The prediction: It’ll pass on a straight party line vote.

What’s so lucrative about selling chicken to China? We sell them parts of the bird that we won’t eat – like the feet. Worth just a few cents a pound in the U.S., American chicken feet fetch 60-80 cents a pound in China. From the Xinjingbao of the People’s Republic of China, this strategy session from Chinese researcher Xue Chung explains more than you ever wanted to know about what China...

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The big political news story of the day — in fact, one of the biggest arguably in decades — will be the perhaps pivotal Senate Finance Committee vote on health care legislation. And, in that vote, most political eyes will be focused on Maine’s Republican Senator Olympia Snowe. Will she vote for the plan and give it at least a smattering of bipartisan aura? And, if she does, will she face political...

Granny’s tales, and their actions/thinking, have remarkable similarities be they Christians, Jews, Muslims or Hindus. Perhaps it’s because of them the world survives despite the harshness and cruelty that we see around us. Vlasta Molak, a friend, has kindly sent me a moving story of one such grandmother, who at times appears as if she was mine. Here is an excerpt in the NYT from a book to be published...

Now that really would have been shocking news, wouldn’t it? If only, as they say.

Hello Readers, Dr. Estés here, bringing you another GUEST VOICE by Mr. Elijah Sweete who tells us that Texas Gov. Perry has now replaced a fourth member of the commission investigating death row inmate, C.T. Willingham’s, potential innocence. The Governor has now in the last month, removed four persons from the investigative commission, raising the dark question about whether a sitting Governor is attempting...

Intellectual Conservatism Isn’t Dead: Maintaining a Consistent Philosophy by Rick Moran This is the last in my series on the state of intellectual conservatism. Previous articles can be found in order here, and here, and here, and here. If, as we’ve discovered, intellectual conservatism has been marginalized, and its adherents are in bad odor with much of the base, then conservatism as it is advanced...

(Sorry… Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!) Via Ed at Hot Air we find the Washington Post reporting the the law of unintended consequences is striking right and left on the health insurance reform front. The latest “revelation” (which won’t come as any surprise to the people who have been paying attention) is provided by accounting giant PriceWaterhouse Coopers, who reveal the shocking news...

As freethinking Americans, we all have our own thoughts and opinions about homosexuals and homosexuality; about same-sex marriages and same-sex unions; about “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and about so many other related issues. As Americans, we are fortunate that we can express our opinions freely on these issues in healthy, sometimes argumentative and emotional debates, as we often see on TMV. Sometimes...

The Democrats in Congress and the Administration are aghast that the health insurance lobby has announced their subtle dismay with the Baucus proposed healthcare reforms. Big Insurance’s financial experts project that these reforms may increase health insurance costs to the majority of insured Americans even faster than originally projected without reforms. They cite the delay until 2013 in the mandate...

SIGHT Land can look deep purple, cobalt blue from far away… but up close, it is surprise green, with browns, and slashes of clay red and hansa yellow. Sometimes souls are like that too: long view, short view, so different in color and tone… yet exact same soul. How war-ready the mind can become, when demanding only one true view, insisting all ground be immoveable, and sky always poised overhead. This...

Shock and surprise – but not necessarily dismay – have spread across the world after the announcement that Barack Obama is to be awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. The first French translation we’ve posted on the subject is from France’s Rue 89. For the Rue 89, Pierre Haski writes in part: “We salute the intention, the bold words and perhaps mostly the man himself and his journey...

Yesterday, Sam Stein told us about a new compromise plan that is attracting attention because it’s designed to please both progressive Democrats who want a robust public option, and conservative Democrats who want to please the insurance industry.  Under this proposed plan, there would be a strong federal-level public option — the compromise would be that individual states could opt out:

Excuse me, but I have some reservations and a bunch of questions about the various healthcare reform bills both houses of Congress could vote on as early as this month. The biggest concern I have is why we taxpayers are subsidizing the private carriers to insure us. The bills are aimed at guaranteeing growing private insurance profits without regard to improving our health. Oh, there are a few caveats thrown...

In time for Halloween, Republican specters are rising up to scare some sense into their Congressional heirs as they move zombielike toward a possible pyrrhic victory in the hope that poll numbers “may get worse for Democrats if they pass a health-care bill.” That prediction is the wisdom according to Karl Rove, who engineered the party’s 2006 loss, but older and wiser Republican heads are emerging...

The split between Republicans may be getting more public as the reality sinks in that a vote is near on health care reform. And former Senator Bob Dole is now coming out in favor of it — and seemingly taking a swipe at Senate Minority leader Mitch (Dr. No) McConnell, the Kansas City Star reports: “This is one of the most important measures members of Congress will vote on in their lifetimes,”...

Many men in service and their sons were exposed to poisoned water at Camp LeJeune between 1960s and 1980s, and more than 20 of the men now have male breast cancer. Many of those sick, are denied VA benefits. Completed their mission, but what is owed to them in honor… is withheld. “Among the chemicals later identified in the drinking water were trichloroethylene, a degreaser; benzene; and the dry...

As the Obama Administration has rolled out its proposals and priorities, I have questioned them in numerous TMV postings. However, I am still willing to give his Administration four years before passing final judgment. But if the first 9 months are a blueprint for the balance of his term, I do not expect any major edifices or landmarks in U.S. history to emerge. I am not bothered by the plethora of issues...

A number of independent news sources and commentators have noted that many of the healthcare reform provisions in the proposed Congressional legislation might not become effective until 2013. If true, that would be extremely strange, illogical and politically dangerous for Democrats. Republicans and other opponents of healthcare reforms have succeeded this year in frightening many in the voting public with...

Last month, I gave the President a hard time for denouncing GOP scare tactics, while relying on his scary stories to build support for his healthcare plan. On Monday, ABC’s Jake Tapper pointed out that the President’s scary stories were “not quite accurate” or, in plain English, completely misleading. First up, there’s the man who died when his insurance company cut off his chemotherapy...

More likely than not, that single hamburger patty or package you bought from the supermarket, restaurant or fast food joint contains “meat product” from hundreds of slaughtered cows gathered from around the world. One result of that practice is that major Class 1 (you could die) ground beef recalls are on the rise. Just this past August 825,769 pounds of Salmonella contaminated beef was recalled...

A couple of days ago, I wrote a post about Michele Bachmann’s latest crazy claim — this time that the health care reform legislation favored by Pres. Obama would allow 13-year-old girls to get abortions authorized by school health clinics and go home afterward with “mom and dad none the wiser.”

This is what happens when you cut over $100 billion from an economic stimulus bill — including $40 billion to help revenue-starved states — for no reason better than wanting the numbers to be smaller:

It’s amazing how many iron-clad truths have reversed themselves since the end of the previous administration: