Gallup polling shows conservatives top liberals in all 50 states in the union.
Self-identified conservatives outnumber self-identified liberals in all 50 states of the union, according to the Gallup Poll.
At the same time, more Americans nationwide are saying this year that they are conservative than have made that claim in any of the last four years. In 2009, 40% percent of respondents in Gallup surveys that have interviewed more than 160,000 Americans have said that they are either “conservative” (31%) or “very conservative” (9%). That is the highest percentage in any year since 2004. [Too bad so many of these conservatives stayed home on November 4, 2008…ed]
Mr. President, I just read your op-ed in the New York Times. You must either be incredibly ignorant (e.g., pediatricians performing tonsillectomies, surgeons being paid $50,000 for an amputation), or else you believe that Americans are incredibly stupid. You justify a hasty and massive healthcare “reform” to save money, by spending an additional trillion dollars. You would fix a “broken” and broke Medicare system by adding another 47 million beneficiaries to government programs while arguing this will reduce overall costs. I’ve itemized your inaccurate claims, with my comments in italics.
An administration official said tonight that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius “misspoke” when she told CNN this morning that a government run health insurance option “is not an essential part” of reform. This official asked not to be identified in exchange for providing clarity about the intentions of the President. The official said that the White House did not intend to change its messaging and that Sebelius simply meant to echo the president, who has acknowledged that the public option is a tough sell in the Senate and is, at the same time, a must-pass for House Democrats, and is not, in the president’s view, the most important element of the reform package.
Cost of treating illegal aliens responsible for most of Las Vegas hospital budget deficit.
A Las Vegas hospital providing emergency dialysis services to 80 illegal immigrants says that accounts for much of its operating deficit. The University Medical Center says the treatment will cost it about $24 million this fiscal year, aggravating a budget deficit that is expected to approach $70 million. UMC’s chief operating officer, Brian Brannman, said the hospital is required by federal law to treat anyone who shows up in an emergency but receives no reimbursement from federal, state or local governments for doing it.
Democrat Barbara Boxer’s quest for a fourth term in the U.S. Senate may give Californians a chance to pass judgment on Washington in the Obama era: Do voters approve of the early performance of the Democratic president and Congress? Or is it time to restore more power to Republicans, in this case to a controversial former Silicon Valley CEO making her first run for elective office?
This morning the anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan — the woman who spent so much time leading well-publicized protests outside President Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas — announced that she will demonstrate next week at Martha’s Vineyard, where President Obama will be vacationing. “There are several things that we wish to accomplish with this protest on Martha’s Vineyard,” Sheehan said in a statement:
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The incoming president of the Canadian Medical Association says this country’s health-care system is sick and doctors need to develop a plan to cure it. Dr. Anne Doig says patients are getting less than optimal care and she adds that physicians from across the country – who will gather in Saskatoon on Sunday for their annual meeting – recognize that changes must be made. “We all agree that the system is imploding, we all agree that things are more precarious than perhaps Canadians realize,” Doing said in an interview with The Canadian Press.
The New York Times had another in a string of embarrassing moments this weekend, part of a steep descent for the “paper of record,” much like that of President Obama’s approval numbers. And neither seems to have bottomed yet. In reality, the Times’ latest disaster is quite closely related to the Obama approval ratings free fall.
Former Arkansas governor and presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee says the US has taken too harsh a stance against Israel on the issue of settlements. Huckabee said the US should not “be telling Jewish people in Israel where they should and should not live.”
57% of Americans say the nearly trillion dollar “stimulus” ripoff doing nothing to end recession.
Six months after President Obama launched a $787 billion plan to right the nation’s economy, a majority of Americans think the avalanche of new federal aid has cost too much and done too little to end the recession. A USA TODAY/Gallup Poll found 57% of adults say the stimulus package is having no impact on the economy or making it worse. Even more —60% — doubt that the stimulus plan will help the economy in the years ahead, and only 18% say it has done anything to help improve their personal situation.
Four new housing developments are going up in New York City, with the help of federal stimulus money. Gov. David Paterson and Mayor Michael Bloomberg are announcing that three will be in Harlem and one in the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn. The $60 million in stimulus funding is helping jump-start the project, which will create 739 units of affordable housing.
Militiamen are torturing and killing gay Iraqi men with impunity in a systematic campaign that has spread from Baghdad to several other cities, a prominent human rights group said in a report. Human Rights Watch called on the Iraqi government to act urgently to stop the abuses, warning that so-called social cleansing poses a new threat to security even as other violence recedes.
Maybe they’ll stop bringing all those pesky bills to our homes?
The familiar U.S. mail that we’ve all known for years — the one that visits your mailbox in person six days a week — is officially “at risk.” The Government Accountability Office recently slapped that label on the U.S. Postal Service, which is struggling to stay solvent. Blame the recession or the rise of the Internet, but the volume of mail is plummeting and taking revenue with it. The Postal Service is on track to close fiscal 2009 in a few weeks with a staggering loss of $7 billion or more. It is expected to run out of cash by the end of next month. “It’s a disaster,” said Richard Watkins, postal spokesman for the Mid-America District.
A week after he secured the release of two American journalists in North Korea, Bill Clinton enjoys a better favorable rating than his wife, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a new poll reveals. In the Rasmussen Reports survey, 58 percent of respondents said they view the former president favorably, and 40 percent view him unfavorably. A Rasmussen poll released last week found that 53 percent of respondents have a favorable opinion of Hillary, and 43 percent have an unfavorable view.
If President Obama were indeed born in Hawaii, was it while the islands yet remained a territory of the United States? A new wrinkle in the dispute over his birth – and whether he is eligible to be president under the U.S. Constitution’s requirement that the president be none other than a “natural born” citizen – appeared today when Obama’s MySpace page declared his age is 52, thus placing his birth year at 1957 instead of 1961 as has been claimed.
John Colon was tossed into a body bag, toe-tagged and deemed dead after he was shot five times during a brutal attack on Feb. 19, 1968, during the Vietnam War. When Colon awoke, he was in the dark. He heard someone say, “Leave Colon. He’s dead.” Then he felt himself rolling on what he thought were logs. Later, he found out they were the bodies of 17 soldiers killed that day. On Sunday, Colon was among many of the Vietnam veterans who wept after getting a welcome-home ceremony — more than 40 years after the battle that nearly killed him.
A woman is to deliver a record-breaking 12 babies this month, it is claimed. The teacher, who is expecting six boys and six girls, turned to fertility treatment after suffering two miscarriages in just two years. Her husband, who teaches at the same Tunisian school, has spoken of their joy at being blessed with a bumper family.
When an Overbrook woman saw the man who sexually assaulted her Saturday morning back in her neighborhood that evening, she ran – not away from him but after him, police and neighbors said. “I seen this young girl running down the street after this guy and I heard her say ‘He raped me! He raped me!’ ” resident Aaron Edwards recalled. Edwards, 31, was standing at the corner of 56th Street and Lansdowne Avenue and, along with several other residents, chased the suspect, identified by police as 19-year-old Jamil Harper, trapping him in an alley until officers arrived, he said.
Quote of the day.
I will vote adamantly against the interests of my district if I actually think what I am doing is going to be helpful.
-Representative Eric Massa (D- NY), when asked about voting for a healthcare bill which included a government plan.