Daily Rundown, 11-11-09
House Bill Includes Jail Time for Those Without Insurance
At a time when prisons are crowded (ABC News). Also on the bill: The Catholic Church lobbied hard to keep abortion out of Obamacare (FOX News). California Democrat Lynn Woosley is so upset with the Catholic interference, she’s threatening the church’s tax exempt status (Politico). Lieberman continues to rally against the public option (CNS News). From John Stossel: The 1,990-page bill is breathtaking in its bone-headed audacity. The notion that a small group of politicians can know enough to design something so complex and so personal is astounding (Townhall). Dick Morris looks at the politics behind the House vote (Townhall).
Obama: “Twisted Logic” to Blame in Fort Hood Deaths
He said “It may be hard to comprehend the twisted logic that led to this tragedy. But this much we do know — no faith justifies these murderous and craven acts, no just and loving God looks upon them with favor. And for what he has done, we know that the killer will be met with justice — in this world, and the next” (FOX News). Transcript (FOX News). Prior to the speech, Obama’s reaction was disconnected (Examiner). Andrew McCarthy explains that if the FBI investigated Islam, “it might stumble onto all sorts of things we’d just as soon not know. We’d have to start acknowledging that Salafist ideology (the strain of Islam endorsed by the Muslim Brotherhood and Sunni terrorist organizations) is prevalent in American mosques. We’d have to concede that beliefs we optimistically call “radical” are actually quite mainstream among American Muslims and predominant among Muslims overseas — including the beliefs that sharia (the law of Islam) should govern the United States, that Muslims must resist American military and law-enforcement operations against other Muslims, that the U.S. military presence in Islamic countries renders American soldiers and those who support them legitimate targets of jihadist terror, and that Israel, America’s democratic ally in the Middle East, should not exist” (NRO). From the Wall Street Journal: The Pentagon said it was never notified by U.S. intelligence agencies that they had intercepted emails between the alleged Fort Hood shooter and an extremist imam until after last week’s bloody assaults, raising new questions about whether the government could have helped prevent the attack (WSJ). More on Hasan (Washington Post). From Jonah Goldberg: For many people, the idea that he is a Muslim fanatic, motivated by other Muslim fanatics, was — at least initially — too terrible to contemplate. How else to explain the reflexive insistence after the attack that the real culprit was post-traumatic stress disorder? The fact that PTSD is usually diagnosed in people who’ve been through trauma (hence the “post”), and that Hasan had never seen combat, didn’t seem to matter much (Townhall). Many in the mainstream media refused to cite the killer’s Muslim faith (FOX News). Meanwhile, the struggle continues to figure out why this extremist remained in the US military (AP).
Polls: GOP Leads Democrats in Generic Congressional Ballot
As Independents now prefer the Republican party by 22 points. According to Gallup, it was nearly even back in July (Gallup). Rasmussen also sees a sizeable edge for Republicans (Rasmussen). And the GOP is targeting vulnerable Democrats for 2010 (Politico). Michael Medved looks at often repeated myths on recent voting (Townhall).
October Third Coldest Month on Record
From the report: Temperatures were below normal in eight of the nation’s nine climate regions, and of the nine, five were much below normal. Only the Southeast climate region had near normal temperatures for October (NOAA). Another story notes the earth is absorbing a lot more carbon dioxide than many thought possible (Telegraph). Regardless of all this, the cap and trade bill lurks (Heritage). And Al Gore continued to fly around in a massive carbon-emitting jet plane to promote himself and his agenda (San Francisco Chronicle).
College Officials Seek Recall of Student Body President for Not Stopping Pro-Life Group
Once again, free speech goes one-way.
Economist Magazine Happy Population is Falling
Albert Mohler looks at the magazine’s take on a “reduction of fertility” including “a thankful nod to China’s notorious ‘one child only policy.’”