Top 10 ways the health care bill is like Ted Kennedy

From Frank J.

Help, help!! I'm being repressed !!

From the town hall meeting of Rep. Carol Shea-Porter:



Dissent has gone from the highest form of patriotism to being illegal.

Why the unions back ChappaquiddiCare*

I was recently asked by a friend why the unions were so committed to health care reform seizing the health care industry. My initial, knee-jerk reaction was that of course they would support anything proposed by a liberal Democrat.

But that sort of rung hollow. I get that union leaders care about the union and not the membership; but this still did not make any sense. Unions that had negotiated themselves lavish health care benefits were going to be in a position to watch their employers start off-loading those lavish costs and forcing the membership into the public option.

Now, it all makes sense.

Buried on page 65 of the 1,017 pages of HR 3200, the House's health care reform bill, and in a Senate bill as well, stands a $10 billion entitlement to keep pensions for unions like United Auto Workers as shiny and gold-plated as the day Detroit executives signed off on them.

Steelworkers, municipal employees, teachers and other union retirees will benefit from what the bills call "Reinsurance Programs for Retirees." The $10 billion cash infusion is intended to refinance Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Associations (VEBA) insurance to continue coverage for unions' early retirees in restructurings.

It's nothing but another bailout for union-bankrupted industries that can't sustain their contracts. In most of the private sector, companies cut back. They pay for what they buy. They scrimp.

Unions are different. When things get bad, they want taxpayers to pay. And they demonize corporate profits. When profits are a dirty word, one man's wealth is another man's loss, and creating value is no longer recognized as a means of earning money.

It's no surprise that bailouts are the result.

But there's a problem with all this largesse — the poor and middle class who don't get these fat pensions end up paying for them anyway. Back in February, President Obama praised unions for their "sacrifices" in the auto bailouts. We've yet to see taxpayers praised or thanked for their "sacrifices" in bailing out unions.

Unions gave $52 million to elect Democrats in the last election. The link between bailouts and campaign cash couldn't be clearer.

Frankly, their "investment" has paid off handsomely.

(H/t - NewsBusters.

* So named in deference to Robert "KKK" Byrd's request to honor Ted Kennedy's legacy.

Ted Kennedy - a funny guy

Hey, I guess there is nothing funnier than to have a young woman drown in your car. At least Teddy seemed to think so.

Meanwhile, listening to ”Reflections on Sen. Kennedy … Lion of the Senate” on the Diane Rehm Show on the drive home last night, I was deeply moved to hear Newsweek’s Ed Klein tell guest host Katty Kay about Kennedy’s love of humor. How the late senator loved to hear and tell Chappaquiddick jokes, and was always eager to know if anyone had heard any new ones. Not that Kennedy lacked remorse, Klein quickly added, seeming to intuit that my jaw and perhaps those of other listeners had just hit the floorboards. I gather it was a self-deprecating maneuver on Kennedy’s part, exercised with the famous Kennedy charm, though it sounds like one of those “I guess you had to have been there” things.
(emphasis mine)

Classy guy that Ted. I guess that explains why he would name his dog Splash. Shecky Kennedy will indeed be sorely missed.

UPDATED : To add equally classless (but very funny)Chappaquiddick joke:


Photo blatantly stolen from American Digest

Ted would be proud !!

"No-shit" science tip of the day

Shockingly, it seems that solar activity affects Earth's climate.

The slight increase in solar energy during the peak production of sunspots is absorbed by stratospheric ozone, warming the air in the stratosphere over the tropics, where sunlight is most intense. The additional energy also stimulates the production of additional ozone there that absorbs even more solar energy.

Since the stratosphere warms unevenly, with the most pronounced warming occurring nearer the equator, stratospheric winds are altered and, through a chain of interconnected processes, end up strengthening tropical precipitation.

At the same time, the increased sunlight at solar maximum — a peak of sunspot and solar storm activity we're currently headed toward — causes a slight warming of ocean surface waters across the subtropical Pacific, where sun-blocking clouds are normally scarce. That small amount of extra heat leads to more evaporation, putting additional water vapor into the atmosphere. The moisture is carried by trade winds to the normally rainy areas of the western tropical Pacific, fueling heavier rains and reinforcing the effects of the stratospheric mechanism.

These two processes reinforce each other and intensify the effect.

These stratospheric and ocean responses during solar maximum keep the equatorial eastern Pacific even cooler and drier than usual, producing conditions similar to a La Nina event. However, the cooling of about 1-2 degrees Fahrenheit is focused farther east than in a typical La Nina (the opposite sister effect of the warm-water El Nino), is only about half as strong, and is associated with different wind patterns in the stratosphere

Al Gore could not be reached for comment.

Ted Kennedy assumes room temperature

I know you are not supposed to speak ill of the dead and cancer's a real bitch that I wouldn't wish on anyone (well maybe bin Laden). But as the press will likely soil themselves in lionizing Ted I will take on the distasteful task of highlighting the media's hypocrisy. Because while the media, and Washington political establishment, endlessly wring their hands about what a giant he was on the political landscape (and he was - for better or worse), he was the icon of everything they claim to be against.

While the media loves to laud bipartisanship, especially when defined as passing the liberal policy agenda, Ted was the ultimate partisan. Everything was political. For what it's worth, I agree with Ted on this -- if you are going to fight the opposition, treat them like the opposition and get rid of the "my dear friend" or "dear colleague" nonsense. If it meant opposing universal health care (yes you read that right) when promoted by a Republican president, Ted was on board.

When President Nixon proposed a plan for universal coverage that would have delighted Democrats in later years, Kennedy, who long backed a government plan, led the opposition, a move he later regretted.

Ted's partisanship helped to usher in an era that the left likes to call "the politics of personal destruction" in his (successful) effort to derail Robert Bork's nomination to the Supreme Court. This is examined more fully by Scott Johnson

New York Times reporter Ethan Bronner (then of the Boston Globe) told the story of Kennedy's statement denouncing Bork in Battle for Justice: How the Bork Nomination Shook America. In the book Bronner comments harshly on Kennedy's statement, though Bronner's comments do not exhaust the statement's falsity:

Kennedy's was an altogether startling statement. He had shamelessly twisted Bork's world view -- "rogue police could break down citizens' doors in midnight raids" was an Orwellian reference to Bork's criticism of the exclusionary rule, through which judges exclude illegally obtained evidence, and Bork had never suggested he opposed the teaching of evolution...

Bronner shows that Kennedy's false charges against Bork did not derive from some mistake or misinterpretation, but were rather the deliberate acts of a powerful man for whom the ends justified the means:

Kennedy did distort Bork's record, but his statement was not the act of a desperate man. This was a confident and seasoned poliltician, who knew how to combine passion and pragmatism in the Senate. Unlike the vast majority of those who were to oppose Bork, Kennedy believed from the beginning that the nomination would be defeated and that the loss would prove decisive in judicial politics.

As Bronner suggests, Senator Kennedy's unconstrained opposition to Bork's appointment has indeed had profound effects in the practice of "judicial politics," preeminently in the confirmation proceedings following the nomination of Justice Thomas, but also more recently in the confirmation of Justice Alito. And it has become something of a template for liberal attacks on mainstream conservatives beyond the realm of judicial politics.

Of course, as noted above, this served to further politicize a Court that had already become a political battlefield following Roe.

Kennedy, who has been in office since 1962 (change!!) could be the poster boy for how the ruling elite who believe that the rule of law is for suckers; something which they exist above. Kennedy could rail about the need for windmill farms for harnessing wind power -- but don't erect any obstructing the view of the Kennedy Compound in Hyannis Port. Or, more importantly, and more reflective of true character, placing his political ambitions above the life of another. Unfortunately, Mary Jo Kopechne could not be reached for comment. We won't even begin to comment on how the Kennedys are America's "royal family".

There are also numerous tales of the boozy, boorish escapades of Teddy. Including he and Chris (Friend of Angelo) Dodd making a waitress sandwich .

As Gaviglio enters the room, the six-foot-two, 225-plus-pound Kennedy grabs the five-foot-three, 103-pound waitress and throws her on the table. She lands on her back, scattering crystal, plates and cutlery and the lit candles. Several glasses and a crystal candlestick are broken. Kennedy then picks her up from the table and throws her on Dodd, who is sprawled in a chair. With Gaviglio on Dodd’s lap, Kennedy jumps on top and begins rubbing his genital area against hers, supporting his weight on the arms of the chair. As he is doing this, Loh enters the room. She and Gaviglio both scream, drawing one or two dishwashers. Startled, Kennedy leaps up. He laughs. Bruised, shaken and angry over what she considered a sexual assault, Gaviglio runs from the room. Kennedy, Dodd and their dates leave shortly thereafter, following a friendly argument between the senators over the check.

Eyewitness Betty Loh told me that Kennedy had “three or four” cocktails in his first half hour at the restaurant and wine with dinner. When she walked into the room after Gaviglio had gone in, she says, “what I saw was Senator Kennedy on top of Carla, who was on top of Senator Dodd’s lap, and the tablecloth was sort of slid off the table ‘cause the table was knocked over—not completely, but just on Senator Dodd’s lap a little bit, and of course the glasses and the candlesticks were totally spilled and everything. And right when I walked in, Senator Kelly jumped off…and he leaped up, composed himself and got up. And Carla jumped up and ran out of the room.”

According to Loh, Kennedy “was sort of leaning” on Gaviglio, “not really straddling but sort of off-balance so it was like he might have accidentally fallen…He was partially on and off…pushing himself off her to get up.” Dodd, she adds, “said ‘It’s not my fault.’ ” Kennedy said something similar and added, jokingly, “Makes you wonder about the leaders of this country.”
Giving Kennedy the benefit of the doubt, it’s quite possible he did not intend an assault but meant to be funny, in a repulsive, boozehead way. Drunks are notoriously poor judges of distance, including the distance between fun and assault.

Now before any of you whiny lefties try to take me to task for pointing out Uncle Ted's warts before the body has even cooled... your side is already furiously spinning this to try to pass ObamaCare. Basically the Wellstone Memorial Redux. Robert Byrd even wants to rename the bill after Kennedy. In the spirit of reconciliation I would agree -- so long as we follow brother Ace's recommendation and call it ChappaquiddiCare and requiring the following:

New amendment: Doctors will be required to examine you with a Chivas Regal in hand and without pants.

No posts today

going to see this man....



And the Neville Brothers !!! Oh happy day !!!

Dinner will be some crawfish etouffe and jambalaya. And bourbon.

BushHitler to continue extraordinary renditions

Ooops, my bad. This is Obama's idea. Well then; extraordinary rendition must be a good thing now.

Administration officials have stated that they do not plan to suspend the policy of extraordinary rendition but that they will instead introduce stricter measures to prevent torture and will no longer send prisoners to countries with histories of abuse. The news came as a disappointment to human rights groups, which have argued that the policy fails to protect prisoners against inhumane treatment.

Where is the fierce, moral urgency ??

Scottish official shocked, shocked to learn cold-blooded mass murder is also dishonest

"But,but he promised!!" Kenny MacAskill, the brain-dead idiot who decided to release the Lockerbie bomber (seen above in one of his more lucid moments) is upset with Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi's homecoming reception in Tripoli. It seem that killer's apparently are not necessarily honest.

In Mr MacAskill’s statement yesterday to the Holyrood Parliament he said that the jubilation that greeted al-Megrahi in Libya, which included waving Scottish flags, was “a matter of great regret” to him. Libya had flouted assurances to the Scottish government that al-Megrahi would be given a muted reception in Tripoli, he said.

Mr MacAskill included al-Megrahi himself in his condemnation, saying that the man whom he had released on compassionate grounds because he was suffering from terminal cancer had shown “no sensitivity” by being a willing part of the triumphalist scenes.

He had been received in Tripoli in “an inappropriate manner”, Mr MacAskill said. “It showed no compassion or sensitivity to the families of the 270 victims of Lockerbie. Assurances had been given by the Libyan Government that any return would be dealt with in a low-key and sensitive fashion.”

Mr MacAskill gave a defiant if uninspiring performance before MSPs, sidestepping questions by saying simply that he stood by his decision. At Holyrood last night he was thought to have done enough for the moment to stop talk of his imminent resignation.

Torture czar ???

Obama creates a special interrogation unit for high-value detainees.

A senior administration official told The Associated Press Monday that Obama has approved establishment of the new unit, to be known as the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group, which will be overseen by the Naitonal Security Council. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the program has not yet been officially announced.

.......
The new group and new directives to rely soley on the Army Field Manual when interrogating prisoners is an attempt by the administration to separate itself from allegation that the Bush administration tortured some prisoners. While the practice of waterboarding — simulated drowning — has been banned, the field manual directives would also end the practice of subjecting prisoners to loud music for long periods and sleep deprivation.

You stay classy Libya

A hero's welcome for the Lockerbie bombing slimeball.



However, my disgust is not with this reaction -- isn't this what you would expect. My disgust is with the Scottish jackass that released him.

Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, who has terminal cancer, had earlier boarded a plane at Glasgow airport after being released from HMP Greenock on compassionate grounds.

He was freed by the Scottish justice secretary Kenny MacAskill, who said he made the decision because medical experts suggested the Libyan had less than three months to live.

I seriously don't get this. This is similar to the arguments that are made about not prosecuting Nazi war criminals because they are now old men. These people had no compassion for their victims but should be shown compassion. Why?? What's the lesson -- that crime pays ??

This doesn't make us better than they are. It makes us delusional; and suicidal.

As an added bonus: looks like they dissed B. Hussein Obama who specifically warned against a celebratory welcome.

A senior State Department official made clear that punitive measures could result if Libya treated Megrahi as a hero, but declined to be more specific.

"Gaddafi is looking for better relations with the United States and the international community and if he wants to be seen as a responsible leader in the region and beyond, this would be an opportunity for him to prove it," said the official, who declined to be named.

So what do you think the retaliatory action will be ???

Look at it this way Mr. President: it was an open hand rather than a closed fist - but they just bitch-slapped you with it.

Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy v.2.0

Obama says that Republicans want to "kill"* his health care bill.

"I think early on, a decision was made by the Republican leadership that said, 'Look, let's not give him a victory, maybe we can have a replay of 1993, '94, when Clinton came in, he failed on health care and then we won in the mid-term elections and we got the majority. And I think there are some folks who are taking a page out that playbook," the president said.

A 79 vote majority in the House and a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate ... and it's the Republicans fault ???

Was it "I won" or "I whine" ???

*Note the use of kill (not defeat). Those mean, nasty Republicans.

Specter (R) v. Specter (D)

Our post-racial President talks about scape goating minorities and black-liberation theology

Circa 1995 (via Hot Air)

But remember, he was unaware of Rev. Wright's true beliefs.

New Mexico auto dealers drop cash-for-clunkers

They, like just about everyone else, are tired of being "stiffed" by a federal government that over-promises and under-delivers.

Some New Mexico auto dealers have backed out of the cash-for-clunkers program and more may do so as the federal government takes its time providing cash reimbursements.

Dealers across the state are owed more than $3.6 million, according to a dealers' group which says that so far Uncle Sam has only written three checks totaling about $14,000.

Cash for clunkers--officially its the Car Allowance Rebate System--allows consumers to trade their gas guzzlers for a more fuel-efficient rides while earning up to $4,500 toward the purchase price.

Dealerships put up the cash for the rebates after being told by the Obama administration they would be paid back within 10 days of the sale.

They join the hundreds New York auto dealerships who have also bailed on the program.

I just get a thrill up my leg thinking of these people running health care and processing millions of claims.

Edited to add: Don't forget, this was being held up as one of the great early successes of the administration.

Democrats prepared to pass ObamaCare without Republican votes.

Or so they claim.

My take: Bullshit!!! If they could, they would have by now. They don't have the votes.

BTW - the impasse on ObamaCare is a tribute to the American people. Despite the ridiculous claims of Astroturf, this has truly been a grassroots movement. The GOP as a whole, and its leadership in particular, did not have the cajones to stand up to The One. To the contrary, they have been conspicuously absent and do not merit any credit.

Our "broken" health care system

The CDC reports that U.S. life expectancy has hit an all-time high.

U.S. life expectancy reached nearly 78 years (77.9), and the age-adjusted death rate dropped to 760.3 deaths per 100,000 population, both records, according to the latest mortality statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The report, “Deaths: Preliminary Data for 2007,” was issued today by CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. The data are based on nearly 90 percent of death certificates in the United States.

The 2007 increase in life expectancy – up from 77.7 in 2006 -- represents a continuation of a trend. Over a decade, life expectancy has increased 1.4 years from 76.5 years in 1997 to 77.9 in 2007.

Similarly, our 5-year cancer survival rates exceed those of the socialist "more enlightened" European health care systems.




Above chart blatantly stolen from Carpe Diem.

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) gives away the game

House liberals want to eliminate all private health insurance.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

(h/t - Hot Air)

White, racist, well-armed ObamaCare protester turns out to be ... black

But boy did MSNBC jump through some hoops to hide facts that don't fit their template.

Pelosi is a liar AND Panetta is a moron

Some background, earlier in the year Granny McBotox got her panties in a wad trying to appease her "Bush is a war criminal" by claiming (despite evidence to the contrary) that she knew nothing about interrogation techniques that were used. When the CIA made it clear that Pelosi was briefed, she doubled down and claimed the CIA broke the law by routinely lying to Congress.

Leon Panetta, defending his turf, disputed that claim. Then, he dropped a bomb shell that had the nutroots in froth: the CIA was was running an 8 year secret and illegal assassination program. A program on which Congress had not been advised.

Except, Panetta's a jackass.

On June 23, in the course of a routine briefing by the head of the National Counterterrorism Center, Panetta first learned about the assassination squads. Alarmed, he terminated the program at once and called the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-TX). He told Reyes he’d discovered something of grave concern, and requested an urgent briefing for the House and Senate intelligence committees as soon as possible. Less than 24 hours later, he was on the Hill, "with his hair on fire," as a Republican member of the House committee put it. “The whole committee was stunned,” said Rep. Anna G. Eshoo (D-CA).

Afterward, seven Democratic members of the House Intelligence Committee sent Panetta an indignant letter: “Recently you testified that you have determined that top CIA officials have concealed significant actions from all members of Congress, and misled members for a number of years from 2001 to this week," the Democratic lawmakers wrote. They demanded he “correct” his statement back in May that the CIA does not mislead Congress.

Ten days later, one of them leaked the letter.

Panetta had set in motion a chain reaction of atomic proportions. “It was like shoving a rod into that nuclear mass,” a veteran senior CIA officer told me. A lot of Democrats had been waiting for this moment: an opportunity to shine daylight on the abuses of intelligence during the Bush-Cheney years. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, an object of controversy, even ridicule, after charging that the CIA had lied to her about waterboarding, now felt vindicated. The CIA, trapped at last in its tangled web of lies, owed her an apology!

But once Panetta had spoken with Tenet, Goss, and Hayden, he learned that this secret “program” wasn’t much more than a PowerPoint presentation and a task force assigned to think it through. “Sensitive information” had been collected in a single foreign country, my sources tell me. That’s about it. It wasn’t really a coherent program at all so much as a collection of schemes, each attempting to achieve the same objective: to kill terrorists. This was one of perhaps dozens of ideas that had been kicked around at Langley since September 2001, when George W. Bush issued a presidential “finding” authorizing the agency to use deadly force against Osama bin Laden or other terrorists.

Meet President Narcissus

Jake Tapper links an ABC news story about behind-the-scenes at the White House.We learn about Obama-branded basketballs and an "I love Obama" leash on Bo, the dog.

At least he's not arrogant like that cowboy from Texas -- what's his name??

This explains it

The Onion gets to the bottom of the White House's chaotic, conflicting approach to selling ObamaCare.

Headline of the day:

Swedish lesbians suck sperm banks dry

Not really an interesting story. But I had to find some excuse to post that headline.

No public option

Team Obama has dropped the public option in favor of co-ops. However, as this blogger correctly notes, this is not a victory. Far from it.

Let's keep the momentum and not let down our guard. The Left will still try to install socialized medicine unless we remain vigilant.

Media malpractice ???

ABC wet itself in their fear for Obama's safety. Those impassioned protesters are THREAT -- at least that's the media template.

Experts who track hate groups across the U.S. are growing increasingly concerned over violent rhetoric targeted at President Obama, especially as the debate over health care intensifies and a pattern of threats emerges.
........

Experts say a sharp growth in so-called militia groups that helped spawn a wave of domestic terrorism in the 1990s – and are now using YouTube, rock music and the Internet to recruit members and spread hate and fear - shouldn't be ignored.

"It's certainly a scary time," said former FBI agent Brad Garrett, now an ABC News consultant. Garrett said the Secret Service "cannot afford to pass on anyone," and he believes "they really do fear that something could happen to [Obama]."

Scary times, right ?? Eh.... not so much.

There has been no increase in the number of security threats to President Barack Obama despite the contentious town hall meetings taking place around the country, according to the White House.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs also said Friday there has been no change in the security precautions.

"We haven't viewed any increase in threats, and there's been no change in any of that," Gibbs said.

So, some friendly advice to the MSM: even if you really, really hope a story is true, check your facts first before you run the story.

Weekend musical interlude

No posting this weekend -- I was busy!!!

From Dennis Leary.

Pretty much sums it up!!

Pelosi: then and now

Pelosi 2009: Noisy protesters, disrupting health care forums are "un-American".

"We believe it is healthy for such a historic effort to be subject to so much scrutiny and debate," Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Hoyer (D-Md.) wrote in a USA Today opinion piece published today.

"However, it is now evident that an ugly campaign is underway not merely to misrepresent the health insurance reform legislation, but to disrupt public meetings and prevent members of Congress and constituents from conducting a civil dialogue," the two leaders wrote. "These disruptions are occurring because opponents are afraid not just of differing views -- but of the facts themselves. Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American."

Pelosi circa 2006: "I'm a fan of disruptors".

"So I think all of you who have spoken out for your courage, your point of view. All of it. Your advocacy is very American and very important." (h/t Drudge).

Proposed Obama campaign slogan for 2012

When your the incumbent it will be hard to run on HopenChange. So, in the spirit of bipartisanship I am suggesting the following slogan for Barry O.:

More bad news for Arlen Specter (but good for PA)

He trails Toomey 48% - 36% in the latest Rasmussen poll.

Schadenfreude -- it's good for you.

That dopey Sarah Palin

Looks like she may have been right about "death panels" after all. From the President's April 14th interview with the New York Times:

THE PRESIDENT: So that’s where I think you just get into some very difficult moral issues. But that’s also a huge driver of cost, right?

I mean, the chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives are accounting for potentially 80 percent of the total health care bill out here.

DAVID LEONHARDT: So how do you — how do we deal with it?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think that there is going to have to be a conversation that is guided by doctors, scientists, ethicists. And then there is going to have to be a very difficult democratic conversation that takes place. It is very difficult to imagine the country making those decisions just through the normal political channels. And that’s part of why you have to have some independent group that can give you guidance. It’s not determinative, but I think has to be able to give you some guidance. And that’s part of what I suspect you’ll see emerging out of the various health care conversations that are taking place on the Hill right now.

Please read the whole post.

Protests then and now

While the media wets itself over the "hatred" evidenced at recent town hall events, Victor Davis Hanson takes us for a stroll down memory lane:

At one time not so long ago, those on the Left, and mainstream Democrats as well, apparently believed inflammatory language, Hitler parallels, and perverse expressions of real hatred were acceptable means to the noble end of discrediting the Bush presidency.

During the bleak days of Iraq, demonstrators carried swastikas and Hitler portraits of Bush habitually. Nicholson Baker wrote a novel in which characters are contemplating killing Bush. Films were praised imagining the assassination of the president. Michael Moore, courted by the Democratic elite, lamented that bin Laden on 9/11 had hit a blue state — and once compared the killers of Americans in Iraq to Minutemen.

Al Gore customarily used excessive language like "brown shirts." Senators Durbin, Kennedy, and others compared our soldiers to Saddamites, Pol Pot’s killers, and Nazis. Ward Churchill compared the victims in the Twin Tower to “little Eichmanns.” Sen. Robert Byrd likened Pres. George W. Bush’s policies to what transpired in Nazi Germany. Linda Ronstadt, Harold Pinter, Scott Ritter, Ted Rall, and George Soros agreed with Fidel Castro, the Iranians, and North Koreans in comparing Bush to Hitler.

Arlen Specter slips in the polls

Consider this the schadenfreude post of the day.

Senator Arlen Specter leads Congressman Joe Sestak by 13 percentage points in an early look at the 2010 Democratic Senatorial Primary in Pennsylvania. In June, Specter had a 19-point lead.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the state shows Specter attracting 47% of the vote while Sestak earns 34%. In June, Specter posted a 51% to 32% lead.

Among voters who favor the congressional health care plan, Specter leads 55% to 26%. However, among those who oppose the plan, Sestak leads 61% to 25%.

Specter is coming to learn that there is no requirement that voters can't consider him an opportunistic, self-serving, prick.

Democrats return science to its rightful place

In other words, whatever is ideologically orthodox. Case in point, Michigan Senator, Debbie Stabenow.

Seems the Senator is a firm believer in the Church of Gore (i.e. global warming) and is not swayed by any of the empirical evidence referenced in the article.

Michigan just experienced its coldest July on record; global temperatures haven't risen in more than a decade; Great Lakes water levels have resumed their 30-year cyclical rise (contrary to a decade of media scare stories that they were drying up due to global warming), and polls show that climate change doesn't even make a list of Michigan voters' top-ten concerns.

Nope, she's a true believer. And she knows because she can feel it when she flies.

"Climate change is very real," she confessed as she embraced cap and trade's massive tax increase on Michigan industry - at the same time claiming, against all the evidence, that it would not lead to an increase in manufacturing costs or energy prices. "Global warming creates volatility. I feel it when I'm flying. The storms are more volatile. We are paying the price in more hurricanes and tornadoes."

We elect only the best and brightest.

Astroturf !!!

Seems Obama bussed in his own supporters.

I know, I know - how do you tell genuine grassroots upheaval from astroturf ?? Well, thankfully iowahawk has provided a "know your town hall agitator" guide.

The Obama Comedy Tour '09 -- public option will be as good as the post office

I admit, I had to double check that Obama said this. this -- sounds more like something from Biden.

He also disputed the notion that adding a government-run insurance plan into a menu of options from which people could pick would drive private insurers out of business, in effect making the system single-payer by default.

As long as they have a good product and the government plan has to sustain itself through premiums and other non-tax revenue, private insurers should be able to compete with the government plan, Obama said.

"They do it all the time," he said. "UPS and FedEx are doing just fine. ... It's the Post Office that's always having problems."

Ace's reply addresses this stupidity in a way that I do not think I could improve upon.

They are specifically excluded from that market.

They are "doing fine" in the market segment they're permitted to compete in.

However, if the law were changed and they were permitted to compete for regular mail delivery, they might not be "doing fine" in that market if the government competed unfairly in that arena, such as imposing general taxes on everyone to reduce the cost of postage, etc.

The government, on the other hand, continues to exist in this business at all only because the government grants itself a monopoly in the delivery of regular mail.

That's the only reason we still have a Post Office. Government fiat.

Arlen Specter to constituents: "I don't have any requirement to be here.

The video is available at Hot Air. In short, Snarlin' Arlen reminds this group of Pennsylvania citizens how lucky they are to be in his Senatorial presence.

SPECTER: I’m encouraging constitutional rights. I’m encouraging constitutional rights by coming to Lebanon to talk to my constituents. I could be somewhere else. I don’t get any extra pay — I don’t have any requirement to be here. But for somebody –
CROWD: [Angry murmuring] You work for us! You report to us!
SPECTER: Okay, okay, number — well, I am reporting to you …

Pure class !!! Hey Arlen - they don't have any requirement to vote for you - you dickhead!!!

More fishy health care statements

Somebody should alert the White House about the rambling, incoherent douchebag in New Hampshire that I saw on CNN just a little while ago. Lots of fishy statements there.

He is clean and articulate though.

The Great Communicator - post-partisan edition

This video is actually a good analysis of what is all too common in Obama's speeches. Obama likes to suggest that he is open to debate and judiciously weighs the merits of the respectful arguments on both sides of an issue. But one side (the liberal side) always seems to be more equal. At which point he then attempts to marginalize the opposition. Funny how the press always seems to miss that.

As noted, this is all from the same speech.



Nuance !!!

(via Hot Air)

Liberals are losing the health care debate because they are just too darn nice

That's Dan Neil's take.

There are times when I want to quit being a progressive liberal, tear up my ACLU membership card and surrender my implanted mind-control chip through which I receive marching orders from Hugo Chavez. No matter the righteousness of the cause, liberal progressives cannot seem to get on top of any public policy debate, cannot seem to win any war of words -- which is just weird because you have to assume there are many more English majors among liberals.

While opinions on health-care reform break sharply along partisan lines, with most Democrats in favor and most Republicans opposed, independent voters strongly oppose the health-care reform measures pending in Congress by a whopping 70 percent to 27 percent, according to a recent Pew Research poll. How could the left possibly be losing the debate on health-care reform when its opponent is the roundly loathed health insurance industry -- an ongoing criminal syndicate, in my view, that demands protection money from sick people?

It's because the insurance industry's demagoguery is better and smarter than the reformists' demagoguery. This is a gunfight to which the reform agenda has brought a dull spoon.

The reform message is so jellied with politesse, so measured, so anti-inflammatory it might as well be made out of Advil.

He recommends that liberals and progressives "get down and dirty".

So when the Speaker infers that protesters are Nazis, when principled opposition is deemed un-American, when the media derisively calls protests "Astroturf", when the White House keeps a list of those who make "fishy" statements about what's in the plan and when protesters get roughed-up by union goons -- just remember that they are being nice.

In fairness, he probably wasn't able to see these things. The view is pretty limited when your head is that far up your ass.

Drawing in 3-D

All I can say is "Wow!!!" While I can't draw a straight line with a ruler, I would love to give this a try.

So, where's that TARP money ???

Nobody seems to know.

Although hundreds of well-trained eyes are watching over the $700 billion that Congress last year decided to spend bailing out the nation's financial sector, it's still difficult to answer some of the most basic questions about where the money went.

Despite a new oversight panel, a new special inspector general, the existing Government Accountability Office and eight other inspectors general, those charged with minding the store say they don't have all the weapons they need. Ten months into the Troubled Asset Relief Program, some members of Congress say that some oversight of bailout dollars has been so lacking that it's essentially worthless.

"TARP has become a program in which taxpayers are not being told what most of the TARP recipients are doing with their money, have still not been told how much their substantial investments are worth, and will not be told the full details of how their money is being invested," a special inspector general over the program reported last month. The "very credibility" of the program is at stake, it said.

So much for transparency, accountability and Sheriff Joe. Do you trust this crowd, the same one that can't manage cash-for-clunkers, to handle your health care??

Stealth town halls ???

My Congressman is John Adler (NJ-3). I have been recently been checking his website to see when he was having a town hall in my neighborhood. The site has a section entitled "Meet Congressman Adler".

Until recently that link directed you to the Congressman's scheduled appearances; as well as recent past appearances. Now the link just takes you to videos of prior appearances.

But that hasn't stopped John from making appearances. You just don't get to know about them in advance. For example, Adler had visiting hours today. I know because I received a recorded message shortly after 10:00 this morning. The message said that you could visit the Congressman today; from 11-2. So less than one hour notice. I would bet that those expected to be more supportive of ObamaCare received more notice.

John Adler -- a profile in courage.

Post-partisan president to opposition party: STFU !!!

Hope and Change !!!!

The left's incoherent attacks on the anti-ObamaCare protesters

Jonah Goldberg attributes it to fear.

Nancy Pelosi, who will get her own bound volume in the annals of asininity, has outdone herself. When asked by a reporter whether the protests at various town-hall meetings represented legitimate grassroots opposition or were manufactured “AstroTurf” stunts, she replied, “I think they’re AstroTurf. You be the judge. They’re carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on health care.”

Now this is a pas de trois of dishonesty, slander, and idiocy. Not only is Pelosi lying when she says protesters are bringing swastikas to these town halls, not only is she suggesting that American citizens are Nazis for having the effrontery to get in the way of Obamacare, but she’s also saying that the alleged swastikas are obvious proof that these protests are manufactured by slick P.R. gurus.

How does that work? What public-relations genius says: “Okay, we need these protests to seem like an authentic backlash of real Americans. Make sure everyone has enough Nazi paraphernalia!”

I think it's more panic (and stupidity). Obama has put the whole party in a terribly tight spot. This country is nowhere near as far to the left as the democratic leadership. Now a good percentage of their members have to decide whether to risk their seats, and potentially their careers, for a bill that has become increasingly unpopular or cripple their President in the first year of his term.

Meet the mob

Ohhh Scarrrry !!!!.

Community-organizer Prez unhinged by organized community opposition

Oh the irony. Unfortunately though Obama has decided to goon it up by bringing in unions to ...(ahem) dissuade ...conservative protesters.

Ask Philly resident Don Adams how "persuasive" the Teamsters were when he protested against Bill Clinton

when Don Adams, a Philadelphia resident, protested a visit to City Hall by then-President Bill Clinton, the last thing he expected was the beating of his life by a group of local teamster thugs. And to add insult to injury, a federal judge has ordered Adams to pay the International Brotherhood of Teamsters $15,000 in legal costs stemming from the October 2000 civil rights suit.

Health care for all denied by crazy, rabid, extreme rightwing troublemakers

This seems to be the latest Dem meme. Really, this is the best argument they can make?

Reality Check: The Dems have a sizable majority in the House, a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate and President who is just dying to scribble his signature on any bill that can remotely be labeled as health care reform. Not to mention the West Wing Cheerleading Squad that like to refer to itself as the press corp. The Republicans can rant, rave and hold their breath and there is not a damn thing they can do to stop ObamaCare.

So why are they scared to pass it?? Why do they desperately seek Republican votes as cover ??The Dems know that the public's anger is real . Hell, it's practically palpable. If this were "AstroTurf" as they were claiming and so widely popular wouldn't they just pass it on a party-line vote claim the credit all to themselves and brand the Republicans as the party of "No!!" ??

They are scared and 2010 is approaching quickly.

Keep up the good work people!!!!

Hearing only what you want to hear

Video of AARP's "listening session".

"Do you work for us or do we work for you?"

They don't look dangerous or seem unruly to me. In fact, the meeting seemed less contentious after AARP left. And... not a swastika in sight.

Cavuto soon to be broadcasting from a re-education camp ??

“I take issue not with the color of this president’s skin. But maybe the thickness of it.”

Well done Neil.

Freezer sent to the cooler

William "the Freezer" Jefferson convicted of bribery and money laundering charges.

Former U.S. Representative William Jefferson, who was caught with $90,000 in cash in his freezer, was found guilty on 11 of 16 charges related to a bribery and money laundering scandal, a U.S. official said on Wednesday.

The ex-Louisiana lawmaker was accused in 2007 of soliciting millions of dollars in bribes from a dozen companies while using his office to broker business deals in Africa.

In a search of his residence, FBI agents said they had found the $90,000 in a freezer.

Jefferson faces up to 150 years in prison and could face forfeiture of payments totaling $456,000, plus stock certificates, according a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Virginia, where Jefferson was tried.

Culture of corruption?? Hard to tell since Reuters seems to have forgotten to list his party affiliation.

Presidential modesty

The man sought to speak before the Brandenburg Gate before accomplishing anything, created the Office of the President Elect, created his own campaign seal, and had Greek columns akin to Mount Olympus at his acceptance speech in Denver. So is it really a surprise that he would have a birthday cake like this:




But once again the media rides to the rescue. NBC wants to make sure you fully understand just stylish the Prez is; and has the obligatory gratuitous poke at birthers as well.

Most open administration EVER ...

withholds data. This time regarding cash-for-clunkers.

The Obama administration is refusing to quickly release government records on its "cash-for-clunkers" rebate program that would substantiate — or undercut — White House claims of the program's success, even as the president presses the Senate for a quick vote for $2 billion to boost car sales.

The Transportation Department said it will provide the data as soon as possible but did not specify a time frame or promise release of the data before the Senate votes whether to spend $2 billion more on the program.
......

LaHood, for example, promotes the fact that the Ford Focus so far is at the top of the list of new cars purchased under the program. But the limited information released so far shows most buyers are not picking Ford, Chrysler or General Motors vehicles, and six of the top 10 vehicles purchased are Honda, Toyota and Hyundai.

LaHood has called the popular rebates to car buyers "the lifeline that will bring back the automobile industry in America." He and other advocates are citing program data to promote passage of another $2 billion for the incentives -- claiming dealers sold cars that are 61 percent more fuel efficient than trade-ins.

LaHood also said this week that even if buyers aren't choosing cars made by U.S. automobile manufacturers, many of the Honda, Toyota and Hyundai cars sold were made in those companies' American plants.

But there's no way to verify his claims without access to DOT's data.

So transparent it's opaque !!!

Another Health Care subversive

Neither particularly clean nor articulate. Kinda creepy actually.

Your dissent will be noted; and you will be hauled off to work in the rice fields

Remember when dissent was the highest form of patriotism?? That was in the America AmeriKKKa of George Bush. In Barack Obama's America ... not so much.

In fact, the White House blog is compiling its own snitch list.

There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.

It's not hard to imagine Keith Olbermann getting apoplectic if this were done by the fascist Boooosh!!! The left equated requests to report suspicious activity immediately after 9/11 as akin to the formation of the secret police.

And don't underestimate what can happen to individuals who end up crossing PrezBO -- just ask Joe the Plumber.

Well in any case, being the concerned citizen that I am, I am submitting these two videos by some subversive guy, with afunny name, that is clearly lying about the administration's plans for health care:





He does seem to be clean and articulate though.

Team Obama decides to meddle

Robert Gibbs calls Ahmadinejad "the elected leader of Iran".

Apparently the strategy is for the One to suck up to the mullahs so that they will have some meaningless dialogue with him, wherein he obtains some meaningless concessions from a then nuclear Iran causing Time to once again put him on the cover and allowing the sycophant press corps to lobby for his Nobel peace prize. In other words, legacy building.

Those Iranian protester dying in the streets who believe otherwise -- distractions.

Funny how the same people, who for 8 years would never acknowledge the legitimacy of George W. Bush, are strangely silent. Must be all that nuance.

Racist ?!?

L.A. Weekly thinks so.

The poster, which bears a very superficial resemblance to Shepard Fairey's famous Obama Hope illustration, has been pasted on freeway supports and other public surfaces. It has a bit of everything to appeal to the drunk tank of California conservatism: Obama is in white face, his mouth (like Ledger's Joker's) has been grotesquely slit wide open and the word "Socialism" appears below his face. The only thing missing is a noose.

Of course the left had no problems with this, from Vanity Fair:



UPDATED: To emphasize the hypocrisy, Mark Hemmingway at National Review makes the catch of the day by noting that L.A. Weekly had no problems with a noose when applied to Sarah Palin.

More benefits of single-payer health care: assisted suicide is cheaper than chemo

From Oregon's single-payer system. Yes it's a story from 2008 but the principle is still the same; rationing is needed to control costs. It's all about cost effectiveness.



Via Ed Morrisey

Behold the majesty of nationalized health care

Britain's NHS's denies painkillers for patients with chronic back pain.

The Government's drug rationing watchdog says "therapeutic" injections of steroids, such as cortisone, which are used to reduce inflammation, should no longer be offered to patients suffering from persistent lower back pain when the cause is not known.

Instead the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is ordering doctors to offer patients remedies like acupuncture and osteopathy. Specialists fear tens of thousands of people, mainly the elderly and frail, will be left to suffer excruciating levels of pain or pay as much as £500 each for private treatment.

The NHS currently issues more than 60,000 treatments of steroid injections every year. NICE said in its guidance it wants to cut this to just 3,000 treatments a year, a move which would save the NHS £33 million.

But the British Pain Society, which represents specialists in the field, has written to NICE calling for the guidelines to be withdrawn after its members warned that they would lead to many patients having to undergo unnecessary and high-risk spinal surgery.

Just wait until the bean-counters are sitting by your bedside weighing the costs of chemotherapy against your life-expectancy.

Obama: If you like your insurance plan you can keep it." -- except when you can't

Video of Obama explaining how ObamaCare will eliminate private health insurance.

Hope and Change !!!

Gone but not forgotten

Thurman Munson

My favorite Yankee. Has it really been 30 years ?!?

Clinton ooze contaminated White House grounds

Serioulsy.

Various sources within the Buzz are reporting that Michelle Obama's "organic" garden has been besieged by icky goo in the ground. As a result, the veggies aren't quite what the first lady had in mind. According to Daily Finance, the National Park Service tested the soil in the vegetable patch and found "highly elevated levels of lead" due to sewage used as fertilizer.

So the question is: Who to blame? While dumping sewage into the ground sounds like a crime worthy of Mr. Burns from "The Simpsons," the actual perpetrators were none other than the Clintons. Yep, back when Bill and Hillary were living it up in the White House, their gardening team used "sewage sludge for fertilizer."