Fausta’s Blog

Obama: ‘She insisted she’s going to be buried in an Obama t-shirt’

At 8:25 in the video,

I got a letter — I got a note today from one of my staff — they forwarded it to me — from a woman in St. Louis who had been part of our campaign, very active, who had passed away from breast cancer. She didn’t have insurance. She couldn’t afford it, so she had put off having the kind of exams that she needed. And she had fought a tough battle for four years. All through the campaign she was fighting it, but finally she succumbed to it. And she insisted she’s going to be buried in an Obama t-shirt.

Plweeeez! I respect her decision to be buried in anything she best chose, but must Obama tell us about it? And not even bother mention her by name – Melanie Shouse?

The Lonely Conservative points out that Melanie Shouse had insurance,

She had delayed going to a doctor after she began to feel sick. She explained that she could only afford so-called “catastrophic” insurance — one that required her to pay $5,000 in deductibles before the insurance kicked in.

My heart goes out to her family, but to say she didn’t have health insurance is a lie. The article linked above went on to explain that Melanie Shouse used her savings to start a small business. Apparently, she chose the large deductible policy, and chose to invest in her business. But what better investment is there than in one’s own life? If we aren’t willing to invest in our own lives, why should we expect others to make that investment?

But the Obama ego is what matters. Another Black Conservative:

Speaking of lies, if you can stomach it, listen to the first couple of minutes where the audience is cheering his every sentence. Watch as he starts to boasts about his accomplishments how the audience’s applause diminishes to nothing, especially when he gets to the part about putting earmarks put online. Yes, he actually had the gall to count putting earmarks online as an accomplishment!

It goes well with those “millions of jobs saved or created”, too. After all, it’s coming out of the tower of Babble.

In order to save your life, you must leave Canada since the government-provided healthcare does not leave you any other option:
N.L. Premier Williams set to have heart surgery in U.S.

Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams will undergo heart surgery later this week in the United States.

Deputy premier Kathy Dunderdale confirmed the treatment at a news conference Tuesday, but would not reveal the location of the operation or how it would be paid for.

“He has gone to a renowned expert in the procedure that he needs to have done,” said Ms. Dunderdale, who will become acting premier while Mr. Williams is away for three to 12 weeks.

“In consultation with his own doctors, he’s decided to go that route.”

Mr. Williams’ decision to leave Canada for the surgery has raised eyebrows over his apparent shunning of Canada’s health-care system.

“It was never an option offered to him to have this procedure done in this province,” said Ms. Dunderdale, refusing to answer whether the procedure could be done elsewhere in Canada.

As Ed points out,

In this case, one of the governing elite that insists on imposing a single-payer system on the rest of the country has opted out of it when the going got tough.

And Big Government asks,

when the equivalent of a Governor can’t get a specific procedure, what chance does the average Canadian have?

None at all.

The Beeb has put up this piece of chicanery, Why do people often vote against their own interests? which pretends to explain why us plebes don’t see the light and embrace the Obama agenda.

Leave it to the folks at Biased BBC blog to slice, dice, and chop them to smithereens,
Those crazy Republicans explained: a BBC bias masterclass. For instance, the Beeb’s political scientist says,

It might be tempting to put the whole thing down to what the historian Richard Hofstadter back in the 1960s called “the paranoid style” of American politics, in which God, guns and race get mixed into a toxic stew of resentment at anything coming out of Washington.

Biased BBC counters,

Admire the ju-jitsu with which the author gives us a pleasing whiff of paranoia by warning about that scary toxic stew of right wing paranoia which has been bubbling poisonously in the background for decades.

Go read the rest, and check out the comments, too.

For starters, he wants to fight for you by trying to pass a bill you despise

Tragicomedy from today’s “permanent campaign” stop in Ohio: “This is not about me!” saith The One, before launching into the salute to his own political fortitude that you’re about to see. Which, in fairness, is all he has left. No one likes the bill, it’s killing him with independents, but he’s invested too much political capital in it to end up with absolutely nothing. So he’ll end up with a hugely pared-down bill, a.k.a. almost absolutely nothing, and then tout it as some grand accomplishment that he’ll build on later even though everyone knows that he won’t. Remember, the goal, practically from day one, was simply to pass something, and that’s exactly what they’re going to get. “Something.”

Opposition to O-Care is back up to 58 percent in today’s Rasmussen tracker, incidentally, which ties the mark for the highest disapproval rating yet. Stay tuned for the numbers next week after the Dems launch their bold new plan to nuke Scott Brown’s vote by going with reconciliation.

It’s not about healthcare at all, it’s all about control: Control over the economy. Control over how the American people vote. Control over our lives.

That’s what Obama wants.

The Anchoress is asking a question relevant to my first question: What Does Obama Like About America? The short answer is, not a heck of a lot:

We know all the things the Obama administration dislikes about America: Banks, business, journalists who ask actual questions, investors, entrepreneurs, unintimidated voters, traditional alliances, military tribunals, Gitmo, the private sector, the middle class, cities that are still thriving, or trying not to turn into Detroit, people who make more than federal workers while working within the private sector, George W. Bush, transparency, capitalism and possibly the rights to free speech, the rights to dissent and tea partiers.

Also, in general, he doesn’t seem to like being president, much, and having to do more than look pretty, read the teleprompter and blame Bush.

What does he like about America? As one sycophant in the WH press corp has asked, What “enchants” him? The question is worth asking as Obama seems to be declaring a war against suburbia. 77% of Americans think our president is against business. Jobs? I guess we’ll all have to work for the government. It’s the only thing Obama seems to like.

It’s all about the control.

Everything else is the means to that end.

Can it be stopped?

We’re about to find out.

Zelaya will be leaving the tin foil-lined room soon: Zelaya to leave Honduras next week says adviser

Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya will end his four-month refuge in the Brazilian embassy and leave the country next week, when his term would have ended, his closest adviser said on Thursday.

Zelaya, a leftist who was ousted in a coup on June 28, accepted an agreement backed by the government of the Dominican Republic to travel to the Caribbean country, close Zelaya aide Rasel Tome told Radio Globo radio.

Introducing Son of No Sheeples: Mako Snark

Pelosi Rejects Senate Health Care Bill, meanwhile Obama Now Signals He Could Accept Limited Health Bill

What a guy: Specter tells Bachmann to “act like a lady”

Frank Gaffney writes about the Obama administration’s Dangerous Accommodations. While many credit the healthcare debate for Scott Brown’s victory, Andrew McCarthy points out It’s the Enemy, Stupid
National-security strength lifts Scott Brown.

Scott Brown went out and made the case for enhanced interrogation, for denying terrorists the rights of criminal defendants, for detaining them without trial, and for trying them by military commission. It worked. It will work for other candidates willing to get out of their Beltway bubbles.

Victor Davis Hanson on Our Philosopher-King Obama
He doesn’t mind pushing noble legislation that most people oppose. Why is that?

Why, then, does the Obama administration persist with such an apparently unpopular agenda?

Like Plato’s all-knowing elite, Obama seems to feel that those he deems less informed will “suddenly” learn to appreciate his benevolent guidance once these laws are pushed through.
…
There is one other trait of this administration similar to those of utopian philosopher-kings. Our elite must have the leeway to be exempt from their own rules.

Michael Fumento asks, Why does everybody think BPA is safe but us?

Off-Air America

John Edwards finally got around to publicly admitting he’s the father

In a written statement provided exclusively to NBC News, the former North Carolina senator and Democratic presidential candidate says he’s taking responsibility for the child, Frances Quinn Hunter

Meanwhile he shamelessly promoted his wife’s book which aimed to rehabilitate him. Saint Elizabeth and the Ego Monster, indeed.

The National Enquirer is submitting its John Edwards coverage for a Pulitzer Prize. Can’t wait for Oprah to reunite John with all his children!

BONUS
Top 10 Craziest Things Ever Said By Pat Robertson; here’s the one about spooky yoga:

Or maybe he means Yoda?

538 Model Posits Brown as 3:1 Favorite: The forecasting model that predicted all 35 Senate races in 2008 predicts Brown will win, and not only that,

Coakley’s odds are substantially worse than they appeared to be 24 hours ago, when there were fewer credible polls to evaluate and there appeared to be some chance that her numbers were bottoming out and perhaps reversing. However, the ARG and Research 2000 polls both show clear and recent trends against her. Indeed the model, which was optimized for regular rather than special elections, may be too slow to incorporate new information and may understate the magnitude of the trend toward Brown.

Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion will be liveblogging starting at 8:30AM today.

Will this mean the end of healthcare reform?

The bigger hurdle for Democrats, however, will be the anxiety and political upheaval caused by the election. If Brown wins, it will be in large part because of high turnout from independents who oppose the health care reform bill. That’s going to make going forward with reform, already a big gamble, even riskier.

Or will the Dems resort to a big gambit, and rush the bill through before Brown is seated, if he wins?

We live in interesting times, alright.

In a lighter mode, Obama: Coakley Victorious if Brown Gets Less Than 60%

Update
In Louisiana, the race is seen as important for the nation,

Kermit Hoffpauir, also of Baton Rouge, said he decided to make calls to help clients in his chemical process equipment business.

“The party in power’s an economy killer,” he said.

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Please note there will be no podcast this morning due to a change in a business appointment.

His boss promised it eight times: Healthcare “negotiations will be on C-Span”:

And now Gibbs has the press on his case, Funny: Press corps torments Gibbs again with questions about transparency

The only satisfactory answer — “my boss is a brazen liar who’ll promise dopey liberals anything to get elected” — isn’t available. So we end up with the political equivalent of a conversation from a dysfunctional marriage. Why do we have to talk past each other, baby?

Moe doesn’t see it as funny,

…it’s sad. The White House press pool is being given the mushroom treatment; and they know that they’re being given the mushroom treatment. But they don’t want to respond appropriately – which is to say, stop letting Robert Gibbs define what are or are not appropriate questions to ask. Until that happens – and the press corps internalizes the notion that Gibbs and the administration needs them a hell of a lot more than they need Gibbs and the administration – they’ll keep getting the mushroom treatment.

Amen to that!

The C-SPAN Lie? See Eight Clips of Obama Promising Televised Healthcare Negotiations:

Confronted with the above, White House: We will NOT discuss broken C-Span promise

On Wednesday, Gibbs was asked again about the C-Span commitment. The story had gotten pretty big in the intervening time, and presumably Gibbs had had a chance to familiarize himself with it. So reporters tried for a second day to get him to comment on the president’s commitment to holding televised health-care talks. Gibbs’ answer? “We covered this yesterday.” Gibbs referred reporters to the transcript of Tuesday’s briefing and said, “The answer I would give today is similar.”
…
And that was the end of that. If the public wants to know why President Obama didn’t keep his pledge to hold televised health-care negotations, they’ll have to look for answers elsewhere. The White House isn’t talking.

So much for holding the healthcare negotiations on C-span, too.

Top story today, and will be adding bloggers’ reactions to the roundup throughout the day:
Senate Passes Health Care Overhaul Bill

The 60-to-39 party-line vote,

The Dems own this one; can’t be blaming Bush if when doesn’t play out the way they want it, but I digress

on the 25th straight day of debate on the legislation, brings Democrats a step closer to a goal they have pursued for decades. It clears the way for negotiations with the House, which passed a broadly similar bill last month by a vote of 220 to 215.

If the two chambers can strike a deal, as seems likely, the resulting product would vastly expand the role and responsibilities of the federal government. It would, as lawmakers said repeatedly in the debate, touch the lives of nearly all Americans.

The bill would require most Americans to have health insurance, would add 15 million people to the Medicaid rolls and would subsidize private coverage for low- and middle-income people, at a cost to the government of $871 billion over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

The Wall Street Journal is running a poll Do you support the Senate bill to overhaul health care?

At the blogs:
Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion: An “Unusually Good Bill Clinton”

Megan McArdle: The Process of Passing Health Care

Victor the Contractor: A Merry Christmas for Congress from Victor the Contractor

Power Line: Arrogance, corruption, stupidity, also posted at True North: Arrogance, corruption, stupidity

Gateway Pundit: Unpopular President Welcomes Government Takeover of Health Care Industry (Video)

A. J. Strata: Go Home Dems – Stop Trying To Play Santa Claus

Scared Monkeys: It’s Official … Senate Passes Obamacare Along Partisan Democrat Vote, 60-39

Earlier today:
Q&O: “Health Care Reform” Passes The Senate, Lady Liberty Passes Out

Ace’s Purple Avenger: Hey, lets just revisit the ObamaCare™ campaign promises eh?

Dan Riehl: Shouts Of “Death To America” As Senate Dems Don HC Bomb

Ed Morrissey: This had about as much suspense as Avatar, but

This goes back to the House, and then likely back again to the Senate, and perhaps even a stop in a conference committee if Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid can’t avoid it. Meanwhile, the appraisal by voters of this effort will continue to get worse and worse, and this will continue to be an albatross around the neck of Democrats in 2010.

Ramesh Ponnuru says It’s Not Over
Health-care legislation could still fail in the House.

Senator Lamar Alexander, in a press release that I just received, states,

“The Senate health bill will prove to be an historic mistake if this or anything like it is ultimately signed by the president. Congress set out to reduce health care costs to Americans and Democrats have managed to do the exact opposite. Their written-in-secret bill will increase health insurance premiums, raise taxes, cut Medicare and dump millions of Americans into Medicaid. For Tennessee, Medicaid’s expansion and the bill’s ‘sweetheart deals’ would cost our state more than $750 million over five years when fully implemented, forcing tax increases or damaging higher education—or both.

“Instead, we should start over and move step-by-step to reduce health care costs using the steps that Republicans have repeatedly proposed: let small businesses pool resources for health insurance; allow purchasing of health insurance across state lines; end junk lawsuits against doctors; eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse; expand health savings accounts; and promote wellness and prevention.”

Andy McCarthy sees Light at the End of the Tunnel?

Via Instapundit, Peter Wehner on The culture of corruption.

Don Surber: Obamacare 60, the will of the people 39

More links later.

Billed by the Washington Post as the bill that stole Christmas, after whoring in Cash for Cloture, senators are stuck in DC,

With the final vote on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act slated to start after sundown Dec. 24, senators and hundreds of their health policy analysts, press secretaries and other aides — not to mention the universe of police officers, clerks and student pages who keep the place humming — wishing to be with their families will instead spend the holiday in Washington. And there’s a possibility the Senate could be called back next week, to take up debt-limit legislation.

In today’s podcast at 11AM, Rick Moran talks about how REFORM IS A TRIUMPH OF PROCESS OVER PRUDENCE. Join us live, and you can listen to the archived podcast at your convenience.

UPDATE
At Red State, Erick Erickson posts, We Are No Longer a Nation of Laws. Senate Sets Up Requirement for Super-Majority to Ever Repeal Obamacare

The Senate Democrats declare a super-majority of senators will be needed to overrule any regulation imposed by the Death Panels

Upon examination of Senator Harry Reid’s amendment to the health care legislation, Senators discovered section 3403. That section changes the rules of the United States Senate.

To change the rules of the United States Senate, there must be sixty-seven votes.

Section 3403 of Senator Harry Reid’s 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.

Section 3403 of Senator Reid’s legislation also states, “Notwithstanding rule XV of the Standing Rules of the Senate, a committee amendment described in subparagraph (A) may include matter not within the jurisdiction of the Committee on Finance if that matter is relevant to a proposal contained in the bill submitted under subsection (c)(3).” In short, it sets up a rule to ignore another Senate rule.

Go read Erick’s post.

How’s that hope and change working for you now?

UPDATE 2
VIDEO via Ed: