Monday, August 31, 2009

Quote du Jour

By authorizing Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a special prosecutor to determine whether a full criminal investigation of CIA employees and contractors is warranted for the manner in which they interrogated captured terrorists, the President has thrown his power and support behind those far-left ideologues—in Congress and elsewhere—who believe that the CIA is a bigger threat to our country than al Qaeda.

- Herbert Meyer, Former CIA official

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Chairman of the Board


with Dean Martin

Political Smörgåsbord

Over at Rasmussen it's a smörgåsbord of good news for conservatives! A sampling of some of the current polls:

57% Would Like to Replace Entire Congress

34% Say U.S. Heading in Right Direction

70% Prefer Government That Provides Fewer Services With Lower Taxes

Pelosi’s Unfavorables Now Up To 64%

Support for Health Care Legislation Has Stopped Falling, But Most Still Opposed

49% Say Workers Should Be Able To Opt Out of Social Security

49% Oppose Justice Department Probe of Bush-era CIA

60% Say Media Covers Obama’s Personal Life Too Much

All of which together should mean this next one is no surprise:

Republicans Maintain Steady Lead on Generic Ballot

Cross posted at Say Anything

Springboard

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Eric Allie on the Democrats staying classy over Ted Kennedy.

Quote du jour

...The New York Times had rigged a poll about Americans wanting to pay higher taxes to fund government-run health care. The Times poll said 57 percent were willing to pay more tax and 37 percent were not willing to do so. But what the Times did not tell its readers was that 48 percent of those polled voted for Barack Obama. Only 25 percent supported John McCain. Of course the poll results would skew left.

-Bill O'Reilly

Saturday, August 29, 2009

A Little Saturday Night Music

Rascal Flatts : Skin (Sarabeth)

“America Forgave Kennedy”

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That was the sentiment of a commenter over at The Pirate's Cove, that all you right wingers just need to "move on" (my words, not his) because America had forgiven the drunken boor because of the sacrifice of his two brothers, Robert and John.

So, let's examine the premise: “America forgave Kennedy”
Wrong. Massachusetts forgave Kennedy. The only time he ran for national office after this, he was beaten by a peanut farmer.

The fools and liberals of Massachusetts (but I repeat myself!) inflicted this bloated buffoon on the rest of the country for forty years. America never “forgave” Kennedy because he never asked for their forgiveness. That would have required him to own up and confess what he had done. He never did.

His craven and cowardly act that night marked Teddy as unfit for national leadership. The nation has never forgotten that. There was no national "forgiveness", only tolerance of a wealthy and powerful man of weak character who escaped justice because of his wealth, his position and his family ties.

Quote du Jour

...the Waxman-Markey "cap and trade" bill that has passed the House and will be taken up in the Senate this fall. It would give the government total control of the production, prices, availability and use of energy and add a global energy tax to imported goods--serious American protectionism. It would shrink America's economy by $400 billion each year and cause the loss of some 2.5 million jobs. For a household of four it would cost an average of about $3,000 a year. By 2035 the total family annual increased cost would be $4,600 for power, food, supplies, gasoline and transportation.

-Pete du Pont

Friday, August 28, 2009

Friday Night Babe

Tonight's FNB is Jennifer Hawkins!

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Krauthammer: "Trial Lawyers Own The Democrat Party"



Commentary on Howard Dean's inconvenient truth.

H/T Real Clear Politics

Teddy Liked to Joke About Chappaquiddick

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"Celebrating His Huge Life"




"One of his favorite topics of humor was indeed, Chappaquiddick itself"

"He would ask people "Have you heard any new jokes about Chappaquiddick?"


-Ed Klein on Teddy Kennedy's passing.

Because nothing says "funny" like leaving a woman to drown to protect your own political viability!

H/T Jammie wearing fool
Cross posted at Say Anything

Quote du Jour

"Is there one system of justice for the average citizen and another system for the high and mighty?"

-Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy, five years after Chappaquiddick

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Double Bonus Quote du Jour

Perhaps "Ted Kennedy care" should only extend to hydrophobia?

-Proof

Bonus Quote du Jour

"We should rename a single payer health plan to honor Teddy Kennedy like we should rename the Women's Olympic Swim Team to honor Mary Jo Kopechne."
-Proof

Quote du jour

For me, politeness is a sine qua non of civilization.

-Robert A. Heinlein

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

The Medal of Honor

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Captain Roger Hugh C. Donlon


Citation:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while defending a U.S. military installation against a fierce attack by hostile forces. Capt. Donlon was serving as the commanding officer of the U.S. Army Special Forces Detachment A-726 at Camp Nam Dong when a reinforced Viet Cong battalion suddenly launched a full-scale, predawn attack on the camp. During the violent battle that ensued, lasting 5 hours and resulting in heavy casualties on both sides, Capt. Donlon directed the defense operations in the midst of an enemy barrage of mortar shells, falling grenades, and extremely heavy gunfire. Upon the initial onslaught, he swiftly marshaled his forces and ordered the removal of the needed ammunition from a blazing building. He then dashed through a hail of small arms and exploding hand grenades to abort a breach of the main gate. En route to this position he detected an enemy demolition team of 3 in the proximity of the main gate and quickly annihilated them. Although exposed to the intense grenade attack, he then succeeded in reaching a 60mm mortar position despite sustaining a severe stomach wound as he was within 5 yards of the gun pit. When he discovered that most of the men in this gunpit were also wounded, he completely disregarded his own injury, directed their withdrawal to a location 30 meters away, and again risked his life by remaining behind and covering the movement with the utmost effectiveness. Noticing that his team sergeant was unable to evacuate the gun pit he crawled toward him and, while dragging the fallen soldier out of the gunpit, an enemy mortar exploded and inflicted a wound in Capt. Donlon's left shoulder. Although suffering from multiple wounds, he carried the abandoned 60mm mortar weapon to a new location 30 meters away where he found 3 wounded defenders. After administering first aid and encouragement to these men, he left the weapon with them, headed toward another position, and retrieved a 57mm recoilless rifle. Then with great courage and coolness under fire, he returned to the abandoned gun pit, evacuated ammunition for the 2 weapons, and while crawling and dragging the urgently needed ammunition, received a third wound on his leg by an enemy hand grenade. Despite his critical physical condition, he again crawled 175 meters to an 81mm mortar position and directed firing operations which protected the seriously threatened east sector of the camp. He then moved to an eastern 60mm mortar position and upon determining that the vicious enemy assault had weakened, crawled back to the gun pit with the 60mm mortar, set it up for defensive operations, and turned it over to 2 defenders with minor wounds. Without hesitation, he left this sheltered position, and moved from position to position around the beleaguered perimeter while hurling hand grenades at the enemy and inspiring his men to superhuman effort. As he bravely continued to move around the perimeter, a mortar shell exploded, wounding him in the face and body. As the long awaited daylight brought defeat to the enemy forces and their retreat back to the jungle leaving behind 54 of their dead, many weapons, and grenades, Capt. Donlon immediately reorganized his defenses and administered first aid to the wounded. His dynamic leadership, fortitude, and valiant efforts inspired not only the American personnel but the friendly Vietnamese defenders as well and resulted in the successful defense of the camp. Capt. Donlon's extraordinary heroism, at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty are in the highest traditions of the U.S. Army and reflect great credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of his country.


Captain Donlon : We humbly salute you and thank you for your service.

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Hat tip Home of Heroes





There are over a hundred living MoH recipients today. Their names and their stories should not be forgotten. My mission is to honor one of those heroes here each week, and salute them for their courage and sacrifice.

Quote duJour

If a "public option" that competes with private health insurance companies is a good thing, why aren't private schools that compete for students with public schools also a good thing?

-Kevin, Exurban League

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

"Obama's Summer of Discontent"

From the WSJ:

The Obama devotees were the victims of their own belief in political magic. The devotees could not make up their minds. In a newly minted U.S. senator from Illinois, they saw the embodiment of Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy. Like Lincoln, Mr. Obama was tall and thin and from Illinois, and the historic campaign was launched out of Springfield. The oath of office was taken on the Lincoln Bible. Like FDR, he had a huge economic challenge, and he better get it done, repair and streamline the economy in his "first hundred days." Like JFK, he was young and stylish, with a young family.

All this hero-worship before Mr. Obama met his first test of leadership. In reality, he was who he was, a Chicago politician who had done well by his opposition to the Iraq war. He had run a skillful campaign, and had met a Clinton machine that had run out of tricks and a McCain campaign that never understood the nature of the contest of 2008.

He was no FDR, and besides the history of the depression—the real history—bears little resemblance to the received narrative of the nation instantly rescued, in the course of 100 days or 200 days, by an interventionist state. The economic distress had been so deep and relentless that FDR began his second term, in 1937, with the economy still in the grip of recession.

Nor was JFK about style. He had known military service and combat, and familial loss; he had run in 1960 as a hawk committed to the nation's victory in the Cold War. He and his rival, Richard Nixon, shared a fundamental outlook on American power and its burdens.

Now that realism about Mr. Obama has begun to sink in, these iconic figures of history had best be left alone. They can't rescue the Obama presidency. Their magic can't be his. Mr. Obama isn't Lincoln with a BlackBerry. Those great personages are made by history, in the course of history, and not by the spinners or the smitten talking heads.


Hat tip Jawa

Quote du jour

Amid all the controversies over medical care, no one seems to be asking a very basic question: Why does it take more than 1,000 pages of legislation to insure people who lack medical insurance?

-Thomas Sowell

Monday, August 24, 2009

Quote du jour

In a way that is difficult to specify, every life is infinitely precious. That is what it means to love someone, and to be loved. My wife and I just spent a lot of money on keeping a favorite cat alive for almost a year longer than she would have had without special care. We made that decision without hesitation. That animal was special to us. It was more than three pounds of meat.

When my father died I fought his passing every step of the way. I was never willing to let him go, and I wanted him to know that. It was the last gesture of love between us. He is infinitely precious to me, and I suppose I was to him. That bond is not reflected in ObamaCare, and cannot be. Obama grew up without a father, being passed from one family and place to the next, and ObamaCare may reflect his commodified view of life. For Obama, people are economic objects.

The human beings we love are not commodities. We don't trade them against a simple cost accounting. That is not to deny the fact that taking care of people takes money. It does. It is just that we have a dual relationship to other living beings, especially those we love.

-James Lewis

Sunday, August 23, 2009

"Your Life, Your Choices" -Jim Towey on Fox



Check out the video and see if you too are outraged by the callous disregard for the lives of our disabled veterans. This is the same care they want to extend to all of society.

Obama 's Daily Presidential Rating Hits New Low (Again!)

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According to Rasmussen, yet another new low for President Obama in the Daily Presidential Tracking Poll, -14 per cent more people strongly disapprove than strongly approve of what Mr. Obama is doing in the White House.

I guess strongly disapproving of Obama is a "Public Option"? Heh.

Cross posted at Say Anything

Punch Drunk Love: Harry Reid Slips Badly in Polls

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Former boxer Harry Reid is, in Michelle Malkin's words: "On the ropes".

It's the highest stakes ever for a Nevada election, and former boxer Sen. Harry Reid is on the ropes early. Either Republican Danny Tarkanian or Sue Lowden would knock out Reid in a general election, according to a recent poll of Nevada voters.

The results suggest the Democratic Senate majority leader will have to punch hard and often in order to retain his position as the most accomplished politician in state history, in terms of job status.

Nevadans favored Tarkanian over Reid 49 percent to 38 percent and Lowden over Reid 45 percent to 40 percent, according to the poll.

Reid's status makes him an icon of the Democratic Party and ties him to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and President Barack Obama, both of whom are losing ground among centrist and right-leaning voters in the country.


Get that? Either his Democrat or Republican challenger would beat him like a rented mule! Nevadans may have one of the first opportunities to let Obama know that his policies and those who carry them out will be carried out!

Cross posted at Say Anything

"Why Democrats May Jam Through Health Care Plan"

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But there's another way of looking at it. Sure, Democrats can't get everything they want if they have to go through reconciliation. But look at health care reform as an unfinished building. There are plenty of examples of past legislation that began somewhat modestly and expanded as the years went on. The State Children's Health Insurance Program, or S-CHIP, has been enormously expanded. Medicare and Medicare are far bigger today than when they were created. Programs grow over time as lawmakers add features and increase eligibility.

The story could be the same for the current health care proposals, through which Democrats, with no Republican support, could put in place the basic structure of a national health care plan. It doesn't have to be gold-plated, or even finished. That could come later.

-Bryon York

Cross posted at Say Anything

Quote du jour

Federal "healthcare" must inevitably turn into "Death Care," because the bureaucracy will have the sole power to determine the rules under which you and I will live and die. The bureaucrats will have a fixed pot of money, and money spent to save your life comes from the same kitty that is used to give prenatal care to some poor woman from Mexico or Bangladesh. That is what they think is moral -- and this is an argument about morality above all.

-James Lewis

Saturday, August 22, 2009

A Little Saturday Night Music

Paul Simon- You Can Call Me Al

Obama to Couric: Martha's Vineyard About "Quality Time" with Daughters

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USA Today quoted Barack Obama in an interview with the perky Katie Couric:

"Do I think every single day about the hardships that people are going through? Absolutely. Do I think the American people think that because of those hardships I shouldn't spend some quality time with my daughters? I don't think that's what the American people think."


You're right, Barack. They don't think that, because you have set up a false equivalence that would never occur to decent, hardworking American people! What does the issue of spending "quality time" have to do with spending it in a pricey resort? Nothing. I have spent quality time with each of my five children and I can't say that any of it ever had to do with where we were, it had to do with what we were doing.

I tried to picture applying this lame Barack Obama rationale to other activities one might engage in. Gentlemen: Please don't try these at home!

Scenario one: You buy the big 42 inch plasma TV you've been wanting, but you tell your wife it's so you can spend some "quality time" watching football with your kids!
"Quality time" obviously trumps any budgetary needs, saving for a rainy day or more practical purchases.

Scenario two: You drive home in a brand new Corvette convertible, and you tell your wife it's so you can spend some "quality time" taking your daughters to Girl Scout meetings. The fact that you could have taken them in a Volvo or a Subaru is trumped by the "Quality time" mantra!

I think you can see the folly, no? No one begrudges Obama spending quality time with his little girls. I certainly don't. I just think it is quite cowardly to hide behind their little skirts when telling the American people that no matter how many of them are out of work or losing their jobs or their homes that he feels he can damn well vacation in some of the priciest spots on earth, because he can. The issue is not the time spent with his daughters. He could do that anywhere.
Despite Obama's attempted sleight of hand, it's about the appearance of opulence in a time of recession. And despite the cover given him by the MSM, he still fails Leadership 101.

Cross posted at Say Anything

Obama Cookies at Martha's Vineyard

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(Actual cookie may vary.)


You can start the day at Martha's Vineyard Gourmet Café & Bakery, nibbling on a presidential sugar cookie for $3.50. The cookie is shaped like the island, iced with white frosting and blue and red stars. In the center: Obama's head.



"His face is edible paper," said bakery co-owner Rita Brown.


And all of his policies say "Bite me."

Hat tip Jammie Wearing fool

"Bully Pulpit" not "Bully" Enough: White House Hired Spammers

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Not content to wield merely the influence of what Teddy Roosevelt called the "Bully Pulpit" of the Presidency, the White House hired spammers (at taxpayer expense, no doubt) to push the Left's health care agenda.

The White House hired a private communications company based in Minnesota to distribute mass e-mails, helping to shed light on how some recipients received e-mails in support of President Obama's health care plan without signing up for them, FOX News has learned.

The company, Govdelivery, describes itself as the world's leading provider of government-to-citizen communication solutions and says its e-mail service provides a fully-automated on-demand public communication system.

It is still unknown how much taxpayer money the White House provides to Govdelivery for its services.


Ah! Minnesota! A little pork for Al Franken's constituents, no doubt!

The revelation comes after the White House acknowledged this week that people were receiving unsolicited e-mails from the administration about health care reform and suggested the problem was with third-party groups that placed the recipients' names on the distribution list...

"This is yet another ominous chapter in the administration's rabid campaign to jam its radical health care scheme onto an unwilling public by any means necessary," Rep. Thaddeus McCotter of Michigan said in a statement.



Because, who among us doesn't appreciate the spam that floods our computers on a daily basis?

...Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., has sent a letter to the White House asking for the "full truth" behind the Axelrod e-mails and expressing concern that "political e-mail address lists were used for official purposes."

Chris Hansen, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union told FOX News that if the White House used the private firm, it's the same as if it had sent the e-mails.


I wondered if the lapdog ACLU would ever finally rouse itself from its languor and at least give a token bark towards the latest invaders of our privacy?

Hat tip Wizbang
Cross posted at Say Anything

"Trojan Donkey"

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Michael Ramirez, spot on as usual! However, with the Planned Parenthood aspects that are sure to be funded, he might have noted that there would be Trojans® in the donkey as well!

John Stossel On Obama Care



John Stossel interviews Sally Pipes on health care. I heard her on the radio today tell a chilling tale of what happened to her own mother under government run health care. When her mom feared she had colon cancer, she went to the doctor who, without testing her, simply told her "No, you don't". When Sally told her mom to insist on a colonoscopy, the doctor told her she was too old and there were younger people waiting in line for that particular test. Later, when she was taken to the hospital bleeding, she spent two days waiting in the ER, two more days in transition waiting for a hospital bed and within two weeks, she was dead. But, she did her part to keep health care costs down!


Hat tip Legal Insurrection
Cross posted at Say Anything

Quote du jour

Tim was silent for a time and said he wanted to read me something. It turned out that he had been selected to be the man-of-the-year for the Buffalo, New York American Legion. Russert was not a foolish man. He knew he had been named "man-of-the-year" so they could have a dinner which people in Buffalo would pay money to attend thus raising money for the Buffalo American Legion at which his dad - Big Russ - spent a good deal of time, so he happily accepted the honor.

He read to me his acceptance speech which was a recitation of Big Russ' biography. He had been a gunner on a B-17 in World War II. Been shot down. Been pulled from a burning plane by a Polish guy from Chicago. Had come home and gotten a job "humping potatoes at the Safeway" and then got the job of a lifetime. Big Russ signed on with the Sanitation Department of the City of Buffalo, New York.

By this time, we had been reduced to two 50-something adult men sobbing with each other on a telephone call. It wasn't because we were depressed about how hard our ascents from blue collar backgrounds had been. We were sobbing - this Jewish son of an upholsterer and the Irish son of a sanitation worker - because in America it just doesn't matter from whence you came. It only matters how hard you have worked to get where you are.

-Rich Galen

Friday, August 21, 2009

Friday Night Babe

Tonight's slightly belated (but well worth the wait!) Friday Night Babe is: Audina Patridge!

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Quote du jour

...there should be a special award for Fox News. Fox has done a great service to the American polity -- single-handedly breaking up the intellectual and ideological monopoly that for decades exerted hegemony (to use a favorite lefty cliché) over the broadcast media.
I said some years ago that the genius of Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes was to have discovered a niche market in American broadcasting -- half the American people. The reason Fox News has thrived and grown is because it offers a vibrant and honest alternative to those who could not abide yet another day of the news delivered to them beneath layer after layer of often undisguised liberalism.

-Charles Krauthammer

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Obama's Vision of Health Care Inconsistent with Liberty

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President Obama said,
“the chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives are accounting for potentially 80 percent of the total health care bill out there.” He added: “It is very difficult to imagine the country making those decisions just through the normal political channels. That is why you have to have some independent group that can give you guidance.”


Yet, President Obama is on record as saying he would have paid for his grandmother’s hip replacement out of his own pocket, had it been necessary.

The essence of Obama Care, is that you would never be allowed to make that decision for yourself ever again. “Some independent group” would evaluate granny and see if she has enough quality years left in her to potentially “waste” limited and valuable resources on her. Liberty be damned!

“It is very difficult to imagine the country making those decisions…” Why is “the country” making those decisions at all? Why isn’t it granny and her family and her doctor? Some might toss out the red herring of the insurance company, but even if insurance doesn’t cover it, what’s to keep son or grandson or husband from reaching into their own pocket (as Obama suggested) or taking out a loan, selling the house or the family jewels to finance the medical care they want?

Food is more necessary to life than health insurance. Would we want to government to nationalize the food industry? Take away all of those obscene profits (I think most grocery stores make around 2%) and make sure that no one among us starves to death?

Can you imagine your local grocery store providing you with more goods and better services on a model based on, say, the DMV?

You walk into the store and take a number and are seated with several dozen of your fellow citizens who merely needed to pick up a loaf of bread on the way home from work.
When your number is finally called, you take your list up to a bored and harried clerk who will give you what he thinks you need, not give you the luxury of actually selecting the brand of item you wanted.

And since the state knows that everyone needs protein, perhaps they will issue protein vouchers, to make sure that the now limited choices are spread equitably? You hand the clerk your protein voucher and maybe you’ll win the lottery of life and get a t-bone or a porterhouse steak, but much more likely, some overly fat hamburger, tofu or soy (most of the steaks having mysteriously disappeared in the direction of Washington D.C.)

The “country” doesn’t and shouldn’t decide whether or not I buy steak or hamburger. The “country” doesn’t and shouldn’t decide whether or not I buy fruit and vegetables or Fruit Loops® and Ho-Ho®s.

If “the country” decided what clothes we would all wear (that cunning little Chairman Mao jacket comes to mind!), I doubt that anyone would be allowed to buy $800 designer belts and buckles any more than they would let anyone own more than one surfboard. (Surfboards? Way too dangerous! Make those guys wear helmets so they don’t use up any more of our precious health care!)

In a free society, people have the liberty to make decisions that other people would not necessarily make for them. Even stupid ones. I do not need the state to be my nanny. If a small portion of the populace needs and does not have access to health care insurance, I have no problem with a needs based voucher, much like we have with food stamps.

But as an excuse to take over the entire health care system, it is a poor one. One that will make us all poorer as it slowly destroys the finest health care system on the planet.

Liberalism cannot make us all equally rich, but it can make us all equally miserable.
With the possible exception of those elites who have exempted themselves from the system. The last thing I heard from them was:
“There is no bread? Let them eat cake!”


Cross posted at Say Anything

Quote du jour

When famed bank robber Willie Sutton was asked why he robbed banks, he said: "Because that's where the money is."

For the same reason, it is as predictable as the sunrise that medical care for the elderly will be cut back under a government-controlled medical system. Because that's where the money is.

-Thomas Sowell

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

A Civil Libertarian Speaks Out Against Obama Care

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Waiting for Obama Care


Nat Hentoff's credentials as a free speech advocate and civil libertarian are well established.

I am finally scared of a White House administration


I was not intimidated during J. Edgar Hoover's FBI hunt for reporters like me who criticized him. I railed against the Bush-Cheney war on the Bill of Rights without blinking. But now I am finally scared of a White House administration. President Obama's desired health care reform intends that a federal board (similar to the British model) — as in the Center for Health Outcomes Research and Evaluation in a current Democratic bill — decides whether your quality of life, regardless of your political party, merits government-controlled funds to keep you alive. Watch for that life-decider in the final bill. It's already in the stimulus bill signed into law.


Given Mr. Hentoff's history of plain speaking and "speaking truth to power", I don't think his "fear" is mere hyperbole. I think his fear is real!

No matter what Congress does when it returns from its recess, rationing is a basic part of Obama's eventual master health care plan. Here is what Obama said in an April 28 New York Times interview (quoted in Washington Times July 9 editorial) in which he describes a government end-of-life services guide for the citizenry as we get to a certain age, or are in a certain grave condition. Our government will undertake, he says, a "very difficult democratic conversation" about how "the chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives are accounting for potentially 80 percent of the total health care" costs.

This end-of-life consultation has been stripped from the Senate Finance Committee bill because of democracy-in-action town-hall outcries but remains in three House bills.


The biggest savings that could be realized in a government run program, would be to ration or deny care to those at the stage of life that typically costs the most in health care and actuarially speaking, will live comparatively shorter lives than anyone receiving comparable medical treatment. In a simple cost/benefit analysis, senior citizens end up on the ice floe!

Hentoff is concerned about "voluntary" end of life counseling that may be coercive in requiring that doctors "shall" recommend it. He quotes Charles Lane of the Washington Post:

"Remember that legislation itself is only half the problem with Obamacare. Whatever bill passes, hundreds of bureaucrats in the federal agencies will have years to promulgate scores of regulations to govern the details of the law.

"This is where the real mischief could be done because most regulatory actions are effectuated beneath the public radar. It is thus essential, as just one example, that any end-of-life counseling provision in the final bill be specified to be purely voluntary … and that the counseling be required by law to be neutral as to outcome. Otherwise, even if the legislation doesn't push in a specific direction — for instance, THE GOVERNMENT REFUSING TREATMENT — the regulations could." (Emphasis added.)


Maybe the people who aren't scared just aren't paying close enough attention?

Cross Posted at Say Anything

"Proof Positive" The Dems Want Single Payer



Full disclosure: Not my video.

H/T Gateway Pundit

The Medal of Honor

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Sgt. David Charles Dolby


Citation:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty, when his platoon, while advancing tactically, suddenly came under intense fire from the enemy located on a ridge immediately to the front. Six members of the platoon were killed instantly and a number were wounded, including the platoon leader. Sgt. Dolby's every move brought fire from the enemy. However, aware that the platoon leader was critically wounded, and that the platoon was in a precarious situation, Sgt. Dolby moved the wounded men to safety and deployed the remainder of the platoon to engage the enemy. Subsequently, his dying platoon leader ordered Sgt. Dolby to withdraw the forward elements to rejoin the platoon. Despite the continuing intense enemy fire and with utter disregard for his own safety, Sgt. Dolby positioned able-bodied men to cover the withdrawal of the forward elements, assisted the wounded to the new position, and he, alone, attacked enemy positions until his ammunition was expended. Replenishing his ammunition, he returned to the area of most intense action, single-handedly killed 3 enemy machine gunners and neutralized the enemy fire, thus enabling friendly elements on the flank to advance on the enemy redoubt. He defied the enemy fire to personally carry a seriously wounded soldier to safety where he could be treated and, returning to the forward area, he crawled through withering fire to within 50 meters of the enemy bunkers and threw smoke grenades to mark them for air strikes. Although repeatedly under fire at close range from enemy snipers and automatic weapons, Sgt. Dolby directed artillery fire on the enemy and succeeded in silencing several enemy weapons. He remained in his exposed location until his comrades had displaced to more secure positions. His actions of unsurpassed valor during 4 hours of intense combat were a source of inspiration to his entire company, contributed significantly to the success of the overall assault on the enemy position, and were directly responsible for saving the lives of a number of his fellow soldiers. Sgt. Dolby's heroism was in the highest tradition of the U.S. Army.


Sgt. Dolby : We humbly salute you and thank you for your service.

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Hat tip Home of Heroes





There are over a hundred living MoH recipients today. Their names and their stories should not be forgotten. My mission is to honor one of those heroes here each week, and salute them for their courage and sacrifice.

Quote du jour

I received an email from a gentleman in Glasgow who cannot get an x-ray for his back - because he has no sovereignty over his back. His back is merely part of the overall mass of Scottish backs, to which a government budget has been allocated, but alas one which does not run to x-rays.

-Mark Steyn

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

The Parable of the Acorns

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Mighty bureaucracies from little acorns grow!


Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of health care is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field:
But while men slept, a slick talking, community organizer came and sowed acorns among the wheat, and went his way.
But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the acorns also.
So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it acorns?

He said unto them, A slick talking, community organizer hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?

And he saith unto them, Damn skippy!

Otherwise, in the time of harvest I will say to those who vote, Gather ye together first the ones who voted for the acorns, and hang them with chads, so that they trouble my people no more!

Chris Matthews 13: 24-30


I was listening to Mark Steyn today, who, coincidentally, agrees with me that the Democrats will pass some kind of health care reform this year. (But, then, why wouldn't he? He is a very intelligent and perceptive individual!)
Mr. Steyn's concern, similar to mine, is that in whatever legislation passed, Obama will "plant the seeds" for a government takeover of health care. A foot hold of "reform" that will in turn be further "reformed" and layer upon layer of bureaucracy laden upon it until single payer is a fait accompli!

Steyn's analogy of seeds sown, made me think of the type of "compromise" that Obama & Co. were likely to use in selling their "watered down" version of the public option:

"We wanted an oak tree, but are willing to compromise on a handful of acorns (and a truck load of fertilizer!)"


They have changed tactics. They're changing terms and terminology, but whatever bill they pass, or try to pass needs to be scrutinized for any language that plants the seed of socialized medicine. And if the language cannot be defeated, then anyone who votes for it should be, at the earliest possible opportunity.

Cross posted at Say Anything

And anyone who wants to study the real parables, an excellent reference is R.C.Trench's Notes On the Parables Of Our Lord

Update: Allahpundit seems to come down on the side of Steyn & Co,:

A teaser for an NYT bombshell due out later. Normally I wouldn’t post on it until the article’s up but this can only mean that they’re going to go all out for the public option and use “reconciliation” if need be to nuke the filibuster in the Senate, no? Why cut the GOP out of negotiations only to settle for some watered-down alternative like co-ops? If you’re going to kick the minority party out of the room and anger half the country, you might as well make the bill as syrupy sweet to your own side as possible. And if that means having to take a precedent-setting step as draconian as reconciliation to deal with Blue Dogs like Ben Nelson who might not accept a public option, hey. Besides, Grassley and Jon Kyl all but told the Democrats today that they won’t vote for the final bill regardless of what’s in it, in which case it’s pointless for The One to keep making concessions. He might as well get the bill he wants, paint the GOP as “the party of no”, and hope that the inevitable ill effects of his program don’t appear before the midterms. Which they probably won’t.

Quote du jour

One of the little things that we don’t really talk about in the 2008 election is how progressive Democrats, smarting over being beaten consistently for eight years by that man, participated in the greatest If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em in history. Their only problem? They didn’t actually go out and find a clone of Bush; they went out and found a clone of the Bush that they had constructed in their heads*. It was sort of a bizarre Cargo Cult exercise, in other words; and the Democrats merely had the good (or so it seemed) luck to have found a clone with the added ability to read a scripted speech well. The strain that progressives are having in dealing with that without dealing with that has merely gotten more and more entertaining since the election.

-Moe Lane

Monday, August 17, 2009

Why Health Care Reform* Will Pass This Year

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Bold prognostication, yes? Not really. There are three reasons why Health Care Reform will pass this year:

1) Democrats have a majority in the House and Senate and hold the White House

2) Because they can. and

3) Because they have to, to let Obama save face. Besides, whatever they pass they will call Health Care Reform*.

Knowing that they will pass something, anything, to let Obama save face, it is important to hold Congress's feet to the fire so that nothing that even resembles the public option, that was to be the precursor of single payer (whatever they end up calling it), will be passed without the knowledge that those who support it will pay for their vote dearly at the ballot box in 2010.

Cross posted at Say Anything

Quote du jour

No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace as I have seen in one autumnal face.

-John Donne

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Obama's Disapproval Highest Ever

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Rasmussen reports that though the Presidential Approval Index is not as low as it's ever been, the number of people who strongly disapprove of Barack H. Obama's policies is at an all time high.

Wonder if health care has anything to do with it?

Time for Contract With America II

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You know what they say about movies: "Sequels are never equals". It's an even rarer movie where the sequel surpasses the original (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan comes to mind!), but I believe it is time that the conservatives in this country take advantage of this crisis of leadership in the nation, as it were, and nationalize the upcoming midterm elections, as was done in 1994.
We need to have a set of unifying principles that we can get our candidates to adhere to to and rally around in 2010.

I'll start the discussion with two:

First: It should be the law of the land that no congressman should be allowed to vote on any legislation they have not personally read and understood. Getting rid of 1000+ page monstrosities might be one means of attaining that. If it slows down the process, or if they have to "hire an attorney" to accomplish it, as some have claimed, then so be it! Although, personally, I am at a loss to comprehend how many staffers are available to Congress, most Senators and Congressmen are lawyers, and yet they claim to be in need of legal counsel!

Second: Resurrect one of the original reforms from the Contract With America: Require that all laws that apply to the rest of the country apply to Congress as well.

Then, maybe we'll come up with some catchy movie type catch phrase, like...
This time, it's personal! Or something like that...

I'm open to suggestion. Let's hear your ideas! Other tenets or reforms to be included in a new Contract With America?

Cross Posted at Say Anything

Quote du jour

Poll after poll reveals that four out of five dentists agree the press tilts to the left, if by "four out of five dentists" you mean the majority of Americans, and by "tilts" you mean leans leftward like a one-legged ensign on the U.S.S. Enterprise after the port nacelle has been blown to bits by Klingons.

-Jonah Goldberg

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Barack Obama and the Hummingbird Feeder of Doom

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It is a rare and gifted writer who can craft a headline, so concise and yet so complete that you instantly grasp the entire scope of the article you are about to read. And so it is here, where the subject is, obviously, Cash for Clunkers!

Years and years ago, before the Earth was fully cooled, it was thought that if you put your hummingbird feeder out too late in the year, you risked enticing the diminutive birds with the prospect of free, colored sugar water, and they would resist the urge to fly South for the winter until it was too late. Scores of tiny dead kitty hors d'overs would be sticking out of the snow, flash frozen and strewn about the countryside, like a feline all-you-can-eat buffet!

Today, we have it on the authority of the Audubon Society, that birds have more sense than Democrats and are perfectly capable of taking a last minute snack before taking off for the long migration South.

So what do the unintended consequences of leaving your hummingbird feeder out too long have in common with government’s own hand out of sugar water to the unsuspecting?

Every time I’ve set myself down to list the unintended consequences of this seemingly innocuous government program, it seems a new one pops up every week. I’m up to an even dozen now, and I may have forgotten some since I started! To see how badly the government has bungled the program and how it portends that we never let these people get their hands on our health care, consider the following:

* The cash for clunkers program has marginally increased the cost of a new car, with more dollars chasing the same amount of vehicles. While this may be good for car dealers, it is bad for the consumer.

* The program favors the haves over the have nots. One has to have enough money to finance or purchase a new car outright in order to take advantage of the program. The program does not bode well for the un or underemployed.

* Cash for clunkers decreases the number of serviceable used cars. This will cause the price of those which remain to increase, further affecting the ability of the poorer among us to purchase a car.

* Cash for clunkers encourages people to go into debt, trading an asset for an obligation.

* Cash for clunkers reduces the number and quality of used cars of charities which rely on donations of used cars .

* Fewer serviceable used cars could adversely affect numerous local, small car dealers who deal exclusively in used cars, perhaps driving some out of business.

* By focusing the demand for cars into a shorter timeframe, Cash for clunkers will make intelligent planning more difficult. Do dealers and manufacturers gear up for continued demand and risk being caught with too much inventory? Or do they anticipate a slow down that may not materialize and not have enough inventory to meet demand?

* A program the government expected to last three months used up all its resources in five days.

* Some car dealers have extended credit based on government promises that have as yet to be fulfilled.

* Plus, some consumers traded in “clunkers” which were destroyed immediately (as required by the government), only to discover that their cars did not qualify for the program. I believe this short sighted element of the program has been modified, but only after a loss of wealth sustained by consumers.

* Ostensibly sold as a “Green” initiative, the program as implemented only required a 2 MPG better gas mileage than the trade-in.

* Not to mention the possibility of gaming the system:



And so I asked the question on the minds of millions of my fellow concerned citizens: How can I get my snout into this trough? Easy: I buy a small car qualifying for the $4,500, and keep it for a few months until the cash-for-clunkers boondoggle has run its course. At that point, the supply of used cars will have shrunk and their prices driven up; I will sell the almost-new small car for what I paid for it ($12,629 last Saturday) or more, at worst having driven it for free, and then buy the truck I covet. -Benjamin Zycher


As has been repeatedly pointed out, the idea of handing a sizable portion of the nation’s economy over to the guys who can’t even run a used car program is mind boggling. The idea that the life and death decisions involved in the nation’s health care might be a tad more complicated than used car trade-ins, with farther reaching repercussions is the reason the Cash for Clunkers has been relegated to the back burner and people have taken up their torches and pitchforks to storm the townhall meetings of their elected representatives.

And all their opposition has is AstroTurf!

Update: * And depriving the poorer folk among us of millions of engine parts that might help them to repair the cars they have. (I knew I'd forgotten at least one!)

Cross posted at Say Anything

A Little Saturday Night Music

Norah Jones, Dolly Parton: "Creep on in"

"You Can Bet Your AstroTurf We Won't Take it!"

Tea party in San Francisco, the Belly of the Beast:



Hat tip Michelle Malkin

The Dupes of Hazzard

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Their "health plan" could be a "Hazard" to your health!

Quote du jour

If the government gives a big wad of cash to your business, they can tell you how much you can pay your employees, what mode of transportation you can take, and where you can travel to because you’re on the taxpayer’s dime.

BUT

If the government is spending big wads of cash on your health care, they promise not to interfere with any health-related choices you’d care to make, no matter how many taxpayer’s dimes it costs.

Anybody buying this?


-Harvey, IMAO

Friday, August 14, 2009

Friday Night Babe

Tonight's FNB is Adriana Lima

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This Last Week's Poll

This Last Week's Poll: Obama /Socialist Joker Poster:

Racist (0%)

Same as was done to Bush (85%)

Funny (42%)

Oddly Compelling (71%)

All of the Above (0%)

None of the Above (0%)


Multiple choices and Obama's crack budget office accountants may account for totals greater than 100%

Thank you for your participation!
Not a scientific poll. Respondents are self selecting. Questions are drawn from fortune cookies, hieroglyphics and tomorrow’s New York Times.

Please make your opinion known in this week's poll.

Quote du jour

Argentine ants living in vast numbers across Europe, the US and Japan belong to the same inter-related colony, and will refuse to fight one another.

The colony may be the largest of its type ever known for any insect species, and could rival humans in the scale of its world domination.

What's more, people are unwittingly helping the mega-colony stick together.

Argentine ants (Linepithema humile) were once native to South America. But people have unintentionally introduced the ants to all continents except Antarctica.

-Matt Walker, BBC, Earth News

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Obama's Overall Approval Hits New Low

According to Rasmussen...

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I'm sure all the AstroTurf® and he and his crowd calling his opponents un-American and Nazis had nothing to do with it!

Quote du jour

We saw this in Canada, where we did find one area of medicine that offers easy access to cutting-edge technology -- CT scan, endoscopy, thoracoscopy, laparoscopy, etc. It was open 24/7. Patients didn't have to wait.

But you have to bark or meow to get that kind of treatment. Animal care is the one area of medicine that hasn't been taken over by the government. Dogs can get a CT scan in one day. For people, the waiting list is a month.

-John Stossel

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

The Medal of Honor

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S/Sgt. Drew Dennis Dix


Citation:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. S/Sgt. Dix distinguished himself by exceptional heroism while serving as a unit adviser. Two heavily armed Viet Cong battalions attacked the Province capital city of Chau Phu resulting in the complete breakdown and fragmentation of the defenses of the city. S/Sgt. Dix, with a patrol of Vietnamese soldiers, was recalled to assist in the defense of Chau Phu. Learning that a nurse was trapped in a house near the center of the city, S/Sgt. Dix organized a relief force, successfully rescued the nurse, and returned her to the safety of the Tactical Operations Center. Being informed of other trapped civilians within the city, S/Sgt. Dix voluntarily led another force to rescue 8 civilian employees located in a building which was under heavy mortar and small-arms fire. S/Sgt. Dix then returned to the center of the city. Upon approaching a building, he was subjected to intense automatic rifle and machinegun fire from an unknown number of Viet Cong. He personally assaulted the building, killing 6 Viet Cong, and rescuing 2 Filipinos. The following day S/Sgt. Dix, still on his own volition, assembled a 20-man force and though under intense enemy fire cleared the Viet Cong out of the hotel, theater, and other adjacent buildings within the city. During this portion of the attack, Army Republic of Vietnam soldiers inspired by the heroism and success of S/Sgt. Dix, rallied and commenced firing upon the Viet Cong. S/Sgt. Dix captured 20 prisoners, including a high ranking Viet Cong official. He then attacked enemy troops who had entered the residence of the Deputy Province Chief and was successful in rescuing the official's wife and children. S/Sgt. Dix's personal heroic actions resulted in 14 confirmed Viet Cong killed in action and possibly 25 more, the capture of 20 prisoners, 15 weapons, and the rescue of the 14 United States and free world civilians. The heroism of S/Sgt. Dix was in the highest tradition and reflects great credit upon the U.S. Army.


S/Sgt. Dix: We humbly salute you and thank you for your service.

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Hat tip Home of Heroes



There are over a hundred living MoH recipients today. Their names and their stories should not be forgotten. My mission is to honor one of those heroes here each week, and salute them for their courage and sacrifice.

Medical Cost Savings of Obama Care Revealed

How to add forty five million people to the system and make the claim that the government would lower health care costs?

Problem solved!

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Dingell Barry Supporter Caught Red Handed

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Trying to gin up opposition to and slander those genuinely opposed to Obama's attempt to nationalize health care, a supporter of Democrat John Dingle and Barack Obama (A Dingell Barry supporter) was photographed with a large poster of Obama with a Hitlerian moustache, outside a John Dingell townhall meeting...an Astroturf attempt to portray Obama's opposition as racist, bigoted, homophobes, etc., etc.

The black man holding the poster in the picture was later seen passing out pro-Dingell literature after the meeting.

H/T The blog prof

Obama's "End of Life" Counseling - The Documentary

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Question du jour

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If the Left characterizes taking 2% of your Social Security retirement funds and putting them into self directed investments as "Privatizing Social Security", why is it unfair for the Right to characterize Obama's health care scheme which will surely end private health insurance as we know it and affect the quality and quantity of health care available for decades to come as "Nationalizing Health Care"?

Discuss among yourselves!

Quote du jour

To always be intending to live a new life, but never find time to set about it - this is as if a man should put off eating and drinking from one day to another till he be starved and destroyed.

-Walter Scott

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Rare Moment of Honesty from President Obama

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Obama today in New Hampshire tried to dispute the idea that a government-run insurance would drive private insurance companies out of business, making the system de facto single-payer.

As long as they have a good product and the government plan has to sustain itself through premiums and other non-tax revenue, private insurers should be able to compete with the government plan, Obama said.

Here comes the money quote:


"They do it all the time," he said. "UPS and FedEx are doing just fine. ... It's the Post Office that's always having problems."


Get that? It's not the private sector carriers that are in danger, but the quasi-governmental one. That's comforting!

Update: Here's the video, HT/ Wizbang



Cross posted at Say Anything

Obama, Obama, Pants on Fire!



Mind numbingly dishonest, but it was enough to get him elected!

Hat tip Stop the ACLU

Quote du jour

As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.

-Henry David Thoreau

Monday, August 10, 2009

Quote du jour

"The Declaration of Independence dogmatically bases all rights on the fact that God created all men equal; and it is right; for if they were not created equal, they were certainly evolved unequal. There is no basis for democracy except in a dogma about the divine origin of man."

-G.K. Chesterton

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Barack Obama Surprisingly Mute on "Teachable Moment"


interview with Kenneth Gladney


"Whiskey Tango Foxtrot", or WTF? comes to mind when contemplating the Presidency of Barack Hussein Obama. It wasn't that long ago, that the President interjected himself into a small and local police matter, where he admitted that he did not have all the facts, to have a national "teachable moment" about racism when Henry Louis Gates Jr. was taken into custody, without a hair on his head being harmed.
This last week, Kenneth Gladney, a black man was beaten and kicked, apparently by white men, for merely exercising his freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.

Kenneth Gladney was selling Gadsden flags, the historic symbol "Don't tread on me", when he was tread upon by union thugs, who assaulted him severely enough to put him in the hospital. They also called him by the "N" word, which would constitute a "hate crime" according to most good liberals, yet, somehow, this did not rise to what President Obama considers a "teachable moment"! Has Obama uttered public word one on Mr. Gladney and the treatment he received? If you are aware of any such pronouncement, please let me know. The silence is deafening.

It seems the difference in whether or not this is a "teachable moment" depends on whether or not you are a friend of the President, or whether the friends of the President are kicking the crap out of you!

Cross posted at Say Anything

Who Needs Brown Shirts When You Have Purple Shirts?



In "Secret Door" it's interesting that when the two playing dumb by the "Handicapped entrance" (Is their handicap a lack of honesty, integrity or both?), expose themselves of agents of the "counter insurgency", the first thing they do is try to shut down the guy documenting what they're doing. Yeah. That's transparency Obama style!

Hat tip Breitbart
Cross Posted at Say Anything

Quote du jour

The man who loves other countries as much as his own stands on a level with the man who loves other women as much as he loves his own wife.

-Theodore Roosevelt

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Disinformation?



Please report these politicians to: flag@whitehouse.gov

Hat tip Midnight Blue

A Little Saturday Night Music

Christopher Cross - Think of Laura

Quote du jour

Example, whether it be good or bad, has a powerful influence.

-George Washington

Friday, August 7, 2009