ACORN critic Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) is mystified that both the Democratic-controlled Congress and the Obama administration aren't doing much about the tax-subsidized organized crime syndicate ACORN even as evidence of its wrongdoing continues to pile up.
In an exclusive interview, the House Judiciary Committee member describes the ACORN saga as "the largest corruption crisis in the history of America."
"It's thousands of times bigger than Watergate because Watergate was only a little break-in by a couple of guys," said King. "By the time we pull ACORN out by its roots America's going to understand just how big this is."
Unlike the Nixon-era Watergate scandal, the ACORN scandal reaches not only to the highest levels of government, but also to states and localities across America. The president himself and his political advisor Patrick Gaspard used to work for ACORN and the radical advocacy group has allies throughout congressional leadership who are bending over backwards to protect it. President Obama has also hired as White House counsel Bob Bauer, whom King described as "the number one defender of ACORN in the country."
ACORN has ties to unions such as SEIU and has business relationships with Wall Street. It has offices across the globe in places like Canada, Kenya, and India. Quite apart from the hidden camera videos that emerged in September showing ACORN employees providing advice on establishing a brothel and financing it with government grants, in the U.S. it stands accused of political corruption, election fraud, racketeering, money laundering, and countless other violations of the law. It is involved in major campaigns pushing for socialized medicine, green energy and cap-and-trade, enhanced welfare benefits, higher minimum wages, greater federal regulation of the financial services industry, and for a major expansion of the Community Reinvestment Act.
"The legislative branch will not investigate. [House Judiciary Committee chairman John] Conyers will not. [House Judiciary subcommittee chairman Jerrold] Nadler will not. It's not going to come out of [House Ways & Means Committee chairman Charles] Rangel's committee. It's not going to come out of [House Financial Services Committee chairman] Barney Frank's committee or from anybody in the Senate. They're going to protect ACORN."
Congress is deliberately dragging its heels on ACORN, just as Democrats did during the Clinton impeachment process in 1998, King said. As a member of the Iowa state senate, in December of that year King spent three days observing the proceedings against Clinton in the House Judiciary Committee.
"I saw the climate and the culture of the left's shield of former President Clinton," King said. "No transgression could have been too bad to cause their morality to flip the other way on him and for them walk away from him."
Today defenders of ACORN in Congress are acting like the 42nd president's defenders.
"It is the same pattern. There was the shock, then the revulsion, and then it was 'the step away until you understand where the crossfire's coming from,' and then it was 'get your tools in your arms and come back and circle the wagons and dig in to defend your guy, defend your leader.'"
In Congress Democrats "got out their arsenal and now they're using everything to protect ACORN because that's the machine that keeps them in office."
King was particularly incensed by U.S. District Judge Nina Gershon's ruling in favor of ACORN on Dec. 11. The Department of Justice has reluctantly filed an appeal of the judge's ruling.
"Now the Democrats have the district court decision that Jerry Nadler solicited and now they will hide behind it if pressed. They will ignore it if they're not pressed. They're never going to move legislatively. They never wanted to unfund ACORN."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2009 00:00 ||
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#2
the important distinction between ACORN mess and Watergate is that the press is a willing and active participant in the cover-up. with %40 of the sheeple never turning the page of a newspaper or even bothering to watch a news program of any stripe and a significant portion of the rest reliant on the alphabets, this will never gain traction outside of the 'preaching to the choir' sites and it will get lost behind the soundbite/muddy the water crap like who Tiger woods was doinking.
Posted by: abu do you love ||
12/22/2009 1:38 Comments ||
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#3
They've got Holder and the law on their side. None of this happened overnight. Dems have setting this scenario up by appointing liberal judges for years. All they need now is the right "crisis" to take place and they will dump the process of democratic elections.
#5
What's even better, the Honorable Sen. Roland Burris (Idiot - Ill.) is claiming credit for a provision in Harry Reid's "manager's amendment," unveiled Saturday morning, that could funnel money to ACORN through the health care bill.
#7
ACORN critic Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) is mystified that both the Democratic-controlled Congress and the Obama administration aren't doing much about the tax-subsidized organized crime syndicate ACORN even as evidence of its wrongdoing continues to pile up.
Don't look for Obami to do anything about ACORN and the Black Panthers. He needs them in 2010 to both get out the vote and to suppress the vote. It is difficult resurrecting those dead voters.
I SENSE CHANGE IS COMING SOON. MAYBE YOU ARE RIGHT GCC9327. Majority of voters are thoroughly p!ssed.
POLITICO has learned that Rep. Parker Griffith, a freshman Democrat from Alabama, will announce today that hes switching parties to become a Republican.
According to two senior GOP aides familiar with the decision, the announcement will take place this afternoon in Griffith's district in northern Alabama.
Griffiths party switch comes on the eve of a pivotal congressional health care vote and will send a jolt through a Democratic House Caucus that has already been unnerved by the recent retirements of a handful of members who, like Griffith, hail from districts that offer prime pickup opportunities for the GOP in 2010.
Continued on Page 49
#1
I believe it was settled long ago that no Congress can tie the hands of any future Congress. Just more evidence that Reid & the Dems are constitutionally off the rails. I want my country back.
#2
Just to show how utterly stupid this moron is, he proposes a bill like this. Of course it will not pass the test of the Supreme Court. But what it does is send a loud message to the people that this is real, permanent, and in their minds irreversible. This will send shock waves down any person that is fence sitting on this. He is throwing FOX a bone here to tear his support up. Even MSNBC should drive a truck over Reid for this.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
12/22/2009 14:33 Comments ||
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#3
Senator Quisling from Blacklight strikes again!
#7
A reminder to the Donks. Two can play at this game. When we regain control the Senate, tax cuts will be made permanent and a extra-super-duper-majority required, say 90%? After all, rules of the Seante, beyotch!
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/22/2009 19:37 Comments ||
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Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., is asking U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to launch an investigation into a Web site launched by a Republican activist that parodies his own re-election site.
My, my, my. Florida Rep. Alan Grayson wants to see one of his critics go directly to jail -- all over her use of the word "my."
In an effort to raise money against the outspoken freshman Democrat, a Republican activist named Angie Langley has launched "mycongressmanisnuts.com" -- a Web site that parodies Grayson's re-election site, "congressmanwithguts.com."
Langley criticizes Grayson on her Web site for his "inappropriate behavior" and "childish approach" toward governing, and claims he "does not represent the values of central Florida." She said in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday that she launched the site in an effort "to expose him (Grayson) for what he is."
But Grayson is not amused, and he is asking U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to conduct an investigation into the Web site and Langley, according to a report in the Orlando Sentinel.
In a four-page letter sent to Holder, Grayson accuses Langley of lying to federal elections and requests that she be fined and imprisoned for five years.
Her lie, according to Grayson, is that she claims to be one of his constituents. Langley, Grayson says, is misrepresenting herself by using the term "my" in the Web site's name.
Langley is a resident of Clermont, Fla., which is outside Grayson's 8th District. Oh, my.
"Ms. Langley has deliberately masqueraded as a constituent of mine, in order to try to create the false appearance that she speaks for constituents who don't support me," Grayson writes in his complaint. "[She] has chosen a name for her committee that is utterly tasteless and juvenile."
Langley defended herself Tuesday, saying that she was "born and raised" in Grayson's district and is "embarrassed to be represented" by him in Washington.
"This is the United States of America. A member of Congress represents all of us -- no matter where we live," she said.
Grayson has been high on the headline list for the last few months. He received national attention in September for saying on the House floor during the debate over health care reform that Republicans want sick people to "die quickly." He apologized in October for calling a female adviser to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke a "whore."
The congressman, who is Jewish, was also reprimanded by the Anti-Defamation League for calling the current health care system a "holocaust in America."
Yeah, but remember, this is AG Holder. He won't do anything about Black Panthers who scared people away from the polls but this might be the kind of case he can sink his teeth into.
The Money Shot: Section 3403 of Senator Harry Reids amendment requires that it shall not be in order in the Senate or the House of Representatives to consider any bill, resolution, amendment, or conference report that would repeal or otherwise change this subsection. The good news is that this only applies to one section of the Obamacare legislation. The bad news is that it applies to regulations imposed on doctors and patients by the Independent Medicare Advisory Boards a/k/a the Death Panels.
#2
Uncle Phester; the money shot for me was in the headline that was not included: "We are no longer a nation of laws." Congress does what it wants choosing to ignore little (sarc) things like our Constitution.
I'm listening to a talk show Herman Cain sub for Neil Boortz out of Atlanta. He posed the question: Why do we keep electing and sending these people (Congressmen and President) to Washington? Well, one answer is that many of them lie through their teeth. Who actually goes to Washington is nothing like who campaigned.
There is an anti-incumbent mood in the land. Voters have to be careful they don't toss out someone reasonably good only to get someone worse. We have a fairly decent Congressman in our district. He listens, for the most part, to the constituents. He has not always followed party lines. If voters voted for someone else, they might get a partisan Democrat who always follows party lines.
#2
Obama's stash. Just like that woman in the Detroit radio interview said a few months ago, when all the welfare drones heard they were giving away free money downtown. Remember?
#3
I get really tired of all the people saying they are fighting these political prostitutes and their political pimps. I mean, seriously, everyone says that they are calling and emailing their "congressman/congresswoman" to "stop socialism". What good does that do when people other than you are offering these political whores your tax money. They just hit the ignore button.
Where is the money coming from to pay off Nebraska or Louisiana? Other states. Thats the Chicago shake down way of doing deals!
Senior White House adviser David Axelrod on Sunday brushed aside expert predictions that Democrats will suffer steep losses in next year's midterm congressional elections. "I think we're gonna have a good result next -- next November," Axelrod told David Gregory, host of NBC's "Meet the Press."
Though Axelrod quickly added "I'm not gonna predict where we are," he roundly dismissed suggestions that Democrats will pay the price at the ballot box for their efforts to push through health care reform legislation, and suggested that President Obama's sub-50-percent approval rating in most polls is unrelated to his heavy investment in the health care fight. "I don't ascribe poll numbers to this particular -- to this particular issue. I think that we're governing, remember, in an economically difficult time. We came to office in the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression. And so, of course, I could have told you a year ago that our numbers were not gonna be - were not gonna be - as strong a year later."
Still, he predicted that if the health care reforms pass, "a year from now" when "this wave of insurance reforms are implemented" the polls will look better for Democrats as people helped by the reforms are going to come to the conclusion that "This was a pretty good deal for us."
In the meantime, Axelrod asserted that the White House isn't focused on the polls and urged pundits to refrain from dwelling on them until next year. "What I suggest is that you guys wait until next October to talk about polls, when they're actually germane to an election. Because that's an eternity away," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Dude Chill! You got the MSM with you, plenty of Brownies on the plate, what could go wrong?
You got the "O" who will persuade anyone to drink the Kool-aid, Yeah walk in the park...no sweat...you Dems are going to Kick A** in 2010.
Alexrod is into the medicinal herbs again!
/sarcasm
#2
Well, considering that ACORN is still actively piling up dead or non-existent or illegal voters, and that Pravda the MSM won't expose Dem corruption, and that most of the younger voters have been indoctrinated in the public "schools" and have attention spans measured in seconds, he could just be right.
#3
Nah the MSM is going to go into full 24/7 hysterics about how the Republics are going to take everyone's health insurance away from them. Sure its a bold faced like - doesn't matter. It isn't as if they haven't done this before.
#6
Everything depends on the unemployment rate. On that front, the outlook is grim. There's utterly no evidence of a rebound in hiring outside of lobbyists and (maybe, later in the year) Barry's crony banks and piggies at the Clean Energy trough. Small business is strangled by the absence of commercial credit, and large employers have used this downturn to accelerate the shift to overseas production and business process outsourcing for almost every function aside from sales, marketing and a few engineering/product management jobs. WHen the economy resets, it will be at a significantly lower level, which means that Americans will have a choice: either be grateful for small blessings and cultivate your garden/cherish your kith and kin, or else get f*cking angry at the political class that trashed this country and that's destroying our children's future, and do something about it.
Like finally get serious about replacing Tweedledum and Tweedledee with a new political class that's serious about halting our slide into Latin-style oligarchy and statism.
#7
This nation is in a flat spin economic and financial death spiral. If the dems have a "good result" in 2010. We're done, we'll just be bleeding out until the lights are turned off.
#9
Dems 'unfavorables' look terrible, but don't forget that a lot of those are coming from the LEFT (yeah, seems impossible, but I assure you it is not.) When it comes to choosing between the Party who signs your 'too-small' checks and the one you think will make them even smaller, you know what happens. And pretty much half of the potential American voters now get those checks (in some way or another.)
#11
If the world has 7billion people, and the spending has reached $3trillion, that is about $425 tax burdon on every single person in the world. Now, condense that down to 350million Americans, then yet again to those able to work, and that is what the Dems, who have been setting the budget since 2006, have done in the first period of their 6 year plan.
Government makes a lot of money from commerce. When that flags, revenue generation falls onto property owners. And Renters, if you think that doesn't affect you think again. Businesses are property owners or users and they write your checks, wait until the withholdings double and food costs double on account of the anti-farming proposals which were defeated earlier but what the whole copenhagen conference is about, control over agriculture and secondary on manufacturing via taxation. Don't think so? You property owners, hows that property tax on your homestead? Try paying on 600 acres, surtax on account of blowing dirt, surtax on high pollutant fuel, surtax on transportation both materials to the farm then product from the farm to market, no working credit available from the local banks because they have to foot the FDIC bill for the big box banks.
Then there is the insurance. Say ya go to the hospital and your insurance company is supposed to pay out for the visit and doesn't, ya can take em to court. What happens when your insurance company is the court, who would you appeal to? Do you really think you will get a fair deal if there is even money available? Watch your local hospitals close up, ambulance services deteriorate. Then we have the traditional loss of services into neighborhoods with high funemployment - not the kids spending their parents' money to go surf but the areas where the gov check goes to drugs, then make money to live by hustling and crime.
It isn't too late. The majority leader of the Senate just called everyone who didn't haggle their vote suckers, I'd change my vote to no just for that complete disrespect. The grinch has forwarned his Christmas Eve raid - I'm not saying the whos would be waiting shotgun in hand but I bet the doors would be locked and the fireplace be burning with an extra log or two. And Dems, seriously, y'all need to get your group of friends together and play the good olde fashioned card game Bullshit! and re-learn how to call lies.
'Wow." That was the response of a cynical Florida Republican politico recently reacting to poll numbers showing former state speaker of the house Marco Rubio tied with Gov. Charlie Crist. The two are expected to face one another in an August Republican primary for the Senate seat abandoned by Republican Mel Martinez. Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, is wowing even the professionals; his performance is especially impressive because the weight of the Republican establishment is behind Crist, as it has been for most of the year -- the National Republican Senatorial Committee endorsed him back in the spring.
The politico, who told me months ago that Rubio didn't have a chance, now says: "The Rasmussen poll really surprised me. Not sure how that gap closed, as the (in-state) coverage of the race hasn't been extremely significant." This Florida political insider previously dismissed Rubio as having no shot at taking on the governor of the state. "I think he has a chance now, but it is still an uphill battle. His fundraising last quarter helped his momentum big time, in addition to some unforced errors on Crist's part." Marco Rubio is no longer a long shot. In fact, another recent Rasmussen poll had Rubio slightly more likely than Crist to beat the probable Democratic nominee for the seat, Rep. Kendrick Meek.
If you spend time with Rubio, it's no surprise that he's impressing people. He comes off as "the real deal." That, of course, is an industry term for someone who actually believes in something and believes what he says. He's well-versed on issues local and national, and projects a solid presence in public, even when tired by the rigors of his upstart campaign.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2009 00:00 ||
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In today's Rasmussen presidential poll, only 26 percent of the nation's voters strongly approve of Barack Obama's performance as president, while 43 percent strongly disapprove -- giving him a Presidential Approval Index rating, a sum calculated by subtracting the number of strong disapprovals from the number of strong approvals, of negative 17. His overall disapproval rating is 53 percent (it has been 50 percent or more for over a month). But it is the extraordinarily high proportion of those who strongly disapprove that bears noting. I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert.
In January, George W. Bush left office with a "Strongly Disapprove" rating of ... 43 percent. It took Bush eight years to achieve that level of strong disapproval, despite how the mainstream media pummeled him for years. Obama has reached that level in 11 months, despite a media that for months could not use his name in a sentence without also adding "Lincoln" and "FDR." Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
To appreciate the magnitude of Obama's ratings fall, consider that after his first full day in office, his presidential index was positive 30. Today's index of negative 17 reflects a swing of 47 points in less than a year. And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
A commenter at the Huffington Post today observes that Obama has "accomplished the remarkable feat of both demoralizing the base and completely turning off voters in the center." The president has also unified the Republican party and created a tea-party movement that in some polls is more popular than both the Democratic and Republican parties. Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
At this stage of the Clinton administration, voters were upset about a health-care reform being planned in secret by the president's wife; today they appear even more upset by an administration pushing through an ultra-partisan restructuring of the economy in the dead of night. If this keeps up, there is going to be an electoral earthquake less than 11 months from now.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Carter, pt II.
Step 1. Follow a disgraced and unpopular GOP admin.
Step 2. Come from nowhere, promise a "new politics" and build a coalition of afr-amers, unionized labor, white centrists, left-libs, women, and jews.
Step 3. Alienate white centrists, left-libs, jews.
Step 4. Pray for a bumbling, incoherent opponent from the left in your own party and hope that the public buys your smear of your GOP opponent as a dangerous reactionary.
The only thing missing from the Jimmah scenario is Obama-Rahma-Axelrod's determination to pander to unionized labor.
Slight problem: the US public in 2009 is adamantly against card check, the unions' agenda, and the explosion (more than doubled as % of GDP, to near-20%, in last 20 years) of state+local govt spending driven by the likes of the SEIU.
What's new is Barry's shameless coziness with his oligarchic buddies on Wall Street, whereas even Jimmah busted up cozy monopolies, deregulated the airlines, railroads and the trucking industry.
The GOP needs an anti-Wall Street, TR-style trustbusting reformer from the hinterland. Someone a lot smarter than Palin, a lot more ballsy and authentic than Romney and a lot steadier than McCain.
"We are not Racists, we hate the White part of him too"
Posted by: Jack Salami ||
12/22/2009 8:56 Comments ||
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#4
Lex, anyone who disagrees with the bicoastal areas about the need to funnel money away from real industries and towards their cities is "stupid" in their eyes.
It's code speak for "she's not the right class/caste."
(I gotta run, guys, I have to spend another day playing the Hospital Game).
#6
As the lives of actual working Americans continue to erodes and crater as job losses continue, and finaicial hardship abounds, Demokrats in Washington continue to act as if money is everywhere, and bribery in the Senate is just the cost of doing business (so the citizens of Nebraska will be subsidized by the rest of us to buy a vote for their scialist wet-dream), something is happening in the homes of conservative Americans that I have never seen before. People are coming to see Washington as corrupt as Rome, and as oppressive, and faith in our way of government is failing. This is no small thing, not just the passion of the moment.
Belief and commitment in government and the justness of laws make our society work. Just as faith in government makes us all agree that those pieces of paper in our wallets mean something, have value. When we stop believing in them, or it, things fail, and they fail quickly. Washington is not listening to the American people, stunningly ignoring our will, and essentially becoming tyrannical. What follows will be the people not listening to Washington.
Listen to the commentators now, and you hear people talking about witholding taxes, civil disobedience, demonstrations..... these are not outraged students with the zeal of youth and ignorance, nor the have-nots, raging for government largesse. These are the backbone people, the solid middle class, the muscle and glue of the country. And they are not the conservatives of the coasts making hollow comment as they are again drowned out by their progressive neighbors. These are people in Indiana, Missouri, Nebraska, Alabama.... and they are PISSED in a way I have not seen.
In his first year in power, has Zero and the Demokrats hastened the unwinding of the Republic?
#7
ION GUAM PDN FORUMS THREADS > CORPORATE AMERICA MAY HAVE LOST ALL OF ITS INVESTMENTS; + FSM BANKS WILL FAIL SOON [ FSM = Federated States of Micronesia].
* BHARAT RAKSHAK > WSJ Artic > SOUTHEAST ASIA IS NOT FEELING THE ECONOMIC CRUNCH.
(CNSNews.com) -- Six senators, including former Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), when asked if it is morally right to take tax dollars from pro-life Americans to pay for health insurance plans that cover abortion, did not answer the question directly, but instead expressed their thoughts about the Senate health-care legislation.
The Senate health-care bill at present mandates that the Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary make certain that at least one health-care plan in the government exchanges -- where people will use tax money to buy health insurance -- covers elective abortions.
At the U.S. Capitol, CNSNews.com asked senators, "Is it morally right to take tax money from pro-life Americans and give it to health insurance plans that cover abortion?"
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
First I read:
The Senate health-care bill at present mandates that the Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary make certain that at least one health-care plan in the government exchanges -- where people will use tax money to buy health insurance -- covers elective abortions.
Then, later in the same article, I read:
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said: I think here in the Congress we have been very, very consistent over the years in ensuring that the Hyde amendment language is included so, in fact we do not have taxpayer funds that go towards abortions."
Excuse me. Am I missing something? Are these two statements just a little inconsistent with each other or is somebody lying?
(CBS) What a difference a year makes. Last year Democrats won an election on hope. Now they're hoping to keep next year's mid-term losses to a minimum, reports CBS News Political Analyst John Dickerson. "It's a tough time for Democrats frankly," Democratic pollster Celinda Lake told Dickerson.
With the economy struggling and jobs slow to return, voters who elected Democrats in 2008 may have doubts about voting for the party again in 2010. "Our voters are less enthusiastic than Republicans and independents," Lake told Dickerson.
In the House, four Democrats - Washington Rep. Brian Baird, Kansas Rep. Dennis Moore and Tennessee congressmen Bart Gordon and John Tanner - have announced their retirement in the last four weeks. The total leaving so far this year is 11. Democratic strategists are watching with concern since open seats are more likely to change parties.
For now, Tennessee's Tanner holds Davy Crocket's old seat. "He was elected three times and defeated three times," Tanner told Dickerson. "They say he rode a horse into the capitol and told them all to go to hell. He was going to Texas."
Tanner is a co-founder of the congressional Blue Dog Coalition, 56 conservative Democrats who are buffeted by both sides. Liberals scold them for voting against health care reform, energy legislation and stimulus spending. Republicans say they are out of step with their conservative constituents. "An airplane can't fly on one wing," Tanner told Dickerson. "The pilot sits in the middle in the cockpit, and the Blue Dogs are sitting in the middle, and we're the ones criticized at home for being too liberal and criticized up here (in Washington) for being too conservative."
Even with current big margins, it's been hard for Democrats to pass controversial legislation. That's why every seat that becomes open is a problem. "I think keeping those retirements under control is going to be very, very important for the elections," Lake told Dickerson. Maybe you should think about heading west, to Texas, Davy?
It's not unusual for a new president's party to lose seats in a mid-term election, which means while Democrats may have made history last year, next year they're likely to repeat it.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
The events of the past few weeks clearly proves the term "Conservative Democrat" is an oxymoron.
#5
ION WMF > "CANTON NEWS" TAIWAN MEDIA: 26.0MILYUHN OF US 17-26 YEAR OLDS ARE NOT ELIGIBLE FOR MILITARY SERVICE DUE TO LACK OF FORMAL HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATION, CRIMINAL RECORD, AND OBESITY, AS ITS ECONOMY IMPROVES, US MAY BE FORCED TO TO RELY ON MERCENARY SYSTEM FOR MILITARY MANPOWER [international = French Foreign Legion for the USA]???
* SAME [old]> RUSSIAN SCHOLAR'S [crazy] PREDICTION: THIRD WORLD WAR TO BEGIN IN NOVEMBER 2010. RUSSIA TO LOSE 50.0MILYUHN PERSONS FIGHTING WARS IN ITS EAST AND CAUCASUS REGIONS.
* SAME > VIETNAM PRESSING HARDER AND HARDER AGZ CHINIA IN DISPUTED SOUTH CHINA SEA ISLANDS. CHINA MUST BE READY TO USE MILITARY FORCE TO PROTECT ITS ACCESS; + YEAR 2015: DESPITE ITS POTENT MILITARY MODERNIZATIONS VIETNAM MAY STILL HAVE TO RELY ON JAPAN AND USA TO ENFORCE ITS CLAIMS OF SOVEREIGNTY AGZ CHINA IN THE SOUTH CHINA SEA.
Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling sent a strongly worded letter to Sens. Jim Webb and Mark Warner Monday expressing outrage over special concessions given to certain states to obtain support for federal health care legislation from their Senators and asking them to oppose this legislation, which Bolling called "misguided."
"As you know, one of our major concerns with this legislation is the potential impact it could have on the cost of Medicaid for Virginia's state government," wrote Bolling. "Many reports have suggested that this legislation could result in much higher Medicaid costs for state governments across the nation, costs that state governments simply cannot bear."
In his letter, Bolling cited reports from this past weekend that the Senate's Democratic leadership had made concessions to Senator Ben Nelson that would hold his home state of Nebraska harmless for any additional Medicaid costs that might come about as a result of the enrollment of new Medicaid recipients after 2017, while all 49 other states would be required to pay a portion of the increased costs. This reportedly would save Nebraska $45M per year, while passing these costs on to other states.
Additionally, similar "sweet heart deals" were reportedly made to Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and other Senators to obtain their support for the healthcare bill, while the citizens of Virginia and other states were not afford the same benefits.
"I am outraged by reports that surfaced this weekend regarding concessions that were made to Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson to secure his vote in support of this legislation," stated Bolling. "If these reports are accurate, this type of quid pro quo is unacceptable, and you and your colleagues should object strongly to the practice, which I have no doubt the American people will find offensive as well."
"If the Senate's leadership is so desperate to obtain votes to secure the passage of this legislation that they would make these types of concessions to these Senators, I would ask that you demand that the same concessions be extended to Virginia, and for that matter, to every other state in the nation," continued Bolling.
In addition to the outrageous "pay off" tactics employed by Senate Democratic Leadership, Bolling encouraged Senators Webb and Warner to vote against the substance of the legislation, citing concerns that it will result in increased health care costs, increased insurance premiums, increased taxes on family and businesses and fewer options for individual patients.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2009 00:00 ||
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#2
Jim Webb has long been a puzzle. If you look at his bio, you would guess that he is as unlikely a character to be a Democrat as was Charlton Heston. His defense credentials are impressive. In fact in many ways he is a militarist and something of a political reactionary.
There are a ton of reasons for him to be a Republican, but I am hard pressed to see why he is a Democrat, unless somehow the Republicans truly ticked him off.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) today took shots at those who are not supporting the health care legislation. During a floor speech, he excoriated Senate GOP members for holding up the pending health care bill and accused their supporters of being birthers and fanatics in right-wing militia and Aryan support groups. He started off by citing an editorial from the Manchester Journal Inquirer, which used the insult "lunatic fringe.":
"Let's Look At What Current Observers Are Saying As A Possible Early Indicator Of The Judgment History Will Inflict. Recently, The Editor Of The Manchester Journal Inquirer Editorial Page Wrote Of The Current G.O.P. Which He Called 'This Once Great And Now Mostly Shameful Party,' That 'It Has Gone Crazy, Is More And More Dominated By The Lunatic Fringe And Has Poisoned Itself With Hate.' He Concluded, 'They No Longer Want To Govern. They Want To Emote.' A Well Regarded Philadelphia Columnist Recently Wrote Of The Conservative Paranoia And Lunacy On The Republican Right."
After explaining why absent GOP members who did not vote for the Department of Defense spending bill was tantamount to a "no" vote, he went on to say that Republicans and their supporters just want to "break" the momentum of President Obama.:
"Voting 'no' and hiding from the vote are the same result. Those of us on the floor see it. It was clear the three of them who did not cast their yes votes until all 60 Senate votes had been tallied and it was clear that the result was a foregone conclusion. And why? Why all this discord and discourtesy, all this unprecedented destructive action? All to break the momentum of our new young president.
They are desperate to break this president. They have ardent supporters who are nearly hysterical at the very election of President Barack Obama. The birthers, the fanatics, the people running around in right-wing militia and Aryan support groups, it is unbearable to them that President Barack Obama should exist. That is one powerful reason. It is not the only one."
I approached (AUDIO) Senator Whitehouse following his speech on the floor, and his responses to my questions were puzzling, to say the say the least. Mr. Whitehouse said he stood by his speech, but would not admit that he was accusing anyone who was against the health care bill as racist. He did reiterate that birthers are part of the group that is against the bill and are attacking president However, when I asked the Senator from Rhode Island what he meant by describing those who do not support the bill as "aryan," he responded "No, I didn't say that....again, pay attention to the speech."
According to the transcript above, Mr. Whitehouse did say what he seems to be denying. Perhaps he should pay more attention to what he says on the floor.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2009 00:00 ||
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Jesus H. Christ that is a huge dose of projection right there.
#2
I can't stop laughing, this guy has a serious delusional disorder. Man, chill bro or your next home is in St Elizabeth's Hospital for the Mentally Insane.
#9
Seems like the left is coming unglued. Between Whitehouse and Grayson we have a couple of people that are "certifiable." There are quite a few others that fit this category and a few others in the closet.
The United States Senate reached an agreement on health care reform legislation this weekend, and they couldn't have done it without a bit of Chicago grit.
At least, that's what South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham thinks.
But it's no compliment.
Graham, a long-time friend and adviser to President Obama's election opponent John McCain, said the bill, which passed the Senate late Saturday night was only reached because of "seedy Chicago politics" which have been established by the new president from Chicago.
"This is far from over. The House and Senate bills are in many ways irreconcilable," Graham, a Republican who voted against the bill said on CNN's "State of the Union," Sunday morning. " ... You know, change you can believe in, after this health care bill debacle is now becoming an empty slogan. And it's really been replaced by seedy Chicago politics, when you think about it, backroom deals that amount to bribes."
Graham is upset over what he calls Enron-accounting tactics that were used to make the bill look solvent. "It is a sham. You collect taxes for 10 years and you pay out benefits for six years, and the Class Act, which no one's talking about, is a completely new government entitlement."
Seedy or not, now that the Senate has passed a version of its health care bill, both houses of Congress will attempt to reconcile the differences between their bills. That process should take just as much Chicago moxie to pull off.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2009 00:00 ||
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South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham finally found something sufficiently seditionious for him to bitch about....?
Incumbent Democratic Senator Byron Dorgan may have a serious problem on his hands if Republicans recruit Governor John Hoeven to run for the U.S. Senate in North Dakota next year.
The first Rasmussen Reports Election 2010 telephone survey of likely voters in North Dakota finds the popular Republican governor leading Dorgan by 22 points -- 58% to 36%. Just six percent (6%) are undecided in that senatorial contest.
Part of the challenge for Dorgan is the health care legislation working its way through Congress. Dorgan, along with every Democrat in the Senate, has voted to move the legislation forward and is expected to vote for final approval of the reform later this week. That's not likely to be well received in North Dakota where just 30% favor the proposed health care reform plan and 64% are opposed.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2009 00:00 ||
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Democratic Senator Byron Dorgan or NO-GORD to his friends - all three of them. This guy couldn't be elected dogcatcher.
Love the Bird-turd-moble
Posted by: Gleper Prince of the Hatfields3805 ||
12/22/2009 0:41 Comments ||
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A $100 million item for construction of a university hospital was inserted in the Senate health care bill at the request of Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., who faces a difficult re-election campaign, his office said Sunday night. "Nelson and Landrieu can have boodle! Why not me?"
The legislation leaves it up to the Health and Human Services Department to decide where the money should be spent, although spokesman Bryan DeAngelis said Dodd hopes to claim it for the University of Connecticut.
The provision is included in a 383-page series of changes to the health care bill that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., outlined Saturday. Scattered throughout are numerous items sought by individual lawmakers, many of them directing money explicitly to programs or projects in their home states.
The one sought by Dodd provides $100 million for "a health care facility that provides research, inpatient tertiary care, or outpatient clinical services." It must be affiliated with an academic health center at a public research university in the United States "that contains a State's sole public academic medical and dental school."
The money can cover a maximum of 40 percent of the facility's construction costs.
Based on the criteria set out on the bill, it appeared that state-affiliated hospitals in about a dozen states could compete for the funds.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2009 00:00 ||
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Its in your back pocket Chief. You Dems have the whole Treasury at your desposal and thats what your going to do with it.... Dispose... Even a mouse will have no place to hide after you empty the treasury.
And neither will you, come the election in 2010-2012.
A new global body dedicated to environmental stewardship is needed to prevent a repeat of the deadlock which undermined the Copenhagen climate change summit, Gordon Brown will say tomorrow.
The UNs consensual method of negotiation, which requires all 192 countries to reach agreement, needs to be reformed to ensure that the will of the majority prevails, he feels.
The Prime Minister will say: Never again should we face the deadlock that threatened to pull down those talks. Never again should we let a global deal to move towards a greener future be held to ransom by only a handful of countries. One of the frustrations for me was the lack of a global body with the sole responsibility for environmental stewardship.
I believe that in 2010 we will need to look at reforming our international institutions to meet the common challenges we face as a global community. The summit failed to produce a political agreement among all the countries. Delegates instead passed a motion on Saturday taking note of an accord drawn up the night before by five countries: the US, China, India, Brazil and South Africa.
Despite being the first world leader to join the summit, Mr Brown was excluded from the key meeting where the compromise was decided.
Ed Miliband, the Climate Change Secretary, admitted today that the results of the Copenhagen conference were disappointing because of the absence of agreement on emissions targets or a deadline for turning the accord into a legally binding treaty.
Mr Miliband pointed the finger of blame at China for resisting a legal agreement and its rejection of a proposal for 50 per cent cut in global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
Efforts to give legal force to the commitments in the Copenhagen accord came up against impossible resistance from a small number of developing countries, including China, who didnt want a legal agreement, he said.
Challenged over accusations that the agreement reached in Copenhagen failed to protect poor people in developing countries, Mr Miliband said: The eventual outcome was disappointing. But the idea that walking away from agreement would have been better for people facing climate change is frankly ridiculous.
I think we can protect and help those peoples lives and indeed protect them from climate change through this agreement.
The fact is that we have got fast-start finance of $10 billion a year flowing as a result of this agreement. He said it was important that countries had agreed for the need to make emissions cuts, even though they had failed to commit to specific targets.
We wont know the precise shape of [the national emission targets] until the beginning of February, and we are going to have to push for them to be higher.
Even though there were things we didnt achieve, the fact is we have got for the first time developing countries coming together and saying that they are going to reduce emissions, and the finance is flowing.
Mr Miliband rejected claims that Britain and the European Union were sidelined by their absence from a meeting at which President Obama and the leaders of China, India, Brazil and South Africa thrashed out the basic shape of the accord.
I dont think that was the meeting that in the end decided the agreement, he said. The big decisions took place in a group of about 30 countries in which President Sarkozy, Chancellor Merkel and Gordon Brown were represented.
Posted by: john frum ||
12/22/2009 00:00 ||
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Always focus on problems that are perceived, never problems that are real. Similar to the US.
#5
I think ol' Gordo is having some level of deleriums. A majority rule by dictatorships? Yeah right. I dare some Nigerian spammer with a Million Dollar scam to come within range of me or my family...
#7
"we shall call them 'Captain Planet and the Superfriends of the Environment' I present to you, former Vice President Al Gore in Captain Planet tights"
"ewwwwwww!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/22/2009 20:12 Comments ||
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LONDON It's a climate deal that has Europe feeling left out in the cold.
The continent that used to take the lead in advocating climate action is now taking the lead in climate complaining. And it's not just upset with the results, but the process itself.
Europe's goals were generally not met, and Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen, host of the U.N.-sponsored climate talks in Copenhagen, was shoved aside as president of the conference in favor of Philip Weech of the Bahamas.
When a deal was reached, those in the room were heads of state from Africa, North and South America and Asia not Europe.
The unhappiness extends to Europe's business community, which worries that a failure to agree to international emissions cuts could put them at a competitive disadvantage.
Since Europe had already agreed to binding emission cuts, "they needed the United States and developing countries to agree to binding reductions, which they didn't because the United States couldn't without the United States Congress acting," said Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund in the U.S. The developing countries didn't agree because the U.S. didn't, he added.
The Copenhagen Accord emerged principally from President Barack Obama's meeting with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and the leaders of India, Brazil and South Africa. But the agreement was protested by several nations that demanded deeper emissions cuts by the industrialized world.
The U.S.-brokered compromise calls for reducing emissions to keep temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels.
The agreement's key elements, with no legal obligation, were that richer nations will finance a $10 billion-a-year, three-year program to fund poorer nations' projects to deal with drought and other impacts of climate change, and to develop clean energy. A goal was also set to mobilize $100 billion a year by 2020 for the same adaptation and mitigation purposes.
The nations attending the U.N. conference agreed by consensus on a compromise to "take note" of the accord, instead of formally approving it.
Robert Orr, the U.N. policy coordination chief, said a document will shortly be opened for signatures from all countries, and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged all to sign and work toward a legally binding treaty in 2010.
Politicians are blaming China and other developing countries for cutting the heart of out of the climate deal, with Britain accusing Beijing of vetoing a deal for mandatory emission cuts and an EU official complaining that some Latin American countries had held the entire conference hostage.
"Never again should we face the deadlock that threatened to pull down those talks," British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Monday. "Never again should we let a global deal to move towards a greener future be held to ransom by only a handful of countries."
British climate change minister Ed Miliband wrote in The Guardian newspaper that most countries developed and developing supported binding cuts in emissions, but that "some leading developing countries currently refuse to countenance this." He singled out Beijing as the culprit behind the talks' near-collapse.
"We did not get an agreement on 50 percent reductions in global emissions by 2050 or on 80 percent reductions by developed countries. Both were vetoed by China, despite the support of a coalition of developed and the vast majority of developing countries," Miliband wrote.
China saw it differently.
"China has played an important and constructive role in pushing the Copenhagen climate talks to earn the current results, and demonstrated its utmost sincerity and made its best effort," Wen told the official Xinhua news agency.
"These are hard-won results made through joint efforts of all parties, which are widely recognized and should be cherished," he said.
EU officials returned from Copenhagen disappointed by the meager outcome of the conference and angry that countries such as Nicaragua, Bolivia, Sudan and Venezuela kept the rest from signing a more ambitious global pact.
The EU claimed a climate leadership role for Europe by promising in March 2007 to cut its emissions by 20 percent by 2020, compared with 1990, and by 30 percent if others, notably the United States, followed suit. While that has not happened, the EU sticks by its emissions cuts of 20 percent and 30 percent.
But Europe's role is not what it could have been or used to be, said Jorgen Delman, a China studies professor at Copenhagen University.
"They didn't play the role they could have played," Delman said. "But I think it was clear that the U.S. and China would be dominant. The European Union as a bloc was not in a position to be a dominant player."
Europe's problem was that it offered too much, too soon in negotiations, and was essentially taken for granted, experts said. In addition, when it comes to emissions of greenhouse gases, all of Europe combined isn't as a big a player as the U.S. or China. The biggest emitter in Europe is Germany, and it is behind India, Russia and Japan.
"Europe could shut down and it really wouldn't matter" in terms of the types of significant emission cuts, said John Christensen, head of the U.N. Environment Program's center for energy, climate and sustainable development, based in Denmark.
Another problem was that Denmark's leaders made "various mistakes" early in the bureaucratic process that slowed things down and annoyed some African nations, Christensen said. That led to Rasmussen stepping down.
Not all in Europe were critical. German Chancellor Angela Merkel defended the summit's outcome as a first step that paves the way for action. She added that "anyone who just badmouths Copenhagen now is engaging in the business of those who are applying the brakes rather than moving forward."
European companies said they were "disappointed by the limited outcome" of the climate talks that did nothing to demand that other regions match rules that punish polluters in Europe which they fear will force heavy energy users such as steel and chemicals to quit the 27-nation bloc.
"The Copenhagen Accord has not brightened the prospect for a global level-playing field in the future," said a press release from BusinessEurope, which represents some 20 million companies.
"On the contrary, European companies have to pay for their emissions under the EU Emission Trading Scheme and are as exposed to carbon leakage as they were before Copenhagen," it said.
The companies also say they "strongly regret" that the U.S., China and others "only repeated their limited mitigation commitments."
They called for them to swiftly move toward a legally binding agreement "because companies need predictability to develop the new green solutions on which a future low-carbon economy will depend."
Europe's steel industry federation Eurofer said that in the name of remaining competitive, the EU should avoid increasing its target to reduce emissions to 30 percent by 2020 until industries in other parts of the world make similar cuts.
Posted by: john frum ||
12/22/2009 00:00 ||
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Hey , you guys are lucky....shut up....before they fleece your Treasury too !
#2
There is nothing stopping Europeans from shuttering belching factories, quenching fuel guzzling boilers and walking to their subsistence farms. I believe they need to set a good example for the people of Somalia to follow. Holier than thou is not just a state of mind, it's a life long commitment.
Posted by: ed ||
12/22/2009 1:17 Comments ||
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ed,
The problem is that it won't be EUSSR politburo members wearing the hair-shirts and tiling the fields by hands.
The world has reacted strongly to the Copenhagen climate talks, expressing frustration and commenting that it stopped short of any end result.
Even the campaigners and environmentalists were left stunned at what they viewed as a total disappointment.
At the end of the 193-nation UN summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, there was no binding deal for combating global warming, a move led by the United States and China, the world's top two emitters of greenhouse gases.
The Danish government had been hoping for a positive outcome, but the Danes themselves expressed their frustration after being left with no binding deal.
India called the climate talks a complete failure and said there were no legally binding targets that the developed countries would have to meet.
India said no such thing. The CSE did. The CSE is not India.
"We have failed to agree at a sort of solution which will lead us to a viable action plan towards controlling climate change," Suparno Banerjee, spokesperson of the New Delhi-based Center for Science and Environment, said on Sunday.
The CSE is an NGO best known for "finding" pesticides in Coca Cola. No one else can detect these pesticides and the same groundwater used by Coca Cola is used by everyone else. The CSE doesn't check drinking water though, or tea, just Coca Cola.
Before the conference closed, Brazilian President Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva said only a miracle could rescue the talks.
President Hugo Chavez said that negotiations were conducted in the wrong way and accused world leaders, including US President Barack Obama, of only seeking a face-saving agreement.
He went on to add that the United States should join the Kyoto Protocol and empower it and answer to the world in a transparent way.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad described capitalism and materialism as the root causes of the world's environmental crisis.
Several other nations also opposed the deal championed by Obama and five emerging economies, including India and China.
The summit agreement made on Saturday, December 19 stopped far short of a full endorsement of the plan, which sets a target of limiting global warming to a maximum 2 degree Celsius rise over pre-industrial times.
The plan does not specify greenhouse gas cuts needed to achieve the 2 degree Celsius goal that is seen as a threshold for dangerous changes such as more floods, droughts, mudslides, sandstorms, and rising seas.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2009 00:00 ||
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Yeah. Only $100 billion/year swindled from those who worked for it.
Posted by: ed ||
12/22/2009 1:19 Comments ||
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BHARAT RAKSHAK > GORDON BROWN PROPOSES NEW BODY TO POLICE GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT ISSUES, so that in future "Copenhagen"-style world enviro summits will not "fail".
Forget the junior Congressman from Alabama who is defecting to the Republicans. The big defection of the day was the decision by Jane Hamsher, proprietor of the left-wing Firedoglake group blog and organizer of the Hadassah Lieberman boycott, to appear on Fox News to call for the Democratic health care proposals to be defeated.
While Hamsher is ultra-liberal, she points out that the Senate bill will lead to increased costs on the middle class. Sure, Hamsher may be harping on a point that is not key to her agenda, but she recognizes that she needs to appeal to more conservative voters if she is to kill the bill.
This is a case of the Left understanding -- for its own reasons -- why the Senate bill is a monstrosity.... The enemy of my enemy (e.g. Hamsher) may not necessarily be my friend, but she's certainly someone I can work with on a short-term basis.
Needless to say, Hamsher is under severe attack not for her desire to kill the bill, but for appearing on Fox News....
Posted by: Mike ||
12/22/2009 16:33 ||
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I went to her site and signed it. Strange company, but we have a common (short term) goal. We are both appalled at the corruption of out politicians. Maybe it will help.
No 'honest politician' joke; we need honest representatives. The situation is becoming dangerous.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
12/22/2009 17:08 Comments ||
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As near as I can tell from reading over at FDL, Ms. Hamsher is angry because the US Healthcare system is not being turned into a non-profit public utility paid for by taxes on the 'rich.'
No Sale. I will not defend FDL's lust for socialism.
#5
IIRC TOPIX > WE INTERRUPT THIS SOCIALIZATION OF AMERICAN MEDICINE TO BRING YOU OUR ABDICATION ON NATIONAL DEFENSE [ + by extens Nat-Geopol Security]???
D *** NG IT, ARTIC > too long a Title to reeemember on the DAY-AFORE-XMAS EVE!?
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., is asking U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to launch an investigation into a Web site launched by a Republican activist that parodies his own re-election site.
Senior White House adviser David Axelrod on Sunday brushed aside expert predictions that Democrats will suffer steep losses in next year's midterm congressional elections. "I think we're gonna have a good result next -- next November," Axelrod told David Gregory, host of NBC's "Meet the Press."
In today's Rasmussen presidential poll, only 26 percent of the nation's voters strongly approve of Barack Obama's performance as president, while 43 percent strongly disapprove -- giving him a Presidential Approval Index rating, a sum calculated by subtracting the number of strong disapprovals from the number of strong approvals, of negative 17. His overall disapproval rating is 53 percent (it has been 50 percent or more for over a month). But it is the extraordinarily high proportion of those who strongly disapprove that bears noting.
(CNSNews.com) -- Six senators, including former Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), when asked if it is morally right to take tax dollars from pro-life Americans to pay for health insurance plans that cover abortion, did not answer the question directly, but instead expressed their thoughts about the Senate health-care legislation. 
(CBS) What a difference a year makes. Last year Democrats won an election on hope. Now they're hoping to keep next year's mid-term losses to a minimum, reports CBS News Political Analyst John Dickerson. "It's a tough time for Democrats frankly," Democratic pollster Celinda Lake told Dickerson. 
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) today took shots at those who are not supporting the health care legislation. During a floor speech, he excoriated Senate GOP members for holding up the pending health care bill and accused their supporters of being birthers and fanatics in right-wing militia and Aryan support groups. He started off by citing an editorial from the Manchester Journal Inquirer, which used the insult "lunatic fringe.":
The United States Senate reached an agreement on health care reform legislation this weekend, and they couldn't have done it without a bit of Chicago grit.
A $100 million item for construction of a university hospital was inserted in the Senate health care bill at the request of Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., who faces a difficult re-election campaign, his office said Sunday night.
The world has reacted strongly to the Copenhagen climate talks, expressing frustration and commenting that it stopped short of any end result. 
