I see that comrade Alkon is being swayed by counterrevolutionary propaganda. It may be time for re-education camps.

I almost want to take the Honeywell thermostat off my wall and return it just to spite this moron.

However, I like the fact that my heat works.

Why do there have to be so many idiots in charge of big companies? And how did they get there anyhow?

If Congressmen don't actually read the proposed bill, then aren't the legislative aides the ones actually making law? Maybe the people elected to make law should actually do their jobs.

I wonder what would happen if the media started asking every member of Congress if they'd actually read what they voted for?

Offtopic: Anyone recognize this?

If Congressmen don't actually read the proposed bill, then aren't the legislative aides the ones actually making law? Maybe the people elected to make law should actually do their jobs.

I wonder what would happen if the media started asking every member of Congress if they'd actually read what they voted for?

Isn't that the excuse many of them used to explain their vote in favor of sending troops into Iraq, that they didn't read the full briefing? Including our current Secretary of State.

Perhaps they should start reading the laws they pass.

Penelope?

An excerpt from "The Political Manual - Talk At Your Own Risk"

Above all, a politician does not want a reputation as someone who reads the legislation or understands the details (a policy wonk). You want to be known as a high level thinker who looks at the big picture. You can then deny responsibility for the problems that arise from your "pick the winners" legislation.

In the rare and sad case that a piece of legislation or an earmark becomes a scandal, you can fire the legislative aide that understood the bill. This does not work if you have given speeches showing detailed knowledge of what you have proposed or voted on.

Seriously.

From the WSJ today. The tab President Pelosi is running up is truly staggering. And she's just getting started.

By KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL

Tom Daschle is still waiting to be confirmed as secretary of health and human services, not that he's in any rush. Democrats are already enacting his and Barack Obama's agenda of government-run health care -- entirely on the QT.

This was the real accomplishment of this week's House vote for the $819 billion "stimulus," and is the overriding theme of Congress's first month. With the nation occupied with the financial crisis, and with that crisis providing cover, Democrats have been passing provision after provision to nationalize health care.

If Democrats learned anything from the HillaryCare defeat, it was the danger of admitting to their wish to federalize the health market. Since returning to power, they've pursued a new strategy: to stealthily and incrementally expand government control. "What no one is paying attention to in the [stimulus]," says Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, "is that Democrats are making a big grab at the health-care sector."

It began one week after the swearing-in, when Nancy Pelosi whipped through a big expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program. The Schip bill was Democrats' first stab at stealth expansion, unveiled in 2007, though vetoed by George W. Bush.

Initially designed for children of working-poor families, this new Super-Schip will be double in size, and even kids whose parents make $65,000 a year will be eligible. The program will also now cover pregnant women and automatically enroll their new arrivals. The Congressional Budget Office estimates 2.4 million individuals will drop their private coverage for the public program.

Still, it's the "stimulus" that has proven the real gift horse -- a behemoth that has allowed Democrats to speed up the takeover of health care under cover of an economic crisis. They initially claimed, for instance, the "stimulus" would provide Medicaid money to states struggling to pay existing bills. What in fact it does is dramatically expand the number of Americans who qualify for Medicaid.

Under "stimulus," Medicaid is now on offer not to just poor Americans, but Americans who have lost their jobs. And not just Americans who have lost their jobs, but their spouses and their children. And not Americans who recently lost their jobs, but those who lost jobs, say, early last year. And not just Americans who already lost their jobs, but those who will lose their jobs up to 2011. The federal government is graciously footing the whole bill. The legislation also forbids states to apply income tests in most cases.

House Democrat Henry Waxman was so thrilled by this blowout, it was left to Republicans to remind him that the very banking millionaires he dragged to the Hill last year for a grilling would now qualify for government aid. His response? A GOP proposal to limit subsidies to Americans with incomes under $1 million was accepted during markup, but had disappeared by final passage. In this new health-care nirvana, even the rich are welcome. CBO estimates? An additional 1.2 million on the federal Medicaid dime in 2009.

The "stimulus" also hijacks Cobra, a program that lets the unemployed retain access to their former company health benefits -- usually for about 18 months. The new stimulus permits any former employee over the age of 55 to keep using Cobra right up until they qualify for Medicare at age 65. And here's the kicker: Whereas employees were previously responsible for paying their health premiums while on Cobra, now the feds will pay 65%. CBO estimates? Seven million Americans will have the feds mostly pay their insurance bills in 2009.

The bill even takes a whack at the private market. Under the guise of money for "health technology," the legislation makes the government the national coordinator for electronic health records, able to certify what platforms are acceptable. This is an attempt to squelch a growing private market that is competing to improve transparency and let consumers compare providers and costs. In liberal-world, only government should be publishing (and setting) health-care prices.

Add it up, and Democrats may move 10 million more Americans under the federal health umbrella -- in just four weeks! Good luck ever cutting off that money. Meanwhile, the Democratic majority is gearing up for a Medicare fight, where it may broach plans to lower the eligibility age to 55. Whatever costs accrue, they'll pay for by slashing the private Medicare Advantage option.

Mr. Obama will, of course, offer his health-care reform at some point. But he's clearly happy to get what he can, when he can. Despite talk of entitlement reform, he's voiced no disapproval of this vast new health-care grab. And don't forget he chose Mr. Daschle, who appreciates stealth himself. In his 2008 book outlining his health-care reform, he offers his party two pieces of political advice: Move fast, before there can be a public debate, and write as vague a bill as possible.

Guiding all of this is the left's hope that by the time America wakes up to what's happening, it'll be too late. Democrats might be on to something.

S'all about alarmism, isn't it? Keep everyone in a constant state of panic, desperate for government to save them from the boogey-man.

No time to think - the world is ending! Do something!

1. In the 70's we had global cooling. We'll freeze!
2. Chernobyl? 3-mile Island? The world is over.
3. Remember Y2K? We were all gonna die, weren't we?
4. Remember the ozone layer disappearing? What happened to that one?
5. Now global warming! Yup. All dead. Well, you just wait and see, mister!

Now we're all gona die because GM is tanking and banks are collapsing. Crisis du jour. Wah, wah, wah!

C'mon Crid, it's Penelope. What do I win?

Same as last month --

http://www.heritage.org/press/commentary/ed010108a.cfm

> What do I win?

Our eternal gratitude!

What's Penelope?

The movie that your first clip was from, doofus! With Peter Dinkle. Whatta gyp.

Crid I was trying to avoid that cat video all day at work, reminded me about something good about my childhood.

For some reason I always attracted cats/kittens as a kid. Anyways cats would always come visit me and there was this particular huge one that would enter the house and lay around all day. So when my mom had to vacuum, she had to vacuum over him. He never moved.

You may want to look at this The Obameter: Tracking Obama's Campaign Promises.

He already broke the promise -- No. 234: Allow five days of public comment before signing bills.

At this point, I'm now seriously putting the over/under on the Obama presidency at two years.

No, they'll never impeach him. But between Pelosi, Reid, and Obama, they are going to so destroy this country that he's going to have to resign in disgrace.

Pelosi and Reid, of course, will never admit that they did anything wrong.

DO you really think he'd ever even FEEL disgrace, much less admit it was his fault, or resign? I wish I had that hope...

> He never moved.

Well, it is their planet...

(Isn't it? Seems like it.)

Crid, in ancient times, cats were worshipped as gods. They have never forgotten this.

o.O