Sold Cartoons

Sebelius Praises Abortion Accounting Trick in Senate Bill

The federal government will legally compel you to contribute funds exclusively designated to pay for abortion into the new government-run system.

Cash for Cloture

In what columnist Michelle Malkin has dubbed " Cash for Cloture," Senator Harry Reid's (D-Nev.) ability to sway all 60 Democratic Senators to vote for his health care bill monstrosity wasn't an exploit of legislative prowess-but taxpayer-funded bribery. On the heels of the "Louisiana Purchase," a deal that saw Senator Mary Landrieu (D-La.) pocket $300 million in pork, Senator Reid stuffed billions more into the Democrats' stockings in exchange for their crucial Sunday night vote. In the leadership's edition of "Let's Make a Deal," Senator Ben Nelson (D-Nebr.) was the biggest winner of all. While Americans in the other 49 states will have to pick up the tab for the bill's expansion in Medicaid, the Nebraska Democrat made sure his state got off scot-free. He traded in his pro-life scruples for a guarantee that the Cornhuskers will never pay a cent toward the government's plan. And for what? An abortion "compromise" that may actually be worse than the actual bill.

Under Senator Nelson's opt-out plan, states can refuse to offer abortion coverage-but their taxpayers will still be subsidizing the states that don't! Meanwhile, the senators from Vermont and Massachusetts watched the Nebraska deal unfold and decided to negotiate for something similar. All together, these statewide exemptions could cost a minimum of $1.2 billion! Pennsylvania, New York, and Florida all protected their Medicare programs from cuts, while other states will have to find ways to manage with the scaled-back program in the underlying legislation.

Also, Senators Nelson and Carl Levin (D-Mich.) have made sure that certain insurance companies in their states are off the hook from a new $7 billion dollar tax. On page 328 of Senator Reid's manager's amendment, Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), the master of illicit sweetheart deals, got his kickback-a $100 million bonus for the University of Connecticut to do with whatever they want. A staunch supporter of the public option, Senator Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) was "persuaded" to drop his concerns after Senator Reid offered his state a $10 billion grant for "community health centers"-money that could easily be funneled to facilities that perform abortions. Playing hard-to-get certainly has its advantages in this new political climate.

Yesterday, some of the Democrats who didn't get the same incentives are kicking themselves. When Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) couldn't get past the reporters swarming Ben Nelson on her way to the cloture vote, she quipped, "I know I'm not as important as Senator Nelson. I didn't get the money for my state. I was too stupid." To read more about how this bill could destroy American medicine, check out this excellent op-ed from Sunday's Wall Street Journal, " Change Nobody Believes In." We do have one quibble with the article though. Senator Nelson might think he got abortion restrictions (he didn't), but even he admits he isn't quite sure.

(ABC News) The Louisiana Purchase: $100 Million Payoff to Buy Sen. Landrieu's Vote... (Plus: Charles Krauthammer on the Matter) -- UPDATED

Updated Headline: THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE: $300 MILLION FOR MY VOTE!

The $100 Million Health Care Vote?

ABC News' Jonathan Karl reports:

What does it take to get a wavering senator to vote for health care reform?

Here’s a case study.

On page 432 of the Reid bill, there is a section increasing federal Medicaid subsidies for “certain states recovering from a major disaster.” 

The section spends two pages defining which “states” would qualify, saying, among other things, that it would be states that “during the preceding 7 fiscal years” have been declared a “major disaster area.” 

I am told the section applies to exactly one state:  Louisiana, the home of moderate Democrat Mary Landrieu, who has been playing hard to get on the health care bill.

In other words, the bill spends two pages describing would could be written with a single world:  Louisiana.  (This may also help explain why the bill is long.)

Senator Harry Reid, who drafted the bill, cannot pass it without the support of Louisiana’s Mary Landrieu.

How much does it cost?  According to the Congressional Budget Office: $100 million.

Here’s the incredibly complicated language: 

SEC. 2006. SPECIAL ADJUSTMENT TO FMAP DETERMINATION FOR CERTAIN STATES RECOVERING FROM A MAJOR DISASTER.

Section 1905 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1396d), as amended by sections 2001(a)(3) and

2001(b)(2), is amended— (1) in subsection (b), in the first sentence, by striking ‘‘subsection (y)’’ and inserting ‘‘subsections (y) and (aa)’’; and (2) by adding at the end the following new subsection:

‘‘(aa)(1) Notwithstanding subsection (b), beginning January 1, 2011, the Federal medical assistance percentage for a fiscal year for a disaster-recovery FMAP adjustment State shall be equal to the following:

‘(A) In the case of the first fiscal year (or part of a fiscal year) for which this subsection applies to the State, the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the fiscal year without regard to this subsection and subsection (y), increased by 50 percent of the number of percentage points by which the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the State for the fiscal year without regard to this subsection and subsection (y), is less than the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the State for the preceding fiscal year after the application of only subsection (a) of section 5001 of Public Law 111–5 (if applicable to the preceding fiscal year) and without regard to this subsection, subsection (y), and subsections (b) and (c) of section 5001 of Public Law 111–5.

‘‘(B) In the case of the second or any succeeding fiscal year for which this subsection applies to the State, the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the preceding fiscal year under this subsection for the State, increased by 25 percent of the number of percentage points by which the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the State for the fiscal year without regard to this subsection and subsection (y), is less than the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the State for the preceding fiscal year under this subsection.

‘‘(2) In this subsection, the term ‘disaster-recovery FMAP adjustment State’ means a State that is one of

the 50 States or the District of Columbia, for which, at any time during the preceding 7 fiscal years, the President has declared a major disaster under section 401 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act and determined as a result of such disaster that every county or parish in the State warrant individual and public assistance or public assistance from the Federal Government under such Act and for which— ‘‘(A) in the case of the first fiscal year (or part of a fiscal year) for which this subsection applies to the State, the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the State for the fiscal year without regard to this subsection and subsection (y), is less than the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the State for the preceding fiscal year after the application of only subsection (a) of section 5001 of Public Law 111–5 (if applicable to the preceding fiscal year) and without regard to this subsection, subsection (y), and subsections (b) and (c) of section 5001 of Public Law 111–5, by at least 3 percentage points; and ‘‘(B) in the case of the second or any succeeding fiscal year for which this subsection applies to the State, the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the State for the fiscal year without regard to this subsection and subsection (y), is less than the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the State for the preceding fiscal year under this subsection by at least 3 percentage points.

‘‘(3) The Federal medical assistance percentage determined for a disaster-recovery FMAP adjustment State under paragraph (1) shall apply for purposes of this title (other than with respect to disproportionate share hospital payments described in section 1923 and payments under this title that are based on the enhanced FMAP described in 2105(b)) and shall not apply with respect to payments under title IV (other than under part E of title IV) or payments under title XXI.’’.

More Democratic Lies -- Will the Unborn Have a Public Option (Good Stuff)

(B & R h/t)

Media Bias -- Michelle Obama (Anything Comporable for Bush?)Media Bias -- Michelle Obama (Anything Comparable for Bush?) -- Notable Quotables, Episode

Black & Right
hat-tip

Rush Limbaugh Defended by Rep. Steve King

Crazy Conspiratorial Democrats and Alex Jones (Alan Grayson)

Grayson Putting His Foot In His Mouth - Again. The point I want to emphasise here however is that Grayson was on the Alex Jones show... you know, the guy that thinks that Bush took the Twin Towers down. Obama comes from a church that has almost codified such a belief, that ius, that Bush took down the Twin Towers. Another person Alex Jones has in one of his "documentaries" and has on as a guest on the Alex Jones Show is Cynthia McKinney, a Marxist liberal Democrat who likewise believe Bush was involved in 9/11. So it doesn't surprise me that this matastitisation of conspiracy has infected almost all corners of the liberal left, for instance:

A new Rasmussen poll shows that 35% of Democrats believe Bush knew about the 9/11 attacks in advance. (Religo-Political Talk - from an older post.)

Just more examples of extremism from the left... in the Presidency, the Congress, and the Courts.

ACORN Connections -- BigGov Import

BREAKING: ACORN Ally Nadler Resists Probe While Giving ACORN Advice
by Matthew Vadum

Washington has long been a place where ethics are flexible. If mainstream media outlets are snoozing, it’s easy to get away with a lot.

The mainstream media has paid very little attention to the ties between Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), who chairs a House Judiciary subcommittee that might be called upon to investigate ACORN, and Nadler’s close working relationship with ACORN.

Nadler a longtime ACORN ally who has run for Congress on the ticket of ACORN’s political party, the Working Families Party of New York, is now offering advice to ACORN on how it should try to weather the controversies currently embroiling it.

(more…)

HuffPo, Rick Sanchez Retract Phony Limbaugh Quotes

(HotAir h/t)

No harm in admitting the lie now that his NFL bid’s dead. First, via the Standard, comes this belated HuffPo postscript to a post that’s three years old:

Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this post contained quotes attributed to Rush Limbaugh, which Limbaugh has since denied making. As is our policy when a fact in a blog post is called into question, we gave its author 24 hours to substantiate the quote. Since he has not been able to do so, the quotes have been deleted from the post.

And now here’s Sanchez, kinda sorta apologizing — on Twitter — for airing the bogus slavery quote on his show earlier this week:

i’ve know rush. in person,i like him. his rhetoric,however is inexcusably divisive. he’s right tho. we didn’t confirm quote. our bad.

Proof that Limbaugh’s threat to sue people over this is being taken seriously? Eh, I doubt it. As I said before, it’s really hard for a public figure to prove defamation. He’d basically have to show that his accusers knew the quote was false and published it anyway; both HuffPo and Sanchez would reply that they didn’t know and were merely lazy, sloppy, negligent reporters in relying on published sources for a quote that they hadn’t fact-checked. The retractions, I suspect, are motivated less by fear of being sued than as a lame nod to journalistic ethics. “See, we correct our highly incendiary errors. …Eventually.”....

What Do Rush Limbaugh & Plantations Have In Common? Answer: MSNBC (HotAir & Gateway Pundit h/ts)

(HotAir Import)

Another iteration of the talking point du jour. Narratives, like flowers, don’t spring up overnight; they have to be carefully nurtured until they bloom. Consider this another little sprinkle from the water can. And please do note that the James Earl Ray nonsense she attributes to Limbaugh — which also happens to be a favorite of my moral superiors in the blogosphere — now makes two specious unsourced quotes he’s been tagged with on MSNBC in hopes of blocking his NFL bid. I say again: He should sue. They’re simply not going to fact-check this stuff unless and until he threatens them into doing so.

Exit question: Which rabid Republican said this of Rush’s bid for the Rams? “There’re now gonna be character tests for sports owners? There’ll only be three of them left. Unless they beat the Vikings Sunday as of next Thursday it will have been a full year since the Rams won a game. My God, if Limbaugh wants to buy them far be it for me to tell him he’s flushing his money down a rat hole.” Hmmmm. Click the image to watch.

Gateway Pundit has the most on this topic in one place, so I import their latest blog and their links here:

House Dem Leader & "Firm Believer of 1st Amendment" Wants Limbaugh Banned From NFL (Video)

MORE LEFTIST SMEARS-- MORE LEFTIST HATE--
Liberals continue to attack and smear conservative Rush Limbaugh.

Dem leader Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, who confirms that she is "a firm believer in the First Amendment," wants Limbaugh banned from NFL.

It's just not right that smeared conservatives can buy things.

Here's the video, via NewsBusters:



The Hill reported:

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) on Tuesday urged the National Football League (NFL) not to let conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh buy the St. Louis Rams.

Limbaugh, a former employee of Major League Baseball's Kansas City Royals, has said he is interested in buying the winless team. But Jackson Lee, citing Limbaugh's controversial remarks about Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb in 2003, said the right-leaning radio host is "divisive."

Jackson Lee, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), said she agrees with the NFL Players Association, which has expressed major concerns about Limbaugh's bid.

While stressing that she is a firm believer in the First Amendment and acknowledging the matter is not a government issue, Jackson Lee said in a floor speech, "I know he is not the kind of owner the NFL needs." She called on the NFL to "do the right thing" and "have some integrity" by rebuffing Limbaugh.

More... Ace of Spades has more on the origin of the bogus racist Limbaugh quotes.

Previously:

• MSNBC and CNN Slander Rush Limbaugh With Bogus Slavery Quote -- Rush Answers
• Origins of Racist Rush Smears Revealed
• Chris Matthews Fantasizes About Rush Limbaugh's Death By Explosion (Video)
• Rush Limbaugh Threatens Legal Action Against State-Run Media's Racist Slander
• Local Radio Hosts Confronted On Set By Blogger After Smearing Rush (Video)
• Smear Merchants, Communists & Liars Winning- NFL May Oppose Limbaugh's Bid
• MORE HATE, MORE SMEARS-- Huffington Post "Klans" Rush Limbaugh

MSNBC Uses Communist Ties to Spear Rush Limbaugh -- Also, Chris Matthews Fantasizes About Killing Rush (e.g., violent dems)

(Gateway Pundit Import)

MSNBC Uses Former Writer for Communist Party Website to Slander Rush ...Update: Origins of Racist Smear Revealed

MSNBC used proud socialist Dave Zirin to slander Rush Limbaugh yesterday.
Before writing for the far left Nation magazine Dave Zirin wrote for the Socialist Worker's Party.

Here is another article the hardcore socialist Zirin wrote a few months back:

And, here is the former communist party website contributor bashing Rush Limbaugh yesterday:

MSNBC forgot to mention that Dave Zirin is a raving socialist during the segment.
Hat Tip JB Rush later corrected the racist slander directed at him this past week by the state-run media.

UPDATE: It looks like we now know who started one of the racist Rush smears...

Smash Mouth Politics put a timeline on the smears. He has more on the state-run media's racist attacks on Rush Limbaugh.
Evidently, an anonymous commenter named "Cobra" spread racist lies about Rush on the internet starting in 2005.

Chris Matthews (source)

Democratic Hypocrisy

(LR h/t)

Why is FOX NEWS Cable Race Numbers So Big?? People Are Sick of the Biased Left... Even The Daily Show Gets It

CABLE NEWS RACE
Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2009

FOXNEWS O'REILLY 4,039,000
FOXNEWS HANNITY 3,451,000
FOXNEWS BECK 3,421,000
FOXNEWS GRETA 2,785,000
FOXNEWS BAIER 2,273,000
FOXNEWS SHEP SMITH 2,201,000
MSNBC OLBERMANN 1,395,000
MSNBC MADDOW 1,369,000
CNN KING 1,355,000
CNN COOPER 1,086,000

Some More History Of The Left's Tactics

Let's See Now... Could It Be ... Satan! Nope -- Just Osama bin Olbermann

Hypocrisy Flashback: ‘It Is Political Dissent That Created This Country and Sustained It and Improved It.’

By Rich Noyes

With the Obama administration and their friends in the media denouncing the sometimes loud dissent that liberals are facing in town hall meetings on health care, it’s worth recalling how some of those same journalists denounced what they claimed was the Bush administration’s attempts to stifle dissent and celebrated the dissenters.

Back in 2006, MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann attacked what he called President Bush’s “portable public chorus” (does President Obama have one of those?) For telling “those who dissent...[that] we are somehow un-American.” PBS’s Bill Moyers in 2003 found it “galling” to see “all those moralistic ideologues in Washington...attacking dissenters as un-American.”

In 2003, Olbermann saluted protests: “It is political dissent that created this country and sustained it and improved it.” But on Friday’s Countdown, Olbermann called the anti-Obama protests “societal sabotage,” determined that the grassroots groups are “fake” and insisted that “the protestors are not interested in hearing any voices other than their own.” (But the anti-Bush protesters were open-minded?)That same night, ABC called the protests “ugly,” while CBS termed them “nasty.” Also on Friday, former CNN reporter Bob Franken scolded the “organized intimidation” of “a crazed group of people,” whom he described as “partisan groups that whip up their fear-of-change ultra-conservative base.” MSNBC ran graphics on Monday about “unhinged” conservatives “scaring seniors” with their “health care hysteria.” Those don't doesn't sound like efforts to elevate dissent as a key element of a healthy democracy.

For those with short memories, here are a few examples of how liberal reporters talked about dissent during the Bush administration:

■

Co-host Harry Smith: "[Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan] talks about the failure of mainstream media to hold the Bush administration’s feet to the fire in the run-up to the war. Is that an allegation that feels to you like it has merit or not?"...
CBS anchor Katie Couric: "I think it’s one of the most embarrassing chapters in American journalism. And I think there was a sense of pressure from corporations who own where we work and from the government itself to really squash any kinds of dissent or any kind of questioning of it. I think it was extremely subtle but very, very effective. And I think Scott McClellan has a really good point."
— CBS’s The Early Show, May 28, 2008.

■ “Whatever you think of its policies, the current administration has been more secretive, more mistrustful of an inquisitive press, than any since the Nixon administration. It has treated freedom of information requests with contempt, asserted sweeping claims of executive privilege, even reclassified material that had been declassified. The administration has subsidized propaganda at home and abroad, refined the art of spin, discouraged dissent, and sought to limit traditional congressional oversight and court review.”
— New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller delivering the Hugo Young Memorial Lecture in London, as reported by Britain’s Guardian newspaper, November 29, 2007.

■ “When those who dissent are told time and time again — as we will be, if not tonight by the President, then tomorrow by his portable public chorus — that he is preserving our freedom, but that if we use any of that freedom, we are somehow un-American; when we are scolded, that if we merely question, we have ‘forgotten the lessons of 9/11;’ look into this empty space behind me and the bipartisanship upon which this administration also did not build, and tell me this: Who has left this hole in the ground? We have not forgotten, Mr. President. You have. May this country forgive you.”
— MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann on September 11, 2006, ending his Countdown with a commentary from the site of the World Trade Center.

■ “This has been a year in which dissent, especially taking an unpopular or minority political opinion, has been attacked by people like Mr. O'Reilly. In the last year, it has not been enough just to disagree with dissenters. Many of us have decided it is necessary to silence them. Which is really kind of ironic since it is political dissent that created this country and sustained it and improved it. But ask the Dixie Chicks about how well this year we Americans kept our pledge to be tolerant of dissent, our delight in disagreeing with your opinion but being willing to fight to the death to protect your right to express it. ”
– Keith Olbermann on MSNBC’s Countdown, Sept. 29, 2003.

■ Peter Jennings: “Finally this evening, what it sometimes costs to be in the minority and say what you think publicly. There is nothing like a war to create tension between some of those who most fervently support it and those who do not. And as we’ve seen in the case of this war, when those who are opposed happen to be in show business, well, some other people want to make them pay....”
Actor Tim Robbins: “A chill wind is blowing in this nation.”
Jim Wooten: “In Washington this week, Robbins criticized the political climate in which his right to express his views has come under attack....All this has reminded some of the McCarthy era’s blacklists that barred those even accused of communist sympathies from working in films or on television.”
— ABC’s World News Tonight, April 16, 2003.

■ “Across the country, citizens have been coming out to voice their opposition, all calling for the same things. They want government accountability, they want environmental justice, and most of all, they’re calling for peace....While protesters like today are a statistical minority, in American history protests like this have been prescient indicators of the national mood. So the government may do well to listen to what’s said today.”
– ABC correspondent Chris Cuomo previewing an afternoon protest rally planned for Times Square, on a special five-hour Saturday edition of Good Morning America, March 22, 2003, three days after the war in Iraq began.

■ “I decided to put on my flag pin tonight...I put it on to take it back. The flag’s been hijacked and turned into a logo — the trademark of a monopoly on patriotism. On those Sunday morning talk shows, official chests appear adorned with the flag as if it is the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval, and during the State of the Union did you notice Bush and Cheney wearing the flag?...More galling than anything are all those moralistic ideologues in Washington sporting the flag in their lapels while writing books and running Web sites and publishing magazines attacking dissenters as un-American.”
— Bill Moyers on PBS’s Now, February 28, 2003.

■ “It’s an obscene comparison, and I’m not sure I like it, but there was a time, in South Africa, where people would put flaming tires around peoples’ necks if they dissented. And in some ways, the fear is that you’ll be necklaced here, you’ll have the flaming tire of lack of patriotism put around your neck. Now it’s that fear that keeps journalists from asking the toughest of the tough questions and to continue to bore in on the tough questions so often. And again, I’m humbled to say, I do not except myself from this criticism.”
– Dan Rather on the BBC’s Newsnight program, May 16, 2002.

—Rich Noyes is Research Director at the Media Research Center.

Pelosi Says TownHallers Nazis, Dingell Says TownHallers KKK

Tom Harkin vs. His Constituency (These Dems Are Out of Control!!)

(Libertarian Republican h/t)

IOWA: Liberal Thugs attempt to eject Protestor from Tom Harkin Town Hall

Four Liberal backers of Harkin surround Iowan challenging the Senator on Obama Socialist health care. They shout him down. Harkin himself claims he's part of a set-up. One older man calls pokes his finger in his face and shouts that he should be immediately ejected from the meeting.

He stands his ground.

Obama Care, Perfect for Lobbyists

In less than 90 seconds the new video highlights the upside-down priorities of Oregons Medicaid system. Lobbying groups have used the political process to push coverage for special-interest causes like substance abuse and weight loss treatment ahead of treatments for some kinds of cancer on the priority list.

Democrat Congressman Yelling at Their Constituants Now... Desperate!!

Georgia Congressman Democrat David Scott goes on verbal tirade against a constituent (Dr. David Hill, a local doctor) from his own district. The constituent's crime? Daring to express concerns about government takeover of health-care!