Crossposted from Flopping Aces

They got their 30 pieces of silver. The rest of us will be crucified!

The “Blue Dogs” in the House Democrat caucus caved in to pressure today and signaled they would no longer block health care “reform” legislation from moving forward. Their price? $100 billion in cuts from a bill set to cost a $trillion and up.

As Gomer Pyle used to say: “Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!”

There were a few other changes in the bill which while welcome, do not overcome the fact that this will be another massive intrusion by the federal government into health care and it will accelerate the financial collapse of Medicare and Medicaid.

The one good point in today’s agreement is that no vote will take place until Congress reconvenes in September. That will give Americans time to understand how dangerous even this watered down Democrat bill is.

My fear is that the majority of voters will be so relieved that the original socialist makeover of health care was defeated that they will be ready to accept the socialist-lite version which is hardly an improvement.

also:

Only In Obama’s World Could We Talk With The Taliban While Doing Zelaya’s Bidding

The Obama world: (h/t Hot Air)

A concerted effort to start unprecedented talks between Taliban and British and American envoys was outlined yesterday in a significant change in tactics designed to bring about a breakthrough in the attritional, eight-year conflict in Afghanistan.

Senior ministers and commanders on the ground believe they have created the right conditions to open up a dialogue with “second-tier” local leaders now the Taliban have been forced back in a swath of Helmand province.

Meanwhile:

The U.S. government said Tuesday it has revoked the diplomatic visas of four Honduran officials, stepping up pressure on coup-installed leaders who insist they can resist international demands to restore the ousted president.

The U.S. State Department did not name the four, but a Honduran official said they included the Supreme Court magistrate who ordered the arrest of ousted President Manuel Zelda and the president of Honduras’ Congress.

The State Department is also reviewing the visas of all officials serving under interim President Roberto Micheletti, department spokesman Ian Kelly said.

Only in Obama’s world can we start talks with the Taliban, the guys who helped 9/11 happen, the guys who took over a country and then were run out of dodge by our own troops but meanwhile revoke visas for officials from Honduras that refused to sit by as a dictator took over their country and illegally changed their Constitution.

What a world.

UPDATE

Gets even better:

The ousted president of Honduras reportedly asked President Obama to revoke the diplomatic visas of members of interim President Roberto Micheletti’s de facto government.

Manuel Zelaya, who was removed from office on June 28 and has now retreated to the mountains of Nicaragua to organize a “resistance,” according to the Central American News Agency, reportedly sent a letter to Obama asking him to ramp up the pressure on the interim government and calling for the “revocation of visas” to those involved in his ouster, and the freezing of bank accounts.

The Zelaya letter reportedly names officials against whom the ousted president wanted action taken, including General Romeo Vasquez Velasquez, the head of the armed forces who was fired by Zelaya on June 25 for refusing to use the military to press forward with a referendum deemed illegal by the country’s highest court. …

State Department spokesman Ian Kelly confirmed at Tuesday’s news briefing that four diplomatic visas had been revoked by the U.S. Kelly did not name names, but the deputy foreign minister of Honduras’s de facto government confirmed that one of the visas belonged to Judge Jose Tomas Arita Valle, the chairman of the 16-member supreme court who signed the ruling ordering the detention of President Manuel Zelaya.