It’s a done deal, awaiting Obama’s signature.   I am truly too disheartened to write anything tonight.

Please use this open thread to share your thoughts, provide insight and inspiration, give practical advice, etc. I’ve already received several emails from conservative groups (the GOP, Republican politicians, etc.) urging fund raising.  (Just FYI, in less than 1 hour, the GOP has already raised more than $86,000 in its 40 hour fund-raising drive towards a $402,010 goal.)

In the fall, we were disgusted with Republicans, and some of us, after the election said that they didn’t deserve money.  I think that they’ve gone a long way to redeeming themselves with this fight.  They showed remarkable cohesion, intelligence, and savvy.  With a single issue burning before them, the Republicans proved that they could fight the good fight, even if they lost the first big battle. 

Since this same single issue will be what unites Republicans, conservatives, libertarians, and independents into the November election cycle, it is time for us to dig into our pockets and help out.  I know that I will.  Remember, the momentum is now, before we get resigned to a dismal, socialist status quo.

I’ll be back blogging sometime tomorrow, but for tonight I’m going to creep off and quietly mourn the end of the world as we know it.  In a day or two, I’ll be ready to come out swinging.

I indulged myself today by staying assiduously away from the computer.  If there was going to be a train crash, I didn’t want to see it happen.  What’s really irksome isn’t that Stupak is the usual Demo ho (pardon my language), but that he was willing to sell his soul for the political equivalent of Monopoly money.  Here’s Andrew MacCarthy on just how bad Stupak’s deal is:

But now Democrats are going to abide not a mere signing statement but an executive order that purports to have the effect of legislation — in fact, has the effect of nullifying legislation that Congress is simultaneously enacting?

The Susan B. Anthony List observation that EOs can be rescinded at the president’s whim is of course true. This particuar EO is also a nullity — presidents cannot enact laws, the Supreme Court has said they cannot impound funds that Congress allocates, and (as a friend points out) the line-item veto has been held unconstitutional, so they can’t use executive orders to strike provisions in a bill. So this anti-abortion EO is blatant chicanery: if the pro-lifers purport to be satisfied by it, they are participating in a transparent fraud and selling out the pro-life cause.

But even if all that weren’t true, how do we go from congressional Democrats claiming that signing statements were a shredding of the Constitution to congressional Democrats acquiescing in a claim that the president can enact or cancel out statutory law by diktat?

One begins to suspect that there’s little difference between this Bart and this Bart when it comes to either intelligence or decency.

Caroline Glick spells out what Obama has done:

Obama’s ultimatum makes clear that mediating peace between Israel and the Palestinians is not a goal he is interested in achieving.

Obama’s new demands follow the months of American pressure that eventually coerced Netanyahu into announcing both his support for a Palestinian state and a 10-month ban on Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria. No previous Israeli government had ever been asked to make the latter concession.

Netanyahu was led to believe that in return for these concessions Obama would begin behaving like the credible mediator his predecessors were. But instead of acting like his predecessors, Obama has behaved like the Palestinians. Rather than reward Netanyahu for taking a risk for peace, Obama has, in the model of Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas, pocketed Netanyahu’s concessions and escalated his demands. This is not the behavior of a mediator. This is the behavior of an adversary.

With the US president treating Israel like an enemy, the Palestinians have no reason to agree to sit down and negotiate. Indeed, they have no choice but to declare war.

And so, in the wake of Obama’s onslaught on Israel’s right to Jerusalem, Palestinian incitement against Israel and Jews has risen to levels not seen since the outbreak of the last terror war in September 2000. And just as night follows day, that incitement has led to violence. This week’s Arab riots from Jerusalem to Jaffa, and the renewed rocket offensive from Gaza are directly related to Obama’s malicious attacks on Israel.

And she posits why Obama has done it.  Here are just two of her (not mutually exclusive) theories:

First, Obama’s assault on Israel is likely related to the failure of his Iran policy. Over the past week, senior administration officials including Gen. David Petraeus have made viciously defamatory attacks on Israel, insinuating that the construction of homes for Jews in Jerusalem is a primary cause for bad behavior on the part of Iran and its proxies in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Syria and Gaza. By this line of thinking, if Israel simply returned to the indefensible 1949 armistice lines, Iran’s centrifuges would stop spinning, and Syria, al-Qaida, the Taliban, Hizbullah, Hamas and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards would all beat their swords into plowshares.

[snip]

The final explanation for Obama’s behavior is that he is using his manufactured crisis to justify adopting an overtly anti-Israel position vis-à-vis the Palestinians. On Thursday, The New York Times reported that administration officials are considering having Obama present his own “peace plan.” Given the administration’s denial of Israel’s right to Jerusalem, an “Obama plan,” would doubtless require Israel to withdraw to the indefensible 1949 armistice lines and expel some 700,000 Jews from their homes.

Likewise, the crisis Obama has manufactured with Israel could pave the way for him to recognize a Palestinian state if the Palestinians follow through on their threat to unilaterally declare statehood next year regardless of the status of negotiations with Israel. Such a US move could in turn lead to the deployment of US forces in Judea and Samaria to “protect” the unilaterally declared Palestinian state from Israel.

Lastly, Glick looks at Netanyahu’s increasingly narrow range of options.  I think the second piece of advice is the most important:

Second, Netanyahu must remember that Obama’s hostility toward Israel is not shared by the majority of Americans. Netanyahu’s goal must be to strengthen and increase the majority of Americans who support Israel. To this end, Netanyahu must go to Washington next week and speak at the annual AIPAC conference as planned, despite the administration’s threat to boycott him.

Read the whole thing here.

I have nothing to add to this.

Hat tip:  Sadie

I feel dragged down today — no need to tell you why — and have just found some temporary relief reading a delightful post by Leo Grin about Ian Fleming, famed creator of James Bond.  I feel mentally refreshed right now.  Thanks, Leo!

One of my conservative friends (yes, there are other conservatives here in Marin) commented on the fact that Pelosi and Co. keep saying the health care vote will be “historic,” as if that’s automatically a good thing.  Herewith a short list of historic events (in no particular order) that I’d prefer not to see replicated:

1.  The Black Death

2.  The Spanish Inquisition

3.  The Hundred Years War

4.  The Thirty Years War

5.  World War I

6.  World War II

7.  Kennedy’s Assassination

8.  MLK’s Assassination

9.  The Tiananmen Square Massacre

10.  The Armenian Genocide

11.  The York Massacre

12.  Abraham Lincoln’s Assassination

13.  The Battle of Antietam

14.  The Bataan Death March

I’m sure you can readily think of other “historic” events that weren’t automatically good simply by virtue of being historic.

Our country is being run by idiots.  I hope Americans have memories long enough for a solid November backlash.  In an MTV world, where so many people boast a 10 second attention span, I worry.

Is this what it will look like after tomorrow?

Stupak’s going to make his much awaited statement while I’m off working out.  So far, he’s had a spine and has distinguished himself from other Democrats by actually letting a principle guide him.  I suspect, though, that his 11:00 press conference will be a weasely explanation of why he’s caved completely on his pro-Life stance.  I hope time proves me wrong.

I’ve always appreciated the sentiments behind this song:

Victor Davis Hanson sums everything up in one paragraph:

The president is pushing legislation that a clear majority of the people dislike, and whose details neither he nor his supporters can explain in simple language. Its ends-justify-the-means passage will require legislative gymnastics that border on the unconstitutional, and in Orwellian fashion are designed to reassure its sheepish supporters that they can appear not to be voting for the bill they vote for. And to achieve a House majority, Obama must offer an array of personal favors, political payoffs, federal stipends, and open threats, which, if done in the private sector, would be actionable acts of felonious bribery or racketeering.

Well, yes, there is all that….

UPDATE:  And a truly powerful Wall Street Journal editorial on the tremendous threat to American liberty if health care gets passed this Sunday.