At the top right hand corner of Page 17 of the New York Post of January 24th, 2009, was a short column entitled “Replacing Michelle” in the National Review “The Week” column. Here it is, word for word, as it appeared:
Some employees are simply irreplaceable. Take Michelle Obama: The University of Chicago Medical center hired her in 2002 to run “programs for community relations, neighborhood outreach, volunteer recruitment, staff diversity and minority contracting”.
In 2005, the hospital raised her salary from $120,000 to $317, 000 nearly twice what her husband made as a Senator.
Oh, did we mention that her husband had just become a US Senator? He sure had. Requested a $1 million earmark for the UC Medical Center, in fact. Way to network Michelle!
But now that Mrs. Obama has resigned, the hospital says her position will remain unfilled. How can that be, if the work she did was vital enough to be worth $317,000?
We can think of only one explanation: Senator Roland Burris’s wife wasn’t interested. Let me add that Michelle’s position was a half time, 20 hour a week job. And to think they were critical of Blagoyovich’s wife for taking $100,000 in fuzzy real estate commission.
Question: How did this bit of quid pro quo corruption escape the sharp reporters that dug through Sarah Palin’s garbage and kindergarten files?
Filed under: Conservative Perspective, Obama and the Media, The Left, US Economics
And it came to pass in the Age of Insanity that the people of the land called America, having lost their morals, their initiative, and their will to defend their liberties, chose as their Supreme Leader that person known as “The One.” He emerged from the vapors with a message that had no meaning; but He hypnotized the people telling them, “I am sent to save you. My lack of experience, my questionable ethics, my monstrous ego, and my association with evil doers are of no consequence. For I shall save you with Hope and Change. Go, therefore, and proclaim throughout the land that he who preceded me is evil, that he has defiled the nation, and that all he has built must be destroyed.”
And the people rejoiced, for even though they knew not what The One” would do, he had promised that it was good; and they believed.
And The One said, “We live in the greatest country in the world. Help me change everything about it!”
And the people said, “Hallelujah!! Change is good!”
Then He said, “We are going to tax the rich fat-cats.”
And the people said, “Sock it to them! And redistribute their wealth. Show us the money!”
And then He said, “Redistribution of wealth is good for everybody.”
And Joe the plumber asked, “Are you kidding me? You’re going to steal my money and give it to the deadbeats??”
And The One ridiculed and taunted him, and Joe’s personal records were hacked and publicized.
One lone reporter asked, “Isn’t that Marxist policy?” And she was banished from the kingdom!
Then a citizen asked, “With no foreign relations experience and having zero military experience or knowledge, how will you deal with radical terrorists?”
And The One said, “Simple. I shall sit with them and talk with them and show them how nice we really are; and they will forget that they ever wanted to kill us all!”
And the people said, “Hallelujah!! We are safe at last, and we can beat our weapons into free cars for the people!”
Then The One said, “I shall give 95% of you lower taxes.”
And one, lone voice said, “But 40% of us don’t pay ANY taxes.”
So The One said, “Then I shall give you some of the taxes the fat-cats pay!”
And the people said, “Hallelujah!! Show us the money!”
Then The One said, “I shall tax your Capital Gains when you sell your homes!”
And the people yawned and the slumping housing market collapsed.
And He said, “I shall mandate employer-funded health care for EVERY worker and raise the minimum wage. And I shall give every person unlimited healthcare and medicine and transportation to the clinics.”
And the people said, “Give me some of that!”
Then he said, “I shall penalize employers who ship jobs overseas.”
And the people said, “Where’s my rebate check?”
Then The One said, “I shall bankrupt the coal industry and electricity rates will skyrocket!”
And the people said, “Coal is dirty, coal is evil, no more coal! But we don’t care for that part about higher electric rates.”
So The One said, “Not to worry. If your rebate isn’t enough to cover your expenses, we shall bail you out. Just sign up with ACORN and your troubles are over!”
Then He said, “Illegal immigrants feel scorned and slighted. Let’s grant them amnesty, Social Security, free education, free lunches, free medical care, bilingual signs and guaranteed housing…”
And the people said, “Hallelujah!!” And they made him King!
And so it came to pass that employers, facing spiraling costs and ever-higher taxes, raised their prices and laid off workers. Others simply gave up and went out of business and the economy sank as a rock dropped from a cliff. The banking industry was destroyed.
Manufacturing slowed to a crawl. And more of the people were without a means of support.
Then The One said, “I am the The One – The Messiah – and I’m here to save you! We shall just print more money so everyone will have enough!”
But our foreign trading partners said unto Him, “Wait a minute. Your dollar is not worth a pile of camel dung! You will have to pay more…”
And the people said, “Wait a minute. That is unfair!!”
And the world said, “Neither are these other idiotic programs you have embraced. Lo, you have become a Socialist state and a second-rate power. Now you shall play by our rules!”
And the people cried out, “Alas, alas!! What have we done?”
But yea verily, it was too late. The people set upon The One and spat upon him and stoned him, and his name was dung. And the once mighty nation was no more; and the once proud people were without sustenance or shelter or hope. And the Change The One had given them was as a poison that had destroyed them and like a whirlwind that consumed all that they had built.
And the people beat their chests in despair and cried out in anguish, “Give us back our nation and our pride and our hope!!”
But it was too late, and their homeland was no more.
Dear American liberals, leftists, social progressives, socialists, Marxists and Obama supporters, et al:
We have stuck together since the late 1950’s, but the whole of this latest election process has made me realize that I want a divorce. I know we tolerated each other for many years for the sake of future generations, but sadly, this relationship has run its course. Our two ideological sides of America cannot and will not ever agree on what is right so let’s just end it on friendly terms. We can smile and chalk it up to irreconcilable differences and go our own way.
Here is a model separation agreement:
Our two groups can equitably divide up the country by landmass each taking a portion. That will be the difficult part, but I am sure our two sides can come to a friendly agreement. After that, it should be relatively easy! Our respective representatives can effortlessly divide other assets since both sides have such distinct and disparate tastes.
We don’t like redistributive taxes so you can keep them. You are welcome to the liberal judges and the ACLU. Since you hate guns and war, we’ll take our firearms, the cops, the NRA and the military. You can keep Oprah, Michael Moore and Rosie O’Donnell (You are, however, responsible for finding a bio-diesel vehicle big enough to move all three of them).
We’ll keep the capitalism, greedy corporations, pharmaceutical companies, Wal-Mart and Wall Street. You can have your beloved homeless, homeboys , hippies and illegal aliens. We’ll keep the hot Alaskan hockey moms, greedy CEO’s and rednecks. We’ll keep the Bibles and give you NBC and Hollywood .
You can make nice with Iran and Palestine and we’ll retain the right to invade and hammer places that threaten us. You can have the peaceniks and war protesters. When our allies or our way of life are under assault, we’ll help provide them security.
We’ll keep our Judeo-Christian values.. You are welcome to Islam, Scientology, Humanism and Shirley McClain. You can also have the U.N.. but we will no longer be paying the bill.
We’ll keep the SUVs, pickup trucks and oversized luxury cars. You can take every Subaru station wagon you can find.
You can give everyone healthcare if you can find any practicing doctors. We’ll continue to believe healthcare is a luxury and not a right. We’ll keep The Battle Hymn of the Republic and the National Anthem. I’m sure you’ll be happy to substitute Imagine, I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing, Kum Ba Ya or We Are the World.
We’ll practice trickle down economics and you can give trickle up poverty your best shot. Since it often so offends you, we’ll keep our history, our name and our flag.
Would you agree to this? If so, please pass it along to other like minded liberal and conservative patriots and if you do not agree, just hit delete. In the spirit of friendly parting, I’ll bet you ANWAR which one of us will need whose help in 15 years..
Sincerely,
John J. Wall
Law Student and an American
P.S. Also, please take Barbara Streisand & Jane Fonda with you.
Greetings once again from The West Texas Branch Of Jingoistic Gun Clinging RIght Wing Smear Merchants…
This past week has been pretty interesting and pretty pathetic at the same time. I guess it all depends on whether you are a socialist or not.
APOLOGIES: In the past I have made some rather unkind remarks directed at CIA Director Leon Panetta. After his performance this past week, I must sincerely apologized to Mr. Panetta. He showed some rare courage for an Obama appointee. Mr. Panetta actually stood behind his people in the CIA. And what really made it nice, he stood up to Nancy Pelosi who has been running completely out of control for a couple of years. I appreciated Mr. Panetta’s honesty and sincerely hope he continues to do the right thing.
Before I get off the subject of apologies, I would like to point out that while I was sincere in my apology to Mr. Panetta, President Barack Obama’s habit of being apparently in a “Whining Apology
Mode” appears to make some unnecessary apologies to foreign leaders purely for political purposes. Sort an “Apology of Convenience” which is a reasonably hollow, insincere move. BUT, once again, President Barack Hussein Obama is a 100% hollow and insincere person so why would we expect anything different?
VICE PRESIDENTS:
For eight years members of the Democrat/Socialist Party constantly whined and moaned about how Vice President Dick Cheney was secretive and hard to approach. I do seem to remember during that time period that Vice President Cheney was interviewed a number of times and never failed to intelligently answer questions asked of him. Of course there were exceptions when Vice President Cheney declined to provide information when he felt that it was against the best interest of the American people and the American Military. But the price he paid was an eight year tirade by the liberal media against him and in some instances his family.
This past week I watched several interviews with Vice President Cheney regarding intensified interrogation techniques used on certain terrorists who were/are prisoners of our government. I found nothing in Vice President Cheney’s answers which was either false, misleading or unreasonable. Of course his statements and answers did not fare well with the democrat/socialist agenda.
Then on the other hand we now have as the Vice President of the United States one Joseph Biden, who never met a microphone he didn’t like. And for those of you who thought Joseph Biden spoke out of turn and said stupid stuff and told outright lies during the campaign, do not despair. Vice President Biden is still saying things which would lead one to believe that he perhaps possesses the I.Q. of a potted plant. Last week he made some statement to the idiotic press about the location of some secret location where elected officials go during dangerous situations.
Don’t you just wish that the terror suspects, whom we are presently holding, enjoyed giving out information half as much as our present Vice President? To put my views on the intelligence of Joseph Biden in proper perspective, I sort of view him as the very last lemming in line who has watched all the rest of the lemmings run off the cliff into the sea and just can’t wait to get to the edge so that he can also plunge to his certain death (but look good doing it).
TAX:
I was listening to a report earlier in the week where the subject was state income taxes. I can’t remember how many states they said had no state income tax, but among them were Texas and
Florida. Then they asked the question about which two states were currently experiencing rapid growth in population and business moving from other states. Guess which two states they said were in the lead? Give up? Texas and Florida. They gave out one figure that states with no state income tax created 89% (for those of you presently residing in the People’s Republic of San Francisco that
would be EIGHTY NINE PERCENT or almost 9 out of every 10) more jobs than the states with high state income taxes. Of course California and New York were in the lead in those states where people and companies are leaving in droves.
MISCELLANEOUS:
I was listening to one morning talk radio show and the guest was some quack who had made a film which is to be shown in a California Public School District. Many parents were trying to stop the showing of the film which is slated to be presented to children in this district from grades K through 5. The film is part of some type of “Diversity” training which someone has decided should be presented to young children. According to this woman, the school system should have more say in this training than should the parents of the children. And of course this goof heifer came out with “Our diversity is our strength.” I have heard this statement for too many years to even mention. And my opinion still remains that it is NOT the diversity of the American people which has made us strong, but rather the ABILITY TO WORK PAST OUR DIFFERENCES, which has made us a strong country. But the thought of some beetle who is in it for the money having more to say on the education of our children than the parents of those children makes me want to burst into flames.
But this sort of goes along with the thinking of the Obama administration. The Obama administration believes that they should have more to say about: what we own; what we drive; what we eat; what we watch; what we hear; how our money should be spent; where and in what we live; how we should feel; how our medical treatments are handled; and a myriad of other items which I believe is in better hands of individual American citizens than at the mercy of these elected fools.
I also watched a little fiasco which was put on at the White House yesterday. Of course President Barack Hussein Obama began this program by introducing Nancy Pelosi and talking about what a GREAT JOB she was doing. For a moment, I thought Obama had been bitten by a rabid lizard and had momentarily been the victim of an attack of lunacy. But then it dawned on me that probably that was what came up on the tele-prompter and he is so accustomed to obeying the prompter that he just did what came naturally.
Then I wondered if there were another Nancy Pelosi to whom he might have been referring. Then after listening to him introduce a whole multitude of varmints, it dawned upon me that he was just following his socialist tendencies and was naturally drawn to complete turds.
I watched a few more minutes of the world’s most articulate and intelligent human tell the American people just exactly what they would all be driving within a few short years. But when he made
reference to how great all of the California regulations were working for the citizens of that state, he lost me and I had to either turn this crap off or kick in the screen on one of my television sets. HEY
BARACK!!!!! California is BROKE!! Why would you or anyone else want to pattern a government based upon the failed plans of Arnold and his predecessors?
Once again the Obama administration and our House and Senate appear to be backing some type of legislation designed to combat the interest rates instituted by the evil credit card companies. The main problem with this legislation is that while it seriously limits the changing interest rates being charged to people who are in debt up to their necks to various credit card companies, it does nothing to protect many who pay off their credit card bills every month with no interest. I have seen several programs who state that the money the credit card companies will lose on those people who owe many thousands to them, will be made up in a reduction of the cash rewards or other rewards earned by those who pay them off on time. There was even some talk about some of the credit card
companies begin their monthly interest charges to EVERYONE from the moment the charge is incurred.
We have had a couple of credit cards, which we have used for emergencies and when ordering by phone, for about 40 years. I do not recall ever paying any interest on any of the cards. Some of the
rewards we have gotten back were: $1400 cash refunded on a new pickup truck; $1700 refunded on the purchase of a new Oldsmobile; Cash refunded from Discover; Cash payments on purchases from one particular company. So, for the past 40 years or so, I have paid off our credit card bills in full each month and now we are to be penalized for doing something on time. I have a request for our Senate and House of Representatives: “Stay Home”!! “Do Nothing”! “Stop Helping Us”! “Start Helping Our Enemies”!
That last one would be the quickest way I can think of to really screw with Iran, Venezuela, and North Korea. I am convinced that our Congress could break those clowns within six months. Oh yeah, let our Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals handled all of their trials.
Filed under: Obama Stuff
Recently Michelle Obama went to serve food to the homeless at a government funded soup kitchen.
Cost of a bowl of soup at homeless shelter: $0.00 dollars
Having Michelle Obama Serve you your soup: $0.00 dollars
Snapping a picture of a homeless person who is receiving government funded meal while taking a picture of the first lady using his $500 Black Berry cell phone: Priceless
How does a homeless person afford a blackberry or even yet cell phone service. Is it also government funded? Oh yeah, that is why you and I are working!
If George W. Bush had made a joke at the expense of the Special Olympics, would you have approved?
If George W. Bush had given Tony Blair a set of inexpensive and useless (to Tony Blair’s UK video formatting) DVDs, when Tony Blair had given him a thoughtful and historically significant gift, would you have approved?
If George W. Bush had given the Queen of England an iPod containing videos of his speeches, would you have approved?
If George W. Bush had bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia, would you have approved?
If George W. Bush had visited Austria and made reference to the non-existent “Austrian language,” would you have brushed it off as a minor slip?
If George W. Bush had filled his cabinet and circle of advisers with people who cannot seem to keep current on their income taxes, would you have approved?
If George W. Bush had ordered the firing of the CEO of a major corporation, even though he had no constitutional authority to do so, would you have approved?
If George W. Bush had proposed to double the national debt, which had taken more than two centuries to accumulate, in one year, would you have approved?
If George W. Bush had then proposed to double the debt again within 10 years, would you have approved?
I guess the bigger questions is…….WOULD THE MAINSTREAM PRESS HAVE APPROVED???
So, tell me again, what is it about Obama that makes him so brilliant and impressive?
Filed under: Humor (If one can laugh at such a serious situation)
For those that don’t know about history … Here is a condensed version:
Humans originally existed as members of small bands of nomadic hunters/gatherers. They lived on deer in the mountains during the summer and would go to the coast and live on fish and lobster in the winter.
The two most important events in all of history were the invention of beer and the invention of the wheel. The wheel was invented to get man to the beer. These were the foundation of modern civilization and together were the catalyst for the splitting of humanity into two distinct subgroups:
1. Liberals, and
2. Conservatives.
Once beer was discovered, it required grain and that was the beginning of agriculture. Neither the glass bottle nor aluminum can were invented yet, so while our early humans were sitting around waiting for them to be invented, they just stayed close to the brewery. That’s how villages were formed.
Some men spent their days tracking and killing animals to B-B-Q at night while they were drinking beer. This was the beginning of what is known as the Conservative movement.
Other men who were weaker and less skilled at hunting learned to live off the conservatives by showing up for the nightly B-B-Q’s and doing the sewing, fetching, and hair dressing. This was the beginning of the Liberal movement.
Some of these liberal men eventually evolved into women. The rest became known as girlie-men. Some noteworthy liberal achievements include the domestication of cats, the invention of group therapy, group hugs, and the concept of Democratic voting to decide how to divide the meat and beer that conservatives provided.
Over the years conservatives came to be symbolized by the largest, most powerful land animal on earth, the elephant. Liberals are symbolized by the jackass.
Modern liberals like imported beer (with lime added), but most prefer white wine or imported bottled water. They eat raw fish but like their beef well done. Sushi, tofu, and French food are standard liberal fare. Another interesting evolutionary side note: most of their women have higher testosterone levels than their men. Most social workers, personal injury attorneys, journalists, dreamers in Hollywood and group therapists are liberals. Liberals invented the designated hitter rule because it wasn’t fair to make the pitcher also bat.
Conservatives drink domestic beer, mostly Bud. They eat red meat and still provide for their women. Conservatives are big-game hunters, rodeo cowboys, lumberjacks, construction workers, firemen, medical doctors, police officers, corporate executives, athletes, members of the military, airline pilots and generally anyone who works productively. Conservatives who own companies hire other conservatives who want to work for a living.
Liberals produce little or nothing. They like to govern the producers and decide what to do with the production. Liberals believe Europeans are more enlightened than Americans. That is why most of the liberals remained in Europe when conservatives were coming to America . They crept in after the Wild West was tamed and created a business of trying to get more for nothing.
Here ends today’s lesson in world history:
It should be noted that a Liberal may have a momentary urge to angrily respond to the above before deleting it.
A Conservative will simply laugh and be so convinced of the absolute truth of this history that it will be forwarded immediately to other true believers and to more liberals just to tick them off.
In 1929, the Soviet Union established gun control. From 1929 to 1953, about 20 million dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
——————————
In 1911, Turkey established gun control. From 1915 to 1917, 1.5 million Armenians, unable to
defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
——————————
In 1938, Germany established gun control. From 1939 to 1945, a total of 13 million Jews and others who were unable to defend themselves were rounded up and exterminated.
——————————
In 1935, China established gun control. From 1948 to 1952, 20 million political dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated
——————————
In 1964, Guatemala established gun control. From 1964 to 1981, 100,000 Mayan Indians, unable
to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
——————————
In 1970, Uganda established gun control. From 1971 to 1979, 300,000 Christians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
——————————
In 1956, Cambodia established gun control. From 1975 to 1977, one million educated’ people, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
—————————–
Defenseless people rounded up and exterminated in the 20th Century because of gun control: 56 million.
——————————
It has now been 12 months since gun owners in Australia were forced by new law to surrender
640,381 personal firearms to be destroyed by their own Government, a program costing Australia taxpayers more than $500 million dollars.
The first year results are now in:
List of 7 items:
Australia-wide, homicides are up 3.2 percent
Australia-wide, assaults are up 8.6 percent
Australia-wide, armed robberies are up 44 percent (yes, 44 percent)!
In the state of Victoria alone, homicides with firearms are now up 300 percent. Note that while the law-abiding citizens turned them in, the criminals did not, and criminals still possess their guns!
While figures over the previous 25 years showed a steady decrease in armed robbery with firearms,
this has changed drastically upward in the past 12 months, since criminals now are guaranteed that their prey is unarmed.
There has also been a dramatic increase in break-ins and assaults of the ELDERLY. Australian
politicians are at a loss to explain how public safety has decreased, after such monumental effort, and expense was expended in successfully ridding Australian society of guns The Australian experience and the other historical facts above prove it.
You won’t see this datum on the US evening news, or hear politicians disseminating this information.
Guns in the hands of honest citizens save lives and property and, yes, gun-control laws adversely
affect only the law-abiding citizens.
Take note my fellow Americans, before it’s too late!
The next time someone talks in favor of gun control, please remind them of this history lesson.
With guns, we are ‘citizens’. Without them, we are ’subjects’.
During WWII the Japanese decided not to invade America because they knew most Americans
were ARMED!
The purpose of fighting is to win. There is no possible victory in defense. The sword is more important than the shield, and skill is more important than either. The final weapon is the brain. All else is supplemental..
As John Steinbeck once said:
1. Don’t pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he’ll just kill you.
2. If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics stink.
3. I carry a gun because a cop is too heavy.
4. When seconds count, the cops are just minutes away.
5. A reporter did a human-interest piece on the Texas Rangers. The reporter recognized the Colt Model 1911 the Ranger was carrying and asked him ‘Why do you carry a 45?’ The Ranger responded, ‘Because they don’t make a 46.’
6. An armed man will kill an unarmed man with monotonous regularity.
7. The old sheriff was attending an awards dinner when a lady commented on his wearing his
sidearm. ‘Sheriff, I see you have your pistol. Are you expecting trouble?’ ‘No Ma’am. If I were expecting trouble, I would have brought my rifle.’
8. Beware the man who only has one gun. HE PROBABLY KNOWS HOW TO USE IT!!!
But wait, there’s more!
I was once asked by a lady visiting if I had a gun in the house. I said I did. She said ‘Well I certainly hope it isn’t loaded!’ To which I said, ‘Of course it is loaded, can’t work without bullets!’ She then asked, ‘Are you that afraid of someone evil coming into your house?’ My reply was, ‘No, not at all. I am not afraid of the house catching fire either, but I have fire extinguishers around, and they are all loaded too.’ To which I’ll add, having a gun in the house that isn’t loaded is like having a car in the garage without gas in the tank.
I’m a firm believer of the 2nd Amendment!
Filed under: Christian Perspective, Conservative Perspective, Obama Stuff, The Left
President Obama gets to make his first Supreme Court appointment and the people of this country get to see the real consequences of their vote last November…..It certainly isn’t going to be pretty. We must NEVER forget that this guy was the most liberal-voting Senator in Congress & his Court appointees will give us a chance to see the real Barack Obama.
What to expect? Pretty easy, actually. Just imagine that someone goes out to Berkeley and asks a Marxist grad student to suggest someone for the Supreme Court. Good chance that the student would come up with pretty much the same name that Obama will present.
This appointment will happen early enough in Obama’s first term that he will be able to safely go with a leftist radical. He knows the Republicans in Congress don’t have the votes to stop it & if they did, his second choice will also be a radical left-winger (maybe more-so than his 1st appointee) & the Republicans will finally have to give up & confirm.
All politicians know that the American people have short memories when it comes to voting. He can afford to appoint a leftist radical and still have plenty of time to pretend to move back to the center for the next campaign. Typical liberal politician………they have to deceive the American people in order to gain power.
Neal Boortz
Filed under: Humor (If one can laugh at such a serious situation), Who Is Obama?
Filed under: Humor (If one can laugh at such a serious situation)
Ben and Jerry’s is coming out with an unbelievable new ice cream in honor of the messiah who was just sworn in as our 44th President.
It is being churned in Washington DC and appropriately being named:
Baracky Road —-half chocolate and half vanilla surrounded by fruits and nuts.
Filed under: Conservative Perspective, Humor (If one can laugh at such a serious situation)
Joe, the average worker says:
Like a lot of folks in this state, I have a job. I work – they pay me. I pay my taxes and the government distributes my taxes as it sees fit. In order to get that paycheck, I am required to pass a random urine
test with which I have no problem. What I do have a problem with is the distribution of my taxes to people who don’t have to pass a urine test. Shouldn’t one have to pass a urine test to get a welfare check because I have to pass one to earn it for them? Please understand, I have no problem with helping people get back on their feet. I do, on the other hand, have a problem with helping someone sitting on their lazy butts, doing drugs, while I work. . . .
Can you imagine how much money the state would save if people had to pass a urine test to get a public assistance check?
Filed under: Humor (If one can laugh at such a serious situation)
A beautiful fairy appeared one day to a destitute refugee claimant outside a Maryland immigration office.
‘My good man,’ the fairy said, ‘I’ve been sent here by President Obama and told to grant you three wishes, since you just arrived in the United States with your wife and three children.’
The man told the fairy. ‘Well, where I come from we don’t have good teeth, so I want new teeth, maybe a lot of gold in them.’
The fairy looked at the man’s almost toothless grin and –
PING! — he had a brand new shining set of gold teeth in his mouth!
‘What else?’ asked the fairy, ‘two more to go.’
The refugee claimant now got bolder. ‘I need a big house with a three car garage in Annapolis on the water with eight bedrooms for my family and the rest of my relatives who still live in my country. I want to bring them all over here..
PING! – In the distance there could be seen a beautiful mansion with a three car garage, a long driveway, a walkout patio with a BBQ in an upscale neighborhood overlooking the bay.
‘One more wish’, said the fairy, waving her wand. ‘Yes, one more wish.
I want to be like an American, with American clothes instead of these tore cloths, and a baseball cap instead of this turban. And I want to have white skin like Americans.
PING! – The man was transformed, wearing worn out jeans, a Baltimore Orioles T-shirt and a baseball cap. He had his bad teeth back and the mansion had disappeared from the horizon.
‘What happened to my new teeth?’ he wailed. ‘Where is my new house?’
The fairy said ‘Tough s..t, Mac, Now that you are a White American, you have to fend for yourself.’
The first step to nationalized healthcare is hidden in the so called “stimulus” bill so much for the most ethical and open administration ever. Of course we have to look what BO’s chief of staff Rahm Emanuel said, we have to take advantage of this crisis to pass items the American people would never accept under normal circumstances.
The bill’s health rules will affect “every individual in the United States” (445, 454, 479). Your medical treatments will be tracked electronically by a federal system.
But the bill goes further. One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and “guide” your doctor’s decisions (442, 446). These provisions in the stimulus bill are virtually identical to what Daschle prescribed in his 2008 book, “Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis.” According to Daschle, doctors have to give up autonomy and “learn to operate less like solo practitioners.”
Keeping doctors informed of the newest medical findings is important, but enforcing uniformity goes too far.
New Penalties
Hospitals and doctors that are not “meaningful users” of the new system will face penalties. “Meaningful user” isn’t defined in the bill. That will be left to the HHS secretary, who will be empowered to impose “more stringent measures of meaningful use over time” (511, 518, 540-541)
What penalties will deter your doctor from going beyond the electronically delivered protocols when your condition is atypical or you need an experimental treatment? The vagueness is intentional. In his book, Daschle proposed an appointed body with vast powers to make the “tough” decisions elected politicians won’t make.
The stimulus bill does that, and calls it the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research (190-192). The goal, Daschle’s book explained, is to slow the development and use of new medications and technologies because they are driving up costs. He praises Europeans for being more willing to accept “hopeless diagnoses” and “forgo experimental treatments,” and he chastises Americans for expecting too much from the health-care system.
Elderly Hardest Hit
Daschle says health-care reform “will not be pain free.” Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them. That means the elderly will bear the brunt.
Medicare now pays for treatments deemed safe and effective. The stimulus bill would change that and apply a cost- effectiveness standard set by the Federal Council (464).
The Federal Council is modeled after a U.K. board discussed in Daschle’s book. This board approves or rejects treatments using a formula that divides the cost of the treatment by the number of years the patient is likely to benefit. Treatments for younger patients are more often approved than treatments for diseases that affect the elderly, such as osteoporosis.
In 2006, a U.K. health board decreed that elderly patients with macular degeneration had to wait until they went blind in one eye before they could get a costly new drug to save the other eye. It took almost three years of public protests before the board reversed its decision.
Hidden Provisions
If the Obama administration’s economic stimulus bill passes the Senate in its current form, seniors in the U.S. will face similar rationing. Defenders of the system say that individuals benefit in younger years and sacrifice later.
The stimulus bill will affect every part of health care, from medical and nursing education, to how patients are treated and how much hospitals get paid. The bill allocates more funding for this bureaucracy than for the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force combined (90-92, 174-177, 181).
Hiding health legislation in a stimulus bill is intentional. Daschle supported the Clinton administration’s health-care overhaul in 1994, and attributed its failure to debate and delay. A year ago, Daschle wrote that the next president should act quickly before critics mount an opposition. “If that means attaching a health-care plan to the federal budget, so be it,” he said. “The issue is too important to be stalled by Senate protocol.”
More Scrutiny Needed
On Friday, President Obama called it “inexcusable and irresponsible” for senators to delay passing the stimulus bill. In truth, this bill needs more scrutiny.
The health-care industry is the largest employer in the U.S. It produces almost 17 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product. Yet the bill treats health care the way European governments do: as a cost problem instead of a growth industry. Imagine limiting growth and innovation in the electronics or auto industry during this downturn. This stimulus is dangerous to your health and the economy.
(Betsy McCaughey is former lieutenant governor of New York and is an adjunct senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. The opinions expressed are her own.) To contact the writer of this column: Betsy McCaughey at Betsymross@aol.com
THE PARTY’S OVER, By Linda Monk
The Crash of 2008, which is now wiping out trillions of dollars of our people’s wealth, is, like the Crash of 1929, likely to mark the end of one era and the onset of another.
The new era will see a more sober and much diminished America . The ‘Omnipower’ and ‘Indispensable Nation’ we heard about in all the hubris and braggadocio following our Cold War victory is history.
Seizing on the crisis, the left says we are witnessing the failure of market economics, a failure of conservatism. This is nonsense. What we are witnessing is the collapse of Gordon Gecko (‘Greed Is Good!’) capitalism.
What we are witnessing is what happens t o a prodigal nation that ignores history, and forgets and abandons the philosophy and principles that made it great.
A true conservative (Rep or Dem) cherishes prudence and believes in fiscal responsibility, balanced budgets and a self-reliant republic.
He believes in saving for retirement and a rainy day, in deferred gratification, in not buying on credit what you cannot afford, in living within your means.
Is that really what got Wall Street and us into this mess — that we followed too religiously the gospel of Robert Taft and Russell Kirk? ‘Government must save us!’ cries the left, as ever.
Yet, who got us into this mess if not the government — the Fed with its easy money, Bush with his profligate spending, and Congress and the SEC by liberating Wall Street and failing to step in and stop the drunken orgy?
For years, we Americans have spent more than we earned. We save nothing. Credit card debt, consumer debt, auto debt, mort gage debt, corporate debt — all are at record levels. And with pensions and savings being wiped out, much of that debt will never be repaid.
Our standard of living is inevitably going to fall. For foreigners will not forever buy our bonds or lend us more money if they rightly fear that they will be paid back, if at all, in cheaper dollars. We are going to have to learn to live again within our means.
THE PARTY’S OVER!
Up through World War II, we followed the Hamiltonian idea that America must remain economically independent of the world in order to remain politically independent.
But this generation decided that was yesterday’s bromide and we must march bravely forward into a Global Economy, where we all depend on one another.
American companies morphed into ‘Global Companies’ and moved plants and factories to M exico , Asia, China , and India , and we began buying more cheaply from abroad what we used to make at home: shoes, clothes, bikes, cars, radios, TVs, planes, computers.
As the trade deficits began inexorably to rise to 6 percent of GDP, we began vast borrowing from abroad to continue buying from abroad.
At home, propelled by tax cuts, war in Iraq and an explosion in social spending, surpluses vanished and deficits reappeared and began to rise. The dollar began to sink, and gold began to soar. Yet, still, the promises of the politicians come.
Barack Obama will give us national health insurance and tax cuts for all but that 2 percent of the nation that already carries 50 percent of the federal income tax load.
Who are we kidding?
What we are witnessing today is how empires end. The Last Superpower is unable to defend its borders, protect its currency, win its wars, or balance its budget.
Medicare and Social Security are headed for the cliff with unfunded liabilities in the tens of trillions of dollars.
What we are witnessing today is nothing less than a Katrina-like failure of government, of our political class, and of democracy itself, casting a cloud over the viability and longevity of the system.
Notice who is managing the crisis. Not our elected leaders. Nancy Pelosi says she had nothing to do with it.
Congress is paralyzed and heading home. President B ush is nowhere to be seen.
Hank Paulson of Goldman Sachs and Ben Bernanke of the Fed chose to bail out Bear Sterns but let Lehman go under. They decided to nationalize Fannie and Freddie at a cost to taxpayers of hundreds of billions, putting the U. S. government behind $5 trillion in mortgages.
They decided to buy AIG with $85 billion rather than see the insurance giant sink beneath the waves.
Unelected financial elite is now entrusted with the assignment of getting us out of a disaster into which an unelected financial elite plunged the nation.
We are just spectators.
What the Greatest Generation handed down to us — the richest, most powerful, most self-sufficient republic in history, with the highest standard of living any nation had ever achieved — the baby boomers, oblivious and self-indulgent to the end, have frittered away.
How do WE THE PEOPLE put the villains who are responsible under oath and sit them down at public hearings to determine whose necks should meet the guillotine?
Hypocritically, those who had oversight responsibility such as Senator Chris Dodd [Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee] and Barney Frank [Chairmen, House Financial Services Committee] who helped get us into this mess are on every TV channel voicing their righteous indignation and pompously sitting on their elevated platform glaring down at those they are chastising and grilling, trying to pass the blame to others.
WE THE PEOPLE should be on the elevated platform in judgment and execution of the likes of Chris Dodd, Barney Frank and the rest of the band of thieves and conspirators who are responsible for the financial collapse of the USA .
To name just a few of the culprits:
Henry Paulson Jr, Secretary of the T reasury
Alan Greenspan & Ben Bernanke — Chairman Federal Reserve
Christopher Cox, SEC Chairman.
But not to worry — YOUR PUBLIC SERVANTS who fear being voted out of office will take their self-awarded Golden Parachute Congressional Retirement, give WE THE PEOPLE the finger one last time and head for their safe havens as the World Citizens they are.
However, before they waddle off into the sunset, they will go on record one last time denouncing corporate greed, lavish salaries, and bonuses for their key felons at Fannie May, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers & AIG
Meanwhile, WE THE PEOPLE fiddle while Rome burns and were too lazy and indifferent to vote them out of office.
{Linda R. Monk, J. D., is a constitutional scholar, journalist, and nationally award-winning author. A graduate of Harvard Law School , she twice received the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award, its highest honor for law-related media. Her books include The Words We Live By: Your Annotated Guide to the Constitution, Ordinary Americans: U. S. History Through the Eyes of Everyday People, and The Bill of Rights: A User’s Guide. For more than 20 years, Ms. Monk has written commentary for newspapers nationwide, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and Chicago Tribune }
