"Victory or Death!"

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Five part video of Newt Gingrich's speech at David Horowitz's Restoration Weekend.

Wednesday Hero

This Weeks Post Was Suggested & Written By Greta

This week's Wednesday Hero is both an individual, and a group. The group we honor are the milblogs: the military blogs, spouse blogs, and support blogs who bring you the news and information you can get nowhere else. The information and news that matter to you. The individual we honor today is C. J. Grisham.

Army Master Sgt. C. J. Grisham has always led from the front, from combat that earned him the Bronze Star with V device, to doing right by the men he led. His honesty won him readership and respect, from the White House on down. Yet, when he stood up for his children in school, his command did not stand by him. You can read more at Military Times to get the full story.

Please donate via PayPal; or you can log into PayPal on your own, go to the send money page, and put in his email: dj_chcknhawk AT yahoo DOT com; or, you can send donations directly to:

Grisham Legal Fund
c/o Redstone Federal Credit Union
220 Wynn Drive
Huntsville, AL 35893
Please write "Grisham Legal Fund" in the memo line if you use this option.

Milblogs have been a vital link in getting accurate news and information about the military, and military operations, to you. Today, many milblogs are gone and others are under attack from within and without. Today, you have the chance to imagine a world without milblogs, and to do something about it. Make your voice heard by writing your congressional representatives and others, and by making donations as you see fit.

The battle for freedom of speech and the marketplace of ideas is fought on many fronts and in many ways. Without your help, the battle may well be lost.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

Lieberman Rules Out Voting for Health Bill

NYTimes
by ROBERT PEAR and DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

...In a surprise setback for Democratic leaders, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, said on Sunday that he would vote against the health care legislation in its current form.

...But on Sunday, Mr. Lieberman told the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, to scrap the idea of expanding Medicare and abandon any new government insurance plan or lose his vote.

...On a separate issue, Mr. Reid tried over the weekend to concoct a compromise on abortion that would induce Senator Ben Nelson, Democrat of Nebraska, to vote for the bill. Mr. Nelson opposes abortion. Any provision that satisfies him risks alienating supporters of abortion rights.

In interviews on the CBS News program “Face the Nation,” Mr. Lieberman and Mr. Nelson said the bill did not have the 60 votes it would need in the Senate.

...Marshall H. Wittmann, a spokesman for Mr. Lieberman, said the Connecticut senator “notified Senator Reid on Friday that he had severe misgivings about the Medicare buy-in proposal, so his comments on ‘Face the Nation’ should not have come as a surprise to the leadership.”

The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said that passage of the bill was looking less and less inevitable. The Democrats “are in serious trouble on this,” he said, “and the core problem is the American people do not want us to pass it.”

...Mr. Lieberman said he would have “a hard time” voting for a bill with the Medicare buy-in.

“It has some of the same infirmities that the public option did,” he said. “It will add taxpayer costs. It will add to the deficit. It’s unnecessary. The basic bill, which has a lot of good things in it, provides a generous new system of subsidies for people between ages 55 and 65, and choice and competition.”

...Even if Senate Democratic leaders were prepared to meet Mr. Lieberman’s demands, they would still need to resolve intraparty disputes over insurance coverage for abortion.

Aides to Mr. Reid met Saturday with advocates of abortion rights to explore ideas for a compromise.

...Details were sketchy. Under one idea, some health plans receiving federal subsidies could offer optional coverage for abortion, but they could not use federal money to pay for the procedure. They would have to use money taken from premiums paid by subscribers and would have to keep it separate from federal money.

Critics of abortion say such requirements for the segregation of funds are an accounting gimmick.

Rest of article at above link.

$71,206: Not Bad For Gov't Work

investors.com

...Hypocrisy: Sen. Max Baucus' office defends his girlfriend's big pay raise by pointing to the raises others living off the taxpayer spigot got. What sympathy for the 10% of Americans suffering unemployment.

If you didn't think the Democrats in power in Washington are doing enough to spark a people's rebellion, just look at their latest shenanigans.

Congress is raising the federal debt ceiling by as much as $1.8 trillion in hopes that next October, when Republicans will be pounding them on this, voters won't remember what they were up to way back in December of 2009.

But that astronomical amount is twice what was baked into their budget resolution earlier this year. When asked about so much red ink, House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, D-Wis., just shrugged and told the Politico: "The credit card has already been used. When you get the bill in the mail you need to pay it."

Except that it isn't Obey or House Speaker Nancy Pelosi or Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid or President Barack Obama paying for the trillions they have racked up on their American Excess card. It's you, the long-suffering American taxpayer.

...How about a little belt-tightening for the federal government at a time of double-digit joblessness, you ask? None of the 7-million-plus who have lost private-sector jobs should bet their unemployment check on it.

...Delving into the details is even more galling. At the outset of the recession, for example, the Transportation Department had one employee salaried at $170,000 or more. Now, only 18 months later, it has 1,690. With fewer Americans driving or taking mass transit to work, what are those thousands of supertalented transportation bureaucrats doing that warrant so much extra cash? Counting the empty seats on the commuter trains?

...Somehow the Obama administration's national "pay czar," lawyer Kenneth Feinberg, who goes around dictating the compensation decisions of private-sector firms for their mid-level executives, hasn't noticed the wads of questionable extra cash Uncle Sam is handing out during these tough times.

...So with all these leeches of the state whooping it up, why wouldn't a powerful Senate committee chairman not give a hefty raise to his best gal? Baucus, the Montana Democrat who chairs the tax-writing Senate Finance panel, authorized a pay raise of close to $14,000 to staffer Melodee Hanes last year, as he was becoming sexually involved with her. Baucus was separated from his now ex-wife at the time.

...As the Politico reports, a few months later Baucus took Hanes "on a taxpayer-funded trip to Vietnam and the Middle East, though foreign policy was not her specialty." In Washington, they call that on-the-job training — except that Baucus then nominated her for U.S. attorney in Montana, where Asian and Arab expertise is rarely useful in court.

A Baucus spokesman's excuse: "Ms. Hanes' salary increased by the exact same amount as our legislative director and less than our chief of staff." Does the senator really think that makes the 7 million ordinary Joes without work feel better?

Rest of article at above link.

President George W. Bush: A Class Act (Where's Barack?)

politicalpolicy.net

...President Bush will always be remembered as one of the military's favorite Presidents. After the Ft. Hood massacre he and the former first lady secretly visited the victims of the shooting to pay their respects. As reported in "A Soldier's Perspective" on November 7, "

Former President George W. Bush secretly visited Ft. Hood last night to meet with the victims of the troops affected by the recent massacre at the hands of a Muslim extremist within our ranks. This is typical for President Bush who worked hard during his presidency not to use the military for political gain, especially when it came to wounded troops and their families. He made many unannounced and unpublicized visited to military bases in and out of the country. He invited military bloggers, myself included, to meet with him one on one without fanfare or media. That's the way he was and I'm glad to see that he has continued this respect and admiration for our military".

When President Bush gave his farewell address to his troops he received heartfelt respect from his troops. Direct from the U.S. Dept. of Defense's website are the following testimonies from our servicemen at former President Bush's farewell address to the troops at Andrews Air Force base on Jan. 20,2009:

Air Force Col. Steven Shepro, commander of the 316th Wing said, “It’s like saying goodbye to an old friend.”

“We’re all here to honor our former honor in chief as he departs,” said Army Sgt. Tyler Murray, one of six members of the 3rd Infantry Regiment “The Old Guard” to serve in the joint service honor guard. “President Bush has looked out for his troops, and we’re here to honor him.”

...President Bush's parting comments to the troops was, "I've had a lot of great experiences as President. But none has been better than leading military members who have volunteered to serve the country in a time of danger." President Bush said he'll miss being commander in chief and being able to stand in front of the troops to tell them "how much we respect you and how much we admire you."

...Two questions remain as to President Obama's relationship with the military, (1) where was President Obama when the hospitalized Ft. Hood military victims could have benefited from some solace from their current commander-in-chief? and (2) at the end of his Presidential term will he be viewed by the military with the same respect and regard as President George W. Bush?

The answer to number (1) is clear. President Obama doesn't seem to want to jeopardize his "politically correct" alliances with the Muslim world to be seen comforting one of their follower's victims. Maybe the answer to number (2) can be summed up in the following video, showing a cadet's reaction to President Obama's Afghanistan strategy speech at West Point, i.e., indifference.

Harry Reid is Wrong on History and Wrong on Health Reform

US News & World Report
by Michelle D. Bernard
Michelle D. Bernard is president and CEO of the Independent Women's Forum and an MSNBC political analyst.

...I am black. I am a woman. And, with all due respect, I think Harry Reid has lost his mind.


Yesterday, on the Senate floor, Majority Leader Reid compared those who oppose his healthcare reform package to those who opposed ending slavery, fought against women's suffrage, and thwarted civil rights. What's next, Holocaust comparisons

Many assume that given my race and gender, I would support the Senate health reform bill as a savior of the masses. I do not. And thousands, if not millions, of blacks, Hispanics, women, low-income, and at-risk communities feel the same.

There are many reasons why I don't support the proposed healthcare legislation. I worry about how Congress's regulations will drive up insurance premiums, a "public" option might strangle private health insurance, employer mandates might exacerbate the job crisis, and that ultimately this program will add to our already exploding debt.

...I firmly believe that decisions about my care should be left between me and doctor. I worry that for millions of American women, these kinds of personal choices will increasingly become influenced by government bureaucrats.

We recently got a glimpse into the role that the government could play in making healthcare decisions. A federal task force recommended against annual mammogram exams and regular breast self-exams for women under age 50. They calculated that the costs of all of the false-positives that are created by screening women (like me) in their forties aren't worth the number of lives saved.

...Many doctors were alarmed by the recommendations. An impassioned Dr. Daniel Kopans at Harvard Medical School said: "Tens of thousands of lives are being saved by mammography screening, and these idiots want to do away with it. It's crazy—unethical, really." And beyond the effects of the change in policy, doctors worry about the confusing messages that recommendations like these send.

...This is particularly true for minority communities. African-American women are nearly 40 percent more likely than white women to die of the disease. The mortality rate for black women under 50 is 77 percent higher than for white women.

...There was a public outcry about the mammogram recommendations, and the Senate has amended its legislation specifically to protect and encourage the use of women's preventative services. Yet this should be little comfort to those concerned about the potential consequences of more government involvement in healthcare.

...Americans want a better healthcare system—but they don't want government bureaucrats dictating care options and restricting the availability of certain treatments.

...If comparisons to slavery are now fair game, Majority Leader Reid should consider this one. In 1839, slaves being transported on the ship La Amistad revolted and killed many of those holding them captive; when the matter was eventually taken up by the Supreme Court, the would-be slaves were found not guilty of wrongdoing and were freed. Today, Reid and members of Congress are steering America toward a land of government-run healthcare, in spite of the fact that polls consistently show that most Americans don't want to go in that direction. Just 27 percent of Americans polled have a favorable view of Congress, and just about 40 percent of Reid's constituents plan to vote for him again.

It's not a perfect analogy, but I hope it gets a point across: If Reid and his fellow congressman continue on their present course, they may be facing a mutiny of their own.

Rest of article at above link.

51% of SC Republicans Say Party Should Be More Like DeMint Than Graham

Rasmussen Reports

Two of the most influential Republicans in the U.S. Senate these days come from South Carolina, Jim DeMint and Lindsey Graham. But Graham’s efforts to work with majority Democrats on some issues has angered many GOP voters in the state, even prompting efforts to censure him.

Fifty-one percent (51%) of Republican voters in South Carolina say the GOP should be more like DeMint, who’s a staunch conservative, than like Graham, according to a new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the state.

Thirty-two percent (32%) of the state’s Republican voters think the party should model itself more after Graham, and 18% are not sure which one is the best role model.

Among all voters in the state, 38% say Republicans should be more like DeMint, while 32% say they should be like Graham. Thirty percent (30%) aren’t sure.

Sixty-five percent (65%) of South Carolina Republicans have a favorable view of Graham, but 85% feel that way about DeMint. Republicans are nearly twice as likely to have a very favorable view of DeMint compared to his fellow GOP senator – 57% to 30%.

Perhaps more tellingly, 18% of GOP voters have a very unfavorable view of Graham, while just three percent (3%) say the same of DeMint.

...Graham leads DeMint by 22 points among voters who strongly favor the health care plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats. But he trails his fellow senator by 27 points among those who strongly oppose the plan.

The bad news for Graham is that in South Carolina, as in most of the country, those who strongly oppose the plan (48%) far outnumber those who strongly support it (27%).

Rest of article at above link.