State of the Union Keeps Broadband On Front Burner
Obama is the tech president. He’s the guy that finally got a Blackberry into the White House after all. And gadget nerds and tech geeks will always remain true to their hearts even if they do become president. So that being said it is no surprise that Obama made sure that America’s broadband strategy, or lack there of, was given a shout out. SiliconAngle picked up my post from Digital Society on the issue today. You can read about my thoughts on the Presidents comments at either of those sites.
-nick
Gibbs Blames GOP For No Tax Cuts, Press Doesn’t Bite
You can find the video here, as we can’t embed RCP videos. The discussion between, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs and the press is pretty comical. It’s very apparent the media isn’t going to be swayed by Gibbs fairly ridiculous spin on why there is no tax cut bill in play and why blaming the Reps just won’t cut it.
-nick
The White House Supports At Least One Good Health Care Idea
Thanks to Nick Brown for sending me the link to this one:
The White House says it will support the House backed legislation that strips the health insurance industry of its federal antitrust exemptions and that removing the exemption will allow the “appropriate enforcement and examination of potential policies that might prove uncompetitive, or might stifle competition” within the industry.
Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters at the daily White House briefing the administration supports the legislation that will allow American families and businesses to have more control over health care. He also said this will allow the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission to ensure competitiveness in the market.
The legislation on repealing the health care company exemption will originate in the House and has to be reconciled with the Senate version of the bill. The Senate version of the health care bill is what the White House has used to create their own proposal on how to move forward on health care and will be the starting point for discussions on Thursday between Republicans and Democrats at a day-long meeting with the President in an attempt by the White House to get health care legislation passed.
Health Care companies have been exempt from the antitrust acts for about 65 years. U.S. Antitrust laws prohibit anti-competitive behavior and unfair practices, and are designed to encourage competition in the marketplace.
This is great news. The insurance companies were getting a great deal under the Democratic plans, what with the individual mandate and other provisions. By getting rid of this exemption, the administration will encourage competition, lower prices and a better quality of insurance coverage.
Rahm Emanuel Follows In Obama’s Gaffes
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel has followed in President Obama’s footsteps regarding sensitivity towards handicapped Americans. According to The Wall Street Journal:
“F—ing retarded,” Mr. Emanuel scolded the group [of liberal lawmakers], according to several participants. He warned them not to alienate lawmakers whose votes would be needed on health care and other top legislative items.
This happened back in August, but according to Politico Emanuel just apologized to handicapped activist Tim Shriver last week after the Journal reported the incident.
I’m not going to harp on about this- it’s the most minor of incidents. Nevertheless, our public officials and their subordinates should not be making insulting references to handicapped people. It’s not appropriate, no matter what the setting. Emanuel’s apology is exceedingly appropriate, if very belated.
Destruction Among The Democrats
I was at my internship with Laura Ingraham earlier today, and as part of the job I had to look up information regarding the falling house of cards that is the Democratic Party and its domestic initiatives. Below is what I found:
1. President Obama’s Transportation Security Administration nominee has resigned after Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) and other Republicans held up his nomination due to his lying to Congress.
2. Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) is calling for health care voting to halt until newly-elected Senator Brown (R-MA) is seated.
3. White House officials and House Democrats see things differently on health care and the ramifications of the Brown election.
4. Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN) may very well have Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) as a challenger this year, despite his calling out the left today.
5. White House advisor David Axelrod and White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs don’t get it.
Below is what I have found since:
6. Suddenly, deadlines aren’t so important to President Obama.
7. Moderate Scott Brown (R-MA) and conservative Jim DeMint (R-SC) are on the same page, it appears. Kind of makes Democrats look like the ones who are purging their own ranks.
8. Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) is kinda-sorta-not-really calling for health care reform to start over.
Update:
9. Representative Earl Pomeroy (D-ND) has been rumored to be prepared to resign from Congress if the health care debate keeps going, and is being courted by a large insurance organization.
10. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is being hammered by the liberal members of her caucus.
None of this is to take away from the fact that Republicans still have work to do in creating a big tent- though Ed Morrissey continues to do great work regarding that goal- and that the Tea Partiers and many other Americans are as angry at the Republican Party as they are at the Democratic Party. While I think the Republicans will win several Senate seats, and 20-30 House seats, I also think the divisions between conservative Republicans and moderate Republicans, and between social conservatives and fiscal/economic conservatives, will hand several House races and at least one or two Senate seats to the Democrats in 2010. Of course, if President Obama keeps using his waning political capital to help Democrats in tough elections, perhaps Republicans will be fortunate enough to have another two years to get their own house in order before the 2012 elections.
Punishing the Guilty- Unless We Don’t
The Heritage Foundation nailed it in their Morning Bell yesterday:
The TARP program has so far distributed $247 billion to more than 700 banks. Of that, $162 billion in principal and $11 billion in interest and dividends have already been repaid. Except for AIG, almost all banks that received taxpayer money are expected to pay back the American taxpayers in full. As The New York Times reports: “The losses from the bailout fund are expected from money paid to rescue Chrysler and General Motors and the insurance giant American International Group, and from a program to help homeowners avert foreclosures.”
So the real deadbeats that are not giving us “our money back” are not the banks, but the union-backed car companies and failed government mortgage modification programs. But guess what? The White House has chosen not to include the car companies among the institutions that will pay this so called “Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee.” Also exempted are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored entities that helped create the crisis.
It’s time we told our elected officials to stop picking winners and losers, and voted in people who are in favor of term limits and in favor of a separation of business from government. Beyond liberal or conservative, these are the issues that are so important to America. After all, when Howard Dean, Markos Moulitas and Arianna Huffington agree with The Heritage Foundation…perhaps it’s time for- and I dislike using this word- change to how our system works. Of course, it’s up to us, the voters and citizens of America, to make said change.
Sovereignty At Risk?
Let’s pretend President Bush gave a domestic security organization unrestricted ability, complete with immunity from search-and-seizure and Freedom of Information Act laws. (For liberals, the wiretapping would be your closest analogy.) Well, guess what? President Obama did so two weeks ago, in a little-noticed Executive Order on the White House website. The Order, an innocuous statement for sure, was caught and reported on by several press organizations, including National Review’s The Corner and The Washington Examiner.
ThreatsWatch.org has the most thorough analysis of what this Executive Order, which “grants INTERPOL (International Criminal Police Organization) a new level of full diplomatic immunity afforded to foreign embassies and select other “International Organizations” as set forth in the United States International Organizations Immunities Act of 1945.” In short, it appears that our sovereignty is threatened by liberals who apparently believe such a concept is merely a fossil of the past.
Update: A former Bush official says it’s about time we allowed INTERPOL to have this status. Interesting piece by ABC’s Jake Tapper. It’s a good read.
Get Rid of Napolitano
As is well-known by now, last week there was a suicide bomber attack on a plane from Amsterdam to Detroit. The attack, fortunately, failed, as the explosive device failed to go off. The alleged terrorist is suspected to be connected to at least one terrorist organization. He claimed, initially at least, to be connected to Al Qaeda.
This, obviously, is both good news and bad. First, it’s good in that nobody died, a terrorist was captured and now we know where to concentrate more efforts on the international scale. The bad news is that some people are just plain stupid, including Think Progress’ Matthew Yglesias, who wrote the other day that, “Ultimately, it does no favors to anyone to blow this sort of thing out of proportion. The United States could not, of course, be ?devastated? by anything resembling this scheme. We ought to be clear on that fact. We want to send the message around the world that this sort of vile attempt to slaughter innocent people is not, at the end of the day, anything resembling a serious challenge to American power. It?s attempted murder, it?s wrong, we should try to stop it, but it?s really not much more than that.”
Even worse, however, is the reaction from Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. “The system worked,” according to Napolitano. Given that it took a failed attempt plus civilian passengers to subdue the attempted terrorist, I’d say the system failed. Plus, the guy was on a watch list, which is particularly poignant given his father reported him as a potential threat two years ago. (See the video of Napolitano’s inane comments here.)
To quote Jonah Goldberg from The Corner yesterday, “If the White House wants to assure people that it takes the war on terror seriously (a term Robert Gibbs used this morning by the way), they could start by firing this patenly unqualified hack.” Personally, I think “man-caused disasters” are a worse threat than conservatives, Secretary Napolitano. You had better figure that out soon, or your job will be gone. Unfortunately, this will probably not happen until after Americans have died as a result of your incompetence. Yes, as they said on the Real Clear Politics blog, it’s your job to reassure the American public as part of an overall security standpoint. However- and I’ll finish with a quote from the RCP blog- “…she should be smart enough to find a way of doing that without treating the American people like a bunch of morons and dupes.”
This was originally posted at THE LOBBYIST.
Update: According to The Washington Monthly blog, President Obama has been paying close attention to the Al Qaeda threat from Yemen. Kudos to President Obama for doing so.
Update II: The Heritage Foundation’s Morning Bell points out the continued failure by the Obama administration to take the proper steps to protect this country from terrorists, and offers three steps going forward.
Update III: A friend pointed out on Facebook that I misspelled Secretary Napolitano’s name- it is corrected.
Update IIII (last one, I hope): Two links from where I posted this at Race42012 showing Secretary Napolitano backtracking on her statements about the system working well. Too little, too late, I think.
TODAY Video: Napolitano: Prevention system ?failed miserably?
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/34608370#34608370
Security System Failed, Napolitano Acknowledges
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/29/us/29terror.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print
Prayers And Support For Sad Occurrences Over Christmas
The first is a Salvation Army Major who was accosted and shot in front of his three very young children on Christmas Eve. See the linked article for where to send donations.
Secondly, a father who was sent to Iraq- he was only a few days from his actual deployment, training at a base stateside- was unable to be with his family over Christmas despite his house burning down last week. I heard about it on a local radio station based in Littleton, New Hampshire, where the man’s family lives. The father was able to come home for one day and then had to go back to his unit. The family lost everything, though none of the three young children- all five years old or younger- were injured, nor was the childrens’ mother.? Donations may be made by calling the Littleton Police Department at (603) 444-2422 and asking to speak to the dispatcher.
Iranian officials are still cracking down on those brave enough to protest. Contact your Members of Congress- Senate and House- and the White House to urge our leaders to support the protesters before it’s too late.
A bridge has collapsed in India, and dozens are feared dead. I don’t know how to offer support here, other than prayer.
Of course, there are always the military service members overseas, their families, those the soldiers are fighting and their families- prayers and support for all sides so there may be peace and justice I’m sure would help.
I know these kinds of incidents and occurrences are not happy things to think about during the Christmas season- especially when we all have our own troubles in this recession. However, as those fortunate enough to be able to celebrate Christmas in relative peace and happiness, I hope we can remember to go out of our way to help those we run into and those we don’t while the spirit of the season is still upon us, and we get too caught up in the necessities of our normal daily lives once Christmas and New Year’s vacations are over.
Health Care Officially Passes Senate
It passed on a party-line vote, too. However, do not despair yet:
1. The White House is outright lying about President Obama’s campaigning on the public option. Desperation?
2. According to Politico, the White House is admitting negotiations over the bill may go past the State of the Union address in late January or very early February. Given that there have been multiple passed deadlines already, and primary season hits full stride in May, will vulnerable Democrats like Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) be willing to pass this monstrosity in the final vote? Their constituents will be (and are) paying attention, and 2010 is going to be a Republican year anyway, so conservative Democrats are going to continue to be very careful.
3. Democrats in the House have felt ignored and trampled for much of the health care debate, and The Heritage Foundation has compiled a number of issues the House and Senate will have to overcome to get a final bill passed. Question: will the House be willing to cave? That verdict is uncertain.
4. Politically influential conservatives, liberals and moderates are against the Senate bill. Polls show Americans are increasingly against the so-called “ObamaCare” version of health care reform. Again, will vulnerable Democrats risk voting for the bill?
5. The designed-to-be-a-pain federal legislation process is in America’s favor.
It’s Christmas- let’s enjoy the day, thank God for sending us His son and enjoy our time with family and friends. Let’s also pray for the guidance and ability to prevent this bill from gravely harming Americans by not letting it pass.
