Senate Vote on Health Care Reform, Invoking the memory of Edward M. Kennedy, the Democrats together Saturday night to advance historical health legislation beyond a key hurdle in the Senate because of opposition from Republicans eager to inflict a punishing defeat to President, Barack Obama. There was a vote to spare.

The 60-39 vote cleared the way for the bruising, wide debate beginning after Thanksgiving in the legislation, which is designed to extend coverage to approximately 31 million who lack it, ending the practices of the Company insurance to deny or dilute the benefits and reduce the growth of spending on health care nationwide.

The spectator galleries were full for the unusual Saturday night showdown, and applause broke out briefly when the vote was announced. In a measure of the significance of the moment, senators sat quietly in their seats, standing only when they were called upon to vote.

In the final minutes of a daylong session, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., accused Republicans of trying to stifle a historic debate the nation needed.

“Imagine if, instead of debating whether to abolish slavery, instead of debating whether giving women and minorities the right to vote, those who disagreed had muted discussion and killed any vote,” he said.

The Republican leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said the vote was anything but procedural – casting it as a referendum on the bill itself, which he said would raise taxes, cut Medicare and create a “massive and unsustainable debt.”

For all the drama, the result of the Saturday night showdown had been sealed a few hours earlier, when two final Democratic holdouts, Sens. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, announced they would join in clearing the way for a full debate.

“It is clear to me that doing nothing is not an option,” said Landrieu, who won $100 million in the legislation to help her state pay the costs of health care for the poor.

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Senate Vote on Health Care Reform was first posted on November 22, 2009 at 8:47 am.

KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai denied Thursday that major electoral fraud took place last month and urged foreign allies not to interfere over investigations into mounting allegations of vote-rigging.

Afghans went to the polls on August 20 in only their second direct presidential election, but the vote has been overshadowed by massive claims of irregularities and threats of violence by Taliban rebels.

“Media has reported major fraud. It wasn’t that big. If there was fraud, it was small — it happens all over the world,” Karzai told reporters a day after preliminary results gave him 54.6 percent of the vote.

But hundreds of thousands of ballots are being recounted because of fears of electoral fraud, and EU monitors have branded a quarter of the ballots cast as “suspicious” — most of them for Karzai.

“If there is fraud, it has to be investigated, but investigated fairly and without prejudice,” Karzai said.

“I hope our foreign friends respect the people of Afghanistan and let the IEC (Independent Election Commission) and the ECC (Electoral Complaints Commission) fulfil their work without interference.”

The European Union Election Observation Mission to Afghanistan on Wednesday said that they had identified 1.5 million votes which could be fraudulent, with 1.1 of those cast for Karzai.

His campaign office responded furiously, accusing the EU of meddling and damning the announcement as “partial, irresponsible and in contradiction with Afghanistan’s constitution.”

Karzai said Thursday he would respect the results of investigations by the electoral bodies, but there is no timescale yet for the audits and recounts at about 2,500 polling stations, raising fears of protracted political turmoil.

“I rely on it (the IEC) and respect its work,” Karzai said.

The fracas comes as Taliban insurgents are waging a bloody insurgency to topple the government, with threats of militant violence believed to be behind the meagre election turnout of 38.7 percent.

Karzai said, “we had a successful election”, but admitted that threats of violence by the Taliban did impact the polls.

“We promised them security, but we failed to provide them security on election day… but people even then came out to vote,” he said.

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Fraud In Polling Denied By Karzai was first posted on September 17, 2009 at 5:33 pm.
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