Today, I am announcing that I am re-energizing the Harrington Report.  I will be making changes to the style, content, and form of this website in order to make it fun (for me) again.

Alright, so we’re out of school and back to blogging.

In Barack Obama’s homeland of Chicago, Google Maps shows a young man drawing a gun at another.

Is the gun fake?  I don’t know.  But the photo is still shocking.

Google has been having issues with privacy concerns.  I fully expect the Chicago gang community to take these concerns to heart.

Now, After reading that story, I find myself asking “Where da hood at?”

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Obama’s nuclear proposal-thing to be released tomorrow will outline the United States’ new stance on nuclear weapons.

Here is one of the more telling paragraphs from the NYTimes article:

“It eliminates much of the ambiguity that has deliberately existed in American nuclear policy since the opening days of the Cold War. For the first time, the United States is explicitly committing not to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states that are in compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, even if they attacked the United States with biological or chemical weapons, or launched a crippling cyberattack.”

So, basically, the United States will not use nuclear weapons against countries that don’t have them…

But that seems like the safest bet that they won’t be used in retaliation…

The Nuclear Posture Review will be released tomorrow, and Thursday, Obama will fly to some God-forsaken country to sign some anti-nuclear thing with Russia.

I am beginning to feel less safe.

He dodged when asked whether he shared Israel’s view that a “nuclear capable” Iran was as dangerous as one that actually possessed weapons.

“I’m not going to parse that right now,” he said…

Less safe…

Read–LATimes

Read–NYTimes

“Let me remind you this has been going on for years. We are bringing it to a halt. The harsh fact of the matter is when you’re going to pass legislation that will cover 300 American people in different ways it takes a long time to do the necessary administrative steps that have to be taken to put the legislation together to control the people.”

Developing…

If this isn’t a “Let them eat cake” moment, there never was one…

Nancy Pelosi was positively giddy while walking through the protesters today on the way to the Capitol.

Queen Bee Nan laughs while walking through "Kill the Bill" protests...

CBS is reporting that Barack Obama has been watching college basketball and filling out his bracket…

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And now we learned that Michelle Obama and kids are seeing a Broadway show…

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While, outside, the American people are telling them “No!”

And those who can’t be in DC have been calling Congress at the rate of 100,000 per hour!

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“Let them eat cake!”

Stupak is going to vote Yes on the health care legislation.

He and Obama met to hash out details.

Obama won his vote.  Obama will sign an executive order disallowing public funded abortions…

Here’s the executive order that passed Obamacare via FoxNews.com:

EXECUTIVE ORDER

- – - – - – -

ENSURING ENFORCEMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF ABORTION RESTRICTIONS IN THE PATIENT PROTECTION AND AFFORDABLE CARE ACT

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” (approved March ¬¬__, 2010), I hereby order as follows:

Section 1. Policy.

Following the recent passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“the Act”), it is necessary to establish an adequate enforcement mechanism to ensure that Federal funds are not used for abortion services (except in cases of rape or incest, or when the life of the woman would be endangered), consistent with a longstanding Federal statutory restriction that is commonly known as the Hyde Amendment. The purpose of this Executive Order is to establish a comprehensive, government-wide set of policies and procedures to achieve this goal and to make certain that all relevant actors—Federal officials, state officials (including insurance regulators) and health care providers—are aware of their responsibilities, new and old.

The Act maintains current Hyde Amendment restrictions governing abortion policy and extends those restrictions to the newly-created health insurance exchanges. Under the Act, longstanding Federal laws to protect conscience (such as the Church Amendment, 42 U.S.C. §300a-7, and the Weldon Amendment, Pub. L. No. 111-8, §508(d)(1) (2009)) remain intact and new protections prohibit discrimination against health care facilities and health care providers because of an unwillingness to provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for abortions.

Numerous executive agencies have a role in ensuring that these restrictions are enforced, including the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

Section 2. Strict Compliance with Prohibitions on Abortion Funding in Health Insurance Exchanges. The Act specifically prohibits the use of tax credits and cost-sharing reduction payments to pay for abortion services (except in cases of rape or incest, or when the life of the woman would be endangered) in the health insurance exchanges that will be operational in 2014. The Act also imposes strict payment and accounting requirements to ensure that Federal funds are not used for abortion services in exchange plans (except in cases of rape or incest, or when the life of the woman would be endangered) and requires state health insurance commissioners to ensure that exchange plan funds are segregated by insurance companies in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, OMB funds management circulars, and accounting guidance provided by the Government Accountability Office.

I hereby direct the Director of OMB and the Secretary of HHS to develop, within 180 days of the date of this Executive Order, a model set of segregation guidelines for state health insurance commissioners to use when determining whether exchange plans are complying with the Act’s segregation requirements, established in Section 1303 of the Act, for enrollees receiving Federal financial assistance. The guidelines shall also offer technical information that states should follow to conduct independent regular audits of insurance companies that participate in the health insurance exchanges. In developing these model guidelines, the Director of OMB and the Secretary of HHS shall consult with executive agencies and offices that have relevant expertise in accounting principles, including, but not limited to, the Department of the Treasury, and with the Government Accountability Office. Upon completion of those model guidelines, the Secretary of HHS should promptly initiate a rulemaking to issue regulations, which will have the force of law, to interpret the Act’s segregation requirements, and shall provide guidance to state health insurance commissioners on how to comply with the model guidelines.

Section 3. Community Health Center Program.

The Act establishes a new Community Health Center (CHC) Fund within HHS, which provides additional Federal funds for the community health center program. Existing law prohibits these centers from using federal funds to provide abortion services (except in cases of rape or incest, or when the life of the woman would be endangered), as a result of both the Hyde Amendment and longstanding regulations containing the Hyde language. Under the Act, the Hyde language shall apply to the authorization and appropriations of funds for Community Health Centers under section 10503 and all other relevant provisions. I hereby direct the Secretary of HHS to ensure that program administrators and recipients of Federal funds are aware of and comply with the limitations on abortion services imposed on CHCs by existing law. Such actions should include, but are not limited to, updating Grant Policy Statements that accompany CHC grants and issuing new interpretive rules.

Section 4. General Provisions.

(a) Nothing in this Executive Order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect: (i) authority granted by law or presidential directive to an agency, or the head thereof; or (ii) functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

(b) This Executive Order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.

(c) This Executive Order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity against the United States, its departments, agencies, entities, officers, employees or agents, or any other person.

THE WHITE HOUSE,

Queen Bee Nan laughs while walking through "Kill the Bill" protests...

UPDATE: So…the executive order restates current law?  If someone is reading this and knows a little more about it than I, please inform me.

But it all may be for nothing…Dems ignore potential derailment of reconciliation ability…

UPDATE:  Barack Obama said he would only sign the executive order after passage of the health care bill…

huh…

Do you think he will sign it?

The McClatchy DC bureau is reporting that health care protesters at the nation’s capitol shouted racist obscenities at members of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Demonstrators outside the U.S. Capitol, angry over the proposed health care bill, shouted “nigger” Saturday at U.S. Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia congressman and civil rights icon who was nearly beaten to death during an Alabama march in the 1960s.Protesters also shouted obscenities at other members of the Congressional Black Caucus, spat on at least one black lawmaker and confronted an openly gay congressman with taunts.

Read–McClatchy

But that may or may not be true.  If it is, it is a disgrace and does a huge disservice to the Kill the Bill cause.

Which leads me to believe that those responsible, if it happened the way Lewis describes, are members of the left, engaged in Alinsky style attacks to discredit the grassroots movement.

Mark Williams has posted two videos of the incident, neither of which show anyone yelling anything sounding like any racist slur…

Read–Mark Williams

Apparently there must have been a devastating earthquake in Hawaii that flew under everybody’s radar…

*Back to Reality*

There was an earthquake in Hawaii that killed two people…in 1975.

I can hear it now, Media Mutters will scream about how he meant to say “tsunami” caused by the earthquake in Chile…or Haiti, or someother place…but misspoke because he was so livid with the line of questioning from FoxNews’ Bret Baier…

Here’s the text:

Fox News:

OBAMA: I am certain that we’ve made sure, for example, that any burdens on states are alleviated, when it comes to what they’re going to have to chip in to make sure that we’re giving subsidies to small businesses, and subsidies to individuals, for example.

BAIER: So the Connecticut deal is still in? OBAMA: So that’s not — that’s not going to be something that is going to be in this final package. I think the same is true on all of these provisions. I’ll give you some exceptions though. Something that was called a special deal was for Louisiana. It was said that there were billions — millions of dollars going to Louisiana, this was a special deal. Well, in fact, that provision, which I think should remain in, said that if a state has been affected by a natural catastrophe, that has created a special health care emergency in that state, they should get help. Louisiana, obviously, went through Katrina, and they’re still trying to deal with the enormous challenges that were faced because of that.

(CROSS TALK) OBAMA: That also — I’m giving you an example of one that I consider important. It also affects Hawaii, which went through an earthquake. So that’s not just a Louisiana provision. That is a provision that affects every state that is going through a natural catastrophe. Now I have said that there are certain provisions, like this Nebraska one, that don’t make sense. And they needed to be out. And we have removed those. So, at the end of the day, what people are going to be able to say is that this legislation is going to be providing help to small businesses and individuals, across the board, in an even handed way, and providing people relief from a status quo that’s just not working.

BAIER: OK, the Florida deal, in or out?

OBAMA: The Florida deal —

BAIER: Paying for Medicare Advantage, exempting 800,000 Floridians from —

OBAMA: My understanding is that whatever is going to be done on Medicare is going to apply across the board to all states.

Obama has canceled his trip to Southeast Asia.

Developing…

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Here’s the prime-time breakdown:

FoxNews was ranked second behind USA, which is totally understandable because Burn Notice is an awesome show.

Cartoon Network ranked 13.

MSNBC was 26th.

CNN was not ranked in Prime Time.

Cable Network Rankings – Week of 03-8-10

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