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Saturday, January 02, 2010

Saturday Headlines, terrorism, healthcare and Barack Obama

Holidays are usually slow news cycles but this one, not so much. With the Christmas terror attempt it has brought some very interesting headlines as well as speculation to the forefront.

Headlines today for your reading material.



Exclusive: Obama Got Pre-Christmas Intelligence Briefing About Terror Threats to 'Homeland'

Thanks to Memorandum, we see discussion on the article listed above as well.

Hot Air notices what wasn't mentioned in the intelligence report.

Meanwhile, Newsweek reports that Obama’s pre-Christmas Homeland Security briefing never mentioned Yemen as a potential threat:


Erick Erickson from RedState gets the inside word of a major blunder from the Obama administration..... read the whole thing but I say it is incompetence rather than a deliberate act.

The situation in Iran, the attempted Terror attack both took a certain amount of focus of the Obamacare bill, but not all of it as we see headlines showing that the bribe Harry Reid made for Ben Nelson's 60th vote for the Senate version of Obamacare, is being scrutinized.



According to a copy of a memo sent by McMaster’s chief of staff to other GOP state attorneys general detailing the call, Nelson asked McMaster to “call off the dogs,” a reference to recent threats by the state AGs to file a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a Medicaid provision in the bill that benefits Nebraska at the expense of other states.

Under the terms of a deal Nelson cut with Senate leaders to secure his crucial vote for the health care package, Nebraska would be exempted from having to pay for the coverage of its new Medicaid enrollees—leaving the federal government to pick up the tab. The deal is expected to cost the federal government $100 million over the next 10 years.


Interestingly enough is this paragraph below:

“Senator Nelson insisted that he had not asked for the Cornhusker Kickback to be placed in the U.S. Senate version of the health care bill to secure his vote. Senator Nelson told the attorney general that it was simply a ‘marker’ placed in the U.S. Senate version of the bill and assured the attorney general that it would be ‘fixed,’ says the memo.


The problem here is, one doesn't have to ask for a bribe, the simple act of taking it, speaks volumes.

Power Line goes into detail.

Michael Gerson devoted an indignant column to the Cornhusker Kickback on December 23, Nelson contacted him the following day to offer a defense: "He insisted that the Sen. Harry Reid-crafted language in the Senate's health-care reform bill that exempts Nebraska from paying its share of Medicaid expansion was simply a 'marker' - part of a legislative strategy to press for an 'opt-out' of Medicaid expansion for all states in the House-Senate conference." Again, as Greta Van Susteren's question implies, translation is necessary.

Someone has some explaining to do. As Nelson attempts to cop a plea with the attorneys general, Nelson is the only one talking. His usually loquacious partners in crime have fallen silent. Has Nelson ratted them out?

UPDATE: Tom Maguire assists with the translation.



Wall Street Journal continues the healthcare debate by showing what is not constitutional about any of the Obamacare bills being proposed.

There is more, head over to Memeorandum for the latest political news buzzing around the blogosphere and I hope you have had a wonderful start to a brand new year.

Political cartoons found at Townhall.com.

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