Archive for March, 2009
Government Run Health Care Sacrificing Lives For Dollars–UPDATED
Sunday, March 22nd, 2009Decisions must be made, right?
Kim Priestap follows the line of choices made that may have resulted in Natasha Richardson’s potentially unnecessary death. Quebec has a fine fleet of unusable medical planes and no helicopters.
Socialized medicine often makes decisions that are expedient but immoral. How much is a life worth? It suddenly becomes worth more when a helicopter ride could save it.
More on Richardson’s injury here.
UPDATE: Don Surber quips, “Once again, a government health care plan figures out how to save money on health care — by saving fewer lives.”
Congressional Democrats Faith And Hope In The One Seems Quaint These Days
Friday, March 20th, 2009“I have received the word of President Obama….”
The Obligatory Obama Special Olympics Post–UPDATED
Friday, March 20th, 2009I have a special needs child. He looks like you’d imagine a special needs child looks when he throws a ball. He looks like you’d imagine a special needs child looks when he catches a ball. He looks like you’d imagine a special needs child looks when he runs. He looks like you’d imagine a special needs child looks when he bowls. He rode the short bus for a while.
Sounds hilarious doesn’t it? You know, running, throwing, bowling awkwardly because of muscle imbalances and fear of falling and fear of being hit by the ball. What’s amazing is that his Little League teammates haven’t laughed or poked fun. Not. Once. They have managed to show more class, patience, empathy and charity than the President of the United States, but that’s turning out to be no big feat.
Last night, Barack Obama joked with Jay Leno that it’s like “watching Special Olympics” to watch him bowl:
Hilarious.
The joke doesn’t bother me so much, though. It’s just more evidence that our President is a small man. This is the man who talked about Jessica Simpson’s weight gain. This is the man who gave unworkable DVDs to our staunchest ally as a gift. This is the man who slyly flipped off John McCain and his current Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Speaking of Hillary… This is the administration who gave a mis-translated red button to the Russians saying “reset”. Do they not realize that by diminishing the past administration and making fun of it at every turn they undermine their own power and respect?
They have no respect for the offices or the power or authority they hold. None.
So, the President of the United States will go on late night talk-shows. It is beneath the office but since he has no respect for the office, it’s impossible to tear it down. Bookworm says:
The President, of course, said he didn’t mean to offend anyone, and I believe it. Nasty just rolls off him naturally, without any effort on his part. He’s done this offensive trash talk before. Remember how you condescendingly told Hillary she was “nice enough?” Or how about his offering that “I’ll put Mr. Burgess up against Sean Hannity. They’ll tear him up.” That’s not presidential. That’s school yard talk, and school yard talk from the kid who isn’t nice. Popular, maybe. But nice? Definitely not.
Now, to the guts of the Politically Correct nonsense. Imagine a Republican had said something similar. Remember “Macaca”? Yeah, the career of a good man was buried because of a verbal slip such as Obama’s last night. Those on the right are outraged, but is the Left? No, they figure you should “get a sense of humor“, you know, because making fun of ‘tards is funny.
UPDATED with more from The Anchoress (go to her site, she has loads of links to the Left’s gaffes–she has a long memory and better search functions than me, I think):
Perhaps President Obama, who received a rather tidy Book Advance just before he was sworn in, (does anyone else remember how Newt Gingrich got castigated for ‘using his office to sell a book’?) should donate some of the proceeds of his advance, say…I dunno, 90% – to the Special Olympics, to show he doesn’t really think that it’s okay to joke about “extra chromosome people” like Al Gore did (yes, I remember everything). Or, at least, that he should not insult disabled people by comparing them to himself, or to political junkies, in general.
As a political junkie, I can say that.
Sigh. One almost gets tired of saying it, but one must say it, still: Can you IMAGINE what the press and the Dems would do with that, had Bush said it. Can you IMAGINE what the press and the Dems would have done with the Irish PM Teleprompter gaffe (the press has helpfully embargoed the video, so Obama doesn’t have to see it playing 24/7, as Bush would have – had Bush so gaffed). Can you IMAGINE what the press and the Dems would have done if Bush had given the Prime Minister of Great Britain a lousy pack of 50 “Classic” DVD’s that didn’t work in the UK?
The Leftists in this country, once again reveal their hypocrisy. They want to control your language but when their beloved makes stupid gaffe after stupid gaffe and reveals his lack of character, it’s funny, not pathetic.
The fact is, the Left in our country don’t mind stooping to sexism (Sarah Palin), racism (Michelle Malkin, Michael Steele), religion (Gun-clingers, Joe Lieberman), classism (Joe the Plumber, any American not Democrat), etc. when it suits them. But they’ll turn like vicious hyenas on anyone who say, does, or thinks something outside what they decide is politically correct.
Meanwhile, the Right believes in free speech. So those on the Right feel that if the President wants to make an ass of himself, he’s welcome to do so. Is it offensive? Sure. It isn’t much different than shock jock Howard Stern’s sexist jokes or the unfunny and leftist darling Don Imus’ saying “nappy headed hoes“. Listen or don’t, it’s up to you.
So the Right tends to roll their eyes at the un-p.c. shenanigans of the Left. It’s hypocritical, we tell ourselves, to believe in free speech and then admonishing someone on the left for exercising that right and revealing himself to be a jerk. That time is over. I call bullshit. The Left can start following their own rules or embrace free speech again. It’s their choice, but they can’t get away with this double-standard any more.
Back to Barack and bowling: Would I like the President of the United States to have some measure of decorum? Sure. That would be nice. It’s not going to happen with Barack Obama. And his hate speech (come on, you know if a Republican said this it would be called hate speech) represents a very nasty character flaw and deep insecurity. But anyone paying attention before the election would have seen that too.
President Barack Obama diminishes himself, the office and the country. It’s embarrassing. But you know, Americans choose presidents who, for better or worse, represent themselves. He fits right in to the base, crass culture. Far from being better or smarter, like we were told during the election, he’s baser and cruder. It’s interesting watching so many try to defend the indefensible.
UPDATED:
And for classy contrast:
Michael Goldfarb says, “Right now President Palin is sounding pretty good, and it’s not like she couldn’t have figured out how to print money, drive the stock market down, or fill out an NCAA bracket. Also, Andrew Sullivan might want to do some shoe-leather reporting on this but the way Piper is doting on Trig, it seems awfully maternal.”
“Disabled” Fat People Demand More
Friday, March 20th, 2009I can’t believe that Rachel Lucas hasn’t smacked this English bottom, but since she’s hasn’t and is instead focusing on Obama’s military aspirations, I will (smack the English, fat bottom).
Americans are fat and unhappy these days, but in Britain, that gets you government help:
The family from Blackburn claim £22,508 a year in benefits, equivalent to the take-home pay from a £30,000 salary.
The Chawners, haven’t worked in 11 years, claim their weight is a hereditary condition and the money they receive is insufficient to live on.
Mr Chawner said: “What we get barely covers the bills and puts food on the table. It’s not our fault we can’t work. We deserve more.”
The family claim to spend £50 a week on food and consume 3,000 calories each a day. The recommended maximum intake is 2,000 for women and 2,500 for men.
“We have cereal for breakfast, bacon butties for lunch and microwave pies with mashed potato or chips for dinner,” Mrs Chawner told Closer magazine.
“All that healthy food, like fruit and veg, is too expensive. We’re fat because it’s in our genes. Our whole family is overweight,” she added.
That’s approximately $43,448.78 American, take home, for sitting around with “bad genetics” and eating.
Well, hell. I need to move to England. Curse my Scottish, squat genes. Curse my proclivity to sit on my sorry rear behind a computer all day. Curse my desire for Coca-Cola. I can’t help it! I need to be bailed out.
This entitlement impulse is what keeps Barack Obama as popular as he is right now. We are at a tipping point here in America: the scales are moving in favor of hands out and me-first-and-more-than-my-fair-share. And why not? Where is the incentive to work and be self-sufficient when you can sit at home and eat all day, morally justified to boot.
H/T Tom Elia and reader Lorne
ACORN Again: Now With New York Times Editors Killing Unfavorable Obama Stories–UPDATED
Thursday, March 19th, 2009The New York Times killed a story connecting ACORN (Association for Community Organizations for Reform Now) with the Barack Obama campaign in late October asserts Republican National Lawyers Association Vice President Heather Heidelbaugh in a blogger conference call following her testimony before the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. NYT writer Stephanie Strom’s last report about ACORN was issued October 22, 2008 and the source for her stories was Anita MonCrief, a former ACORN employee and whistleblower.
The damaging story written by Ms. Strom connected Barack Obama’s campaign with ACORN. Obama gave ACORN leaders a list of maxed out donors and suggested that ACORN contact them and tell them to donate to ACORN instead, says Ms. Heidelbaugh. Stephen Rhodes notes this back on October 30, 2008:
During her court appearance, Ms. MonCrief testified that in 2007 Project Vote development director Karyn Gillette informed her that she had direct contact with the Obama campaign and had obtained their donor lists; she also added that she was given a spreadsheet for use in soliciting potential donors who had spent the maximum on donations already made to the candidate but who could contribute to the voter registrations. As expected, Project Vote denied the charges. Ms. MonCrief added that when she had difficulty with what appeared to be duplicate names on the list, Ms. Gillette told her that she would get a revised copy from the Obama campaign.
Ms. MonCrief sought out Ms. Heidelbaugh after the story was killed because she wanted to go under subpoena and give testimony as to ACORN’s illegal actions. (Ms. Heidelbaugh brought suit against the Pennsylvania chapter of ACORN for irregularities during the Obama campaign.)
Ms. Heidelbaugh listed ten ACORN issues ranging from ACORN encouraging duplicate registrations as a fund raiser because every registration, duplicate or not, got ACORN $17 to ACORN destroying documents in New Orleans to the “Money for Muscle” program also known internally as the “Protection Program”. This latter problem is described by the Washington Times as “Mob Tactics“:
The prepared testimony described two facets of the “muscle for the money” program, an official and unofficial program.
The “official” program is the name of the ACORN voter-registration drives. The Obama campaign paid an ACORN affiliate group more than $800,000 for these get-out-the-vote services during the primary race, though the expenditure was initially misrepresented to the Federal Election Commission as for “sound and lighting equipment,” but later corrected.
The “unofficial” program collected payments to organize protests. For example, the Service Employees International Union hired ACORN to harass the Carlyle Group, a global private equity firm. Other paid protests targeted Sherwin-Williams, H&R Block, Jackson Hewitt and Money Mart, according to the testimony.
The protests then became a way to extract corporate donations.
“The protesting was used to get companies to negotiate. The companies would pay money to get the protesting to stop,” Ms. Heidelbaugh said, quoting Ms. Moncrief’s court testimony. “In addition to calling this activity ‘Muscle for the Money,’ the insiders at ACORN called it ‘protection.’ ”
The testimony elicited dismay from Representative John Conyers (D-MI), especially when the sub-committee chairman indicated that no further investigation would be forthcoming.
Within ACORN, the board has been unhappy with the accounting methods and general accountability after it was discovered that ACORN Founder Wade Rathke’s brother Dale had stolen $1 million in ACORN funds. The behind-the-scenes outrage continues.
Even still ACORN marches on. In February, the group received federal funds (tax payer dollars) to work with the Census Bureau. Fox News reports:
But ACORN’s partnership with the 2010 Census is worrisome to lawmakers who say past allegations of fraud should raise concerns about the organization.
“It’s a concern, especially when you look at all the different charges of voter fraud. And it’s not just the lawmakers’ concern. It should be the concern of every citizen in the country,” Rep. Lynn A. Westmoreland, R-Ga., vice ranking member of the subcommittee for the U.S. Census, told FOXNews.com. “We want an enumeration. We don’t want to have any false numbers.”
ACORN, which claims to be a non-partisan grassroots community organization of low- and moderate-income people, came under fire in 2007 when Washington State filed felony charges against several paid ACORN employees and supervisors for more than 1,700 fraudulent voter registrations. In March 2008, an ACORN worker in Pennsylvania was sentenced for making 29 phony voter registration forms. The group’s activities were frequently questioned in the 2008 presidential election.
Will the worriers just worry — or will they do something about it? The Bush White House kept the taxpayer pipeline open for eight years. John McCain spoke at an ACORN/shamnesty event. Hoping for change? Not bloody likely.
So ACORN will carry out official state business, conduct illegal operations at Barack Obama’s behest, and the paper of record cannot be counted on to report the dirty dealings. Who will keep account of those meant to keep government officials accountable? Or have the press and the Left become one and the same?
UPDATE:
Marathon Pundit has much more:
Heidelbaugh told us she asked the House subcommittee to provide oversight over ACORN, “in regards to to the numerous violations of law, because they continue to seek and receive federal tax dollars.”
Powerful stuff. In fact, so much so that Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, repeatedly requested that Nadler hold an ACORN oversight hearing. Nadler was noncommital.
The ranking Republican on Nadler’s subcommittee, Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, issued a press release about today’s hearing:
Vote fraud is an extremely serious issue, and must be dealt with using a firm hand to ensure the sanctity of our Constitution and the integrity of our elections are upheld.
The allegations brought forth against the practices of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, better known as ACORN, during and after the 2008 presidential campaign, as well as the testimony we heard today about ACORN’s sketchy accounting practices, potential voter fraud and coordination with the Obama campaign deserve to be examined closely.
I am in complete agreement with Judiciary Chairman Conyers repeated requests that we should hold an oversight hearing dedicated to examining ACORN’s activities. Constitution Subcommittee Chairman Nadler made no commitments during the hearing. If he is unwilling to hold a subcommittee hearing, then we should have a full committee hearing on ACORN to start getting to the bottom of these issues and ensure vote fraud plays no part in our elections process.
Flowers For Men–UPDATED
Thursday, March 19th, 2009I have sent men flowers and received [faked?] gratitude every time. Men, would you like to receive flowers? Caveat: They are manly, not frilly, not girlie, not feminine flowers.
UPDATE: The Enlightened Redneck has some thoughts.
