If you receive this and you hate it and you don’t want to ever read it no matter what...that is fine; email me back and you will be deleted from my list (which is almost at the maximum anyway).

I attempt to post a new issue each Sunday by 2 or 3 pm central standard time (I sometimes fail at this attempt).

I try to include factual material only, along with my opinions (it should be clear which is which). I make an attempt to include as much of this week’s news as I possibly can. The first set of columns are intentionally designed for a quick read.

I do not accept any advertising nor do I charge for this publication. I write this principally to blow off steam in a nation where its people seemed have collectively lost their minds.

And if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, always remember: We do not struggle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Eph. 6:12).

President Barack Obama has signed a one-year extension of several provisions in the nation's main counterterrorism law, the Patriot Act.

There was an 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile on Saturday morning with siren warnings of a tsunami going off in Hawaii a few hours later (but without the tsunami). Several aftershocks continued in Chile, including one which measured 6.1 on the Richter Scale.

The President held a 7 hour healthcare summit this week with Republicans and Democrats both.

FNMA asks for another $15+ billion in financial aid. If you do not yet know what FNMA and FHLMC are, you need to find out. In a related story, AIG believes that its losses will be worse than anticipated.

An Italian court hands out guilty verdicts for three of four Google employees who were charged in a case concerning a 2006 Google Video clip posted of a teenager with autism. These executives did not produce, submit, or seek out this video; and when asked to remove it, they did. They also assisted authorities locate those who posted the video.

Rush Limbaugh admits to being wrong; he said that the Republicans should not attend the healthcare summit, but changed his mind after the summit.

38 years too late, Carly Simon reveals the identify of the person who inspired her to write “You’re so Vain.”

Canadian women’s hockey team celebrates their victory against the United States on the field with cigars, (Canadian) beer and champagne. The IOC is looking into this; when questioned, the women responded with, “Take off.” (Okay, I made up the quote, hearing it from someone else). Their apologies and the hilarious photos are listed under links.

Charles Krauthammer on the Olympics, “I’m racing home after the show tonight to watch curling, which one wag...described as a cross between horseshoes and housekeeping...curling is perfectly ridiculous, agonizingly slow, [but] I have to admit that for the first 2 hours, I had no idea what the rules were, but I didn’t care [because] I was mesmerized.”

Before the healthcare summit, Dennis Miller predicted, “Obama is gong to blow so much smoke, you’ll think a new pope was elected.”

Iowan Congressman Steve King, “And after all of these months of debate and negotiations, it comes down to this: if you start out with that tainted stew, there is no part of it that Americans want. We don't want a pot full, we don't want a bowl full, we don't want a spoon full, a cup full, or any kind measure of toxic stew called socialized medicine. We want it dead. Throw it out and start over.”

Paul Krugman about Charlie Rangle’s ethics violations: “I'm unhappy with this; I wish Rangel would go away, but it's, it really has no national significance.” Rangle is the chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee,

Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals warns his readers, “Don’t scare the middle class.” He instead counsels to look like them, talk like them and act like them.

President Obama this week, “I am an ardent believer in the free market.”

In Obama’s book, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, he spoke of his short stint in private industry as being "like a spy behind enemy lines."

Lamar Alexander, "This [healthcare reform] is a car that can't be recalled and fixed . . . we ought to start over."

President Obama to Senator McCain: "We're not campaigning anymore, the election is over."

James Inhofe, on global warming alarmists: “Now we find the big thing is—we can’t forget it—they cooked the science on which all this was predicated. They’re trying to change now and say, ‘Well, we never did say global warming, we said extreme weather.’ That dog won’t hunt.”

Joe Biden, this week, said, "It's easy being vice president - you don't have to do anything."

Whomever Biden was chatting with said, "It's like being the grandpa and not the parent."

"Yeah, that's it!" replied Biden.

Arnold Schwarzenegger: “I think that the economy, we see signs of a comeback, but it's very clear that the comeback is not going to be as quick as we've seen in the past. It's slow, and we have (ph) seen in our revenues that there's more than a billion dollars a month coming in more than we anticipated. We've seen that the foreclosure rate has slowed down. We've seen that the house sales have picked up. We've seen people are getting back to work, especially in the green sector. So there's signs all over, but the key thing is not to be overly optimistic.” And, “[The Republicans are] the party of no, and at the same time, I think that there are a lot of people that are disenchanted and dissatisfied and they're angry and this is why you have the Tea Party and all of those things. The Tea Party is not going to go anywhere. I think the Tea Party is all about just an expression of anger and dissatisfaction.”

Bernie Sanders, when explaining the problem with global warming deniers, said, “It reminds me in some ways of the debate taking place in this country and around the world in the late 1930s. During that period of Nazism and fascism's growth - a real danger to the United States and democratic countries around the world - there were people in this country and in the British parliament who said 'don't worry! Hitler's not real! It'll disappear!’ ”

Ronald Reagan: “The taxpayer [is]...someone who works for the federal government, but doesn't have to take a civil service examination.”

Iran is now going to hide its nuclear weapons work inside of mountains, to make them less susceptible to being taken out militarily.

This is 6 minutes, but it is well worth it; this is Paul’s Ryan’s examination of the Senate healthcare bill cost, as well as the difference between conservative and liberal approaches to healthcare. If you watch nothing else from the healthcare summit, this is essential (watch Paul Ryan’s eyes; he is not looking at any notes):

CBS did a reasonable job summarizing the healthcare summit (reconciliation is also covered; however, their expert does not mention a lot of important facts about reconciliation):

And, in case 6+ hours of a healthcare summit was not enough, Nancy Pelosi answers questions which you may have (this is only 8 minutes, but it may feel like 8 hours):

Here are the points the McCain made prior to be warned by President Obama that they are no longer campaigning:

The best segment on Hannity’s show is Frank Luntz’s panels (which are usually split evenly between Democrats and Republicans). I would much rather hear the comments of regular people, as questioned by Luntz, than most of the other political pundits:

Ronald Reagan on disguising socialism as medical care for those who cannot afford it (this message has never been more up-to-date):

Keith Olbermann expresses concern that there are not enough Blacks and Hispanics in the TEA party movement:

Katrina Pierson, who is on the Dallas TEA Party steering committee, being interviewed on Fox Business (good interview):

Just in case you have not seen it, this is how the Democrats reacted to President Bush wanting to use reconciliation (which they call the nuclear option):

Marc Thiessen debating on MSNBC; this is about national security and it takes about 2.5 minutes before he actually speaks:

Jodi Miller, “Vice President Joe Biden says that Washington is broken; exhibit A, Joe Biden.”

1) Reconciliation (passing a healthcare bill in the Senate which will also be passed in the House without debate being cut off with a majority vote) has never been used before on (1) to reformed a sixth of the US economy; (2) to pass reforms which do not have the support of the public; or (3) for a totally partisan effort.

2) One of the great things about the healthcare summit was, some people heard Republican ideas for the first time (as they are not put out there in the alphabet media, for the most part).

3) Frank Luntz observed that the healthcare summit had the Democrats and Republicans seated separate from one another more like the red team vs. the blue team. This does not give the appearance of working together. Further, in focus groups which Luntz ran, he said that even his Democrat people were impressed by the Republican leaders, mostly because they had never heard these ideas before.

4) 47¢ of every healthcare dollar is spent by the government. Government is in charge of healthcare for veterans, the old and the poor. What is this, 20–25% of America’s population? If there are people out there who cannot get healthcare insurance because they are too poor, it is the fault of these government programs, who have more than enough money to work with already.

5) Although the 2 Glenn Beck shows I saw this week were pretty weak, he has done a better job than anyone else out there explaining what progressives are (recall that Hillary Clinton preferred to think of herself as a progressive rather than a liberal). The idea behind progressivism is, of course, progress, but progress towards more and more government control. They are Marxists and Socialists, but without the violent revolution. It is a slow and patient walk toward more government control. The higher the taxes, the more companies (GM, AIG) and the more sectors (Medical) which are under government control, the closer and closer we move toward a European-style socialism. My biggest problem with progressives is, they are unwilling to publically reveal their end game. They are unwilling to say, “This is the ideal government that I want to see.”

6) A person who glanced through a previous issue of Conservative Review accused me of peddling hatred, and also spoke disparagingly of Bush and his lack of command of the English language. Obama has easily made more mistakes in the English language than has George Bush. So far, he has said corpse when he should have said core (for the word corps); this past week he used ax instead of ask; and, the one which gets under my skin (don’t ask me why); his pronouncing to as tuh.

Many headlines read, insurance profits up 250%. All insurance profits taken collectively from 2009 would pay for every American’s medical insurance for 2 days.

56% of people questioned say they think the federal government's become so large and powerful that it poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens;

71% say the legislature is doing a poor job, which is up ten points from the previous high of 61% reached a month ago.

Those figures include 45% who strongly oppose the plan and just 23% who strongly favor it.

22% of the nation's voters strongly approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President.

This gives Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -21, which matches the lowest Approval Index rating yet recorded for President Obama.

21% of voters nationwide believe that the federal government enjoys the consent of the governed.

If President Obama can't work out a compromise with Congressional Republicans at the health care summit, do you think he should drop the current

health care bill and start over later, or try to pass the current bill without Republican support?

Notice how TEA party goers, previously ignore by the alphabet media (for about 6 months), are now being identified as anti-government, anti-incumbant and as filled with birthers, racists and other wackos.

Obama in charge of the healthcare summit, saying things like, “All those papers in front of you—that’s a prop.”

And, “John, that makes too much sense; it sounds like you’re campaigning—but I won and you lost, so stop campaigning.”

I will meet various dictators and thugs from Iran, Venezuela, and North Korea without preconditions = I will not meet with any of the leaders of Iran, Venezuela or North Korea.

Negotiations for a healthcare bill will be on C-SPAN = negotiations for a healthcare bill will not be on C-SPAN.

I am not a socialist = I would like to move the United States toward European socialism.

I believe in the free enterprise system = I would like to move the United States toward European socialism.

[This is a new column wherein I will offer up supporting evidence that President Obama has no idea how to govern]

Although holding the healthcare summit was a good thing for America, strategically, this hurt President Obama and the Democratic healthcare plan. The President came off poorly and the Republicans looked good because they presented plans and ideas that most people had never heard before (since these things are not reported by the alphabet media). Furthermore, the Republicans knew Obama’s plan better than he did; and they knew the Senate plan better than he did.

Talking about reconciliation is a bluff, because, right now, the Democrats do not have the votes in the House (they only barely passed a bill which is much different from the Senate bill). In the House, almost everyone who votes for such a bill will be fired this year.

The President floats another idea about simply stopping the foreclosure process, an idea which is unconstitutional and lacks business sense.

Judd Gregg (R–NH) warns that the US is heading for a debt-driven "financial meltdown" within five to seven years.

Obama will go down in history as one of the worst presidents ever, eclipsing even President Carter. Bush 43 will rank somewhere in the upper middle.

Paul Ryan will be in the top 3 Republicans to run for president in 2012. My dream ticket would be Ryan-Bachmann or Ryan-Palin.

It looks like Rangle is toast; expect there to be very little coverage on his ouster (along the same lines of the New Orleans Congressman, whose name I forget, with the frozen $90 grand in his icebox).

Will it be possible to pay off the Obama debt? Will anyone be willing to run on fewer public benefits and paying down the American debt? Is it even possible to find a politician who will not lie to the American people and still win the presidency?

Obama speaks for about 2 hours; Democrats speak for about 2 hours; Republicans speak for about 2 hours.

Obama doesn’t give the gist until the end, when he says, “We’ve got a month, and then we will see what we have to do; that is what elections are all about.” (Not an exact quote)

The President reduced himself to arbiter-in-chief, deciding, from time to time, which points were valid and which points were talking points.

Democrats brought mostly sad stories from their constituents, including a woman who is now wearing her dead sister’s false teeth, reason enough to reform the entire healthcare industy. Their healthcare bill was, by implication, a panacea, which would solve all the problems of their constituents.

Republicans came knowing the President’s bill and their own as well. Paul Ryan correctly explained that they were coming at this problem from two entirely different and unreconcilable perspectives.

Liberal Media described this meeting as a draw between the Democrats and Republicans, which means the Republicans did much better than the Democrats. How much of this did you see in the news on Friday? The less that was shown on your news source indicates how they felt about this summit.

When I was in real estate, there were specific requirements and rules when it came to a person qualifying for a home loan. The ratio of this person’s monthly debt to their income was such that, if need be, they could tighten their belts in order to pay their mortgage. Their credit history would have been indicative of a person who would be willing to economize in order to save their credit.

The changing of these requirements by FNMA and FHLMC ended up driving home prices up, causing a housing bubble (and many people took loans out on this inflated value) and it put people into homes that they could not afford, and it should have caused FNMA and FHLMC to go bankrupt (however, these are, more or less, government entities, so they cannot go bankrupt.

Now Obama is proposing to simply stop mortgage companies from foreclosing on delinquent loans. This takes a real problem and makes it worse. We already know that only a tiny percentage of people who take advantage of the help government provides them on their failing mortgage, actually continue to make payments. The majority of those in government programs default on their mortgage eventually.

Furthermore, this is the government stepping in and nullifying legal contracts and attempting to impose their own superior wisdom (which wisdom got us here in the first place).

Personally, I have rental property and I could not afford it if the government stepped in and told me I would have to keep deadbeats in a house until the government changed its mind. If you have a product which you sell, what would you think of the government stepping in and telling you the price at which you must sell that product? Nixon tried this with price controls (an historic embarrassment to conservatives), and it did not work.

If Obama pushes this, it will be challenged in court, if a non-FNMA (or non-FHLMC) loan is frozen by the government. If Obama applies this only to FNMA and FHLMC home loans, that will be more money out of our pockets to give to deadbeats who will eventually default on the loan.

It is pretty hard to believe that this is real, but here it is—the proper way for seminal callers to push Democratic healthcare reform on the radio.

• Be polite, respectful, and clear. Remember, you represent Organizing for America.

• How radio stations will connect you will depend on the show. Some radio shows may connect you right away, but most will take your name and basic info and put you on hold. You may or may not be able to hear the broadcast on the show while you're waiting. You may hear the radio host say something like, "Hello, we have your name on the line with us."

• Some hosts may challenge your views. Stay calm and firm. Sharing a personal story about how health reform affects you and your family is a great way to show the importance and urgency of health reform.

• If you can't get through, don't worry! If the show you call is busy or not accepting calls at the moment you call in, simply click "Give me another show" to find another.

These points are only to provide extra information and suggestions. Your personal story will make the most compelling message.

• For most Americans, their health care plan covers too little and costs too much. Far too many people delay or even skip the care they need because they simply can't afford it.

• The plan the President laid out includes the largest health care tax cut for middle class families in history and makes coverage more affordable for tens of millions of families and small business owners and expands coverage to over 31 million Americans who are currently uninsured.

• This plan will give millions of Americans new choices in health insurance by making coverage more affordable, ending the denial of coverage for pre-existing conditions, putting power in the hands of consumers instead of insurance companies and providing one of the largest tax cuts in history while also reducing our national deficit.

• Reform couldn't be more urgent - just this month consumers in California were told their premiums could go up as much as 39 percent.

• Too many in Washington are now saying that we should delay or give up on reform entirely, but Americans understand the stakes for our economy and our lives, and we want action.

Mike Gallagher showed up first as one to call; out of curiosity, was it the same for you?

I am wondering how close to Obama this all actually is; when searching “Obama radio” on Dogpile, this was #15; the Obama organization is able to get what they want out there near the top of the list of any search engine.

Ben Smith claims that this was launched by the Democratic National Committee's Organizing for America.

"There have been a lot of comments from every Republican about the polls," President Obama said near the end of the mind-numbing White House summit on health care reform. "What's interesting is when you poll people about the individual elements in each of these bills, they're all for them."

What Obama was addressing was a dilemma that drives Democrats crazy. Polls show the public supports some parts of the Democratic national health care reform plan, but adamantly opposes the comprehensive bill now dying a slow death on Capitol Hill.

Just look at the latest survey from CNN and Opinion Research. When asked if they support "preventing health insurance companies from dropping coverage for people who become seriously ill," 62 percent say yes. When asked whether they support "requiring all large and midsized businesses to provide health insurance for their employees," 72 percent say yes. And when asked if they support "preventing health insurance companies from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions," 58 percent say yes.

On the other hand, asked what Congress should do on health care -- pass the current bill, start work on an entirely new bill, or stop working on the issue altogether -- a huge majority opposes the Democratic proposal now on the table. Just 25 percent of those surveyed want to see the bill passed. Forty-eight percent want Congress to start over, and 25 percent want lawmakers to stop working on health care altogether. Put those last two together, and an overwhelming majority of 73 percent do not want Congress to pass the current bill.

The White House is cherry-picking the news it likes; that's what Obama was doing when he said the public is "all for" elements of the bill. But bring up the polls showing people just don't want the current bill, and the administration gets a little dodgy.

"Who knows what is in those polls, how they were taken, when they were taken?" White House health care spokeswoman Linda Douglass told Fox News during a break in the summit.

But why do people support some elements of the bill while opposing the bill overall? Some Democrats blame Republican misinformation. Some believe it's because the bill isn't yet a reality, and people would love it, if it were only passed. Others say the public is just stupid.

Few Democrats can accept the possibility that voters are telling them their whole approach is wrong. Big, comprehensive legislative proposals just make people nervous.

"We don't do comprehensive well," Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander said at the health summit. "We've watched the comprehensive, economywide, cap and trade. We've watched the comprehensive immigration bill ... we've watched the comprehensive health care bill. And they fall of their own weight."

That's what's happening now. And it's something Democrats would know, if they had listened to one of their leading pollsters.

Back during the 2004 presidential race, there was a debate going on inside the John Kerry campaign. Should the Democratic candidate push bold, far-reaching proposals, or should he balance boldness with more modest initiatives?

Pollster Stanley Greenberg did some research. He found that, when considered individually, Kerry's most sweeping plans were more popular with voters than his more modest ones. "Voters are ready to respond to new ideas, particularly bold ones," Greenberg wrote.

To further test the idea, Greenberg put together a hypothetical Kerry agenda -- he called it "Bold Kerry" -- which included all of the candidate's bold ideas.

Voters balked. They were uneasy with the big agenda, even though they liked some elements of it. "While voters are clearly open to bold initiatives to major problems, they may be less attracted to the candidate who wants to act boldly in every area, without exception," Greenberg concluded. "All together, that may have suggested an expanding scope for government beyond what people felt they could trust."

And that is what is happening now with health care. Ever since Inauguration Day, the White

House has acted on the assumption that, because voters elected Barack Obama, they want "Bold Obama." All the evidence suggests that is wrong.

At the end of the summit, Obama said that if he can't reach an agreement with Republicans -- and there's no chance if the existing bill stays on the table -- then "we've got to go ahead and make some decisions." That means jamming the bill through Congress against the public's wishes. And if there's still dispute, Obama said, "that's what elections are for."

We don't believe that there is any chance of stopping Obama's renewed push for his horrible health care changes in the Senate. Harry Reid is going to use the reconciliation procedure to jam it through with 51 votes - and he will get them. All the hype about how difficult it will be is to distract us from the real battle which will come in the House.

There, where every member faces re-election, it will be a lot harder for Pelosi to round up the vote she needs. Last time she passed health care by 220-215. This time, a lot of the Democrats who voted for health care are going to be so worried about re-election that they might be induced to jump ship.

The League of American voters has produced ads targeting these swing Congressmen and we urge you STRONGLY to CLICK HERE to send them money to help fund these ads.

But please do more. If you live in any of the states from which these swing Congressmen come, please call them. Let them know your opposition to health care changes. The phone for Congress is 202-224-3121. Here's the list:

Mark Schauer (Branch, Calhoun, Eaton, Hillsdale, Jackson, Lenawee & Washtenaw counties) Call (202) 225-6276!

Tom Perriello (Charlottesville, Bedford, Timberlake, Martinsville & Danville) Call (202) 225-4711!

The inaugural British Tea Party will take place on Saturday in my home town of Brighton, and I'll be speaking. Do try to come: here are the details.

Labour has raised more than a trillion pounds in additional taxation since 1997. Yet, unbelievably, Gordon Brown has still managed to run up a deficit of 12.6 per cent of GDP (Greece's is 12.7 per cent). A far lower level of taxation brought Americans out in spontaneous protest last year.

If you happen to be coming to the Conservative Spring Conference, do please pop in: the Tea Party is five minutes' walk from the conference venue. It is, however, outside the security zone, and anyone is welcome to come. Oh, and this being England, we'll be serving actual, you know, tea. I hope to see some of this blog's readers there.

The Hill reports a major win for Republicans and the CIA on a Democrat ambush on the agency and its agents. The Democrat sneak-attack unfolded as the healthcare summit took the national stage, but the GOP was watching.

Democrats inserted an 11-page addition into the bill late Wednesday night as the House Rules Committee considered the legislation.

The provision, previously not vetted in committee, applied to "any officer or employee of the intelligence community" who during interrogations engages in beatings, infliction of pain or forced sexual acts. The bill said the acts covered by the provision would include inducing hypothermia, conducting mock executions or "depriving the [detainee] of necessary food, water, sleep, or medical care."

The language gave Congress the discretion to determine what the terms mean, and it would have imposed punishments of up to 15 years in prison, and in some cases, life sentences if a detainee died as a result of the interrogation.

"This will fundamentally change the nature of the intelligence community by creating a criminal statute governing interrogations," said Rep. Pete Hoesktra (R-Mich.). [This] had appeared "out of nowhere" in a manager's amendment.

"Would someone on the other side please explain the rationale behind this and why the majority was unwilling to have hearings on this issue?" he said.

"Republicans brought this to the attention of the American people, who were rightly outraged that Democrats would try to target those we ask to serve in harm's way and with a unified push we were successful in getting them to pull the bill," Hoekstra said in a statement. "The annual intelligence bill should be about protecting and defending our nation, not targeting those we ask to do that deed and giving greater protections to terrorists."

The language was pulled from the bill. However, this latest development makes you want to ask, "Who's side are the Democrats on?" And the next question is, "How can the CIA recruit exceptional talent and additional agents under these conditions and threats?" Neither one, though, is rhetorical.

Also, about 100 comments from all over the world, almost all positive, about these gals:

This is fantastic; Florida (the Sunshine State) is now putting its state budget online:

On the right of this page is a list of how the healthcare approval and disapproval numbers have been over the past year:

Last Sunday, Arnold Schwarzenegger proves himself once again to be the most clueless man alive:

Climate experts say this past January was the hottest January on record, adding, “Who are you going to believe, us or your own eyes?” I made up the quote.

RUSH: Here are some of the State-Controlled Media headlines about the health care summit yesterday. Washington Post: "Summit Fails to Bridge Partisan Gaps on Health Reform." Story details: "Democrats...are not being honest enough about the costs. ... Mr. Obama had a disturbing tendency to dismiss arguments he disagreed with as stale 'talking points,'" and there were no raves for Obama in any of the major papers. Zip, zero, nada. From The Politico: "The Aftermath of the Health Care Summit: Confusion, Conflict," and the summary of this story is that if the goal was to make Republicans look bad, it failed. It also says the bill that changes the Senate bill that hasn't passed can't be done via reconciliation.

Republicans looked reasonable and sincere, it says -- as though that's odd! But, to these people, it is odd. "News Channels Quickly Lose Interest in Summit." This is the State-Controlled Associated Press as published in the New York Times. The claim here is that Obama "came off like any opinionated cable TV host." Roland Martin, CNN to Wolf Blitzer: "I wouldn't score it," which Roland, easy to see why: There's nothing to score. No raves from Chris Matthews. He was upset that Obama kept calling these guys by their first names rather than "Senator" this or "Representative" that. So he was most upset about the protocols. Then, again, from The Politico: "Truth-Squading the Summit," and this story points out how Harry Reid, Tom Harkin, and Obama are all lying -- Reid on reconciliation, Harkin on including Republican reforms, and Obama on people losing their current coverage on higher premiums.

I mean, this is not... Folks, I actually thought that what we were going to get here was rave reviews for Obama, but it was so bad that all they can do is say that it was a tie. And when they say it's a tie, that means that it was a clean sweep for the Republicans. And I'll tell you, the two stars -- and it's hard to select two. Paul Ryan just ate Obama's lunch yesterday. I hope some of you had a chance to see the video of Obama's piercing, piercing expression on his face. He was ticked. He was angry. This is not at all how it was supposed to go. Ditto Eric Cantor. These guys just did a superb job. And we got audio sound bites to review some of this when we come back from the break here at the bottom of the hour. I got a couple from Paul Ryan that I definitely want you to hear.

RUSH: I love this headline from the Heritage Foundation's Morning Bell blog: "Somebody Needs to Tell the President His Health Care Plan is Dead." Really that kind of sums it up. It's dead. Here's Paul Ryan at the health care summit. This sent Obama into rage. You could see it.

PAUL RYAN: This is a Ponzi scheme that would make Bernie Madoff proud. When you take a look at the Medicare cuts, what this bill essentially does, is it treats Medicare like a piggy bank. It raids a half a trillion dollars out of Medicare not to shore up Medicare solvency but to spend on this new government program. When you strip out the double counting and what I would call these "gimmicks," the full ten-year cost of this bill has a $460 billion deficit. The second ten-year cost of this bill has a $1.4 trillion deficit. Hiding spending does not reduce spending, and so when you take a look at all this it just doesn't add up.

RUSH: Now, Obama is seething. He's sitting there, his lips are pursed and has a got two fingers up on his lips, emphasizing one of them. He does this. He's been caught doing this numerous times, even in his career as a US Senator -- and he comes out and says, "Paul, this is all well and good but we gotta dispense with the talking points, here. If we're going to have a conversation we gotta dispense with the theatrics and the talking points," but Ryan was having none of it.

PAUL RYAN: We've been talking about how much we agree on different issues, but there really is a difference between us, and it's basically this: We don't think the government should be in control of all of this; we want people to be in control -- and that, at the end of the day, is the big difference. We are all representatives of the American people. We all do town hall meetings, we all talk to our constituents, and I've gotta tell you: The American people are engaged. And if you think they want a government takeover of health care, I would respectfully submit you're not listening to them.

RUSH: That is bold talk for a lowly little congressman to spew right in the face of our new young president, Barack Obama, basically telling him... (laughing) I loved it, and I want to hear from all of you who have been sending me these vicious e-mails all week about how there's no difference in the two parties, that the Republicans and the Democrats are all the same. I want to hear from you. Give me that analysis and let me know how that works on the health care summit. Now, Ed, jump forward to sound bites 28 through 30, because Mike Pence was on Andrea Mitchell (NBC News, Washington)'s show yesterday afternoon, and Pence was panning Obama's performance on the health care summit. Andrea doesn't like it. First question: "The most remarkable exchange, I think so far, was between the combatants in the '08 campaign, McCain and Obama. What's your impression?"

PENCE: This isn't good government. It's bad TV. I gotta tell you, I'm not impressed with what we're seeing. For all the president's, you know, repeated, somewhat condescending statements about, as he said to John McCain "the campaign is over" and "we gotta get away from talking points," all we got from the president today is talking points.

PENCE: All we got is the president restating the bill that he dumped on the American people on Monday, and the American people want to scrap it and move on.

RUSH: "With all due respect, Congressman." Andrea is trying to get in there and defend her new young president, but Pence did not come up for air. So she waited and asked another question. "Let's say that there were talking points in the president and his colleagues, Democrats. What's not a talking point? From what everybody from Lamar Alexander presented very nicely... Talking points from the Republican side has been, 'Let's start over.' So do we ever get past these two sets of talking points?"

PENCE: It really all begins with the president being willing to start with a clean sheet of paper, which he's obviously not willing to do. Instead the president started out with a loooong monologue defending his government takeover of health care, and I gotta tell you, I really think the real winner today is The Price is Right.

PENCE: I mean, I gotta think that millions of Americans, you know, saw this as TV Land and not real negotiation and tuned over to another channel pretty quick.

RUSH: (laughing) "The real winner of this was The Price is Right." And, you know, Andrea is sitting there upset. None of this went according to plan. When the day was over yesterday, Republicans were to have been shamed and shocked and embarrassed into never showing their faces in Washington again. Obama was supposed to have just run over them like a Zamboni machine getting the ice ready.

RUSH: You want to hear part of how Obama closed? 'Cause Pence here is talking about the real winner here was Price Is Right. The Republicans got two hours yesterday, total. Obama and his gang got four and then when he was getting the last word, Obama closed the summit with a threat!

He said, "I don't think, Tom, we're going to have another one of these because people don't have seven to eight hours a day to work some of these things through." So Obama admits it was a total waste of time. Senators don't have time to be dealing with issues like nationalizing one-sixth of the economy. So Obama then said, "What I do know is this: If we saw a movement -- significant movement, not just gestures -- then you wouldn't need to start over because essentially everybody knows what the issues are and procedurally it could get done fairly quickly. We can't have another year-long debate about this.

"The question I'm again asking myself and I ask all of you is: Is there enough serious effort that in a month's time or a few weeks' time, six weeks' time, we could actually resolve something? And if we can't, I think we have to go ahead and make some decisions, and that's what elections are for. We have honest disagreements about the vision for the country and we'll go ahead and test those out over here the next several months until November." All right. He knows what's going to happen. Dingy Harry knows. He's toast! Dingy Harry knows it. Obama knows a lot of Democrats are toast in the House and Senate. The story is out today that Pelosi's lost control of the House, lost control of the Democrats in the House. This Rangel thing is not good for her.

And, let's see, there's the Rangel thing, and then there's -- Oh! They're gumming up the works on this jobs bill the Senate sent over. Nobody wants any part of it because it's not big enough. The Congressional Black Caucus says, "What do you mean $15 billion? Well, that's not serious graft. You expect us to be able to do anything with that?" So they wanted the original $85 billion that Dingy Harry put together. This is a delight to watch.

RUSH: Back to Andrea Mitchell (NBC News, Washington). She said, "Well, aren't they saying, 'Let's come up with a smaller package'? He's not saying, 'Let's go back to the Senate bill,' even though Eric Cantor brought the whole Senate bill."

PENCE: Oh, gosh, Andrea. When did he say, "Let's go to a smaller bill"? He didn't rule out the use of reconciliation. Harry Reid, oddly, denied that he's been talking about reconciliation. That would certainly be news to most of the reporters here in Washington. What I think the American people have seen is almost like a professor with a petulant group of students. He has repeatedly interrupted Republicans. What I see is a lot of political posturing, a lot sentimental statements by Democrats around the table that all seem designed to get us to a point where they can throw their hands up in the air and say to the American public, "You know what? We tried, but now we're just going to have to ram through that government takeover of health care that these Republicans aren't willing to help us with."

RUSH: Professorial. Obama, he came across as a lecturer yesterday. But you know why it didn't work? Remember, now, when Obama went out to the Republican retreat in Baltimore, he was at a podium that was raised on a stage. So he was physically, if not in stature, elevated above the audience. Here, he was just one of a whole bunch of schlubs at the same table on the same size chair and there was no echo. There was no God echo and Obama wasn't any bigger than anybody else. He was not elevated. And Pence is right: Those Democrats came across petulant. Harry Reid, it's like... I don't know. It's like he was sitting on something and he didn't want to admit it so it just irritated him all day.

RUSH: Jamie in Petaluma, California, nice to have you up first today on Open Line Friday. Hi.

CALLER: Thank you, Mr. Limbaugh. First of all let me say thank you so very much for being the tip of the conservative spear that's being thrust into the soft squishy yellow belly of liberal idiocy and hypocrisy. Thank you.

CALLER: Basically yesterday, aside from watching each politician trying to one-up each other with who has the worst health care sob story, I noticed that Obama stated that everyone must be a part of the government plan because a larger pool of insured people creates lower prices for insurance.

CALLER: Well, that's the exact same reason why Anthem Blue Cross is raising their rates and yet he excoriated and ripped on them mercilessly for raising their rates. If Anthem Blue Cross stated that the reason why they're raising their rates is because they had a large group of healthy insureds drop out of the insurance pool, and they have more unhealthy people --

CALLER: -- that they're having to cut the costs for, isn't that a little bit hippocratic?

RUSH: Right. And why did they drop out? Because the economy's in bad shape, and they had to make other priorities, like eating, before having health care.

CALLER: Yeah, Steve Poizner, who is the insurance commissioner of California running for governor, sitting here acting shocked and surprised about the rate increases. And yet one thing a lot of people don't know is that any insurance increase by any company is applied for many months in advance and that the insurance commissioner's office has to approve of any rate increases or decreases. So either Mr. Poizner has no idea what's going on in his own office or he knew about it and chose to go after Blue Cross anyway.

RUSH: He's a bureaucrat. Why would you expect him to know what's going on in his office or anybody else's?

RUSH: Really appreciate that. I love being the tip of the spear. By the way, I have a piece here, William Tucker at the American Spectator today. It's got some interesting little factoids in it. "About halfway through yesterday's all-day healthcare summit, Democratic Congressman James Clyburn of South Carolina told another of the many insurance horror stories that peppered the proceedings." This is Clyburn: I was talking to a man recently who had undergone a transplant. And when he was done, he was horrified to learn that his insurance would only cover follow-up procedures for three years. After that he'd have to pay with his own money! "A gentleman was called in and he was very, very emotional. He was getting ready to have transplant surgery. But he was told that because he's on Medicare, his post-operative treatment is going to be limited to three years. After that, he's going to have to find some way to pay. He was very, very emotional."

"Think about that for a minute. The patient is about to receive a transplanted organ (the Congressman didn't specify what it was) and the horror --" he's gonna get a totally paid for transplant. The horror is that he was going to have to start paying his postop bills in three years. "If this is the worst we can say about American medicine, are we really in that bad shape after all?" I have a different observation on this. I mean look at where we are with this. This guy about had an emotional breakdown because he was told he's gotta start paying his own medical bills after three years, he gets a free transplant, he gets a free aftercare for three years and then he's on his own and he's mad and thinks he's getting screwed.

Here's another little factoid. "Only 6 percent of the population actually buys their own insurance. (And for this, we are painting the insurance companies as the villains of this melodrama?) Fourteen percent of the population is on Medicare, 14 percent on Medicaid. The other 66 percent do not have insurance but health benefits, which is not the same thing. Nine percent gets its benefits from government employment, 4 percent from the military and the remaining 43 percent get their benefits from private employment," and it's tax-free, by the way. Your health benefits that you get at work are tax-free. You're not buying insurance at all. Your employer is. Now, you may have copays and deductibles and so forth, but you're not buying insurance policies, your company is. Only 6% of the population actually buys their own insurance and yet we're going to blow up private insurance for this.

You want to hear another statistic? When I heard this, this blew my mind. You could take the annual profits of the private health insurance companies and buy health insurance for people for two days. You could combine all the annual profits of the private sector health insurance business and you'd have enough money to buy health coverage for Americans for two days. And yet Obama and the Democrats rail about these obscene profits that are being made by private insurance companies.

RUSH: Couple more sound bites before we go to the break. I want you to hear Kent Conrad from the health care summit yesterday afternoon at the Blair House. If you think that the death panels are out of this bill, listen to Kent Conrad.

CONRAD: Five percent use 50% of the money. Who are they? They're the chronically ill, people who have multiple serious conditions. A study was done with 20,000 patients. They put a care coordinator on each one of them. These are chronically ill patients. And what they found was by coordinating their care -- and the first thing they did, by the way, was go into their kitchen tables, sit down, get out all their prescription drugs, on average they found they were taking 16. They found that by looking at them, they could eliminate eight. The result was hundreds of thousands of dollars of savings per patient.

RUSH: Now, who do you think this 5% using 50% of health care money is? Who do you think the chronically ill are? The elderly, exactly right. And don't forget, the New York Times declared war on the elderly in one of their blogs this week. We told you about how these people, they're soaking up all the freebies, they're getting all the benefits, it's just not fair out there. So here's Kent Conrad, 5% use 50% -- and, you know, what else? They're a bunch of druggies. They walk in there and they got 16 different prescriptions, we find out they could get by with eight. You think that there aren't death panels. (laughing) Think again. John Boehner eloquently destroyed Obama's bill yesterday and its entire premise.

BOEHNER: Having the government takeover of health care, and I believe that's what this is, is a dangerous experiment with the best health care system in the world. At a time when our economy is struggling, the last thing we need to do is to be raising taxes on the American people. You've got the individual mandate in here which I think is unwise and I do believe is unconstitutional. Mr. President, what we've been saying for a long time is let's scrap the bill. Let's start with a clean sheet of paper on those things that we can agree on.

RUSH: Whoa, he just sat there and told the Bamster that his bill is unconstitutional. These guys were on fire yesterday, and they were likable when they were on fire, and it was the Democrats that looked like a bunch of spoiled rotten little brats, petulant little creeps, arrogant little smug you-know-whats.

RUSH: This morning in Washington Nancy Pelosi had a weekly press conference, and among the things she said was this.

PELOSI: One year ago nearly, March 5th of 2009, the president started this bipartisan conversation at the White House at the summit. It was a great day --

PELOSI: -- when Senator Kennedy came into the room and said I'm here to enlist as a foot soldier in the fight, in the campaign to pass health care reform. He would later say to the president, this is about the -- not about the details of policy, it's about the character of our country. Many of us carry -- carry that with us as we go forward, as we have gone forward in this campaign and brought it to the table yesterday.

RUSH: All right. So yesterday it was, "Do it for Paul! Do it for Paul!" Now it's, "Can we give it one more shot for Ted?" Back to that. David "Rodham" Gergen last night on CNN, The Situation Room, the host Wolf Blitzer. "The Republicans had less speaking time, David, counting the president the Democrats got four hours, the Republicans got two hours but the Republicans took full advantage of the minutes they had."

GERGEN: Intellectually, the Republicans had the best day they've had in years, the best day they've had in years. There's been this perception that Republicans are either brain-dead or just sort of ideologically resistant to anything, they have no ideas and all the rest of it. I thought it was not just people like Lamar Alexander and Tom Coburn but these new people of Ryan and Cantor were fresh. I think they really evened the score and kept it even.

RUSH: Whoa ho-ho-ho! So Gergen says the GOP, which had been perceived by people like him to be intellectually brain-dead were so good that they evened the score. (laughing) They drew even. They were so sharp, these guys were so fresh and so smart, that they got close to being even. Obama was skunked yesterday, and everybody inside and outside the White House knows it. Stephanopoulos, look, whenever you hear them say it's a tie, it means it was a Republican big win. Diane Sawyer last night on World News Tonight said, "George, thumbs up, thumbs down, and for who?"

STEPHANOPOULOS: I think it was probably an honorable draw. You say theater but it was also chess. I mean there's political chess, as well and both sides I think gained something.

RUSH: Wait a minute. Cue that up. Is that Stephanopoulos? Are we speeding this up or something? I mean this sounds -- play this again.

STEPHANOPOULOS: I think it was probably an honorable draw. You say theater but it was also chess. I mean there's political chess, as well and both sides I think gained something.

RUSH: What? I didn't even hear what he said the first time because I didn't believe it was him. Both sides I think gained something? What did the Democrats gain out of this? What did the Republicans have to lose? Republicans really didn't have much to lose.

RUSH: Barbie in Lakeland, Florida. This is the first Barbie that I have ever heard from. I've never had a caller named Barbie, even though it's in my top ten all-time favorite female names. Hi, Barbie.

CALLER: The reason I'm calling is to talk about the health care seminar yesterday.

CALLER: I was actually very, very proud of the Republicans because they used the Drive-By Media to their advantage yesterday. And I was almost dancing a jig as I was listening to it. Of course after a while I kind of just muted the Dems because they weren't coming back with a legitimate answer. But I'm very proud of the Republicans yesterday, because they used this opportunity to get their message out against the health care thing.

RUSH: When the president went up to the Republicans' weekend retreat in Baltimore --

RUSH: -- the Drive-Bys thought that was an Obama home run and for the following week we got looped videotape of Obama performing at the Republican thing, right?

RUSH: So yesterday your assessment is right on the money, we got a grand-slam home run from the Republicans for six hours. Have you seen any of it today?

RUSH: None. The buildup was huge and, of course, this is tantamount evidence that the Drive-Bys know for a fact that Obama got skunked by our guys.

CALLER: I know. I loved it. (laughing) But anyway, I was even proud of McCain and Lamar came out and Cantor and I can't remember that --

CALLER: The rookie, the little rookie from -- I can't remember his name, but I mean he really knocked a home run --

CALLER: But anyway, I really enjoyed that yesterday. I mean I didn't watch every single bit because, you know, I do have a life, but I was just very proud yesterday.

RUSH: He really did. And he came back in the afternoon, I forget what he came back in the afternoon with, but he was firing both barrels. Remember, now, he's in a reelection campaign. Now it's time to be conservative.

RUSH: You bet. Who's next week here? Carson. Carson in Chicago, welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.

RUSH: What are you people laughing at on the other side of the window and distracting me? They're laughing at Barbie's sultry voice, Carson. That's what they're laughing at. Okay, Carson, back to you. Where were you?

CALLER: I was saying that I did watch the seminar yesterday on TV and I was really proud of our Republicans. They really came off as educated, quick on their feet and they made the Democrats just look like a bunch of buffoons which we all know they are.

RUSH: You know they're listening at the White House. This is not what they had in mind today.

RUSH: They expected this show to be filled with Obama seminar callers ripping the Republicans today and instead it's just the opposite.

CALLER: Oh, absolutely. I thought they did a great job. Once again they showed that they really stand for their ideas. I loved it when Obama, after finally being cut off at everything, saying we're just going to shove it through --

CALLER: -- and if you don't like it you can take it out at it elections. You could see the Democrats in back wincing.

RUSH: The whole thing was a sham, as they said yesterday in The Politico, to put a face on gridlock. But the whole thing I think as evidenced by the fact that you don't see the news media playing any videotape of it all today was a total, total bomb-out for Obama. It wasn't even close. And the fact that they're not talking about it at all today is just further evidence. Carson, thanks very much for the call, I appreciate it.

You know, if there's been any spamming going on this week it's in my e-mail from people who are telling me I suck because I don't see the difference between Republicans and Democrats, and, you know, we've talked about it all week long, and my good friends, the fact of the matter is, I am stunned when I hear informed people say, "Wow, you know, the Republicans really have some ideas." Of course they do. It's not a surprise. I run into the same thing personally that they're experiencing today. When I go out in public and people meet me who only know me by either listening to this program, or, more importantly, through the media image that the Drive-Bys have created, they are shocked, they

are stunned at what a nice guy I am. And just like today, people are shocked that the Republicans have some ideas, shocked that the Republicans could speak and sound intelligent, shocked that the Republicans just didn't go over there and bend over and die. Shocked! I'm not shocked, especially about the ideas, 'cause the guys that were in that room on the Republican side are conservatives, and there's a world of difference between them and the Democrats and it was on full display. So it's a good thing that it happened, I just continually am amazed that people find out that normal, everyday people with ideas are smart, that's somehow a shock to them. Don't be shocked by them. That's who they are.

RUSH: I have a most amazing economic story here. It's amazing because it actually reports the truth. It is from State-Controlled AP: "The economy rocketed ahead at a 5.9 percent pace in the final quarter of 2009, stronger than initially estimated." Now, remember, the initial report was 5.7%, and we were all expecting the revision to go down because they always do. They revised it up to 5.9%. Now, you would think, State-Controlled AP, almost 6% economic growth, whoa! Let's break out the band and the champagne! Let's get those hockey players from Canada and smoke some cigars, the stimulus worked! Wouldn't you expect that to be what follows in the story? You would be wrong. "The economy rocketed ahead at a 5.9% pace the final quarter of 2009, but the growth spurt isn't expected to carry over into this year."

So here you have State-Controlled Associated Press -- you still with us in there, Wendy? Wendy is our substitute transcriber today. The growth spurt isn't expected to carry over. AP is saying it doesn't matter, it's a fake number. They're reporting it truthfully. It's a fake number because it's all about replacing inventories. It's not about any private sector consuming going on. They admit in the story that the consumer market is dead. "The fresh reading on the nation's economic standing, released by the Commerce Department on Friday, was better than the government's initial estimate a month ago of 5.7 percent growth. It would mark the strongest showing in six years. Even so, it didn't change the expectation of much slower economic activity in the current January-to-March quarter. Roughly two-thirds of last quarter's growth came from a burst of manufacturing -- but not because consumer demand was especially strong.

"In fact, consumer spending weakened at the end of the year, even more than the government first thought. Instead, factories were churning out goods for businesses that had let their stockpiles dwindle to save cash. If consumer spending remains lackluster as expected, that burst of manufacturing -- and its contribution to economic activity -- will fade. The signs aren't hopeful. Consumer confidence took an unexpected dive in February. Unemployment stands at 9.7 percent. Home foreclosures are at record highs. And many Americans are still having trouble getting loans." I can't believe what I just read. This is the first honest and truthful story on the economy in the AP in years, not just since Obama was immaculated, but in years. I'll guarantee you, if Rahm Emanuel sees this and Axelrod sees this, somebody's heads on a chopping block at AP. "You mean to tell us that you got a 5.9% fourth quarter growth rate and you write a story about how it's phony and it isn't gonna last? What are you doing to us? Do you not know who you're working for," Emanuel will say. A stunning, stunning story.

Actually, wait. I'm sorry, folks. I got sucked in big time. I just read this, and I fell victim to what we all fall prey to now and then and that is wanting to see a change. I just shared with you this AP story in which a fourth quarter, 5.9% growth rate was slammed.

The AP said it ain't going to hold up. It's not because there's any real consuming going on out there. This is just a bunch of people replacing their inventories, but there's no sign that consumer activity is going to jump up any time soon, and in fact consumer confidence was at an all-time low last month. We haven't seen a story like this from the AP in years, but particularly since Obama was immaculated. Every economic story has been filled with rosy predictions and hopeful signs. "We've got a recovery going on out there! It's, admittedly, very slow. But the signs of recovery are coming back." I'm sorry to admit that I missed this. It is apparent now to me. The word has gone out that it's now more important to push for yet another stimulus bill than it is to try to talk up the economy.

I think the AP and the Democrats probably realize now that they aren't going to be able to fool anybody outside their lunatic fringe base that the economy is doing well. I think they've given it a year, they've given it everything they've got, but every time they say the recovery is happening, we see job losses are slowing or some bit of news comes out. It just nukes whatever good news they were trying to spread. So apparently the instructions from the White House have gone out to the AP: "Start building up support for the next slush fund, because an election is coming up in November, and it's time to buy some votes." They're going to have to buy some votes if they have a chance of holding on in some of these races. So if I were myself today, I would have not been fooled by this. I would have immediately recognized it.

This is why I didn't see the stitches on the fastball today, and I apologize for it. I shoulda known. There's no reason the AP would all of a sudden go honest on us. That's no different than when I chide you people when you tell me that you want the mainstream media to finally understand that we're right and start tailing our side on things that I tell you, "It's never going to happen." But what did I just do here? I just assumed the AP finally got something right. And of course that is an embarrassing error that I am admitting to. This is two days in a row here that my opinion audit is taking a hit. It's never fallen, but it's going to have to fall when the next report comes out. My opinion audit has always gone up or at least it has stayed the same, but... (interruption) Well, the global warming thing is big, 'cause that's 20-plus years of being right. I know. But, Snerdley, when you're up at 99.5, you gotta be right a thousand percent for years to move it to 99.6. But to move it from ninety-nine five to ninety-nine three just takes one screw up. So I may have trouble opening the next report. I'll probably look at it the same as if I think it's a letter from the IRS saying, "You are being audited." I really am sorry, folks. I let you down on that.

RUSH: Now, to illustrate something, we've all heard, ad infinitum (sobbing), "It's those damn Republicans! The Republicans are the party of 'no.' That's why Obama can't get his monument! That's why Obama can't get health care, because the Republicans are the party of 'no.'" We heard Evan Bayh say, "I can't get along here, too much gridlock. There's no bipartisanship," and I was pulling my hair out. You guys have all the votes! Up until Scott Brown came along, and that's just a month ago, you guys had 60 votes in the Senate and who knows what kind of a majority in the House! The Republicans couldn't stop diddly-squat. So the purpose of this little meeting tomorrow, this theater, is to shift the blame to the Republicans.

That's all it is. That's all the effort is about. This is an easy call. But the dirty little secret is that Pelosi doesn't have the votes for a reconciled Senate version of health care. Eric Cantor is out there saying so. The Democrats, Pelosi and Obama, have asked too many of these guys to walk the plank for this, and a lot of them don't want to walk the plank because they don't think it's worth it. What's Obama done for them? Obama has done nothing but make their lives miserable. Their political lives are miserable. Here they thought they were going to enter the happiest time of their lives, supermajority control of the Senate, big time majority control of the House -- and, look!

This place is no different than a den of thieves and a pack of wild dogs. There's nobody on the Democrat side having any fun doing anything, and it's all Obama's fault. Yet he's asking them to fall on the sword, to take a bullet so he gets this health care thing passed. Well, they're not all on board. His problem remains the Democrats. Here's Bart Stupak. I don't know if he's going to go to Obama's summit, I don't know if he's going to speak, but this was this morning on America's Newsroom. Bart Stupak with Bill Hemmer. He's a Democrat from Michigan and Bill Hemmer said, "As it stands now with all these moderate Democrats saying, 'Hey, this is not the place we want to go right now,'" meaning the health care bill, "could it even pass the House, do you think?"

STUPAK: Despite the abortion language, no, there's other problems with this bill. The president has tried to bridge the House and Senate bill. But at least to the House members I've talked to -- probably about 15 or 20 of them in the last 24 hours -- they've said there are other problems with this bill. Remember, the House rejected the idea of passing health insurance plans. We just totally rejected that idea. But yet that's part of the bill. Parts of the bill doesn't kick in until 2018. We're saying, "Well, why are we passing the bill now that's not going to kick in for another eight, nine years?"

RUSH: You just heard a Democrat, Bart Stupak, not to be confused with Joe Sestak. This is Bart Stupak from Michigan. Sestak is from Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania is run by "Fast Eddie" Rendell and Michigan is being destroyed by Jennifer Granholm. This is a Democrat, Bart Stupak (paraphrased), "Nope, not voting for it! I know fifteen or 20 others not voting for it and it's got to do with a lot more than just abortion. It kicks in for 2018? Why are we rushing to do this now?" They are beginning to realize it's all about Obama, and they're the ones that are gonna pay the price for it. He gets whatever credit there is.

RUSH: Don't forget, the Republicans can't stop anything. They're not going to get health care in the House because they don't have enough Democrats who are going to vote for it this time. They do not. Murtha is gone, Abercrombie is leaving. Remember they only had three votes more than they needed. They had 218, they needed 215. Murtha's gone, he's not been replaced, Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii is retiring. Oh, yeah, Cao the Republican, he's not voting for it this time. He was the Republican that did in Louisiana. If you do the math right now it does not look like they've got the votes. And Stupak's not going for it and he says there's a lot of guys not going for it along with him not just because of the abortion stuff but because they don't even know what they're doing yet, it's going to be implemented in 2018 and they don't understand the reason they got to do this -- well, they do understand it. They have to fall on their sword for Obama. They're not going to say so publicly, it's all about giving Obama something to run for reelection, it's all about him and they're starting to resent this.

John Boehner was with Megyn Kelly on Fox this afternoon about Republicans going up to this health care summit tomorrow. This was the question, the first of two: "When I listen to you talk, I think to myself, all right, so nothing's going to get done, it sounds like nothing new will take place at tomorrow's summit, he'll say what he's been saying, you're going to say what you've been saying?"

BOEHNER: I guess we're going to have to see. I can't predict what's going to happen tomorrow. I mean the president invited the Republicans and Democrats to come to the White House. I think Republicans need to go. I don't see any reason to allow the president to have a six-hour infomercial about his bill.

RUSH: It's theater, it's nothing more than theater. It's more talk. So the next question: "Well, one Democrat source came out today, predicted this would be a, quote, 'career-ending vote' for those who vote 'yes' in favor of the bill that winds up coming out of the House or Senate, a Democrat source said that anyone voting 'yes' is ending their career. Do you agree?"

BOEHNER: I do. This is an issue far beyond any issue that I've seen during my legislative career, an issue that all Americans understand and have some feelings about. And after everything I've seen over the last six or seven months, the American people have been very loud and very aggressive about how bad this bill is, and the fact that we've got all these entitlement programs that are going broke and here they are wanting to create a new entitlement program that's going to cost a trillion dollars right at the beginning.

RUSH: That we don't have. So that's John Boehner on Fox this afternoon. Bill, about this, in Beaumont, Texas. Welcome, sir, to the Rush Limbaugh program. Bill, are you there?

CALLER: Thank you very much. By the way, I wanted to tell you that you really had some great moves at the pageant.

RUSH: Oh, the dancing at the pageant. Yes, I won the judges dance contest. Absolutely. Thank you.

CALLER: You did good. It's the perfect timing, I wanted to follow up with this thing that you just did from Boehner.

RUSH: You know, I get the feeling that everybody is just hoping that the Republicans -- that here we go, the Republicans are going to a nice little party at the Blair House, da-da-da-da-da. I hope as a Republican, independent, as conservative, my more than wish, my demand of the Republican Party and the people that represent us in Washington is that they have been rehearsing, that they have been playing out the scenarios. I mean, these guys are pros at this. This is what they do for a living. They know what's going to happen, they know what Obama's gonna -- you know, generally how his game plan is going to run.

CALLER: I don't know, but I think it's pretty clear what he's going to do. He's got a plan, he's going to say this is it, and he's going to try to start the negotiation with this thing that he's produced, this outline that he's produced. I hope they're Republican representatives have prepared their version of what they would like to see, and I hope they go in there and they are tough, they don't do what's politically correct, they do what's necessary to convey the position of the conservatives in this country. This is a very, very -- it's just insanity that we're talking about adding the kind of money to our deficit that this bill will add, under any circumstances, be it for the good of 31 million people that aren't covered by health care or anything else. This country is going down the tube financially. This is the greatest country in the world, we've got the greatest people, I just can't say enough positive things about the citizens of the United States.

RUSH: Look, here's what this is all about. And the answer can be found in what I just told you. Congressional approval is 10%. Obama wants to shift the blame for this not getting done to Congress. That's what this is about tomorrow. The Republicans and Democrats both know there's not going to be anything coming out of this summit tomorrow that's going to end up as a piece of legislation that a majority of Congress or the Senate will vote for. This is an attempt -- Obama is going to say, "I listened to what the Republicans said, I put some things in there that they want, this is a fully bipartisan --" he's going to say it, he knows he's got an echo chamber to repeat it, Republicans are going to be on defense, "No, no, no, the things we wanted are not in there," blah, blah, blah. I don't know how they're going to handle it, but I know what the objective is, and the objective is to shift blame to them and take the heat off of the Democrats. The only problem with that is that a lot of Democrats like Stupak are out there saying they want no part of it anyway. So I think the whole thing is a joke, it's theater, this is where Obama thinks he shines, it's an attempt to raise his poll numbers. Six hours here, six hours of Obama in campaign mode? That's the way they're looking at this. The Republicans know what they're getting into. They're just like Democrats. How could they not know?

RUSH: This is Boxer-Inhofe this morning in Washington, Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. James Inhofe said this.

INHOFE: One of the largest newspapers over there said this is the most significant scientific scandal of our generation. Yet global warming alarmism has been sold on the very notion that man-made greenhouse gases are causing environmental catastrophes, Himalayan glaciers melting and all that stuff. But now we know there's no objective basis for these claims that I've just talked about. The Obama administration then is moving ahead with a massive job killing tax for no good reason. The minority report shows the world's leading climate scientists acting like political scientists.

RUSH: We got a problem up there? Everybody sounds like they're underwater with our sound bites, or are we just doing this on purpose today to cause more attention to be focused on the sound bites? I haven't gotten an answer on this yet. We'll just keep playing 'em. (interruption) Okay, oh, it's not our equipment, it's a lousy copy, I'm told. Well, I don't need another copy here. I'm very tuned to the way people sound and I know that the Senate's not doing this hearing underwater with scuba tanks. All right, here's Boxer now, a portion of her remarks.

BOXER: In my opening statement, I didn't quote one international scientist or IPCC. I quoted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, I quoted NASA. I think they know what they're talking about. And the AAA, in this case the American Association of the Advancement of Science, we've been keeping records for 130 years, and we've had the warmest decade in that time. And we can track the ice. So two things I wanted to dispel. We are quoting the American scientific community here and we are talking about facts on the ground, what's been observed over the last decade because climate change is about decade to decade, not day to day.

RUSH: Right. And there's been a decade and a half of no warming since 1995. NOAA is as corrupt as the IPCC is. NOAA is as corrupt and James Hansen at NASA is as corrupt as Phil Jones. It's a worldwide cabal. So this is their out now, this is their out. (imitating Boxer) "No, we're not relying on those frauds over there in Great Britain, no, no, no, we're relying on the American frauds because they're our frauds and we're going to go patriotic on this. Our fraud scientists are Americans, so that's who we're listening to, we're not listening to the other guys." Let's go back, October 29th, 2007, Boxer using day-to-day observations to say global warming was happening.

BOXER: He also remarked that the most optimistic climate models for the second half of this century suggest that 30 to 70% of the snow pack will disappear. Now, no wonder we have people visiting our offices who are just already hurting from the recreation industry in this nation. They see what's happening, they see the handwriting on the wall. We have to act.

RUSH: Yeah. So there she is using day-to-day activity to cite global warming as something that is happening. And March 19th of last year, here she is quoting this fraudulent, corrupt UN group, the IPCC.

BOXER: Looking at the United States of America, the IPCC clearly warned that unchecked global warming will lead to reduced snow pack in the western mountains, critically reducing access to water, which is our lifeblood.

RUSH: Okay, so last year the IPCC was gold, that was the gold standard. Now screw the IPCC. No, no, no, no, we're not relying on them, we're relying on Americans. Inhofe's got 'em here by the shorts, folks, but they're not going to give this up. This is a political issue to them every bit as important as so-called health care reform is. By the way, one more on this. This is this morning at the same Senate committee, the Environment and Public Works Committee -- and, by the way, I didn't notice Boxer sounding underwater in those two bites, but the bites that are coming from today clearly show Boxer and Inhofe and we'll find out here in a second, Lisa Jackson, if she's underwater. We're in so much debt, hell, everybody's underwater, underwater in their houses, Washington's underwater in their jobs, their job performance. Anyway here's the EPA director, Lisa Jackson, and she's a far left-wing fringe activist, and Inhofe says to her, "One of your quotes was that the EPA's view that, 'the scientific assessments of the IPCC represent the best reference material for determining the general state of knowledge on the scientific and technical issues of climate science.' Do you still agree with that?"

JACKSON: I think it's out of context, Senator. The IPCC is certainly important. It represents multiple lines of evidence and much data.

INHOFE: Okay. Do you still believe, as you've stated before, that the IPCC is the gold standard for climate change science?

JACKSON: The primary focus of the endangerment finding was on climate threat risk in this country. The information on the glaciers and other things doesn't weaken or undermine the science that EPA reviewed to look at the endangerment to human health and welfare.

RUSH: Of course not. Why should it? Why should news that's proven to be fraud have any effect on what we're doing here? The Himalayas, screw the Himalayas, the Himalayas aren't here. And so we don't care about the Himalayas now.

I believe that Rush pointed this out, that there is a big difference between the parties. The 10 most liberal Senators are all Democrats; the 10 most conservative Senators are all Republicans.

Many people have written that Dreams From My Father was not written [entirely] by Barrack Obama, and one set of arguments is found here (for me, the several nautical metaphors found in Obama’s book are the most compelling evidence against his writing all of this book by himself):

Here is what the Democrats are famous for; get everyone looking at one thing (the healthcare summit) while you do something else:

Since there are some links you may want to go back to from time-to-time, I am going to begin a list of them here. This will be a list to which I will add links each week.

This is fantastic; Florida (the Sunshine State) is now putting its state budget online:

Suzanne Somers s supposed to be older than Bill O’Reilly? He interviewed her this week, and she looked, well, hot. She is big into vitamins and human growth hormones.

The National Journal, which is a political journal (which, at first glance, seems to be pretty even-handed):

And I am hoping that most people see this as non-partisan: Citizens Against Government Waste:

This website reveals a lot of information about politicians and their relationship to money. You can find out, among other things, how many earmarks that Harry Reid has been responsible for in any given year; or how much an individual Congressman’s wealth has increased or decreased since taking office.

This is an outstanding website which tells the truth about Obama-care and about what the mainstream media is hiding from you:

Politico.com is a fairly neutral site (or, at the very worst, just a little left of center). They have very good informative videos at:

On Obama (if you have not visited this site, you need to check it out). He is selling a DVD on this site as well called Media Malpractice; I have not viewed it yet, except pieces which I have seen played on tv and on the internet. It looks pretty good to me.

Conservative Review
Issue #116	Kukis Digests and Opines on this Week’s News and Views	February 28, 2010