Down To The Wire

Friday, February 13, 2009

Down To The Wire

The Senate has started debate of the final version of the stimulus bill. And the ultimate fate of what Senator McCain aptly called "generational theft" - the wholesale plundering of the US economy - rests in the shaky hands of two GOP senators, Arlen Spector and Olympia Snowe. Susan Collins has already committed to this abomination, and Teddy Kennedy is physically unable to vote, so it comes down to these two to get the sixty votes it needs to pass.

This bill, if it passes, will affect America's economy for years to come, which is exactly what Obama and his allies on the Left want. It's worth noting the bill was only released to Congress at 11PM last night, that it's over 1,000 pages in length and that it was released in PDF form - so that searches by keywords is impossible.

That's because they don't want Congress - or you- to know exactly whats inside. And this from an administration that campaigned on 'transparency' and pledged to put legislation like this on the Internet for five days so people could see it!

Like that tax cut for 95% of Americans and support for domestic oil creation, that was just sucker bait to get the gullible rubes to pull the lever for Obama and his fellow Democrats.

This bill is filled with payoffs to Obama's political allies like ACORN, expands government immensely and provides very little in tax cuts or job creation for Americans..an average of $13 per week in tax cuts per family. That'll buy very little, especially when fuel costs and inflation go up. Even the home buying credit, designed to help the housing market was cut out, except for a small amount limited to first time home buyers.

The bill also expands entitlements like the Earned Income Credit and opens the door for nationalized ( and rationed) health care. Unhappy with your HMO now? Just wait.

The final tally? Including debt service, interest and the expansion of entitlements, $3.27 trillion, according to the Heritage Foundation. And those figures pretty much agree with the ones put out by the Congressional Budget Office.

Spector and Snowe have both taken their phones off the hook, and Harry Reid has apparently promised Spector, Snowe and Collins to count their votes out of order so that none of them ends up being that 60th vote that puts this over the top. The final vote will likely come this weekend.

I can't say it surprises me, but I remain amazed that the dinosaur media is still so enamored of the One that they have abandoned even a pretense of journalistic ethics, objectivity and oversight. Instead they 've become not journalists, but advocates. For most of them, it appears to be enough that their preferred candidate won, that he appeals to their sense of style, and that he sounds good reading a teleprompter . And they are paying no attention to what this legislation is likely to do to America, themselves, or their families' futures.

The lead story today? A plane crash in Buffalo. The much bigger trainwreck in the US senate is being ignored.

We're in for a very bumpy ride.

Watcher's Council Results, 02/13/09

The Council has spoken! A complete rundown of the voting tallies is here.

The winning entry in the Council category this week was my entry atJoshuapundit for “60 Minutes” Libels Jews And Israel, my examination of a particularly horrendous example of how the media distorts and manipulates news on the Middle East and particularly when it comes to Israel. Thanks gang!

In second place we had a tie between two especially worthy pieces,Cheat-Seeking Missiles with Fair Treatment of Prisoners, an excellent look at the issues behind the controversy of what to do with jihadis taken captive on the battlefield and the hypocrisy of the Left on this issue andMere Rhetoric - Austrian Jews Too Terrified To List Their Children As Jewish (Plus: Europe Reaches An Anti-Jewish Tipping Point) - Omri's examination of the worsening climate fo rJews in Europe.

Also getting votes were The Razor with Spending Bill: $200,000 per job ,The Provocateur with ACORN and Alinsky Rule #13 , and The Glittering Eye for Why What, When, and How Matters in a Stimulus Package.

In the Non-Council category, the winner was Chesler Chronicles at Pajamas Media - Conventional versus Non-Conventional Warfare and Why Israel Did Not Lose in Gaza.

In second place, we had a tie between a piece by Randall Hoven inAmerican Thinker, Change: The First Three Weeks and Nat Hentoff at the Cato Institute for The Cost Of Criticizing Jihadists .

As always, congratulations not only to the winners but to all the participants.