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• ObamaCare: About Those Death Panels – The Very Real threat of Government Health Care Rationing
  Oregon, a decidedly liberal state, provides an unequivocal example. In 1993, the Clinton administration gave permission to the Oregon Health Plan, the state’s Medicaid program, to introduce rationing. The system involves a treatment schedule that lists 649 potentially covered procedures. The state pegs the number of procedures the state will cover to the available funds. Patients requiring procedures above the cutoff line are out of luck.

  As of October 2010, only the first 502 treatments were covered. But even that low number doesn’t tell the full story of rationing in Oregon. The Oregon Health Plan also rations covered procedures under certain circumstances. Chemotherapy, for instance, is not provided if it is deemed to have a 5 percent or less chance of extending the patient’s life for five years, meaning that a patient whose life might be extended a year or two with chemo may not receive it.

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  Read it all

  But, Oregon above WILL pay for physician assisted suicide

  (tags: Obamacare death_panels)
• Renewed Push to Give Obama an Internet "Kill Switch"
  A controversial bill handing President Obama power over privately owned computer systems during a "national cyberemergency," and prohibiting any review by the court system, will return this year.

  Internet companies should not be alarmed by the legislation, first introduced last summer by Sens. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), a Senate aide said last week. Lieberman, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, is chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

  "We're not trying to mandate any requirements for the entire Internet, the entire Internet backbone," said Brandon Milhorn, Republican staff director and counsel for the committee.

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  Read it all

  Judicial review should be required period.

  Curtailment of the internet could be seen as a First Amendment attack on information dissemination – the electronic press.

  (tags: internet barack_obama)
• Welfare Tab for Children of Illegal Immigrants Estimated at $600M in L.A. County
  Welfare benefits for the children of illegal immigrants cost America's largest county more than $600 million last year, according to a local official keeping tabs on the cost.

  Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich released new statistics this week showing social spending for those families in his county rose to $53 million in November, putting the county government on track to spend more than $600 million on related costs for the year — up from $570 million in 2009.

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  Read it all.

  Then, there are the costs of public education – look at all of the newly constructed schools in the LAUSD.

  Is there any wonder why California is going broke?

  (tags: illegal_immigration)

This will more than likely be a debate that all of the candidates for the Republican nomination will appear first and at one time – at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California.

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation announced today that May 2, 2011 is the date for the Republican presidential candidates’ debate being held at the Reagan Library. The Reagan Foundation also announced a host of details about the first Republican debate of the 2012 campaign season, including a roster of some of the nation’s top journalists from NBC News, POLITICO and Telemundo to take part in the questioning.

“We have established a wonderful tradition – of which I know Ronnie would be so proud – of using the Library as a first-in-the-nation forum for candidates to introduce themselves and their visions for America to a national audience,” former First Lady Nancy Reagan said.

The Reagan Library, in Simi Valley, California, was also the venue for the first Republican debate of the 2008 campaign cycle. Mrs. Reagan and the Presidential Foundation announced last fall the plan to host the candidates as the 2012 campaign season begins.

In addition to the date of this year’s gathering — selected by the Presidential Foundation after consultation with national Republicans — there are several important features of the Library Debate announced by Mrs. Reagan today:

*Brian Williams, anchor of the top-rated NBC Nightly News, will be co-moderator, along with POLITICO Editor-in-Chief John F. Harris, a presidential scholar and one of the nation’s top political journalists.  A Telemundo reporter will also join in the questioning.

*NBC News and POLITICO will be joined by Telemundo and CNBC in airing the debate.  This will mark the first time a news organization aimed at Hispanic Americans and the nation’s leading business news network will join in the inaugural debate of a presidential campaign season.

*The debate will air on MSNBC, POLITICO.com, CNBC and Telemundo.

The Reagan Presidential Foundation plans to play host to both the first GOP presidential debate of the 2012 election cycle on May 2, 2011 and a second GOP debate on the eve of the Super Tuesday primaries.

So, all of the potential Republican candidates better be ready to rock and roll soon.

Another national survey for the GOP Presidential nomination is out – this time from Rasmussen.

• Mitt Romney – 24%
• Sarah Palin – 19%
• Mike Huckabee – 17%
• Newt Gingrich – 11%
• Tim Pawlenty – 6%
• Ron Paul – 4%
• Mitch Daniels – 3%
• Some other candidate – 6%
• Undecided – 10%

The survey of 1,000 Likely GOP Primary Voters was conducted on January 18, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. Likely GOP Primary Voters include both Republicans and unaffiliated voters likely to vote in a GOP Primary. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.

It is early and national polls are, well, national. But, Mitt Romney does not have a commanding lead and conservative candidates Palin, Huckabee and Gingrich polling totals combined overwhelm him.

There is little doubt that Republican voters are looking for an alternative to Mitt Romney.