68 years ago, Americans around the nation settled into a peaceful Thanksgiving weekend and celebrated with their loved ones. A week later, the nation was viciously attacked by Japan – an attack that sparked our involvement in perhaps the greatest of all wars.

This Thanksgiving holiday is different from that weekend. While we should likewise celebrate and give thanks for our innumerable blessings, this time, the American people are staring at an attack on our nation and can stop it. This attack is coming from within. The Obama/Reid/Pelosi healthcare bill – in its various forms - is an assault on the American way of life and an affront to all the generations before us who fought to preserve and protect our cherished freedoms.

Why? Because the bill will eliminate your God-given ability to care for your family according to YOUR wishes and YOUR conscience. It will insert Washington D.C., and the incompetent bureaucrats who live there, into your hospital room, your doctor’s office, your insurance company, your home and ultimately, into your personal health decisions. As analyzed here, the bill is loaded with active-government terms like “shall,” “tax,” and “require.” And, even a cursory review of the text will show how much power this bill gives Washington to interfere with your healthcare (you know, the town that brought you the TARP bailout, Katrina-relief and over $12 Trillion in debt and counting…). Qualifications, panels, reports, studies, mandatory insurance whether you want it or not, penalties, taxes, fees, mandates on coverage but restrictions on prices… and 2079 pages of non-stop assaults on your right to live free and care for your family as you see fit.

Say hello to lines, waiting rooms, priority lists and more expensive, less effective healthcare. Say goodbye to freedom.

That is, unless you act now. It is your job – indeed, it is your duty – to talk to your friends and family this weekend and in the coming weeks. Call them to action. Other than our fine men and women in uniform fighting around the world, there is nothing more important that you can be doing right now to preserve our children’s birthright – heirs to the greatest nation the world has ever known.

Read over the bill. Read summaries. Whatever you need to do. Try the Heritage Foundation’s website, http://fixhealthcarepolicy.com/. Then… pause the football games and take a break from the turkey and cranberry sauce. Talk to friends and family this weekend. Explain it to them.

Then… next week, when the Senate come back in session - call your Senator. Email more friends. Email more family. Then… Call your Senator AGAIN. Don’t stop. Repeat. Then… call Senators on the fence. And, feel free to start with Senators Ben Nelson (R-NE), Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), and Mary Landrieu (D- LA). They represent solidly red states - and need to have their feat held to the fire. The list of Senate office phone numbers can be found here. Shut their phones down. Flood their offices. Visit their offices.

The American people can win this, but only if you take action to stop it. There is one thing that elected representatives fear - and that is YOU, the American people. Celebrate Thanksgiving this year in the American way - by fighting for freedom and working hard to preserve this, the last best earthly hope for mankind.

While I hesitate to waste even a few seconds of my God-given time on this planet responding to Media Matters (you know, the “progressive” Media Matters… a 501(c)(3), tax-exempt organization dedicated to “comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media..”), with respect to this monstrocity of a bill, I SHALL “leave everything on the field” as they say.

So, in response to my post earlier titled “Words Mean Things,” in which I list just a few of the many words in the Senate health care bill that highlight the massive amount of power given to government at the expense of freedom, Media Matters wrote this dismissal.

What is so laughable about the liberal - er, uh, I mean “progressive” school of thought is the fact it simply ignores the Constitution until it suits “progressive” purposes (such as killing babies in the name of privacy - I wonder if Media Matters will do a word search for “privacy” or “penumbra” in the Constitution - but I digress), and even when “progressives” do tacitly acknowledge its existence, they ignore the rich history of its adoption.

The Constitution was, of course, the result of significant negotiation and compromise. Whether one agrees with the federalists of the day, the anti-federalists of the day, or finds himself in between - the reality is that the Constitution was all about power. That was its purpose. It’s a CONSTITUTION. It’s purpose was, and is, to use words like shall, may and tax, and to do so in a way that would be an acceptable balance of the power it would authorize.

Now, everyone with an elementary understanding of the history of our nation’s adoption of the U.S. Constitution understands this simple concept. They also understand that the Constitution was one that limited the powers given to the central or national government - and that by so limiting that power, any legislation offered by the Congress would not be about power-grabbing, but about focused legislation constrained by the limits imposed by the Constitution.

No one who has even an ounce of respect for the Constitution would suggest that this Obama/Reid Senate healthcare bill, the Pelosi House healthcare bill, or any variation thereof, fit within the limits given the national government.

They don’t.

The Senate healthcare bill has numerous flaws – but you needn’t know the details to know that it erodes freedom, restricts your ability to care for your family according to your wishes, costs trillions of dollars, increases taxes, increases premiums and is so massive that it is impossible to comprehend fully. In fact, the 2074 page behemoth in the Senate is an interesting study in word choices that tell you all you need to know about the bill. See below for a list of select words – and I am not the only one to do such a review (I noticed, e.g., Lee DeCovnick over at American Thinker from yesterday here).

The word “shall” appears 3607 times, but “freedom” only twice. The word “penalty” and its various forms 163 times, but “liberty” doesn’t appear at all. The word “require” and its forms 1025 times, but the “Constitution” is absent both literally and figuratively. The word tax and its forms appears 183 times, fee 234 times, and “Internal Revenue” 104 times. Other words like apply, rule, culture, diverse, enforce, provide, authority - all words that appear repeatedly, while a word like “own” appears only 11 times. See the full list below. It is quite telling.

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Call your Senator right now. Use this link to bypass the congressional switchboard.

Tell your Senator to vote NO on cloture for the motion to proceed to debate.

If the health care legislation goes to debate, Harry Reid will start offering amendments to pick off votes.

Call your Senator right now. Tell them both that a yes vote on cloture is a vote for the health care bill. The Congressional Research Service’s latest study proves that.

There is a study out today that is damaging to the Democrats efforts to pass health care in the Senate.

On Saturday, when constituents cannot contact their Senators’ offices because they’ll be closed, the United States Senate will vote on a cloture motion to debate the health care legislation.

This is important — a vote in favor of cloture on the motion to proceed (a parliamentary issue) is, in effect, a vote for the health care legislation. Why? Because Harry Reid has enough votes to pass the health care legislation by a simple majority, but he does not have the 60 votes necessary to proceed to debate, any Senator voting for cloture is voting for the health care plan.

Roll Call reports that according to the Congressional Research Service, “[a] study of Senate voting patterns shows the chamber has approved more than 97 percent of all bills subject to a cloture motion to begin debate — a finding that could undercut Democratic efforts to paint a key health care vote on Saturday as procedural.”

In fact, “since 1999 the Senate has approved 97.6 percent of all bills when lawmakers first voted to begin debate.”

Some Senators, like Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, want the health care legislation to pass, but know politically she would lose if she voted for it. So unless pressure is brought to bear on her and others, she may vote “yes” on cloture for the motion to proceed and then try to hide behind a no vote later.

We cannot let that happen. Call your two Senators all day today and demand they vote no on the motion to proceed. The phone number to call is 202-224-3121.

There is still much to learn about the Senate health care plan, but we know a few things already.

The Senate bill does not have a price tag. The Democrats are touting a cost of $849 billion, but that number is a fabrication.

From Please click here for the rest of the post.Roll Call we learn that “one Senate Democratic leadership staffer acknowledged that the cost estimate did not even represent an official preliminary score from the CBO but was a representation of “preliminary feedback” that Reid has gotten from the nonpartisan Congressional agency.”

In other words, we do not know how much it will actually cost.

We also know that the Senate has severely weakened the pro-life language of the legislation. It comes no where close to the Stupak amendment language.

We also know that the legislation purports to cut the deficit. How? By massive and painful tax increases, including raising the payroll tax on medicare.

Finally, we know that now some Democrats are leaning against a vote on the “motion to proceed.” Any Senator who votes for the motion to proceed is, in effect, voting for the legislation. Harry Reid needs all sixty of the Democrats.

Under the unique rules of the United States Senate, a member of the body may insist legislation actually be read before a vote is cast on the legislation.

After threatening to do that, Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) has now confirmed the health care bill must be read. Republicans will also try to filibuster the health care legislation. The Democrats will need 60 votes to proceed, which they will try to get sometime around Friday.

Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), Ben Nelson (D-NE), and Bill Nelson (D-FL) are key votes on this. If those three Democrats vote to end the filibuster, they are, in effect, voting for passage of the health care legislation — voting to end the filibuster and against final passage is a clever way Democrats up for re-election have found to pass bills they love, but know they cannot support.

They ensure the legislation has enough votes to pass by a simple majority and then vote to end the filibuster, which requires a super majority. Then these erstwhile Democrats vote against the legislation’s actual passage knowing it will pass even if they vote no.

I suspect voters will remember these tricks next year and punish them.

Or simply… thoughtful?

[Former President Bill] Clinton delivered the keynote address at the party’s Jefferson Jackson Dinner, the kickoff to the 2010 campaign in Delaware — a foray many Democrats hope will again feature “Biden for Senate” buttons.

But there was no word from Attorney General Biden on Tuesday night about whether he will run for the U.S. Senate seat once held by his father.

Mark my words, an announcement was expected last night; the Jefferson-Jackson dinner would have been the logical time and place for it, too. On the other hand, VP Biden’s name does not have the luster… well, it never particularly had any real luster, but he doesn’t poll well these days. And on the gripping hand, as one of Jim Geraghty’s readers notes 2014 may be a more logical time for AG Biden to run for Senate anyway.  Meanwhile, of course, Rep. Mike Castle (R-DE) is running for Senate himself.  For those keeping score: no on stimulus, yes on cap-and-trade - but yes on Stupak/no on health care.

Possibly lately he’s been… thoughtful… too.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

I have written about David Hamilton before.

He is the federal judge who believes it is a violation of the first amendment for Christians to pray at school events, but is not a violation of the first amendment when Muslims pray at school events.

He is also the judge who was cited by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals for abusing his power by keeping an injunction in place on an informed consent law despite the law clearly being constitutional.

Barack Obama has naturally appointed the man to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals — the very court that said Hamilton had abused his power.

Call your Senator today and tell him to vote against cloture on David Hamilton’s nomination. Call 202-224-3121. Ask for your Senator. Tell him to oppose cloture and oppose the nomination of David Hamilton.

Carly Fiorina truly is panicked. The NRSC has been spooked by the Scozzafava/Hoffman/Owens race, and is more or less going to leave Fiorina out to dry. And while she got the support of conservative favorite Tom Coburn to match Chuck DeVore’s Jim DeMint, the rest of her supporters paint a different picture. Lindsey Graham, John McCain, Olympia Snowe, Lisa Murkowski: to many of us, these are what is wrong with the Republican Senate caucus.

So now she’s launched prematurely, shot the wad of endorsements she has in the middle of a week, rushed to pander to the right by appearing in the OC Register, but even that’s not enough. Now she’s making outrageous attacks on Chuck DeVore and the rest of us who favor an Internet free of burdensome government regulation.

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We won the big statewide races yesterday, and now it’s back to work trying to win some more. The California Senate primary may not be until June, but when we’re faced with an entrenched incumbent like Barbara Boxer, we need all the lead time we can get.

Up until now, the DC types have all been supporting Carly Fiorina in our primary, even though she had not yet declared her candidacy, and had yet shown either an inability or an unwillingness to campaign to the Republican voters of this state. Thus, that early support had failed to move any dials as Assemblyman Chuck DeVore has raised money well, gained loyal grass roots support, and ran ahead of Fiorina against Boxer in polls. But now, with the fallout of Dede Scozzafava’s blowup spreading nationwide, events are moving more quickly.

The NRSC is conceding its positions in primaries, pulling a crutch out from under Fiorina’s already-limping campaign. Conservative DC types are taking advantage of the new neutrality, too, starting with Senator Jim DeMint endorsing DeVore, while Fiorina has the backing of South Carolina’s other Senator, Lindsey Graham.

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Senator Jeff Sessions, ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, is encouraging Republican colleagues to filibuster Barack Obama’s nominee to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, David Hamilton.

Hamilton has major issues against him, including stating publicly his believe that the founders intended the judiciary to routinely amend the constitution through case law. More troubling, David Hamilton has ruled that praying to Allah does not violate the Establishment of Religion clause in the First Amendment, but praying in Jesus Christ’s name does.

According to Sesions’s letter,

Judge Hamilton’s most determidly activists decisions might be his series of rulings in A Woman’s Choice v. Newman, 904 F. Supp. 1434 (S.D. Ind. 1995). Through his rulings in this case, Judge Hamilton succeeded in blocking the enforcement of an Indiana informed consent law for 7 years. In reversing, the Seventh Circuit noted that Judge Hamilton had abused his judicial discretion.

Sessions concludes, “[t]his is not the type of service that should be rewarded with a promotion. In deed, this is one of those extraordinary circumstances where the President should be informed that his nominee is not qualified.”

You can read the full letter here (PDF).

Likewise, you can call your Senator at 202-224-3121 and ask him to oppose Judge David Hamilton’s nomination to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

This is rather inside the baseball, but it is also very important.

The Senate is about to vote for cloture on S. 1776. This legislation is the first vote in the Obamacare battle on the floor of the Senate.

Basically, the bill would bribe the doctors’ lobby into supporting Obamacare to the tune of three-quarters of a trillion dollars. Importantly, the Democrats are claiming Obamacare will reduce the deficit because they are putting most of the deficit ballooning in this piece of legislation. This will add trillions of dollars to the deficit.

Unfortunately, some Republican Senators who say they will vote against S. 1776 do support calling for cloture, i.e. cutting off debate.

But the media is reporting the Democrats do not have the votes on their side for cloture. Any Republican who supports cloture is, in effect, assisting the Democrats in passing Obamacare.

CALL YOUR SENATOR RIGHT NOW. TELL HIM TO OPPOSE CLOTURE ON S. 1776.

IF WE LOSE THIS BATTLE, OBAMACARE WILL MORE LIKELY THAN NOT BECOME A REALITY

Bob Corker explains why opposition of S. 1776 is in the country’s best interests.

The Baucus bill is finally out.

It came in at 1,502 pages.

The Clinton health care bill was only 1,342 pages.

The Baucus bill has more pages than the last two Harry Potter books. Keep in mind that the last Harry Potter book was so thick they’re making it into two movies instead of one.

The Bill Number is S. 1796.

If Republicans don’t go along with the Democrats, Harry Reid is threatening to drop copies of the bill on their heads.

It has gotten so bad for Obama’s favorite Republican, Florida Governor Charlie Crist, that Crist is on a state wide “I’m a conservative” tour. Unfortunately for Crist, he’s done himself no favors.

Recently Crist attacked Rubio via a Miami political columnist. His argument was that Rubio is poorer than Crist and that Rubio supported massive state budgets. Rubio’s response? Crist’s original budgets were larger than what made it out of the State House of Representatives.

In fact, Crist has been a huge tax and spender and is forced to scream to all who will listen that despite his record he really is a conservative. It’s akin to Dracula saying that despite his fangs, he really is a vegan.

No one believes him.

So strong has Marco Rubio’s support gotten in the GOP — Crist has yet to win a Republican straw poll in any Florida county — some top Crist supporters are speculating that Crist may drop out and run again for Governor instead.

[T]hat probably won’t happen. But while the idea of Crist switching races is unlikely and probably absurd, the entertainment of such an absurdity by the Crist-can’t-lose crowd is noteworthy. They’re nervous. So is Crist, who’s unexpectedly dropping in at Republican committee meetings, where straw poll after straw by rank-and-file Republican base voters show the base favors Rubio.

Rubio surprised the GOP establishment by raising $1 million last quarter. We need to keep helping him and thereby teach the GOP Establishment a very serious lesson.

I am told quite reliably that in a meeting today on Capitol Hill, Republican Senators began to rapidly move toward concessions on health care because they are afraid they cannot hold their members. Some Republicans are now thinking of supporting a government program.

Go to the action center and start calling.

Already, Senate Democrats are looking to pass healthcare by attaching it to unrelated legislation — the back door Brian Darling has repeatedly warned us about.

Republicans are starting to waver on this.

Call now. Tell the GOP to stand firm in opposition to the Democrats’ health care plans.

[UPDATED:] I’m hearing this evening from both some Senators in the room and staff that the fears of GOP caving are overblown and we should not be concerned.

There are two candidates who have a chance to win the Republican nomination for Senate in June 2010. One is Chuck DeVore. One of our Fighting Four candidates this primary season, he announced last November his candidacy to defeat Senator Barbara Boxer. Term-limited from his state Assembly seat, he’s committed to victory.

The other is Carly Fiorina. A political novice, never having run for office before, she doesn’t even know if she’s running for this office yet. In big, black letters her own, brand-new website asks “Coming Soon?” It’s no wonder she won’t even fund her own campaign. Why spend that money when she might not even run?

Chuck DeVore is on Facebook. Chuck DeVore is on Twitter, and he’s active on both. Carly Fiorina’s webpage has placeholder, non-functional links to both services. She may, or may not, show up to engage Republicans, and will do so only when it’s convenient for her.

We have two choices in June, but only one candidate is there for us and committed to fighting Barbara Boxer, the dumbest member of the US Senate. The clear choice is Chuck DeVore. I hope we can give to him and good conservatives like him to help him fight for us and win.

As Democratic Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas navigates the political minefield of health care reform, the two-term Democrat may be hewing a more conservative course in the wake of a new poll by Public Policy Polling which found her in a dead heat with three potential Republican challengers despite scant name recognition.

PPP, whose sampling of voters skewed Democratic, found that only 36% of respondents approve of Lincoln’s job performance, while 44% say they disprove. In March of this year, the same outfit found that Lincoln maintained an approval rating with a 5-point positive spread.

The three would-be GOP challengers polled included state Senator Gilbert Baker, Huckabee fundraiser Curtis Coleman and Harvard-educated lawyer and U.S. Army veteran Tom Cotton. Among them, Baker performed the best; however a majority of Arkansans—ranging from 78% to 83%—were unsure of their opinions on the three men.

“You couldn’t get a clearer indication that the national momentum is with Republicans right now than a poll showing some guys with single digit name recognition running even with an incumbent Senator,” said PPP’s Dean Debnam.

With Obama’s health care proposal fairing worse in the polls than former President Clinton’s defeated reforms of 1994, Lincoln must take into consideration the consequences of supporting the President’s contentious legislation in a state whose voters ten months ago gave Republican John McCain 59% of the vote.

What’s more, the hemorrhaging of Democratic support to wavering public opinion raises a serious dilemma for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and poses an acute challenge to the President’s legislative agenda, as Democrats today lost their filibuster-proof majority with the death of Senator Ted Kennedy.

Reid must accept the political reality that Lincoln, who previously bucked party leadership on the cap-and-trade legislation designed to reduce carbon emissions and the reauthorization of banking infusion, may be the next casualty in the polarized health care debate.

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Roy Blunt has worked his way into the top ranks of Republican leadership in Congress. He has been trusted by Republican Presidents for many years with candid advice. He is relied on even now by Republicans in Congress as they struggle to keep the team together in opposition to the siren calls of compromise with the Democrats.

More critically, Congressman Blunt is now seeking to become the next United States Senator from Missouri. As we fight to take back Congress, we need men like Roy Blunt on our side. Winning the open senate race in Missouri is necessary should we want to take back the Senate and, at a minimum, prevent the Democrats from having a filibuster proof Senate.

Today RedState is pleased to endorse Congressman Roy Blunt for the United States Senate.

RedState has an interesting relationship with Congressman Roy Blunt (R-MO). There are many times we find ourselves on opposite sides of issues, generally fiscal and earmarks related. There are many other times we find ourselves standing shoulder to shoulder with Congressman Blunt — supporting our soldiers, defending life, and opposing President Obama’s ridiculous healthcare scheme.

Roy Blunt is a good friend of this site. We have passionate disagreements on issues, but our friendship is unwavering. We can agree to disagree on issues because we know that in the grand scheme of things, we are with each other in the fight for freedom. We hope that as Congressman Blunt speaks with the voters of Missouri, he realizes the importance of ongoing work to reduce the size and influence of the federal bureaucracy. The Senate needs more reformers; Congressman Blunt can only benefit if he decides to be one of them.

In the particular race at hand, the contrast between Congressman Blunt and his opponent, Robin Carnahan, could not be more striking. Congressman Blunt opposes the Democrats’ cap-and-trade plan. Ms. Carnahan supports it. Congressman Blunt opposes the Democrats’ healthcare plans. Ms. Carnahan supports those plans. Conversely, Congressman Blunt supports regulator reforms that will allow people greater access at lower price to private health insurance. Ms. Carnahan opposes that. Congressman Blunt supports a strong military. Ms. Carnahan opposes that. Congressman Blunt supports letting every person decide their destiny. Ms. Carnahan believes the government should play a critical role in how you live your life.

Please join us in supporting our friend Congressman Roy Blunt as the next United States Senator from Missouri. Winning Missouri must be a priority for us in 2010 and with your help Roy Blunt will win.