Archive for August, 2009
At Obama’s Staged Town Hall: The Mercenaries Came From Massachusetts On Buses
Wednesday, August 12th, 2009Yes they did. Why? I wonder if the Democrats couldn’t find supporters in New Hampshire.
Houstonians: Sheila Jackson Lee Takes A Call During Civilized Town Hall
Wednesday, August 12th, 2009No, no. They’re not elitists. Not at all.
Latest Pajamas Article: Sarah Palin Defines The Health Care Debate P.S. Where’s Mitt Romney?
Wednesday, August 12th, 2009“Death panels” got the Left all excited and Republicans cowering. D.C. sure loathes straight talk about anything. Sarah Palin does the Republicans a favor by defining the debate in philosophical terms while they stay mired in details:
President Barack Obama fights for soft European socialism. Governor Sarah Palin fights for free-market American individualism.
Many of the punditry on both sides get lost in the minutiae of the bill. Republicans, defensive about the narrative pushed forward by the media that they don’t have any plans, have been furiously demonstrating that they do, in fact, have plans. And, of course, they do. There are bipartisan plans. Jim DeMint has a plan. The Senate doctors Coburn and Barrasso, both Republicans, have discussed, thoroughly and thoughtfully, the different health care plans. It has been excellent and educational. And in a way, they’re all missing the point. Both Republicans and Democrats have plans.
First, though, Americans need to decide the foundational philosophical questions. Is the safety of a government-run health care system worth the risk to freedom and individual liberties? Do we believe the government can be more efficient and cost-effective than the free market?
I hope you’ll go read the whole thing. While the rest of the Republican hopefuls for 2012 are awfully quiet–where is Mitt Romney on health care? Why isn’t he defending the mess he set up in Massachusetts? Since he seems to be the all but declared favorite by the punditry and everyone else, it’s fascinating who is NOT saying anything.
P.S. As a note on John’s survey of bloggers where Sarah Palin came in #2 of most favored conservatives, it’s interesting how the grizzled blogger-corp remains impressed with her. Most political bloggers are, ironically, less emotionally attached to any politician–they know the beast too well to “believe in” a candidate. Sarah Palin’s plain-spoken, common-sense takes on big ideas like health care, energy, etc. are winning her respect.
Does A Path Lead From Anti-Palin Blogger Jesse Griffin To The White House?
Tuesday, August 11th, 2009Dan Riehl has found a story in the non-anonymous blogger Jesse Griffin’s anti-Palin hatred and it is leading some strange places. All the puzzle pieces are not together yet, but a picture is starting to form and it is looking very suspect. You simply must read the whole post. It is investigative journalism at it’s finest.
The players include a supposedly anonymous blogger, a Montessori school owned by Democrats where the blogger has never been seen but is, ostensibly employed, a big Democratic donor, tax liens, stimulus funds, health care reform, and Democratic political campaigns.
UPDATED:
From Stacy McCain:
Because some liberal troll-commenters at Riehl World View have pretended not to see the dots that Dan has connected, I’ve offered a simple summary:
1. Jesse Griffin’s “employer of record” is Puffin Heights Montessori school.
2. Employees of that school told Dan that they have never seen Griffin at the school.
3. Former Alaska resident Catherine New was once listed as “primary contact” for the Puffin Heights school.
4. The Puffin Heights school was apparently bankrupted by IRS tax judgments and reorganized circa 2002, with “Yolanda Baber” listed as head of the LLC.
5. Online investigator Joseph Culligan has been unable to verify the existence of a “Yolanda Baber” in Anchorage.
6. Meanwhile, Catherine New and her husband, Eligio White, have prospered in the health-care industry and are “progressive” activists whose business recently received $4.3 million of stimulus money.
Hillary Clinton’s Hissy Fit
Tuesday, August 11th, 2009I got this from RightWingSparkle and it had me laughing. Some might not think this whole episode is very becoming…or funny. John at Powerline rightly notes that Hillary is “still angry after all these years”:
The Clintons’ “two for the price of one” shtick was always pretty weird. Hillary Clinton’s one great career move was marrying Bill, a political genius. But she often seemed to be burning with rage because her own equal, if not superior, merit was going unrecognized. That’s never really changed, even though Hillary has gone on to enjoy her own career in recent years.
Jules Crittenden says, “She’s BAAAAAAACK”:
It’s the Hill we all know and love from the campaign. Upstaged by Bill, with Obama and Biden out there on the road, doing her job, the last straw was in Kinshasha today when some hapless Congolese university student asked her, “What does Mr. Clinton think, through the mouth of Mrs. Clinton …” CBS has the vid. She looks around, a little stunned, then commences operations on Joe College, with big scary eyes. Money quote follows:
“Wait, you want me to tell you what my husband thinks? My husband is not secretary of state, I am.”
AP has the story, how she’s been out of circulation, plus the history of this “complicated couple.” OK, rest of the quote:
“If you want my opinion, I will tell you my opinion. I am not going to be channeling my husband.”
Isn’t Ms. Clinton so very diplomatic and dignified? Restart button, indeed.
Rationing Health Care: Orgeon’s Example [Awesome Video]
Tuesday, August 11th, 2009Best video demonstrating who will make your health care decisions should the dreaded “public option” aka single payer aka Government Run Health Care become a reality:
I’ve also written about the taxpayer funded propaganda here.
Podcast 29: Red Meat Edition–Astroturf And Death Panels
Tuesday, August 11th, 2009You are so hungry for some red meat. I just know it. Well, my guest on this podcast, Caleb Howe of Redstate and The American Spectator, delivers the conservative perspective in a way only a former Marine can give it–straight shooting. We talk about the Astroturf hypocrisy and why Sarah Palin’s message on health care works.
You can find Caleb at Acticons.com, RedState and the American Spectator. He is also very active on Twitter.
Melissa’s show can also be found on RFC Radio every Monday and Wednesday night at 10:00 pm Eastern.
To subscribe on iTunes, just click here!
When Melissa isn’t on the radio, you can find her at melissaclouthier.com and on Twitter. Her username is MelissaTweets.
– Also, don’t forget to check out our other shows on Take That! –
*** click here to grab the latest Steve Schippert Show ***
*** click here to grab the latest Brass Balls Radio Episode ***
*** click here to grab the latest Raisin’ Hale show ***
A Reality Check For Whitehouse.gov/realitycheck
Tuesday, August 11th, 2009Two separate problems are inherent with www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck. One, it’s pure Obama propaganda. Two, it’s funded by you, the taxpayer.
In my American Issues Project column today, I take on the reality of the six narratives the President puts forward via his proxies in videos there. I’ll share two “reality checks” here, but I hope you’ll read the whole thing.
The topic of the day seems to be “death panels”. President Obama and his representatives insist that utilitarian and actuarial arguments will have nothing to do with decisions. People are skeptical for very good reasons:
“The ‘euthanasia’ distortion on help for families” Related to the rationing concern, euthanasia is like unto it–rationing begets denial of care. Containing costs, when administrative costs are out of control (a problem with all bureaucracies), means denying high-cost items. Since the majority of health care costs come at the end of life, the bureaucracy is going to look at limiting end-of-life care. This is just common sense.
So, what that will mean is this: Grandma might have a two weeks left, but if parental nutrition (IV nutrition) was withheld, she would die in three days, instead. This results in enormous cost savings. It may also deprive the family of her last waking moments. It may deprive the family of time to say last good-byes, etc. These are intangibles. Life and death and the choices around them are incredibly personal. The government board who decides such things will, by cost-cutting necessity, insert themselves and be making moral (or immoral, depending on one’s perspective) decisions. This is a valid concern.
There are five other myths over there including talking about current Medicare recipients, veterans benefits paying for care, rationing, keeping your own insurance, etc. The most snort-worthy is that government run health care is good for small business:
“Reform will benefit small business – not burden it” This statement is just laugh-out-loud worthy. The best treatment of this subject is by Patty Briguglio, small business owner. I urge you to read her whole article. Here’s a snippet:
The president plans to use revenue from these higher taxes to pay for the $634 billion health care reform reserve fund. The administration’s new health care mandate would require employers like me either to offer health insurance to our employees or to pay an unspecified percentage of our payroll toward the cost of a national plan. Right now, I give each of my employees an allowance toward health care — essentially, they obtain the health insurance plan of their choice, and I reimburse them. In most cases, this allowance covers 100 percent of the cost of their insurance. Some of my employees worry that under the administration’s new mandate, they would not be allowed to keep their current insurance plans.
So, the plan will tax small businesses, but give them a tax credit. Guess what happens when costs sky-rocket? That’s right. Buh-bye to the tax credit. Furthermore, small business, already struggling with cash flow, decreased credit availability, a shrinking market and increased overhead proportional to profits, will have to pay more taxes? This is an economy killer and small business people know this. So does the administration.
Again, please go read the whole thing. As a taxpayer, you should be very concerned that the Obama administration is using the power of their pulpit to give bad information this way.
President Obama’s Illegal Fishing Scheme
Monday, August 10th, 2009As a side note, Linda Douglass is one of many of the press’ true believers who joined the Obama White House. She wasn’t biased when she was a reporter. Nosirree!
Reading Attention-Span Demanding Books In A Digital ADD World
Monday, August 10th, 2009James Joyner writes that he reads books less, now, and non-fiction at that, because he is reading all day in front of the computer:
I read non-fiction almost exclusively and have gone from being a book person to an article person. The efficiency of getting 85 percent of the point in eight pages that I would get in 300 pages has made it so that I seldom read books cover-to-cover. Even very fine books, such as David Kilcullen’s The Accidental Guerilla, are hard to finish because my inner editor quickly says “yeah, yeah — you’ve already said that in a slightly different way in the previous chapter.” To be sure, each new case study reveals additional nuances. But everything beyond the introductory chapter presents a very high work to reward ratio.
His whole post is worth a read. Ha!
Here’s what I’ve noticed: Now, I have to force myself to read outside of my computer time. Since working, writing and blogging on the computer, I find salient information more easily but the over arching big picture can get lost. That is, it is very easy to major in the minors when immersed online.
To step back, I’ll read non-fiction, sure. Before my intense online time, that’s almost exclusively what I read, but I have found my mind craving a different sort of information. When in Chiropractic college, majoring in the minors was also a problem. My intellectual life was broken down into biochemistry, microbiology, anatomy, physiology, embryology, pathology, etc. Likewise, today, my intellectual life is broken down into health care, taxes, economics, energy, and a myriad other policy choices. What I need is big picture.
Big picture ideas often come from two sources now–fantasy literature and magazine reading. What magazines? Certainly not Newsweek which has all the information of any propaganda. I lean toward magazines like Architectural Digest and Scientific American. Seems unrelated, right? But really, there are “big” ideas in both. What is new and different? What expands my world view? That’s what I hunger for in the age of bytes and bits.
So while I do feel my attention span has changed, I will sit for a good book or a good picture or a well-thought out article that expands my thought-scope. My patience for shoddy writing has dwindled. I just don’t have time to sit through a marginally good book. (I will read culturally relevant books on vacation–I should have been paid money to read the Golden Compass trilogy, for example. And those books won awards. Blech.)
Far from destroying my reading ability (except for limited time), the internet age has refined and shaped my leisurely reading desires. The internet has made me expect more.
