Mexico

Just came back from Mexico at 4am this morning, another successful trip to Iglesia Prince de Paz in Reynosa.

18 people, 1 completed house, 1 fully painted church, 1 expanded bathroom and breezeway, 1 girl in the ER, 12 sick people and 1 long haul road trip later, and yet another series of lessons from my Brothers in Christ.

And we didn't even get to the tacos.

Happy New Year, and may the liberties we enjoy today be expanded in the coming year.

Merry Christmas

And for your accompanyment through out your next 2:54 of browsing,

Manager's Edition

Wall Street Journal: "Mr. Obama promised a new era of transparent good government, yet on Saturday morning Mr. Reid threw out the 2,100-page bill that the world's greatest deliberative body spent just 17 days debating and replaced it with a new "manager's amendment" that was stapled together in covert partisan negotiations.

Democrats are barely even bothering to pretend to care what's in it, not that any Senator had the chance to digest it in the 38 hours before the first cloture vote at 1 a.m. this morning. After procedural motions that allow for no amendments, the final vote could come at 9 p.m. on December 24.

Even in World War I there was a Christmas truce.

The rushed, secretive way that a bill this destructive and unpopular is being forced on the country shows that "reform" has devolved into the raw exercise of political power for the single purpose of permanently expanding the American entitlement state.

An increasing roll of leaders in health care and business are looking on aghast at a bill that is so large and convoluted that no one can truly understand it, as Finance Chairman Max Baucus admitted on the floor last week. The only goal is to ram it into law while the political window is still open, and clean up the mess later."

Splendid.

Opposing Obamacare = Aryan Nation

"They are desperate to break this president. They have ardent supporters who are nearly hysterical at the very election of President Barack Obama. The birthers, the fanatics, the people running around in right-wing militias and Aryan support groups, it is unbearable to them that President Barack Obama should exist. That is one powerful reason. It is not the only one."

Texas Represenatation

So I took a look at the Roll Call of Senate Vote 381, on the closure of the discussion of the Health Care destruction bill.

Looking first to my Senators, I look at John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison, both of Texas.

You know, that bastion of Conservatism.

That state that is republican when all else fails, one of the crown jewels of the Regan revolution.

You know, the state W himself rode in on the clouds from.

So how did these statesmen of conservatism represent my state in the dark night of legislation?

Cornyn did not vote. Of 100 individuals in the Senate, only 2% opted out of this vote, with my senator representing half of this.

Hutchison, she went one step farther. Rather then attempting to mount a filibuster, rather then trying to fight for one more day in the hallowed halls of legislation that the senate resides in for the liberty of my people, rather then standing for what is right, Hutchison votes to end discussion. She votes to pass the bill. She votes to bring this nation to its knees in the coming decades by taking a meat cleaver to the ankles of a once mighty economy.

Which is worse, to take the cowards way out and hide from having principles and voting with them, or to join headlong the horrific descent into corruption and malicious law proffered by the democrat party.

The Human Element

Ah, the esteemed Senator Ben Nelson and his interactions with Reid others of his ilk prior to sacrificing my children's lives on the altar of fascist solutions.

AP: "By evening, the two sides took a break to consult with their respective constituencies. Nelson left Reid's suite, planning to return at 8:30 p.m. He called a leading anti-abortion activist in Nebraska, but was not able to get a commitment for the deal.

At 9:00 p.m. Nelson had yet to return. At 9:15, still no Nelson. Reid and Schumer started getting nervous. Finally, at 9:30, Nelson turned up. He and Boxer signed off on the deal within a half hour. Nelson came into Reid's office to say he'd hold off on a formal endorsement until the text of deal was released in the morning.

Reid and Nelson started to say goodnight, and wound up hugging each other. Nelson hugged Schumer next and then left.

Obama, aboard Air Force One on his way back from the climate summit in Copenhagen, called with congratulations. Reid put the president on speaker phone so Boxer and Schumer could hear.

After the deal became public Saturday, Nelson was slammed by former allies opposed to abortion. He tells people he feels like he's been bitten by the family dog."

Nelson Sells out Cheap

and the fascism of Reid-care marches relentlessly forward.

Washington Post:" Nelson secured full federal funding for his state to expand Medicaid coverage to all individuals below 133 percent of the federal poverty level. Other states must pay a small portion of the additional cost. He won concessions for qualifying nonprofit insurers and for Medigap providers from a new insurance tax. He also was able to roll back cuts to health savings accounts.

"I know this is hard for some of my colleagues to accept and I appreciate their right to disagree," Nelson told reporters at the Capitol, of the many changes made at his behest. "But I would not have voted for this bill without these provisions."

With Nelson on board, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid unveiled the final version of a sweeping overhaul of the nation's health insurance system that would expand coverage to an additional 31 million Americans, coming closer to attaining the Democrats' long sought goal of universal medical coverage."

Nelson has joined his fellow democrats in selling the freedoms of the nation for a blatant power grab. For what? A few more bucks for his state's medicare.

This snake will languish once again with the democrat brood of vipers infesting the senate, writhing fiercely away from reason, individual rights, and the bed rock of these United States.

With the votes now locked in place, I have little doubt that it will pass through the gates of the senate, and pass triumphantly across the desk of my President. Many of the most egregious provisions are not in place until 2014, well after the next presidential election. This gives us two terms of congressional action to remove this travesty of government.

But in the words of the wise, there is nothing so permanent as a temporary government program.

A merry Christmas indeed.

Obama's Healthcare Tweets

Why should this atrocity of legislation, Nationalized Healtare, be passed?

Well, obviously because it will make things better.... no, it will not.

Well, because it's a basic human right... no, it is certifiably not.

Well, because it's the only option America.... oh, nope.

Well, if all of those fail, then by golly, lets appeal to emotion! We are democrats obviously!

(Hat tip to Marshall Sherman)

Disarm!

In reference to the global warming farce, and the attempt at the Copenhagen envirofascism oracle,

one of the beacons of wisdom in the senate steps forth to call for mandatory emmisions supervision of all nations.

""The only way we'll be successful in America is for countries like China and India to make an equivalent commitment," said South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who's crafting a bipartisan climate bill. "We're not going to unilaterally disarm.""

Compassion Run Amuck

The Australian: "The lead negotiator for the small island nation of Tuvalu, the bow-tie wearing Ian Fry, broke down as he begged delegates to take tough action.

"I woke up this morning crying, and that's not easy for a grown man to admit," Mr Fry said on Saturday, as his eyes welled with tears.

"The fate of my country rests in your hands," he concluded, as the audience exploded with wild applause."

And, the real kicker:

"But the part-time PhD scholar at the Australian National University actually resides in Queanbeyan, NSW, where he's not likely to be troubled by rising sea levels because the closest beach at Batemans Bay is a two-hour, 144km drive away. Asked whether he had ever lived in Tuvalu, his wife told The Australian last night she would "rather not comment"."

Copenhagen Climate Conference: Farce!

Video Description:

"Journalist Phelim McAleer ('Mine Your Own Business', 'Not Evil Just Wrong') asks Prof Stephen Schneider from Stanford University an Inconvenient Question about 'Climategate' emails. McAleer is interrupted twice by Prof Schneider's assistant and UN staff and then told to stop filming by an armed UN security guard."

Covering this story, is Mike Flynn:

"McAleer says he has made an official complaint tabout the incident.

“I have met Mr Christopher Ankerson the UN’s head of security for the conference and he has confirmed it was Professor Schneider’s staff who asked the security guards to come corral us at the press conference. Mr Ankerson could not say what grounds the security guard had for ordering us to stop filming.”

“This is a blatant attempt to stop journalists doing journalism and asking hard questions. It is not the job of armed UN security officers to stop legitimate journalists asking legitimate questions of senior members of the UN’s IPCC.”

Professor Schneider was interviewed for McAleer’s “Not Evil Just Wrong” documentary but lawyers later wrote to McAleer saying he was withdrawing permission for the interview to be used."

Responses!

In response to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, KnightWing says:

"..."Those" people were Democrats."

Yes. They were.

John Fund writes in the Wall Street Journal:

"Historians also faulted Mr. Reid's curious reference to the Senate civil rights debates of the 1960s. After all, it was Southern Democrats who mounted an 83-day filibuster of the 1964 Civil Rights Bill.

The final vote to cut off debate saw 29 Senators in opposition, 80% of them Democrats. Among those voting to block the civil rights bill was West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd, who personally filibustered the bill for 14 hours.

The next year he also opposed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Mr. Byrd still sits in the Senate, and indeed preceded Mr. Reid as his party's majority leader until he stepped down from that role in 1989."

Also chiming in, K-Rod writes:

"What does slavery have to do with health care / insurance?"

Nothing....

Absolutely nothing.

Really, nothing.

It is nothing more then this.

Reid on Republican Opposition to National Destruction

"“If you think you’ve heard these same excuses before, you’re right,” Reid said. “When this country belatedly recognized the wrongs of slavery, there were those who dug in their heels and said, ‘Slow down, it’s too early, things aren’t bad enough.’ ”" (Hat tip to the Hill)

Environmental Distortions of Monday

Mr. D of Mr. Dilettante's Neighborhood sums it up nicely:
"...the Environmental Protection Agency has declared that CO2 is a pollutant. Not to put too fine a point on it, but if CO2 is a pollutant, I've been polluting the air with every breath I take. And unless the enforcement agents are cyborgs, they have been too. There isn't any activity that I undertake that isn't potentially subject to regulatory enforcement now. I'd suggest that if the EPA were really concerned about setting a good example, they could have all their bureaucrats stop breathing..."
(Further review of the EPA C02 power grab, and the Copenhagen party after the jump)

It's obvious that the Environmental Protection Agency (thanks, Nixon!) is no longer seeking the health of the environment and protecting our natural resources as its first priority. Rather, they seek to control the nation through the manipulative reins of environmental legislation.

Disgusting power grab, one that I fear is a decoy, a greater evil so we settle with a lesser evil. Not sure what it is yet, but keep your eyes peeled.

Cap & Trade Protests from the Far Left

Chicago Tribune: "As the group reached LaSalle and Adams streets, in front of the Chicago Climate Exchange, about a dozen protesters laid down in the street. Chicago police officers picked them up and put them in a squadrol. Other officers moved other activists off the street.

"We are saying no to cap-and-trade. We don't think it's a solution," said Kim Wasserman, coordinator for the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization. "We are demanding just climate change.""

The right hates this.

The left hates this.

Cap and Trade will not happen, at least in this session.

FTC dislikes free speech

AP: ""News is a public good," FTCChairman Jon Leibowitz said. "We should be willing to take action if necessary to preserve the news that is vital to democracy."

...Among the options being discussed: tax law changes that would allow media companies to earn tax credits or become tax-exempt entities, and copyright law changes that would force search engines and other online aggregrators to compensate media companies for the content they produce.

Also on the table is a proposed change in antitrust rules to allow newspapers to jointly negotiate payments from Web sites that use their content."

Great. So the government needs to take action to save a failing product, the current newspapers and networks.

How?

By paying them or turning them into non-profit entities.

By making search engines and blogs pay to use their material.

Brilliant.