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The brewing abortion debate and Dems' latest "strategy" for passing their health care overhaul is a giant red herring designed to distract attention away from the overall problem with Obamacare: its infringement on freedom.  RedState's Erick Erickson has a analysis out today that rightfully cautions the GOP not to take its eye off the prize and to remember what the party should stand for in this ongoing debate.

Read and take to heart, conservatives: 

Let me be clear to the conservative movement and the organizations participating in the health care debate: the fight over health care is about freedom, not your ridiculous little scorecards. ...

...[F]or each issue the GOP raises to be addressed in the [health care] bill, the Democrats and a token Republican will play accommodationist as the media fawns over the bipartisan nature of each compromise.

The danger is that the GOP will start with the presupposition that the health care bill will pass and work to “improve” it. The GOP must get out of that mindset. Republicans working toward destroying legislation they believe will inevitably pass will not destroy the legislation.

At the end of the day, the GOP must flat out oppose the government take over of 1/6th of the American economy. Instead of clamoring for issues to be addressed, the GOP must contrast freedom with the tyranny of the legislation. ...

What is a right?  A right is something you are allowed to have. The right to vote means, when a citizen turns 18, he/she is allowed to vote for who they want to be president or even vote on how money in his/her town should be spent. Citizens also have the right to a free public education. Some countries don’t have those rights. There are many rights citizens of the United States have.

What is a responsibility? Responsibilities are things people have to do because it is doing their fair share.

The obtuseness in a post-9/11 world is mind-boggling.

Really brilliant stuff out of the Wall Street Journal this morning.

Mr. Cassidy [writer for the New Yorker] is more honest than the politicians whose dishonesty he supports. "The U.S. government is making a costly and open-ended commitment," he writes. "Let's not pretend that it isn't a big deal, or that it will be self-financing, or that it will work out exactly as planned. It won't. What is really unfolding, I suspect, is the scenario that many conservatives feared. The Obama Administration . . . is creating a new entitlement program, which, once established, will be virtually impossible to rescind."

Why are they doing it? Because, according to Mr. Cassidy, ObamaCare serves the twin goals of "making the United States a more equitable country" and furthering the Democrats' "political calculus." In other words, the purpose is to further redistribute income by putting health care further under government control, and in the process making the middle class more dependent on government. As the party of government, Democrats will benefit over the long run.

Military officials were made aware of communications between Hasan and al-Awlaki [who advocated for Muslims to commit violence against American troops!], but because the messages did not advocate or threaten violence, civilian law enforcement authorities could not take the matter further, the officials said. The terrorism task force concluded Hasan was not involved in terrorist planning.

Officials said the content of those messages was "consistent with the subject matter of his research," part of which involved post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from U.S. combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Today, I had a thorough and frank discussion with Assemblywoman Scozzafava.  As a result, Dede has tendered, and I accepted, her resignation as our Conference’s Leader Pro Tempore.  Over the coming weeks, I will be assessing who will serve as our Conference’s next Leader Pro Tempore to lead our Assembly floor debates.

... Newt Gingrich is brilliant, and liberals know it. We conservatives like that. In an era when conservatives are criticized for lacking ideas, Gingrich is an idea machine.

In 1918, Felix Frankfurter was visiting Cliveden, Nancy Astor's country house in England, and listening as she attacked Churchill, who was not there, at length.  At last, A.J. Balfour, a former prime minister, told her: "Nancy, all you can say about Winston may be true, but Winston has ideas, and to a statesman with ideas much shall be forgiven."