ActiCons

The House voted today to block a resolution to remove Charlie Rangel from his chair on the Ways and Means committee. With 6 complicit Republicans, House Democrats prevented both a vote and any further debate by sending it to die in committee. The resolution, brought by Rep. John Carter (R-TX), essentially vanishes now, because, as Rep. Carter pointed out via parliamentary inquiry, the committee has no obligation to consider or debate it any further. The full text is below the fold and I’ll update with video when I can.

The roll call is here. The guilty Republicans are: Walter B. Jones (NC), Peter King (NY), Tim Murphy (PA), Don Young (AK), Dana Rohrabacher (CA), and Ron Paul (TX), with King, Rohrabacher and Young having also voted yea to end debate and hold the referral vote. (If I understood the procedure correctly.)

UPDATE
Some clarification on why there were two votes, and why the totals were different, from Rep. Carter’s office:

“The first vote eliminated any chance for debating the resolution, and the second vote was to refer it to the ethics committee. So it could be said that three people wanted to hear the debate but then they voted to refer it to the ethics committee.”

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Facing growing public skepticism and falling approval ratings as a result of his push for nationalized health care, President Obama told a group in Virginia last week that he didn’t want, “the folks who had created the [health care] mess to do a lot of talking, I want them to get out of the way so we can clean up the mess.”  It was a remark meant to rally the base to Obama’s side, and shore up his flagging poll numbers on the issue.  Obama may have thought he was chiding Republicans in making the comment.  But even a cursory look at the “mess” in the American health care system shows that on the issue of who is responsible, the president’s remark is as wrong as it was arrogant.

Health care experts across the spectrum can agree that there are three main problems with the health insurance industry in America today:  community rating, which forbids insurance companies from charging premiums based on an individual consumer’s health status; the practice of defensive medicine, under which doctors order numerous costly and often unnecessary tests to cover themselves against the possibility of malpractice lawsuits; and employer-based coverage.  Each of these problems, which together contribute most to the “mess” in health care delivery, were all either brought into existence, or are perpetuated by Democrats.

Employer-based coverage came about during World War II as a consequence of the National War Labor Board’s decision to institute wage and price freezes in an attempt to prevent production shortages due to labor unrest or inflation.  The NWLB exempted fringe benefits like pension plans and health insurance from the freeze, meaning employers could compete for the dwindling pool of skilled workers by offering ever-increasing health insurance coverage.  Workers grew accustomed to receiving health benefits as a condition of their employment, and the system of employer-provided health benefits became an American institution.

Although the NWLB decision may have sprung from the best of intentions at a time of war, it grew from the progressive tendency toward control.  The consequence for today’s health care debate is that generations of Americans were separated from the cost of the medical care they received.  As costs grew, and businesses were forced to cut back on benefits while increasing the employee’s cost share, workers began to feel the increase in costs for the first time.  Two of the main drivers of those cost increases have been the practice of defensive medicine, and community rating.

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This week I had the inestimable pleasure of appearing on RFC Radio with the Right Doctor. Click on “Read the rest of this entry” to download the podcast. Melissa rules, and the show was a blast! And don’t miss me today on The Ed Morrissey Show, which airs at 3PM EST. I’ll be on at the half with Tommy Christopher.
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First, read this excellent post by my good friend Lori: Guess it was OK to be an “angry mob” and “Nazi-like” in ‘06; if you are a Democrat, of course.

Great post and a great point, and it spawned the following comment which is pretty much must read:

In the past, I would’ve chalked this whole thing up to typical party politics played by both sides: back and forth they go and little by little the principles of the Constitution are eroded by the tide of an expanding government and a more corrupt and incestuous party system.

But this is different. This is our own government enlisting it’s union muscle (a convenient tool) to suppress and intimidate common citizens of this country. They reply that it’s the “brownshirts” (typical liberal imagery of anyone not agreeing with them being nazis)who are intimidating elected officials and stifling dialogue. What dialogue? They don’t want a discussion of two different positions. They seek only a debate as to what degree their agenda gets advanced. For that matter, isn’t it better for the politician to be intimidated by the people rather the alternative…regardless of the “party”? These folks at the town halls are not singling out and attacking individuals, they are acting against a government. Well, Newton was right: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The government and it’s actions against individuals have proven it.

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I realize you are all very busy cashing enormous checks from health care lobbyists and engaging in mob activity at town halls (with your old people and your sandals and whatnot), but please allow me to interrupt briefly with a story far too delightful to allow its passing unremarked.

This is a tale of Keith Olbermann: sportscaster, eye-glasses wearer, living comedy routine and, according to multiple left wing sources of late, a blatant liar. Actually, I believe Keith’s favorite way of saying it is ‘bald-faced’ liar. Just what is it (this time) this bald face is lying about? Oh, this is so where it gets fun. It’s not even one of those, ‘get the popcorn’ moments. This is like, you write in to popcorn forum … “Dear Orville, I never thought these stories were true until it happened to me.”

Wait, before we go on, I just want to throw this out there. Clark Kent was the worst secret identity ever. Right? He looked just like Superman, they were never in the same place at the same time, and just like Supe, Clark was a goody-two-shoes boyscout. But with glasses. Right? Obvious. See, if I were a super-hero, I would make my secret identity like, the biggest douche in the world. Like, the hugest. So no one would EVER think to suspect him. Plus he’d wear glasses. See where I’m going? Hey, I’m just trying to find some kind of balance in the universe, you know what I mean?

Anyway, back to the story. It all starts with an article that ran in the New York Times a few weeks ago. In it, a supposed truce between MSNBC and Fox News, and in particular between O’Reilly and Olbermann, was said to have been arranged by the network bigwigs. You see, Keith had been accusing Bill of being responsible for the murder of abortion doctor George Tiller, a sentiment cheered by the 23 people in Keith’s audience. In return, Bill led an effective campaign of boycotts and letter-writing against MSNBC parent, GE. I would say things got ugly, but considering the participants in this fiasco it should go without saying. Ergo, at last, the truce.

Not so fast, said Keith to three different cameras. No doubt out of fear of being seen as a “sell-out” by his kostituency, Olbermann went on the air with a worst persons in the world segment blasting the article, Bill O, and Fox News. He declared his independence, presumably from MSNBC not Kos, and then posted about it at, yes, DailyKos. Keith blogged that “there is no ‘deal’ between MSNBC and Fox over what we can and cannot cover. This is part of a continuing strategy of blackmail by Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes, that reaches back to 2004, and has as its goal the cancellation of ‘Countdown.’”

So. Definitive? Yes. Problem Solved? Not so much.
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Via DailyDose:

Opposed.

Reasonable position, that.

Brought to you by Chuck DeVore and the letter ‘B’:

Awesome. Great closing line. I don’t think it’s necessary here at Acticons to go over the ways in which Senator Boxer was just a pompous snob, nor to point out the fact that the General, who no doubt worked hard to get where he is, is called sir by his subordinates, just as female officers in the military are called ma’am. There’s no reason to point that out. Not when you could be out donating to DeVore’s campaign.

We good? Good. Now go add your tweets to the #Boxertude hashtag, you speck of a peon in Babs’ shadow!

Update: Moe Lane points out two very interesting facts involving eye-patches and wet mice sacks.

Going to try and revive this.

• From AmSpec’s Washington Prowler: ACORN, AmeriCorps, Michelle and Walpin; Vice City.
• From Hot Air: (Almost) All The News That’s Fit To Print
• From DailyDose: Shocker! Press Gives Ziegler Short Shrift
• FINALLY: Piece of Work In Progress launches, run by hilarious Twitterer @Vermontaigne.
• From Hot Air: Glenn Beck asks Walpin to bring the crazy!!
• DIGG THIS From The New York Post: Yeah dodging doesn’t work buddy. Silence is consent.
• From DailyDose Slate’s Jack Shafer to Twitter: You are a stupidface!

Read the whole thing at American Spectator:

How Obamacare Will Change Your Life

By David Catron on 6.17.09 @ 6:09AM

It’s all over but the slow walking and sad singing. The old U.S. health care system is about to receive the last rites from the high priest of hope and change. All that remains are a few arrangements relating to the funeral, which is tentatively scheduled for some time in August. And, if you are like many Americans, you’re thinking, “Good riddance.” You’ve been convinced that what was once the best medical delivery system in the world has become too inefficient and expensive to be worth saving. You look eagerly forward to the new and improved health care model promised by President Obama and his allies in Congress.

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