This is a seemingly simple question with what was once an obvious answer. Congress represents the will of the people of course! Senators and House Members reflect the will of the people of their constituencies. Most high schoolers will explain this one of the key principles  and basis for the Separation of Powers that keeps the checks and balances between the 3 branches of government in check.  Preventing any one branch from dominating the will of the people. This basic principle seems lost this past year with the President practically COMMANDING that Congress do his bidding.  Well not so fast.   Seems like most Americans have not forgotten their history and civics classes so quickly that they don’t see what is going on under this administration.

Obama would now have his own Democrats turn their backs on the very voices of the people who voted them into office. Why? All in the name of his insatiable ego and pride of passing any kind of a Health Care bill, even a severely flawed one rip, shit or bust!  He apparently has no shame or concern even for the ethics of the members of his own party let alone any effort to respect the will of the vast majority of people in this country that wants them to slow down and make changes incrementally that make sense. (See any of the recent polls showing over 75% Americans are opposed to ramming this bill down their throats.) The back room promises are being made hot and heavy to the House Representatives this week.  That “trust me” the Senate will make the changes you want to the bill later just please vote for the bill as is even if you don’t like it.  We will fix it later… Trust me… says Obama.

This White House seems to have one insatiable agenda… to change the fundamental economic foundation of America and shift it from a free enterprise system to a system of strong centralized government power with strong socialistic big brother policy making overtones.  A system closely predicated on what were once considered flawed pseudo-Marxist and socialist economic principles but of course those words will never be used from the Presidential podium.

If Democrats have any common sense at all, they WON’T take a fall for this President, Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid and other radical progressives who are all turning a deaf ear on the people of America. Moderate Democrats will be left out to hang by this administration.  The elitism in Obama truly believes he know what’s best for all of us and that we are all too ignorant to make our own decisions and we need the U.S. Government to run our lives for us.

My prediction is that individual rights and liberties, the fundamental basis for social freedom, will become even more eroded with the appetite for passing more central government controls running rampant as the white stars and stripes begin to seem more like yellow stars on a red background.

Global snow job…

We have been remiss on keeping up with the news lately.  I have been on sabbatical so to speak starting up a new company to help out the small business community locally.  In particular the contracting trade that has been hit hard by the recession. These folks, upon which most home owners depend for remodeling and home maintenance, are getting crushed right now.

I spoke to one contractor and he said he has not seen it this bad in the 20 years he has been doing residential remodeling in the Florida area.  The same story all across the nation… in fact probably world wide.

We will continue to post news here and political commentary, but I am also planning to set up a new look and feel for the site which has been active (up until rather recently) for more than 7 years.  We plan to occasionally give some air time to the plight of the very small business owners who are struggling right now under the weight of the State and Federal tax structure and of course the number of workers who are losing their jobs while the White House and Congress insist in driving a square peg into a round healthcare hole.

Look forward to getting back in the saddle again. I would like to thank a number for contributing authors for submitting posts during my absence from the scene…    ZZ Bachman

The Healthscare Travesty is just the tip of the iceberg with respect more government control of your life for your own good. We now are hearing from Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano, trying to convince us on Meet The Press this past Sunday that “the [security] system worked” while in less than 24 hours  she admits that the “system failed”.  Frankly we resent Napolitano’s feeble attempt of taking credit for the heroism of the Dutch passenger aboard the Detroit flight, somehow implying that he and the other passangers were part of the “system that worked”.  The system however that she is responsible for is the system that was supposed to prevented that slimball from getting on that flight in the first place!  How will the TSA respond?  Well they are already working with the FAA to put a policy in place that passangers must sit with their hands on the knees, no books or any materials in hand, for the last hour of a flight.  What??  Restrain the very part of the so called system, “the passengers themselves” that in fact worked!

Politics and spinning every event in a good light for the administration has no place in this cabinet post. Especially when done with that smirk on her face.  The current “politically correct” anti-profiling approach for screening suspected terrorists and handcuffing the FBI and CIA does not inspire a warm and fuzzy feeling that the present adminstration is at war with Terrorism.  In fact when will Obama take a stand and use the words War on Terror.  Fighting a war with your hands tied behind your back is a sure formula for an enemy triumph.

The answer from Homeland Security is to add even more burdens on the American people in airports rather then enforcing the no fly list and using aggressive profiling targeting know suspects that are in our databases.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano conceded Monday that airline security failed in allowing a Nigerian on a terror watch list and allegedly armed with explosives onto a Detroit-bound flight, a turnaround from her declaration a day day earlier that “the system worked.”

The secretary’s comment Sunday was widely criticized, given that suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was foiled because his explosive mixture did not properly detonate and he was stopped in his tracks by vigilant passengers.

The suspect, who carried the explosive in his underwear, passed through security at two airports — in Nigeria and Amsterdam, Netherlands. Plus he was not on any “no-fly” list, even though he was on a massive federal database of people with suspected ties to terrorists and his father apparently had warned U.S. embassy officials in Nigeria about his son.

“Here, clearly, something went awry. We want to fix that problem,” Napolitano told Fox News on Monday.

She said officials are doing a complete review to determine what needs to change to prevent such a passenger from clearing security in the future.

“No secretary of homeland security would sit here and say that a system worked prior to this incident which allowed this individual to get on this plane,” Napolitano said.

Her comments marked a change in tone from the day before, when she lauded security officials’ handling of the affair.

“I think the important thing to recognize here is that once this incident occurred, everything happened that should have,” she said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “We trained for this. We planned for this.”

On CNN’s “State of the Union,” she said: “One thing I’d like to point out is that the system worked.”

The statement was swiftly condemned. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., told CBS’ “Face the Nation” that the system “failed in every respect.”

One has to wonder if there is any integrity at all left in our political leadership? Now we have learned that Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska was bought off behind closed doors to secure his “60th” vote for the passage of the now purely political Health Scare bill. So I ask you… Is the good Senator from Nebraska any better than the average street walking prostitute in D.C.? This revelation demonstrates once again just to what depths in the cloak of political desperation this present “leadership” in Congress has sunk. The bill being drafted behind closed doors. The blockage of the reading of the bill on the Senate floor by Harry Reid. The list is endless.

The Senate and the House, the once shining example and benchmark of democracy throughout the world, has now become a hypocritical embarrassment to all Americans, Democrat or Republican.

What started as Sen. Ben Nelson’s personal stand against covering abortion with taxpayer money translated, somehow, into millions of dollars in federal aid for his home state.

The Nebraska Democrat, following weeks of negotiations with his caucus, finally agreed to back the Senate’s health care reform bill this weekend after Democratic leaders made a series of concessions. Nelson’s support gives Democrats the 60 votes they need to overcome a filibuster, barring any last-minute defections.

But critics by Sunday were heavily questioning Nelson’s motivations, given that the abortion restrictions he sought and won did not satisfy several major anti-abortion lawmakers and groups and that it took a major federal payoff to his state to seal the deal.

Critics were calling it the “cornhusker kickback” and the “Nebraska windfall,” lobbing accusations of political deal-making at Nelson.

“It’s pretty obvious votes have been bought,” Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., said.

Nelson did win restrictions on abortion coverage, which is what he sought for weeks. Under the compromise, states would be permitted to ban insurance coverage of abortions in policies sold in the exchanges, except in cases of rape, incest or when the life of the mother is in jeopardy. In states where such coverage is permitted, consumers must notify their insurance company they want it, and pay for it separately.

There is a buzz that Harry Reid will try to ram the Health Care Bill through the Senate on Christmas Eve in an effort to get something, anything passed. Parliamentary procedures have also been violated today when motion to read the bill was by-passed by Harry Reid in an effort to ram the bill through the Senate before Christmas recess. He is really expecting Senators to vote on a bill without having time to read it! Many Democrats are smart enough to say NO to such an insane idea.

Moderate Democrats are also becoming more outraged at the tactics being taken by the far left in their party behind closed doors. Nancy Pelosi has also adjourned the House of Representatives until January of next year.

The President’s reaction? President Obama is reported to having said that America will go bankrupt if the Health Care Bill is not passed! This is one of the most deseperate irresponsible statements yet from the President. The impact that such a comment might have on the U.S. Dollar is likely to be impacted as a result of a shoot from the hip remark like that. The fact of the matter is that its the recent spend spend spend and borrow borrow borrow actions of the Congress and the Administration which are in fact the actions that is pushing the country even further into debt.

Rather than take practical steps like TORT REFORM (ending frivolous lawsuits which everyone knows drives costs up) this Congress is hell bent on turning our entire health care system into a socialized welfare program despite the vast disapproval of the American people. Most Americans (Rasmussen poll today) think that more effort should be focused on rising employment than Health Care. They are hell bent on driving a square peg into a round hell simply to drive a political agenda thumbing their noses at the American people in the process.

It is becoming very clear to moderate Americans that Obama is bitting off way more that our country can handle at a time when our economy can least afford it. A reflection of his lack of real executive leadership experience perhaps. A stronger leader would have cut his losses on Health Care if for nothing else to keep his own party from melting down!

Any comments???

The hypocrisy of the leftist House of Representatives lead by Nancy Peolosi continues to be flaunted before the American voter’s faces…  They bury a resolution to sanction Rep. Charles Rangel, D-NY on a Wednesday afternoon when they felt no one was looking…

“House Democrats were quick to strike down the measure to remove Rangel,
who represents New York’s Harlem district, from his post.”

“Pay your taxes or step down !”

That’s the message House Republicans are sending to Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., chairman of the powerful tax-writing Ways and Means Committee and subject of a major ethics probe into alleged tax evasion and other violations.

House Republicans on Wednesday attempted to pass a resolution to oust Rangel from his chairmanship following the reading of a long and stinging list of alleged wrongdoing.  The measure stemmed from a major ethics probe into Rangel’s alleged failure to pay his taxes and disclose income on multiple properties — as much as $1.3 million.

But House Democrats were quick to strike down the measure to remove Rangel, who represents New York’s Harlem district, from his post.  House Republicans refused to accept defeat of the resolution, and asked for a second recorded vote following the first.  The reading of the resolution was interrupted several times, and at one point was challenged by Democrats before being put to a vote.

A representative from Rangel’s office on Wednesday blasted the resolution as a “highly partisan effort.”

“Let’s look at this resolution for what it really is — a highly partisan effort designed to undermine the important work in Congress on health care reform,” the representative, who declined to be named, told FOX News.

“It’s also an attempt to circumvent House rules, which provide for a comprehensive, bipartisan ethics committee process for reviewing matters such as these,” the Rangel aide said. “The congressman himself initiated the request for the committee to review the issues and the members should let the process work as established by the rules of the House.”

More…

Romney who has real world executive experience in reforming health-care in the State of Massachusetts has a few pointers for Obama. Probably made out of pity. Fundamentally Obama, reset, and get both sides of the aisle on board using a collaborative approach with a NON POLITICAL AGENDA when addressing this very personal program. His biggest mistake was punting this program’s design to Pelosi and Reid.

Romney on Obama’s Push for Health-Care Reform: Slow Down
Katie Connolly / Newsweek

In the last two weeks, political commentators have expressed doubts over President Obama’s time frame for health-care reform. Meanwhile, even some Democratic lawmakers appear to be getting cold feet. In response, Obama is relentlessly pitching his plan. He has spoken about health care on eight out of the last nine days, and he’s scheduled to hold a town-hall meeting on the topic this Thursday. Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney is one of the few politicians in the country with first-hand experience of steering major health-care reform through the legislative process. The reforms he enacted in Massachusetts have been criticized for being costly, but they’ve also managed to extend coverage to a significant number of uninsured people. By 2007, the proportion of uninsured people in Massachusetts was the lowest in the country.

I spoke to Romney about his experience with health-care reform this morning. His cautionary words for Obama? Slow down. Here are some excerpts from our conversation:

What do you think needs to happen over the next couple of weeks if President Obama’s deadline for health-care reform is to be met?

I think the president ought to hit the reset button. I think it is critical that he have the participation, involvement, and support of people on both sides of the aisle, as well as people in various sectors of the health economy. If we are going to have a dramatic shift in the nature of so large a part of our economy, then it needs to be something that has been thoroughly vetted and has received great support. Out of a desire to move very quickly, while his support is highest, he has skipped the critical steps of educating, involving, and evolving his own plans to meet the perspectives of the great majority of our citizens.

It sounds like you are encouraging the president to slow down. Aren’t there risks in delaying?

He’s in a very difficult position. We faced a very similar question [in Massachusetts] as we began our process. We spent over two years putting together a health-care plan and then building support for it on both sides of the aisle—working with hospitals, providers, doctors, business groups, labor groups, advocates for the poor. We involved all of these parties, and it took a long time, but what we ended up with was a bill that passed the legislature— if you combine the House and the Senate—198 to 2.