The Senate adjourned without voting to confirm New York Rep. John M. McHugh as Army secretary, but Pete Geren will remain on the job until formally replaced, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said today.

It will be at least a month before a vote can be held.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates “is deeply disappointed” that the Senate delayed the confirmation of the Army secretary and undersecretary, Morrell said.

In the meantime, Geren will continue to serve as Army secretary. “It’s too important a job to be left vacant or manned in an acting capacity while we’ve got tens of thousands of soldiers in combat,” Morrell said.

President Barack Obama announced the nomination of McHugh, a Republican representative from upstate New York, on June 2. His district in New York includes Fort Drum, and he has served on the House Armed Services Committee. The Senate Armed Services Committee held confirmation hearings July 30.

Source: Department of Defense

This is just one man’s opinion here, but I am still convinced that the Socialist universal health care bill that President Obama is trying to cram down our throats is going to eventually die a slow death when Congress takes it up for a vote.  Notsomuch when it dies, but when.

On Wednesday, Obama said that there will probably be no vote taken on the heath care bill before the fall; that has to be nothing but good news for us who oppose this convoluted measure.

As of right now, the bill in its current form, will probably pass all three committees involved with the bill; that does not automatically mean that the bill will pass as any proposed measure goes through committees before going to a vote with the House and Senate.

What is uncertain as of right now is whether there will be a final vote or just a first vote on the bill – which I suspect will take place sometime in either September or October.  But there’s a funny little aside to all of this.  It is common knowledge that the lawmakers, including Obama, by and large do not read the bills given to them nor do we the public have access to the bills in their entirety – so much for transparency in that respect.

In any case, Obama made the proposition that any lawmaker who wants to pay a visit to the White House and go over the bill line-by-line is welcome to do so.  that’s laughable only because I am pretty certain that none of the politicians will actually take him up on the offer.

Oh, Obama also said he would make himself available for any questions about the bill.  This coming from someone who isn’t even remotely familiar with the legislation that he is trying to get passed in record time.  How stupid is that? 

This is exactly why we need to become proactive and ensure that this terrible legislation does not get approved by either the House or Senate.  Matter of fact, this is the perfect opportunity for all of us who actually give a damn about our health care in the near future to become proactive.

How can you become proactive.  It is simpler than you think.  Calling your lawmakers, regardless of their party affiliation, and threatening them with the loss of their jobs.  If there’s anything that they’re scared of, it is the possibility of them losing their jobs and returning home and get real jobs – which the vast majority should do anyways.

By all means, call them, email them – whatever means necessary.  This is so vitally important as if you choose to just sit on your ass and do absolutely nothing, then the predictable result will take place: you will be stuck with socialized medicine, not unlike what they have in Canada and most, if not all of Western Europe.  And you know who suffers the most?  Yes, we obviously do as do lots of employers who provide health coverage for their employees.  The ones who get hit the hardest are the senior citizens.

They get hit the hardest because of the very limited choices that they will have should this bill pass.  If you’re elderly, and have a pre-existing health condition or conditions under this plan, basically doctors will advise you on what I like to call “death options”.  In other words, they will basically tell you to deal with it and be prepared to die. 

The elderly population deserve much better treatment than this.  Also, if you have an AARP membership, by all means call them up and cancel your membership. And do not forget to tear the damn card up.  AARP is just another wing of the Democratic Party and they do not have senior citizens’ best interests at heart.  Those so-called “benefits” that you get with AARP are designed to help seniors forget about the bigger picture – which is to ensure that the elderly set fall for Obama’s health care reform.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates says the increased production of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters will have a positive impact on jobs in the aerospace industry over the next several years.

More than 270 soldiers with the 1498th Transportation Company received a big welcome home Saturday in Long Beach, CA.

The Senate has voted to cut off spending for the F-22 fighter jet program.

The Commanding General of Multi-National Division Baghdad gave a progress report on how things have been going since U.S. Forces moved out of urban areas three weeks ago.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is urging servicemembers to submit applications for eligibility under the Post 9/11 GI Bill if they are interested in fall enrollment.

You know, I wish that the “wiser” heads in the House of Representatives would come to realize that we, the people, do not want universal health care.  Look just north of us and across the Atlantic; Canada and the vast portion of Europe utilize “socialized medicine”. 

And for those of you who have been following this, then you know that citizens of Canada, the United Kingdom and presumably other countries come to the United States for critical health care that they cannot get in a reasonable amount in their countries.  Just that little example tells you that socialized medicine does not work at all.

But nonetheless, the House isn’t mindful of that fact as they are offering a $1.5 billion plan that would apparently make health care “a right and responsibility” of all Americans.  Guess who would pick up the tab for this convoluted idea?  Yup, that’s right: medical providers, employers and the “wealthy”.

All of the idiots who are  involved in this are keeping in mind that they want to get this passed as soon as possible – or in their case, no later than before they take a summer recess.  According to President Obama, his goal is to cram this legislation through (and I would guess without the bill(s) being read by the House, Senate or ourselves).  All in the name of slow rising costs and in the hopes of getting coverage (national I’m certain) to 50 million uninsured Americans.

Oh by the way, the $1.5 trillion would cover a ten-year period.  Under this plan, the federal government is responsible for ensuring that every person – regardless of their income or current state of their health – has access to an “affordable” health care plan.  For those of you (individuals and companies alike) who don’t get coverage?  According to the government, you will be obligated to get coverage or face hefty penalties, as a result.

Now the specifics on the legislation.  The measure calls for a 5.4% tax increase on individuals making $1 million or more a year, with a gradual tax for those making $280,000 annually.  If you’re an employer, if you do not provide your employees coverage, you will get hit with a penalty equal to 8% of a worker’s wages; small businesses are exempt.  Individuals who choose not to purchase coverage would pay 2.5% of their incomes as a penalty, up to the average cost of a health insurance plan.

And as you and I already know, this plan sucks; guess who agrees with us (although for probably different reasons)?  Business groups, for starters.  Their take is that the U.S. health care system would be damaged by adding a government-run healthcare plan and a federal council that would make some decisions on benefits – which is also called for in the proposed legislation. 

By the way, the legislation comes up for a vote on Thursday (tomorrow).  I am about to throw a old, tired argument out there, but I firmly believe this.  Nationalized health care does not, cannot and will not work in our country.  Obama, first and foremost, is a Socialist in Democratic clothes.  And as such, he wants bigger government.  A government that takes control of your daily life as defined by you and I. 

The nationalization of government-ran health care would be one of the proposed Socialist society that Obama envisions.  Is that what you want?  I, for one, choose not to go that route; neither should you.

More grilling of Sonia Sotomayor, the nominee for the Supreme Court seat, vacated by David Souter.

In what has to be one of the worst-kept secrets on the Senate, it looks like the state of Illnois will be not have an incumbent senator come the 2010 election cycle.  The senator in question?  If you don’t know by now, then you’ve been a cave or something; but to be fair, this gentleman has been under the political radar for awhile.  The senator is one Roland Burris.

To recap, Burris got his current senatorial seat courtesy of an appointment by disgraced former governor of Illnois Rod Blagojevich.  The Senate, after some arguing and much legal wrangling, welcomed Burris to its hallowed halls. 

But Burris’ association with Blagojevich and some other shady characters along with his ever-changing story about doing fundraising for Blagojevich would prove to be his undoing as he, for all intents and purposes, was ostracized by members of his own party (go figure!!).

Nonetheless, Burris, according to him anyways, says that he will not return to run for a full term as senator because of the lack of fundraising.  His total as of this posting?  The princely sum of $20,000.  Not only will he be without a seat to call his own come 2010, he will leave the Senate without a pension.

While Burris is at what can be considered retirement age, he will not get a congressional pension simply because he did not serve long enough to get that entitlement.  Typically, lawmakers are eligible for a pension at the age of 62 if they have served at least five years in the House and Senate combined.

The only way Burris would get that pension is if he ran for the Senate seat in 2010 and won that full term.  But that isn’t happening, so Burris will leave Washington D.C. after his term expires empty-handed.  And I am not going to speculate what his political future – if any – holds for him.

One thing that I think that most of us – at least those of us who are conservatives – can agree on: socialized medicine (or universal health care) does not and cannot work.

Yet you couldn’t tell that to President Obama as he earlier today said that he “absolutely” believes that health care reform will be passed by the end of this year, adding that the country will be worse off without an overhaul of the nation’s current healthcare system.

Yet at the same time, he didn’t say whether he would sign a bill that taxes healthcare benefits, which is advocated by some in Congress.  Oh, get this – Obama thinks a public health plan would be “an important tool” to discipline insurance companies.  And of course, the insurance industry isn’t too keen on Obama’s proposals as they are of the mindset that it isn’t possible to put together a government plan that could compete fairly with private companies in a revamped healthcare market.

What Democrats want to do is incorporate a public plan (government-ran, of course) that would be offered alongside private insurance plans through a new kind of insurance purchasing pool called an exchange; according to this scheme, individuals and small businesses would be able to buy coverage through these “exchanges”, but eventually, businesses of any size could opt in.

Then there is the little issue (big, actually) of the cost.  Apparently, $400 billion (billion with a B) has been trimmed off the initial cost of $1.6 trillion.  Regardless of overall costs, I am going to once again ask this question – one that I am sure millions of concerned citizens would like to know:  how in the hell will this be paid for?

It is reckless spending such as this along with the other runaway spending authorized by the House and Senate (and done in record time and without any input, by the way) that has put us in this downward financial slippery slope.  And until someone can give me an otherwise convincing argument to the contrary, Obama’s convoluted healthcare scheme – along with his nationalization schemes – are a gradual path to Socialism, or worse.

Which is exactly why those of you who are reading this piece should either e-mail or telephone your local lawmakers that you do not want any parts of Obama’s healthcare reform.  I guarantee you this: if you do not become proactive, then we will have socialized medicine on a par with countries such as the U.K. and Canada. 

And the irony isn’t lost on me when I mention that Canadian and British citizens come here to the States to get their health care; that in and of itself should tell you that socialized medicine in any form does not work.