“A key House Dem has begun informing party leaders he plans to vote against health care legislation both on the House floor and in the rules committee, on which he sits.
Rep. Michael Arcuri (D-NY), a sophomore Dem who had a tougher-than-expected re-election bid in ‘08, has told the Dem caucus he will vote against the bill.

He becomes the 3rd member, along with Reps. Joe Donnelly (D-IN) and Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), to have switched from supporting the first bill, in Nov., to opposing the Senate version.
Arcuri’s vote will not hurt the bill’s chances in committee, where Dems hold a 9-4 advantage over GOPers. The panel’s other 8 Dems all voted for the first version of health care, and only Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-CA) voted in favor of the Stupak amendment.

But Arcuri’s decision could make Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s goal of winning the 216 votes necessary for passage all the more difficult. Sources say Dems remain short of the votes necessary for passage, but that they have not reached their goal yet.”

Current whip count is 192 yes, and 208 no. Even with leaners it’s 6 votes shy. It’s highly unlikely they can get the 216 no matter what the media and the liberal talk-miesters say. The CBO report is preliminary and after 24 hours the numbers aren’t as good as Dems sought. The actual number in cost by the way isn’t 900+ billion, it’s more like 2.5 trillion.

Anyway, while the folks over at Hot Air are resigned to allowing this to happen (cheer up Allahpundit), the fact is that they don’t have the votes. Sunday’s vote is a Alamo, not D-Day, and the Dems plan to use it as a memorial to help them in November by saying how the evil GOP thwarted Americans “right” to “affordable and mandated” healthcare.

Many constitutional authorities believe that they will be ulimately successful in reversing the mandate to buy coverage and many other provisions.   As I said previously it makes no difference if Dems pass their unconstitutional bill this weekend,  a senior Republican assured me today that once the majority is taken in November much of the bill will be stripped until it’s essentially worthless.

In fact I’ve seen two preliminary drafts to be introduced during the next congress should Republicans take control.   Specially to strip the bill of much of the funding needed to make it viable.

“We’re going to cut the nuts off this Donkey before it gets it’s first kick!”, a senior aide laughingly told me.

Additionally I’m told that there will be many challenges in the court by voters to the mandate to buy insurance, and preliminary scouting has found at least 15 judges, 4 federal who may be willing to issue injunctions to stop Obamacare from taking place.

Keep the faith!  More to come.

Dems may well pass Obamacare, but being that it won’t take affect until 2014 or so – although while your taxes go through the roof – it’s likely it will be stripped to shreds and eventually killed by a GOP majority. Definitely by a GOP congress and president and that’s already on the table.

Pollsters and prognosticators haven’t seen this foul of a climate for a political party since 1993 and according to many it’s even worse. Today a local radio show in South Florida was flooded by irate callers calling for the ouster of Democrats even from the local governments over their takeover of healthcare.

“They’ve lost their minds!” “Who in the hell do they think they are?” “Wait until November, we’ll kick them to the curb them”, just a few of the comments I heard. But you have to wonder just what in the hell Dems are thinking by trying to push this through. One can come up with a few possibilities.

1) They actually believe that people want their bill – when they don’t. That’s delusional, but plausible.

2) They know it will get repealed or at least stripped down, but they can say, “See the Republicans are the bad guys!” Won’t work, we’re doing the will of the people and they know it.

3) They figure people will change their minds once they have Obamacare. Again, won’t matter they won’t get anything until 2014 or beyond, by then they won’t know what they missed and will be thanking God – and us – for it.

“The moral of the story? If you’re going to trash America and the troops, use Smurfs.

The Wrap:

Universal’s “Green Zone” became the latest Iraq War-themed movie to fall down the box office rabbit hole, debuting to just $5 million in the U.S. and Canada Friday, according to studio estimates. …

“Green Zone” could find little traction, getting out to a pace that will give it less than $15 million for its premiere weekend.

That would be even less than the modest pre-release expectations for the $100 million film, which reteams star Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass, who worked on the Universal’s last two “Jason Bourne” franchise installments. The film was put into production during the co-chair term of Marc Shmuger and David Linde.”

You figure that after Lions for Lambs, In the Valley of Elah, Rendition, Stop Loss all flopped they would have learned that movies like this are only popular with Al Qaeda.

“WEST PALM BEACH — Venting about the conservative tea party movement and talking — at times heatedly — about the need for civility in public discourse marked the debut meeting of a local “coffee party” group today.

About 40 people showed up for the meeting at a Panera Bread restaurant, where organizer George Papison had booked a small room in expectation of a dozen or fewer.

The meeting was one of hundreds planned for today across the nation by Coffee Party U.S.A., a group that sprang from Facebook rantings against the tea party movement by filmmaker and Obama supporter Annabel Park.

“Frankly, we are petrified by the tea party and what they stand for and what they’re talking about,” said Monte Carmel, a retired business executive from West Palm Beach.

“I’m tired of all the misinformation, the cute little labels the fright-wing has thrown on everything,” said a man named Russ.

“To me, government is the answer. I’m really sort of perplexed,” said a man named Joe who said he had been a teacher for 44 years.

Participants broke into groups and wrote their priorities on white posters, then shared them with the larger gathering. Several called for passage of health care overhaul, which has galvanized tea party opposition. Others called for campaign finance reform and curbing the influence of lobbyists and corporations.

“We have to stop the mantra of no taxes, no taxes, no taxes,” said Marcia Halpern of Palm Beach Gardens.”

Halpern is a local DNC official, as well as a member of the ACLU of Florida, and treasurer of the League of Women Voters of Palm Beach. In fact most of those in attendance were operatives or otherwise heavily involved in Democrat politics in Palm Beach. 40 people isn’t a movement, it’s a beer bash at best. I can get more people over for the Superbowl.

You have to laugh at Halpern’s bemoaning “No taxes”. Property taxes in Palm Beach, Broward and Dade have risen steadily while homeowners get foreclosed on. Get some t-shirts printed Marcia, “More Taxes!”, “Tax Me Till I Puke!”, “I’m Patriotic, Shaft Me Uncle Sam!”.

Should sell a lot.

“The January Mullen briefing was unprecedented. No previous CENTCOM commander had ever expressed himself on what is essentially a political issue; which is why the briefers were careful to tell Mullen that their conclusions followed from a December 2009 tour of the region where, on Petraeus’s instructions, they spoke to senior Arab leaders. “Everywhere they went, the message was pretty humbling,” a Pentagon officer familiar with the briefing says. “America was not only viewed as weak, but its military posture in the region was eroding.” But Petraeus wasn’t finished: two days after the Mullen briefing, Petraeus sent a paper to the White House requesting that the West Bank and Gaza (which, with Israel, is a part of the European Command – or EUCOM), be made a part of his area of operations. Petraeus’s reason was straightforward: with U.S. troops deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. military had to be perceived by Arab leaders as engaged in the region’s most troublesome conflict.

The Mullen briefing and Petraeus’s request hit the White House like a bombshell. While Petraeus’s request that CENTCOM be expanded to include the Palestinians was denied (”it was dead on arrival,” a Pentagon officer confirms), the Obama Administration decided it would redouble its efforts – pressing Israel once again on the settlements issue, sending Mitchell on a visit to a number of Arab capitals and dispatching Mullen for a carefully arranged meeting with Chief of the Israeli General Staff, Lt. General Gabi Ashkenazi. While the American press speculated that Mullen’s trip focused on Iran, the JCS Chairman actually carried a blunt, and tough, message on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: that Israel had to see its conflict with the Palestinians “in a larger, regional, context” – as having a direct impact on America’s status in the region. Certainly, it was thought, Israel would get the message.

Israel didn’t. When Vice President Joe Biden was embarrassed by an Israeli announcement that the Netanyahu government was building 1600 new homes in East Jerusalem, the administration reacted. But no one was more outraged than Biden who, according to the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, engaged in a private, and angry, exchange with the Israeli Prime Minister. Not surprisingly, what Biden told Netanyahu reflected the importance the administration attached to Petraeus’s Mullen briefing: “This is starting to get dangerous for us,” Biden reportedly told Netanyahu. “What you’re doing here undermines the security of our troops who are fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. That endangers us and it endangers regional peace.” Yedioth Ahronoth went on to report: “The vice president told his Israeli hosts that since many people in the Muslim world perceived a connection between Israel’s actions and US policy, any decision about construction that undermines Palestinian rights in East Jerusalem could have an impact on the personal safety of American troops fighting against Islamic terrorism.” The message couldn’t be plainer: Israel’s intransigence could cost American lives.”

Israel needs to see nothing. The Obama administration taking the pro-palestinian line that Israeli settlements put American troops in harms way is deplorable. The enemy isn’t Israel, it’s the terrorist of Hamas and other terrorist networks in Palestine.

(crickets).

PS: I though KO was descended vis Edward R. Murrow, oh, never mind.

“Time: March 16, 2010 from 9am to 6pm
Location: Cannon House Office Building
Street: Independence Avenue SE and New Jersey SE
City/Town: Washington, DC
Website or Map: http://maps.google.com/maps?f…
Phone: 202-942-7616
Event Type: lobbying, against, obamacare, 2.0
Organized By: Kahryn Rombach and Brendan Steinhauser of FreedomWorks.org.

Please join us in DC to lobby our congressmen to VOTE NO on Obamacare 2.0. Join us Tuesday, March 16th, beginning at 9:00am outside the Cannon House Office Building (Independence Ave. SE and New Jersey SE). We will be storming the three House Office Buildings: Cannon, Longworth and Rayburn. Our message is simple: VOTE NO on Obamacare 2.0.

FreedomWorks will be joining Tea Party groups and all other organizations that are fighting to defeat Obamacare 2.0. Please meet us in front of the Cannon House Office Building to pick up an area map, office locations, talking points and lobbying tips. For more information please contact Kahryn Rombach at 202-942-7616 or krombach@freedomworks.org. Please note that there are multiple entrances to all three buildings, so try to use all of them.

You can also contact Diana Reimer at (267) 446-7124 or philatppatriots@gmail.com or Robin Stublen at nelbuts5256@gmail.com or (941) 769-0369
to find out more.

Buses can drop off passengers at Maryland Ave. and 3rd Street SW. Click here for more information about bus permits and parking in DC.

If you can’t make it to DC for this important event, please visit the local office of your congressman. You can find the office location by visiting http://house.gov

Please make sure that you find out where your congressmen is, and then go inside and ask his staff for a face to face meeting. Stay there as long as you have to in order to get a meeting. Ask your friends who couldn’t make it to DC to call Tuesday morning to say that they support you, but that they couldn’t make it themselves. This will send a powerful message to your congressman.

Longworth House Office Building has a cafeteria where you can grab lunch. Also, some have asked where the closest metro stop is. It’s Capitol South on the Blue/Orange lines.

Please plan to ATTEND. Pelosi and her comrades are about to shove socialism down America’s throat. We ain’t taking it laying down. It’s time to get rough and nasty!

“Most Americans want health care reform:

It is ironic that Democratic pollsters Patrick H. Caddell and Douglas E. Schoen felt “compelled” to “challenge the myths” about public attitudes on health care by simply restating one of the most commonly stated — and patently wrong — Republican myths [Washington Forum, March 12].

No pollster, including me, could look at the recent data and responsibly say anything other than that the American public is closely divided when it comes to supporting or opposing various health-care plans. The most recent Washington Post poll (from Feb. 10) shows a narrow gap between support and opposition: 46 percent favor; 49 percent oppose. This data is consistent with eight of the 12 most recent independent public polls reported on Pollster.com.

In light of this data, it is irresponsible, and wrong, for Schoen and Caddell to assert that a “solid majority of Americans oppose” health-care reform.”

Which isn’t what they said, but don’t let the facts confuse an Obamanite. Poll after poll show that – yes – Americans think health reform is needed but they also show that they reject both the house and the senate plans outright. It’s a route, it’s not even close.

Which leads Benenson to outright lie.

“There’s no question that a majority of Americans oppose a government-run health system. But there is no government-run health care in the plan, and not a single American would be forced into any government-run program.”

What a crock and he knows it. EVERYTHING in “the plan” is about Government Control and mandates, or does this simpleton think that mandated purchase of healthcare isn’t in that equation?

“

“If you ask a conservative Republican, you are likely to hear that Obama is a skilled politician who campaigned as a centrist but is governing as a big-government liberal. He plays by ruthless, Chicago politics rules. He is arrogant toward foes, condescending toward allies and runs a partisan political machine.”

Ok, so maybe Brooks is on the bottle, or meds, been asleep in a cave, got hit on the bean. After all he does work at the Washington Post. But if you’ve watched Obama over the last year of so you can come away with no other impression. Hell Brooks, independents have, that’s why they’ve left him in droves! Darn those pesky polls!

“In a sensible country, people would see Obama as a president trying to define a modern brand of moderate progressivism. In a sensible country, Obama would be able to clearly define this project without fear of offending the people he needs to get legislation passed. But we don’t live in that country. We live in a country in which many people live in information cocoons in which they only talk to members of their own party and read blogs of their own sect. They come away with perceptions fundamentally at odds with reality, fundamentally misunderstanding the man in the Oval Office.”

Jonah Goldberg pounces.

“Brooks is turning out to be like Big Bird to Obama’s Snuffaluffagus! He’s the only one who can see the real Obama and nobody believes him.”

How true.