To understand how spineless our so-called representatives on the hill are, read this. Only by reading how Pelosi utilized the Stupak amendment to stop federally funded abortion to guarantee the passage of the healtcare bill in the House can the reader really begin to appreciate the use of strategic voting and how it can be used in the Senate to defeat ObamaCare. Dr. Hunter provides a very useful analysis of the Stupak amendment and its strategic use by the liberals and combines it with very useful insights from Rush Limbaugh. We ignore this at our own peril.

The rabbit hole of depravity inside the beltway and how politicians game the system in their own self-interest to the detriment of the country is an education in itself. It is left to us, the grassroots, and real conservative leaders to pressure Senators to make this an issue. The reader should not be surprised that some of our most prized and honored Washington conservative organizations and individuals would rather have an issue at their disposal to raise funds than actually win the battle. Self-serving interests and money trump country-first attitudes across the beltway landscape. If you are surprised at how far we have fallen so fast, look no further than the greed that exists inside the beltway and with groups and individuals outside the beltway whose only interests are to help themselves to a full plate of our money and our time. We must hold accountable not only the politicians who refuse to do the right thing and vote strategically with the goal of killing liberty destroying legislation, but those groups and individuals we have often felt to be our allies. We the people are alone out here with very little support. The battle is ours to fight, and ours to win or lose. The time to rely on so-called allied organizations and individuals is nearing an end.

At the end of this battle, we will be able to define those who are truly on the side of limited government and willing to do the hard work and those that are using current events to line their pockets. In the post-mortem of this first battle, count those organizations and individuals which pushed for strategic voting and made it their mission to push hard for a winning strategy as our allies and cast the rest aside like so much waste products.

The following is from Dr. Larry Hunter, former advisor to President Ronald Reagan and a strategical expert on controlling legislative results on the Hill:

It is now clear that we can defeat ObamaCare in the Senate but only if Republican Senators have their strategic wits about them and are perspicacious enough to vote strategically on a whole series of amendments, i.e. vote the opposite of how they ordinarily would vote on the merits of the amendments. For example, all Republican Senators must be prepared to vote at least “present,” and perhaps “no” (depending upon how many Democrats themselves are prepared to strategically vote contrary to their preferences on the merits) on removing the public option for Joe Lieberman; or to vote “present” or perhaps even “no” on an amendment adding an anti-abortion provision to the bill for Ben Nelson. The same goes for any amendments by or for Byron Dorgan and Kent Conrad to reduce the cost of the proposal. I also suspect there will be several sham “fiscal-responsibility/deficit reduction” amendments offered, which Republicans will have to steel themselves to vote against. Moreover, there may be Medicaid amendments designed to reduce the fiscal burden on states that Republicans will be tempted to support, which they must vote against.

Success also will depend upon Republican Senators having the fortitude and self-discipline to refrain from offering “perfecting” amendments of their own that would make the bill more palatable to Democratic Senators on the margin such as Mary Landrieu and Blanch Lincoln. Indeed, the only amendments opponents to
ObamaCare should even think about offering to the Reid bill are amendments in the nature of a substitute that are so excellent on the merits that all conservatives enthusiastically could support and hence a sufficient majority of Democrats will certainly vote against and thus kill.

There is one overriding strategic consideration that must be kept in mind by Republicans Senators and determine every vote they cast: Majority Leader Reid is getting ready to do us an enormous favor by putting a bill on the floor (the Reid Amendment that he will offer as a substitute to H.R. 3962) that cannot get 60 votes. In other words, Reid is getting ready to put his party in a hole from which they can climb out only by “perfecting” the bill with amendments. I believe some of those amendments—two in particular (removing public option and adding an antiabortion provision)—can only succeed with Republican support. Republicans must deny Democrats any and all Republican support to perfect the bill, i.e., make it more palatable to any Democrats. If Republicans defeat all such “perfecting” amendments (by which I mean amendments that improve the bill’s prospect of passing), then we can take down the bill itself. Therefore every action taken by Republican Senators, every vote cast must be undertaken with one overriding strategic consideration: Do absolutely NOTHING to make the bill one iota more palatable to Democratic Senators such as Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson who will not vote “yea” on the Reid bill NOR WILL THEY VOTE “YEA” ON CLOTURE TO MOVE TO FINAL PASSAGE of the Reid bill as it will be configured when it gets to the Senate Floor.

If we prevent the Democratic Leadership from removing the poison provisions in the bill (especially public option and abortion), we can overcome any Leadership maneuvering to impose party discipline on cloture votes and hand out free passes on final passage votes. The free-pass strategy may work on lesser amendments along the way but it won’t work on the final cloture vote required to move to a vote on final passage if either poison pill remains in the bill. After all amendments have been disposed of, a “yea” vote on the final cloture vote to close debate on the bill and move to final passage will be understood by everyone to be tantamount to a “yea” vote on final passage, where only 50 votes will be required to pass the bill. Therefore, if we keep abortion and public option in the bill, I believe we can win the final cloture vote and prevent the underlying bill from ever coming to an up-or-down vote where Reid would be able to give out up to ten free passes to vote “nay” on final passage.

We have some very smart and dedicated staffers currently hard at work on this strategy inside the Senate. They need help, however, from outside groups to make this degree of strategic voting possible. It is not easy to convince Senators to vote strategically. We have to convince them the entire conservative movement will be behind them, explaining to their constituents what is going on and why, defending them against any critics who try to argue that ObamaCare is inevitable and therefore it is incumbent upon Republicans to make it as acceptable (least damaging) as possible. This kind of thinking is defeatist. WE CAN DEFEAT OBAMACARE IF REPUBLICANS HANG TOGETHER AND VOTE STRATEGICALLY AT EVERY STEP ALONG THE WAY. Conservative groups, therefore, must send Republicans a clear and concise message that they will hold Republican Senators responsible if they fail to vote strategically and ObamaCare is enacted into law.

First, we need to have every conservative group that does key-vote rankings to announce immediately that they intend to key-vote a “yea” vote on the cloture vote on a motion to proceed to consideration of H.R. 3962 as a “yea” vote on ObamaCare. They all need to put out press releases, put it on their websites, hold press conferences and write letters notifying Senators of their intentions. And, they need to do it IMMEDIATELY because Reid may be preparing to offer a motion to proceed on Tuesday and immediately thereafter file a cloture petition, which would enable him to hold a cloture vote before the Senate goes out for Thanksgiving on Friday if he has the votes. He may be engineering this rush before Thanksgiving to prevent us from organizing to defeat cloture on a motion to proceed. If he does not have the votes by Friday, he loses nothing, as he will have the Thanksgiving recess to work on getting the votes without exposing the details of the Reid substitute amendment. Even if we think he may have the votes already, we must nevertheless make the effort to deny Reid the 60 votes on a motion to proceed before Thanksgiving. That means getting the conservative organizations and grass-roots groups in motion on Monday.

There is talk that Lieberman and other skeptical Democrats already have agreed to vote for cloture on a motion to proceed. They will justify themselves by telling constituents that they want to pass a healthcare bill this year and in order to do so a bill must first be allowed to come to the floor for consideration. They will say the leadership has assured them that there will be ample opportunity to “perfect” the bill by amending it on the floor but that the only way to amend a bill is to have it on the floor under consideration.

Of course that narrative is not true, and it is meant simply to justify their trying to cover their behinds and still have it both ways. Senators like Lieberman very well could withhold their “yea” vote on a motion to proceed precisely in order to put sufficient pressure on the leadership to force it to make the changes to Reid’s amendment that recalcitrant Democrats demand BEFORE the bill comes to the floor.

Even if we lose on this cloture vote, it will still be a useful exercise to get the conservative movement and grass roots groups organized and cooperating strategically for the fight to come on the Senate floor. Therefore, it is incumbent on our groups to make it unambiguously clear that A VOTE FOR CLOTURE ON A MOTION TO PROCEED TO H.R. 3962 is a vote for ObamaCare. That requires an immediate and massive, no-quarter-given, public-relations campaign on key-voting the cloture vote on a motion to proceed to instill this fact in the mind of the public and Democratic Senators. We cannot give Democrats ANY fig leaf to hide behind.

Second, we need to prepare the way with these same conservative groups to man up when the time comes and key vote a “yea” vote on any anti-abortion amendment as a “yea” vote on ObamaCare. Although most of these groups would not ordinarily key vote any abortion vote, they must do so on ObamaCare, and they must have time to explain to their members and the public exactly what they are doing and why, which
is why that ball must be set in motion immediately.

The same goes in spades where the pro-life groups are concerned. These groups must be made to understand that a “yea” vote on an anti-abortion amendment is a “yea” vote on ObamaCare. We must make them understand that the Stupak Amendment is a snare and a delusion, a paper tiger that won’t work if relied upon to prevent government-funded/sponsored/facilitated abortions but instead will grease the skids for government-run healthcare and wholesale abortion. They also must come to the realization, hard as it may be for them to accept, that had the Stupak Amendment failed in the House, the Pelosi Bill would have crashed and burned. (Read the details here—“It Was The Stupak Amendment, Stupak”) It will be a heavy lift to convince these groups, especially given they already are engaged making the same mistakes in the Senate they made in the House. We cannot allow the same strategic blunders to occur in the Senate. If we do, ObamaCare will pass the Senate, and conservatives will have no one but ourselves to blame.

The outside conservative groups also need to prepare the groundwork for key voting any “yea” votes on amendments to remove the public option from the bill or to replace the public option with health-insurance cooperatives or to put a trigger on the public option, all as “yea” votes for ObamaCare. Finally, we must find a way to get the grass-roots organizations out in front on this strategy. Americans for Prosperity, Patients First, FreedomWorks, Tea Parties, 9/12 Organizations—all are essential to getting behind this strategy and supporting the Republican Senators in this effort.

I know we can win this battle because we already won a warm-up version of the same kind of battle recently on the so-called “Doc-Fix” bill. It required steely-eyed determination on the part of two Senators to maneuver the Republican Leadership into acting strategically to defeat the bill. Here is what happened.

Initially, Republicans did not want to appear to be opposing the doctors who support their campaigns, and so they were not going to object to Reid bringing the bill to the Senate Floor. However, Senators Coburn and DeMint were unwilling to give unanimous consent to proceed to consideration of the bill. This compelled
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to go to Reid and demand a list of amendments in exchange for unanimous consent to proceed to the bill. McConnell told Reid his conference was united (39 Rs) in opposition unless they got amendments. Reid then went to his caucus to get the 60 votes needed (and promised by President
Obama) to invoke cloture on the Motion to Proceed, but the votes weren’t there. Reid was forced to throw in the towel and essentially stuck his thumb in Obama’s eye because the president didn’t produce the votes he promised.

There is no doubt in my mind that the reason Republicans eventually became comfortable opposing the AMA and the reason why Democrats ultimately were unwilling to go along with the massive deficit spending involved with the Doc-Fix bill was because of the large number of conservative organizations, blogs and
grassroots activists working together on the same message with the same strategy, which in turn allowed the two Republican Senators to maneuver their leadership into the correct strategy. The victory was a team effort, and it never would have happened without everyone pushing in the same direction. The play to defeat the Reid bill will be more complex and a heavier lift but it is doable, and it is now our game to lose.

Also read: Abortion clause raises problems for Obama and Britain’s Nice Nanny. Dr. Hunter emails:

Once Obama’s home invasion force is in place, the only remaining “right to privacy” in America will be the right to terminate the life of an unborn child. And, anyone who thinks legislative language such as Stupak will prevent the government-run healthcare system from turning into a wholesale abortion clinic is delusional.

In other news and opinion:

ObamaCare: Nelson is Stupak all over again, but possibly worse

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. A phrase heard a thousand times, but there is a great deal of truth to it. I create computers for a living and the components that go inside a laptop, desktop, or server. My contribution is very specialized as a signal integrity engineer. Alongside me are personnel in hardware and firmware, test, measurement, software, specification working groups, mechanical design, and a hundred other positions including sales, marketing, Presidents, CEOs, and a Board of Directors. But no matter how good I may become at what I do, I could never accomplish this task on my own. It takes a team.

I am always amazed how something so complex can actually be designed, manufactured and finally function flawlessly (hopefully!). Now imagine if we did not have a CEO, a Board of Directors, Presidents, Directors, and senior management. In short, imagine we did not have any leadership and we were all told to go off and build something.

We would fail and fail big. Nobody would really know what to do, what features should be included, how to sell it, what the market or competition looked like. Many would run in different directions, some would team up, and perhaps some teams would merge or work closely with other teams. In the end though, this would all be doomed to failure without an overarching strategy. If we were smart, we would first set out to build a leadership team and create a strategy. Assume our fictional company decides not to take that approach.

Absent a company wide strategy and an organizational structure our chances of success would diminish. With a company wide strategy we all work together in such a way as to amplify one another until a product appears and hits the market. Often it just seems like pure magic that it can happen that way. That is not to say that failure is impossible. Even with a strategy and the leadership it is still possible to fail. However without a strategy and the necessary leadership at all levels of the company we are guaranteed to fail.

Many grassroots organizations lack a national strategy for whatever reason. I am rather new to Tea Party Nation so I am not really informed as to the leadership structure and planned strategies. The goal of any successful campaign is to target such a structure over time. The many beads that are rolling around need a thread to string them together.

What this does not mean is that everyone is marching in lockstep all the time. Local issues, local cohesion, and state and local leadership qualities can vary from place to place. Also a decentralized structure does not lend itself well to a top-down organization. There is a strenth and a weakness to this. A national strategy addresses weakness while preserving the strength and power of decentralized orgnanizations. Its purpose is to create the foundation that each member can use to focus at the local, state, and national level. It is always there so that you can return to it again and again and continue to execute it alongside other strategies.

Such a strategy memo does exist for defeating ObamaCare that could serve as a road-map to properly direct resources and plan call-to-action campaigns. It is well thought out, is based upon measurable results, derived from observational facts, and created to focus energy. The author, Dr. Larry Hunter is the former policy advisor to President Ronald Reagan and current CEO of the Social Security Institute.

During the August recess and on 9/12 millions of grassroots across the nation pressured lawmakers to the point where one insider reported to me that staffers were ringing their hands in fear. They believed their bosses were going to lose their jobs and therefore, by extension, would they. Shortly after 9/12 the atmosphere was dismissive of the Tea Parties. We have an objective metric and that metric stated the obvious – we lost our momentum and therefore our ability to control the debate. During an interview with Fox News, Rep. Michelle Bachmann hinted at this phenomenon:

Since the members of congress have been back here for two months they kind of have forgot that message.

In the previous sentence during the interview she provides the referent for her statement as the messages that came out in August at the Town Halls and Tea Parties.

So the take away message is to never let up the pressure. We must re-create the pressure of the August recess. As this story indicates, the GOP is seeking to regain the August momentum:

Sensing that Democrats have regained momentum on healthcare reform, Republicans are taking steps to re-energize critics who loudly voiced their opposition this summer.

July and August were disasters for Democrats, but October has been much more productive as the Senate Finance Committee cleared its bill, with the support of Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine).

Right here, right now, your Senator can be pressured. To many of them, power is like crack cocaine. Threaten to take it away from them and they will respond, but only if they believe you. In order to believe you, there must be a million yous out there sending faxes, calling, emailing, attending rallies, demanding town halls when Senators are in your state:

The good news is that Members of Congress are generally at home at least four days a week (Friday through Monday) where constituents can get their hands on them. This secret hidden in the open from constituents is vital for grass-roots organizations opposing ObamaCare to understand. THEY DON’T NEED TO WAIT FOR CONGRESSIONAL RECESSES TO HAVE CONTACT WITH THEIR CONGRESSMEN AND SENATORS. All they’ve got to do is be persistent four days out of seven, insisting that Members of Congress make themselves available to constituents at least one day every week, two when major bills such as healthcare legislation are under consideration. There is no reason Members of Congress cannot hold at least one major meeting with constituents every week when something major is under legislative consideration.

Grass-roots groups have been somewhat uncertain what to do next to combat ObamaCare after the successful August recess demonstrations and town halls and the September 12 Two-Million-Citizen March on Washington. Activists should take note: It is time to track down your Members of Congress at home—they are there at least four days a week—and insist that they hear your voices when you say, “No Public Option,” “No Insurance Mandates,” “No Tax Increases,” “No Medicare Cuts,” “No New Entitlements,” “No jamming ANY health bill down our throats under Reconciliation.” If they say they don’t have time to meet with you, they are dodging you. Track them down; give them no place to hide; insist they do their job at home if they are not going to do it in Washington.

It is quite obvious from the way wars are fought, companies are run, movies are made, cars are built, organizations are successful, and a host of other examples where a blueprint or umbrella strategy exists – that it is these strategies that pave the way for success. The Revolutionary War had its Continental Congress and we have our strategy memo. Or do we? In the end, it will be the lack of a national strategy that spells the failure of our movement to stop Obama’s attempt to take control over 1/6 of our economy. We ignore implementing a national strategy at our own peril.

• There is a strategy to defeat ObamaCare.
• Read this strategy. If your Senator is on the list, get boots on the ground and re-create the tension of the August recess. The goal is to dominate the cable and network news cycles. Fax, call and email your Senators but resist at all costs the urge to blast fax every Senator. Work only on your Senator(s).
• You can fax for free at American Voice and personalize your message.
• Know the working habits of your Senator. If you can, find them and protest. Do so for as many weekends as possible until ObamaCare is dead.
• Local media is your friend. In cities across your state, demand on air or in the paper that your Senator hold a town hall meeting.
• If your Senator is not on the list, then concentrate on making the Jim DeMint amendments an issue with your Senator. All Republicans, whether listed or not need to make this an issue. Why were they allowed to be stripped from the Budget Resolution opening the way for reconciliation when the Senate voted unanimously for them to be included? Make this a national issue. If you don’t know what I am talking about – read the strategy memo.

Live by the following two dictums:

• There is not limit to what you can accomplish if you don’t care who gets the credit
• If you want to go fast – go alone. If you want to go far – go together.

There may be other things we can do but I honestly can’t think of them. We have to create public, tangible, local opposition to ObamaCare that Senators can measure with whatever calibrating mechanism they use and conclude the opposition reading is in the red zone. Some naysayers may be correct that there is nothing we can actually do to dissuade our Senators from voting for ObamaCare. However, I also know that if we could create enough local public opposition in those states mentioned in the strategy memo, they would vote against it.

So, it is an empirical, not a theoretical question: Can we turn out enough local opposition in the states in question to send your Senators’ opposition meters reading into the red zone? If we can, they will vote no. Maybe we simply can’t generate sufficient opposition; maybe it is simply hopeless as a matter of fact. My complaint is that we don’t really know that for a fact because we haven’t seen any local, feet-on-the-ground opposition on YouTube to the level it was present during the August recess, which leads me to believe no systematic effort has been made or the attempt was muted in some way.

The dog that doesn’t bark is pretty conclusive evidence that the dog is dead, comatose or not on the premises. If the pooch is alive and kicking, it is our job to sick him on our Senators so they know he will tear out their jugular if they don’t submit.

Don’t worry about what your enemies might do, but what they can do, and plan accordingly.

In other news and opinion:

Because Paul Krugman cares so much about the Republican Party

Health care takeover roll call vote — and what GOP Rep. Joseph Cao got from Obama; Plus: Organizing for America hustles more money

How To Divide a Party, In Three Easy Steps!.

$25 billion “stimulus” program produces 0 jobs

ObamaCare: Dithering while the economy burns

Democrats Sold Their Party’s Reproductive Soul

McClintock, R-CA: Healthcare mandates “brazenly unconstitutional”

In a way this is a post-mortem on the Tea Party movement concerning the House legislation, although in a peripheral way. If we lose the Senate where the chances are much greater to stop the bill then the information below is just the beginning of a post-mortem. For now, I choose not to go there unless events occur which dictate that I do so. I could say a great deal more, but will reserve additional information until such a point as it becomes critical or pertinent to winning the fight. For now, let’s assume the issue with Tea Party movement is limited to just the information below, although in truth the rabbit hole goes much deeper. This is not to say that all Tea Parties suffer from the maladies both written and unwritten in the paragraphs which follow.

From the Politico via the Social Security Institute.

Like most Americans, members of the House are expected to report promptly — no excuses — when summoned by their bosses for the start of another workweek. One difference: For lawmakers, starting time doesn’t come until about 6:30 Tuesday evening.

After taking control of the House in 2006 — and again when President Barack Obama was elected president in 2008 — Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) boasted that lawmakers would work four or five days a week to bring change to America.

But midway through Obama’s first year in office, Hoyer’s House has settled into a more leisurely routine. Members usually arrive for the first vote of the week as the sun sets on Tuesdays, and they’re usually headed back home before it goes down again on Thursdays.

Since the House returned for its fall session on Sept. 8, it has stuck around to vote on a Friday just once: to approve a 5.8 percent increase in Congress’s own budget.

A Democratic leadership aide vehemently defended the schedule, saying members shouldn’t be kept in Washington for four or five days when work can be completed in fewer.

And with health care reform, climate change legislation and a slew of appropriations bills lined up in the Senate, House Democrats know that a longer workweek in their chamber might do little more than add to the backlog.

Asked about the abbreviated workweeks, Hoyer said Tuesday: “I think you understand why we’re doing it.” He pointed to the appropriations bills stalled in the Senate, but he didn’t cast blame at senators for moving so slowly. “It takes a long time to do it,” he said.

Still wondering what you can do to keep up the pressure on the Senate? Dr. Larry Hunter of the Social Security Institute counsels:

The good news is that Members of Congress are generally at home at least four days a week (Friday through Monday) where constituents can get their hands on them. This secret hidden in the open from constituents is vital for grass-roots organizations opposing ObamaCare to understand. THEY DON’T NEED TO WAIT FOR CONGRESSIONAL RECESSES TO HAVE CONTACT WITH THEIR CONGRESSMEN AND SENATORS. All they’ve got to do is be persistent four days out of seven, insisting that Members of Congress make themselves available to constituents at least one day every week, two when major bills such as healthcare legislation are under consideration. There is no reason Members of Congress cannot hold at least one major meeting with constituents every week when something major is under legislative consideration.

Grass-roots groups have been somewhat uncertain what to do next to combat ObamaCare after the successful August recess demonstrations and town halls and the September 12 Two-Million-Citizen March on Washington. Activists should take note: It is time to track down your Members of Congress at home—they are there at least four days a week—and insist that they hear your voices when you say, “No Public Option,” “No Insurance Mandates,” “No Tax Increases,” “No Medicare Cuts,” “No New Entitlements,” “No jamming ANY health bill down our throats under Reconciliation.” If they say they don’t have time to meet with you, they are dodging you. Track them down; give them no place to hide; insist they do their job at home if they are not going to do it in Washington.

During the August recess and on 9/12 millions of grassroots across the nation pressured lawmakers to the point where one insider reported to me that staffers were ringing their hands in fear. They believed their bosses were going to lose their jobs and therefore, by extension, would they. Shortly after 9/12 the atmosphere was dismissive of the Tea Parties. We have an objective metric and that metric stated the obvious – we lost our momentum and therefore our ability to control the debate. In one Google group for one of the Tea Parties I mentioned this over and over until the blowback convinced me I was wasting my time. Thankfully, Rep. Michelle Bachmann made the point during a Fox News interview, which prompted my response to the group:

…As you listen to her, please recall the numerous times the strategy memo was mentioned and the need for sustained pressure in a cohesive and coordinated way as opposed to local ad hoc pressure. Listen for the key phrases which are direct indicators that it was the lack of coordinated sustained pressure that has put us in this reactive mode as opposed to being proactive during the last two months…

…If we pull this off this week – and even if we don’t – there is still that final vote. If ever doubters wanted a smoking gun that the grass-roots vacation since August has put us behind the eight ball and greased the skids for ObamaCare, here it is – right out of the mouth of a Michelle Bachmann herself. Rep. Bachmann is polite but very telling in her delivery of that message. She also realizes that she must help recreate the pressure with the help of the grassroots, but it will be up to us to keep it going.

After this week – its sustained pressure time – unrelenting. As Ms. Bachmann says – “since the members of congress have been back here for two months they kind of have forgot that message” which she refers to in the previous sentence as the messages that came out in August at the Town Halls and Tea Parties. We cannot let them forget again. After the campaign this week, if we go back to business as usual, then so will the Congress. I hope this motivates us to do the right thing. This is not the first source inside the Halls of Congress to have stated this, but it is the first time I have seen it stated publicly. This is one concerned
politician’s way to telling us what needs to be done. This is somebody that knows what it is going to take. I applaud her.

Another contact with inside connections just emailed me:

This can still be stopped if the grassroots does it right. It is our game to lose.

Ours to lose.

When is comes to a winning strategy to pressure Senators to act a certain way it helps to think of it like pain. If you have pain for only half an hour you won’t be thinking about six hours later. If the pain is unrelenting, you are going to pay it a great deal of attention and possibly make an appointment with your doctor. In short, you will probably do something about it instead of ignore it.

The news from Senate insiders (Senators and their staff) concerning the 9/12 movement is now one of disappointment and a feeling of helplessness about three weeks after 9/12. I am not talking about the effect of 9/12, but rather the lack of effect just a few short weeks after 9/12.

The general feeling in the Senate was dismissive of the movement. This is real intelligence and very solid.

We saw what happened in the House. Now it’s the Senate’s turn. If you are part of a Tea Party, I hope the above information convinces you the current approach just is not working. We must re-create the tension of the August recess.

Local media is your friend – they are dying for some actual news – something that will draw viewers and is controversial. In each town in your state, challenge your Senator to a town hall through media outlets. You don’t have to wait for a recess to pressure your Senator. Look at the strategy memo from above and see if you Senator is listed. Call them, fax them, challenge them to hold town halls and, if you happen upon some intelligence on where they will be when in town – show up.

In other news and opinion:

Because Paul Krugman cares so much about the Republican Party

Health care takeover roll call vote — and what GOP Rep. Joseph Cao got from Obama; Plus: Organizing for America hustles more money

How To Divide a Party, In Three Easy Steps!.

Which would tie in well with how to divide a grassroots movement. Here is an historical perspective which is used only as an example of how not to run a war – and this is war. That is all I will say for now: The Southern Revolution And Confederate Leadership: A Recipe For Failure.. Bookmark this page and read the post. I may be referencing it heavily in the future

$25 billion “stimulus” program produces 0 jobs

ObamaCare: Dithering while the economy burns

Democrats Sold Their Party’s Reproductive Soul

McClintock, R-CA: Healthcare mandates “brazenly unconstitutional”

With the explosion of ClimateGate, who better to tell the truth about the global warming hysteria than Ian Plimer (see below). Mr. Plimer’s schedule should be booked for the next year if anyone is truly serious about getting to the truth and bypassing politics to see the real science and the actual data.

Cap-and-Trade, it’s next on the list so lets start thinking about it now. For an excellent background see Could Australia Blow Apart the Great Global Warming Scare? and A Tax on Thin Air.

These two links concern what happened in Australia. Ian Plimer’s book Heaven and Earth, Global Warming: The Missing Science, is a blockbuster that explodes the global warming myth. It turned the tide in Australia. I am sending a copy to my Representative and Senators. The more books we can send the better. Call your Senator and Representative and demand that Ian Plimer be allowed to testify in front of the Congress. The country deserves a balanced debate on the issue.

Anyone remember the television series Jericho? This show was about a devastating nuclear terrorist attack on the US (multiple cities) and one small Kansas town dealing with the aftermath. The show promoted family values, the power of communities, and the harsh reality that millions of Americans would face if such an event were to ever occur.” I loved the show and so did millions of others. When CBS decided to cancel the show, a grassroots movement began to keep the show on the air. The campaign involved sending crates of nuts to CBS. Nuts you say? Why would anyone possibly want to do that?

In the final episode of “Jericho,” the town is under siege from a neighboring community.

When asked to surrender, lead character Jake Green, played by Skeet Ulrich, has a one-word response: “Nuts.”

The response is in reference to Gen. Anthony McAuliffe, a U.S. Army general who in World War II was surrounded by Germans demanding his surrender.

His response: “Nuts.”

The campaign worked and a second season was aired. Ian Plimer’s book is our “nuts” campaign, as in your nuts if you think we are going to buy into this hype and pseudo-science. In a “this would be funny if it were not so serious moment”, Ian Plimer exposes one of the climate experts referenced in the International Panel on Climate Change as – you’re not going to believe this – an expert in fossil faeces. It’s like asking the weatherman on your local TV channel to perform your colonoscopy. Somebody’s getting it in the end and I think it’s supposed to be us – but not anymore. Australia did it and so can we.

The previous strategy would make a huge difference in turning the tide against global warming hysteria and could stop cap-and-trade dead in its tracks. Ian Plimer’s book that blows the lid off the man-made Global Warming myth and does such a good job that the book changed the mind of a leading global warming hysteric – Paul Sheehan (see his comments below). It changed the course of the debate in Australia and lead to the death of climate change legislation as the tide turned in public opinion.

One of the most remarkable changes brought about by Plimer’s book occurred on April 13, when leading global warming hysteric Paul Sheehan—who writes for the main Sydney newspaper, the Sydney Morning Herald, which has done as much to hype the threat of global warming as any Australian newspaper—reviewed Plimer’s book and admitted he was taken aback. He describes Plimer, correctly, as “one of Australia’s foremost Earth scientists,” and praised the book as “brilliantly argued” and “the product of 40 years’ research and breadth of scholarship.” What does Plimer’s book say? Here is Sheehan’s summary:

Much of what we have read about climate change, [Plimer] argues, is rubbish, especially the computer modeling on which much current scientific opinion is based, which he describes as “primitive.”…

The Earth’s climate is driven by the receipt and redistribution of solar energy. Despite this crucial relationship, the sun tends to be brushed aside as the most important driver of climate. Calculations on supercomputers are primitive compared with the complex dynamism of the Earth’s climate and ignore the crucial relationship between climate and solar energy.

To reduce modern climate change to one variable, CO2, or a small proportion of one variable—human-induced CO2—is not science. To try to predict the future based on just one variable (CO2) in extraordinarily complex natural systems is folly.

In response, this is Sheehan’s conclusion: “Heaven and Earth is an evidence-based attack on conformity and orthodoxy, including my own, and a reminder to respect informed dissent and beware of ideology subverting evidence.” This cannot be interpreted as anything but a capitulation. It cedes to the global warming rejectionists the high ground of being “evidence-based,” and it accepts the characterization of the global warming promoters as dogmatic conformists.

It is time to stop the nonsense of wealth distribution in the guise of a scientific farce visited upon the American people by psuedo-science. It is time to open the curtain and take a peak at the real agenda of global warming fear mongers.

Redstate titles the post Even the grizzled Senate Veterans Found this Amazing — Vaporbill:

Vaporbill is a bill that has no legislative language but that is brought up before the Senate and cloture is invoked on a 100% blank bill.

I am not kidding.

One of the most powerful Senate staffers briefed a group of us on it yesterday morning. It is the next logical step to the HELP Committee’s mark-up of a bill not yet written. Why not take a bill to the Senate floor that does not exist?

Just wait till the READ-THE-BILL first crowd gets a hold of Vaporbill.

This is exactly what the Democratic Senate Leadership has in mind. If you were wondering just how-out-of-touch-Congress-could-get — well, now you know: Vaporbill.

Dan Perrin of Redstate then informs readers how the process would play out (via the Heritage Foundation).

Right now, the Senate Finance Committee is in the midst of marking up health care reform “legislation.” Due to Senate procedure, what they are actually marking up is a 200+ page conceptual framework of the actual legislation, not a real bill. That means that not only has no Senator even read the bill but, there is a high probability that the bill hasn’t even been written yet. If the Committee sticks to their artificial deadline of completing work by this Friday then they would have passed a conceptual document reforming the nation’s health care system, spending trillions, without ever seeing an estimated 1,500 pages of legislation, which may or may not be written.

The current plan is to start debate on Obamacare as early as next week under the following four-step scenario:

STEP ONE: The Senate Finance Committee will finish work on the marking up of Senator Max Baucus’ (D-MT) conceptual framework for legislation by this Friday. Baucus has not unveiled final legislation and, according to the Associated Press, he added some new language to the mark up today. AP reports that “under pressure from fellow Democrats, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee decided to commit an additional $50 billion over a decade toward making insurance more affordable for working class families.”

Senators have not been provided any real legislation and are offering amendments this week to Baucus’ 200+ page outline. It is expected that at the end of the process the Senate Finance Committee may produce a bill longer than the 1,000 page House bill that proved so controversial over the August recess. Many Senators are upset that they don’t have final language for a bill, yet still they sit in a Committee Hearing Room this week marking up a draft document that is not in the form of legislative language. The plan is to have this document voted out of the Senate Finance Committee by Friday.

STEP TWO: Next, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will take the final product of the Senate Finance Committee and merge it with the product of the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) Committee. This was the late Senator Kennedy’s (D-MA) bill, introduced by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), which passed the HELP Committee on July 15, 2009 on a party line vote. Remember, most Senators will still not know what they voted for in the Finance Committee.

STEP THREE: Senator Reid will then move to proceed to H.R. 1586, a bill to impose a tax on bonuses received by certain TARP recipients. This bill was the bill passed by the House in the wake of the AIG bonus controversy and is currently sitting on the Senate Legislative Calendar. Reid will move to proceed, and he will need 60 votes to act on this bill. After the motion is approved, he will then offer a complete substitute bill purportedly including the combined Senate HELP and Finance Committee products. This means that the entire health care reform effort will be included as an amendment to a TARP bill that has been collecting dust in the Senate for months.

STEP FOUR: For this strategy to work, the proponents would need to hold together the liberal caucus of 57 Democrats, 2 Independents (Senators Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Bernie Sanders of Vermont), and a potential new member replacing the late Senator Kennedy. This scenario would most likely be implemented after the Massachusetts state legislature gives Governor Deval Patrick the power to appoint a new Senator and that Senator is seated by the Senate. According to CQ, the state legislature may pass a bill and present it to Governor Patrick by next week.

Once the Senate passes a bill and sends it to the House, all the House would have to do is pass the bill, without changes, and President Obama will be presented with his health care reform measure thereby transforming within a few weeks 1/6th of the US economy. If this plan does not work, the Senate and House Leadership may consider using reconciliation to pass the legislation. For a more detailed explanation of the reconciliation scenario, please see the Heritage Foundation’s Fact Sheet on Reconciliation here or a handy guide on Reconciliation published in Human Events earlier today.

Does this sound like a transparent, bipartisan and effective way to change the way millions of Americans get their health care? Of course not.

Larry Hunter of the Social Security Institute has this to say on the matter:

Now the VaporBill piece is making the rounds of the Internet

I have no doubt they may need to do a little striking and inserting in lieu thereof for procedural reasons – I’m not enough of a Senate parliamentarian to know whether they will or not but for the life of me, I can’t see any strategic value in this rigmarole. (Please tell me if I’m wrong so we can light up the Internet.) It surely doesn’t give anyone anywhere to hide because folks like me and the grass roots will cut them a new one with it. My favorite link in the whole chain in the five-step strategy comes in un-enumerated Step 5 in the penultimate paragraph:

“Once the Senate passes a bill and sends it to the House, all the House would have to do is pass the bill, without changes, and President Obama will be presented with his health care reform measure thereby transforming within a few weeks 1/6th of the US economy.”

This casual statement reminds me of my favorite New Yorker cartoon of all times:

If this is an even remote possibility – and I have my doubts due to the monumental backlash that would occur against Democrats in the Senate and House, as well as Obama, then the grassroots needs to contact their Senators and let them know they face political extinction not only if they support this overt disrespect of a legislative process that will affect 1/6 of the nations economy and usurp our personal liberties, but also if they support in any form or fashion using reconciliation to jam this down our throats. Burn up the phone lines as well as the faxes. However, do not take your eye off the ball. As far as I know, this can just be a diversionary tactic. Don’t get me wrong, this needs to be addressed with the weight of the Tea Party movement, but not at the expense of other and more realistic ways of jamming ObamaCare down our throats. Say no to RINOCare and say no to reconciliation.

In other news and opinion:

Videos: Medicare Advantage consumers will lose benefits

How Brave the Meaningless

Me, Myself and I

ObamaCare: Is the GOP finally turning on the mandate?

Harry Reid gives GOP direct warning on healthcare; I give Harry Reid a direct warning: start looking for outplacement services

CBO contradicts Obama on healthcare – again

Dems lied, transparency died: Senate Finance Committee nixes Obamacare online disclosure

Transparency! Democrats Refuse to Post Health Care Bill Online

Update: Why this is reaching a critical moment: Howard Dean, DFA, Launch Campaign Encouraging 51-Vote Health Care Bill. If we ignore the following, we do so at our country’s peril. This strategy will work.

Keep the following in mind as you read this post: FORCE THE DEMOCRATS TO DEFEND IGNORING A RULE THEY AGREED TO. THEY HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO GROUND TO STAND ON. You will see this again below.

In this post, I argue how the coup de grace is nigh for ObamaCare. I also point to this post that details Senator Jim DeMint’s amendments how they can be used to kill reconciliation. From the second post:

During deliberations on the Senate Budget Resolution earlier this year, Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) introduced a point-of-order amendment that would require a 60-vote majority to pass “any bill, joint resolution, amendment, motion, or conference report that eliminates the ability of Americans to keep their health plan or their choice of doctor (as determined by the Congressional Budget Office).” The Senate approved the DeMint Amendment unanimously.

Subsequently, before the Senate Budget Resolution went to a Conference Committee where differences with the House Budget Resolution were to be worked out, DeMint offered a motion to instruct the Conferees not only to insist on retaining the 60-vote provision in the final Conference Report but also to widen the scope of the provision to cover any provision and so forth that decreases the number of Americans enrolled in private health insurance while increasing the number enrolled in government-managed, rationed health care. The Demint motion to instruct passed the Senate by an overwhelming vote of 79 to 14.

As a matter of congressional comity, the House ordinarily would have been expected to accede to the Senate provision since it affected Senate rules that applied only to the Senate. Remarkably, Senate Budget Committee Chairman, Kent Conrad, allowed the Demint 60-vote requirement to be removed from the Budget Resolution in Conference.

One comment on first post linked above comes from jfxgillis:

G.J.:

To take them in reverse order, the motion to instruct simply isn’t operative anymore. The instruction was not in the Budget Conference Report but it passed anyway.

The other amendment appears to rely on a CBO finding that hasn’t happened yet on a bill that hasn’t had a floor vote yet.

The amendments only passed in the first place because they don’t matter.

Once again it is up to the grassroots to get involved and put serious pressure on the Senate concerning these amendments and make known our expectation that these amendments be adhered to because of the promise by unanimous vote in one case and a vote of 79-14 in the second. If we shame enough Democrats the possibility increases that votes will be lacking in the Senate even for Reconciliation. It is up to the us to pressure Republicans to make this an issue. Republicans, as we all know too well, are prone to rolling over and need prodding on a regular basis. To borrow a Texas phrase, it’s like herding cattle.

The amendments passed. Therefore, if the Senators wish to be seen as men and women of character, they should follow the rules they set out for themselves. No more rules for thee (you and me) but not for me (the elitist politicians). No more spineless non-responses and no more pompous attitudes. If the 9/12 DC march taught Republicans and Democrats anything, it is the grassroots is real, we are big, and we will vote.

The Senate insiders have tried all along to dismiss the DeMint provisions on technical grounds by ignoring the facts that got us to the current situation. The grassroots must be ruthless and relentless in pushing the Republicans to do the right thing. It is all about constructing the right narrative. If we start listening to excuses from insiders, our movement will be hijacked by the establishment (beltway insiders, including politicians of both parties), which is exactly what they will try to do. But hijacking the movement is less about elbowing for who gets credit than about herding us so we don’t rock the boat and make life uncomfortable for them. What they fail to realize is they are the cattle and we are the cowboys. We herd them, not the other way around.

First, by any stretch of the imagination any bill currently under consideration by the Senate satisfies the conditions set down in the original DeMint Amendment that passed by unanimous consent. I would love to debate anyone arguing otherwise.

We can argue all day whether or not CBO would rule otherwise but that gives up the fight before it even begins. The CBO doesn’t have to rule on anything since the provision has been stripped. I suspect my detractors response above has been talking to a Republican insider or is getting his information from one second or third hand.

Of course CBO hasn’t yet ruled whether or not a bill satisfies the DeMint conditions, because it is not law yet. But the pertinent point is that the DeMint Amendment is not law precisely because it was dropped unceremoniously in conference contrary to the will of the Senate as evidenced by a huge bipartisan majority (79 votes). How did that happen? The Senate Budget Committee Chairman who voted for the measure twice on the floor of the Senate and was under instructions from his Senate colleagues to insist on the Senate provision in conference turned his head.

The reader may be asking why Senator DeMint is not pushing this issue hard – after all they are his amendments. The answer is obvious – he knows his cowardly Republican colleagues won’t stand up and fight and he doesn’t think the grass roots can be mobilized by this kind of procedural argument, which seems to be confirmed by my detractor above. If we allow ourselves to get intimidated by the technical details and try to explain and discuss them so we pass the test as Senate parliamentarians, we will lose the American public. The parliamentarian test is another favorite technique used to keep strategy control firmly within the hands of the insiders. That is why we have to construct the narrative and control it from the outside rather than allowing the insiders to set the terms of the debate.

Republicans always allow themselves to be cowed. They know that as politicians they are a dreadful lot, their political skills leaving much to be desired. They reveal this inferiority complex by this kind of timid, overly cautious behavior. Well, sometimes cattle need prodding. We need to take up the issue and insist on it. We must put ourselves in the drivers seats. The Senate Republicans are our passengers, our guests, and it is we who must take them along for a ride – not the other way around. Then let the Democrats stand on technicalities after placed on the defensive. The American public will see right through them.

This is a very simple story. The Senate made a rule and then broke other rules in the dead of night to throw it in the garbage. This is the same way these jokers have destroyed the Constitution. The Senate passed a rule committing itself not to consider under Reconciliation any healthcare reform bill that satisfied certain conditions. It left it to CBO to determine whether the bill would satisfy those conditions but it is self evident that any bill currently under consideration does satisfy them. The Senate then instructed its conferees to insist on retaining that amendment in conference. The Senate Budget Committee Chairman betrayed his colleagues and acted contrary to their instructions. We know for a fact that it was he because the House conferees had no political purchase on the provision. It could only be stripped out with Conrad’s acquiescence.

Now someone wants to turn around and argue that the DeMint amendment doesn’t apply because it is no longer in the Budget Resolution and, oh by the way even if it were still in the Budget Resolution it wouldn’t make any difference anyway because CBO would not certify any current bill under consideration as satisfying the conditions established by the amendment. Of course the DeMint amendment doesn’t apply, but they had to cheat to strip it so that it wouldn’t apply — we should not allow ourselves to be conned into defending status quo rules when other rules and long tradition of the Senate had to be broken to get us to this status quo – this is so Republican. Instead, we should be arguing that the Senate should abide by the rule it adopted for itself anyway because it should still be in the resolution and would be in the resolution if the Democrats hadn’t played games and the Republicans hadn’t slept through them.

As for CBO, we must simply assert that the only way CBO could possibly not certify a bill as satisfying the conditions of the amendment is if they were being manipulated by the Democrats.

The Republicans have the rules and the politics on their side, and they have simply been unwilling to pick up the ball and run with it just as they were unwilling to fight ObamaCare and RHINOCare until we made it impossible for them not to. We have to stick the ball in their hands and push them out front so either they run with it or get crushed. We have to re-focus the debate on fairness, abiding by the rules. Oddly enough, Robert C. Byrd provides us the best arguments for not passing healthcare reform under Reconciliation. Just ask yourself this: If the situation were reversed, would the Democrats be wringing their hands and being so fastidious? One guess, and my bet is you will get it right. Why, because if you are reading this chances are you are smarter than most politicians. I know you, not personally, but I have met hundreds like you and color me impressed. For any mindless ObamaBots who are reading this, the answer is – of course not.

The establishment knows how to play the game and that is why they take us to the cleaners on a regular basis – in the past. Now its our turn. Spin cycle anyone?

It’s up to us, the grassroots. We can’t go all wobbly on America now.

The argument that the Senate would have rejected the entire conference report if it really wanted the amendment in is weak. First, it all happened so fast I am sure only a couple of Democrats realized it was gone. The Republicans voted against the Resolution anyway. This was a set up and we are falling into the trap they set. Finally, we have to make it clear that this was not a provision in dispute between the House and Senate, which would have given the “it-passed-anyway-without-it” argument more saliency; this was a provision the House didn’t care about and the Senate was on record by huge bipartisan majorities in favor of twice.

The American people will want to know why was it stripped to begin with? More importantly, why wouldn’t the Senate abide by its own rule? The House has no say in it. FORCE THE DEMOCRATS TO DEFEND IGNORING A RULE THEY AGREED TO. THEY HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO GROUND TO STAND ON.

So how do you put the pressure on Republicans to make this an issue and subsequently push enough Democrats away from Reconciliation because the political stakes are too high? Copy this link (http://tinyurl.com/m6ywb7) and sent it out to everyone you know. Send it to the Tea Parties, make it viral, and continue to take back this country. Or feel free to use this material as you wish. Copy it, paste it, put it on your own blog. A good friend once told me of a quote by President Ronald Reagan.

There is no limit to what you can accomplish if you don’t care who gets the credit.

Amen. I am not looking for recognition, instead I am looking for the day to arrive when I turn on my computer, go to my favorite blog or internet news site and read: Healthcare Reform Dies.

Can you imagine? This is a group effort, it is a grassroots effort. None of this would be possible without millions of disillusioned citizens taking their grievances to the government, or putting in their time going to rally’s, protests, marches, writing on blogs, and organizing local tea party chapters. This is truly an amazing time in the history of this country.

We did it on 9/12, we can do it again.

Kill ObamaCare. Hit the reset switch. Then we can do it right. Simple free-market solutions exist which can drive down costs without liberty destroying legislation that favors big government and/or big business and without the budget busting price tag attached to all these proposals. I live in Texas and the benefits of tort reform by itself are quantifiable and beneficial to both patients and doctors.

Update: Reader SteveL in the comments asks the question why only a few are taking up this issue? The answer lies in the post above – it is how the establishment has gamed the system. I reply that I have contacted major bloggers on the issue and have yet to hear back from them. Nobody is interested. However, should ObamaCare pass and later analysis indicates the above approach would have killed it, then at least I was on the right side of history. I have contacted some Tea Party groups, including the national chapter. It has only been a couple of days for the later, so I am still holding out hope.

In other news and opinion:

Does Anybody Actually Like the Baucus Health Care Bill?

Doctors Threaten to Go Galt if ObamaCare Passes

ACORN’s Comprehensive Ho-migration Reform

The Useful Idiots Are After Rush Limbaugh Now

President Obama: Back to Square One on Health Care

ObamaCare: Who loves the Baucus bill?

Coward-in-Chief

Gallup: Obama under 50% on Afghanistan, economy, health care, deficit

Obama’s solution on illegals and health care? Amnesty; Update: Video added

Rasmussen: ObamaCare hits highest disapproval rate yet

A few more myths from the White House

Major Update 2: There is a meme making its way through the internet the Jim Demint amendments don’t matter. NOT TRUE.

Major Update: ObamaCare coup de grace is nigh. It is time to strike the death blow.

The battle now turns to preventing the Senate from jamming ObamaCare down the throats of the American People under Reconciliation. The end game is underway and the momentum is swinging toward the opponents of ObamaCare. Or to mix metaphors, ObamaCare opponents are on the green, and all they have to do is sink the putt. Can anybody here play this game? After Saturday’s impressive demonstration on the National Mall there is no doubt the grass-roots movement for freedom, privacy and limited government can hit a very long drive and knows how to chip onto the green. The question remains: Can they putt? Let’s hope so.

Can we stop reconciliation? You bet we can. Read Senate Ignores Jim Demint Amendments That Kill Reconciliation And How We Can Use It. The Senate passed these two amendments – one unanimously and the other by a margin of 79-14 – both which kill reconciliation. The Dems choosing to ignore their own amendments is shameful. We must follow the rules, but if you are a Senator, well rules be damned. It is exactly this privileged mentality of “rules for thee, but not for me” that fuels much of the anger directed at the Congress these days.

The grassroots Tea Parties carried a great deal of energy during the Congressional August recess over the break. That energy, which appeared non-coherent and at the local level, showed its national teeth September the 12th, 2009 during the march on DC. It is long past the time when this energy needs to be concentrated like a laser beam in one place – the Senate, or we WILL see bill pass that is contrary to fiscal responsibility and an outright danger to healthcare in this country. Like any form of energy, there is always a portion which is lost to other factors. In a automobile, the engine’s energy is used to power the vehicle, but much of it is lost to friction and heat. There is never a free lunch in nature. The same is true of informational energy. Undirected informational energy is wasted energy. Now, more than ever, we need to direct that energy or it will all be for naught. We will get the healthcare we deserve.

From the Social Security Institute:

The Hill reports that Senate Democratic Leadership remains optimistic they can produce a RHINOCare “bipartisan compromise” on healthcare reform that will get 60 votes. If not, Democratic Leader Harry Reid said they are prepared to jam ObamaCare down the American People’s throats under the special parliamentary maneuver called Reconciliation, which severely restricts the number of amendments that can be offered, stringently limits the time for debate and allows the Senate to pass a measure by a mere simple majority, contrary to the normal rules and long tradition of the U.S. Senate.

Now is the time for the grass-roots movement that put a million people on the National Mall last Saturday to rise up as one and (1) insist that Republicans not cave in to a RHINOCare “compromise” that would impose a mandate on individuals forcing them to purchase health insurance (a so-called “individual mandate”); and (2) demand that the Senate consider healthcare legislation under the REGULAR ORDER — NO RECONCILIATION.

Read more about the Individual Mandate here. . .

Read why RINOCare and the Individual Mandate is contrary to all GOP principles here. . .

Democratic Senator Robert C. Byrd explains why passing healthcare reform under Reconciliation would be an abuse of the budget process and contrary to the time-honored traditions of the U.S. Senate here. . .

And let’s not forget, The Story The Media And Major Blogs Are Not Reporting: Senate Ignores Jim Demint Amendments That Kill Reconciliation And How We Can Use It.

If we don’t win this, the Tea Parties will lose momentum. Once Congress realizes we speak in generalities and our energy is not focused on specifics, that’s it – everyone came to the party, had a good time, and went home. If we lose this, how successful do you think we will be with Cap-and-trade or Card Check or whatever other nightmare Obama has in store for us?

This adds a sense of urgency to our mission: Snowe falls away, leaving Senate Dems without GOP support on healthcare. Marcus comments and drives the point home:

With the Jim Demint amendments going national that increases the probability that enough Dems will not support reconciliation, which these two amendments address.

BLAST this link out to all your friends and have them blast it out. Blast it to the tea parties. Here is a shortened version of the link to this post that you can copy and paste into an email: http://tinyurl.com/ndork4. Use twitter and the social networks, the ShareThis button at the bottom of this post – whatever method works for you. It’s time to drop the hammer on ObamaCare, hit the reset switch and start over.

In other news and opinion:

Video: Mob boss or union boss?

ObamaCare getting even more partisan and more unwieldy

Whatever Happened to the 9/13 March?

Senate Democrat website: With no action, uninsured to reach 101 million by 2019

ObamaCare: Does the media matter?

45% Of Doctors Would Consider Quitting If Congress Passes Health Care Overhaul. Via Instapundit.

Report: Rules of engagement led to soldiers’ deaths

Too Much Obama Can Be Hazardous to the President’s Health

Audio: What would Wilson say to Carter?

ACORN: Hey, maybe we do need to clean house

Snowe bails on “compromise” ObamaCare bill; Update: Baucus plan cuts Medicare

Reason: The center’s paranoia is the most threatening

Your Morning Health Care Roundup: Exeunt Snowe, Republicans

From The Hill:

Speaker Nancy Pelosi has agreed the House should vote next week on scolding Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) for his outburst during President Barack Obama’s speech unless he apologies on the floor of the House.

“There was a violation of the rules of the House,” said Pelosi spokesman Brendan Daly. “It needs to be resolved by an apology or a resolution.”

A Democrat, likely House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), will introduce a “resolution of disapproval” Monday or Tuesday unless Wilson formally apologizes on the House floor. The House returns Monday.

Good. Bring. It. On.

Wilson should go to the floor with a television set, and play the video of the Dem caucus booing Bush during the State Of The Union address in 2005. This should be followed by his reading the Associated Press fact check of Obama’s speech to the Joint Session. The story is evidence that Obama is fact challenged. Pelosi has all but called the Tea Party liars, and Reid, Pelosi, and Obama have consistently talked about stopping the spread of lies about the healthcare bill. In order for their to be lies, there must be liars, so with their accusations, the three stooges just called a majority of Americans liars.

Wilson should bring the bill to the floor and begin to read it, challenging Nancy, Reid, and Pelosi to expose the lies they keep harping about. Every Senate and House member who participated in this slandering of the American public should be named. The public should be reminded that Senator Harry Reid called Bush a loser. Wilson should then state that he will apologize when Obama, Reid, Pelosi, every Democrat still seated today who booed Bush in 2005, and every member of the Senate and House who basically called us liars apologizes. Let’s go on the record here. Stand up Rep. Wilson and give us a show. We want to see Nanny State Nancy go slinking back into her corner and shut her pie hole.

Let’s see who steps up and who looks stupid.

In other news and opinion:

The “Section 246 Proves Joe Wilson Is A Liar” Lie. Oh yeah Joe, bring this one up to. Even Nancy’s botox treatments won’t hold up after this onslaught.

Your BlackBerry Is Un-American!

Damn These Weak-Kneed Republicans

Senate to close ObamaCare loophole for illegal immigrants that media claims doesn’t exist. You don’t say! So Obama is a liar and the spineless Republican twits in the House won’t even back him up. Excuse my French, but screw the bunch of you.

Update (7/9/2009): Thanks to Michelle Malkin, who spearheaded efforts to kill Cap-n-Tax in both the House and Senate, we are given the good news that the Pressure’s on: Senate Dems put cap-and-tax on ice. Obama and the liberals attempt to rush the legislation is a strong indicator they are very aware that Obama’s numbers are slipping and the faster they acted, the better the chance of pushing this farce through, further damaging the U.S. economy in the short term and all but wreaking it long term. While I fully believe passage of this bill faces more difficulty as time passes, as Michelle warns about the public pressure, “keep it up”. It has got to feel good to know you have made a difference. Thanks to Michelle and everyone else who called, emailed, blogged, attended tea parties, or screamed from their rooftops. The backs of the enemy now face us and we triumphantly give chase. From Richard Cohen at the Washington Post via Michelle Malkin:

The primary U.S. Senate committee responsible for writing climate change legislation will delay its work until September, Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer said on Thursday.

Boxer, who earlier this week said she wanted her committee to finish writing its portion of legislation mandating reductions in carbon dioxide emissions before an early August recess, told reporters that instead, “We’ll do it as soon as we get back” in September.

The delay could be a setback to President Barack Obama, who wants quick congressional action on a climate change bill.

Best quote of the day comes from Michelle in reference to the eight GOP cap-and-traitors in the House:

Hey, GOP Cap-and-Tax 8?ers, feeling pretty stupid right about now?

Up next: health care reform.

:
Original Post (7/8/2009):
:

Cruising the internet this morning, I noted a piece in ABC’s The Note written by Rick Klein that brought a smile to my face. The tide is turning in the battle against the Obamaniacs, the enemy is in retreat, and now is the time to strike the final blow. In Economies of Sale – Obama Agenda Threatened by Economy, Mr. Klein notes:

Look what’s back.

It took a trip abroad, a few Republicans to make some other news, and maybe even one of those once-a-decade funerals that double as international events, but the economy is the big issue again.

It’s never really gone away — though $787 billion in stimulus cash was supposed to have turned things around by now.

But it hasn’t, and here we are. Give us a jobs report, a sliding Dow, a vice-presidential admission, and a presidential certainty that everything was handled right, and we’ve got a fresh dose of the issue that’s always been here — and that’s closer than ever to belonging to the Democrats alone.

(If the domestic divisions weren’t enough, let’s go international: The economy will be a main focus at Wednesday’s G-8 sessions, in Italy, where President Obama spends his day after wrapping up the Russia portion of his trip.)

(And while he’s been away — maybe a bit too much playing by his top aides? So far, President Obama has had to tidy up some mixed messaging coming from his vice president and his chief of staff; it’s only Wednesday.)

On the economy — this time, it’s not as easy to blame the predecessors. This time, the pressure to change course comes from the left and the right.

This time, there’s an ambitious domestic agenda that’s at risk of getting sidetracked.

Now, it’s the president himself on the line.

Read the rest of this entry »