Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Introducing Another Startling Innovation from Ross Industries: the 'Fire Nancy Pelosi' Word Widget™

You've got to admit this idea's gold, Jerry -- gold. I just created a Word Widget™, which provides a graphic link to the popular FireNancyPelosi website.

If you have a blog, just post the HTML (below) into your article whenever you use the term . You can use it multiple times in a row, like this: . Thus, with minimal effort, you'll provide needed link-love to a worthy site and maybe help generate some cash for the cause.

Here's the HTML:


You can thank me later.


Knowing what we know now, will President Obama resurrect the need for a 'Civilian National Security Force' if Democrats retain power in November?

A week ago, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) pointed out that rating agencies were growing increasingly concerned with the United States' fiscal outlook.

More dismal news regarding our country’s fiscal standing was released yesterday by Moody’s Investors Service... ...the cost of servicing our debt is raising, therefore the United States has been brought "substantially" closer to losing our AAA, or highest level, credit rating.

"Under the ratings company’s so-called baseline scenario, the U.S. will spend more on debt service as a percentage of revenue this year than any other top-rated country except the U.K., and will be the biggest spender from 2011 to 2013."

...Before the State of the Union address, President Obama called for a freeze in discretionary spending. However, the budget for fiscal year 2011 he sent to Congress days later forecasts a record-breaking deficit of $1.6 trillion. Congress also recently voted to raise our country’s debt limit by $1.9 trillion to an astounding $14 trillion. These examples do not speak to fiscal restraint.

Despite these warnings, the irresponsible leaders of the Democrat Party ignored the will of the people yesterday and nationalized the health care system. Bachmann notes that the federal government now owns or controls about half of the entire U.S. economy

[They have] taken over Freddie, Fannie, Chrysler, GM, banks, AIG, student loans ... with this 18 percent [the health care system], that brings it up to 48 percent [of the private economy] that the federal government owns or controls. ... And they are not done.

No, they are not.

As oil prices inevitably rise -- thanks to the no-drill, no-refine policies of the Democrat Party -- the bureaucrats in Washington will ram through carbon taxes, cap-and-trade, "smart grids" and other "green" scams to confiscate more and more of your private property. As a result, they will control the production, delivery and use of all energy in the U.S.

Unpopular? Certainly. That's why Democrats -- and useful idiots like Lindsey "Goober" Graham -- will soon offer bills aimed at "comprehensive immigration reform".

That catch-phrase simply means that our borders will remain unsecured; our new, redistributive health, welfare and social services programs will incent new waves of illegal immigration; and Democrats will get the desired result: millions of new voters. And none of these illegals will have learned about or bought into our culture, our Constitution, our way of life, our language or anything else that contributes to a cohesive environment.

Not to be outdone, other liberals are working to restore the vote to the criminal population, another desirable Democrat demographic.

Near as I can figure it, the Democrat Party is actively working to destroy the American civil society. It appears to serve the interests of only the union bosses, the trial lawyers, government bureaucrats, illegal immigrants and felons. In other words, Democrats.

And, in the context of recent events, is it worth reconsidering the President's bizarre remarks last year regarding internal national security?

America must balance and integrate all elements of our national power. We can not continue to push the burden onto our military alone, or leave dormant any aspect of the arsenal of American capability. That's why my administration is committed to renewing diplomacy as a tool of American power and developing our civilian national security capabilities.

This was not the first time Obama expressed a desire for a powerful internal national security force. As a candidate in July 2008, Obama first enunciated the need.

In Barack Obama’s July 2, 2008 speech calling America to national service, Obama proposed “a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded” as our military... This has prompted some in the blogosphere to raise the specter of a huge new domestic paramilitary organization. Others suggest that he may have been talking about our “current non-military security agencies...

He said: "We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded."

With the takeover of the health care sector, as Bachmann points out, Barack Obama has nationalized nearly half of the entire U.S. economy. Fourteen months ago, who would have thought such a thing possible?

And, if Democrats would retain control of Congress in November, is there any doubt that talk of an immediate need for a "Civilian National Security Force" would resurface?

Say, just to "preserve order" after the Acorn-types employed their usual tactics and flooded the system with absentee ballots.

To preserve this Republic, we are counting on you to marshal your neighbors, your friends and your families to help defeat the evil that the modern Democrat Party has become.

For, as Thomas Sowell has observed, November 2010 may well be "the point of no return."


Image of the Century

Click-through fun.

Cheeky.

Healthcare Haiku o' the Day

If you have a Right

To the service I provide,

I must be a Slave.

-- Haiku Guy on March 24, 2010


Courage: Female Finalist in 'Arabic Idol' Slams Muslim Clerics

On Abu Dhabi's live poetry talent contest, "The Million's Poet", a female contestant dressed from head to toe in a black hijab shredded hard-line Islamic law.

[The show] featured a single woman covered from head to toe in black, declaiming traditional Arabic poetry from a podium [and] the judging panel consists of five sober-looking men with bushy moustaches, and a similarly all-male audience.

...Tonight, Hissa Hilal, a mother-of-four from Saudi Arabia, takes to the stage in the last round of a competition that she has taken by storm with a scathing critique of the conservative clerics who hold sway in her country. Her poetry has earned her the praise of the judges, the acclaim of the viewing public – and more than a few death threats.

Ms Hilal earned her place in the final with a performance last week, which was seen as a response to a prominent Saudi cleric's call for those who advocated the mingling of men and women to be punished with death. In a 15-verse work, she railed against preachers who "sit in the position of power", "frightening" people with their religious edicts.

"I have seen evil in the eyes of fatwas, at a time when the permitted is being twisted into the forbidden," she said, with only her microphone and her eyes visible against the uniform black of her burqa. The clerics, she went on – and, by extension, suicide bombers who wrap explosives around their waists – "are vicious in voice, barbaric, angry and blind, wearing death as a robe cinched with a belt".

It was a bold message indeed, and in Saudi Arabia, where unmarried men and women are entirely segregated, a highly controversial one. But when she finished, the ranks of men listening erupted into cheers, and the judges sent her into today's final with compliments ringing in her ears.

"Hissa Hilal is a courageous poet," said Sultan al-Amimi, one of the show's judges. He praised her for "expressing her opinion" and "raising an alarm" against extremist clerics.

Ms Hilal herself, meanwhile, is uncompromising in the face of the threats that have emerged on militant websites. "My poetry has always been provocative," she told the Associated Press. "It's a way to express myself and give voice to Arab women, silenced by those who knock our culture and our religion..."

The lady's got some brass. She deserves the Western world's support.

State-Run Health Care, by the Numbers

0: The number of televised negotiations regarding health care, promised by candidate Obama on August 21, 2008: "I'm going to have all the negotiations around a big table. We'll have doctors and nurses and hospital administrators. Insurance companies, drug companies -- they'll get a seat at the table, they just won't be able to buy every chair. But what we will do is, we'll have the negotiations televised on C-SPAN, so that people can see who is making arguments on behalf of their constituents, and who are making arguments on behalf of the drug companies or the insurance companies. And so, that approach, I think is what is going to allow people to stay involved in this process."

13: The number of teeth that British veteran Ian Boynton pulled out himself with pliers "because he couldn't find an NHS (National Health Service) dentist... [he] could not afford to go private for treatment so instead took the drastic action to remove 13 of his teeth that were giving him severe pain."

14: The percentage of all patients in Britain who wait more than one (1) year to receive treatment after a referral by a general practitioner. Half of all National Health Care patients in Britain wait between 18 and 52 weeks for treatment.

37: The "health care ranking" assigned to the U.S. by the World Health Organization among the world's countries. This oft-quoted number is used to justify an overhaul of the U.S. health care system and lists countries like Italy (2), Andorra (4), Malta (5), Singapore (6), Oman (8), Portugal (12), Greece (14), the United Kingdom (18), Ireland (19), Columbia (22), Cyprus (24), Saudi Arabia (26), the UAE (27), Morocco (29), Canada (30), Chile (33), the Dominican Republic (35) and Costa Rica (36) ahead of the U.S. Considering that no U.S. citizens travel to these countries when experiencing a life-threatening situation, it's worth questioning the methods by which the WHO arrived at these rankings. Their criteria included subjective and political assessments such as "Fairness in financial contribution". Suffice it to say that the WHO's rankings are clearly fraudulent and are designed to influence U.S. policy.

60: Average cancer survival rate (all types) for patients in the United States. Canada's survival rate is significantly lower at 55%, while Europe's is a dismal 48%.

81: Average percentage of those who survive a diagnosis of prostate cancer in the United States versus 43% in Britain under their National Health Service.

90: Number of days, on average, each Canadian patient must wait for an MRI under the Canadian government-run health care system.

750: The estimated number of people waiting in line (in the pouring rain) at Britain's Bury Office attempting to register for dental care.

2050: By this year, "Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid (health care for the poor) will consume nearly the entire federal budget." And by 2082, Medicare spending alone will consume the entire federal budget. This trajectory is, quite obviously, unsustainable for our children and our grandchildren. Congress is bequeathing our descendents a bankrupt health care system -- for just the third of the medical system that the government already runs!

10,000: Number of Canadian breast cancer patients to file a class action lawsuit against Quebec's hospitals because, on average, they were forced to wait 60 days to begin post-operative radiation treatments.

280,392: The number of jobs that employers would shed if government levied an employer mandate, requiring them to insure all employees. A 2007 study by Katherine Baicker of Harvard University and Helen Levy of the University of Michigan ("Employer Health Insurance Mandates and the Risk of Unemployment") found that "0.2 percent of all full-time workers and 1.4 percent of uninsured full-time workers would lose their jobs if a health insurance mandate were written into law. Workers who would lose their jobs are disproportionately likely to be high school dropouts, minority, and female."

443,849: The number of British patients of the National Healthcare Service (NHS) who waited four or more weeks for inpatient admittance into a hospital (Excel file) in May of 2009 (more than 75% of all patients).

1,500,000: The number of Canadians who do not have -- and cannot find -- a general practitioner/primary care physician due to shortages in medical staff: "In Norwood, Ontario, 20/20 videotaped a town clerk pulling the names of the lucky winners out of a lottery box. The losers must wait to see a doctor... Shirley Healy, like many sick Canadians, came to America for surgery. Her doctor in British Columbia told her she had only a few weeks to live because a blocked artery kept her from digesting food. Yet Canadian officials called her surgery 'elective.' ...'The only thing elective about this surgery was I elected to live,' she said."

12,000,000: number of illegal immigrants who would qualify for free health care and -- in all likelihood -- additional health care rights for relatives under the Democrats' universal health care plan, according to a reported statement by the office of Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and spokespeople for the racial separatist group La Raza.

$311,000,000 ($311 million): The amount of additional funding requested last month by the Obama administration simply to combat Medicare fraud. Medicare fraud is estimated at $60 billion annually.

$3,600,000,000 ($3.6 billion): The amount of added malpractice insurance costs to the current health care system instigated by an out-of-control trial lawyer lobby that donates heavily to Democrat causes.

$10,000,000,000 ($10 billion): The estimated amount of Medicaid fraud, based upon FBI estimates. Criminal practices include billing for nonexistent, overstated, or unnecessary services, kickbacks to patients, inflated costs, etc.

$60,000,000,000 ($60 billion): The estimated annual amount of Medicare fraud, due to widespread criminal operations that victimize taxpayers and specialize in dead doctors, fake patients, non-existent treatments and the like.

$107,000,000,000,000 ($107 trillion): The estimated shortfall of the Medicare and Social Security programs, which are utterly and completely bankrupt; they can be legitimately called an "enormous version of Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme".

Canada and England don't pay as high a price for their health care because they freeload on American innovation. If we utilized their systems, Americans might worry less about paying for health care, but we'd get 2009-level care and long lines. Those are the immutable laws of supply and demand. Government monopolies don't innovate. Only the free market innovates.

Furthermore, government bureaucrats already raped the Social Security Trust Fund -- there is no trust fund. They raped the Medicare Trust Fund -- there's nothing left. They raped the Highway Trust Fund -- it's empty. I could go down a long list of things the government said it would do, but hasn't done. Because the big government statists are liars. They even moved these massive expenditures "off the books" to conceal the damage they've done.

And now the Democrat Party, the union bosses and the trial lawyers are launching the most massive attack on the American people in the history of government.

They promise health care for everyone, but they will not -- and they can't possibly -- deliver it. The numbers don't lie.


References: Sick in America: 'Free' Is Good? (ABC News), There's no such thing as free health care (Reason Magazine), Social Security and Medicare Projections: 2009 (National Center for Policy Analysis), Who is Debby Smith?, E.R. P.R., Bureau of Labor Statistics, July 2009.

Larwyn's Linx: 'The Way To Tyranny By The Central Government'

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email. You can also install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget.

Nation

'The Way To Tyranny By The Central Government': RedState
It's Morning in America: BigGovt
Obama's pyrrhic victory on health care: WashExam

HawkinsCare: Repealing DemCare by cutting off funds: RWN
All Americans will soon curse ObamaCare: PJM
"The Good and Welfare Clause"?: BlogProf

RNC wins with FireNancyPelosi.com: RWN
What ought the GOP Senators do next?: Hewitt

Economy

Unions Violate Freedom: RWN
Health Care: Arbitrage Obama And The Dems: Denninger
We need 'blue light' mandates: LegalIns

Christie challenges public sector unions: WashExam
Demcare's House of Cards: Malkin
DemCare Begins Killing Jobs Immediately: Hindenblog

Climate & Energy

Artificially Staged with 100% Chance of Demagoguery: Green Room
Climategate: James Hansen Finds Complying with FOIA To Be Too Much of a Burden: PJM
Global Warming Is Making Flowers Lose Their Pretty Smell: RWN

Media

Media Fraud: How the Leftist Media Lied About Vulgar Attacks: GWP
Anatomy of a Racial Smear: AT (Cashill)
Coulter victim of hate speech: Malkin

As U.S. Trots Down Same Doomed Path, Chicago Tribune Notices Illinois Is Broke: BigJournalism
Congratulations, Sen. John McCain (R–Media) — You Made This Day Possible: BigJournalism
Mourning in America: Hindenblog

Mark Levin, Megan McArdle Agree: Hold Them To Their Claims: Ace
Obama's Empty Health Care Victory: AT
Atlas Shrugged: Where we're heading: bRight & Early

World

Tattered Liberty: Steyn
No Photos Allowed: GWP
The Openly Anti-Semitic President: AmDigest

There's no part of "fake" that Lindsey Graham doesn't understand: Power Line
Ann Coulter Cancelled by University of Ottawa!: AmPower
Hillary Dissimulates, Bibi Shines: PJM

SciTech

Virgin Galactic's craft makes maiden flight: Maktoob
Greenmail and Whitewash: the Son of AGW: CBullitt

Cornucopia

Awesome Jobs: Meet Mr. Official Iranian Salute Guy!: Snapped Shot
In passing ... How to survive the Democrat party for its duration: C&S
The most hated women in American history: C&S

Repeal and Start Over: Red State

QOTD:

I suppose one could interpret the health care bill as "Pelosi's historic achievement," as the media has been insisting, but that would also mean that an unpopular President and a more unpopular Congress and a most unpopular Speaker together railroaded through an unpopular, sweeping piece of legislation without a single opposition vote, and through the sort of tawdry legislative bribery and procedural gimmicks we haven't seen since the 19th century. So the bill is historic mostly in the minds of the D.C.–New York liberal punditocracy and Democratic stalwarts, for about another seven months, before the people weigh in themselves.

I don't think by year's end too many will call the bill historic; and when the opposition eventually takes over the Congress (and it always does), and its zealots begin to ram through radical, partisan changes, in the manner of Pelosi's precedent, "historic" will be the last adjective we used to look back on March 21 and the role of the Speaker. The means live on; the ends are ephemeral — and Pelosi's conduct tarnished the Congress and will unleash a no-holds-barred reaction when she is out of power that will make historians think very carefully about the real lasting wages of her most unpopular tenure.

      -- Victor Davis Hanson

Bonus QOTD: "Bart Stupak just aborted the Constitution." -- Me. Just now.


Tuesday, March 23, 2010

That was quick: reports filtering in of health care premiums for families rising $2,400 annually in reaction to today's signing of Demcare bill

Karl Denninger relays a note published just hours after the Democrats celebrated the signing of DemCare.

So I just got a call from my health insurance provider. My family rates are going up $200/month ... $2400/year per employee effective April 1st. Didn't take long after signing to get this s**t going.

So much for the "my plan will save Americans" $2500/year in Healthcare premiums...

Yes, this law will induce people to hire, it will improve health access, and it will be positive for the consumer, economy, stock market and spending... [and the] market rallies on for today, as I sit back and chuckle to myself... "I told you so."

Please, buy more stocks to drive the DOW, S&P, Nasdaq and Russell higher on the mythical economic "recovery" and mythical job gains that will take hold as employers, right here and now, four full years before the "benefits" show up for adults in this bill (those very same workers) get whammied for $2,400 per year in additional costs per employee.

...One way or another the employees will be paying every single penny of that cost. Either directly through lower wages (which will do great things for consumer spending and the economy) or indirectly as people are either laid off or not hired in the first place.

Why are premiums for families certain to rise? Because of the Democrats' ham-handed attempts at social engineering, which are reminiscent of their "mortgage affordability programs". And those turned out so very well.

...health experts said the proposed regulations pertaining to children will result in higher premiums for consumers. The issue of who will pay the medical costs of the nation's uninsured and underinsured children, especially those with potentially debilitating and lifelong conditions, is not yet settled.

...Tim McBride, a health economist and associate dean of public health at the Brown School at Washington University, said he expects the cost of mandating health coverage for chronically and severely ill children to be "absorbed by the health insurance companies, causing them to raise premiums.

Gee, you mean the Democrats were lying when they said if you liked your health care you could keep it? And that quality of care would improve? And prices would decline? While adding 30 to 47 million more people? Who'da thunk it?

And this news aligns with reports that small businesses are preparing for the worst.

"It's going to create huge uncertainty and the potential for another downtick in the economy fed by that uncertainty," said Keith Ashmus, a partner at Frantz Ward LLP, a law firm in Cleveland. He said the bill will "almost certainly" lead to increased health insurance costs for businesses with more than 50 employees — like his.

"And it's going to result in a lot of people looking at the structure of their business to see how they can structure themselves to avoid horrendous penalties," Ashmus told FoxNews.com.

Some people never learn. We call those people "Democrats".


Update: Dyslexic POTUS Confused his Symbols?

Original images: Reuters.

Aiding and Abetting the Terrorists

By Victor the Contractor

This morning the Wall Street Journal published an article on page A6 detailing the release of one of the planners of the 9/11 terrorist attack due to a lack of evidence. Mohamedou Ould Slahi will soon be released by order of Judge James Robertson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, having granted his petition for habeas corpus. The basis of this ruling is that evidence garnered from his torture was deemed inadmissible in court and without it the prosecution had no case.

This gentleman, and I use the term very loosely, referred to as "the highest value detainee and key orchestrator of the al Qaeda cell in Europe," will be released because the administration decided to try him in civilian courts, which have a much higher threshold of evidence than military tribunal. I suspect that quite a bit of the evidence against him is of a sensitive nature in that its publication would compromise national security and that is really the main reason he is being let out of Gitmo.

That is the real problem with trying terrorists in civilian court: key evidence has to be kept secret or the enemy will learn of leaks or weaknesses in its lines of communication. This policy has led to the release of inmates; only to recapture them in Iraq or Afghanistan during bloody battlefield conflicts.

Will the White House ever learn? My guess is a decided no. I feel the Administration is steering this country into bankruptcy on many levels and a moral vacuum exists in Washington. Gone are the days when overwhelming public opinion was helped guide a political agenda and keep government in line. We turned a corner with the passage of the Constitutionally vacuous Health Care Reform Act, which was anything but reform but was an act.

The coming days will see the Democrat Party emboldened to go further out on the political ledge, but right now the judiciary is playing the the tune set by President Obama. Certainly nothing good can come of releasing the 'brains' of an al Qaeda cell. From now on there will be a hesitancy by intelligence officers to detain suspects: there will be increased pressure to eliminate risks in the field rather than attempt to imprison and glean information from known terrorists.

The White House has declared war on the American people with this travesty of justice. What a pity that the rights of the planners of 9/11 are infinitely more important than the innocents who died in the twin towers that fateful day.

Is this the America we want for our children? Is this the Democracy we want to be an example for the world to emulate? Isn't it time we took our Government back from the far left?

Victor The Contractor


What I'm reading now: "Learning from failure in the NHS?"

Just trying to prepare myself for the inevitable (PDF).

The number of inquiries into failures of care in the NHS has increased markedly in recent years. The early inquiries date back to the late 1960s and the consistent patterns of failure, which have been revealed over more than 3 decades, are striking. They raise major challenges for public policy and for the protection of individuals in public care.

This paper asks about the purposes of inquiries; it looks at the different types of inquiry which have been established and at the methods and processes used. It also explores the results of inquiries and the changes in policy which have arisen from their recommendations. Some of these inquiries have examined high profile cases, which attracted great publicity, while others have escaped the glare of national attention.

Nevertheless, all of them are important for what they tell us about the quality of care provided to individuals in the NHS.

This paper argues that it is vital to examine the ways in which we conduct inquiries. They consume vast resources (particularly financial and human) and it is important that they satisfy their purpose in the most appropriate way. It concludes that there is more we can learn from failures of care, in the past, in order to improve the health service of the future.

Yes, you've got it: this paper reviews decades of inquiries into the disastrous failures of the U.K.'s ruinous National Health Service.

This is a preview of your future. This is the system Democrats chose to emulate when they shredded our Constitution.


Smart Kids, Criminal Politicians

The Facebook status of this teenager reflects a blunt opinion.

I suppose she got a glimpse of this chart.

Oh... and this illustration reflected projections before government-run health care.

This young one, and her friends, are on the hook for the catastrophe orchestrated by Pelosi, Obama, Reid and their Democrat drones. These politicians will be long gone when the system comes crashing down.


How come when I look up "Useful idiot" in the dictionary, I get a picture of "Professor" Alan Dershowitz?

Dan from New York:

Between stints as liberal poster child, Obama shill and professional defender of Israel, Alan Dershowitz has finally found time to notice his president isn’t doing very much to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Although that's still not enough for Dershowitz to actually criticize Obama, it has prompted him to remind his president in today's Wall Street Journal that there are dire consequences in store if he continues to play patty-cake with the Ayatollahs.

No, it's not like Dershowitz will vote Republican in November, or anything drastic like that.

So what does the Oracle of Harvard Yard foresee should "an Iranian attack...kill as many as five million Jews" and "Israel retaliated with its own nuclear bombs" killing about 15 million Iranians?

[//////////////////Drum roll//////////////////]

"Mr. Obama [will] come to symbolize the failure of the West."

Dershowitz doesn't say whether that perception would take hold before or after Obama's likeness is chiseled into Mt. Rushmore, but let that be a warning to you anyway, Mr. President.

When you're POTUS, there is no free lunch.

Of course, there's a more appropriate word than "Professor" you can use to describe Dershowitz: Try "putz".


"I, for one, welcome our new Democrat overlords"

Having health care is going to be just like Christmas, according to certain intellectually challenged residents of Durham, North Carolina.

"It's just going to be like Christmas," said DeCarlo Flythe, who lost health coverage for his family when he was laid off almost three years ago. "It's going to be great. You know, no worries (about) the bills. We are going to go ahead and pay our co-pay and be alright."

[His] wife has insurance, but the couple couldn't afford to put him on the policy. Now, he's excited he may also have coverage because of health care reform... "It'll make the world better. It'll make us all better, actually," he said.

I think someone forgot to tell DeCarlo that his Constitutional right to free, unlimited and instant health care doesn't kick in until 2014.


Hat tip: Memeorandum.

Larwyn's Linx: Free Will and Destiny

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email. You can also install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget.

Nation

Free Will and Destiny: Eject
In Defeat, Defiance: AT
Paul Ryan not ready to give up on Demcare: NRO

A Strong Dose of Reality: Villainous
It Begins; Woolsey Introduces Public Option: Nice Deb
Liberty's Activists vs. ObamaCare: PJM

Philadelphia descends into anarchy: RWN
Hell, No: RedState
Holder Senate testimony postponed: York

Economy

Dissembling, Death and Deficits: AT
Supply and Demand: It Dooms ObamaCare: PJM
Inside the Pelosi Sausage Factory: Strassel

Yep: Illegals Do Not Have to Buy Health Insurance: Patterico
Brad Friedman’s Lies Fail to Save ACORN: Patterico
How Obamacare hits industry and threatens jobs: WashExam

Climate & Energy

Snazzy Data: Power Line

Media

Will Ann Coulter Survive Canada?: RWN
America Hangs by a Thread: EIB
Sarah Palin: Health Care Debate Is Between Socialism and Those Who Love America: GWP

Sunday's Socialist Triumph: Blankley
'Let Them Know Fear': Eternity Road
Betrayed, Part the Second: GM's Place

A Campaign Begins Today: Romney
How NY Times Coverage Buries Middle East Reality: BRubin
Liars and Wimps: NCTPR

World

American Tyranny: Ledeen
Netanyahu: Jerusalem Ain't a Settlement: GWP
German Poker Heist Masterminded by Arabs: Jawa

Iran Continues Proxy War on America: Verum Serum
Al-Azhar head calls for religious TV ban: Maktoob
If the Soviets had run Pravda like this, we'd all be communists now: Jawa

SciTech

Virgin spacecraft makes maiden voyage: CNet
Palm's new price target: $0: Fortune

Cornucopia

Dear Mr. Franklin...: iOTW
Michelle Obama: FLOTUS, Over-Achiever, Organic Gardener, Fashion Icon and Role Model: Mirror
Hope and Change, Fulfilled: TNOYF

QOTD:

"This was rammed down the throats of the American people with as much cynicism, trickery, deliberate obfuscation, and budgetary tomfoolery as has ever been seen for a major piece of legislation in the history of the republic." -- Rick Moran


Monday, March 22, 2010

A Three-Pronged War Against Statism

Conservative Republicans must have an agenda beyond repeal. I hope I'm not out of line here, but I believe the time for civility is over. It is time for outright political warfare. Democrats have crossed the line.

The targets, in order of highest priority to lowest, are as follows.

1. War against the Democrat Party itself: in its every incarnation, the Democrat Party has become the tool of Marxists, Gore-ian ecostatists, Soros one-worlders, outright Communists, and a cadre of useful idiots, the Bush-haters.

In Congress, Republicans must block everything. They must use every procedural maneuver possible, filibuster everything, add amendments, motion to recommit, stall endlessly, block any and all activity in Congress. Call a strike. Democrats deserve nothing less for their desecration of our Constitution and our Declaration.

In states and municipalities, Republicans must target public sector unions, which donated hundreds of millions to Democrats in 2008. The unions are in the process of killing themselves, what with their outsized and unsustainable pensions and benefits. Let's just speed up the process. Every public sector union must be targeted and smashed using the playbook of Las Vegas mayor Oscar Goodman.

2. War Against the Legacy Media: Barack Obama owes his election, in large part, to a compliant and useless state-run media complex. A week-long series detailing Barack Obama's bizarre background in The New York Times would have ended his campaign.

Instead, most Americans never became aware of Obama's mentor, Communist Frank Marshall Davis. Or of his pseudonym at an Indonesian school: Barry Soetero. Of of his work with -- and lies about -- the criminal front group ACORN. Of his membership in the Democrat Socialists of America. Of his role in the mortgage meltdown as a litigator for ACORN against Citibank. Of his odd relationships with disgraced slumlord Tony Rezko, terrorist Bill Ayers, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, Governor Rod Blagojevich and Jimmy Hoffa, Jr. Of his work with the Arab-American Action Network's Ed Said, and Hamas-supporter-slash-close personal friend Jeremiah Wright.

Had the media been doing its job and outlined Obama's background, we would not be in the position of watching the country's balance sheet implode.

Thus my recommendation is to simply boycott the Old Gray Lady. If you subscribe to the print edition, cancel it. I know the Sunday Times is iconic. I don't care. Cancel it. And if you have a blog, don't link to the Times. Find the equivalent news article elsewhere. If you're a reader of the electronic edition, kill the RSS feed and stop visiting.

The Times is the bellwether of state-run media. It's close to collapse anyhow. Let's hasten the joyous day when its entire staff consists of Paul Krugman, Maureen Dowd and Pinchy.

3. Against Unprincipled Republicans - The "Gang of 14" included Lindsey "Goober" Graham and John McCain; they allowed Democrats to use yet another of their unprecedented tactics: filibustering judicial nominees, which -- true to their incessant use of identity politics -- they used to block Hispanics from high court positions. Unconstitutionally, I might add.

We must primary these unprincipled moderates who stand for nothing. We must take a stand and support conservative Republicans like Marco Rubio, J.D. Hayworth and Chuck DeVore, all of whom believe in the Constitution and can speak eloquently about their beliefs in the founding principles.

Democrats have crossed a line by spitting on, then burning, the Constitution. If the founders had wanted a giant, endlessly growing, centralized federal government to control the size of your toilets, regulate the air you breathe, or force you to buy health insurance, they would have empowered the government to do so.

They didn't. And everyone knows it. The Democrat Party must be smashed politically and left as a footnote to history, just behind the Whigs in importance.


You can inscribe this on my tombstone too, but not just yet

The Bad sent this one in.






What I'm reading now: "Management of MRI Wait Lists in Canada"

Just trying to be prepared.

Sigh.

'Only Chumps and Hypocrites' Will Pay For Health Insurance Under DemCare Because Insurers Must Cover All Preexisting Conditions!

Art Mutt at News from Doswell penned another brilliantly conceived op-ed (by my count, his 4,323rd in a row).

..."Since preexisting conditions will be covered under the law, then there is no reason to continue padding the coffers of the evil health insurance companies, who are only using your premiums to withhold coverage from all those poor, uncovered props, er, victims used by the President over the last month to illustrate just how evil they truly are."

Mutt claims that it will be more advantageous for policyholders to stop paying hundreds and even thousands of dollars annually in premiums to the insurance providers and remit the $2,000 fine directly to the IRS, whose 16,000 new health commission agents will be prowling the countryside, knocking on doors and verifying coverage. "If you sincerely believe the government knows more about health care than the insurance companies, then why pay those thousands of dollars when you can stroke a penalty check directly to the government who knows better too what is best for you?" he asked. "God knows the IRS can make better use of your money than Anthem, or Optima or one of those other awful organizations."

..."When those IRS agents come a’knockin’, just look them in the eye, tell them no, you have no health insurance, but you will happily pay the no-insurance fine," Mutt stated, "And you may also want to whisper to them that neighbors Marv and Dot, two doors down, carry one of those reviled ‘discount’ health plans – you know, the ones deemed ‘unacceptable’ by the Health Commission, bought off a business card tacked up in a Sheetz Station. It may be worth a discount in your own IRS penalty payment to see Marv and Dot hauled away to insurance prison!"

"Then, if you have a diagnosis of colon cancer – boo-yah! Get on the phone to Anthem, tell ‘em you have cancer, and that you want to buy health insurance to cover your treatments... And tell 'em they better not gouge you because of the cancer, because that is illegal now. Better for them to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for your cancer treatments than for you to pay premiums when you aren’t even sick."

"That’s not crazy, that's just good economic sense."

Mutt stresses that health insurance companies are despicable entities to be vilified, unless their services are needed. “They’re terrible people, what with their 2% profit margins and all. Paying for health insurance today, after passage of this law, is the old ‘Bush-era’ way of doing things.”

"If you support the Health Reform Law, don’t be a hypocrite," he adds, "Cancel that health insurance – today!"

Seriously, since coverage for preexisting conditions is guaranteed by force of law, you'd have to be insane to keep paying those monthly premiums.

Rhetoric and Reality

Senator Barack Obama, August 28, 2008:

Tonight, more Americans are out of work and more are working harder for less. More of you have lost your homes and even more are watching your home values plummet. More of you have cars you can't afford to drive, credit card bills you can't afford to pay, and tuition that's beyond your reach... These challenges are not all of government's making. But the failure to respond is a direct result of a broken politics in Washington...

Tonight, I say to the American people, to Democrats and Republicans and Independents across this great land - enough! This moment - this election - is our chance to keep, in the 21st century, the American promise alive...

...Change means a tax code that doesn't reward the lobbyists who wrote it, but the American workers and small businesses who deserve it... I will stop giving tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas, and I will start giving them to companies that create good jobs right here in America... I will eliminate capital gains taxes for the small businesses and the start-ups that will create the high-wage, high-tech jobs of tomorrow...

...I will cut taxes - cut taxes - for 95% of all working families. Because in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle-class...

...As President, I will tap our natural gas reserves, invest in clean coal technology, and find ways to safely harness nuclear power...

...Now is the time to finally keep the promise of affordable, accessible health care for every single American. If you have health care, my plan will lower your premiums. If you don't, you'll be able to get the same kind of coverage that members of Congress give themselves...

...Now is the time to help families with paid sick days and better family leave, because nobody in America should have to choose between keeping their jobs and caring for a sick child or ailing parent...

...Now is the time to change our bankruptcy laws, so that your pensions are protected ahead of CEO bonuses; and the time to protect Social Security for future generations...

...Now, many of these plans will cost money, which is why I've laid out how I'll pay for every dime - by closing corporate loopholes and tax havens that don't help America grow. But I will also go through the federal budget, line by line, eliminating programs that no longer work and making the ones we do need work better and cost less - because we cannot meet twenty-first century challenges with a twentieth century bureaucracy.

David Axelrod and George Soros performed their roles well. With the help of a compliant mainstream media, they fooled just enough of the American people to elect a man who despises the Constitution.


Join me on the Impeach & Convict Tour 2011

Dear Democrats,

I don't think you have any idea how angry we are.

So you would institute an authoritarian bureaucracy like the one our founders despised and revolted against? You would completely disregard public opinion? You would bribe, threaten, reward and punish legislators -- with our money! -- to jam through an unprecedented agenda completely antithetical to our founding? You would saddle generations yet unborn with trillions in debt when your unfunded entitlements are already crushing us? You would redistribute trillions of American wealth in futile central planning schemes that can't work and have never worked in the entire history of the world? So you would destroy the greatest health care system in the world?

And, to top it all off, you would blatantly violate your oath to uphold the Constitution?

November will come. And paybacks are hell.

And we promise to pursue you and your ilk to the ends of the Earth. To unearth your crimes. To impeach those in power and to prosecute the rest. To unwind your Marxist schemes. To politically crush the Democrat Party and leave it as much of a force as are the Whigs.

What you are doing is nothing less than child abuse. Punishing the next generation and generations yet unborn. Which seems to be the only skill the Democrat Party possesses.

So enjoy these next few months. Anticipating that ambassadorship to Aruba. Or that cushy job on K street. Or some high-paying job as a bureaucrat in Fannie Mae.

Be warned. We will pursue you. And we will punish you. Guaran-damn-teed. It's not a threat. It's not a promise. It's an oath.