On Tuesday’s Radio Show…

• In the wake of the Senate vote on abortion funding in health-care legislation, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend explains why religion should not stand in the way of ensuring that millions of Americans get much-needed insurance.

• Lt. Dan Choi, a gay Iraq war veteran who outed himself earlier this year, discusses a new bill that would allow gay members of the armed forces to testify openly at Congressional hearings on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” without the risk of discharge.

• Why are a growing number of longtime conservatives leaving the right? Alan examines the developing trend.…

Senate Kills Abortion Amendment

The Senate has tabled the abortion amendment to the health care bill introduced by Senator Ben Nelson, effectively killing it. The 55-45 vote overturns a measure that was meant to keep conservative Democrats on board with the health care bill.

The tabling represents a victory for abortion-rights supporters who had worried that the amendment’s restrictions on abortion funding would go beyond what had previously been established by the Hyde amendment.…

Andrew Sullivan Leaves The Right

Andrew Sullivan explains why he is leaving the right which, he says, has abandoned its core principles.  Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs is similarly leaving that corner of the spectrum.

Sullivan:

I found it intolerable after 2003 to support the movement that goes by the name “conservative” in America. I still do, even though I am much more of a limited government type than almost any Democrat and cannot bring myself to call myself a liberal (because I’m not). My reasons were not dissimilar to Charles Johnson, who, like me, was horrified by 9/11, loathes Jihadism, and …

TN Mayor Apologizes For Claiming Obama Timed Speech To Preempt Charlie Brown

Mayor Russell Wiseman of Arlington, TN is apologizing for claiming President Obama purposely scheduled his speech to conflict with a “Peanuts” Christmas special.

The Commercial Appeal reports Wiseman e-mailed the media Monday to say he regrets offending anyone with what he described as a “poor attempt at tongue-in-cheek humor amongst friends.” He also says he allowed things to go too far.

The town issued a statement on its Web site saying the mayor’s views do not reflect its official ideals and beliefs. Wiseman has since deleted his Facebook account.

Wiseman continues to claim that Obama is a Muslim. Is that …

Professional Wrestlers Say Would-Be Senator Linda McMahon Didn’t Provide Proper Health Care

Co-Founder and former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment Linda McMahon aspires to be a senator from Connecticut, replacing Chris Dodd.  She is not being helped by wrestlers who once worked for her who claim their health care needs were not provided for.

Several of the former wrestlers say they are nursing injuries from their years in the ring and are hoping to deliver a smackdown of McMahon for WWE’s lack of long-term health benefits and coarse, hype-driven image under her leadership from the 1990s until earlier this year.

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McMahon’s detractors range from Bruno Sammartino (right), a …

Global Warming Trend Continues

The World Meteorological Organization says the global warming trend is continuing, and shows no sign of ending.

The decade of the 2000s is very likely the warmest decade in the modern record, dating back 150 years, according to a provisional summary of climate conditions near the end of 2009, the organization said.

The period from 2000 through 2009 has been “warmer than the 1990s, which were warmer than the 1980s and so on,” said Michel Jarraud, the secretary general of the international weather agency, speaking at a news conference at the climate talks in Copenhagen.

 …

Barbara Boxer: If We Have An Abortion Rider, Would We Have One For Viagra?

Why do male legislators make women’s reproductive rights an issue in the health care reform debate,  but not do the same thing when it comes to men’s reproductive rights?

(via Think Progress)

BOXER: There’s nothing in this amendment that says if a man some days wants to buy Viagra, for example, that his pharmaceutical coverage cannot cover it, that he has to buy a rider. I wouldn’t support that. And they shouldn’t support going after a woman using her own private funds for her reproductive health care. Is it fair to say to a man you’re going to …

The Cost Of The Senate Health Care Bill To You

Lots has been tossed around about how we’d be affected by the Senate health care bill. Karen Tumulty at Time does a good job of breaking it down.

For most of us, who are among the 134 million lucky enough to have coverage through large employers, the difference is pretty negligible.

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For small businesses (50 workers and less) and those who work for them, the projected difference in premiums is also small, a decrease of between 0% and 2%.

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For people who don’t get coverage at work, and have to go out and …

On Monday’s Radio Show…

• As the UN Climate Change Conference begins in Copenhagen, Unscientific America author Chris Mooney and Marlow Lewis of the Competitive Enterprise Institute join Alan to debate the threat of greenhouse gases.

• What 18-month timeline? Alan explains why he is increasingly troubled by the Obama administration’s plans to increase our troop presence in Afghanistan.

• Anne Druyan, the widow of astronomer Carl Sagan, and Michael Harrison, producer/director of At Home in the Cosmos, share an in-depth, personal look at the life, love and work of Dr. Sagan.…

Will Anti-Abortion Democrats Ruin Health Care Reform?

It’s out-of-whack to allow health care reform to be held up by an abortion debate.  The uninsured Americans who need coverage aren’t anxious to finally be insured so they can run to the nearest clinic and get abortions.  Yet, it’s anti-abortion lawmakers, and Democratic ones, who are holding up the works, trying to force through a restrictive amendment in the Senate, as they did in the House.

Both sides agree the amendment likely doesn’t have enough votes to pass, but antiabortion groups and Sen. Ben Nelson (D., Neb., pictured) say they will continue insisting on tough language as …

“Tea Party” Polls Better Than The GOP

A new Rasmussen survey shows that if the Tea Party were an actual political party it would poll better than the Republican Party.

In the national telephone poll of 1,000 likely voters released Monday, 23 percent said they preferred to vote for a candidate from the yet unformed “Tea Party” for Congress in 2010. The Republican Party trailed the non-existent political organization by 5 percentage points, getting the support of 18 percent of respondents.

Democratic candidates were preferred of 36 percent.

Forty-one percent of all respondents said they had a favorable view of the s0-called “Tea Party.”  Among …