Why Obama Isn't Changing Washington

By FRED BARNES

One insight distinguished Barack Obama from the other presidential candidates last year. While he lacked experience or a special grasp of issues, Mr. Obama said he uniquely understood what ails Washington, and what was causing the endless squabbling and bitter stalemate on important issues. If elected, he said he would change the way business is done in Washington, end the partisan deadlock and the ideological polarization.

"Change must come to Washington," Mr. Obama said in a June 2008 speech. "I have consistently said when it comes to solving problems," he told Jake Tapper of ABC News that same month, "I don't approach this from a partisan or ideological perspective."

Mr. Obama also decried the prominent role played by lobbyists. "Lobbyists aren't just a part of the system in Washington, they're part of the problem," Mr. Obama said in a May 2008 campaign speech.

I was reminded of this last statement by a recent headline on the front page of USA Today. It read: "Health care fight swells lobbying. Number of organizations hiring firms doubles in '09." The article suggested that what Mr. Obama had promised to fix had only gotten worse.

Indeed that's the case. Washington is more partisan than ever, and more polarized. Even on a purely procedural vote to begin Senate debate on health-care reform this past Saturday, every Democrat voted one way (yes), every Republican the other (no).

With rare exception and with no objection from the president, Democrats draft bills with no input from Republicans. In return, Republicans vote in lockstep against Democratic legislation. Every House Republican voted against the stimulus, all but one against liberal health-care reform, and all but eight against cap-and-trade legislation that passed the House earlier this year.

Why has the president's publicly expressed vision of a kinder, gentler Washington failed to materialize? I think Mr. Obama—while hardly the only person at fault—is chiefly responsible.

He might have spawned a different Washington, a less divided town with Democrats firmly in charge but Republicans actively involved. The bonus for Mr. Obama and Democrats would be higher popularity and better prospects in 2010 midterm elections. Instead, the president made three strategic mistakes—or, really, misreadings of the political landscape—and they've come back to haunt him and his party. Click here to read rest of article.

George Washington's Thanksgiving Proclamation, 1789

"Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both House of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness;

Now therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been able to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted for the civil religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also, that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations, especially such as have shown kindness to us, and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best."

Why was it so hard for Dems even to start health care debate?

By: Byron York
Chief Political Correspondent
11/21/09

The extraordinary thing about the dramatic events surrounding the health care bill in the Senate is that there was any drama at all. Lawmakers were simply voting to begin debate on the Democratic version of health care reform. Just begin debate -- not end it, and not move on to a final vote.

If Democrats, with a 60-vote majority in the Senate, had not been able to begin debate on the top Democratic policy priority in a generation -- well, that would have been a devastating turn of events, both for the party and for President Obama. And yet just starting debate proved difficult, and only on the last day did the 60th Democratic vote fall in place in favor of beginning the process. Click here to read rest of story.

Obama bows again -- how will White House explain?

By: Byron York
Chief Political Correspondent
11/14/09

Remember when Barack Obama bowed before the King of Saudi Arabia at the G-20 summit in London last April? Even though the bow was captured by still and video photographers, the White House denied that it had taken place. "It wasn't a bow," an unnamed White House official told the Politico's Ben Smith. "He grasped his hand with two hands, and he's taller than King Abdullah."

This is something the president should explain. Click here to read the entire article.

The Forgotten Victim of the Ft. Hood Massacre

News coverage of the massacre at Ft. Hood, Texas last Thursday consistently refers to the number of people who were murdered as 13. The same holds true for the opinions and commentaries expressed by various groups and organizations active in pro-family causes.

What a shame that, unless we have missed something, all of them have ignored the fact that there was a 14th victim—the unborn child of Pvt. Francheska Velez, age 21, who was three months pregnant when she was gunned down by Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan.

In 2004, the Congress enacted Public Law 108-212 “The Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2004,” a.k.a. Laci and Conner’s Law, recognizing that an unborn embryo or fetus can be a legal victim if he or she is injured or killed during the commission of a federal crime of violence.

The bill was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives by a vote of 254-163 on February 26, 2004 and in the Senate by a vote of 61-38 on March 25, 2004. It was signed into law by President George W. Bush on April 1, 2004.

Pro-life and pro-family groups led citizens across America in the effort to support enactment of that legislation. At the time, it was considered and still remains an important step that at last recognized the humanity of the child in the womb.

Yet, with the exception of Michelle Malkin’s mention of it last night on Sean Hannity’s program, there has been virtually no mention that there were 14 victims including the baby in his mother’s womb at Ft. Hood. How is it that he has been forgotten.

14 people were killed at Ft. Hood. Let us mourn them all.

National Coalition for Life

Major Congressional Reforms Demand Bipartisan Support

By FRED BARNES

For decades, a rule of thumb in Washington has said that there should be popular support and a bipartisan majority before approving an initiative that significantly affects tens of millions of Americans. Health-care reform—ObamaCare—has neither, yet Democrats want to impose it anyway. If they succeed, the consequences could be devastating for the country and probably for the president and his party.

The reasoning behind the rule is simple. Forcing drastic change on an unwilling public is likely to cause national disunity, stir angry protests, increase political polarization, and deepen distrust of Washington. But if popular opinion and both political parties support the change, discord will be minimal.

Read full article here.

The Pelosi Bill Was Rammed Through on Saturday, But Sunday’s Coming

We’ve got to hold on to hope, and we’ve got to fight hard because Congressional action tonight just put America on a path toward an unrecognizable country.

The same government leaders that got us into the mortgage business and the car business are now getting us into the health care business.

Despite Americans’ decisive message last Tuesday that they reject the troubling path this country has been taking, Speaker Pelosi has broken her own promises of transparency to ram a health “care” bill through the House of Representatives just before midnight. Why did she push the 2,000 page bill this weekend? Was she perhaps afraid to give her peers and the constituents for whom she works the chance to actually read this monstrous bill carefully, if at all? Was she concerned that Americans might really digest the details of a bill that the Wall Street Journal has called “the worst piece of post-New Deal legislation ever introduced”?

This out-of-control bureaucratic mess will be disastrous for our economy, our small businesses, and our personal liberty. It will slam businesses at a time when we are at double-digit unemployment rates – the highest we’ve seen in a quarter of a century. This massive new bureaucracy will cost us and our children money we don’t have. It will rob Americans of more of our freedom and further hamper the free market.

Make no mistake: we’re on course to have government commandeer one-sixth of our economy. The people who gave us Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac now want to run our health care. Think about that.

All of us who value the sanctity of life are grateful for the success of the pro-life majority in the House this evening in its battle against federal funding of abortion in this bill, but it’s ironic because we were promised that abortion wasn’t covered in the bill to begin with. Our healthy distrust of these government leaders made us look deeper into the bill because unfortunately we knew better than to trust what they were saying. The victory tonight to amend the bill and eliminate that federal funding for abortion was great – because abortion is not health care. Now we can only hope that Rep. Stupak’s amendment will hold in the final bill, though the Democratic leadership has already refused to promise that it won’t be scrapped later.

We had been told there were no “death panels” in the bill either. But look closely at the provision mandating bureaucratic panels that will be calling the shots regarding who will receive government health care.

Look closely at provisions addressing illegal aliens’ health care coverage too.

Those of us who love freedom and believe in open and transparent government can only be dismayed by midnight action on a Saturday. Speaker Pelosi’s promise that Americans would have 72 hours to read the final bill before the vote was just another one of the D.C. establishment’s too-common political ploys. It’s broken promises like this that turn people off to politics and leave them disillusioned about the future of their country.

But despite this late-night maneuvering, many of us were paying close attention tonight. We’ll keep paying close attention. We need to let our legislators in Washington know that they still represent us, and that the majority of Americans are not in favor of the “reform” they are pushing. After all, this is still a country “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” We will make our voices heard. It’s on to the Senate now. Our legislators can listen now, or they can hear us in 2010. It’s their choice.

- Sarah Palin

House Dems Pass Generational Theft Bill

In a 220-215 vote House Democrats passed the most sweeping social overhaul since 1965 when the government created Medicare for the elderly.

Rep. Joseph Cao, a first-term Republican also voted for the bill. He holds an overwhelmingly Democratic Congressional seat in New Orleans and obviously cares more about his next election than the monstrous debt he just foisted upon future generations.

A Republican health care reform bill that focused on lower health care premiums and affordable access to high quality health care was defeated on a party line vote. Instead the Democrats passed a massive government take-over of health care which will add a crushing debt on the backs of our children and grandchildren.

"Does this bill mean the government will take over running health care? Yes," said Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.). "But what's worse, this bill replaces the American idea with a European-style social welfare state."

In order to gain YES votes from blue-dog Democrats, Pelosi finally agreed to allow a vote on an amendment that excludes abortion coverage in government health care coverage. Once the amendment passed it paved the way for the blue-dogs to vote YES on the final bill. In the end however, it will be a small consolation prize for them because the exemption will not likely survive a brokered bill that could become the final compromise between the House and Senate bills.

All of Washington State's Democratic delegation voted FOR the massive government take-over of health care, with the exception of Brian Baird from the 3rd congressional district. Voting YES on Pelosi-care was Reps. Rick Larsen, Dicks, Inslee, McDermott and Smith. House Republicans Hastings, McMorris-Rodgers and Reichert voted against the bill.

"We are going to have a complete government takeover of our health care system faster than you can say, 'this is making me sick,'" said Rep. Candice Miller, R-Mich., and added that Democrats were intent on passing "a jobs-killing, tax-hiking, deficit-exploding" bill.

The bill requires most Americans to carry health insurance and slaps consumers and companies with fines and penalties if they defy government mandates. Federal subsidies will be provided for those who cannot afford health insurance.

Health insurance companies will be banned from denying coverage to individuals with pre-existing conditions or a history of medical conditions. These mandates alone will cause insurance premiums to skyrocket. It won't be long before most Americans need a federal subsidy to comply with mandatory health insurance coverage.

Currently 83% of legal residents are covered by health insurance and this bill will attempt to expand coverage to 96% by 2019. To pay for the expanded coverage, government will cut hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicare. All previous attempts to eliminate fraud and waste from Medicare have been unsuccessful but now Obama and Pelosi claim they can somehow find the stash of cash to pay for expanded coverage. Uh huh, right.

The elderly are not the only ones to be thrown under the bus. Wealthy Americans will be levied a 5.4% tax and all but the smallest employers will be required to provide health insurance and pay for most of the premium or face a fine of up to 8% of their payroll.

Now all eyes are on the Senate as majority leader Reid manuevers government health care legislation through the high chamber. Passage of this bill foreshadows a dark era for America.

Army: Fort Hood suspect shouted religious slogan before firing

By SCOTT HUDDLESTON and SIG CHRISTENSON
CHRONICLE NEWS SERVICE

FORT HOOD — An Army psychiatrist about to be deployed to a combat zone overseas shouted a religious slogan in Arabic before fatally shooting 13 people — including 12 soldiers — and injuring 28 others at this sprawling Central Texas military post on Thursday.

Lt. Gen. Robert Cone, the base commander at Fort Hood, said on NBC's Today Show that witnesses heard Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan shout "Allahu Akbar!" before opening fire. The phrase means "God is great!" in Arabic.

The death toll rose by one overnight when one of the wounded died. Today, Col. John Rossi said all the wounded were in stable condition, including the suspect and the policewoman who shot him, Sgt. Kimberly Munley, 34.

“It was an amazing and an aggressive performance by this police officer,” said Cone, praising her for stopping the gunman despite already being wounded herself. Read more.

Republicans sweep races for Legislature

YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

Republicans enjoyed something of a clean sweep in a handful of legislative races in Tuesday's election.

The only Democratic legislator from rural Eastern Washington lost to a Republican challenger, and freshman Rep. David Taylor, R-Moxee, won the right to complete the term he was appointed to.

Taylor was pulling in 69 percent of the votes, while Democrat John Gotts took 30 percent. Gotts, an Internet entrepreneur, never campaigned and lives in California. He previously lived in White Salmon.

Taylor, a rancher and land-use consultant, was appointed last spring to replace longtime state Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Sunnyside, after Gov. Chris Gregoire named Newhouse head of the state Department of Agriculture. Taylor said he's committed to continuing Newhouse's legacy of standing up for Central Washington's farmers.

Creating more vocational education opportunities is among his goals. But, with a short legislative session next year and another projected multibillion dollar budget deficit, he knows any legislation with a price tag will be a tough sell in Olympia.

As for his own campaign, he's been surprised at just how well he's been able to raise funds, given the lack of opponent. Much of the money has come from companies like Anheuser-Busch and political action committees like the conservative-minded Affordable Housing Council of Central Washington, representing builders.

Though he had no opposition, he wound up raising about $55,000 for the general election campaign.

In another state House race in Eastern Washington, Republican Terry Nealey defeated freshman Rep. Laura Grant, D-Walla Walla. He was getting 57 percent of the vote to 43 percent for Grant.

Grant was appointed to the seat early this year after the death of her father, Bill Grant, who held the job for more than 20 years. The contest is for one of two state House seats in the 16th District, which includes Pasco and Walla Walla.

In the 9th District's all-Republican matchup, Susan Fagan was beating Pat Hailey 55 percent to 45 percent, with about 56 percent of the vote counted.

Liberals would prefer no opposition.

The Vilification of Rush
By [my good friend and hero] Kenneth L. Hutcherson [HUTCH]

Liberals would prefer no opposition. Behind the force field of political correctness, there should never be any disagreement once the liberal mind has decided that something is good for society. There can be no opposition to the "correct" way of thinking, and if you don't think "correctly," you are attacked.

Those who dare to disagree with liberal orthodoxy are punished sooner or later. Not even someone as powerful as Rush Limbaugh, whose dream of part ownership of the St. Louis Rams was shattered by a particularly insidious species of liberal intolerance, is immune.

This is personal to me -- very, very personal. I have watched the news, I have seen television, and I have heard different commentators talk about my friend, all the while knowing the things they say are lies. I am proud to be an American and proud of the United States of America, and again this makes it personal to me. I not only see Rush Limbaugh and the conservative movement in this action being attacked, but the entire foundation of what made America great.

Freedom is under attack, and we as Americans need to wake up and stop this madness in the greatest nation ever formed.

Click here to read rest of article

Hold the champagne.

Happy days aren't here again

By: Michael Barone
November 1, 2009

The recession is over, we are told. The Commerce Department announced Thursday that the economy grew in the third quarter of 2009 by 3.5 percent. Great, huh?

Maybe not. About half that growth came from the Cash for Clunkers program, which transferred into the third quarter auto sales that would have occurred later. The expiring tax credit of $8,000 for first-time homebuyers stimulated some house sales. Most of the effect of the $787 billion stimulus package, we are told by the Obama White House, has already been felt.

"There were few signs in the new data," writes The Washington Post's Neil Irwin, "that the private sector will be able to sustain that growth once the government pulls back." Or as Peggy Noonan writes in the Wall Street Journal, "No one has any faith in these numbers." Continue reading this article.