First: Happy Thanksgiving to one and all, to each and every one of my Dedicated Readers and Usual Suspects, and to everyone who may pass by my blog as you ebb and flow into the internet stream.
Thanksgiving, 2009, really doesn’t mean much to me — and Christmas won’t mean much either. In the photo above is Dad’s last Thanksgiving, 2008. He was in a wheelchair. But the whole family rallied ’round and he actually had an appetite. It was a great night. Except for the part where we had to take him back to the nursing facility.
My father passed away February 11th of this year. The best Christmas recently? 2007. My Dad, brother and wife came up to the cabin and I had tons of presents for all. Dad was walking, happy, mobile, and living in his house, driving his car. There were more presents under my tree than before or since. Ah, memories.
This really is a day of thanks. I’m thankful for my family, that I’m walking erect and that I still have a job. I’m working Thanksgiving and Christmas day and New Years Day. I have no kids. My fellow Supervisors have kids and actual families. I’m working today so they can enjoy.
My cats want me to just open up the can and be quiet.
A Russian professor gives the United States of America until the end of 2010 before a massive collapse occurs.
And I cannot unequivocally say that he is incorrect.
The proverbial End Times?
You tell me. But first I say, what do you make of this:
– Washington Senators are bribed, in the open ($300 million worth), to vote for bills;
– Forthcoming phones (Nokia already, Qualcomm soon) will provide face recognition technology tied to social network search technology, so you can find out what a stranger just tweeted simply by pointing your handset at them. You could theoretically pull up a person’s home address through automatic whois requests.
– A French bank says: “As yet, nobody can say with any certainty whether we have in fact escaped the prospect of a global economic collapse,” said the 68-page report, headed by asset chief Daniel Fermon. Societe Generale indicates the dollar may slide further and global equities may retest the March lows. Property prices could tumble again. Oil could fall back to $50 in 2010.
– Fornicalia college students are protesting over a 32% tuition increase proposal. Note to kids: if you STOPPED taking federal and state loans, the colleges and universities would be hurt by the lack of students and they’d be FORCED to become competitive in terms of tuitions. You morons.
– Coca-Cola is spearheading a coalition of more than 100 companies pushing a United Nations climate treaty to bind the U.S. to cap-and-trade emissions regulation, commit the world’s wealthiest nations to a potential $10 trillion in foreign aid and, possibly, form a proposed international “super-grid” for regulating and distributing electric power worldwide. Anyone else think Pepsi’s looking pretty good right now?
– “Global Warming” fraud: top world scientists are disavowing science and have “manipulated or suppressed evidence in order to support their cause.” This, of course, is not news to actual Conservatives. Looks like a ClimateGate to me. Mr Obama and the rest of the world is purposely planning to empty your wallets, remove your freedoms, take your property in the name of Junk Science — based but upon emotions and faith, NOT facts.
– The massive Gallup poll, customarily in the tank for Our Sacred Hero, now lists Mr Obama at a 48% approval rating; now less than half of the country and a bulk of the lemmings who voted for das HopenChange.
That Russian professor I mentioned above, Igor Panarin, says that events are continuing to confirm his prediction that the US will completely collapse like the Soviet Union before the end of 2010. He is quoted as saying that Mr Obama has done nothing to forestall the fast approaching crisis and that, like Gorbachev, enjoys speech but does nothing.
– One small positive note: Republican Representative Joe Wilson of South Carolina — the one who shouted “You lie!” at Our Hero, is now assembling a petition demanding the truth about the billions of dollars of federal stimulus money being spent, and demanding an accounting.
Mr Obama can stop this, if he wants. But does he want?
Senator Lindsey Graham completely skewers Attorney General Eric Holder in this open session — with regard to trying 9/11 terrorists in a civilian New York court — and lances him with Logic. Leftists hate facts and history, and Graham takes the fact knife and deploys it sharply. To wit:
The United States Senate will be voting, tonight (roughly 8 pm, Eastern time) on its 2,074-page version of ObamaKare, submitted as HR 3590. The House already passed its version on November 7th by a rather narrow 220 to 215 vote. According to the Congressional Budget Office the lowest cost family non-group plan under the bill would cost $15,000 in 2016. The bill also comes with some nasty teeth, as well — which you need to see and read.
But, as Texas Fredpoints out — and I agree — the Fix is Already “In” and these are, frankly, the Last Hours of Sanity in the United States.
How is the Fix “In,” you might ask? In broad daylight, as ABC News Jonathan Karl writes:
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.
The payoffs, the BRIBES, are written into the bill itself. It’s that easy.
Many people mistakenly believe the vote tonight will simply be about “passage” of HR 3590. It’s more complicated and insidious than that. The vote tonight will likely be about a “motion to invoke cloture.”
What is cloture? I wrote about this tactic here, on the 15th. Literally, it is “A parliamentary procedure by which debate is ended and an immediate vote is taken on the matter under discussion. Also called closure.”
Cloture is a way to end debate or filibuster, essentially having the ability to ramroad ObamaKare through the Senate. This could potentially do away with conferences, etc. It is very much a “nuclear option” and could have serious ramifications for those voting so. Cloture — “Rule 22” in the Senate — is quite the high risk/high gain move.
Instead of an original 2/3rds vote, in 1975 the US Senate reduced the number of votes needed to invoke cloture to three-fifths (60) of Senate membership.
That is another reason why the number “60” is so important in terms of Senatorial power. Wield a constant 60+ votes and you can pretty much have your way in the US Senate.
How do you get your 60+ votes? The Demorats just write their bribes into the bill itself.
Even prior to the vote, the “gag orders” were in effect. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell spoke, above, on the Senate floor decrying reports that a senator asked the Dept. of Health and Human Services to investigate a health insurance company that dared to warn its customers about potential Medicare cuts under Democrat health care legislation.
This is just the First Strike, ladies and gentlemen. But it’s a huge strike and it’s Going Nuclear right off the bat. This is, I believe, one of the most important posts I’ve ever written.
Enact cloture. End debate. Silence opposition. Do it NOW.
The Senate bill passed on a 60 to 39 vote. There will be debate on the bill come November 30th. Two final Demorat holdouts, Sens. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, voted yea. This is no shock. Demorats have united to hold off the GOP filibuster.
FURTHER:
The Washington Post writes that Capitol Hill staffers are calling it “The Louisiana Purchase.”
That is to say:
And so it came to pass that Landrieu walked onto the Senate floor midafternoon Saturday to announce her aye vote — and to trumpet the financial “fix” she had arranged for Louisiana. “I am not going to be defensive,” she declared. “And it’s not a $100 million fix. It’s a $300 million fix.”
Sorry folks. I was off on my bribe mark by $200 million dollars.
I guess politicians in Louisiana are a tad bit more expensive than I originally calculated.
