CALIFORNIA YANKEE

Obama plays golf instead of deciding whether to send more troops to Afghanistan

Obama spent the day golfing instead of making his long awaited decision about sending more troops to Afghanistan.

For weeks, President Obama has been indecisively dithering about whether to send more troops to Afghanistan to fight what he correctly calls a "war of necessity." General Stanley A. McChrystal's report, in which he requests more troops, was issued at the end of August.

The Commander in Chief, taking political heat for not having enough women in his inner circle, found golf a more important political expediency than finally making the Afghan decision. There was so much heat that an article in the New York Times began, "Does the White House feel like a frat house?" Obama apparantly needed headlines proclaiming that he golfs with a woman, more than he needed to make the life and death decision as to whether he will send more troops in support of his "war of necessity."

Obama's Afghan indecision has gone on for so long, some wonder if Obama has delayed his long overdo decision until after this year's gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia in order to help struggling Democrat candidates Jon Corzine and Craig Deeds. Others have simply concluded that Obama  is breaking his vow to fight his "war of necessity" and is ignoring the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Obama and Reid say one thing do another - Obamacare transparency edition

As Democrat leaders huddle behind closed doors to work out their final version of Obamacare legislation, the Republican National Committee goes after the broken promises of transparency made by Harry Reid and Barack Obama:

Presidential candidate Obama promised over and over, and over, and over, and over, again not to negotiate health care reform behind closed doors, to bring all parties together and to broadcast those negotiations on C-SPAN:

• He said it at Google --November 14, 2007

• He said it at the CNN Democrat Presidential Debate -- January 31, 2008

• He said it during an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle -- January 17, 2008 [the same interview during which Obama said his cap and trade plan would bankrupt anyone who builds a coal-powered plant and electricity rates will skyrocket.]

• He said it at an Ohio Town Hall -- March 2008

• He said it during an interview with the St. Petersburg Times -- May 2008

It is truly unfortunate that President Obama did not keep those promises, but instead, chose to meet privately with healthcare executives, cut a deal with drug firms in secret, and outsourced the drafting of the Obamacare legislation to the highly partisan, Democrat-controlled Congress.

Leno pokes fun at the Obama war on Fox

Now that President Obama has expanded his propaganda war against Republicans to include Fox News, Jay Leno has some fun at Obama's expense by poking fun at the new front:

President Obama today agreed to commit an additional 40,000 troops to help fight Fox News.

It's getting ugly in the press room. Well, senior White House adviser David Axelrod told reporters that Fox News is just pushing a point of view. Well, yeah. But at least they got a point of view.

Watch the video:

Remember how, during the last couple of years of President Bush's term, how some pundits talked about how bad it was for a presidency when the late night comedians used a president for material? Do you remember that initially comedians didn't think they could get away with making fun of President Obama?

Christie welcomes Obama's return to New Jersey

As the Democrats go all out to save Governor Corzine -- even enlisting Bill Clinton and President Obama into the fray, Christie welcomes Obama back to New Jersey with the following video:



The race is now too close to call, but Rasmussen has already written Christie's obituary:

Christie’s edge in the race has been fading rapidly. His two-point advantage in the current polling is down from four points a week ago and seven points a month ago. This is typical of New Jersey politics as Democrats gain ground in the final weeks of a campaign.

That’s one reason no Republican has won a statewide race in New Jersey since 1997. Adding to the challenge this year, Corzine is expected to heavily outspend Christie during the final days which could be a game-changing factor.

This one of several elections that are considered to be referendums on Obama's radical presidency.

Majority disagree with Obama on 'important' issues

A new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey finds 51% do not agree with Obama on the issues that matter most to them.

The last time the CNN pollsters asked that question, back in April, 57% said they agreed with Obama on important issues and only 41% disagreed.

President Obama won the election only to lose the country to his extreme left-wing socialist policies.

The poll was conducted October 16-18, 2009, and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percent.

Baucus/Senate Finance Committee’s health care bill: 'America's Healthy Future Act 2009'

The Senate Finance Committee has posted the legislative language of its Obamacare bill - "America's Healthy Future Act 2009" at the committee Web site – all 1,502 pages of it. You can access the language in PDF format here, or you can read the following-embedded version:

Baucus Health Care Bill 'America’s Healthy Future Act 2009' - Senate Finance Committee -

Note the first sentence:

To provide affordable, quality health care for all Americans and reduce the growth in health care spending, and for other purposes [the emphasis is mine].

We will have to do a lot of reading to decipher what is meant by "other purposes."

The status of the bill, known as S. 1796 - America’s Healthy Future Act, can be tracked through the Library of Congress at http://thomas.loc.gov.

Senate Democratic leaders, despite many Obama promises of transparency, are now working in secret to combine the Baucus/Senate Finance Committee bill with the 839-page Obamacare legislation approved by the Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee in July. That bill, known as S. 1679 - the Affordable Health Choices Act, can be accessed in PDF format here.

According to David M. Herszenhorn, of the New York Times Prescriptions blog, the Democrats are trying to resolve their differences on five main issues:

• THE PUBLIC OPTION - The Senate health committee included in its bill a government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers. The Finance Committee did not include a public option, and instead proposed the creation of private, nonprofit health cooperatives.

• AFFORDABILITY - Some Senate Democrats are worried that subsidies to help moderate-income Americans buy health insurance are still not generous enough.

• A “CADILLAC” TAX - The Finance Committee bill includes a proposed excise tax on high-cost, or “Cadillac,” health insurance policies. The health committee has no jurisdiction over taxes, but some senators are concerned that the tax will hit too many middle-class workers, especially members of labor unions.

• AN EMPLOYER MANDATE - The health committee requires most employers to provide health insurance or pay a penalty of $750 a year for each full-time employee. The Finance Committee requires employers to contribute toward subsidies for employees who do not get benefits.

• OTHER SPENDING ITEMS - The health committee bill includes authorization for spending on numerous programs including prevention and wellness. But President Obama’s goal of keeping the cost of the legislation to about $900 billion means that some of those proposals must be curtailed.

Only after the two Senate bills are combined, will allow the Congressional Budget Office be able to prepare a precise cost estimate of the Democrats Obamacare legislation.

Only 43% would vote to re-elect Obama as approval rating continues to fall

A new Harris poll finds President Obama's job approval rating continues to fall. Only 45% still approve of Obama's performance, while over half of Americans (55%) disapprove.

There is the usual partisan divide, with 77% of Democrats giving President Obama positive ratings compared to 14% of Republicans. Obama continues to lose Independents, with 60% now disapproving, and mature voters (those aged 64 and older), with 61% disapproving.

The Harris poll was conducted between October 5 and 12, 2009

The latest FOX News poll conducted by Opinion Dynamics from October 13 to October 14, found that just 43% would vote to re-elect Obama. No wonder Obama has expanded his propaganda war against Republicans to include fox News.

Democrats prepare to pass Obamacare using the 'nuclear' option

Democrats are so desperate to pass Obamacare that they have quietly set up the necessary procedures to use the so-called "nuclear option."

This is an admission by the Democrats that they do not have the popular support needed to pass Obamacare by the usual Senate rules.

The Democrats' unreasonable attempt to pass Obamacare as a “budget reconciliation” measure means the Democrats think they can get away with ending the long-standing  Senate tradition of requiring a super majority to end debate on something as controversial as the Democrats proposed government takeover of the Health care industry.

Under reconciliation, the Obamacare legislation can theoretically be passed by a simple majority vote in the Senate -- just 51 instead of 60 votes.

The bill the Democrats have certified for “reconciliation” is H.R. 3200 that was passed out of committee before the August break, and caused such outrage  at town hall meetings across the country as voters learned what was in the House bill: federal funding of abortion, coverage for illegal aliens, comparative effectiveness councils, and  deep cuts to Medicare. 

If the Democrats go down this unfortunate path, it will bring the Senate to a standstill. The Republicans will be forced to try and shut down the Senate and  prevent consideration of all routine and legislative Senate business or become irrelevant until they regain control of the Senate. Then of course there will be the unavoidable tit for tat and the will be powerless.

The Democrats bemoan what they wrongly claim is obstruction. But all the Democrats had to do was keep Obama's many now broken promises to conduct health care reform in a transparent manner and work out a bipartisan proposal. Instead, most Congressional Democrats decided they wanted an extreme Obamacare proposal that they can't get the Senate to pass by the usual rules.

The Democrats chose to use extraordinary procedures to pass extreme measures rather on proposing "reform" measures that would be so popular the Public, and maybe more Senate Democrats, would insist on passage.

Obama's Stimulus creates or saves 30,383 jobs

The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, the government watchdog which oversees how the stimulus monies are spent reports contractors who received money from President Obama's failed $787 billion stimulus program created or saved 30,383 jobs by the beginning of October.

According to the Wall Street Journal, this report covers only spending on infrastructure and social programs being carried out by private companies, which were awarded about $16 billion in stimulus funds. That amounts to $526,610 per job created or saved.

Obama's Council of Economic Advisers claims the stimulus and "other policy actions caused employment in August to be slightly more than one million jobs higher than it otherwise would have been."

I can't wait to hear the CEA's Obama-speak explanation as to how the contractors' measly 30,383 jobs supports the council's million plus estimate.

CBO strikes again - Democrats' cap-and-trade would hurt the economy

The Director of the Congressional Budget Office, Douglas W. Elmendorf, told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that the House-passed Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade tax climate change legislation -- would slow the economy and would cause "significant" job losses in fossil fuel industries:

We want to leave no misunderstanding that aggregate performance -- the fact that jobs turn up somewhere else for some people -- does not mean that there are not substantial costs borne by people, communities, firms in affected industries and affected areas. You saw that in manufacturing, and we would see that in response to changes that this legislation would produce.

Director Elmendorf also testified that the Waxman-Markey cap-and-tax would cut the nation's gross domestic product by 0.25 to 0.75 percent in 2020 compared with "what it would otherwise have been," and by 1 to 3.5 percent in 2050.

Elmendorf's testimony undercuts the current position of President Obama and the Democrats' congressional leaders, who claim cap-and-tax would help revive the economy. They make that claim despite the fact that presidential candidate Obama said his cap and trade plan will cause electricity rates to "necessarily skyrocket" and will bankrupt anyone who builds a coal-powered plant.