France’s tricolor, Britain’s Union Jack and even Croatia’s coat of arms have been lifted above those nation’s installations in Haiti. But in the United States camp, “whose contributions dwarf the rest of the world’s,” no flag is allowed to fly. Why? The Obama administration has forbidden it. USA Today reports:

The lack of the Stars and Stripes does not sit well with some veterans and servicemembers who say the U.S. government should be proud to fly the flag in Haiti, given the amount of money and manpower the U.S. is donating to help the country recover from the Jan. 12 quake.

The Obama administration says flying the flag could give Haiti the wrong idea.

“We are not here as an occupation force, but as an international partner committed to supporting the government of Haiti on the road to recovery,” the U.S. government’s Haiti Joint Information Center said in response to a query about the flag.

It used to be that Americans serving abroad were proud to serve oversees under our nation’s flag. Not the Obama administration.

And this is not the first time President Obama has sought to distance himself from our nation’s past. Let us not forget last year’s world wide apology tour, including: ...

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The computers, without Internet access, were provided to Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four other suspected 9/11 conspirators at the prison at the U.S. naval base in Cuba, the Washington Times reported.

The Pentagon allowed five captured Al Qaeda members currently held at the Guantanamo Bay prison to use laptop computers in detention, raising concerns among security officials that the terrorism suspects could pass sensitive data to terrorists in the future, according to U.S. officials.

The Washington Times reports the computers, without Internet access, were provided to Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four other suspected 9/11 conspirators at the prison at the U.S. naval base in Cuba after approval by senior Pentagon officials in September 2008. ...

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A day after Sen. Barbara Boxer's (D-CA) camp announced that Pres. Obama would be traveling to Los Angeles for a joint fundraiser next month, a new Field Poll shows Boxer locked in tight races with each of the GOPers vying to challenge her in Nov.

Ex-Rep. Tom Campbell (R) leads the GOP field, posting a 6-point advantage over ex-Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina (R). But Campbell, Fiorina and Assemb. Chuck DeVore (R) each run virtually even with Boxer in general-election matchups.

The Field Poll surveyed 748 likely voters from Mar. 9-15, with a margin of error of +/- 3.6%. There was an oversample of 353 likely GOP primary voters, with a margin of error of +/- 5.2%.

Primary Election Matchup (GOPers)Campbell 28% (-2 from 1/17)Fiorina 22 (-3)DeVore 9 (+3)General Election MatchupsCampbell 44% (+6) Boxer 45% (-5)Boxer 43 (-5) Fiorina 44 (+9)Boxer 45% (-6)DeVore 41 (+7)

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Landmark Legal Foundation president and Talk Radio powerhouse Mark Levin promised today that his foundation will file suit in federal court challenging the constitutionality of Obamacare if it is approved in the House using the Slaughter Solution.

“Landmark has already prepared a lawsuit that will be filed in federal court the moment the House acts. Such a brazen violation of the core functions of Congress simply cannot be ignored. Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution is clear respecting the manner in which a bill becomes law. Members are required to vote on this bill, not claim they did when they didn’t. The Speaker of the House and her lieutenants are temporary custodians of congressional authority. They are not empowered to do permanent violence to our Constitution," Levin said.

A draft of the suit initial filing can be read here.

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A new poll that should cause significant concerns for backers of the pro-abortion Senate health care bill finds nearly half the nation's physicians would consider quitting if the bill becomes law. The survey, appearing in the New England Journal of Medicine, indicates 46 percent of doctors would consider leaving their practice.

The poll finds 46.3% of primary care physicians (family medicine and internal medicine) feel that the passing of a public option will either force them out of medicine or make them want to leave medicine.

Doctors also seem to understand the impact that will have as 72% of physicians feel that a public option would have a negative impact on physician supply, with 45% feeling it will “decline or worsen dramatically” and 27% predicting it will “decline or worsen somewhat.

The medical journal issued an editorial saying it didn't think that many doctors would quit but did worry about the adverse impact.

“While a sudden loss of half of the nations physicians seems unlikely, a very dramatic decrease in the physician workforce could become a reality as an unexpected side effect of health reform," it said.

Another 62.7% of physicians feel that health reform is needed but should be implemented in a more targeted, gradual way, as opposed to the sweeping overhaul that is in legislation.

The respected medical journal also found 41% of physicians feel that income and practice revenue will “decline or worsen dramatically” and 30% feel income will “decline or worsen somewhat” with a public option. ...

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Affiliates of the once mighty liberal activist group ACORN are remaking themselves in a desperate bid to ditch the tarnished name of their parent organization and restore federal grants and other revenue streams that ran dry in the wake of a video scandal.

The letters A, C, O, R and N are coming off office doors from New York to California. Business cards are being reprinted. New signs with new names are popping up in front of offices.

The breakaways are trying to shed the scandal that emerged six months ago when videos showed some ACORN workers giving tax tips to conservative activists posing as a pimp and prostitute. But while their names are different, most groups have kept the same offices and staff.

That, critics say, means the groups really haven't started anew and severed all ties to ACORN, which faced accusations of mismanagement and rampant voter registration fraud well before the video brouhaha sent even longtime Democratic backers scattering.

Even the national office of ACORN, or the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, doesn't blame affiliates for bolting from under its umbrella — conceding its entire 40-state network has been devastated by what backers characterize as right-wing attacks.

"It is true that these range of attacks do damage to your brand and your good name," said Kevin Whelan, ACORN's communication's director. "The other reality is that we are starting to win some vindication on the facts. But vindication doesn't necessarily pay the rent."

ACORN's financial situation and reputation went into free fall within days of the videos' release in September. Congress reacted by yanking ACORN's federal funding, private donors held back cash and scores of ACORN offices closed. ...

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Five more House Democrats said Tuesday that they will vote against Senate health care legislation, which puts opponents of reform just 11 votes shy of the 216 needed to prevent President Obama from scoring a major victory on his top domestic priority.

An ongoing CNN analysis shows that opposition in the House to the Senate health care plan has reached 205 members.

A total of 27 House Democrats, including nine who supported the House plan in November, have indicated that they would join a unified Republican caucus in opposing the Senate plan, which passed in that chamber December 24 with the minimum required 60 votes.

Nonetheless, House Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson of Connecticut said Monday after a meeting with rank-and-file Democrats that "the votes are there" to pass the health care bill.

Among at least 27 Democrats who will vote against the bill is Rep. Mike McIntyre of North Carolina, who confirmed his opposition Monday.

"Health care reform is needed, but the bill before us is too expensive, does not adequately address rising medical costs and skyrocketing insurance premiums, and tries to do too much too soon," McIntyre said in a written statement. "We simply cannot afford to create a new federal bureaucracy that costs nearly $1 trillion when our national debt is $12 trillion and there is no plan in place to address it. I will not vote for it."

Proponents of the health care plan need 216 votes to pass the Senate measure. No Republicans have indicated that they will vote for the bill, which means Democratic leaders must rely solely on votes from their own members. Democrats hold 253 House seats. ...

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The many nations helping Haiti recover from the devastating earthquake that struck there have set up their own military compounds and fly their flags at the entrances.

France's tricolor, Britain's Union Jack and even Croatia's coat of arms flap in the breeze.

But the country whose contributions dwarf the rest of the world's — the United States — has no flag at its main installation near the Port-au-Prince airport.

The lack of the Stars and Stripes does not sit well with some veterans and servicemembers who say the U.S. government should be proud to fly the flag in Haiti, given the amount of money and manpower the U.S. is donating to help the country recover from the Jan. 12 quake.

The Obama administration says flying the flag could give Haiti the wrong idea.

"We are not here as an occupation force, but as an international partner committed to supporting the government of Haiti on the road to recovery," the U.S. government's Haiti Joint Information Center said in response to a query about the flag.

The absence of the American flag bothers former Navy man Arthur Herriford, national president of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association.

"It's very improper," Herriford said. "Our military people always engage and function under the American colors — always have and always will." ...

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PARKERSBURG, W.Va. – The retirement nest egg of an entire generation is stashed away in this small town along the Ohio River: $2.5 trillion in IOUs from the federal government, payable to the Social Security Administration.

It's time to start cashing them in.

For more than two decades, Social Security collected more money in payroll taxes than it paid out in benefits — billions more each year.

Not anymore. This year, for the first time since the 1980s, when Congress last overhauled Social Security, the retirement program is projected to pay out more in benefits than it collects in taxes — nearly $29 billion more.

Sounds like a good time to start tapping the nest egg. Too bad the federal government already spent that money over the years on other programs, preferring to borrow from Social Security rather than foreign creditors. In return, the Treasury Department issued a stack of IOUs — in the form of Treasury bonds — which are kept in a nondescript office building just down the street from Parkersburg's municipal offices.

Now the government will have to borrow even more money, much of it abroad, to start paying back the IOUs, and the timing couldn't be worse. The government is projected to post a record $1.5 trillion budget deficit this year, followed by trillion dollar deficits for years to come. ...

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As of yesterday, four separate bills rejecting proposed federal health insurance individual mandates have passed both houses of Virginia’s legislature. In no particular order, they are Fred Quayle’s SB 283, Jill Vogel’s SB 417, Steve Martin’s SB 311, and Bob Marshall’s  HB10.

However, if you got your news from the (woefully uninformed) Washington Post, you would think that

Virginia’s General Assembly became the first in the nation Wednesday to approve legislation that bucks any attempt by President Barack Obama and Congress to implement a national health care overhaul in individual states.

Which is not true. Barry Goldwater’s home state of Arizona was the first.

But let’s cut the monkeys manning the typewriters over at the WaPo a little slack. After all, they clearly can’t read. Otherwise, how else to explain their utter ignorance regarding the Supremacy Clause?

Witness this gem:

The legality of bills like Virginia’s is questionable because courts generally rule that federal laws supersede those of the states.

Try again.

This is a constitutional republic, not a democracy. And, as the Tenth Amendment makes perfectly clear, the fact that a court says the federal government may do whatever it wants, whenever it wants, to whomever it wants, does not mean that the states or the people have to go along. ...

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Given the centrality of abortion to the ObamaCare debate, the latest news from Gallup should have Democrats concerned about the future of their party.  They spent the last few months attempting to push through Congress a mechanism that would provide federal funding of abortions, which has stalled the bill in the House and threatens to kill ObamaCare.  As Democrats attempt this, the youth vote that they so assiduously courted in 2008 has grown more anti-abortion:

Two important changes are apparent. One is a significant drop in the percentage of seniors saying all abortions should be illegal. This fell from 32% in the earliest years of the trend to 16% in the first half of the 1990s, but has since rebounded somewhat to 21%. This long-term 11-point decline among seniors compares with a 9-point increase — from 14% to 23% — in support for the “illegal in all circumstances” position among 18- to 29-year-olds since the early 1990s.

As a result, 18- to 29-year-olds are now roughly tied with seniors as the most likely of all age groups to hold this position on abortion — although all four groups are fairly close in their views. This is a sharp change from the late 1970s, when seniors were substantially more likely than younger age groups to want abortion to be illegal. ...

 

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More than two dozen Democrats are expected to vote against the healthcare reform bill that will hit the House floor in the coming weeks.

At least 25 House Democrats will reject the healthcare reform legislation, according to a survey by The Hill, a review of other media reports and interviews with lawmakers, aides and lobbyists. Dozens of House Democrats are undecided or won't comment on their position on the measure.

The 25 opposed include firm "no" votes and members who are likely "no" votes. Most Democrats on The Hill's whip list are definitely going to vote no, but others, such as Reps. Lincoln Davis (Tenn.) and Harry Teague (N.M.), could vote yes.

However, The Hill has not yet put Democrats who are insisting on Rep. Bart Stupak's (D-Mich.) language on abortion in the "no" category. Stupak has said there are 12 Democrats who supported the House bill in November who will vote no unless his measure blocking federal funding of abortions is melded into the final bill.

If leadership doesn't make changes to the abortion language and Stupak does indeed have 12 votes in his pocket, it will be very difficult to pass a bill. Yet if they do change the provisions, supporters of abortion rights in the House will threaten to vote no. ...

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The Senate Parliamentarian has ruled that President Barack Obama must sign Congress’ original health care reform bill before the Senate can act on a companion reconciliation package, senior GOP sources said Thursday.

The Senate Parliamentarian’s Office was responding to questions posed by the Republican leadership. The answers were provided verbally, sources said.

House Democratic leaders have been searching for a way to ensure that any move they make to approve the Senate-passed $871 billion health care reform bill is followed by Senate action on a reconciliation package of adjustments to the original bill. One idea is to have the House and Senate act on reconciliation prior to House action on the Senate’s original health care bill.

Information Republicans say they have received from the Senate Parliamentarian’s Office eliminates that option. House Democratic leaders last week began looking at crafting a legislative rule that would allow the House to approve the Senate health care bill, but not forward it to Obama for his signature until the Senate clears the reconciliation package.

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) moved Thursday to put Senate Republicans on the defensive over health care, sending a letter to Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in which he dared the GOP to vote against reform.

Reid also defended the Democrats’ use of reconciliation to get a final health care reform bill to the president’s desk, noting that the bulk of health care reform was approved under regular order via the package that cleared the Senate on Christmas Eve. Reid also emphasized that Republicans have used the procedure several times over the years. ...

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A top Chinese official said Tuesday that Beijing will not use its vast holdings of U.S. government debt for political gain, just a few days after a forecast projected that the U.S. national debt is on course to triple to $20 trillion over the next decade.

China holds the world's largest cache of foreign exchange reserves, which soared more than $450 billion last year to reach $2.4 trillion at year's end. Concerns about Beijing's plans for its holdings have peaked in recent weeks after Chinese military officials suggested using that debt to pressure the United States in other policy areas.

But a top Chinese state financial officer Tuesday rejected that approach.

"The U.S. Treasury market is the world's largest government bond market," said Yi Gang, the head of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange. "Our foreign exchange reserves are huge, so you can imagine that the U.S. Treasury market is important to us," he said during the annual session of China's parliament.

Mr. Yi emphasized his hope that China's investment in U.S. Treasury securities would not become a political football.

"This is purely market-driven investment behavior. I would hope not to see this matter politicized," he said in response to a question about American concerns that Beijing's holdings of U.S. debt posed a political threat. "China is a responsible investor, and we fully believe such investments can be mutually beneficial."

Mr. Yi expressed those views one month after a senior military official in the People's Liberation Army recommended using economic measures to retaliate against a $6 billion arms package that the United States agreed to sell to Taiwan. ...

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Last year's underdog became this year's front-runner Tuesday when Doug Hoffman - whose 2009 congressional race became a rallying cry for the "tea party" movement - announced he would seek the Republican nomination in New York's 23rd District.

Mr. Hoffman's Conservative Party campaign last fall in the upstate district ignited grass-roots supporters, but fell 4,000 votes short of an upset victory in the three-way special election won by Bill Owens, who became the first Democrat to represent the district in decades.

"I'm just an average citizen, standing up to say, 'We're fed up. We're not going to take this any more,' " Mr. Hoffman told The Washington Times in a telephone interview Tuesday. "I don't think anybody should expect to inherit political office ... . I'm going to work very hard to earn the respect and support of all the voters in the district."

An accountant from Saranac Lake, Mr. Hoffman became the first Republican to officially declare his candidacy in the largely rural 23rd Congressional District, which sprawls across upstate New York from Lake Ontario on the west to the Vermont border on the east. ...

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