Author: Moe_Lane

Doctor No, health care rationing, and unanimous consent.

(H/T: Big Government) Senator Tom Coburn is living up to his nickname:

Sen. Tom Coburn, the Oklahoma Republican who developed a close friendship with President Obama when they served together in the Senate, is threatening to have the entire health care bill read on the Senate floor.

Senior Senate Democratic aides had heard Coburn was considering having potentially thousands of pages read aloud in effort to stall passage. “If he did this it would be even outrageous for a guy who’s become known as Dr. No around here,” one of them told POLITICO.

Good luck on getting Coburn to back down on this: we’re talking about a guy who has a hold on a veterans’ bill because it’s not addressing his concerns about cost duplication and discrimination. We’re also talking about a guy with an approval rating somewhere around 60 with his constituents – so that argument is out, too.  Ed Morrissey thinks that this could delay the bill for up to half a year; I don’t expect it to go that far, but Coburn’s poised to be able to do one heck of a monkeywrenching job on the health care rationing bill for at least the rest of 2009…

Moe Lane

Crosssposted to RedState.

Scenes from the class struggle in Cleveland, OH*.

Or, by the flexible standards of Eugene Robinson, evidence of the ongoing civil war within the Democratic party:

In a rare two-way race between two members of a third party, a member of the Green Party is beating out a member of the Communist Party for a seat on the Cleveland City Council.

Apparently both the Green and the Commie are also Democrats; Kuchinich had shown the light of his countenance upon the latter, to no real effect (the Greenie won).  Aren’t local elections fun?  The people reading this should really get into their own…

Moe Lane

*Classical reference.

Crossposted to RedState.

Good morning, Rep. Barney Frank.

[UPDATE]: Welcome, Instapundit readers.

This is a marijuana leaf.

marijuana

As you can see, it’s quite distinctive.  Dried, it looks like this:

marijuana11

I mention this so the next time the cops show up to bust your boyfriend for pot possession, you’ll at least know why they’re there. Continue reading Good morning, Rep. Barney Frank.

Eugene Robinson gets the name of RedState right.

It’s actually been a matter of some amusement for us over there: you could tell who the lazy or just dumb reporters were from their habitual reference of the site as Redstate.org, which it hasn’t been for years. Apparently, the Washington Post has gotten around to updating their files, bless their hearts. A shame that Eugene Robinson didn’t then try to actually talk to a Republican before he wrote his column, although I admit that it would have been harder than sneering at the Republicans that live largely in his head.

Let’s unpack a typical paragraph:

Will loyal members inform on others for harboring suspiciously moderate views?

Err, no.

Will anyone judged guilty have to wear a sign saying “Republican In Name Only” as penance?

Err, no.

Will there be re-education camps?

Err, no. Also: cheapening to the memory of victims in the tens of millions.

Will deviationists face the Enhanced Interrogation Technique of being forced to listen to the wit and wisdom of Glenn Beck, at ear-splitting volume, for days on end?

Err, no. Continue reading Eugene Robinson gets the name of RedState right.

Gibbs’ Bushitler amnesia.

[UPDATE] Welcome, Instapundit readers.

Remember: nothing prior to 01/20/2009 is REAL to these people.  And that includes all the fools that they encouraged to go mad for the Democrats’ political benefit.

You hear in this debate, you hear analogies, you hear references to, you see pictures about and depictions of individuals that are truly stunning, and you hear it all the time. People — imagine five years ago somebody comparing health care reform to 9/11. Imagine just a few years ago had somebody walked around with images of Hitler. Hopefully we can get back to a discussion about the issues that are important in this country that we can do so without being personally disagreeable and set up comparisons to things that were so insidious in our history that anybody in any profession or walk of life would be well advised to compare nothing to those atrocities.

See Mary Katharine Ham & Hot Air for more: see here and here for images along those lines.  And yes: there’s more.  There’s disturbingly more, in fact.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Rep. Bill Owens (D NY-23) breaks his word on the public option.

(H/T: Big Government) I’m actually not upset about this, seeing as I knew all along that he’d break his word.  Fish swim, birds fly, ‘conservative’ Democratic legislators betray their principles on cue.  And so it is, here:

GOUVERNEUR, NY – Congressman-elect Bill Owens was sworn in at noon today.

Owens indicated in a press release that he was now in favor of the bill in direct contrast to his earlier position during his campaign.

According to Politico.com, Mr. Owens assured voters that he felt the public option had no place in the health care reform bill.  Contrary to that position, Mr. Owens now indicates that he intends to vote in favor of the bill even though it now contains a public option.

More at the link, including the three other promises that Owens has already broken. I would like to believe that this is a record of some sort, but it’s probably not.

Moe Lane

PS: Do not expect any so-called ‘Blue Dog’ or supposed ‘conservative’ Democrat to voluntarily get in the way of their party’s health care rationing bill.  They vote as they are bid – and the ones doing the bidding are not their constituents.

Crossposted to RedState.

So, how badly did the administration muck up the recovery?

(H/T: AoSHQ) This badly:

stimulus-vs-unemployment-october-dots

We are, literally, off of the chart: when they came up with the original they apparently didn’t think that we’d have an unemployment rate above 10%. But never fear: the President has a plan. He’s going to declare that passing health care rationing is the key for improving the economy – Mickey Kaus’ facepalm, or no…

Crossposted to RedState.