• Del.icio.us Links

    links for 2009-08-14

    • U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee on Thursday distanced herself from a University of Houston graduate student and Texas Obama delegate who falsely identified herself as a pediatric physician at the congresswoman's health care reform town hall meeting this week.

      “I've never met her,” Jackson Lee said as she prepared to take questions from doctors and other health care workers in a session at St. Joseph Medical Center.

      Roxana Mayer, who warmly embraced Jackson Lee at the close of Tuesday's session at a Fifth Ward community center, had spoken in favor of the president's health care package. The Texas Medical Board, which oversees doctors in Texas, has no record of Mayer, 31, holding a physician's license.

      In a West Coast political blog, Patterico's Pontifications, Mayer admitted she is not a doctor.

      (tags: Obamacare)
    • Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D. presented his cooperative health care proposal here Thursday and told an audience of 100 that he would not vote for a government-run health care program.

      Conrad stopped in Carrington as part of his a statewide tour touting the Senate Finance Committee’s cooperative health care proposal.

      The proposal has received bipartisan support for several reasons, he said. The cooperative would offer a non-profit insurance option to compete with private health care. It would not be government run, he said.

      Individuals, families and small business owners could stick with their current provider, or they could opt for the cooperative plan.

    • Let's see – as candidate and President Obama has talked endlessly about the need to reduce health care costs, although his plans for doing so are opaque.

      And in the course of talking about runaway costs and ways to reduce them, Obama actually advocated end-of-life panels issuing voluntary guidelines with Timesman David Leonhardt, as reported in the Times; by way of introduction, Obama had been discussing the story of his grandmother, who was terminally ill with cancer when she had an expensive hip replacement procedure so that she would not be bed-ridden for the last three to nine months of her life:

    • It's a possibility many Republicans speak of only in whispers and Democrats are just now beginning to face. After passionate and contentious fights over health care, the environment, and taxes, could Democrats lose big — really big — in next year's elections?

      Ask them about it, and many Democrats will point to the continued personal popularity of Barack Obama. But that's not the story. "I think what's going to happen is Obama's going to be fine, and the Democrats in Congress are going to get their asses kicked in 2010," says one Democratic strategist who prefers not to be named. "This is following a curve like the Clinton years: take on really controversial things early, fail, or succeed partially, ask Democrats to take really tough votes, and then lose. A lot of guys are going to get beat, but the president has time to recover."
      +++++++
      I thought the GOP was a lonely regional ONLY party?

      (tags: GOP)
    • With a projected $1.8 trillion deficit for 2009, several trillions more in deficits projected over the next decade, and with both Medicare and Social Security entitlement spending about to ratchet up several notches over the next 15 years as Baby Boomers become eligible for both, we are rapidly running out of other people's money. These deficits are simply not sustainable. They are either going to result in unprecedented new taxes and inflation, or they will bankrupt us.

      While we clearly need health-care reform, the last thing our country needs is a massive new health-care entitlement that will create hundreds of billions of dollars of new unfunded deficits and move us much closer to a government takeover of our health-care system. Instead, we should be trying to achieve reforms by moving in the opposite direction—toward less government control and more individual empowerment. Here are eight reforms that would greatly lower the cost of health care for everyone:

    • Like many of his fellow health food fanatics, Joshua said he will no longer patronize the store after learning about Whole Foods Market Inc.'s CEO John Mackey's views on health care reform, which were made public this week in an op-ed piece he wrote for The Wall Street Journal.

      Michael Lent, another Whole Foods enthusiast in Long Beach, Calif., told ABCNews.com that he, too, will turn to other organic groceries for his weekly shopping list.

      "I'm boycotting [Whole Foods] because all Americans need health care," said Lent, 33, who used to visit his local Whole Foods "several times a week."

      "While Mackey is worried about health care and stimulus spending, he doesn't seem too worried about expensive wars and tax breaks for the wealthy and big businesses such as his own that contribute to the deficit," said Lent.

      In his op-ed, "The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare," published Tuesday, Mackey criticized President Barack Obama's health care plan.

      (tags: Obamacare)
    • According to an Iowa congressman, President Obama has said he wouldn't mind being a one-term president if that's what it takes to get major health care and energy reforms passed. Rep. Leonard Boswell (D-IA) told reporters after a town-hall on health care that, during a meeting with Blue Dogs (of which Boswell is one), Obama said he'd be willing to get bounced after four years.
    • I join millions of Americans in expressing appreciation for the Senate Finance Committee’s decision to remove the provision in the pending health care bill that authorizes end-of-life consultations (Section 1233 of HR 3200). It’s gratifying that the voice of the people is getting through to Congress; however, that provision was not the only disturbing detail in this legislation; it was just one of the more obvious ones.

      As I noted in my statement last week, nationalized health care inevitably leads to rationing. There is simply no way to cover everyone and hold down the costs at the same time. The rationing system proposed by one of President Obama’s key health care advisors is particularly disturbing. I’m speaking of the “Complete Lives System” advocated by Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, the brother of the president’s chief of staff.

    • If Sarah Palin wants to make a 2012 political comeback, she’ll need three types of speeches, some serious television face time, a credible organization and a bucket load of sheer determination.

      Oh, and she might want to get a place outside of Alaska, somewhere in the lower 48.

      That’s some of the advice former House Speaker Newt Gingrich offered when POLITICO asked him what Palin needs to do to keep her presidential options open.

  • Charles Manson,  Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme

    Charles Manson Follower Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme Released From Prison

    So, says a United States Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman.

    Fromme was convicted in 1975 of pointing a gun at then-President Gerald Ford in Sacramento, California.

    She was released Friday morning from Federal Medical Center Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas, said Felicia Ponce, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons in Washington.

    Fromme, a follower of Charles Manson, pointed a gun at Ford a year after he became president. Secret Service agents prevented her from firing; the gun was later found to have a clip of ammunition but no bullet in the chamber.

    In a 1987 interview with CNN affiliate WCHS, Fromme, then housed in West Virginia, recalled that the president “had his hands out and was waving … and he looked like cardboard to me. But at the same time, I had ejected the bullet in my apartment and I used the gun as it was.”

    She said she knew Ford was in town and near her, “and I said, ‘I gotta go and talk to him,’ and then I thought, ‘That’s foolish. He’s not going to stop and talk to you.’ People have already shown you can lay blood in front of them and they’re not, you know, they don’t think anything of it. I said, ‘Maybe I’ll take the gun,’ and I thought, ‘I have to do this. This is the time.'”

    She said it never occurred to her that she could wind up in prison.

    Asked whether she had any regrets, Fromme said, “No. No, I don’t. I feel it was fate.” However, she said that she thought her incarceration was “unnecessary” and that she couldn’t see herself repeating her offense.

    Wonder if “Squeaky” will make it back out to California to visit Charlie?

    I bet she does.

    Squeaky Fromme at the scene of the attempted Ford Assassination


    Technorati Tags: ,

  • Barack Obama,  Obamacare,  Rudy Giuliani

    Rudy Giuliani on Obamacare: A Failure to Lead

    Rudy Giuliani campaigning for President in Santa Barbara, California September 2007
    Photo By Flap

    Think that Rudy will run for Governor of New York?

    Former New York City Mayor and rumored gubernatorial candidate Rudy Giuliani said Thursday that President Barack Obama may be facing the first big loss of his presidency because he has not taken strong enough leadership on health care.

    Giuliani, in an exclusive interview with POLITICO prior to delivering the keynote address to the second annual GOPAC conference in Chicago, said the president has allowed fears of so-called “death panels” to persist because the White House has not taken a strong enough hand in crafting health care legislation.

    “They never really studied the legislation that has been proposed,” Giuliani said. “The reason for the concern about the death panels is the legislation and the claim by the president that he will cover thirty to fifty million people without cost, and any time you say it’s without costs you raise a number of concerns.”

    “It has to be with cost, because it costs money with every single person that is covered. That cost has to come from somewhere, which means something has to be cut,” the former Republican presidential candidate explained. “So where are you going to decrease services? There is a great fear that it will be by cutting off care for the elderly.”

    Like former Alaska GOP Gov. Sarah Palin, Giuliani insisted that some of the president’s “closest advisors” have advocated for the creation of “death panels” to determine the course of treatment for some elderly and infirm Americans.

    “If they’re concerned that they’ve created this massive groundswell that is worried about death panels, the only ones they have to blame are themselves,” Giuliani said of the Obama administration. “If they would like to end it, they should change the legislation, remove all these end of life panels, remove these czars and come clean with the American people that it is going to cost them a lot of money.”

    You betcha Rudy will.

    Buried in the Politico interview is Rudy’s prescription for health care reform.

    When asked to provide his alternative, Giuliani suggested that rather than a systematic overhaul, those who cannot afford private health insurance should receive subsidies similar to the federal grants and loans many Americans receive to go to college.

    “If we want to go the direction of universal health care, then the way we should go is the idea of subsidizing people who can’t afford health insurance the way we subsidize people who can’t afford a college education,” he said. “Democrats oppose that. So I believe we are in favor of reform even more than Democrats are in favor of reform.”

    If Rudy runs and wins the New York governorship, he may be positioned to run for the Presidency again in 2012. Who else would be better positioned to beat Barack Obama?


    Technorati Tags: , ,

  • John Edwards,  Rielle Hunter

    John Edwards to FINALLY Admit Fathering Ex-Mistress’ Baby?

    Maybe John Edwards can start paying some legal child support too.

    Sources have told WRAL News that they expect former U.S. Sen. John Edwards to admit that he is the father of his former mistress’ 18-month-old daughter.

    Edwards, a two-time Democratic presidential candidate, confessed last August to having an affair with Rielle Hunter, who served as a videographer on Edwards’ 2008 campaign. He has denied fathering her daughter, saying his relationship with Hunter ended before the child was conceived.

    The name of the girl’s father isn’t disclosed on her birth certificate.

    Andrew Young, a long-time Edwards aide, initially claimed to be the father of Hunter’s child, but he is reportedly writing a book in which he will claim Edwards is the father.

    A federal grand jury is investigating whether Edwards’ campaign funds were illegally paid to Hunter to keep quiet about the affair.

    Hunter spent nine hours last Thursday at the federal courthouse in Raleigh, where the grand jury was meeting. She brought her daughter, Frances, with her.

    I guess calling Edward’s crooked ass before a federal grand jury will prime the truth pump, so to speak.

    My bet is that Edwards will end up paying some substantial fines for using campaign funds to keep Rielle Hunter quiet about their affair.


    Technorati Tags: ,

  • Obamacare,  Ronald Reagan

    Audio: Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine

    From the 1961 Operation Coffee Cup Campaign against Socialized Medicine as proposed by the Democrats, then a private citizen Ronald Reagan Speaks out against socialized medicine. There is no video because this was an LP sent out by the American Medical Association

    Damn, do I miss Ronald Reagan.

    I remember him every day as I drive by his Presidenital Library.

    Listen to all of the audio.


    Technorati Tags: ,

  • Barack Obama,  Day By Day,  Harry Reid,  Nancy Pelosi,  Shelia Jackson Lee

    Day By Day by Chris Muir August 14, 2009 – Answer the Call

    Day By Day by Chris Muir

    President Obama and Congressional Democrats who support Obamacare, Chris, have already MISSED the call. The Democrats have massive, filibuster-proof majorities in the U.S. Senate. So, why are they waiting for the minority Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee?

    Why are they wasting your time with town hall meetings when the Congressional Leadership have already made up their minds to RAM the socialistic Obamacare through?

    Answer: Political Cover

    So, Democrat POLS like Nancy Pelosi (Nazis), Harry Reid (Evil Mongers) and Shelia Jackson Lee (imposter astroturfe fake physicians and ignore via cell phone) will continue their conduct until the White House exerts some damage control.

    Previous:

    The Day By Day Archive


    Technorati Tags: , , , ,