Combs Spouts Off

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: colorado, democrats, denver, health care, leftists, propaganda, rally | Leave a Comment »

The ACLU’s domestic surveillance program

Posted by Richard on August 28, 2009

No one has ever overestimated the hypocrisy and willingness to hide behind situational ethics of the American left. Michelle Malkin:

Savor the silence of America's self-serving champions of privacy. For once, the American Civil Liberties Union has nothing bad to say about the latest case of secret domestic surveillance — because it is the ACLU that committed the spying.

Last week, the Washington Post reported on a new Justice Department inquiry into photographs of undercover CIA officials and other intelligence personnel taken by ACLU-sponsored researchers assisting the defense team of Guantanamo Bay detainees.

According to the report, the pictures of covert American CIA officers — "in some cases surreptitiously taken outside their homes" — were shown to jihadi suspects tied to the 9/11 attacks in order to identify the interrogators.

…

Where is the concern for the safety of these American officers and their families? Where's the outrage from all the indignant supporters of former CIA agent Valerie Plame, whose name was leaked by Bush State Department official Richard Armitage to the late Robert Novak?

Lefties swung their nooses for years over the disclosure, citing federal laws prohibiting the sharing of classified information and proscribing anyone from unauthorized exposure of undercover intelligence agents.

…

Now, caught red-handed blowing the cover of CIA operatives, they shrug their shoulders and dismiss it as "normal" research on behalf of "our clients."

But don't you dare question their love of country. Spying to stop the next 9/11 is treason, you see. Spying to stop enhanced interrogation of Gitmo detainees is patriotic.

Well, sure. Just like dissent is the highest form of patriotism when there's a Republican president, but with a Democrat in office, dissent is the stirring up of hate and a manifestation of dangerous extremism.

Subscribe To Site:

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: aclu, hypocrisy, leftists, surveillance | 9 Comments »

All about that attack on the CO Democratic Party HQ

Posted by Richard on August 28, 2009

I've been meaning to post something about the vandalizing of state Democratic Party headquarters a couple of days ago. Around 3 AM, someone smashed a bunch of their windows with a hammer. The windows targeted were the ones with pro-Obamacare signs in them. There was immediate tsk-tsking about "right-wing extremists" and efforts to link this at least in spirit to the Tea Party movement, the "raucous" town hall attendees, and the Republican Party. Among those doing so was Democratic Party State Chair Pat Waak (emphasis added):

"We ought to be having a serious, conscientious debate about what's best for the country," Waak said. "Clearly there's been an effort on the other side to stir up hate. I think this is the consequence of it."

But this is the age of Google and online data. After one of the perps, Maurice Schwenkler, was arrested, it took about 15 minutes to discover that he is a radical leftist who last fall worked for the Colorado Citizens Coalition, an SEIU front organization that worked on behalf of Democratic candidates. Its major contributors included the AFL-CIO, NARAL, and two of the ultra-rich leftists who over the past few election cycles have bought the State of Colorado for the Democrats, Tim Gill and Pat Stryker.

Schwenkler was also arrested at the Republican National Convention. So much for the "right-wing extremists" meme. Tell DHS they can go back to researching the "right-wing threat" on those wacko leftist websites from which they've been getting their best information.

The People Press Collective has been all over this from the beginning and has everything you'll ever want to know. Start at the bottom of the post and work your way up through the baker's dozen updates.

As an earlier PPC post put it, this was "More Reichstag Fire than Kristallnacht."

If you're as smart as I thing you are (you're reading this, aren't you?), you won't be surprised to learn that the Democrats aren't offering any apologies.

Subscribe To Site:

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: colorado, democrats, health care, leftists, politics, propaganda | 2 Comments »

Health care counter-demonstration in Denver

Posted by Richard on August 26, 2009

Denver Democrats are going to demonstrate in favor of government-controlled health care at 5 PM this Friday at Tivoli Commons on the Auraria campus (900 Auraria Parkway). Zombyboy thinks it would be great for those of us who think differently to counter-demonstrate, and afterward adjourn to someplace nearby to partake of some adult beverages:

For some of y’all, you might want to show up and show your support. Me, I’d like to show up and remind folks that there are a lot of us who don’t like their ideas. Either way, it sounds like a good place and time for a little friendly shouting.

And, after, we can raise a beer to each other’s health at a near-by bar. If the Boiler Room at the Tivoli hadn’t closed, it would be the perfect place (at least, I think it’s closed–if anyone knows better, I’d be happy to hear). The default position, of course, would be Weinkoop, but I’m open to suggestion.

Let me know what y’all think, and spread the word.

Count me in. If you're in the Denver area, how about it? Add a comment over at ResurrectionSong if you have any suggestions for afterward. Or just to say you're coming. Or to say something amusing, or clever, or whatever.

UPDATE: Organizing for America (the Obamacare bus tour organizers) has made a last-minute location change to North High School, 2960 N. Speer Blvd. (Federal & Speer), 1.75 miles north of the previous location. I suspect we'll still be at Brooklyn's (901 Auraria Pkwy.) afterward. But check the comments at ResurrectionSong for late news.

Subscribe To Site:

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: denver, health care, rally | 2 Comments »

Another benefit of global warming

Posted by Richard on August 26, 2009

Turn up your air conditioner. Fire up the barbecue grill. Gas up your SUV and take a road trip. If human CO₂ production is in fact warming the planet, you'll be helping to make the desert bloom. And millions of Africans will thank you. This happy news comes from those right-wing shills for industry at National Geographic:

Desertification, drought, and despair-that's what global warming has in store for much of Africa. Or so we hear.

Emerging evidence is painting a very different scenario, one in which rising temperatures could benefit millions of Africans in the driest parts of the continent.

Scientists are now seeing signals that the Sahara desert and surrounding regions are greening due to increasing rainfall.

If sustained, these rains could revitalize drought-ravaged regions, reclaiming them for farming communities.

This desert-shrinking trend is supported by climate models, which predict a return to conditions that turned the Sahara into a lush savanna some 12,000 years ago.

The green shoots of recovery are showing up on satellite images of regions including the Sahel, a semi-desert zone bordering the Sahara to the south that stretches some 2,400 miles (3,860 kilometers).

Images taken between 1982 and 2002 revealed extensive regreening throughout the Sahel, according to a new study in the journal Biogeosciences.

The study suggests huge increases in vegetation in areas including central Chad and western Sudan.

The transition may be occurring because hotter air has more capacity to hold moisture, which in turn creates more rain, said Martin Claussen of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg, Germany, who was not involved in the new study.

…

In the eastern Sahara area of southwestern Egypt and northern Sudan, new trees-such as acacias-are flourishing, according to Stefan Kröpelin, a climate scientist at the University of Cologne's Africa Research Unit in Germany.

"Shrubs are coming up and growing into big shrubs. This is completely different from having a bit more tiny grass," said Kröpelin, who has studied the region for two decades.

In 2008 Kröpelin-not involved in the new satellite research-visited Western Sahara, a disputed territory controlled by Morocco.

"The nomads there told me there was never as much rainfall as in the past few years," Kröpelin said. "They have never seen so much grazing land."

"Before, there was not a single scorpion, not a single blade of grass," he said.

"Now you have people grazing their camels in areas which may not have been used for hundreds or even thousands of years. You see birds, ostriches, gazelles coming back, even sorts of amphibians coming back," he said.

"The trend has continued for more than 20 years. It is indisputable."

Sounds pretty good to me. I think I'll go increase my carbon footprint.

Subscribe To Site:

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: africa, global warming, rain, research, science | 6 Comments »

The next Joe the Plumber

Posted by Richard on August 24, 2009

Barack Obama made a mistake last fall when, while walking a neighborhood, he approached "Joe the Plumber" Wurzelbacher. This ordinary "common man" turned out to be an articulate, passionate, and courageous advocate for individual liberty, limited government, and the free market, and he became a hero to those of us who share those American values.

One of the reasons that I never remain pessimistic for very long is that this country seems to produce an endless supply of Joe the Plumbers. At an August 18 town hall meeting, Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA) made a mistake similar to Obama's when he called on Marine Corps veteran David Hedrick. Baird has found for us another Joe the Plumber.

Via NewsBusters, here is Hedrick's statement about the video below:

"I, David William Hedrick, a member of the silent majority, decided that I was not going to be silent anymore. So, I let U.S. Congressman Brian Baird have it. I was one questioner out of 38, that was called at random from an audience that started at 3,000 earlier in the evening. Not expecting to be called on, I quickly scratched what I wanted to say on a borrowed piece of paper and with a pen that I borrowed from someone else in the audience minutes before I spoke. So much for the planned talking points of the right wing conspiracy."

I cheered right along with the audience. Then I watched it again and cheered again. Bravo, David William Hedrick!

Subscribe To Site:

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: congress, constitution, courage, free speech, health care, politics, public opinion | 2 Comments »

Vets told they’re going to die; oops, it was a mistake

Posted by Richard on August 24, 2009

Those of us opposed to government-controlled health care for everyone have pointed to the VA health care system as an example of what to expect — waste, fraud, abuse, inadequate care, and bureaucratic bungling. In the latest example of the latter, the VA erroneously notified 1200 veterans that they had ALS, or Lou Gherig's disease, which is fatal.

The letters to the 1200 were purportedly to inform them of benefits available to ALS patients. I can't help but wonder if one of the "benefits" they were offered was the "Your Life, Your Choices" workbook and associated counseling.

Hey, it's not a "death panel" — it's just a tool to help vets decide how to face their demise and whether they want to be a "burden for my family." No pressure — unless you consider "push-polling" feelings of helplessness and despair and laying a guilt trip on a vulnerable person in a stressful situation to be pressure.

The VA just wants to help vets with ALS decide what to do. If they decide to spare their families (and the VA budget) by getting out of the way now instead of waiting for their inevitable death, it's their choice, right?

Oh, wait, I forgot. They don't have ALS, and they're not going to die. It was all just a mistake. I hope none of them have completed the "Your Life, Your Choices" workbook yet…

Subscribe To Site:

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: bureaucracy, health care, veterans | 4 Comments »

Recess Rally report

Posted by Richard on August 22, 2009

Today was Nationwide Recess Rally Day, with opponents of government-controlled health care demonstrating at local congressional offices all across the country. So I headed over to Rep. Dianne DeGette's office at 600 Grant St., along with Jed Baer (who I'm sure will resurrect his blog Real Soon Now). We got there a little before the noon start of the event, and there were already about a dozen people there, including David Aitken (who's been silent for too long himself).

The DeGette office event was not a big deal (no media coverage). The main event apparently was something up in Thornton (a northern suburb) featuring Reps. Ed Perlmutter and Jared Polis. It was advertised by their offices as a "fair housing" event, but the Obama machine emailed supporters to show up in support of government-controlled health care. So of course, the pro-freedom movement got wind of that and urged their supporters to show up as well. Hear Us Now has a nice report of both events, noting this about the Thornton gathering (emphasis added):

While we were very similar in number, 300 or so to each side of the issue, the way we got there was much different.

The majority of you came because of emails sent by Hear Us Now, sent by other groups, sent by individuals and by word of mouth. While they arrived mostly because of one email sent by Organize for America, the Barack Obama political machine.

The majority of you carried hand made signs and spoke based upon the facts which you have learned about health care by familiarizing yourselves with HR 3200. They carried mostly signs supplied by OFA and they spoke in OFA talking points.

The conversations I had were very frustrating as those I spoke to were frighteningly uninformed and could only repeat the same three to four points. Nearly every person I spoke to who was in favor of nationalizing health care spoke the very same words to me that the previous person had spoken to me.

At about 10:00 the crowd was spilt in half by the police and an area was cleared for Jared Polis to come speak to us. He spent about 15 min and took five to six questions.

Ed Perlmutter had previously beat a hasty retreat and was no where to be found.

So, to the credit of Mr. Polis he at least took the time to address the crowd, took questions from both sides of the issue and was honest in stating that he does support the government option.

Down in Denver, we had a nice, pleasant rally, with no crazies around on either side. The pro-freedom folks were a cheerful, friendly bunch. There were two or three pro-Obamacare people amongst us from the beginning, and I had a very nice long conversation with one of them.

This gentleman was curious about my sign, "Hands Off My HSA" (homemade, of course). He has an HSA himself and wondered why I thought it was in danger. I informed him that under H.R. 3200 (the House bill), HSA plans would be outlawed. He seemed skeptical. I asked if he'd read any of the bill. Of course, he hadn't. He'd only heard the "scare stories" of the opponents and the "refutations" of those. He admitted that he really didn't know the facts, he was just more inclined to believe what the side to which he was sympathetic was saying.

I told him I'd read or skimmed about 2/3 of the 1018 pages and was familiar with its restrictions on health insurance plans. The bill describes in meticulous detail the four insurance plans, from Basic to Premium Plus, that could be offered as "qualified plans" (and everyone has to have a "qualified plan") — coverage, co-pays, out-of-pocket limits, etc. None of them would permit any kind of HSA plan. He seemed surprised, but not entirely sure I could be believed.

We discussed some other issues in a very amiable and productive manner, with me admitting that HSAs don't solve the problem of the $8/hr. worker, and him admitting that it's cynical of the left to suddenly proclaim that they want "choice and competition." I think I scored some points with my arguments for a nationwide insurance market and tax deductibility of individual insurance premiums. All in all, a very nice discussion. I certainly didn't convert him to my point of view, but I gave him some things to think about and disabused him of the notion that anyone opposed to Obamacare must be an ignorant yahoo.

A bit later, someone who had the air of "community organizer" about him arrived with a van-load of pro-Obama people, all equipped with professionally-printed signs. As he was shepherding them into our midst, he was also texting something back to Central Command or whatever on his Blackberry. At that point, I became the most obnoxious guy at the rally, taunting him with things like, "Are you guys from ACORN? Are the union goons on the way?" Some others picked up on my smack-talk, yelling "Astroturf! Astroturf!" He and his minions (hirelings? acolytes?) soon retreated to the other side of 6th Avenue (a major arterial).

Once again, the difference in the signs struck me (and clearly put the lie to the left's claim that we're the astroturf side). All the signs on our side were either hand-lettered (like mine) or printed on someone's inkjet printer. There were a couple or three hand-made signs on the other side (including the gentleman I talked with), but the rest all had the same signs right from the commercial print shop.

My favorite sign read "Bureaucracy – the sodium silicate of the economy." The women carrying it said sheepishly, "it's a bit Dennis Milleresque," and I said that yes, it was, but that was a good thing.

I estimated our crowd at 40-50. Hear Us Now claims an actual count of 52. I estimated the l'Obamatized contingent at 10-12, and Hear Us Now counted 10.

Throughout the 90 minutes or so that we were there, passing cars honked and waved at us frequently and enthusiastically. Of course, there was also the occasional thumbs-down. All in all, it was a fun time, and I was quite pleased by how well-received we were by passers-by.

I can't wait until the big 9-12 Rally at the state capitol (and in Washington, and in many other locations across the country).

Hear Us Now has a photo page. They're mostly from Thornton, but a few are from Denver. Here are the two you need to see. I'm in the yellow Gadsden flag t-shirt, Jed has the huge beard and TRT t-shirt, and David is the one in the silly hat signing a letter to DeGette (first picture). Click the pictures to see larger versions.

So, was DeGette there, you're wondering. On a Saturday? In her office working? You must be kidding. Besides, she'd already done here "health care forum." It was a phone forum. With everyone muted, and a moderator controlling who could speak. "You will listen to me, and speak only when spoken to."

Subscribe To Site:

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: health care, obama, politics, public opinion, rally | 3 Comments »

Quote of the day

Posted by Richard on August 21, 2009

"Obama's health care plan will be written by a committee whose head, John Conyers, says he doesn't understand it. It'll be passed by a Congress that has not read it, signed by a president who smokes, funded by a Treasury chief who didn't pay his taxes, overseen by a Surgeon General who is obese, and financed by a country that's nearly broke. What could possibly go wrong?"
— Rush Limbaugh

Subscribe To Site:

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: big government, health care, obama | Leave a Comment »

Neil Diamond

Posted by Richard on August 21, 2009

God help me, I really like Neil Diamond. I know that makes me a hopeless old geezer in the eyes the youngsters out there, but there — I’ve said it. By pure luck, I had the TV tuned to CBS (watching Craig Ferguson) when all of a sudden, on comes a Neil Diamond concert special recorded in New York in August 2008. I’m lovin’ it!

The cognoscenti and literati have always sneered at Neil Diamond. Not me. I think he’s one of the 20th century’s great writers and performers of pop music. And he and his backing band are still putting out great versions of some of the catchiest, most toe-tapping tunes ever. As the lyric of “Cherry Cherry” says, “Can’t stand still while the music’s playin’.”

“You are the sun, I am the moon, You are the words, I am the tune, play me.”

Neil goes back to the NY neighborhood in which he grew up, looking for the apartment in which he lived from 6 to 16. In front of the bodega on the corner, a black woman (late 20s or early 30s) recognizes him and tells him how much she loves his music. Then cut to him talking with several black youths. He says he’s coming back to his old neighborhood. One of them asks if he’s a photographer or something. He says he’s a singer and suggests maybe they’ve heard of some of his songs, naming “Sweet Caroline” and several others. Blank stares. He mentions “Red, Red Wine,” and several of them recognize it, one saying, “I know the reggae version.” Then he visits old apartment and tells current tenant about how he and his brother would roller skate in the living room until the woman downstairs hit her ceiling with a broom handle and they knew to stop. Very moving.

This bit of reality TV is followed by Diamond performing “I Am, I Said,” a song about being in LA and missing NY.

Now I’m New York City born and raised
And nowadays I’m lost between two shores
LA’s fine, but it ain’t home
New York’s home, but it ain’t mine no more
I am, I said to no one there
No one heard me at all
Not even the chair

Wow. I always loved that song, but it was really special after seeing those scenes of him revisiting the old neighborhood.

“Pretty Amazing Grace” — what a great song. Amazing work by the band. Compare depth and seriousness of that with “Cherry Cherry.” (Both good, though.)

Great horn section.

“Sweet Caroline” — pop songs don’t get much better than this. Melody, lyrics, rhythm, everything — just wonderful. But this live performance is transcendent because of the audience participation. If you get a chance to watch this, crank up the volume (it helps if you’ve got HD with 5.1 sound).

“Hell, Yeah” — wonderful, introspective, anthemic, motivational.

“America” — even more moving after the introductory video of Diamond talking about his immigrant parents (with Ellis Island footage in the background). The song is wonderful, but the audience is really wonderful. Listen to their response to this celebration of immigrants — it will dispel any notion that we’re a bunch of xenophobes.

Subscribe To Site:

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: music | Leave a Comment »

MSNBC takes media mendacity to a new level

Posted by Richard on August 21, 2009

It's been increasingly obvious for several years that the majority of the mainstream media are no longer attempting to report the news honestly and fairly, they're attempting to create news and manipulate public opinion.

No outlet has been a worse offender in the past year or so than MSNBC. But their August 18th story about demonstrators near the VFW convention in Phoenix marked a shameful new low even for them (emphasis in 1st pgf from original; later emphasis added):

On Tuesday, MSNBC’s Contessa Brewer fretted over health care reform protesters legally carrying guns: "A man at a pro-health care reform rally…wore a semiautomatic assault rifle on his shoulder and a pistol on his hip….there are questions about whether this has racial overtones….white people showing up with guns." Brewer failed to mention the man she described was black.

Following Brewer’s report, which occurred on the Morning Meeting program, host Dylan Ratigan and MSNBC pop culture analyst Toure discussed the supposed racism involved in the protests. Toure argued: "…there is tremendous anger in this country about government, the way government seems to be taking over the country, anger about a black person being president….we see these hate groups rising up and this is definitely part of that." Ratigan agreed: "…then they get the variable of a black president on top of all these other things and that’s the move – the cherry on top, if you will, to the accumulated frustration for folks."

Not only did Brewer, Ratigan, and Toure fail to point out the fact that the gun-toting protester that sparked the discussion was black, but the video footage shown of that protester was so edited, that it was impossible to see that he was black. The man appeared at a health care rally outside of President Obama’s speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Phoenix, Arizona.

Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson has called for the firing of everyone responsible for this blatant piece of propaganda (emphasis added):

According to the Wilson letter to Capus, in the MSNBC broadcast at 10:45AM on August 18th “your anchors hysterically raised the specter of impending racial violence — while carefully cropping the very video upon which they based their duplicitous charges. Leading audiences nationwide to believe that militant whites were mounting violence against a black President, they deliberately covered up the fact that the individual they were framing was himself African-American.”

The broadcast showed a video of a man with a machine gun [wrong; it was a semi-automatic rifle] at a protest against the government-run health care legislation in Arizona, a state where citizens are permitted to carry firearms openly.

“His face and hands were cropped out so that viewers could not see that the man was black as the broadcasters breathlessly reported that he was a rightwing white militant,” Wilson explained in a statement.

“This simply goes beyond the pale, and has never in my memory been seen in what is supposed to be a legitimate news broadcast,” Wilson said.

ALG has video of both the MSNBC broadcast and a local Phoenix news interview with the gun-toting black man.

The Second Amendment Foundation has also denounced this deliberate dissemination of lies (emphasis added):

“What MSNBC purposely did not reveal with the deliberately doctored video is that the man carrying that sport-utility rifle was an African-American,” said SAF founder Alan Gottlieb. “MSNBC knows the man was black, yet all they showed in a brief film clip was a close-up of the rifle against the man’s neatly-pressed dress shirt. It was impossible to tell the man’s race.

“This is a detestable attempt to manipulate public sentiment,” he continued, “in MSNBC’s continuing effort to perpetuate a stereotype of gun owners as white racists. It was even suggested during the segment by MSNBC culture critic Toure that it would not be surprising ‘if we see somebody get a chance and take a chance and really try to hurt’ the president.

“By irresponsibly fomenting this kind of racial divisiveness through the use of carefully-edited video,” Gottlieb stated, “MSNBC is not simply reporting news, it is provoking a reaction. If any harm comes to the president, MSNBC’s hate-mongering should be blamed.

“I wonder,” Gottlieb conclude, “if Keith Olbermann is going to name MSNBC as the worst news network in the world.”

Note: I'm not defending the judgment of the unnamed black man with the rifle and pistol, or his armed friends. Just because you have the right to do something doesn't mean it's the right or wise thing to do. In the interview, he seemed quite reasonable and articulate, and his point about conditioning people not to freak out when they see an armed citizen is quite valid. But if that's his goal, he should openly carry that pistol on his hip when he goes grocery shopping, buys gas, and picnics in the park. In my opinion, from a tactical and public relations perspective, just outside a presidential appearance is not a good place to make that particular point.

But that's neither here nor there. The issue here is MSNBC's cynical manipulation of the video footage to convey an outrageous lie in furtherance of their vicious disinformation campaign against those who oppose the Obama agenda and its drive toward socialism.

Subscribe To Site:

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: fraud, journalism, media bias, propaganda | 3 Comments »

Fascist medicine

Posted by Richard on August 20, 2009

Bob Bidinotto sees right through the Senate's "co-op alternative" to the much-reviled "public option":

Understand that the “co-op” would be funded by the government (i.e., the taxpayers). More importantly, to get admission into the co-op, insurers would have to abide by the new governmental regulations regarding coverage, treatments, premiums, etc.

…

… This is no liberal “retreat” from governmental health care. The new “co-op” is explicitly intended to be “a competitor to private insurers.” While ObamaCare would inject this new government entity into the healthcare marketplace, it simultaneously would:

1. Impose onerous, costly new mandates on private insurers

2. Mandate participation by unwilling individuals and small businesses, under penalty of whopping fines

3. Outlaw any private insurers that refused to adopt the new government-imposed rules

4. Compel taxpayers to fund the arrangement

Eventually, inevitably, the only private insurers that could survive this arrangement would have to operate like branch offices of the Medicare program — simply administering government “mandated” coverage, services, treatments, medicines, etc.

Rather than “single payer” socialized medicine, then, this would be more like fascist medicine: a merely nominal “private” system, in which a handful of big health care insurers and providers took their marching orders from the federal government.

The problem isn't the co-op, or even the public option. It's the rest of the bill. I've actually read most of H.R. 3200 (PDF) — admittedly, I skimmed much of the 1018 pages. I haven't seen any of the 3 or 4 Senate versions (no one has; only portions have been printed and released), but I suspect the fundamental features are the similar in all of them.

The House bill strictly defines 3 levels of health insurance coverage and loosely defines a fourth, "premium plus" level, and these are the only policies that private insurers could legally offer. That's not just to get admission to the co-op, as Bidinotto believes, but to do business at all.

Every conceivable aspect of how health care is insured, provided, assessed, and reimbursed is mandated in excrutiating detail. All of that, and the 4 points Bidinotto listed above, would be there even if neither a "public option" nor a "co-op" were included. And Bidinotto's conclusion would still be the case.

With or without a public option, with or without a co-op, with or without whatever other fillips they come up with or sops to squishy Republicans they propose, the Democrats' plan to "reform" health care will be an abomination, a monstrosity, an unmitigated evil that a free people cannot tolerate and must stop.

Subscribe To Site:

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: bureaucracy, democrats, health care, medicine, nanny state, obama | 3 Comments »

Sheehan still protesting war

Posted by Richard on August 19, 2009

Mama Sheehan (a.k.a. "Mama Moonbat") is going to try doing to Barack Obama what she did to George Bush:

Cindy Sheehan, whose son died in Iraq, will join hundreds protesting the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq at Martha's Vineyard where Pres. Obama and his family will be vacationing.

Sheehan will be arriving on Tuesday August 25, 2009.

…

Her statement was released from her home in California:

“First of all, no good social or economic change will come about with the continuation or escalation of the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. We simply can’t afford to continue this tragically expensive foreign policy.

“Secondly, we as a movement need to continue calling for an immediate end to the occupations even when there is a Democrat in the Oval Office. There is still no Noble Cause no matter how we examine the policies. …”

Byron York noted that, judging from the recent Netroots Nation conference (successor to YearlyKos), most of her former allies won't be joining, or supporting, or even paying much attention to her (emphasis added):

… The meeting didn't draw much coverage, but the views of those who attended are still, as they were in 2006, a pretty good snapshot of the left wing of the Democratic party.

The news that emerged is that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have virtually fallen off the liberal radar screen. Kossacks (as fans of DailyKos like to call themselves) who were consumed by the Iraq war when George W. Bush was president are now, with Barack Obama in the White House, not so consumed, either with Iraq or with Obama's escalation of the conflict in Afghanistan. In fact, they barely seem to care.

As part of a straw poll done at the convention, the Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg presented participants with a list of policy priorities like health care and the environment. He asked people to list the two priorities they believed "progressive activists should be focusing their attention and efforts on the most." The winner, by far, was "passing comprehensive health care reform." In second place was enacting "green energy policies that address environmental concerns."

And what about "working to end our military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan"? It was way down the list, in eighth place.

Perhaps more tellingly, Greenberg asked activists to name the issue that "you, personally, spend the most time advancing currently." The winner, again, was health care reform. Next came "working to elect progressive candidates in the 2010 elections." Then came a bunch of other issues. At the very bottom — last place, named by just one percent of participants — came working to end U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.

…

… For many liberal activists, opposing the war was really about opposing George W. Bush. When Bush disappeared, so did their anti-war passion.

On an earlier York column about Sheehan, commenter RHO1953 said it rather nicely:

I do not agree with Ms. Sheehan about anything. We probably couldn't reach consensus about the time of day, but I have to give her credit for consistency. She believes in her cause irrespective of whether a liberal or conservative is in power. At least she's not a hypocrite like Pelosi, Reid, Waxman, Murtha, Kerry and Durbin.

At HolyCoast.com, Rick Moore contrasted the effectiveness of the anti-war movement and the anti-socialized-medicine movement:

The left has been strangely silent about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan since rainbows and unicorns came into power in January, but our favorite ditch person, Cindy Sheehan, Mama Moonbat herself, wants the antiwar left to mimic the Tea Party protesters who are thwarting Obamacare. The antiwar left griped for years and held big rallies, but never had the kind of effect on national policy that the anti-Obamacare folks have had in a few weeks.

Why? Republicans knew she and her merry band of Code Pinkos were a bunch of kooks and they weren't intimidated. They just ignored the petulant outbursts. Obama knows he's not dealing with kooks, but people who could really make an impact on his presidency.

Well, the biggest difference is numbers. It's clear from the turnouts at tea parties and town halls and the recent poll numbers that public sentiment has swung fast and hard against socialized medicine, and the anti-Obamacare movement has the support of the majority already.

That didn't happen with the anti-war movement. For years, they were clearly a small minority. Eventually, as the sectarian fighting undermined support and war fatigue set in, a significant portion of the population became nominally opposed to the Iraq campaign, but for the vast majority of them it was never strong, strident opposition — just discouragement, disillusionment, and disinterest. We never saw mainstream America joining the whackjobs at the anti-war rallies.

Anyone who's been to a tea party rally, on the other hand, knows that it's very much mainstream America.

Moore added:

Let's see if Obama is as tolerant of her protests as Bush was.

Oh, I think he will be. Most of her cohort have moved on, and the media are focused on the "right-wing crazies" who are killing health care reform and inexplicably failing to show the proper respect for our enlightened rulers in Washington. Sheehan will get little attention and pose no significant challenge to Obama on the war issue.

If anything, Obama may welcome such smatterings of dissent from the left. They permit him to position himself as attacked by extremists on both sides, and therefore clearly the voice of reason and moderation. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Subscribe To Site:

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: health care, leftists, moonbats, obama, pacifism, protests, tea party, war | Leave a Comment »

The Chavez crusade against golf

Posted by Richard on August 18, 2009

I almost missed the latest episode in Venezuela's long descent into night. The proclamations and edicts of Hugo Chavez seem to alternate between terrifying and absurd. This is one of the absurd ones:

As part of his determination to march Venezuela backward, Hugo Chavez has an opportunistic new target: Golf.

He says, using leftist terminology long out of fashion, that golf is a "bourgeois sport," even a "petit-bourgeois" sport. That's roughly middle class and lower-middle class, suggesting Chavez has no idea what those terms really mean.

According to The New York Times, he's moving to confiscate two of the country's best-known courses to build low-income housing or expand a university campus or create a children's park or something. An earlier attempt by Chavez allies to seize the Caracas Country Club was beaten back, but Venezuelan golf officials told the Times that under pressure from Chavez the country is going from 28 courses to 18.

Chavez seems to retain the old image of golf as the sport of plutocrats, a notion he would be thoroughly disabused of by playing a couple of rounds on the municipal courses of any medium-size U.S. city.

Somewhere outside of Caracas, someone is saying, "They can have my nine iron when they pry it from my cold, dead hands."

Of course, although it may prompt a chuckle, in some sense even the crusade against golf is terrifying. With each such bit of thuggish nonsense, it becomes clearer that there is no aspect of life in Venezuela that this tinpot tyrant doesn't aim to control.

Subscribe To Site:

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: chavez, demagoguery, totalitarianism | Leave a Comment »

Upcoming health care events

Posted by Richard on August 16, 2009

Here's some information about upcoming events that's a bit more timely and of broader interest than my post about the Grand Junction rally.

Nationwide Recess Rally: On Saturday, Aug. 22, the Sam Adams Alliance and other groups are jointly sponsoring a series of rallies in front of congressional offices across the country. Go to Recess Rally and click your state to see time, place, and contact information for your state's rallies. Then go to the Sam Adams health care portal for some intellectual ammunition (and be sure to sign the Free Our Health Care Now petition if you aren't one of the 1.1 million plus who've signed it already).

Town Hall Meetings: Check the Club for Growth congressional town hall calendar for meetings in your area. Note that all times are Eastern, so be sure to adjust for your time zone.

Tea Party Express: From Aug. 28 to Sept. 12, the Tea Party Express bus tour will host tea parties in nearly three dozen cities across the country, starting in Sacramento and ending in Washington, D.C. Check the schedule for a stop in your area (it's no accident that many of the stops are in the home towns of Democratic congresscritters who may be vulnerable in 2010).

09.12.09 March on Washington: On Saturday, Sept. 12, FreedomWorks Foundation and 25 other organizations are sponsoring a march to and rally at the U.S. Capitol. Related activities will begin the preceding Thursday. For an event schedule, map, and to register (free), go here. Visit 912DC.org for more information, news, and to order the official t-shirts.

Other events around the country: There will be plenty of other events around the country before, on, and after Sept. 12. To see what's happening near you and get contact info for local groups, visit Tea Party Patriots. If you can't go to Washington on Sept. 12 (and most of us can't), there is most likely a local event on that date that you can take part in. Please, please, please do so.

Get involved. Get active. Do something. We're on The Road to Serfdom, my friends, and guy behind the wheel has his foot on the accelerator. We need to scream "stop!" at the top of our lungs.

Subscribe To Site: