J's Cafe Nette

Archive for July, 2009

Every picture tells a story.

This one tells a tale of character, kindness, and humility.

Some have it, some don’t.

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That settles it.

Only Congress, the White House, and Andrea Mitchell “know what’s best for us.”

Ugh. I am thoroughly fed up with this administration, Congress and the press telling me how to think and what to feel. If I’m alone, so be it, but I doubt it.

Do you suppose these folks will be invited for a beer at the White House along with Senator Feinstein so they may better understand why we should all just bow down to those who are elected to serve us and their minions in the press?

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It would seem from his answers that Robert Gibbs could be replaced by a statue and save us a bundle of money for all the information he’s giving to the press.

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This is what our congressmen and women and senators can expect at their townhall meetings during the summer recess. It seems the public is finally fed up.

The quote from the person who put up the video explains what’s going on:

Congressman Tim Bishop has been a Rubber Stamp for Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank and the rest of the Washington elitists who want to tax and spend this nation to death. Some angry taxpayers had a little surprise for him at one of his “Town Hall” meetings on June 22, 2009.

Bishop has decided to hold no more town hall meetings because the crowds are preventing him from having an intelligent conversation.

On the eve of the August recess, members are reporting meetings that have gone terribly awry, marked by angry, sign-carrying mobs and disruptive behavior. In at least one case, a congressman has stopped holding town hall events because the situation has spiraled so far out of control.

“I had felt they would be pointless,” Rep. Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.) told POLITICO, referring to his recent decision to suspend the events in his Long Island district. “There is no point in meeting with my constituents and [to] listen to them and have them listen to you if what is basically an unruly mob prevents you from having an intelligent conversation.”

As opposed to the “intelligent” conversations taking place in Washington in the conference rooms of our elected employees.

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Barack Obama’s “acted stupidly” comment after saying he had no facts in the Gates arrest and subsequent dropping of charges has not gone away and is only causing more racial harm than we had before.

Because the black police sergeant who was on-scene the night of the arrest says the white officer is an upstanding man and did not racially profile Professor Gates he is being called an “Uncle Tom” by other black people.

He sent a message by Officer Crowley to Barack Obama to be delivered during the beer summit.

One thing I know is if I were returning home from an overseas trip and couldn’t get my door to open properly, had to jimmy it open and someone called 911 to report a possible burglary at my home, I would be thrilled the police came to check out the situation. When asked for proof I lived there I would have gladly shown ID with my address and not stood in the doorway questioning the investigating officer’s parentage and generally acting like a jerk.

Too many people back that story over the one Gates is trying to tell. Neighbors took photos and gathered in the street to see what the commotion was all about. It was a public disturbance caused by someone who knows Obama and haughtily said, “Do you know who I am?” No, sir, he didn’t. For all he knew you were a burglar breaking into a house. Be happy he was there ready to put his life on the line to protect your home and property and quit trying to make it a racial issue.

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Watch this and see what I mean:

“Why should I take a cab and fill out all that paperwork and wait in the emergency room” (paraphrased) Why, indeed.

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Wednesday I went to the dentist for my six month cleaning and check-up. While there I noticed a brochure talking about an oral cancer test that was non-invasive and painless so I asked about it when I saw the hygienist.

The dentist had mentioned the test in passing six months ago, but that was it. I was told the procedure consisted of swishing a solution in the mouth for 45 seconds, the blinds being closed, the lights turned off and the dentist taking an ultraviolet light to check the inside of my mouth.

She checks the inside of my mouth anyway, including a good look under the tongue so I decided to take the solution and go for it.

The solution tastes like raspberry vinaigrette dressing and causes one to have lots of saliva afterward. I’m happy to say no signs of pre-cancer or cancer were found in my mouth after a thorough exam, including a panoramic x-ray of my entire face.

If someone smokes (and I do) it is something that is smart to do at least once a year to detect early stages of oral cancer.

I was offered the original Listerine mouthwash after but declined as I think it tastes worse than the solution. Most insurance companies will not pay for this test so I gladly paid the $65 fee, which would probably go lower if more people took advantage of this little-known test.

That’s my health tip for awhile. Have a great week-end and say a prayer for Sue, who is down with a bad summer cold.

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From my email:

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How things have changed.

Today we cannot imagine life without email, gps systems, dvd/dvr systems, laptop computers and hand held video games.

We press one for English, need a passport to travel to Canada, have the option to go paperless with our bills and scan the latest news online in a flash versus scouring a newspaper over morning coffee.

Like I said, how things have changed:

(Just in case you are in a listening mood, I tossed in this beautifully performed Statler Brothers recording of “Precious Memories.”

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When Obama was elected to the US Senate four plus short years ago he thought President Bush was pushing too hard to get legislation passed without Congress having a chance to debate it.

My, how times have changed.

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If you can’t read and understand what you wrote, may I suggest you retire from office? If you need two days and two lawyers to explain it to you then take the time and get the lawyers.

This isn’t rocket science.

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If the health care bill(s) proposed in the House of Representatives were in force now many of the House members and Senate would be in hospices or not treated except for pain now due to their age?

Nancy Pelosi is 69 years old. Certainly she would qualify if she were on that plan.

Steny Hoyer, Rep. Dingell, Rep. Clyburn, Rep. John Spratt (my congressman), Rep. Charlie Rangle, Sen. Edward Kennedy, Sen. Robert Byrd, Sen. Arlen Specter, Sen. Harry Reid etc. All would be considered too old under the proposals and would be considered a drag on the system and encouraged to do their duty and die. This is just a partial list of Democrats. Republicans aren’t supporting this “duty to die” bill so I have not included them.

Let us not forget many members of the Supreme Court and White House staff. Even Obama’s mother-in-law, his live-in babysitter, would qualify for the “die as your duty” plan.

But of course none of these people will ever be on that plan because they have such a gold-plated plan they won’t give up. Why are they more special than your mother, father, grandparents, you or me? Because they sit in the chambers of Congress and determine foolish laws? All the more reason to put them on the same plan they propose. Let them be the guinea pigs and come back and tell us how great it is.

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Anyone who went to public or private schools in the US knows the first ten amendments to the Constitution are called the “Bill of Rights”. They were written roughly the same time the Constitution was written.

Here’s the short text of the tenth amendment, which is otherwise called “The States’ Rights Amendment”:

Amendment 10
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Some people hear “States’ Rights” and automatically think of slavery and the reasons for secession during the Civil War. I am not a racist nor am I a secessionist, but I am a Constitutionalist.

The wording is very clear. Where in our Constitution does it state government health care is a right and should be delegated to the Congress and president? Find it for me and I’ll shut up.

I read last week that Texas was considering not being bound by the health care bill(s) being bandied about in Congress, and today I read that at least one Nebraska lawmaker is suggesting the same thing.

Not only that, but here’s a quote from that article that took me by surprise:

Interest in states’ rights is spreading as the federal government has taken over businesses, mandated driver’s license security measures and proposed a public health care program.

Seven states passed resolutions this year affirming their sovereignty, and resolutions were introduced in 30 others. Some states have filed lawsuits or taken legislative action to challenge federal laws. (Emphasis Admin)

The only weapon we have to fight this government takeover is our Constitution, along with the disapproval of our citizens who should make it abundantly clear to their Congresscritter and Senators during the August recess we have had enough of this experiment in Socialism, which is ruining our great country.

I encourage the states and we, the people, to go for it in a peaceful way.

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Health care overhaul and racial profiling have not been good to Obama’s overall approval rating by likely voters.

This is from the Rasmussen Reports latest numbers.

Rassmussen counts likely voters rather than all adults because not all adults (such as younger people) are likely to vote.

Good job, Barack! Keep it up until we’re all equally poor and broken-spirited.

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Speaker Pelosi:

They need this. This is urgent. It’s urgent in terms of their health, the economic stability of their families, and they want to see Democratic majorities in the House and Senate and a Democratic president in the White House to show that we can work together to have a positive impact on their lives by removing the instability that the uncertainty of access to health care causes for America’s families.”

emphasis-admin

There’s that word, again. Everything is urgent as of late.

The Speaker’s words on the health care and all other issues are to be remembered as we move this country closer and closer to socialism.

The Democrats don’t require and seek minimal input from the Republicans, therefore they must remember they own it all, lock, stock, and barrel.

Here’s CNN’s John King questioning Ms. Pelosi on health care, the 2010 mid-terms, and the stimulus package:

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This, courtesy of Ed Morrissey, is just plain funny!

So is this:

Happy Monday!

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If this were not so sad, it would be funny.

Is this the same press who have fawned over the man’s every word for what seems like an eternity? Or perhaps its the media which has lobbed him softball questions at all his prime time pressers?

It’s no surprise how quickly Obama threw them under the bus on this issue, as that is how he has conducted himself each and every time a subject got a bit to hot to handle.

Believable, genuine people, understand when they have made a mistake. They seek to make good by those they may have hurt through their words or actions. Not so in the case of this POTUS. Assigning blame and kicking the can down the road are his modus operandi.

Breaking: Via Reuters:

President Barack Obama said on Friday he should have chosen his words more carefully when he said police “acted stupidly” in arresting a prominent black Harvard scholar, touching off a debate over race.

Obama made his comments after talking on the telephone to Sgt. James Crowley, the Cambridge, Massachusetts, police officer who made the arrest, and discussing inviting Crowley and Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates to the White House for a beer.

“Because this has been ratcheting up and I obviously helped to contribute ratcheting it up, I wanted to make clear in my choice of words I think I unfortunately gave an impression that I was maligning the Cambridge Police Department or Sgt. Crowley specifically,” Obama said. “And I could have calibrated those words differently.”

Still , no apology though, just , hey, I’m a nice guy..come on over for a beer, and perhaps a nice, neatly arranged photo op to prove all is well with the world.

Here’s the sixty four dollar question..would he have called Sergeant Crowley at all if the press (who for once held his feet to the fire, at least in some cases), had not made an issue out of his ludicrous statement? What say you?

Update: Video of Obama’s remarks and the following excerpt from Fox News Commentary available at Gateway Pundit:

President Obama stopped short of an apology to Sgt. James Crowley on Friday for saying he “acted stupidly” for arresting black Harvard scholar Henry Lewis Gates Jr., but said he should have chosen his words more carefully.

Read the rest at the link above.

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We’ve probably all heard of the Arab Fest in Michigan last weekend. Here’s a YouTube video of what went on at the event, which was supposedly promoting the peaceful nature of Islam.

The quote below is the exact quote from the film maker on the YouTube site.

This is a video of David Wood and Nabeel Qureshi asking questions at Arabfest, Dearborn. The date is June 21st, 2009. There was a booth at the festival which had a banner titled “Islam: Got Questions? Get Answers.” From their table, we picked up a pamphlet claiming that Islam promotes peace. We noticed that it was full of poor logic and errors, so we decided to make a video refuting it. We went to the booth that gave us the pamphlet to give them the opportunity to defend their claims. Security, however, stepped in and forced us to turn off our camera.

We left the booth, received advice from police, and found out that the actions of the security guards were illegal. We went back to the booth to record a potential answer again. Realizing that the Muslims present had no answer, we left.

When we came outside, we were asked some questions by two young men, who had been sent by security to entrap us. While we responded to them, festival security started assaulting us, as you will see in this video. The conclusion of this video is a mob of festival security attacking our cameras, pushing us back, kicking our legs, and lying to the police.

We ask you, is it a coincidence that the city with the highest percentage of Muslims in the United States is the city where Christianity is not allowed to be represented (let alone preached) on a public sidewalk? Is it coincidence that in this city, people will say “No way!” when we say “This is the United States of America”?

Is this what will happen when Islam takes over the United States?

The title is a quote from the video.

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The Cambridge County Police Commissioner speaks out on the accusations leveled against(no matter how you try to spin it, the words were clear) Sergeant Crowley:

Here we go. It is obvious the Commissioner was very nervous and tempered all his words in this press conference. He appears to have high praise and confidence in Sgt. Crowley, but as we all know, if the press accepts Barack Obama’s word as to the “stupidity” of the police involved in this incident, well, let’s just say a mans career could very well be in jeopardy.

How does one go about the difficult task of handling a law enforcement issues in the days going forward when there are those who will see you as nothing more than a “stupid” cop?

One has to question the validity of the very question on this issue posed at a press conference which was supposed to cover the health care issue.

Why this case? Arrests are made nationally every day, but somehow, this particular one warranted not only a question but the non-presidential answer delivered.

This is another example of the American way being tossed to the curb. There are Internal Affairs Departments and/or the courts to deal with real or perceived wrongdoing by those in law enforcement. It is not the job of the Executive Branch to determine or attempt to influence in any way the outcome of any individual case.

Read the complete incident report here.

*Update: Friends and co-workers of the Sergeant offer words of support:

Supporters say the white policeman who arrested renowned black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. in his home is a principled police officer and family man who is being unfairly described as racist.

Friends and fellow officers — black and white — say Sgt. James Crowley, who was hand-picked by a black police commissioner to teach recruits about avoiding racial profiling, is calm and reliable.

“If people are looking for a guy who’s abusive or arrogant, they got the wrong guy,” said Andy Meyer of Natick, Mass., who has vacationed with Crowley, coached youth sports with him and is his teammate on a men’s softball team. “This is not a racist, rogue cop.”

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Obama took an hour of my life last night to tell me nothing I already didn’t know about the pending health care reform he wants. He failed to be specific about anything, and I came away with the feeling he was holding back some bad stuff for us to discover later, after the fact.

I heard nothing but criticism of Republicans and a denial that he did that and obfuscation and speechifying on all questions. For those in Congress looking for leadership from this man, they were sorely disappointed. He gave them no reason to vote for his prized project.

Interestingly enough, I happened to catch a report on Fox News by Ainsley Earhardt, talking about the University of Chicago Medical Center, which had as a vice president Michelle Obama before she resigned for the election campaign. (See video report here.)

It seems the Obamas, Valerie Jarrett, a now presidential consultant, and David Axelrod all pushed an “Urban Health Initiative” that got 23 million dollars from the feds to give excellent care to everyone. The problem is the poor people without great insurance policies are turned away.

One mother of a twelve year old boy mauled by a pit bull said she took her son there for attention and all he got was a shot and told to go home when they discovered he had Medicaid. She took him to another hospital an hour away and he had surgery to repair a partial tear in his upper lip.

A 78 year old patient went to Michelle’s hospital for treatment, but was on medicare, so he was allowed to die in the waiting room before seeing anyone after being there for hours.

People interviewed said that even though it is touted to be the hospital for the neighborhood in Southside they will go an hour away to get treatment, usually at a county hospital.

If this is how the Obamas work in their hometown, just thnk of what his proposals will do to you and your medical care. This bill needs to be killed the sooner the better. Put the uninsured on medicaid and leave the rest of us the heck alone.

The one thing I did learn from Obama that I didn’t know before is he saved the economy. How do you like your job prospects since he took us from losing 600,000 jobs a month to losing that many jobs per week? And he inherited it. It’s time for him to quit using that schtick. He and his democrat and rino colleagues own this mess now–lock, stock and barrel.

*Update* The Department of Labor has come out with the jobless statistics for last week, showing over half a million workers went on the unemployment rolls last week.

From the AP:

The Labor Department says its tally of initial claims for unemployment insurance rose by 30,000 to a seasonally adjusted 554,000. That’s above analysts’ estimates of 550,000. (This is just for one week. Admin)

I find this interesting because Obama said when he was sworn in he had inherited the worst economy in fifty years with unemployment numbers running 600,000 a month. It has now roughly quadrupled that number and still he blames Bush. Unbelievable.

*Update II* See the Earhardt report here:

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Joe Namath, Golda Meir, the Chicago 8, Arafat, Woodstock, and so much more.

These were the faces and events which defined the year 1969.

Please vote (no registration required).

MarineParents is in the running to win $3,000! They can’t do it without YOU though because the winning charity will be the one with the most votes. Voting ends at 9 p.m. Eastern Time July 21

Has Barack Obama successfully sidelined Hillary Clinton?

The Telegraph believes it to be true:

If President Obama’s goal in appointing Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State was to neutralize his biggest rival, he has certainly succeeded. Clinton looks a shadow of her former self, and has been the most low-key Secretary of State in recent times. Her immediate predecessors Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell were far more prominent figures on the world stage during their first six months in office. Clinton, in contrast, looks tired, disinterested, and largely going through the motions.

The folks at Let Freedom Ring are in the midst of a brilliant campaign to weed out those in Congress who will not commit to actually reading a health care bill prior to voting in favor of it:

Those signing on to the pledge as of yesterday are available at the link above. If your Congressperson is not on the list, give he/she a call and inquire as to why not. I’d love to hear the answers.

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With the POTUS using the TOTUS at every speech, how can he commit a gaffe?

Listen to this video:

I think he just mistakenly told us the truth about his socialized health care plan and its inefficiencies.

Official press lie story.

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Another accidentally, on purpose moment for Barack Obama.

In his Weekly Address Barack Obama forgot who controlled Congess for the last 2 and a half years.

Read it all, including the full piece at the NYT.

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Your tax dollars hard at work:

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is spending $60,000 of its stimulus money on $2,000 road signs to highlight projects funded by the massive economic recovery package.

The large green signs mark about 30 of what PennDOT calls ”higher visibility projects” statewide. Each denotes the project is funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and features the act’s logo.

Nationwide, several million dollars are being spent producing the signs.

PennDOT spokesman Steve Chizmar said Pennsylvania elected to take a ”middle-of-the-road” approach to the federal government’s strong encouragement that the signs be put at every project site around the state, choosing only those that were most visible to the public. The stimulus package is pumping $1 billion into the state for hundreds of road and bridge repairs.

PennDOT’s not alone in touting the stimulus package. The Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority requires all contractors to post the act’s logo on construction sites. ”The logo must be at least six inches in diameter and displayed in a prominent place,” reads a line in the agency’s Recovery Act requirements.

The state also is paying political strategist and media consultant Ken Snyder $9,090 a month to help with publicity relating to the stimulus package.

”Obviously it is important to educate the public about where the recovery dollars are working in the commonwealth,” PennDOT’s Chizmar said. ”The public deserves and has a right to know.”[emphasis-admin]

That final quote is laughable.

If we had a right to know anything, it was the details of this so called recovery package prior to it being passed. Once the damage had been done, we should have had the right to voice an opinion on its use by the individual states.

Somehow, I don’t think $60.000 for road signs would have bee a high priority.

HT:Sweetness and Light

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From my email box:

Click on any year and a Juke Box pops up with 20 hits of that year.

40’s JuKeBoX
1955 JuKeBoX
1956 JuKeBoX
1957 JuKeBoX
1958 JuKeBoX
1959 JuKeBoX
1960 JuKeBoX
1961 JuKeBoX
1962 JuKeBoX
1963 JuKeBoX
1964 JuKeBoX
1965 JuKeBoX
1966 JuKeBoX
1967 JuKeBoX
1968 JuKeBoX
1969 JuKebox
1970 JuKeBoX

Much more at upchucky.com

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Walter Cronkite, a legend in the world of news has passed away.

If he was here to announce his own passing it is certain he would close with “and that’s the way it is.”

There were countless events covered by Mr. Cronkite, but his final words on the death of President John F. Kennedy still evoke the emotions felt on the day he uttered them:

Our condolences to the family and may he Rest In Peace.

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While each of us will never agree with another 100% of the time, Harry C. Alford makes the point that there is never a good reason to be disrespectful or demeaning.

Below is his exclusive interview with the Breitbart TV, “B-Cast’ moderators:

“It was like being in Mississippi in 1945.”

National Black Chamber of Commerce CEO Harry C. Alford talked with Breitbart.tv editors Scott Baker and Liz Stephans during Thursday afternoon’s live edition of “The B-Cast.”

HT:Ed Driscoll

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Forty years ago this week American astronauts stepped in to Apollo 11 and began their journey to the moon.

It was then, and still remains, an awesome sight:

The Boston Globe did an excellent job this week in documenting the anniversary of the launch of Americas first manned moon landing.

40 years ago, three human beings – with the help of many thousands of others – left our planet on a successful journey to our Moon, setting foot on another world for the first time. Tomorrow marks the 40th anniversary of the July 16, 1969 launch of Apollo 11, with astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin Jr. aboard. The entire trip lasted only 8 days, the time spent on the surface was less than one day, the entire time spent walking on the moon, a mere 2 1/2 hours – but they were surely historic hours. Scientific experiments were deployed (at least one still in use today), samples were collected, and photographs were taken to document the entire journey. Collected here are 40 images from that journey four decades ago, when, in the words of astronaut Buzz Aldrin: “In this one moment, the world came together in peace for all mankind”.

There are fabulous photos included in the article linked above. They sure brought back tons of memories.

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One of the stepping stones toward earning respect is trust.

Unfortunately, as shown at Political Punch, it appears the steps taken are backward:

At a rally in Holmdel, New Jersey, today, President Obama continued making a promise about health care reform that he has acknowledged isn’t literally true.

“Let me be exactly clear about what health care reform means to you,” the president told residents of the Garden State. “First of all, if you’ve got health insurance, you like your doctors, you like your plan, you can keep your doctor, you can keep your plan. Nobody is talking about taking that away from you.”

But last month, as the president acknowledged during a press conference, he doesn’t literally mean that you are guaranteed to be able to keep your health care plan, and your doctor, if and when health care reform passes. [emphasis-admin]

Oh heck, we’ll never get to the bottom of this hurry-up plan the administration and some in Congress are prepared to ram down our throats until and if it is signed into law. How can we when the person who so desperately wants results can’t be trusted to repeat the same story twice?

Enough of that.

There’s so much thrown at us out of Washington these days that it takes forever [and an awful lot of energy] to distinguish fact from fiction.

Right now we could all use a dose of “just the facts” and I know just the guy to get them [and not a bad sidekick in this instance either].

Enjoy!

Now, wasn’t that fun?

I know. I said enough. However, I spotted this after wrapping up this post.

Interesting. The stakes are high. A leaked whip list suggests fifty progressive (read liberal) members of the House are prepared to vote against the health care bill if it doesn’t contain a “robust” public option. Moderates, or Blue Dogs, are worried about too robust a public option that will not play well in their districts and possibly undermine existing health care options. The plot thickens, as a new report from the Senate says no bi-partisan compromise coming this week.

It could be the ray of sunshine some of us are hoping for if it pans out in the end.

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We could all do this job.

Sit down, wave a bunch of papers around, state a few names and pretend that a few studies represent all of America.

The difference is most of us would know when to stop digging a hole we had created for ourselves.

Just watch:

Related: Gateway Pundit

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