Health Care Reform, if you can call it that.

O.K. We did a Minneapolis run yesterday and so we got to listen to talk radio. Gotta love Rush...

He was plugging away at the Heritage Foundation, where I founds some absolute beauties. I would suggest checking out this site.

Here is the Conclusion of "A Federal Health Insurance Exchange Combined with a Public Plan: The House and Senate Bills"

President Obama and the congressional leadership are intent on creating a national health insurance exchange. In its various legislative forms, their version of the health insurance exchange is a powerful regulatory agency; it is not merely an administrative agency to facilitate enrollment and to promote choice and anything remotely approaching free-market competition.

In many respects, the national health insurance exchange resembles a solution in search of a problem. If the President or Congress wanted to create a national health insurance market, they would not need to create a national health insurance exchange--they would merely have to repeal existing federal barriers to insurers competing across state lines. If the President and Congress wanted to fix the inequities of the federal tax law, a key rationale for creating a health insurance exchange at the state level, all they would have to do is to reform the federal tax laws governing health insurance and end the practice of discriminating against those who cannot or do not get health insurance through their place of work.

If the objective of the President and Congress is to expand the role of the federal government in providing health insurance and determining the kind of health insurance that Americans will get, the national health insurance exchange is a convenient tool for that federal expansion and control. It would be tantamount to a national arena for the public plan to undercut private health plans and erode existing private health coverage.

There is little doubt that a national health insurance exchange, combined with a public plan, can achieve that policy objective. But there is also little doubt that such an objective is not what most Americans had in mind when they embraced the cause of comprehensive health reform.

Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., is Director of the Center for Health Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation.

Hmmmmm.....

Sarah Palin on Facebook. (link via Gateway Pundit)

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. President Obama has not yet stated any opposition to the “Complete Lives System,” a system which, if enacted, would refuse to allocate medical resources to the elderly, the infirm, and the disabled who have less economic potential. [1] Why the silence from the president on this aspect of his nationalization of health care? Does he agree with the “Complete Lives System”? If not, then why is Dr. Emanuel his policy advisor? What is he advising the president on? I just learned that Dr. Emanuel is now distancing himself from his own work and claiming that his “thinking has evolved” on the question of rationing care to benefit the strong and deny the weak. [2] How convenient that he disavowed his own work only after the nature of his scholarship was revealed to the public at large.

All emphasis in the original. Now, I've heard some folks say that the term "Death Panel" is a bit too much hyperbole for them to swallow. OK, fine, what would those folks call it?

And it was only after Palin started speaking about "Death Panels" that the language was removed from the bill. Call it by whatever name you want, it was a section that would have given the government power to control live and death medical decisions. And that, my friends is flat out wrong. If it took over-the-top hyperbole to get it removed, so be it.

Michael Vick signs with Eagles

Story here. I might just get nuked here, but.....

Michael Vick got hammered for what he did. You think he didn't? He went from the richest contract in NFL history to bankruptcy. He was literally toast. I don't know if in his heart of hearts he's a changed man. But I guarantee that he won't be doing any more dogfights.

He earned his punishment and he's served his time. People have gotten less punishment for murdering a human. I say let him play.

Are you sick of hearing about socialized health care?

Too bad. This is quite possibly the most important thing we face, because if the Democrat American Communist Party gets their way your parents could be laying in a hospital bed being denied treatment because it's too expensive for the all-powerful Nanny Government to pay for.

This is not a joke. When your parents are gasping for breath as the government doctor says "Sorry, we can't help you, your parents are just going to die because we won't pay for their treatment." what are you going to do? Where are you going to turn? THERE IS NOWHERE ELSE FOR US TO GO. When YOU are lying on a hospital bed struggling to live, and the government somewhere makes the decision that saving your life isn't cost effective.... what are you going to do?



This is a video posted by Kevin Baker. Watch it. Listen as the Leftists who are right now pushing for socialized health care talk about their plans IN THE OPEN.

It. Must. Be. Stopped.

Who's the Nazi?

Found this over on the right sidebar at Michelle Malkin - it's an NRO piece, wherein someone has compared Bush and Obama's stimulus to the stimulus of Nazi Germany.

Go read. It's a fascinating piece.

And it brings to mind something I read from Jonah Goldberg years and years ago, back in the late 90's, when Goldberg was confronting someone shouting "NAZI!" at him. "So, other than that whole pushing Jews into gas chambers, exactly what part of the Nazi platform do you disagree with?"

The Murtha Airport

I found this not at all shocking yet completely despicable.

There are times

When a good run is better than any laxative in the world. Just so ya know.

HOOAH!

DAMN RIGHT! YOU'RE G-D DAMNED RIGHT!

WEST POINT, N.Y. (Army News Service, Aug. 7, 200) - A report released Wednesday by Forbes magazine ranked the U.S. Military Academy as the top college in the country in their America's Best College review.

Now, I also happen to think that West Point graduates are a bunch of prissy, know it all, dumb-ass pieces of excrement who need to just shut their ignorant damn mouths unless they're asked a question by their Platoon Sergeant.

But I still consider a West Pointer to be head and shoulders above any other collage graduate. That should only let you know what I think about someone from say.... Harvard. As far as I'm concerned, a Harvard Graduate is only fit to scrape the dog shit off of my shoes, and that's if he's been a good child and kept his head down.

Found via RNS.

Republicans now more trusted on Health Care than Democrats

Which is amazing, if you ask me. Given the fact that the Republican Stupid Party has managed to do nothing more in the past month than just shut up and stop shooting themselves in the foot. Have they managed to make the case against socialized health care? No, ordinary people have done that. Have they managed to speak out against Obama's disastrous legislation? No, ordinary people did that. Have they managed to separate themselves one single bit from their Democrat American Communist Party congressfellows? Nope. They're still nothing more than Democrat American Communist Party Lite. The party of "Me too, only not as much!"

And yet Obama and his takeover of the health care system are still failing. Just what does that say about it, hmmmmm?

Les Paul, RIP

If you listen to guitar music today, you're listening to the legacy of Les Paul. He died today at the age of 94.

The Gibson Les Paul is a guitar icon. I've had a chance to strum a few of the older versions, and they still sound better than most the guitars on the market today.

If you want to fight back

You first must understand how the Leftist bastards are going to fight. Such as planting their thugs at town hall events. "OH! OH! LOOK AT THOSE RETHUGLICANS CALLING OBAMA HITLER!"

Right. Ready made for the Democrat American Communist Party propaganda machine to pick up and run with. Gosh, I wonder how that happened?

H.R.45 - Blair Holt's Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009

I do not know how far this bill has gotten. But, we should all be afraid that it has even been introduced! If you have any information on this please update me.

‘(aa) Firearm Licensing Requirement-CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

10

‘(1) IN GENERAL- It shall be unlawful for any person other than a licensed importer, licensed manufacturer, licensed dealer, or licensed collector to possess a qualifying firearm on or after the applicable date, unless that person has been issued a firearm license--CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

‘(A) under title I of Blair Holt’s Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009, which license has not been invalidated or revoked under that title; orCommentsClose CommentsPermalink




‘(B) pursuant to a State firearm licensing and record of sale system certified under section 602 of Blair Holt’s Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009, which license has not been invalidated or revoked under State law.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

‘(2) APPLICABLE DATE- In this subsection, the term ‘applicable date’ means--CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

2

‘(A) with respect to a qualifying firearm that is acquired by the person before the date of the enactment of Blair Holt’s Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009, 2 years after such date of enactment; and‘(B) with respect to a qualifying firearm that is acquired by the person on or after the date of the enactment of Blair Holt’s Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009, 1 year after such date of enactment.’.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

The "OH HELL YES" quote of the day

Made by GrumpyOldFart at The Smallest Minority.

Since Mark is making all these declarations about what the Republican base must obviously believe, let's examine the actions of the Democrat base and see what they must obviously believe.

Let's start with what they know. As always, the right will be held to a higher standard than the left, so I'll limit myself to things that "I didn't know _________!" on a given subject would be as absurd as saying, "I didn't know professional wrestling was fake!"

1. They know that their party's House Financial Services Committee Chairman, House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee Chairman, House Speaker, Senate Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs Chairman, Senate Rules Committee Chairman, are all flat-out crooks, and make very little attempt to hide it.

2. They know that one of their primary fundraising organizations is wholly owned by a multibillionaire who makes no attempt to hide the fact that he manipulates the organization, and thus Democrat Party policy, for his own purposes.

3. They know that that one of their primary "activist" organizations is under indictment for voter registration fraud in a dozen states, and that this same organization is going to be given quite a bit of authority over the census, which determines what? Oh, just unimportant things like Congressional districting, electoral votes, stuff like that.

4. They know their party's current leader chose someone as Attorney General who declines to prosecute people caught on video engaging in blatant voter intimidation. Whether it's because the thugs in question were his same party or his same ethnicity is immaterial, it's quite obvious that the AG has neither the desire nor any intention of impartially enforcing the law. They also know this same leader nominated a Supreme Court Justice who demanded a case be judged on the race of those involved rather than on its merits.

5. They know that nothing the aforementioned leader says can be taken at face value. Nothing. I was before Single Payer before I was against it, the stimulus was not intended as a stimulus, you can start blaming me for the economy right now but it's your mess, there will be no lobbyists in my administration except for almost the entirety of my cabinet, it's time to embrace science rather than superstition even though my "science czar" is a eugenicist, everything will be discussed on C-SPAN and there will be a full debate and five full days for the American people to see the bill cos it's all about transparency (although the Republicans will be locked out of most of the process, I'll refuse FOIA requests, and I'll insist that the bills are too important to actually read them before I demand your unequivocal support), we must have a full and open debate on the issues while my senior advisor unleashes union thugs on my opponents, we have to get clear of the lies, disinformation, misinformation and distraction even though I'm pressuring the CBO to fudge their figures when they disagree with me....

...I could go on, but you see the point.

6. They know that this same leader produced more deficit in six months than every other President combined in the entire history of the Republic, all while preaching fiscal responsibility.

Okay, that's the highlights of what the Democrat base pretty much cannot help but know. And yet what quality, more than any other single factor, defines the difference between Republicans and Democrats? It is this:

When Republicans find out one of their leaders is making no real attempt to "walk the walk" (Ted Stevens is a good example) the base calls for him to be thrown out.

When Democrats find out one of their leaders is making no real attempt to "walk the walk" (Pelosi, Frank, Dodd, Murtha, Jackson, Rangel, Waters... sheesh, pick one) the base either defends him by demonizing his/her critics or says "So what?" and ignores it.

I'll do links if you ask, but this is already very long and 5 seconds on google will provide you all you want.

What conclusions can we draw from this? There are really only two choices:
Either

a) The Democrat base fully shares the corrupt, "it's all about my power, my perks, screw everybody who gets in the way, I don't give a shit if it's legal or not" mindset of the leaders they choose, or

b) The Democrat base considers ethics, honesty and the rule of law at best indifferent if not actually destructive to the process of good government.

I'm going to email that to a few Leftist co-workers of mine who've been accusing the right of lying about socialized health care.

And since I'm stealing links

*snort*

I'd ask someone to email this to the Botoxed Bimbo from San Fransicko, but it wouldn't have any effect on the communist clusterfuck.

I feel like a kid again

Obama sez: I have not said I'm a supporter of single payer healthcare.

I say, along with Claire: LIAR LIAR PANTS ON FIRE!

Is he really that fucking dumb? Or is he so used to the lapdog media covering his every mistake that he thinks he can say what he wants and get away with it?

Riddle me this

If conservative protesters are "Astroturfing" as one mental midget from Nevada likes to claim, then where the hell is our filthy lucre from the drug companies? Where the hell are those millions of dollars from wealthy individuals?

Has any Republican Congresscritter called these pieces of shit on their hypocrisy yet?

Here, try this out

Tamara has an observation about the experience of shooting at Camp Perry, the gist of which is this - there are a lot of friendly people out there in the shooting world.

Just show up for a match in your street clothes with no gear, and folks will come up to you and ask "Do you need a spotting scope? A mat? A gun? Want some pointers?" For this to happen at Camp fricken' Perry is like showing up in the stands at Wimbledon and having Serena Williams or Andre Agassi walk up and ask "Do you want to play? Do you need a racket? I can let you borrow one..."

The one thing that I have found at shooting ranges, no matter when or where, is that most folks are as friendly as you could possibly imagine. When the step-son and I were at the range, there was a gentleman there who was kindly offering actual advice as well as his various firearms for the both of us. I got a chance to try out a .44 Mag, a 545 Casul, and a Desert Eagle. When I was shooting up in the Seattle area, there were plenty of people willing to swap advice, stories, and chances to shoot their guns.

Shooting is a brotherhood. I know it sounds cheesy, but it's true.

Random Thoughts

It's probably a good thing that I'm not near any Town Hall events right now, because given the liberal tendencies of the people of Wisconsin, I'd most likely have a front row seat to union thuggery. And being who I am, there's no way in hell I could watch union goons beat people and rip signs out of people's hands without stomping a mudhole in their ass.

And then I would have to explain to my boss why he was bailing me out of jail. Not good.

Gah.

My dog has COPD

And we don't know why. Now keep in mind that this poor hound started out her life in a frat house at the University of Washington, so there's no telling just how much dope this dog was forced to smoke as a puppy. And her second owners we don't know much about, but we have an inkling that the husband was abusive.

But with all that said, we've kept her healthy. She used to run with me until we noticed she couldn't keep up any more. The vet kept saying she was healthy, but that her joints just couldn't hold up. OK, well, walks are good as well. And then we moved, and things seemed to improve. But a while ago the Mrs. gave her a vaccination for Kennel Cough, and that's when everything went downhill. It started off as light coughing, and just kept getting worse, until last week the poor dog was hacking for ten minutes straight, and I watched a friggin' BUBBLE two inches across come flying out of her mouth and float away.

Vet time.

So since we've moved, we're at a new vet, and this vet is pretty good. She's checking the dog out, starts crossing out all the things it couldn't be (blood test says no kennel cough, no heartworm, etc). Finally after poking and prodding and much listening to the lungs, she says it's COPD. The second case she's ever seen in a dog.

So my dog is now on antibiotics and Prednisone.

You want to know what really scares me? If Obamacare passes, my dog will have better health care than we humans will.

Here's yer astroturf right here

Projection, people. Sheer, total projection. When the Left is reduced to advertising their protesting as jobs on Craigslist... well, you get the picture. When the Left is reduced to having non-english speaking "immigrants" holding signs they don't understand... well, you get the picture.

And yet according to Dingy Harry Reid, the mental midget of Nevada, we on the right are "astroturfing".

Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, Harry. You worthless fucking idiot. The less you damned parasites listen to us, the more cause we have to just remove you from the equation. Go ahead and issue your diktats from Capitol Hill. We'll just cut you off and leave you to fester in your own filth.

Links found here.

a full explanation of government coruption

in N.J. I ran across this presentation on rosenet.tv.
Bob Ingle and Sandy McClure wrote "the Saprano State" about N.J. corruption, connecting all the dots. Yes this presentation is for selling the book, but it is also very informative if someone really wants to know how the corruption game works.

The Raging Dave says it is a worthwhile listen.

More Union Thuggery

Over at Gateway Pundit.

It's amazing that the side that howled for eight years that dissent is the highest form of patriotism now wants to stifle all dissent. It's almost like they were LYING or something!