Democrats promise to fix healthcare reform if they are re-elected
An interesting scenario is beginning to emerge in the mid-term elections–during a normal campaign incumbent candidates run on their accomplishments, but in this campaign Democrats are running from their accomplishments.
Sensing the anger among the American people with the way the Obama regime has conducted business–ie ramming healthcare reform through the Congress while ignoring the obvious message sent by the American people–Democrats have been trying to distance themselves from Barack Obama in an attempt to get re-elected. This is quite reminiscent of the way Republicans tried to win re-election in 2006, but now some Democrats are trying yet another tactic in their bids to be re-elected.
Judge allows healthcare reform challenges to move forward
Twenty states have filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the healthcare reform law–most notably the healthcare mandates included in the bill–and yesterday a judge cleared the way for the lawsuits to move forward. U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson stated that there were enough questions on the constitutionality of healthcare mandates to allow these lawsuits to proceed:
I have not attempted to determine whether the line between constitutional and extraconstitutional government has been crossed,” Vinson, of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, wrote in his ruling.”I am only saying that … the plaintiffs have at least stated a plausible claim that the line has been crossed
This is a blow to the Obama regime, which was trying to get these lawsuits thrown out. This judge did however throw out four of the six claims brought forth by the states but did rule that there is enough of a concern over one of the most contentious aspects of the new law–the constitutionality of forcing Americans to buy health insurance:
Group fined $20,000 for conducting an illegal push poll for the Paul Hodes campaign
During the Republican primary for the senate seat being vacated by retiring senator Judd Gregg, it became evident that somebody was conducting an illegal push poll against the presumptive nominee, Kelly Ayotte. All of her Republican primary opponents vehemently denied that they were involved in this poll, but the silence was deafening coming from the camp of the unopposed Democrat, Paul Hodes.
Paul Hodes’s campaign only stated that they would not comment on any “market research” that they conduct during the course of a campaign. This certainly seemed as if the Hodes campaign was responsible for this poll, the only question being whether or not this “market research” was an illegal push poll or whether it was legal.
The New Hampshire GOP promptly asked for an investigation into this push poll because it was fairly evident that somebody was targeting Kelly Ayotte in this poll and it was most likely her Democrat opponent in the general election. That investigation was granted and today we learned the results of that investigation.
Mountain West Research–a group conducting polling for the Paul Hodes campaign–was fined $20,ooo for conducting this push poll ending once and for all the false notion that Paul Hodes was simply conducting “market research” and proving that his campaign was actually engaged in an illegal push poll against Kelly Ayotte.
In a much publicized California court ruling earlier this week a judge ruled that the military’s policy regarding gays known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was unconstitutional and ordered the military to immediately put a stop to the policy. At that time is was unknown whether the Obama regime would appeal this decision or not, but comments by Robert Gibbs made it appear as though the president would indeed appeal this decision.
And today Barack Obama’s Department of Justice did just that, they have appealed the California court ruling. Barack Obama is going to defend this decision using the same argument he made in defense of appealing the Massachusetts court ruling which stated that the “Defense of Marriage Act” is unconstitutional; he is going to claim that while he personally feels the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy should be overturned he is forced to appeal this ruling because it is federal statute.
Barney Frank accepted a free trip from a hedge fund manager who received $200 million in federal bailout money
Barney Frank
Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank is one of the people who is considered to be duplicitous in the mortgage meltdown that led to the current recession. When President Bush tried to reform Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, it was none other than the Massachusetts congressman–who heads the House Financial Services Committee–who denied that there was any looming problem with the mortgage industry, while at the same time accusing the Bush administration of fear-mongering; we all know how disastrous Barney Frank’s lack of insight turned out to be. Barney Frank went on to state that even if these entities did become troubled the government would never become involved with bailing them out. We also know how untrue that statement turned out to be.
Now we are finding out that one of Barney Frank’s friends is S. Donald Sussman, who is the head of Paloma Partners. Why is this significant? Because Paloma Partners received $200 million in federal bailout money in 2009, shortly before the company gave Barney Frank a free vacation in the Virgin Islands with a free trip on a $25 million jet plane included.
Military ballots may not be counted in Illinois
Larry at Political Realities has written a couple of great posts on the issue of military ballots and the prospect that they will not be counted in the state of New York during the upcoming mid-term election.
As Larry wrote in his posts, New York appears to be in violation of the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act (MOVE) because they did not mail out absentee ballots to those serving our country overseas by the federally mandated deadline–as a result they may not be afforded the right to vote.
I can’t even begin to put into words how horrifying I find the prospect that our heroes who volunteer to serve this great nation, and in many cases put their lives on the line so that we may remain free, would be so disregarded by election officials in any state that they wouldn’t be afforded the opportunity to participate in the process that they defend on a daily basis.
But the story gets even worse as we have now learned that the state of New York is not alone in violating the most sacred of procedures in a constitutional republic to our military–the right to vote–because it now appears as if Illinois has also violated the MOVE act by not mailing out ballots to military personnel serving overseas. Veterans from Illinois serving overseas may not have their votes counted this November.
I do not think that I am overstating this one bit when I claim that this is absolutely unforgivable and inexcusable. The notion that people who choose to serve this country may not be able to participate in the process to choose the people that will represent them due to an official’s incompetence or lackadaisical attitude can be considered nothing less than an abomination.
Recently a couple of issues have arisen that have put Barack Obama in a tight spot. These two issues are both court decisions involving gay rights; the first is a Massachusetts court decision that ruled the “Defense of Marriage Act” unconstitutional and the second, and even more recent, a California court decision that ruled the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy unconstitutional, and has ordered the military to stop enforcing it.
Earlier this year a Massachusetts judge ruled that DOMA was unconstitutional based on the 10th amendment, ruling that states have the right to decide the issue of whether or not gay marriage should be legal in the individual states. I happen to agree with this decision, as I wrote in this post and my “About Me” page because I believe in states rights and believe gay marriage is a states rights issue.
New York Democrat seeking re-election brags about voting with Republicans 63% of the time
With the impending mid-term elections just around the corner and the president’s popularity continuing to wane we have seen many Democrats begin to distance themselves from Barack Obama. 47 Democrats have even gone so far as to claim that they disagree with the president’s position of letting the Bush tax cuts expire–a major campaign promise of Barack Obama’s.
As the election draws closer, more and more Democrats are trying to sell the American people on the idea that they are not responsible for any of Barack Obama’s failed policies even though they are duplicitous in their passage, but one Democrat–Bill Owens of New York–is taking the anti-Obama sentiment to a whole new level.
Over the course of the last year and a half the Tea Party and Republicans have been linked–some of this has been done by Republicans who are anxious to catch the wave, while some of this has been done by the media and the Democrats while trying to discredit both the Tea Party and the Republicans at the same time–and in many cases they do seem closely aligned. This is mostly because of the former scenario above–Republicans are trying to associate themselves with the Tea Party.
The Republicans see the Tea Party as a tool to help them regain power and while the Tea Party might provide them with a conduit to regain power, what the Republicans need to understand is the Tea Party goes beyond partisan politics. This is more of an anti-establishment movement rather than an anti-Democrat movement. Sure the Republicans stand to gain from this–at this point–but only because it is the Democrats who are now in power.
This is something that many in the blogosphere have been trying to get across to the Republicans. While the Tea Party sees many new up and coming Republican candidates as the answer to the Obama regime and entrenched politicians in Washington, they had better be prepared to uphold the values and positions they ran on. If they do not they will be held accountable. We will vote them out just as fast as we voted them in.
This is a notion which I am not sure the Republicans fully understand just yet.
New Hampshire election projections from UNH pollster
With the mid-term elections just a few weeks away, I read an article in the New Hampshire Union Leader entitled “For Republicans, it’s ‘2006 in reverse’” that I found interesting. The article was written about projections that Andrew Smith , director of the UNH Survey Center, made at a recent event.
I have been hopeful that this would be the year that New Hampshire would begin to swing back to the right after the Democrats have spent the state into near bankruptcy over the last several years, and all indications are that–for the most part–New Hampshire may be ready to do just that.
Andrew Smith–from the not exactly right-leaning UNH Survey Center–is predicting New Hampshire Republicans will have a great showing in November.
America's Watchtower 