illegal immigrant in California.
Jeb and Columba’s son, George P. Bush, was such a natural politician and heir to the Bush dynasty that W., who nicknamed his father “41” (for being the 41st President) and himself “43,” called his nephew “44.”
So, from 43’s dynastic perspective, electing a new people in order to keep electing Bushes to the White House all made a certain grandiose, demented sense.
Yet, for Rove, who was supposed to be the brains of the operation, the motivations are murkier — other than sheer submissiveness toward his willful boss. . . .
Two video files found on [a gay SEC employee’s] computer were referred to the FBI because investigators suspected that the men depicted having sex in them were underage.
Some people may object that “gay SEC employee” is redundant, since being a federal bureaucrat is so totally gay to begin with, but the alternative — “bureaucratic wanker” — is even more redundant, so . . .
Well, anyway, it was a good headline. Not quite as good as the best headline of the day, but still pretty good.
Who’s the guy assigned to keep Obama’s ego in check? … Tip: Start by reminding Obama that he won the vote in part by leveraging his weakness–pleading with Democratic Congressmen to save his Presidency.
Progressivism is a virulent cancer of the Constitution. Respectfully refuse to give an inch to the POTUS on his victory lap.
Seven months is a long time in politics. Seven months ago, in August 2009, Democrats still held the governorships of Virginia and New Jersey. Rep. Parker Griffith was still a Democrat, Rep. Eric Massa was still a member of Congress in good standing, and Sen. Evan Bayh hadn’t announced his retirement. Seven months ago, it had not yet been reported that unemployment had reached a 26-year high of 9.7 percent. Ted Kennedy was still alive and even those who knew that “the liberal lions of the Senate” was at death’s door had no inkling he would soon be replaced by a truck-driving Republican from Wrentham.
A lot of things have changed in seven months, but amid all the changes, ObamaCare has been reliably unpopular. In August 2009, 53 percent of likely voters surveyed by Rasmussen Reports opposed it, whereas 54 percent opposed it last week in the final Rasmussen survey before Nancy Pelosi rammed a “reconciliation” version of the bill through the House on a party-line vote.
Seven months and one week before Election Day, Democrats have begun declaring loudly that the one constant of the past seven months will change dramatically between now and Nov. 2. Unpopular as a legislative proposal, ObamaCare will be enthusiastically embraced by voters, we are assured by Democrats and their mediafriends, now that it is a fait accompli. . . .
Right-wing antagonist Ann Coulter cancelled a University of Ottawa address last night after organizers decided it wasn’t safe to speak.
The move followed boisterous demonstrations outside that sponsors of the appearance feared could turn violent.
Mark Steyn will no doubt have something blistering on this one, but Canada, you really have wet yourself. Your osteoporosis has reached a point where a woman with long hair and pointed remarks cannot offer them without you fearing for ‘safety’. For crying out loud in the dark, I hope all honest Canucks, who can remember a time before the last hair was shaved off their public bottom in the name of some bogus ’empathy’ god, just come South of the border right now.
The fact that you are upright, law abiding, reasonable citizens means that it will take a while to navigate the USCIS process, I know. But come South anyway, and let’s team up, to try to make at least one country on the continent that doesn’t draw vacuum.
UPDATE 7:12 a.m. ET (RSM): Doggone it, Smitty. If you think you’re going to hog all the Canada-bashing fun here, you’ve got another think coming! Via Kathy Shaidle, the only good Canadian, we have this news update:
After protesters at the University of Ottawa prevented Ann Coulter from giving a speech Tuesday night, the American conservative writer said it proved the point she came to make – free speech in Canada leaves much to be desired.
Then she said what she really thought of the student protesters who surrounded Marion Hall, making it to unsafe, in the view of her bodyguard, for the pundit to attempt entry. “The University of Ottawa is really easy to get into, isn’t it?” she said in an interview after the cancelled event. . . .
Coulter said she has been speaking regularly at university campuses for a decade. While she has certainly been heckled, she said this is the first time an engagement has been cancelled because of protesters.
“This has never, ever, ever happened before – even at the stupidest American university,” she said.
Coulter remarked on the reception she has had since entering the country.
“Since I’ve arrived in Canada, I’ve been denounced on the floor of Parliament – which, by the way, is on my bucket list – my posters have been banned, I’ve been accused of committing a crime in a speech that I have not yet given, I was banned by the student council, so welcome to Canada!”
Coulter actually has a case that people are hating her not because she’s beautiful, but because she’s a American. Anti-Americanism is respectable among Canada’s elites, and widespread, but in fact, under Canada’s human rights laws, which include “national or ethnic origin,” it’s just as illegal as hating Somalians.
The peaceful pro-Palestinian demonstrators in their keffiyahs would not allow her to speak.
Lest you think Jim’s joking, notice the keffiyah-wearer — with shaved head, next to the woman in purple coat — in this photo (via Donald Douglas at American Power):
What a disgrace to Canada but what can you expect from a University that promotes Israeli Apartheid Week. The U of Ottawa was all free-speechy when this hypocrite spoke at Whack-A-Jew-Week
These same savages welcome the most hate speech sponsors with open arms and open legs, but truth is verboten.
And Pamela provides this video showing that the Muslim girl who on Monday claimed to be insulted by Coulter is — surprise! surprise! — a member of a Facebook group advocating the destruction of Israel:
