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WASHINGTON -- Now that health-care reform has reached the Senate floor without a single Republican vote, four Democrats are vying to become King of the Hill by demanding laundry lists of changes in exchange for their votes -- prompting liberals to vow not to be held hostage by a few foot-draggers. Majority Leader Harry Reid got the bill to the floor by a 60-39 vote, the narrowest possible margin. The close vote provided a vivid demonstration of each Democrat's ability to sink President Obama's top domestic priority -- or use his vote to try to extract concessions Sen. Ben Nelson...

Sometimes, not even a politician can be all things to all people. With Saturday night's vote to bring Harry Reid's health-care bill to the floor, "moderate" Senate Democrats like Ben Nelson (Neb.), Mary Landrieu (La.), and Blanche Lincoln (Ark.) had to choose between pleasing party leaders and their reputations for moderation. Moderation lost. Of course, some will say that this was merely a vote to proceed, not a vote on the merits of the bill. They were just "moving the debate forward," will try to improve the bill on the floor, and, as Seinfeld would say, yada, yada, yada. But...

November 20, 2009 Just a day after Oprah Winfrey announcing that she will be ending her talk show, we are already being overloaded by columns and news reports speculating on “Oprah's next move". I think she’s going to enjoy the attention from this PR stunt immensely. I can see it spinning out of control already and I’m not looking forward to listening to the speculation propounded ad nauseam by media pundits over the coming months. It’s on par to be bigger and more vexing than “who shot JR?”. Some, like Jon Friedman of Marketwatch.com are speculating that she may run...

A Zogby Poll this week illustrates the stark choice facing Senate Democrats as they have to decide whether or not to vote for ObamaCare. The poll shows that Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln, high up on the list of vulnerable Senate Democrats seeking reelection in 2010, literally faces a choice between being reelected and voting for the bill. The Zogby Poll shows Arkansans opposed to the Obama/Reid bill by 28-64, with 50 percent “strongly opposed” to the legislation. To swim in the face of such a current of public opinion is risky business for a U.S. senator. Lincoln’s most likely Republican...

It appears the fate of the Senate Health Care Bill is now in the hands of two Democrat senators - Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana. Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska has announced he will vote for cloture tomorrow, which would open the way for the bill to be taken up on the Senate Floor and receive an up or down vote. If Democrats can cobble together the 60 votes needed to invoke Cloture tomorrow, they will then only need 50 votes (plus VP Joe Biden) to gain final passage of the bill. Fifty votes would appear...

The lesson of history for any small child is that if you are lucky enough to be presented to the future president of the US, then make sure you have evidence of the encounter before bragging about it to your classmates. George Patten, aged eight, discovered the bitter truth of that maxim in 1860 after he boasted at school about having met Abraham Lincoln, having been introduced to the then presidential candidate with his journalist father. The boy's friends thought he had made the story up, and bullied him. To settle the matter, Patten's teacher wrote to the White House...

TEGUCIGALPA — A top US envoy said Wednesday that Honduran elections were key to resolving the crisis set off by the June 28 coup, despite the rejection of the polls by ousted leader Manuel Zelaya. "The elections are an important part of the solution in order to advance," said US deputy assistant secretary for the Western Hemisphere Craig Kelly, in comments to journalists 11 days before the presidential polls. Zelaya, who has been holed up in the Brazilian embassy since his surprise return home on September 21, has called on his supporters to boycott the polls after the latest crisis...

Ex-president Zelaya is still holed up in the Brazilian Embassy and surrounded by police armed with an arrest warrant against him if he steps outside of Brazil’s protection. However, he makes frequent statements to the press via phone. Yesterday, his complaints against the U.S. took a more personal tone. In an interview with local station Radio Globo he said that Lincoln “. . . gave an example to the American people that this [Obama’s] government doesn’t want to follow. These are not true heirs of Lincoln.” Although State Department spokesman Ian Kelly denied yesterday that U.S. policy towards Honduras had...

BEIJING: China on Thursday invoked Abraham Lincoln’s anti-slavery philosophy to persuade US president Barack Obama from meeting the Dalai Lama. Obama is due to visit China in mid-November but the local government is worried he might meet the Tibetan leader immediately after that. "He is a black president, and he understands the slavery abolition movement and Lincoln's major significance for that movement," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters. Qin pointed out the Chinese government had abolished slavery, which was widespread in Tibet during the regime of the Dalai Lama, in 1959. Obama should also realize that the Dalai...

In 1909, in the great state of Illinois, school teachers one February day were directed to spend at least half the school day in public exercises, patriotic music, and recitations of sayings, verses, and speeches to mark the centennial birthday of a great hero. At the end of it all, they were to have their students face in the direction of Springfield and chant in unison the following: “A blend of mirth and sadness, smiles and tears; “A quaint knight errant of the pioneers; “A homely hero, born of star and sod; “A Peasant Prince, a masterpiece of God.” Who...

Much has already been made of Landesman’s comparisons of Obama to Julius Caesar. As a teacher and lifelong student of history, I find that comparison amusing on various levels. Caesar was an accomplished military leader whose campaign through Gaul was the subject of his major literary work, still available in your local Barnes and Noble. Barack Obama is an indecisive teleprompter reader whose book will certainly be long forgotten 2,000 years from now. Julius Caesar’s actions as leader of Rome turned the Republic into a dictatorial empire that later spawned such rulers as Nero and Caligula. Might the Messiah, who,...

Only half-joking, Jody Kerzman said she's thinking of putting a sign in the window of the '49 Lincoln. "Will never be for sale," it would say. Her father, Jack Franken, loved this car. Turned it into a street rod. Drove it everywhere, especially car shows. Scored cool grandpa points with his grandchildren who saw the world zip past from its sofa-like back seat. For Jody, the car is a powerful connection to her dad, a south side Milwaukee truck driver who died in 1997. So you can understand her distress when the car got away from their family - not...

The concepts of race, war, and politics have changed immeasurably from the Civil War to the present. Our first African President has tried to emulate the legend of Abraham Lincoln, it is time to dispel some of the myths. This article will use letters and documents written from 1863 to 1865, borrowed from the ‘The Boisterous Sea of Liberty’ by David Brion Davis and Steven Mintz. Black soldiers fought for the Union at great personal risk, The Confederacy threatened to summarily execute or sell into slavery any Black soldiers that were captured. Lincoln threatened to reciprocate against Southern prisoners if...

Army Col. Conrad Reynolds is one of several Republicans vying to take on Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D) for Arkansas’ Senate seat in 2010. Reynolds’ campaign issued a press release last week blasting Lincoln for a vote, and among those who received it was Greg Chance, the news director of an NPR affiliate based at Arkansas State University. It seems Chance attempted to forward the e-mail to Katie Laning Niebaum, Lincoln’s Washington-based communications director. In his forward, which HOH obtained, Chance mocked the press release and even the campaign’s logo, which features the Army colonel insignia. “There was another one from...

Army Col. Conrad Reynolds is one of several Republicans vying to take on Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D) for Arkansas’ Senate seat in 2010. Reynolds’ campaign issued a press release last week blasting Lincoln for a vote, and among those who received it was Greg Chance, the news director of an NPR affiliate based at Arkansas State University. It seems Chance attempted to forward the e-mail to Katie Laning Niebaum, Lincoln’s Washington-based communications director. In his forward, which HOH obtained, Chance mocked the press release and even the campaign’s logo, which features the Army colonel insignia. “There was another one from...

"I expect to maintain this contest until successful, or till I die, or am conquered. Or my term expires, or Congress or the country forsakes me.”– Abraham Lincoln, 1862 Oh to hear those words from our President today. While our troops--the sons and daughters, husbands and wives, fathers and mothers of our fellow Americans--are dying in Afhanistan, our general in charge of the region, General McChrystal, waits for the President to consider his August 30th request for 40,000 additional troops. This request is the result of his on the ground analysis of what it would take to win in Afghanistan,...

Another Democratic senator may be at-risk in 2010. Arkansas' Blanche Lambert Lincoln trails all four of her leading Republican challengers in the first Rasmussen Reports Election 2010 survey in the state. Lincoln fails to get 50% of the vote in any of the match-ups, and any incumbent who falls short of that level is considered vulnerable. In three of the match-ups, however, she is virtually tied with the challengers at this

Abraham Lincoln's Religious Beliefs By Eldon Smith -- Sunday, February 11, 1996 Bible Reading At that same hour Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal...

In 1859, Ohio Native Dan Emmett first performed “Dixie” New York City.

A US worker came within seconds of destroying Lincoln's copy of the Magna Carta after nearly spraying it with a chemical cleaner. The 800-year-old document is currently on display in New York, but almost met a sticky end thanks to an overzealous cleaner. Lincoln Cathedral's archive conservation consultant Chris Woods accompanied the document, spending hours making sure the inked sheepskin which contains the charter of freedom, was placed correctly into a £42,000 vacuum-sealed display case to keep it safe from the elements. And it was, until a lock briefly malfunctioned just as a workman tried to give it a last...

To mark the 200th anniversary year of the birth of Abraham Lincoln Britain's Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) wants to analyse the mercury-based medicine thought by some to have been responsible for the President's notorious bouts of rage in the decade before the American civil war.But the society first needs to track down some of the legendary Victorian "Blue Mass" concoction and to that end is offering a reward of £200 for information that results in some of it being pinpointed by the end of November.Blue Mass, sometimes known as "Blue Pills", was used widely, often ineffectively, for a range...

The last time a new American political party came into being, one strong enough to elect a President, was in 1854. As you have guessed, that was the Republican Party. Its first elected President was Abraham Lincoln in 1860. Many third party and independent campaigns have been mounted since then. The Progressive Party around 1900 managed to elect Governors and majorities in the legislature of several states. Their high water mark was in 1912, when former President Teddy Roosevelt chose that Party as his vehicle to run again when the Republicans declined to nominate him, again. (No, there never was...

by John Armor (BB 670, Even, 4 Sept, 707 words) The last time a new American political party came into being, one strong enough to elect a President, was in 1854. As you have guessed, that was the Republican Party. Its first elected President was Abraham Lincoln in 1860. Many third party and independent campaigns have been mounted since then. The Progressive Party around 1900 managed to elect Governors and majorities in the legislature of several states. Their high water mark was in 1912, when former President Teddy Roosevelt chose that Party as his vehicle to run again when the...

You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. You cannot build character and courage by taking away people's initiative and independence. You cannot help people permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves. Abraham Lincoln Read more at Notoriouslyconservative.com

Umm, whoa! The latest numbers from Democratic polling firm Public Policy Polling: Do you approve or disapprove of Democratic Senator Blanche Lincoln’s job performance? Approve .......................................................... 36% Disapprove...................................................... 44% Not Sure.......................................................... 20% Here is the breakdown among ideology: Lincoln Approval Base Liberal Moderate Conservative Approve 36% 66% 51% 17% Disapprove 44% 18% 31% 61% Not Sure 20% 16% 19% 22% And among party: Lincoln Approval Base Democratic Republican Other Approve 36% 62% 14% 27% Disapprove 44% 20% 65% 51% Not Sure 20% 17% 21% 22% So again, just how conservative is Sen. Lincoln?

The first notice came on Drudge just after 8 p.m. Eastern time, but we all knew a long time ago that this was going to happen. The New York Times is reporting that Democrats in the House and Senate have drawn their line in the sand, tossed any semblance of bipartisanship (not that Republicans were even part of the conversation) and threw their Blue Dog colleagues under the Obamacare bus as they will "go it alone" to ram a health care bill through, even though it is opposed by a near majority of the country.snip... What this means for Arkansans...

It looks like Sen. Blanche Lincoln is coming out into the public and will actually hold "town hall-style" meetings the first week of September. Per her DC office: U.S. Senator Blanche Lincoln today announced her schedule of events for September 1-4. In addition to Lincoln’s previously scheduled meetings, the Senator will hold three “town hall-style” forums across the state in response to requests from her constituents. So much for relying on her meetings from April. On the docket for Mrs. Lincoln: September 2: 12:30-2:30 p.m., Russellville Town Hall Meeting. Arkansas Tech University’s Doc Bryan Auditorium. 1605 Coliseum Drive, Room 109,...

A butter sculpture of former U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is part of this year's 2009 Illinois State Fair Butter Cow display, a sculptor says. Sculptor Sharon BuMann said in addition to adding the beloved 16th U.S. president to the fair's annual sculptures made of butter, her work of edible art includes a butterfly, kitten and a hidden mouse, The Springfield (Ill.) State Journal-Register said Friday. "I suspect he's supposed to be milking the cow and splitting the wood, but has decided to read instead," BuMann said of Lincoln's appearance in the butter sculpture. "The inspiration came from the early years....

The measure of the impact of health-care protests can now be seen on another major item on the Barack Obama agenda. Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) has called on the Senate to jettison the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill for this year, calling it “too big” after the political turmoil of the eruption of anger on ObamaCare. Three other Democrats have publicly supported the idea of focusing only on promotion of renewable energy:

We hear it all the time: A Democrat in Arkansas asking Arkansans to send them to Washington, D.C., by promising to act like an Arkansan and not one of those liberals like Nancy Pelosi.We read op-ed columns from senators promising to fight for us, to work for us and to keep us foremost in their minds.We see the liberals of the Congress gnash their teeth at our state, not understanding why those Democratic voters back home can't just get with the program and quit giving them grief.We witness our Democrats in Washington do everything they can to maintain "the wall"...

Check out how Democrat Senator Lincoln from Arkansas called those who protest against Obama's socialism "Un-American" and then apologized: Efforts to disrupt town hall meetings on health care reform are un-American, U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., said today, though she later issued a statement retracting the remark. “It’s so sad, because it’s diminishing to the process, it’s diminishing to our outcome,” Lincoln said in a conference call with reporters. “I think it’s sad that they choose to do that. I think it’s un-American and disrespectful.” A few hours later, Lincoln issued the following statement: “Although I do believe that some...

It would appear that she might be, on the fundraising front. I offer this note sent on behalf of Randy Zook of the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce.

Will Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln continue to fight "as a member of the Senate Finance Committee" for a bipartisan bill, or will she heel to the Democrat leadership who want a health care plan, no matter what? The reason I ask is due to this interesting report from Politico's Glenn Thrush on how Sen. Chuck Schumer is planning use of parliamentary tricks to bypass the committee process and the 60 votes needed for cloture to pass a health care plan for President Obama. Thrush writes: Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) sounds like he's getting ready to play hardball this fall on...

Academics and students exhibit a pervasive amnesia toward the pro-Stalin actions of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade (ALB), a group of American volunteers who fought against General Francisco Franco and his Nationalists during Spain's civil war. Recent Boston University graduate-turned Associated Press reporter Kelsey Abbruzzese did little better than her college peers this July, publishing a story that lauded ALB veteran John Hovan's career. "In 1937, John Hovan volunteered to travel to Spain and fight on the side of democracy against Gen. Francisco Franco's fascist forces in the Spanish Civil War," wrote Abbruzzese on July 9. "Now, at age 93, he...

Just minutes ago, the Senate held a roll call vote on the concealed carry amendment to the 2010 defense funding bill. Arkansas two Democrat Senators, Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor, split their vote with Lincoln - up for re-election in 2010 - casting an "aye" vote. But, right before the president pro temp announced the result, Mr. Pryor went back to the clerk and changed off "no" to "aye". The Thune amendment ended up with 58 votes for and 39 opposed, meaning it failed. Failed with 58 votes? Yes. How?

Sen. Blanche Lincoln caved to liberal interest groups by coming out in support of the public option for health care when they threatened to run television ads against her as she prepares for her re-election campaign. Apparently, Sen. Lincoln's column was not enough to dissuade her liberal supporters. For today, we are given a new twist: an actual television ad slated to run in Arkansas. But it is not from some liberal nutroots group like MoveOn, it is from Blanche Lincoln's own beloved Democratic Party.

I just read an email from the re-election campaign of my state's senior senator, Blanche Lincoln, which proudly touts her column which appeared this morning in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette entitled "Health Care for All". After reading this op-ed, it has become obvious that Sen. Lincoln has started to feel the pressure from liberal groups who disliked her stance on the "public option" touted by President Barack Obama and showing that she has become a bit more concerned as to her chances of keeping her job in Washington (where she has spent virtually all her adult life). Sen. Lincoln's acquiescence to...

That is the take from some friends at the Arkansas Judicial Network who have put this video together, urging you to contact Sens. Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor to tell them to oppose their fellow Democrat in the White House and vote against Judge Sonia Sotomayor: (snip) And that is the key. The people back home in Arkansas will note how Sen. Lincoln, who will be asking those very same people for her job back in 2010, will vote for this woman who, despite her wisdom, was overturned on a case which resonates. Remember, it was Mrs. Lincoln who tepidly...

While many will touch on the humor of “funny man” Al Franken now taking his shtick to the Senate, and MSNBC will likely be apoplectic tonight at the concept of 60 Democrat senators now moving forward Barack Obama’s deficit-spending, big government policies through the upper chamber, I submit that the punchline may be at the cost of “conservative” Democrat senators, including Arkansas’s own Blanche Lincoln, who will now have a target painted on them to be the 60th vote on such things as card check, cap and tax and Obamacare.

The Republican Party, in order to return to relevancy and power, must firstly, admit the errors of their ways under the previous eight years.

What exactly is America’s Greatest Blessing? Throughout history there sure have been many of them, but which one is the “Greatest?” I personally agree with one of our greatest presidents of all time, Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln believed (as did our founding fathers) that America’s Greatest Blessing was an honest, interest-free monetary system controlled by the Republic itself instead of private bankers who manipulate the use of money for their own personal gains. The fight against usury and love of money has been going on for ages, since the time of Christ, and most likely even before that. In the...

AUGUSTINE BEACH, FLA. — The only president who came into office facing a "worse mess" than Barack Obama was Abraham Lincoln, said George McGovern, who's promoting his book on the Civil War president. Decades after his own unsuccessful bid for president, McGovern, a former history professor, sees similarities between the Honest Abe president and Obama. "I really think he has some of Lincoln's qualities," McGovern said of Obama. "The only president who inherited a worse mess was Lincoln, who inherited a four-year civil war that ruined the country." When asked how his 185-page "Abraham Lincoln" differs from 16,000 other biographies...

During the persecution of Christians in the reign of Marcus Aurelius, the Roman prefect Rusticus was frustrated by the serene equanimity of the Christian convert Justin, a Platonic philosopher. The Romans considered Christianity a superstitio parva (a perverse superstition) and classified its morality as immodica (immoderate) for, among other things, refusing to abort the unborn and "expose" the newly born. Bereft of rational arguments against Christians, Nero blamed them for burning Rome, as some would blame the Jews for the bubonic plague. The demagogic policy, updated by Lenin and made a political craft in our day, was "never let a...

"a collection of facts,opinions and arguments FOR FREEDOM" ............................. "What every working Republican will desire, in the way of fact,argument and opinion, for himself and for his neighbor, to inform the ignorant,convince the prejudiced, and stimulate the lukewarm, will be given in this POCKET PISTOL series, in a form at once compact, neat and at a price which will enable our Republican Clubs to put a copy of it into the hands of every voter who can read." http://ia341040.us.archive.org/3/items/republicanpocket00burl/republicanpocket00burl.pdf

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- Most Lincoln historians know about the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858, but historian William P. MacKinnon focused on the little-known first Lincoln-Douglas debate in Springfield in June 1857. It specifically addresses "what was then called 'The Mormon Problem.'" MacKinnon, using his paper titled "Stephen A. Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, and the Mormon Problem: The 1857 Debate" gave the Mormon History Association Conference Annual Membership Luncheon presentation May 23. Why did Lincoln and Douglas debate about Mormonism? A little background is needed. Soon after James Buchanan became the 15th president in 1857, the Utah territory became a hot political...

ELIZABETHTOWN – Fire damaged a Lincoln landmark at Freeman Lake Park in Elizabethtown early Friday morning, and police are baffled as to the motive behind the what they believe to be intentional damage to the historic site. According to Elizabethtown Police Department spokesman Virgil Willoughy, Kenneth R. Bennett, a 34-year-old Elizabethtown resident, is believed to have started the fire. Willoughby said police deduced from investigation that Bennett lit a container of trash and placed it inside the Lincoln Heritage House Friday morning while taking his regular walk. “He walks this area frequently,” Willoughby said. “We can only guess as to...

snip....... "Mormon Connections to Lincoln-Era Springfield." .......snip

Photo by R. Scott LloydRobert Woodford of the LDS Church Hist. Dept. Joseph Smith Papers Project speaks May 22 to plenary session of the Mormon History Association meeting in Springfield, Ill. A manuscript found in the First Presidency's vault — characterized by Assistant Church Historian Richard E. Turley Jr. as "a major documentary discovery" — was discussed May 22 by four scholars from the Church History Department before a gathering of some 400 Church history enthusiasts here. "The Book of Commandments and Revelations" was the topic of the opening plenary session of the 44th Annual Mormon History Association Conference meeting...

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