Si se Puede--Saturday Coffee on Route 66

This morning starts with the war in the Rules Committee. The vote is scheduled tomorrow at 6pm. Yesterday saw undecided Democrats moving to the yes column. Now if the GOP didn't buy the CBO report--Michael Steele called it a bunch of lies--they just made their own up. Tan Man Boehner's staff handed out a forged memo claiming it was an internal Democratic leadership memo saying that ,despite the CBO report, the Medicare Fix will make the bill increase the deficit. The memo was dutifully posted on Politico,Drudge and the Breibart websites. Like most things coming from the GOP these days it was a real lie, not like the CBO report.

Yesterday afternoon gave me a good insight into the difference between the Obama people and the Republicans. David Plouffe sent an e-mail to me saying as someone who runs a small business I should contact my representative. He supplied the phone numbers, including the local office. I called the local office; a human being responded and took my plea that our congressman vote for the health care bill and said he was committed to it. During the same period, the RNC, the Republican Congressional Committee and a right-wing group sent me e-mails--asking for money so that in November they can repeal. They didn't even pretend that voters should call Congress. Fox News was doing that for them. So, cash is King. Having received years of these e-mails, I'm beginning to believe the conservative political enterprise is the last great bastion of capitalism--with a slight exception, you give money and get no product. Caveat Emptor.

Canadian Mark Levin, noted conservative, is going to sue Barack Obama, Eric Holder and anyone else if health care reform passes. This is the new rallying cry. It's against the Constitution--which I wonder whether Canadian Levin has read. But I'm frankly glad conservatives have found the constitution; they ignored it rather vigorously for the past eight years.

The first challenge to health care will be brought on the "deem and pass" proposition. Used several dozen times by both parties but primarily Republicans, critics argue it violates Article 1. Sect.7 of the Constitution, which specifies that votes must be determined by yeas and neas and the names of the congresspeople must be enumerated. Why people think it applies here is that the House will vote on their fix of the Senate bill, which will be attached. So it's claimed that the House will not have voted on the Senate bill. That really doesn't wash because you are voting simultaneously for both and that's understood.

Jonathan Turley of George Washington University on his legal blog points out that it's going to be a rough road for Republicans to get this pass the District Courts. He points out that in a Supreme Court case of Marshall Field and Co. versus Clark, that the Supreme Court ruled that the judiciary has to take the statements of both the presiding officers of the House and the Senate as "conclusive evidence that a bill has passed Congress." But, in light of the last Supreme Court decision, there is an escape clause,that the Court " does retain authority to review the constitutionality of congressional enactments."

Turley claims the first hurdle for the challengers will be to establish the legal standing of the litigants, who will have to show a recognizable injury. Any such litigant will be challenged by the Democrats. Turley believes this is too heavy of a lift.

He cites the Democrats challenge to the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. Republicans just brushed over the clear conflict between the House and Senate versions. The House had a 36 month extension for Medicare and the Senate version only 12. They were clearly two separate bills. But the Democrats lost the case.

The GOP would have to go to the case they lost the 1998 decision in Clinton versus New York, which struck down the line-item veto. Justice Stevens wrote in deciding this case and another regulatory case that each house has to approve the same text and bill in order to receive a Presidential signature. Turley concludes his analysis saying the weight of law favors the Democrats on the issue of " deem and pass".

Now where the Republicans plan to ambush the healthcare bill is in the Senate. Both parties are now combing through the bills to try and neutralize each other's parliamentary maneuvers. There is no policy substance at this stage of the same. Mitch McConnell has organized a team to find a single line in the bill so he can call for a parliamentarian ruling. Remember the Republicans have been attacking the parliamentarian for the last two weeks to soften him up. The Senate bill would have to be identical to the House or risk being sent back to the House if the parliamentarian rules for the GOP. Or the Democrats would have to come up with 60 votes to override the objection. If the parliamentarian rules for the GOP on any one point, the only way to overcome a complete institutional metldown would be for Joe Biden to override the parliamentarian.

Turley thinks this would be even more egregrious than the "deem and pass". I totally disagree.

In other legal news, Orly Taitz is suing that her Republican primary opponent for Secretary of State in California is not eligible to run as a Republican, claiming he hasn't been in the party long enough. Besides, he's black. The California Bar Association has finally got around to reviewing Ms. Taitz mail-order legal license and may revoke it, particularly in light of her recent fine for filing frivolous suits.

Our neighbor Maryland is trying to secede from the South. Maryland is part of the Southern States' association and want to move to the Eastern States. They argue they have more in common with Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Their motivating factor is the rise in Virginia of Attorney-General Cuccinelli, who is trying to outlaw gay rights. The quest here is to secure the new headquarters of Northrup-Grunman, which Virginia seemed on the verge of winning. But Northrup-Grunman actually has an outstanding record of gays and lesbian rights for their employees. So, Maryland is trying to dramatize to the country that Virginia is for Lepers. And hope Northrup-Grunman cares about their image.

John McCain and Joe Lieberman want to "disappear" me and ,eventually, you, too. These two staunch anti-constitutionalists have introduced "The Enemy Belligerant Interrogation, Detention and Prosecution Act of 2010". The President on his sole authority as Commander-in-Chief can order the arrest, interrogation and imprisonment of anyone, including an American citizen,living anywhere on Planet Earth, indefinitely on the sole suspicion that he or she is affiliated with a terrorist group or said to be facilitating terrorist activities. Now since I have and continue to work with people who have and some continue to engage in armed struggle, it only takes a slip of a bureaucrat's pen to declare these people terrorists and any one affiliated with them as "facilitating terrorist activities."

And with the Patriot Act, the United States Government can strip me of my citizenship. This would be troublesome since my maternal side came to the States in 1670 to Delaware on the ship "Lydia". Cue in Groucho--Lydia, Oh, Lydia, Lydia, the Tattooed Lady. Luckily, I have taken prevenntive measures during the Bush Administration and secured the promise of a political haven from several Indian nations.

Oh Boy, Jon Voight is the guest speaker at the anti-health care rally this afternoon along with an alleged cousin of Barack Obama, a medical doctor who says the healthcare bill is another plot of his cousin's to bring socialism to the United States. They should have invited his other relative--Dick Cheney.

Tonight at 6pm eastern, Fox News will be showing a "documentary" on Barack Obama documenting his hard-left roots and associates. It will delve into his past--his Communist mentor in Hawaii, his far-left college associates, his long relationship with Jeremiah Wright, and --drumroll, Bill Ayres, the man who blew up the Pentagon's toilets during Vietnam. This show will reveal the dark ambitions of a politician who can read, write and speak. A definite menace to America.

Virginia may not be for lovers anymore but the Senate sure is. The Grand jury investiations into Senator Ensign and his financial dealings with the Republican Senate Committee have come under scrutiny. Staff members are helping authorities with their investigations because they feel they've gotten burned and are tainted by any associations with him. There is also a parallel Senate Ethics Committee investigation, which will only be concluded in a year.

Poor Representative Cao from Louisiana. A Republican stuck in a district once represented by Congressman Jefferson, he wants to vote for healthcare but the Tan Man and his goons keep pressuring him. Yesterday, he went from "yes", to "maybe" , to "no", back to "maybe". Stay strong, Mr. Congressman. Vote your conscience.

Mr. Sunshine, Bibi is coming to town for meeting with Hillary Clinton and then with President Obama. I'm not sure he's gotten the message. The Cafferty File on CNN presented e-mails from viewers on the flap, almost all negative toward Israel, which made Wolf Blitzer blanche. The only one positive e-mail was from a man who said that he wanted Israel to conquer all of the Middle East because we're at war with Muslims. The one e-mail, which would worry me if I were the Israeli Ambassador, was the one from Minnesota which said that the United States was right to assist Israel when it was founded but its should be able to survive without our assistance at this date. Others invoked the domestic economic crisis, saying we can not afford aid now. On the Republican side of the aisle, they have to worry about this because neo-isolationism has reared its ugly head again.