Archive for March, 2010

Bob Maistros

President Obama (in his interview with Bret Baier, Fox News):  “This notion that this has been not transparent, that people don’t know what’s in the bill, everybody knows what’s in the bill.”

"Hey, everybody has read all 2310 pages of this bill."

Herewith some stuff “everybody knows” is H.R. 4872, the ‘‘Reconciliation Act of 2010” (source:  reported text of bill).

“… Public Health Insurance Option

“(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—For years beginning with Y1, the Secretary of Health and Human Services … shall provide for the offering of an Exchange-participating health benefits plan (in this subdivision referred to as the ‘public health insurance option’) that ensures choice, competition, and stability of affordable, high quality coverage throughout the United States ….”

Translation:  Everybody knows that the “public option” isn’t in this bill.  Right?

Read the rest of this entry »

Bob Batz

Well, it’s finally happened.

I’ve become sick and tired of reality.

Reality, reality, reality, that’s all we have these days.

Movie’s feature reality. Ditto for TV shows and novels.

We don't care who gets voted off the island, gets the rose or is the biggest loser.

The way I look at it, a little reality was OK. But the whole thing has gotten out of hand.

Seven days a week families interrupt perfectly good knock-down, drag-out family arguments to tune in TV shows that feature perfectly good knock-down, drag-out family arguments.

Time was, and not too long ago, either, when Archie Bunker was the only TV guy who was heavy into reality.

Now all of them are.

Read the rest of this entry »

Bob Franken

What a terrible choice House members will have to make this weekend. No, not whether to vote up or down on health care reform, but whether to watch CBS and the NCAA basketball tournament or turn on the news channels for that other March Madness.

Where the other March Madness is taking place.

It’s a dilemma for all of us. Imagine how President Obama must feel. Already he has had to cancel his Asia vacation because of health care, although come to think of it, maybe that was just a handy excuse for him to stay home to watch some hoops.

As everyone in Washington goes through their hoops, we can all benefit from some viewing tips for those who tune into the congressional tourney. First of all, ignore the fact that Republicans are crying “FOUL!!” They’re playing only defense, their Point Guard John Bonner is finger pointing from the sidelines. The Democrats are fighting their usual ferocious intramural battles.

Read the rest of this entry »

Gregory D. Lee

In June 2008, I wrote a column about the Democratic National Rules Committee meeting after it decided that each Florida delegate would only be allowed one-half vote at the convention instead of a whole vote because of an avoidable change in Florida’s primary date. The Rules Committee was rooting for candidate Obama, and because the race was close, they changed the rules to punish Hillary Clinton by slashing her Florida delegate vote in half. In the column I wrote:

Unbelievable.

“This whole process illustrates how Democrats would govern if they had a veto-proof majority in both houses of Congress and a president in the White House. They govern like little dictators who would like you to believe they are benevolent, but in reality, they are incompetent, power hungry and think they know what is best for you. They . . . can’t wait to regulate every aspect of your life to conform to their left-wing agenda.”

How right I was.

Read the rest of this entry »

Bob Maistros

“Good morning, class.”

“Good morning, Mr. Obama.”

What did the CBO math book say?

“Class, settle down and pay attention now, please.  Turn to page 1 of your Congressional Budget Office Math Book, please.  Let’s look at problem number one.  ‘Sam is very rich, but he usually spends more money than he makes. If Sam’s deficit is $1 trillion a year over the next 10 years, and he spends 794 billion additional dollars over that period for more health care for 32 million people, and finds $507 billion in Medicare and other savings, and takes $406 billion in new taxes from rich people, how much will Sam have in savings after 10 years?’  Nancy Pelosi.”

Read the rest of this entry »

David Karki

The Democrat machines rose from the ashes of the Obama Presidency. The liberals’ war to exterminate America had raged for decades, but the final battle would not be fought in the future. It would be fought here, in our present. Tonight.

Pre-existing condition.

It’s unnerving just how easy it is to turn the opening title from the “The Terminator” (or should I say “The Legislator”?) into current-day events. And if the Democrats find an unconstitutional, illegal, treasonous way to stuff through their unconstitutional, illegal, treasonous “health care” bill, then a real-life Skynet will have become self-aware and have no system core from which it can be turned back off again before it starts trying to exterminate anyone who dares threaten its absolute power.

Read the rest of this entry »

Lawrence J. Haas

As we know, those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.  What, then, shall we make of a nation that pretends to live in a glass house on human rights, and then provides the stones for its enemies to throw?

Human rights police?

That’s the question to ponder in light of today’s news, brought to us by the Washington Post, that the United States has decided to subject itself to a human rights view by the United Nations Human Rights Council.

To refresh memories, President Obama took the controversial step of putting the United States on the wholly misnamed, 47-nation council – which replaced the UN’s equally misnamed Human Rights Commission in early 2006 – in his efforts to repair relations with the global community after President Bush’s blustery go-it-alone style.

Bush had refused to put the United States on the council and, by the time Obama assumed office, the panel had already advanced far down the road of moral bankruptcy. For one thing, its members include some of the world’s worst human rights abusers, such as China, Cuba, Cameroon, and Zambia. For another, the council’s behavior reflects the UN’s overall obsession with human rights violations by Israel and the free pass it gives to far worse abusers in the Middle East and elsewhere.

Read the rest of this entry »

Kelly Anderson Wright

The census asks each of us to check a box called “race,” perpetuating the notion that we’re a nation of hyphenated people different from each other. Yet the very definition of race is “a family, tribe, people or nation… unified by shared interests.” So why aren’t we members of the “American race?”

Why does the government insist on separating us?

I was born in Oakland, a fourth-generation native Californian. My sons were born in Reno and Las Vegas; they are native Nevadans. We three were born in America, so we are native Americans, aren’t we?

The census has a box for American Indians, African Americans, Native Hawaiians and Alaska natives, but no box for native Americans, the people born here and proud of it.

With no “American” box, my race choice on the census is limited to one, “White.” My great grandmother immigrated to America from a small town in northern Italy, and my skin color is light, yes, but I don’t think of myself as a “White,” and I certainly wouldn’t say, “I’m a member of the White race,” ever.

Read the rest of this entry »

Dan Calabrese

Just tossing this out there if anyone wants to comment.

Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington tested positive for cocaine during a random drug test in 2009, a fact that was made public within the past couple of days. It’s also reported that Washington has been subjected to more stringent, regular testing as a result, and has passed every test since. That’s good.

First time user at 57?

But what of his claim that this occurred in a moment of weakness, and that, at 57, he used cocaine for the first and only time in his life?

Do you believe this? How many people use cocaine for the very first time in their lives when they’re already in their 50s?

Read the rest of this entry »

Mark Watson

Revelations about Virginia Thomas’s audacity of openly expressing her political opinions will likely lead to a fever pitched demand from the left that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas either resign or recuse himself from any deliberations and votes on First Amendment issues coming before the Court.

Shut up, woman.

Complaints that Mrs. Thomas’s high profile would create conflicts of interest for the justice have been voiced on CNN, NPR and the Washington Post.

Of all the attacks, leave it to a far left radio talk show host to find the gutter faster than most.

Read the rest of this entry »