Obama Now Selling Judgeships for Health Care Votes?

Obama names brother of undecided House Dem to Appeals Court.

by John McCormack at The Weekly Standard

Tonight, Barack Obama will host ten House Democrats who voted against the health care bill in November at the White House; he’s obviously trying to persuade them to switch their votes to yes. One of the ten is Jim Matheson of Utah. The White House just sent out a press release announcing that today President Obama nominated Matheson’s brother Scott M. Matheson, Jr. to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.

“Scott Matheson is a distinguished candidate for the Tenth Circuit court,” President Obama said.  “Both his legal and academic credentials are impressive and his commitment to judicial integrity is unwavering.  I am honored to nominate this lifelong Utahn to the federal bench.”  Scott M. Matheson, Jr.: Nominee for the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit Scott M. Matheson currently holds the Hugh B. Brown Presidential Endowed Chair at the S.J. Quinney College of Law, University of Utah, where he has been a member of the faculty since 1985.  He served as Dean of the Law School from 1998 to 2006.  He also taught First Amendment Law at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government from 1989 to 1990.  While on public service leave from the University of Utah from 1993 to 1997, Matheson served as United States Attorney for the District of Utah.  In 2007, he was appointed by Governor Jon Huntsman to chair the Utah Mine Safety Commission.  He also worked as a Deputy County Attorney for Salt Lake County from 1988 to 1989.  Prior to joining the University faculty, Matheson was an associate attorney from 1981 to 1985 at Williams & Connolly LLP in Washington, D.C. Matheson was born and raised in Utah and is a sixth generation Utahn.  He received an A.B. from Stanford University in 1975, an M.A. from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1980.

So, Scott Matheson appears to have the credentials to be a judge, but was his nomination used to buy off his brother’s vote?

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Liberals Terrified, Scott Brown Leads!

“Nobody Made A Greater Mistake Than He Who Did Nothing Because He Could Only Do a Little.” -Edmund Burke

Last week we let you know how you can help elect Lt. Col. Scott Brown (R) to Ted Kennedy’s old Senate seat in Massachusetts, and you responded!  Brad Marston, another patriot from MA who’s working to get Brown elected was impressed by your response and left the following comment on that post:

Wow! Thank you so much for posting this. We lost the Public Policy poll vote (Those Ron Paul folks are good) but people can still make phone calls and of course donate if you can. You can watch Scott’s latest ad at https://www.icontribute.us/scottbrown/initiative/truck Thank you all.

Dozens of you responded to Brad’s calls for donations and volunteers!  And your efforts are resulting in huge gains in this battle for our American way of life.  But we musn’t rest on our laurels now, for Liberal politicians are already plotting to subvert the will of Massachusetts voters when they lose this battle!

Soon after we posted last week, Rasmussen released a poll showing Brown trailing MA Attorney General Martha Coakley 50-41, but today the landscape has changed dramatically.  Left-leaning pollster Tom Jensen with Public Policy Polling released numbers yesterday that have him in a state of near panic.  Brown now leads Coakley 48-47 in the race!

Jensen points to the fact that Republicans are far more motivated to vote in this election than Democrats, and that Brown leads with independents by a stunning 63-31 margin.  This in one of the  most liberal states in the Union.  Jensen then goes on to enumerate steps he believes can overcome  Brown’s positives, which largely depend on motivating the Democrat base in MA.

Now, high ranking MA Democrats are promising to delay implementing the will of the Bay State’s voters when Brown wins next Tuesday!  Paul Kirk (D-MA), who was appointed in a shady move to repeal MA law to give the Obama-Pelosi-Reid axis their 60 vote majority in the Senate, declares “We want to get this resolved before President Obama’s State of the Union address in early to mid-February,” speaking of completing work on the unconstitutional health care bill.

But, Kirk and Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin are conspiring to ignore the voters when Brown wins next week’s election.  Brian McNiff, a Galvin spokesman, told the Boston Herald, “We’d have to wait 10 days for absentee and military ballots to come in.”  And another Herald source states the results of next Tuesday’s election won’t be certified before February 20th.

Long enough that Kirk and other Democrat conspirators hope President Obama, Sen. Harry Reid, and Rep. Nancy Pelosi will have told Massachusetts voters “It doesn’t matter what they want or think or vote for, our ruling Democrats will do whatever the Hell they want and the voters can be damned if they don’t agree!”  Because that’s exactly what passage of Obamacare will mean if Brown wins this election.

The message is clear from Democrats:  “Massachusetts voters don’t matter, we’ll do what the Hell we want regardless of the outcome of the election!”

But Obama, Pelosi, and Reid aren’t accounting for the shock wave that will run through Democrat ranks in Congress when Republican Scott Brown wins the seat occupied so long by the ultra-liberal Ted Kennedy!  Democrats took this race for granted because, after all, we’re talking Massachusetts here.  The state where champions of the left Barney Frank and Ted Kennedy couldn’t lose!

A victory by a Republican here, in what some might consider the heart of liberal America, would put every left-leaning liberal Democrat on notice:  “Vote for Obamacare at your political peril!”

And Democrats are scared!

“It would be unconscionable for the seat held for 40 years by the inestimable Senator Kennedy to be allowed to pass to an enemy of everything he stood for.” “Massachusetts is a progressive state, always has been, always will be. Scott Brown is the antithesis of a progressive. He has no business running in this state. …His election would be an insult to Kennedy’s memory.” ~Harry Reid (D-NV)~

A Brown victory may even turn some progressive Democrats from supporting this bill that WILL increase taxes AND raise health insurance premiums, that WILL make taxpayers responsible for abortions, that WILL increase the deficit, that WILL result in the rationing of health care (especially for seniors), and that WILL eventually cover illegal aliens!

That’s why it’s essential conservatives across the country rally behind and support Lt. Col. Scott Brown’s campaign for US Senate!  Now’s the time to donate what you can.  Even if it’s only $5, please donate what you can.  Now’s the time to volunteer.  Even if you can only make a couple of calls a day.

This race could be the hinge that allows the door to begin to swing the other way. Please step up and help however you can!

CBO: Reid’s bill WILL increase deficit by $170 billion

Once again, Democrats are telling bold-faced lies when they claim their legislation will reduce the deficit and extend the life of Medicare! This time they’re using Bernie Madoff/Enron style accounting tricks to camouflage their lies.

In response to a request by Senator Jeff Sessions, the CBO today released a statement correcting the misrepresentations being propagated by Senate Democrats. Reid, President Obama, and other Democrats are claiming the CBO score indicates the Senate bill will reduce the deficit by $130 billion over the next 10 years and add 9 years to the lifespan of Medicare.

But the CBO says not so fast. It appears Democrats took great care in phrasing their request to the non-partisan agency, playing a sort of shell game to fool the American people with a slight of hand. Evidently, hen Harry Reid requested the CBO score, he only asked for the impact on the Medicare trust fund balance. That doesn’t sound so bad until you understand what the CBO calls “Trustfund Accounting.”

The Medicare Trust Fund doesn’t actually hold hard assets. It’s more like a drawer full of IOUs issued by the federal government, if it’s operating in the black. The Trust Fund takes money in and pays money out. If it takes in more than it pays out, the government takes the surplus and issues the Trust Fund an IOU.

Now it’s not like the government puts that money in a savings account. Our never frugal government spends that money it collected to pay for Medicare on something else! No plan on how to pay off the IOU when it comes due either. Just pass the debt on down to future generations.

The Trust Fund Accounting system used by the CBO doesn’t account for what happens to the cash once it’s removed from the Trust Fund, or the government’s ability to repay the borrowed money. This accounting method treats Uncle Sam’s IOU the same as you and I treat our bank account. Just like the folks at the Medicare office could walk up to a teller and say “I’d like to withdraw all our money.”

The problem is, there is no money. It’s just a piece of paper that’s waiting for some future Congress to raise taxes on our children to repay the money.

In the current legislation, the CBO saw Reid’s bill would result in approximately $300 billion more being taken into the Medicare Trust Fund than it would pay out in the next. So Obama, Reid, and Pelosi will write out a professional looking IOU, hand it to the Medicare Trust Fund accountant and leave with $300 billion of taxpayers’ money. That money will be used to create new federal programs, fund abortions, pay bureaucrats, and other creative ways government finds to squander money.

“To describe the full amount of HI trust fund savings as both improving the government’s ability to pay future Medicare benefits and financing new spending outside of Medicare would essentially double-count a large share of those savings and thus overstate the improvement in the government’s fiscal position.”

But to make it look nice, Reid and his Democrat cohorts rigged it to look like $130 billion won’t be spent. So, in effect the deficit should be reduced by $130 billion. Sounds good right?

The problem is, they’re also trying to claim the entire $300 billion (of which they’ve blown $170 billion) is used to extend the viability of Medicare. Put simply, they want to spend the $170 billion now and say the $170 billion IOU they issued is going to keep Medicare going. Now, no one can be 100% sure, but it seems like doctors will probably start quitting when they begin getting government IOUs instead of greenbacks for compensation!

Obama, Reid, and other Democrats are counting that $170 billion twice. They’ve taken $300 billion from us they say we’ll get back in Medicare benefits. They’ve spent all but $130 billion of it, but continue to claim they’ve set aside the entire $300 billion for our benefit!

Here’s the real kicker. The only way we get that $170 billion in benefits we were promised is to raise taxes on our children!

This is nothing short of stealing from future generations! Harry Reid and his Democrat Senate comrades are nothing more than two-bit con artists who would sell our children’s future to satisfy our President who suffers with an “unprecedented” level of egotism and narcissism.

Tomorrow at 7:00 AM Eastern they vote to saddle our children and grandchildren with higher taxes, higher deficits, and a lower standard of living. Tomorrow morning, they will slap themselves on the back and congratulate themselves for conning us out of more of our money.

They’ll be home until the middle of January. Make a point of letting your Senators know you haven’t been fooled. Make sure they understand you know what they’re up to, and that you’ll do everything in your power to send them home when they’re next up for reelection.

Sodom in the nation’s capital

by Star Parker at Townhall.com

At a time when our country is sick, it shouldn’t surprise that one our sickest places is our nation’s capital.

The poverty rate of Washington, DC, almost 20 percent, is one of the highest in the nation. Its child poverty rate is the nation’s highest..

DC’s public school system, with a graduation rate of less than 50 percent, is one of the worst in the country.

According to DC’s HIV/AIDS office, three percent of the local population has HIV or AIDS. The Administrator of this office notes that this HIV/AIDS incidence is “…higher than West Africa…on par with Uganda and some parts of Kenya.” And the principal way that HIV is transmitted continues to be through male homosexual activity.

Amidst this dismal picture, the DC City Council, perhaps on the theory that serving up another glass of wine is the way to help a drunk, is scheduled to vote on December 1 to legalize same sex marriage in America’s capital city.

Looking at realities in Washington, DC should make clear why George Washington said “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.”

But the America that our first president had in mind was very different from the vision of our DC government officials.

George Washington’s America was one in which the point of freedom is to allow Man to rise to what he can become. To do this, the greatest challenge he faces is conquering himself. To rise above his baser instincts, to rise above the many temptations that lead him astray. And to achieve this end, as Washington said, “religion and morality are indispensible supports.”

In left wing America, of which the DC government is a poster child, freedom means to indulge every instinct that the tradition and religion of George Washington would have us overcome.

Where does it lead? Well, look at DC.

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The Volunteerism Scandals Hollywood Won’t Be Broadcasting

by Michelle Malkin at Townhall.com

Hollywood hearts Obama. Obama hearts government-directed national service. That is why you won’t be able to change the TV channel all week without getting lectured about the need to get off the couch and Do Something. (After your favorite shows are over, of course.) Creeped out? You should be.

The entertainment industry, inspired by Obama’s $6 billion expansion of government volunteerism spending, is coordinating plot lines and ads to push public service. “The message will be nearly ubiquitous,” reports the Los Angeles Times, “starting in the morning with programs such as ‘Today’ and ‘The View,’ and then echoed on soap operas, prime-time series and late-night shows.” First lady Michelle Obama, a relentless AmeriCorps promoter who publicly extolled the Tinseltown initiative last month, will cap off the week with an appearance on “The Jay Leno Show” on Friday.

But don’t expect Leno to ask Mrs. Obama about her reported meddling in personnel decisions at the scandal-plagued AmeriCorps. Or about the program’s long history as a government boondoggle stuffed with make-work jobs, permanent bureaucracies, left-wing slush funds and partisan lobbyists. More on that in a moment.

Spearheaded by a nonprofit called the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF), organizers deny any partisan or political motivation. But editor John Nolte published an internal memo from EIF titled “Answering the Call,” which describes the entire multiyear campaign as a direct response to President Obama’s call “for a new era of responsibility.” The massive leftward tilt in Hollywood donations to Democratic campaign coffers speaks for itself. As do the celebrity vows of volunteer-mongers like Demi Moore, who pledged in a recent national service PSA not to be a servant to her fellow citizens or her country, but “a servant to Barack Obama.”

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Rangel’s Dishonesty Demands Removal from Chair of Committee

For Immediate Release: September 30, 2009
From the office of Representative John R. Carter (R-TX)

(WASHINGTON, DC) – A month after House Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-NY) admitted failure to report nearly a million dollars in assets on federal disclosure forms, the lack of any action by the House Democratic Caucus on the new ethics violations or the continuing 15-month investigation of multiple ethics and tax violation charges against the man who oversees the Internal Revenue Service demands Rangel be removed.

Republican Conference Secretary John R. Carter (R-TX) says he will give Chairman Rangel until next week to voluntarily resign the chairmanship of Ways and Means, or he will introduce a Privileged Resolution to force his removal. “To allow Mr. Rangel to continue to serve as Chairman is the same as allowing a confessed bank robber to serve as Chairman of the Banking Committee during the trial.”

Carter, a former judge, says the lack of new enforcement action by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) or the Democratic Caucus demands Rangel relinquish the Chairmanship of the House Committee that oversees the IRS and the nation’s tax code. “The reputation and integrity of this body has suffered serious damage by the actions of the Chairman, and the inaction of the Speaker to meet her promise to make this the most honest and ethical House in history,” says Carter. “Mr. Rangel must step down as Chairman until these issues are resolved. If he refuses, the House must remove him by a recorded vote.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has blocked previous votes on Rangel’s chairmanship. Carter offered a privileged resolution to remove Rangel as Chairman in February, but Democrats under Pelosi voted to block consideration of the bill.

The Ethics Committee began investigation of Rangel on July 31, 2008. Pelosi publicly stated that the investigation would be complete before the end of 2008, but with the probe now well into its second year, the investigation has already been expanded twice to include new charges of tax and ethics violations by the Chairman.

“There remains the question of whether these latest disclosure violations may be coupled with similar tax reporting violations,” says Carter. “If so this case could bring further discredit to the House for its failure to act for months, and soon to be years on end.”

The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Buffalo News and numerous other publications have also called for Rangel to step down as Chairman of Ways and Means.

ACORN and Their Allies on the Left Lambaste Giles and O’Keefe’s Politics and Faith

by Doug Giles at Townhall.com

Let me see if I have this right: ACORN, in five locations coast-to-coast are on tape counseling tax fraud, tax evasion, money laundering, and the coup de grace, how to set up a whorehouse for 12 to 15-year-old El Salvadoran sex slaves, and now ACORN and the Left are POed about it being exposed without ACORN’s consent?!

What else ticks the Left off about ACORN being uncovered assisting in some of the worst kind of scandalous scat known to mankind?

Well, if you Google around you’ll find the “progressives” are peeved not because ACORN had the spotlight bare down on their dirty deeds done on our dime but because of the fact that Hannah is part of the Young America’s Foundation and James, at one time, was a member of the Leadership Institute. That’s crazy! Run for your life, people! Hannah and James have been influenced by conservative principles and traditional values! Run away!

Yes, according to some the shame should fall on Hannah and James for hanging out with college students who love America and our founding documents. We can’t have that, now can we?

Also, I have to chuckle every time I hear Hannah referred to as a “political activist.” That’s some funny stuff. I have lived with Hannah ever since she came out of her mama’s belly, and I can tell you the extent of her “activism.” Are you ready? Brace yourself. You might want to sit down. Here it comes. She voted this past election for McCain, she went to two YAF.org conferences as a teenager in ‘07 and ‘08, and she interned for the National Journalism Center this past summer writing columns on economics. Oh, and I almost forgot: She went to a tea party last April 15th. I guess that “radical activist” resume puts her right up there with Bernadine Dohrn, Bill Ayers, Van Jones and Che Guevara.

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Boehner: House Passage of Defund ACORN Act “A Victory for American Taxpayer

Washington, DC – House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) issued the following statement after the House of Representatives voted 345-75 to pass the Defund ACORN Act:

“Today’s overwhelming bipartisan vote to stop all federal funding of ACORN is a victory for American taxpayers. Of course, it is only the beginning. We need to keep up the fight to end taxpayer funding for this troubled organization.

“House Republicans have worked tirelessly to sever ACORN’s ties to the federal government. Those efforts began to bear fruit late last week when the Census Bureau ended its relationship with ACORN under steady pressure from Republican lawmakers. Though today’s vote indicates that the writing’s on the wall for ACORN, President Obama must indicate whether he will join the Congress in taking decisive action to break all government ties with this corrupt organization.

“I’d like to applaud Oversight & Government Reform Committee Ranking Member Darrell Issa (R-CA), Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA), and Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) for the great work they and other House Republicans have done to hold ACORN accountable for its abuse of taxpayer dollars and the public trust.”

NOTE: Earlier this week, Leader Boehner introduced H.R. 3571, the Defund ACORN Act, which has now been adopted as part of H.R. 3221, the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009. An analysis of federal data by the Office of the Republican Leader staff determined that ACORN has received more than $53 million in direct funding from the federal government since 1994, and has likely received substantially more indirectly through states and localities that receive federal block grants. House Republicans have also sent a letter to President Obama asking him to use his authority to end all funding to and break all government ties with ACORN.

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) wants you!

I received this letter from Michele Bachmann this morning, asking me to invite all my friends to participate in the call this evening.  So here it is friends. Rep. Bachmann wants you and me, along with all the rest of concerned taxpayers in America to help her stop all federal funding of ACORN!

Join us in our effort to keep ACORN from receiving another taxpayer dollar!

September 17, 2009 Dear Friends: I want to invite you to join me in a conference call tonight for an update on ACORN: Thursday, September 17, 2009 8:10 pm to 9:10 pm ET 7:10 pm to 8:10 pm CT Call in # 877-269-7289 PIN: 13533# The past week has seen a flurry of activity around this scandal-ridden organization. With headlines of more voter registration fraud arrests in Florida and undercover videos of ACORN employees giving advice to pimps and prostitutes in city after city, ACORN had a very bad week. Bad enough that the U.S. Census Bureau finally headed our calls to sever its ties with ACORN! I’ve been telling them for months that ACORN has not earned the public trust and should not be a partner in the 2010 Census. After these headlines, they finally agree! But, there’s more work to be done! ACORN could be eligible for as much as $10 billion in federal funds and that’s simply unacceptable! We need no more evidence that the organization is either unable or unwilling to live up to the ethical standards that the American people demand. No one has a right to your tax dollars — especially not an organization with ACORN’s track record! I’m continuing my fight to protect the American taxpayer. In fact, I’ve asked the IRS to revoke their tax-exempt status and I’ve asked the Department of Housing and Urban Development to bar them from any federal funds. Please invite your friends to join our call, sign my online petition and join our fight to stop the flow of your tax dollars to ACORN! Visit my Online Action Center Here! Thank you, and God bless, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann

ACORN Watch: A “Sting”-ing Indictment of Media Hypocrisy

by Michelle Malkin at Townhall.com

Undercover journalism is only acceptable when it fits a liberal agenda. That is the message from “professional” reporters and left-wing activists outraged about three successful video stings targeting President Obama’s old friends at the left-wing tax-subsidized outfit ACORN.

Conservative documentarian James O’Keefe and writer Hannah Giles, working for the BigGovernment.com website, posed as a pimp and prostitute during visits to ACORN offices in Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Brooklyn. ACORN housing officials and tax advisers offered them brazen suggestions on how to lie on their applications, disguise their income, obscure their child sex-ring business and hide cash from abusive johns. (“When you buy the house with the backyard, you get a tin,” an ACORN counselor in New York told Giles, “and you bury it down in there, cover it and put the grass over it.”)

Summing up the ACORN Housing Corporation philosophy, another Brooklyn ACORN official told the undercover pair bluntly: “Honesty is not going to get you the house.”

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