Obamacare Daily Round-Up 09-09 UPDATED

I wasn't sure today's Obamacare Daily Round-Up would be worth it since we'd be hearing from Obama himself this evening but apparently everyone is piling on today so here goes....

Obama disapproval on health care up to 52 percent More detailed story here.

A Glimpse of Our Future from Great Britain? This is what the oldest government-run healthcare system does to its citizens. 'Doctors told me it was against the rules to save my premature baby'. HORRIBLE. If the baby had been born just two days later, they would have attempted to save him. This is what happens when beaurocrats run healthcare and it could happen here given Obama's outright support of late-term abortions. More here and here.

Obesity, Magic Ponies, and Hitler Dueling opinions over at BloggingHeads.com

Obama and the Bureaucratization of Health Care. The president's proposals would give unelected officials life-and-death rationing powers. From The Wall Street Journal and Sarah Palin. And Moe Lane's review of her op-ed, here.

Let's hear what he has to say first... "Tide turns against public option on eve of President Obama's address." From The Hill.

Blue Dog Ross Comes Out Against Public Option From The Washington Post.

Interesting idea - who knows maybe it'll help Congress read the damn thing, but what if it rains? Group wants to chalk Capitol steps with entire healthcare bill

Political Theory. Megan McArdle's take on what's happening with Obamcare.

Why VOTERS matter. Obama's Speech: The Outside Game is the Game That Matters Although over at Slate.com, Timothy Noah doesn't seem to thing US Citizens are the important issue in this piece titled, "No More Speeches! On health reform, Obama needs to twist arms, not win hearts and minds."

Pelosi and Reid Tell President: We Have the Votes; President Wants Bill Passed Soon. From ABC News.

Obama's media skills face pivotal test. From Politico.com. It's not the message that's the problem, it's the policy.

Fines proposed for going without health insurance. Don't sign up for Obamacare and you will pay a price.

Despite Fears, Health Care Overhaul Is Moving Ahead. From The New York Times, seemingly endoursing a cram down.

Obama to Endorse Public Plan in Speech is the headline in this Wall Street Journal article which, if true, might indicate that Obama has a tin ear when it comes to the desires of the American public.

Micheal Barone over at the Washington Examiner has this piece up titled, The convenient fantasies of President Obama.

Too late for Obama to turn it around? Camille Paglia's take over at Salon.com. I don't always agree with her but I completely respect her independance of thought. An excellent read.

Obama Pitched Universal Health Care to Students in Meeting Prior to His Speech on Education. Don't turn your back on this guy is pretty much the take-away I'm getting.

Congress has already exempted itself from Public Option. From The Washington Examiner.

ObamaCare's Crippling Deficits. The higher taxes, debt payments and interest rates needed to pay for health reform mean lower living standards. From The Wall Street Journal.

A warning from Riehl World View - Ignore Us At Your Peril

Commentary from Forbes Magazine - Do Health Care Reformers Fear A Reading Public?

Obama’s False Witness. In accusing the Right of lying about health care, the Left shows its disregard for the truth. From the wonderful Ramesh Ponnuro.

Whom Do You Trust?

Where's the Urgency? Various polls seem to indicate Americans want Congress to stop this headalong rush and actually Read The Bill!

The Washington Times suggests "Better ways to reform health care."

This is just a tad tongue-in-cheek. A Bipartisan Plan to Wreck the System. The health-care address President Obama should really give to Congress.

John Stossel talks about "Obama's Speech Tonight". It's a good piece to read.

In this Forbes Magazine op-ed by Scott Atlas titled, "Why Are These Health Care Fixes Ignored? Obama and Pelosi reject introducing competition.", he presents five excellent healthcare reforms that are being deliberately rejected by liberals. Why?

Boehner: GOP leaders haven't met Obama for health talks since April. What's the point? They'd only disagree with Dear Leader anyways.

Obama tries to build momentum for health overhaul. He can try all he wants but I think the voters might have something to say about this.

Obama and the Bureaucratization of Health Care

By Sarah Palin over at her facebook page, here.

Instead of poll-driven "solutions," let's talk about real health-care reform: market-oriented, patient-centered, and result-driven. As the Cato Institute's Michael Cannon and others have argued, such policies include giving all individuals the same tax benefits received by those who get coverage through their employers; providing Medicare recipients with vouchers that allow them to purchase their own coverage; reforming tort laws to potentially save billions each year in wasteful spending; and changing costly state regulations to allow people to buy insurance across state lines. Rather than another top-down government plan, let's give Americans control over their own health care.

She puts up an intelligent post that debunk's the left's claims about Obamacare while offering real-world solutions to healthcare reform.

Political Malpractice

Below is the opening paragraphs to this article titled, "Political Malpractice. Health Insurance Misdiagnosis and the Destruction of Medical Wealth" from my husband's think tank the Competitive Enterprise Institute (a free-market libertarian group).

President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats have proposed a major restructuring of the American health care system. They argue that Americans spend too much for health care of often dubious quality and that tens of millions of Americans lack meaningful access to health insurance. In turn, they have proposed structural reforms to the existing private and public health care fi nancing systems that are intended to increase coverage, lower costs, and improve health care quality.

Most Americans agree that our health care system is broken and must be fi xed. But it is increasingly clear that what ails health care is not too little, but too much government intervention. Federal and state tax preferences for employer-sponsored health insurance distort the market in a way that limits choices for individuals, reduces competition among insurers, and artifi cially infl ates costs for health care services. For most working Americans, switching jobs often entails switching health plans and doctors or losing coverage altogether, while many others fi nd non-employer-sponsored insurance unaffordable or difficult to obtain.

PJTV Videos To Keep An Eye On

Why the Left Needs to Keep the Poor Poor from AlfonZo Nation.

Surprise, Surprise: Obama Sides with Leftist Dictator and Shuns Democracy in Honduras. Is Steve Green just egging Bill Whittle on?

If You Don't Support Gay Marriage, Are You a Homophobe? Can't Reasonable People Disagree?

Psst, Liberals ... Torture Works!

How Rivers of Federal Tax Dollars Support Your Local Socialists. Get Involved If You Can.

Hope Can Change A Lot in 8 Months. By the lovely Sonja Schmidt

This Doesn't Bode Well

It's either bravado or idiocy.

Pelosi and Reid Tell President: We Have the Votes; President Wants Bill Passed Soon

Question a doctor and lose your child

Reason #3,425,824,856,289 to hate government-run, socialistic healthcare.

The UK's Times Online is reporting in an article titled, "Question a doctor and lose your child" that "Parents are being threatened with having their children taken into care after questioning doctors’ diagnoses or objecting to their medical care."

Sample horror stories...

Cases are emerging across the UK:

The mother of a 13-year-old girl who became partly paralysed after being given a cervical cancer vaccination says social workers have told her the child may be removed if she (the mother) continues to link her condition with the vaccination.

A couple had all six of their children removed from their care after they disputed the necessity of an invasive medical test on their eldest daughter. Doctors, who suspected she might have had a blood disease, called for social services to obtain an emergency protection order, although it was subsequently confirmed that she was not suffering from the condition. The parents were still considered unstable, and all their children were taken from them.

When it comes to socialized medicine/government-run healthcare, it is not a matter of whether something like this could happen here but when.

Don't believe me?

Well, the above isn't a one-off event. The newspapers in Britain, perhaps emboldened by the debate in the US and PM Brown's rapid collapse, have been publishing report after report of the NHS's reprehensible behavior and shoddy services. This article is from the Telegraph titled, "Daughter claims father wrongly placed on controversial NHS end of life scheme." Basically her father is not being cared for because of a typo and she can do nothing to save him.

Sophomoric Olbermann

Keith Olbermann is a cross between a doofus, a bully, and a sophomoric douche-bag.

I mean seriously, what kind of respectable newscaster does a piece called "Worst Person In the World"? High School Freshman wouldn't have done something like that. It's lame. It's sad. It's delusional.

So when he calls out to his hoard of minions to attack Glenn Beck and then within 48 hours calls them back, I've got to wonder what was he thinking?

First of all, his show is like watched by a half dozen people nowadays. How deep in the tank are MSNBC's ratings in general and Olbermann's in particular?

Second, why pick a fight at all and then retract it? The only thing I can think of is that Olbermann himself realized that Beck could simply turn the tables on Olbermann and dig up dirt on him.

As I said a sophomoric doofus.

Rather Pay for This Than Obamacare

From AP, "Obama space panel says moon return plan is a no go." Lack of funds is the problem. Gee, I wonder why?

Another thing that was exceptional about America being cut by Obama.

An Armed Society Is A Polite Society

1,000,000 Guns Added to American Homes in August.

To be honest with you, I have no idea how to parse this report. What it means I can not tell you.

Fantastic Perspective on the Student Speech

Mr. President Goes Back to School: A Controversial Issue? by Adam Baldwin (of Firefly and Serenity fame, a good Baldwin) is astonishingly good.

I particularly like this insight below:

The trouble with all this arose because the materials in the ED’s lesson plan are an integral part of the president’s message, and the fact that it has already been necessarily revised (post-dissemination) proves it was in fact controversial.

That the ED and its recipient, undoubting education professionals do not seem to appreciate this distinction (and parents’ natural concerns) perhaps illustrates how the quest for intellectual conformity in public education–not to mention this particular predetermination to accept a federal government lesson plan–exemplifies a pervasive and discriminatory injustice that runs contrary to all pretense to freedom of conscience, speech and thought in modern academia.

Holding Steady at -11 Presidential Approval Index rating

From Rasmussen. "Overall, 50% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President's performance."

Here's Why the Dems Will Cave on Verification of Illegals

(Originally written by Mark Krikorian over at NRO-The Corner (aka link-less website). I am posting it in full because I'm hoping Mark is right.)

New from Rasmussen: "83% Say Proof of Citizenship Should Be Required to Get Government Health Aid." They mean "legal status" rather than "citizenship," of course, but you can see why they're so worried about this:

The desire to limit the benefits to U.S. citizens is found across demographic and partisan lines. It is held by 95% of Republicans, 70% of Democrats and 87% of those not affiliated with either major party. It is favored by nine-out-of-10 conservatives and moderates, along with 56% of those who consider themselves politically liberal. But 32% of liberals hold the opposite view.

I can hear the lefties grasping at straws: "At least opposition isn't quite 2-to-1 among liberals!"

In related news, my colleague Steven Camarota has estimated the maximum potential cost if all uninsured illegals who qualify based on income levels (a total of 6.6 million people) were to receive the taxpayer-funded premium affordability credits: $30.5 billion, as opposed to the estimated $4.3 billion a year governments spend now on health care for illegals, mainly at emergency rooms and free clinics.

Having voted down an amendment requiring verification, the sponsors of the health-reform bill are asking us to trust that the regulation-writing process will make sure illegals are barred from receiving benefits.

The check is in the mail. I'll respect you in the morning. Illegal aliens won't be covered by Obamacare.

Unethical And Hypocritical Behavior Round-Up

Rev. Wright announces "'I Think the Racists in the Right Wing are Upset Because Poor People are About to be Helped'" from JammieWearingFool.

How is playing the race card ever ethical?

When Bush spoke to students, Democrats investigated, held hearings. From the Washington Examiner. Apparently liberals have no short-term OR long-term memory.

WHO SET UP GOVERNMENT ‘PROPAGANDA’ CONFERENCE CALL? Newly Revealed White House, NEA Audio Contradict. From BigHollywood.com, with details and audio recording which is almost as good as video. By the way, this whole using-NEA-for-Obama-Propaganda thing is just a vile abuse of taxpayer money and worse, puts funding for the NEA in far more serious jeopardy than Mathlethorpe ever did.

The Washington Times is reporting that yet another Obama pick has ethics "issues". Obama nominee omitted ties to biotech

President Obama's nominee at the Department of Homeland Security overseeing bioterrorism defense has served as a key adviser for a lobbying group funded by the pharmaceutical industry that has asked the government to spend more money for anthrax vaccines and biodefense research.

But Dr. Tara O'Toole, whose confirmation as undersecretary of science and technology is pending, never reported her involvement with the lobbying group called the Alliance for Biosecurity in a recent government ethics filing.

Plus all these "goodies" about the Van Jones resignation. Good riddance!Why did the press ignore the Van Jones scandal? and Revealing Convergence: Van Jones and the Education Speech and No Loony Lefty Left Behind. And...


The Latest Human Rights Watch Bombshell. Well, not really that "explosive" but definitely reveals the "do as I say, not as I do" mentality of the Left. Bonus, I LOVE the reference to O'Sullivan's Law!

Obamacare Daily Round-Up 09-08 Updated (V2)

Hang on folks. This is gonna be a big one.

Obama open to 'sin tax' on fizzy drinks to stem obesity

From The Hill, "Already, 23 Dems have said they will vote ‘no’ on healthcare reform." Won't rest until Obamacare is voted out of existence.

Breitbart has a related article to the above titled, "Key Dem moderate turns against public plan."

It's not the "message", it is the policy that constituents have a problem with. And no amount of "messaging" (aka spin) is going to change that. This Washington Post article titled, "Deeply Divided House Democrats Return to Work -- and the Same Set of Problems" still seems to believe that if only the People understood. We understand just fine. And our message to you (which you can spin any way you want) is "Vote yes for Obamacare and we will vote NO for you in November".

Sen. Baucus no longer wished to be a Senator. Why do I say that. Because the genius just announced, "Up to $3,800 fine for failure get health insurance." With apologies to morons, Sen Baucus is a moron.

I don't care for Kathleen Parker because of what I felt was a rather elitist stance on Sarah Palin, but I do like her piece here titled, "Obama's Abortion Minefield."

Obama is fast losing white voters' support. From The LA Times. "New surveys show steep declines in Obama's approval ratings among whites -- including Democrats and independents -- who were crucial elements of the diverse coalition that helped elect the country's first black president." And Obamacare isn't the only thing to blame. UPDATE: Actually an intrepid blogger dug further and found that this LA Times headline is deceptive - Obama's support has dropped across the board. Might as well have headlined the piece "Obama is fast losing support amongst redheads" as anything else. Here.

Public Ignorance on the Public Option. Democrats insist Obamacare is popular, but Americans don’t even understand it. I think the more the public learns the less they like Obamacare is the best and safest take away one can make from these polls.

Forbes has an article up on US Life Expectancy which is worth a read if you want to understand how weak some of the related arguments made in support of Obamacare really are. It is titled, "Life Expectancy Humbug. We're getting a lot of sophistry connecting health care to life spans."

The New York Times finally admits that the 9.7% unemployment rate is too low (some studies have put it at 16.8%) in this article here. They bury the hard bad news numbers rather than percentages but they do offer links, most of the article is "people's stories."

A LOOK AT THE AUGUST UNEMPLOYMENT DATA. and PATTERN OF INCOMPETENCE?

From Wesley Pruden over at The Washington Times, A crucial week for Obama's teleprompter

Conservatives for Patients Rights (CPR) have a list of demands up titled, "WAFFLING ON PUBLIC OPTION IS NOT LEADERSHIP - AMERICA WANTS CLEAR GUARANTEES THAT PROTECT PATIENTS' RIGHTS" I'm not sure how they believe those demands can be met with the current direction healthcare reform is taking. Personally, I believe in sensible incremental steps starting with fixing the already existing government-run healthcare programs first.

Senate must raise debt ceiling above $12T. Or they could just stop spending OUR DAMN MONEY! Debt Be Not Proud: The Sorry Tale of America’s Out-of-control Spending.

When protest is uncool, &c.It's never "uncool" unless you are conservative?

Thousands take part in 'tea party' protest against high taxes in Morristown Slide show, no video. Here's JammieWearingFool's post on the Morristown TEA Party.

10,000 Americans Gather For Tea.

Issues, not politics, is their cup of Tea. An estimated 18,000 attend event at Voice of America Park in West Cherster Twp.

Tea Party Rally at the Capitol. This Saturday, Sept. 12th. Be there or be regulated!

How many unintended consequences of bad regulations do we have to live through before Congress stops using them to justify their existence? Read here to see how the latest regulation is making the housing market worse. And we trust these jokers to regulate our healthcare?

From National Affairs (a hot new conservative printing) comes this article from Volume 1 titled, "Who Killed California?". Wow! Excellent analysis and a terrible glimpse of our future if liberal/Progressive/socialists are allowed to do to the whole of the United States what they did to California.

Obama policies may lead US to third world status – Michael Moore to lead cheers celebrating death of capitalism until starving peasants come to eat his fat a** Lots of links and helpful hint for contacting your Congressional Representative.

Adam Smith would not be optimistic in today's economic world. Burke, of course, is weeping.

Barack Obama accused of making 'Depression' mistakes. Barack Obama is committing the same mistakes made by policymakers during the Great Depression, according to a new study endorsed by Nobel laureate James Buchanan. Funny how Time magazine thought Obama as FDR was a good thing. YIKES!

Let There Be Light

By Mike Potemra and Originally published on National Review-The Corner. Since NRO doesn't have an easy way to link to their postings and I really liked Mr. Potemra's article, I am re-posting it below in full.

When you pick up a book titled The Genesis Enigma: Why the Bible Is Scientifically Accurate, you expect a fundamentalist attack on the theory of evolution, or at least a plea for Intelligent Design theory. In fact, the author, Andrew Parker, believes in evolution. A scientist based at Oxford University and the Natural History Museum in London, Parker is not a Bible literalist, and he dismisses Intelligent Design as a “concocted theory” characterized by “flawed logic” and “forced” theorizing. The book describes the remarkable similarity between the order of events described in the first chapter of Genesis and the scientifically known series of macro-evolutionary steps in the history of life on earth. Parker asks how a text written some 2,500 years before the development of modern science could have captured this order of events, and says it was either a lucky guess or a matter of inspiration.

The book is an interesting attempt to make sense of this ancient text: the creation account of Genesis 1 as a combination of divine inspiration with the limited thought- and language-forms of a particular (in this case, scientifically backward) culture. It makes a persuasive case for a deep wisdom behind the words.

As a Catholic, I am somewhat familiar with The Bible. (Those genealogies are pretty boring to read - sorry God.) I love Biblical Archeology for what I can only assume are obvious reasons. Unlike fundamentalists, I do not believe every single word of The Bible is literally True. But I do believe it was written by inspiration and that there is deep wisdom for those who take the time to ponder its meaning rather than its words. (I hope that make sense.)

Obama's Speech To The Students

It's actually a rather good speech to students. I may even read it to my children.

Read it yourself here.

I just hated, hated, hated the Dept. of Education's "guidelines". They were disturbing. But so many newspapers (like this Financial Times report here) are assuming it was the paranoia about Obama that was the problem. It really wasn't. It was the propaganda-esque guidelines the DoE were sending with it, that upset me the most.

Finally, I was really concerned that my SID son would be unable to sit still on his first day of Kindergarten to listen to a lengthy speech that he probably won't fully understand.

As I wrote in an Obamacare Daily Round-Up...

There is something frightening and indoctrinaire about Obama giving a speech directly to students, aka our children in general. But specifically this also smacks of propaganda when he releases this "Pre-K - 6 Menu of Classroom Activities: President Obama's Address To Students Across America" telling teachers how to "discuss" Obama's message AND related projects to do afterwards. Building America's future one indoctrinated child at a time?

Obamacare Daily Round-Up 09-07

Are You Ready to (TEA) Party?

Big Labor Not Looking Good on Labor Day. No Labor is not looking so good - from beating up an African-American conservative at a TEA Party to intimidating Obamacare protestors, Big Labor looks like the mafia-associating, corruption-gobbling, thugs. I'm not alone in thinking that as Bryon York points out in this Washington Examiner article titled, "On Labor Day, support for unions plunges to all-time low."

Sheriff Reports 10,000 at New Lenox/Joliet Rally. These TEA Parties are not running out of steam. Politicians be warned, this may lead to a new political party if you don't watch out.

Another demonstation of Congressional incompetence, here. They couldn't even pretend to care?

"It's the Bureaucracy, Stupid" An excellent analysis of the VA and Tricare systems (government run healthcare for Veterans and active military respectively) and a thorough explanation of why they are so awful. I live in a neighborhood with a lot of mililiary. It's bad.

People Power, A wake-up call for America's political elites. From Weekly Standard.

Apparently, Obama really is a modern version of FDR. "Barack Obama accused of making 'Depression' mistakes" From the UK Telegraph. A sample of the article is below:

His policies even have the potential to consign the US to a similar fate as Argentina, which suffered a painful and humiliating slide from first to Third World status last century, the paper says.

There are "troubling similarities" between the US President's actions since taking office and those which in the 1930s sent the US and much of the world spiralling into the worst economic collapse in recorded history, says the new pamphlet, published by the Institute of Economic Affairs.

In particular, the authors, economists Charles Rowley of George Mason University and Nathanael Smith of the Locke Institute, claim that the White House's plans to pour hundreds of billions of dollars of cash into the economy will undermine it in the long run. They say that by employing deficit spending and increased state intervention President Obama will ultimately hamper the long-term growth potential of the US economy and may risk delaying full economic recovery by several years.

Let me make sure I understand, we need Obamacare but if these policies of Obama are enacted, the US economy will tank? Have I got that right?

A Different Sort of Health Care System. India's actually. Not a great fit for America but there are many things we could learn...

Lance Fairchok over at American Thinker has a "review" of a book that could easily be called prescient these days. "By the Book: How Democracies Perish" Opening quote...

Exaggerated self-criticism would be a harmless luxury of civilization if there were no enemy at the gate condemning democracy's very existence. But it becomes dangerous when it portrays its mortal enemy as always being in the right. Extravagant criticism is a good propaganda device in internal politics. But if it is repeated often enough, it is finally believed. And where will the citizens of democratic societies find reasons to resist the enemy outside if they are persuaded from childhood that their civilization is merely an accumulation of failures and a monstrous imposture? - Jean Francois Revel, How Democracies Perish

Obamacare and the public option are Trojan horses. Dem rep: Public option is path to single payer. There is Video!!

How Barack Obama lost his mojo.. Over-reach with Obamacare? Attenpting to bring socialism to our democracy? Taxing jobs out of existance? Surrounding himself with corruption and liars? Using 1930 solutions to 21st century problems? I think we all know how Obama lost his mojo - if he ever really had true mojo to begin with, he wouldn't be in this mess.

Healthcare: The Supply Side

French healthcare is 'badly run'. France must make big changes to its health system in order to cut waste and increase efficiency, a government-commissioned report is warning. Glimpse of our future if Obamacare is enacted?

Another Example of Labor/Liberal Ghastliness

The UK Daily Mail ran an article titled, "How Labour plotted to smear daughter of new army chief... whose 'crime' was to work for Cameron." It exposes how Labor (the liberal party) politicized the UK Department of Defense by attacking the military generals who didn't agree with the Labor politicians in office. This quote from the article sums it up -

"It is an insult to question the impartiality of a man who has served his country on the battlefield with such distinction and courage. To drag families into politics reveals Labour’s debased morals.’

As George Orwell once said, "We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.” Attacking the forces that exist solely to defend your freedoms is about as stupid an act as a politician can commit.

And to revisit Orwell, he also said, "Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” Dear Labor Party - you are atrocious and should be ashamed.

Fabulous History Lesson

Rep. David Crockett vs. a Farmer. The article is titled "Charity and the good ol' Constitution" and it is an excellent read!!!!

180 years ago, Davey Crocket related this story between himself and Horatio Bunce, a farmer who told Crockett he would not vote for Crockett again because Crockett had voted for a bill that gave federal funds to charity.

But Horatio Bunce, a one-man "Tea Party" of his day, was having none of it. Rather than be hornswoggled by Crockett's attempt to deflect the argument away from the Constitution, he circled right back to it:

"In the first place," he said, the Government ought to have in the Treasury no more than enough for its legitimate purposes. But that has nothing to do with the question. The power of collecting and disbursing money at pleasure is the most dangerous power that can be entrusted to man... [W]hile you are contributing to relieve one, you are drawing it from thousands who are even worse off than he. If you had the right to give anything, the amount was simply a matter of discretion with you, and you had as much right to give $20,000,000 as $20,000. If you have the right to give to one, you have the right to give to all; and, as the Constitution neither defines charity nor stipulates the amount, you are at liberty to give to any and everything which you may believe, or profess to believe, is a charity, and to any amount you may think proper. You will very easily perceive, what a wide door this would open for fraud and corruption and favoritism, on the one hand, and for robbing the people on the other. No, Colonel, Congress has no right to give charity. Individual members may give as much of their own money as they please, but they have no right to touch a dollar of the public money for that purpose."

Now, how this applies to health care is quite simple. There's no difference between giving money to individual citizens because they have lost their house in a fire or giving money to citizens because they have fallen ill. It is, to use Horatio Bunce's word, "charity." It is, thus, not surprising that the recipients of this government-funded charity, who would number in the millions, have taken to acting as if they are entitled to health-care assistance, whatever you wish to call it.

Likewise, the victims of the fire who were the beneficiaries of Congress' generosity with other people's money were happy to have it, and so were the average and well-to-do citizens who might otherwise have been asked to contribute to a fire-relief fund. Bunce lectured Crockett accordingly:

"The people about Washington, no doubt, applauded you for relieving them from the necessity of giving by giving what was not yours to give. The people have delegated to Congress, by the Constitution, the power to do certain things. To do these, it is authorized to collect and pay moneys, and for nothing else. Everything beyond this is usurpation, and a violation of the Constitution."

The well-spoken farmer concluded his presentation thusly: "It is a precedent fraught with danger to the country, for when Congress once begins to stretch its power beyond the limits of the Constitution, there is no limit to it, and no security for the people."

In California!?! Hooray!

California Tea Party Holds Funeral For ObamaCare

Visit the site, it is kinda hilarious!

Protecting Putin?

GQ and Conde Nast have spiked a compelling article about "Putin's Dark Rise To Power" but when will these silly old print organizations realize, you can't stop the signal.

Read the article and marvel at the corruption and the corruption of Western magazines to weak to speak truth to power any more.

"Come And Get It" Politicians

Thank You Dan Cleary!

"Best Use of a $20 Bill at a Town Hall Meeting Since...Ever."

George Will Speaks Up Against NEA

Obamacare Daily Round-Up 09-06

Town Hall, Tea Party protests have long history in America - article from Glenn Reynolds (instapundit) in The Washington Examiner.

The Courier-Journal reports on Saturday's Tea Party Protest with "‘Tea Party' fills Louisville Park" Well Good.

Rasmussen Reports has this article up titled, "Does Obama Face a 2012 Challenge In His Own Party?". Basically, they are reporting that progressives and liberals are so unhappy with Obama's handling of Obamacare that they are considering putting up someone to run against Obama in 2012. Ouch!

Not This Pig It's good and it is from Victor Davis Hanson who is brilliant. Read both pages.

Obama’s UN Gambit: King of the Universe and the Polls Given Obama's ghastly handling of domestic and foriegn policy, you'd think he'd just want to lie low for a bit but chairing a UN meeting when the Iranians are saying this about you..."As a Tehran newspaper close to the regime snickered in July: “Their strategy consists of begging us to talk with them.”

The article ends with...

The administration’s zeal for the front-page photo-op on September 25’s New York Times has now become a scramble to manufacture an “outcome” for the session. The president’s idea for a glorious finish was described by Ambassador Rice as some kind of joint statement declaring in part “that we are united in support for effective steps to ensure nuclear nonproliferation.”

Such a result would be breathtaking — for the audacity of claiming exactly the opposite of what it really represents. Even allied council members France and the United Kingdom are reported to be very unhappy with Obama’s no-names strategy for his September rollout.

Far from bolstering his flagging image, the president’s group-hug theory of diplomacy deserves the disdain of anyone who can separate rhetoric from reality.

Pelosi loath to drop hammer on Rangel. This is an interesting insight into how Congress will handle Obamacare because if Pelosi has to keep a crook like Rangel because he's the best of the democrats who will keep to the left-wing agenda, then our nation is in a sorry state.

Obama 'green jobs' adviser quits amid controversy

President Barack Obama's environmental adviser Van Jones, who became embroiled in a controversy over past inflammatory statements, has resigned his White House job after what he calls a "vicious smear campaign against me."

From AP here. (Emphasis mine)

A former civil rights activist in the San Francisco area, Jones told the East Bay Express in 2005 that the acquittal of Rodney King's assailants in 1992 in that infamous police brutality case changed him significantly.

"I was a rowdy nationalist on April 28th, and then the verdicts came down on April 29th," he said. "By August, I was a communist.."

Jones and other young activists in 1994 formed a group called Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement, or STORM, rooted in Marxism and Leninsm. Two years later, Jones launched the Ella Baker Center, an Oakland, Calif., based "strategy and action center" which states that it tries to "promote positive alternatives to violence and incarceration."

It was many of the associations formed around this time that served as fodder for conservative critics. In a New Yorker profile of Jones from earlier this year, Jones described his modus operandi as “traditional activism, the politics of confrontation and outrage. I was proud to be hated by the city fathers on both sides of the Bay.”

From ABC News Here (Emphasis mine)

And from Powerline.com. "Van Jones has a past as a record producer. That's right; his "civil rights" group, the Ella Baker Center, produced a handful of CDs between 2002 and 2006. One of them, which appears to have been made around 2002, "starred" convicted murderer Mumia Abu-Jamal, who presumably recorded his portions of the album in prison. Here is the album cover:" See and hear the rest here.

What a charming character is Mr. Jones. He uses the the manufactured "politics of confrontation and outrage" as his form of "traditional" activism. He produces racist "music" records. He signs petitions claiming unthinkably horrible things. He says and claims unthinkably horrible things. And yet, when faced with the rejection of his thoughts and deeds, accuses everyone else of committing a "vicious smear campaign against me" filled apparently with "lies and deception".

Oh really, Mr. Jones? Was this a lie? Or this? You were caught on tape! You said it in print. It was all you. YOU. And while I sincerely hope you don't play the race card. I'm fairly certain you will. Crawl back under your loathsome rock, Mr. Jones. Your 15 minutes are up.