For those of you who watched at least part of the dog-and-pony show that was the Healthcare Summit, then you probably saw the disresepct, talking points and nothing beneficial getting accomplished.

The above videos show the POTUS in action – for those of you who miss it.

News of the death of 77-year old Congressman John Murtha, of Pennsylvania, on Monday garnered the usual coverage afforded a high-profile political leader by the news media and the Beltway elites.

Even Republicans fawned over his long record in the House of Representatives. For example, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) said, “Every person who serves in the military has lost an advocate and a good friend. The House of Representatives has lost one of its own.”

One can only wonder if Rep. Boehner recalls that Murtha publicly called U.S. Marines “cold-blooded murders” during the height of warfare in Iraq.  

It should be remembered that John Murtha never apologized for his allegation that U.S. Marines were guilty of killing Iraqi civilians in cold blood. 

Murtha made the comments in question during a press conference he held, and during his frequent appearances on TV news shows, claiming “Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood.”  Murtha made his remarks regarding an incident that happened in Haditha, Iraq. 

During a news conference, Rep. Murtha  discussed the incident with reporters as he continued “the Murtha anti-war diatribe,” and said that the U.S. should pull the troops out of Iraq.

He said a Pentagon investigation would ultimately show that the troops in Haditha “overreacted because of the pressure on them and killed innocent civilians in cold blood.” The Marines involved had not been tried yet but were either in a brig at Camp Pendleton Marine Base or resticted to the base pending legal proceedings.

Murtha, who claims close ties to top defense officials as a retired Marine colonel and the top-ranking Democrat, said he had not read the Pentagon report because was basing his information on frequent discussions with “the commanders,” he said, “People that know what they’re talking about.” Murtha did not disclose the names of these commanders or their connection to the incident and subsequent investigation.

Eventually all of the Marines involved were found not guilty, yet Murtha refused to apologize.

Murtha’s position on the Iraq war and his biting comments did much to erase the memories of his ties to the Abscam corruption investigation and the susbsequent allegations of his shenanigans with his brother’s consulting firm. The anti-war leftists — including members of the news media – appear to overlook corruption on the part of their heroes, said one political observer.

Murtha was a holier-than-thou Democrat with ethics concerns. The House Ethics committee was considering investigating Rep. John Murtha for multiple ethics violations. The investigation would have centered on Rep. Murtha’s involvement with his brother’s firm KSA Consulting. The story, which originally ran in the Los Angeles Times on 13 June, surrounds the 2005 appropriations bill that funded $20M to companies for which KSA Consulting lobbied.

Murtha was a leader on the House Defense Appropriations Committee. An aide to Murtha, Carmen Scialabba, also worked for KSA. Also reported by the L.A. Times is that KSA directly lobbied Murtha’s office for funding on behalf of 7 of its clients and that a Murtha aide advised a defense contractor that it needed to retain the services of KSA Consulting.

While his passing is indeed sad, the United States is better off without having John Murtha in the U.S. Congress. God rest his soul.

This from the office of Rep. John Boehner:

Health care reform should not be used as an opportunity to use federal funds to pay for elective abortions. Health reform should be an opportunity to protect human life – not end it.

Unfortunately, Speaker Pelosi’s 2,032-page government takeover of health care does just that.  On line 17, p. 110, section 222 under “Abortions for which Public Funding is Allowed” the Health and Human Services Secretary is given the authority to determine when abortion is allowed under the government-run plan.  The Speaker’s plan also requires that at least one insurance plan offered in the Exchange covers abortions.

What is even more alarming is that a monthly abortion premium will be charged of all enrollees in the government-run plan.  It’s right there on line 16, page 96, section 213, under “Insurance Rating Rules.”  The premium will be paid into a U.S. Treasury account – and these federal funds will be used to pay for the abortion services.

Section 213 describes the process in which the Health Benefits Commissioner is to assess the monthly premiums that will be used to pay for elective abortions under the government-run plan.  The Commissioner must charge at a minimum $1 per enrollee per month.

A majority of Americans believe that health care plans should not be mandated to provide elective abortion coverage, and a majority of Americans do not believe government health care plans should include abortion coverage. Currently, federal appropriations bills include language known as the Hyde Amendment that prohibits the use of federal funds to pay for elective abortions under the Medicare and Medicaid programs, while another provision, known as the Smith Amendment, prohibits federal funding of abortion under the federal employees’ health benefits plan.

Speaker Pelosi’s 2,032-page health care monstrosity is an affront to the American people and drastically moves away from current policy.  The American people deserve more from their government than being forced to pay for abortion.

House Republicans are offering a common-sense, responsible solution that would reduce health care costs and expand access while protecting the dignity of all human life. The Republican plan, available at HealthCare.GOP.gov, would codify the Hyde Amendment and prohibit all authorized and appropriated federal funds from being used to pay for abortion. And under the Republican plan, any health plan that includes abortion coverage may not receive federal funds.

The Obama administration, if anything, has lots of…ummm…chutzpah.  What I am referring to by that statement is this: the Census Bureau is currently in a tug-of-war; apparently, the administration wants to have greater control over the Bureau’s 2010 census. 

As one would expect, Republicans asked the Obama nominee for the Commerce Secretary, Gary Locke, to ignore the administration’s plan to wrest control of the census from the Commerce Department.  Next week, a Senate committee is to convene on the census plan and Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee are pushing for an investigation. 

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., ranking minority member on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform who has raised the specter of a lawsuit against Obama’s plan, said in a statement,

“The White House should learn from past mistakes and abandon any attempt to circumvent the authority of the commerce secretary. Injecting ‘Chicago-style’ politics into the census process represents the worst kind of political opportunism and completely undermines the president’s call for bipartisanship.”

To further add some heat to the administration, House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio stated,

“Governor Locke must promise to keep politics out of the census by retaining control over a fair and accurate count in the Commerce Department. The United States census should remain independent of politics; it should not be directed by political operatives working out of the White House.”

Folks, what this is is pure and simple.  This is simply once again an opportunity for the Obama administration and the Democrats to employ a power grab.  They want to oversee the census in order to carve up districts to their liking in order to keep control of the House and Senate for – if they have anything to do with it – the long-time future.  For those of you who have read this, I implore you to contact your local congressman and senator and demand that they take action on what the Obama administration wants to do with the Census Bureau.

Not surprisingly, Rep. John Boehner was re-elected on Wednesday as House Republican leader, charged with trying to energize a party which is diminished in numbers and trying to get back to their core values as the Democrats take over the White House and Congress.  In addition, two members of the GOP’s conservative section ran unopposed for 2 other top spots in the leadership: Eric Cantor and Mike Pence.

While obviously the best qualified to take over the leadership, Boehner, while for the most part one to side with most dealings Republican, has been known to also work closely with the Democrats; Boehner, who was first elected to Congress back in 1990, is a conservative who aligned himself with Newt Gingrich as the GOP got back into power in 1995.

John Boehner, the House’s top Republican, has been wondering what a lot us are not in a position to ask: why are Democrats adding an additional $25 billion on top of $25 billion already earmarked to bail out an ailing auto industry?  Boehner on Thursday, according to The Washington Times, slammed plans by leading Democrats in Congress to double the amount of an auto industry bail-out package, saying that there are no assurances that the extra monies would be well-spent.

The Big Three – GM, Ford and Chrysler – are going through big financial losses, and GM execs say that they may run out of cash early next year without outside help.  The Bush administration doesn’t want to use any of the Wall Street money to assist the automakers – I don’t blame him – despite pleas from President-elect Barack Obama.  The White House is looking to wait and see what Congress passes and how the money would be spent.

Tuesday found House Speaker Nancy Pelosi directing House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA) to begin drafting a bill designed to authorize the Treasury Department to use some of the monies in the $700 million bailout fund and send them Detroit’s way; according to Pelosi, the bill would have provisions including new limits on pay packages for auto execs and could possibly give the federal government an ownership stake in the automakers.  Congress is expected to reconvene next week for a lame-duck session that may possibly consider both the auto aid bill and perhaps yet another economic stimulus package.

What I find troubling about all of this is the fact that the automakers made the mistake of manufacturing automobiles that the consumer didn’t have the taste – or pocketbook – for.  And the end result is the current red ink that they’re swimming in.  There is no reason why the Big 3 cannot file for Chapter 11 and re-organize and get their ships righted.  The idea isn’t exactly new as many other corporations have dome this and came out just fine, as a result.

These “handouts” are simply fostering apathy at the corporate level and giving them no incentive to succeed on the financial bottom line.  And yes, this goes for the bankers on Wall Street – not just the automakers.  AIG is a good example of that.  It is rather unfortunate that these corporations are using the federal government as their personal piggy bank because of their mistakes in their ivory towers.  The buffet table needs to be shut down, and shut down immediately.

It obviously is old news that ACORN is in some serious legal hot water over alleged voter registration fraud in several states.  What has been discovered, as reported by Amanda Carpenter of Townhall.com, is that the beleaguered organization has over 200 tax liens totalling more than $3.7 million that have been filed by the federal government for unpaid taxes that have been delinquent since the late 1980’s.

A researcher for the conservative Capital Research Center discovered a staggering number of liens listed against ACORN’s national headquarters in New Orleans, LA while doing an extensive investigation into ACORN’s history and current activities.  Matthew Vadum, the researcher of record, stated…

“I took that address and plugged it into Nexis and did a public records search for tax liens.  At least 230 tax liens corresponded to ACORN’s address and they were all from ACORN’s shadowy network of affiliates.”

Not surprisingly, the liens in question filed against ACORN and their associated groups come from not only the Internal revenue service, but also government officials in 15 different states.  Of the 230 liens, only 75 were paid in full or a negotiated settlement was made.  The network that Vadum mentioned in his report include the hundreds of ACORN subsidiaries, including Project Vote, ACORN Institute, Inc., ACORN Housing Inc. and Wal-Mart Alliance for Reform Now (WARN).  One notable organization affiliated with ACORN is Citizens Consulting – it gets better – which was paid nearly $800,000 by Obama’s campaign to conduct “get-out-the-vote” activities during the Democratic primary.

Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) and other Republicans have called on Congress to strip ACORN of federal funding, of which ACORN has received since 1998 at least $31 million in grants.  Despite ACORN’s role in rampant voter registration fraud, the Democrats in Congress have expressed no interest in Boehner’s request.  For those of you who want to view Vadum’s report in its entirety, please click here.