Obama Bails On Public Option

President’ Obama and his spin doctors announced today that they are not blindly tied to the public option for healthcare reform that he fought for during his campaign for the Presidency. The translation of that statement for those of you that do not speak Politicism is that the private healthcare insurance industry has won the battle once more. Fifty million people will still not have health care and the cost for those of you that do will continue to rise unabated.

White House ready to drop ‘public option’? - MSNBC

WASHINGTON - Bowing to Republican pressure and an uneasy public, President Barack Obama's administration signaled Sunday it is ready to abandon the idea of giving Americans the option of government-run insurance as part of a new health care system.

Facing mounting opposition to the overhaul, administration officials left open the chance for a compromise with Republicans that would include health insurance cooperatives instead of a government-run plan. Such a concession would likely enrage his liberal supporters but could deliver Obama a much-needed win on a top domestic priority opposed by GOP lawmakers.

What it all comes down to is yet one more politician that happens to be the President selling out the millions of people that fought so hard for him to get elected. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were the only ones with workable plans for a public option for health care during the election and that is why it was basically a battle of the super stars of politics right down to the actual vote in the presidential primary. And a public health care option is why so many people worked to elect a Democratic party lead congress in both houses.

As a Democrat, and now somewhat progressive in thought person, I feel like I just got stabbed in the back. If President Obama wanted the full healthcare bill passed then he could have simply negotiated with his own political party to get the job done. It makes no sense to me why he is even considering Republican debate on this at all. Or could it be that the healthcare insurance industry saw the potential to be knocked off like a Soprano character if a public option was passed by the congress and used its own negotiating powers to kill it instead? That sounds more logical. I find it unbelievable that the political party with all the votes to get real healthcare reform passed was or is being handed its head on a silver platter courtesy of the opposition. I’m not just upset with my President either, my political party ran for cover at the first sign of trouble when it came to healthcare. Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, and Senate President, Harry Reid may have said they were behind the President on healthcare reform but neither was willing to fight for it in the congress.

In the end the health care insurance industry will be handed free money by the government courtesy of the GOP as long as they (wink, wink) promise to cut cost to consumers. Ten years from now there will be not 50 million but 100 million Americans without healthcare but the government subsidy checks to the insurance companies will still be cashed. Isn’t that the way it always works, the little guys get screwed and the money gets doled out to the people screwing America over anyway!

Healthcare reform is officially a dead issue. Without the public option it is just another meaningless spending bill for special interest groups that have bigger teeth than John or Jane Doe in America. And that would be the way it is simply because John and Jane Doe don’t have healthcare insurance.

Papamoka

GOP Leadership Confusion

I have to agree with Newt Gingrich that political power comes in cycles and the Republican Party is out of favor right now. What is really fun to watch is the entire GOP going after one another trying to decide where the hell the political party should stand before the 2010 elections. It’s like watching one neighbor toss the leaves over the others fence only to have the same process reversed just a few hours later. Rush Limbaugh wants to throw everyone out of the party that does not boot step to his demands and Newt Gingrich who has no official political connection to the RNC is going around demanding that Speaker Pelosi step down just because he says so. Then you have RNC Chairman Michael Steele telling everyone to cool it before they all screw up the smoke and mirrors deal he is trying to build. Nobody is in charge and that is a good thing for those of us that tend to back President Obama.

End result is Newt is pissed because he can’t do the Michael Jackson moonwalk dance step and Rush is even more pissed because he can’t find a pair of Jordache jeans that will fit his fat ass. No offense intended to Republican or Democrat voters with good living voluptuous curves in the buttocks region of your bodies. You earned every bit of it and you should be proud that “baby got back”. Feel free to steal that phrase Mr. Steele.

Up out of all the fuss comes some common sense amongst the GOP when it comes to confirming Judge Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. Sen. John Cornyn is pissed that Newt and Rush are intent on destroying his political party. And he doesn’t like the attack mode they are aggressively engaged in…

Top Republican calls Limbaugh, Gingrich comments 'terrible'
Posted: 11:23 AM ET

From CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney

Cornyn on Thursday said statements calling Sotomayor a racist are 'terrible.'

(CNN) — A top Senate Republican is taking aim at recent statements from conservative commentators Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich suggesting Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is a "racist."

"I think it's terrible," Sen. John Cornyn, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told NPR's "All Things Considered" Thursday. "This is not the kind of tone any of us want to set when it comes to performing our constitutional responsibilities of advise and consent.”

Both the popular radio host and former GOP House Speaker have suggested Obama's pick for the high court is a racist while referencing a 2001 speech at Berkeley during which Sotomayor said, "I would hope that a wise Latina woman, with the richness of her experiences, would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life." - CNN

Good for Senator Cornyn and I hope he can come to the pulpit and actually make some sense over at the Republican Party. Somebody has to take the helm because they are going the way of the Dodo bird right now. How many moderate Republican’s is Rush Limbaugh going to toss out of his holier than thou political party before somebody tosses his ass to the curb? As for the Newt aka porno king and former Speaker of the House, he’s just selling his latest book and any media attention for him equals sales of his book. Ergo, he is so staunch in his political opinions that he even went on Jon Stewart and the Daily show this week to sell even more copies of his book.

For now, 2010 and the election of yet another new Congress is looking damn good for those of us on the left side of the aisle.

Papamoka

Washington to Detroit Loan Deal Done

It’s finally going to be a done deal for the Big Three in Detroit to get some bailout money to save millions of Automaker jobs. Believe it or not it was a loan deal worked out by the White House and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi! I’m still in shock that President Bush cleared his house shopping schedule to find a compromise deal with the Speaker of the House. Over at CBS News they have this to say on it…

CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier reports that significant progress came Friday night, when Democrats from both the House and Senate agreed to bail out the struggling General Motors, Chrysler and Ford with federal funds.

Several officials say the White House and congressional Democrats have agreed on $15 billion in loans, which is less than half of what the car chiefs were seeking.

They say the breakthrough came after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi bowed to a demand by President Bush that any aid come from a fund that had been intended to help Detroit produce more fuel-efficient cars.

Pelosi said the House would consider legislation next week to provide "short-term and limited assistance" to the U.S. auto industry. - CBS News

I have to say that I knew that this deal was going to come sooner or later. Matter of fact anyone that follows the automotive industry knew it too. GM, Ford, and Chrysler were going to get a bailout loan, it was just a question as to how much each would actually get that was an unknown fact. The federal government could not let the big three fail or go into bankruptcy because of the ripple effect it would eventually expose. You know that $700 billion they have in bailout cash for the banking industry, that bailout cash would have been just a drop in the bucket if Ford, GM, and Chrysler filed for bankruptcy.

I propose the following hypothetical scenario. All three automakers file bankruptcy protection. If you are a supplier to any of them then you do not get paid for any outstanding invoices and thus you can not keep paying your suppliers for continuing orders so your company is forced to file bankruptcy. Suppliers feel the pinch hard and can not pay their suppliers for raw materials so they are forced to file bankruptcy. And the cycle continues down the food chain. The layoffs from all of the suppliers to the Big Three would dwarf all of the layoffs from the Big Three. Lastly, not all of the suppliers are in Detroit.

I think it is fair to say that this bailout will save more jobs than the $700 billion in bailout cash that the banks received a free pass on. I believe it was the Steel Workers President that summed this controversy up best; “If you shower before work you get a bailout, if you shower after working all day, you don’t.”

In the long haul objective, steps are being taken in the right direction to put the brakes on the economies collapse. Baby steps, but they are still steps.

Papamoka

Bush Consistent Deafness to Unemployed

One has to give President Bush credit for being unrealistically consistent. He’s threatening his mighty veto pen if Congress passes an extension of benefits for our nations growing unemployed. Bush is true to form even when it comes to telling the unemployed to get a paper route you lazy good for nothing leaches. Especially, those folks in states with robust economies, there is no excuse for these unemployed people to not work according to President Bush. There is just one problem with his thinking. The jobs he sold out to God knows who overseas were once good paying American made jobs no longer exist. The economy in America with good jobs at great wages has morphed under his watch into an environment where no amount of higher education will guarantee you a well paying job.

President Bush I swear is an economic idiot in thinking that a job is a job, and a paycheck is a paycheck. An engineering job is not the same pay grade as the person manning the French fry baskets at the local McDonald’s. McDonald’s might be a great place to work but it doesn’t afford the paycheck needed to pay down college loans for any college degree, pay for health insurance for your family, or even pay for a mortgage once obtained by a person with a higher education position.

Over at the New York Times they have this to say on Bush threatening a Veto if unemployment benefits are extended by the Congress…

House Passes Unemployment Benefits Extension

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: June 12, 2008
Filed at 2:51 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House on Thursday approved an extra three months of jobless benefits for all unemployed Americans, knowing the plan's chances are slight in the Senate and almost nonexistent at the White House.

After failing to get a veto-proof two-thirds margin Wednesday, Democrats said they pushed the legislation through to the Senate anyway, on a 274-137 vote, to help Americans survive a slumping economy.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that the number of people filing new claims for unemployment benefits last week increased by 25,000 from the week before. The unemployment rate in May jumped to 5.5 percent, up from 5 percent in April. It was the biggest one-month gain in 22 years.

"The American people are waiting to see if Congress is going to help them," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said.

But the White House already has threatened to veto the bill, and Senate Democrats have said they won't try and force their Republican colleagues to consider the House legislation.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he will try to bring up the House bill, but he won't force the issue if Senate Republicans object. "We're not wasting weeks" on it, he said. Instead, Reid said, Democrats might attach the jobless benefits extension to the Iraq war spending bill, a move also opposed by the White House.

The White House and Republicans said a bill targeting unemployment benefits only to states that have high unemployment would be more palatable to them. The Democrats' plan "is dead on arrival," House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio said. "The Senate's not going to take it up." - New York Times

Or you could read what they have to say at the Washington Post...

"The Congressional Budget Office estimated that about 3.2 million Americans would collect $11.7 billion in extended unemployment benefits over the life of the extension."

I have to get this straight in my head… Our government has no problem with $15 Billion Dollars unaccountable for in Iraq but if Americans in America need help then Republican’s have a problem with it? That $15 Billion dollars, who was overseeing how that cash was distributed in the middle of the desert of Iraq? Was there a division of unemployment to make sure the cash was distributed properly? Power Line News has this to say about our tax dollars being spent, or misplaced in Iraq…

Friday, May 23, 2008 10:44 PM

WASHINGTON—The Pentagon cannot account for nearly 15 billion dollars in payments for goods and services in Iraq, according to an internal audit which members of Congress blasted Friday as a “shocking” accountability failure.

Of 8.2 billion dollars in US taxpayer-funded defense contracts reviewed by the defense department’s inspector general, the Pentagon could not properly account for more than 7.7 billion dollars.

The lack of accountability of the funds, intended for purchases of weapons, vehicles, construction equipment and security services, amounted to a 95 percent failure rate in basic accounting standards, according to the report. - Power Line News

I’m thinking that the Bush administration and his political crony Republican’s in the Congress have no problem flushing cash down the drain without care as to where it ends up in the war in Iraq but all of them lazy Americans that are unemployed should just screw. Unemployed people are not paying taxes, thus not contributing to the endless money grab of the Iraq War and thus are terrorist and anti American.

I’m still fuzzy on the Republican math but if they say it’s for the protection of our nation against terrorism then it must be true. There has to be a mistake with the 95% accounting failure rate? Maybe an auditor forgot to carry the one somewhere or missed a large receipt for French fries from KBR. Or should I be politically correct and call them “Freedom Fries”?

Papamoka

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Miers and Bolten Going Down For Contempt

One of the nice things about Valentines Day is that you really get to show the love. Congress today showed President Bush exactly how much they love his tossing executive privilege around and at the Congress. President Bush has his executive privilege piled up so high around the nations capitol that it’s like a knick knack junk attack that people cherish and place up on the mantle, on top of the fridge, over the television, the back of the toilet, over the medicine cabinet, in the medicine cabinet, on top of the stereo, on the back of the headboard, all over the bedroom bureaus and on every flat surface in their home.

One of President Bush’s favorite EP’s is that not one soul past or present in service to the executive branch can be subpoenaed by the Congress no matter what laws were broken. Just for back up he made sure his Justice Department pick backed him up. Contempt of Congress only works if the Justice Department backs up the Congress, Bush pulled that chip off the poker table and put it firmly in his pocket. Snickered and winked at his opponents as he held a solid pair of deuces.

Today, Congress grabbed a trash bag to get rid of some of his knick knack EP’s and the first to go was Harriet Miers and Joshua Bolton for contempt of Congress. Over at the Washington Post they have more on it but read on afterward…

House Approves Contempt Citations Against Bolten, Miers

By Paul Kane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 14, 2008; 4:57 PM

The House today approved contempt of Congress citations against White House Chief of Staff Joshua A. Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet E. Miers for their refusal to cooperate with an investigation into the mass firings of U.S. attorneys and allegations that administration officials sought to politicize the Justice Department.

The House voted 223-32 in favor of the citations, the first against the executive branch since the Reagan administration. The vote came after a morning of tense partisan fights over procedural motions and bickering over parliamentary rules, capped by most House Republicans walking off the floor and refusing to vote. Republicans said the chamber should instead be approving a surveillance law passed by the Senate and supported by President Bush.

But Democrats said they were left with no choice but to engage in a constitutional showdown with Bush because he has refused for nearly a year to allow any current or former West Wing staff members to testify in the congressional inquiry. Citing executive privilege, the president has offered their testimony only if it is taken without transcripts and not under oath.

Snippet and here is the power punch!!!

Testifying at his confirmation hearings last October, Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey said that current and former White House officials who refused to testify in a congressional inquiry likely did so based on the Justice Department's ruling that Bush's assertion of executive privilege was proper. That meant the Justice Department could not now criminally charge someone for defying Congress based on its own prior legal advice, he said.

The resolutions approved by the House contain a second mechanism that, if Mukasey and Taylor refuse to impanel a grand jury, would allow the House general counsel to file a civil lawsuit in federal courts seeking a declaratory judgment against Bolten and Miers that would compel their congressional testimony. - Washington Post

Talk about a power punch! For the record this power punch was brought to you and the American people by one man that was fed up with all the corruption and cover up politics of Bush and Company.

Congressman Robert Wexler of Florida has been ticked off and leading this fight not just behind the scenes but right up front. This from the Super Congressman in my email box today…

Today, thanks in great part to your advocacy and persistence, the House of Representatives took a major, tangible step towards holding the Bush Administration accountable.

In a vote on the House floor, we acted to enforce the law and our Constitution, and hold former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten in Contempt of Congress. (Please click here to watch my speech on the House Floor calling for contempt.)

Bolten and Miers have ignored congressional subpoenas for nine months and thumbed their noses at Congress and the American people.

Executive privilege has never permitted officials to avoid appearing altogether when subpoenaed. This behavior is unprecedented and outrageous.

Now, these two renegade officials must face up to their blatant disregard of the law and constitution.

Our message of accountability for Bush/Cheney is finally resonating on Capitol Hill.
Judiciary Chairman John Conyers fought hard to bring this to a vote, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi herself took the floor to support contempt. - Congressman Robert Wexler Email to Papamoka

This is what justice is all about. Not raising a vigilante group of thugs but taking the steps necessary and legally to take on Bush and his King like political tactics. Time for the scales of justice to tilt a little back to the center. Thank you Congressman Wexler!

Papamoka

Cross posted at MichaelLinnJones.com and Bring IT ON!

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Bush Pre-emptive State of the Union

Precedent Bush (misspelled on purpose) is going to the Congress with his State of the Union speech to tell us (Sheep) everything is okey dokey tonight and that we the people should follow the course he has lead us on as a nation. Some say that you can judge a political speech by the number of times a person blinks while giving it. More blinks is bad, less is good.

All of the crisis’s facing our nation we can beat as a people, provided he gets out of office in less than a year. I don’t think its even necessary that he fill out a change of address card with the post office simply because nobody is going to care where he ends up as long as it is not in our nations capitol. He is going to go on in his speech about issues that he and Darth Cheney can coast on out of office and leave the clean up for the next Oval Office occupant. Issues that he now cares about but worked against when he had a Republican Congress.

One of the issues that I look forward to him speaking on is Middle East peace. Bush and Middle East peace is definitely an oxymoron if ever I heard of one. This from a guy that has probably ingrained hatred of all American’s for generations to come from the people that actually live in any country in the Middle East. When he speaks of being in the region for one hundred years he isn’t kidding. Just as long as it is your children serving in our military and dying for his bravado. How can he speak of peace when he has our military troops stationed all over the area but concentrated in Iraq based on wag the dog theories? We could have hired one of those 1-900 psychic’s and had better intelligence to invade Iraq and force a policy of “Nation Building” on the Iraqi people.

When you get right down to it the state of the union is not sound and has not been for seven years. From the minute the planes crashed into the World Trade Center buildings our nation has been in chaos and in that new found chaos the ability to sell fear became an immediate commodity to Bush and company. What should terrify you most is that he actually believes his own lies and misdirection. While he and the Congress of both political parties diverted the people into a corner of fear and patriotism they left the business of America at home behind. With us or against us became a catch phrase of strength and yet it shadowed and covered our own ignorance of what has been going on unchecked here at home. That same mantra is used as a weapon by people of ordinary means to pit Republican against Democrat, Liberal against Conservative. Hundreds of billions of dollars have gone out of this nation to prop up an Iraq government that behind the scenes wants our troops off of their sovereign soil. Meanwhile our bridges are collapsing, our schools are falling behind, our healthcare system is broken, our homes are being lost in record numbers and our borders are wide open if you want to come in. Just don’t try getting out if you are an actual legal American citizen.

Then again Bush has the remaining Republican candidates for his job convinced that his mission is right and we should stay the course. McCain has bought into it so much that he too will keep our troops in Iraq for one hundred years if need be. McCain can use the argument that we still have troops in Germany, Japan and Korea decades after the conflicts and war and that is true but diplomacy made that possible. There was not one iota of “My way or the highway” in the diplomacy that made that possible.

Our State of the Union is not a pep rally by any means this year. It is going to be more of who Precedent Bush wishes he could have been. What he should have done. With this being his last speech to the entire Congress I expect compassion for the poor and the sick, for the children and education, support for our military is a given. Of course he will end his speech with God bless America but in reality he is only wishing that God actually bless the top two percent of income earners. He’s compassionate that way but Joe and Joanne Six-pack do not donate huge dollars to a Presidential Library do they?

One thing I am sure of at this time in the state of our union is that Precedent Bush has destroyed the Republican Party and any candidate dreaming of the White House. God works in wonderful ways like that. Reap what you sow and stuff like that. Thank you God and President Bush!

Papamoka

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Cross posted at MichaelLinnJones.com and Bring IT ON!

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Bush adds Rove to Untouchables List

Picture courtesy of the White House

Well it looks like lady justice took her blinder off and wiped her back side with it. At least that is the way President Bush interprets executive privilege. Ummm, Houston we have a serious problem here.

Karl Rove has a note from his mom… I mean the President to not appear before the Congressional investigation of the dirty dealings and firing of the nine U.S. Attorneys.

Karl Rove's Immunity

By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Thursday, August 2, 2007; 1:24 PM

The presidential aide who acts with such impunity now has the ultimate protection: absolute immunity from congressional oversight, at least in the judgment of White House Counsel Fred Fielding.

White House political mastermind Karl Rove had been subpoenaed to testify this morning before the Senate Judiciary Committee as part of the investigation into last year's still-unexplained firings of nine U.S. attorneys.

No one actually expected Rove to show up. But Fielding's assertion of executive privilege yesterday to block his testimony was nevertheless surprising in its breadth.

From Fielding's letter to Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy: "Based upon the advice of the Department of Justice, the President . . . has requested that I advise and inform you that Mr. Rove, as an immediate presidential advisor, is immune from compelled congressional testimony about matters that arose during his tenure and that relate to his official duties in that capacity. Accordingly, Mr. Rove is not required to appear in response to the Judiciary Committee subpoena to testify about such matters, and he has been directed not to appear." - Washington Post

I’m guessing that Karl Rove could steal candy from a baby and the President would insert executive privilege to save his sorry ass. This is just so wrong it simply is not even funny… unless you are Karl Rove. Bush is tossing executive privilege around like snow flakes in a blizzard. For the record, the postal worker delivering mail to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is now covered in executive privilege stamps. Just in case good old Karl happened to have his unmentionable magazine subscriptions mailed to his place of work.

Just an after thought to all of these proceedings is that the Congress is doing nothing to stop the President from tossing the very simplistic vagueness of executive privilege around like a tennis ball at the US Open. I know Nancy Pelosi doesn’t have the (politically correct terminology for male reproductive genitals) to take on President Bush but Harry Reid damn well does! What are they waiting for? Is the President supposed to tell them its okay to insert the powers of the other two houses of our government?

Something is not right with this big picture and if the Democrats are not willing to go after the President and his Soprano crew then maybe the true Republicans have too. What does it take to make the government work as it was designed to do so when situations like the alleged criminal actions of this administration happen. Didn’t they all swear to defend the Constitution or was that just a common oath or phrase like “pass the salt”? So much for upholding the Constitution. Maybe one of them huge paper companies could recycle it so the President could use it in his executive privilege bathroom.

One thing is sure in all of this is that President Bush has set a very dangerous precedent. Future Presidents will look back to these days and think they are Kings or Queens. As we all know now, the crowns court is without guilt even if you had a video tape showing that the law was clearly broken. Our King and his court do not live by the laws they sign for the rest of us. It is what it is.

So how many book deals do you think Karl Rove will get out of this Presidency? Just something to make you go Hmmm?

Papamoka

TRY, TRY AGAIN: THE GOLD-PLATED TURD OF “IMMIGRATION REFORM”

Picture courtesy of WelcometoUSA.gov

This post is courtesy of my good friend Michael Linn Jones. I have to say that he has swayed my opinion with his logic and articulate dissertation when it comes to the immigration issues here in America.

TRY, TRY AGAIN: THE GOLD-PLATED TURD OF “IMMIGRATION REFORM”

By: Michael Linn Jones

A long time ago, the impressionist David Frye came out with an album that poked fun at almost all the contemporary political figures. In one segment, a man is describing Richard Nixon’s decision to run for the presidency in 1968.
“He ignored the critics; he ignored the polls; he ignored the wishes of the American People.”

And so might be said about the latest moves by the U.S. Senate to breathe new life into a mockery of democracy. Combining “compassionate conservatism” with liberal dysfunctionality, the “immigration reform bill” is coming back for a second bite of the apple.

In plain English, where there’s a will there’s a way. Particularly when it comes to the U.S. Congress. President Bush threw a $4 billion bone to the wolves by applying it to border security. That’s easy to do since it, too, can be ignored as it has been since 1986.

Harry Reid is going to use some procedures that boil down to this: the bill is going to pass the Senate, and rumors abound that any unpalatable amendments (at least to proponents of amnesty) will be removed before it reaches the House for conference.
Considering the methods used, I would deem the legislation the “Suppository Act of 2007″ since every citizen and legal resident is going to get it whether they like it or not. It is felt that the “little people” enraged by this betrayal of the principle of obeying the law will be forgotten within six months.

To paraphrase Lincoln, you can screw all the people some of the time; some of the people all of the time, but not all of the people all of the time. This might be considered screwing most of the people for ALL time.

It has been said that George W. Bush doesn’t have to run for another election in his life so he is free to do whatever he feels is right, or expedient. Senators have six year terms, so each one weighs the negatives of an unpopular vote against the odds that the electorate will forget 4 or 5 years from now. Representatives, however, have to face the music every 2 years, and are far more sensitive to what their constituents say.

This may be politics, and it may be reality, but on a subject as critical to the future of this nation, could not these people look upon this whole thing with a bit of honesty? It’s a sham; not only a sham but an insult to anyone’s intelligence to say that the borders cannot POSSIBLY be secured unless amnesty is granted first.
What we are being told is that we need to renew the 1986 legislation, with the same false promises, and while we’re at it, grant another amnesty. So, it can be safely concluded that this entire exercise is for that one purpose, and everything else is just window dressing.

Some time ago I got into it with some rather conservative folks about the term “slow bleed,” referring to the Democrats’ Iraq War strategy. Now I can see that the term is appropriate; not in reference to the Iraq War, but to life here in the U.S.

Whether a person is killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq, or killed by a drunk driver who just happens to be here illegally (and after having been deported numerous times in many cases), that person is still dead. Or maimed for life. It is happening every single day in this country, but like a low-grade fever never makes the headlines because the statistics are boring.

So, whether you put a loved one in the ground or watch them go through years of recovery, you are living through the “slow bleed” strategy of Washington politicians, regardless of their party. It is the consequence of total indifference to the welfare of the citizens of the United States. It is malignant negligence through opportunism.

Paint it any color you want, but that immigration bill is a turd and will always smell like one. And those who vote for it may retain its odor longer than the memories of the voters.

Michael Linn Jones

MLJ was a featured Blog Talk Radio guest over at Political Vindication on this issue.

Alberto Gonzales is Cool With Mini Republicans

Just for giggles and chuckles let me put forth a hypothetical scenario that involves you. You are speeding way over the posted limits and a police officer pulls you over. You know what you did wrong and know the consequences of it but you have a get out of jail card up your sleeve. All you have to say to the police officer is “I don’t recall”. That and the card up your sleeve gets you off without so much as a slap on the wrist.

This is the same scenario played out in our nations capital with the man that is supposed to be in charge of enforcing the laws of the land. I do not recall is not the answer you want to give when you know your hand is glued inside the damn cookie jar. An oops might work but I don’t remember that I broke a dozen laws as Attorney General just does not fly.

Congress is a body of people that make the laws and if the Attorney General forgets what laws apply then a vote of no confidence is in order. President Bush was right in declaring the latest vote on Alberto Gonzales as politics. The only problem is that it is yet one more time that the Republicans fail to face reality that the current administration has been twisting the laws that apply to everyone else to suit what they want.

Over at Yahoo News they have this piece on the never ending deception and bait and switch that is the Bush administration…

GOP blocks Gonzales no-confidence vote

By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press WASHINGTON -

Republicans blocked a Senate no-confidence vote on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Monday, rejecting a symbolic Democratic effort to force him from office amid blistering criticism from lawmakers in both parties.

The 53-38 vote to move the resolution to full debate fell seven short of the 60 required. In bringing the matter up, Democrats dared Republicans to vote their true feelings about an attorney general who has alienated even the White House's strongest defenders by bungling the firings of federal prosecutors and claiming not to recall the details.

Republicans did not defend him, but most voted against moving the resolution ahead.

Monday's vote was not the end of scrutiny for Gonzales and his management of the Justice Department — more congressional hearings are scheduled and an internal department investigation continues.

Short of impeachment, Congress has no authority to oust a Cabinet member, but Democrats were trying anew to give him a push. Gonzales dismissed the rhetorical ruckus in the Senate, and President Bush continued to stand by his longtime friend and legal adviser.

"They can have their votes of no confidence, but it's not going to make the determination about who serves in my government," Bush said in Sofia, Bulgaria, the last stop on a weeklong visit to Europe.

"This process has been drug out a long time," Bush added. "It's political."

The attorney general said he didn't plan on leaving anytime soon. - Yahoo News

Everyone should get the same turn at the wheel of justice that the President has in his pocket. For that matter I would prefer the laws that simply apply to political appointees by this President. Break any law you want and if Dick and George approve then it is okey dokey. Apparently, the Republican Party has no problem with that either.

One problem with this scenario is that each one of these people that refused to vote for a no confidence vote for the Attorney General also swore to defend the Constitution and as we all know, you might as well use is to wipe your back side according to President Bush.

Personal thanks to Achorn for this list of Senators with confidence in Gonzales...
Papamoka

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