POLITICAL: Small steps in Health Care Insurance

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

http://channel-surfing.blogspot.com/2009/12/head-fake-on-health-care.html

Friday, December 25, 2009

Head fake on health care

*** begin quote ***

There are good things in this bill and there is the possibility that it can be used as a foundation on which to build real reform. The problem is the discourse surrounding the bill. If it were being described by the press and the president as what it is — something short of reform — that would be OK. But it’s not. It is being described as once-in-a-generation reform and that creates the danger that this bill has become a once-in-a-generation chance to fix our broken system. If the House cannot fix it, cannot toughen this bill up, progressives need to walk away from it.

*** end quote ***

As you may already guess, I think ALL these gooferment programs are a BIG mistake. Here’s a few points to try and convince you:

(1) If the gooferment runs health care and you get “screwed”, to whom will you appeal?

(2) Assume for a moment that the “estimates” are correct (and that is a HUGE ssumption), where will we borrow the money for it?

(3) Is it “constitutional”? (Equal protection in Nbraska, Fifth in the nationalization of insurance companies, Fourth in the individual “mandate”, and even First in the lack of conscience exemption about abortion)

(4) Is it necessary? (Could we not try some SMALL steps? Lawsuit reform. Tax deductability for individual’s purchasing their own policies like life insurance. Nationally available polices. Allowing credit union and WalMart to get into the “health” biz.

Let’s not throw what is the best to keep the politicians and socialists happy.

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POLITICAL: Criticism of Fox’s O’Reilly

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

http://www.irishcentral.com/opinion/Has-Bill-OReilly-gone-soft-on-Obama-79888222.html

Has Bill O’Reilly gone soft on Obama?
By PATRICK ROBERTS, IrishCentral.com
Published Tuesday, December 22, 2009, 7:53 AM
Updated Tuesday, December 22, 2009, 11:45 AM

*** begin quote ***

Unlike most of his Fox News colleagues, Bill O’Reilly has always seemed to have a soft spot for President Obama. Perhaps it was because Obama has given O’Reilly some exclusive interviews and feedback.

It certainly seems that O’Reilly has been impressed. His gushing column on his night at the White House media party last week reads like a missive from the liberal website Moveon.org — not from the O’Reilly we all know.

Consider this: “Michelle Obama, whom I had never met, was stunning. She was warm and kind to my 10-year-old daughter and gracious to me. My quick assessment of her: Strong, charismatic, and beautiful.”

Wow! Hard to imagine Sean Hannity saying that.

*** end quote ***

No secret! I like Bill O’R. Watch it most nights.

I think his assessment of MO is accurate from what I’ve see and heard about her.

Going to the White House party is like going behind the lines. He’s a commentator, who’s format requires a foil. SO he has to have a supply of “victims”. And, maybe he might have shed some light on the stupidity of the WH was on Fox.

That being said, B O’R is the not the least dogmatic of the FOx commentators I’ve heard. Greta is more apolitical than him. Maybe Cavuto is closer in temperament.

B O’R is often “wrong” imho. He’s NOT a libertarian. As evidence, the sparing with Stossel. He was apoplectic at Stossel’s quiet libertarianism. B O’R has given BO grades that were “inflated” imho.

BO has forgotten Bill Clinton’s “commandment”. “It the economy, stupid.” TARP2, Porkulous, and GM were all stupidly poisonous to the economy.

(Let folks fail. Take your medicine promptly. And don’t be surprised when “impossible situation”, “unsurmountable obstacles”, and “irreconcilable differences” “suddenly” are “solved”. GM Unions and Management would suddenly become “best friends” when going down on the same Titanic! Watch Wall Street suddenly figure out how to be profitable WITHOUT the gooferment’s help. Especially with visions of “golden parachutes” and “big bonuses of taxpayer money” swirling down the the bowl.)

So when B O’R graded BO, his ruler was “elastic” based on his values. I don’t think that makes B O’R “soft” on BO.

Just wrong.

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POLITICAL: New DNA techniques and “not our job”

Saturday, December 26, 2009

http://reason.com/blog/2009/12/20/florida-sees-its-12th-exonerat

Florida Sees Its 12th Exoneration
Radley Balko | December 20, 2009

*** begin quote ***

This is a common refrain from state officials and prosecutors. “It isn’t our job to find innocent people in the prisons.” Even in jurisdictions where there’s every reason to believe an unusually high number of innocent people have been convicted. They threw the state’s resources at putting the people behind bars in the first place, but argue it’s the responsibility of the wrongly convicted themselves or cash-strapped non-profit groups like the Innocence Project to bring the cases to the attention of the courts—usually as the same prosecutor offices fight them every step of the way.

*** end quote ***

Sorry, the little L libertarian disagrees. Justice demands it! New DNA evidence that can prove innocence must be examined by the State. Otherwise, we’re just a “banana republic”!

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POLITICAL: Four month rotation

Thursday, December 24, 2009

On a recent trip to AC, at the magic show, an USAF fellow was there. With wife and two little girls. (Guess he was leaving from McGuire) Under duress, he revealed that he was about to leave on Thanksgiving for a FOUR MONTH ROTATION as a medic to the “war”.

Of course, this made me start thinking.

Why four months?

… because 181 days in a war zone gives certain benefits, entitlements, and pay.

Why Thanksgiving?

… no clue. (A human being might have scheduled the 4 months to split the holidays.)

Why are we always at “war”?

… because “war is the health of the state”.

Why do we regard the military as a job?

… that family could lose the husband.

Why?

… because we don’t have the stones to stand up to the political class and say “no”?

“Dona Nobis Pacem”

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POLITICAL: Carter calls for debt action

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

http://www.globalatlanta.com/article/23608/

President Carter to U.S.: Tackle Debt Before Lecturing China
Trevor Williams
Atlanta – 12.16.09

*** begin quote ***

The U.S. should focus on getting its own fiscal house in order and give up pressuring China to revalue its currency, the yuan, former President Jimmy Carter said during a Dec. 3 panel discussion at the Carter Center in Atlanta.

*** end quote ***

Pretty bad when ex-President Carter talks financial sense. Guess a stopped clock can be right twice per day. Clearly, the debt should be a priority. If not first, (i.e., national defense, citizen protection, the economy), it’s got to be up there.

The cure is one that the Big Gooferment advocates don’t want to hear — cut spending.

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POLITICAL: Copenhagen caper

Sunday, December 20, 2009

http://channel-surfing.blogspot.com/2009/12/world-leaders-spent-two-weeks-in.html

Saturday, December 19, 2009
World leaders spent two weeks in Copenhagen and all we got was this?

*** begin quote ***

It took two weeks of talks in Copenhagen, after two years of preliminary talks and in the end, to much fanfare we got….

*** end quote ***

Lucky for us that “climate change”, “global warming”, and “global kooling” are all just “barbara streisand” to get socialism ramped up. More “global gooferment”, wealth transfer, and guilt the rich to transfer wealth from the have’s to the gooferments of the have not’s. Note that you can pour money on the “poor” until the cows come home and ALL of it will go into some petty dictators’ or bureaucrats’ pockets.

But lucky for us, humans are like the flies on the cows butt. We can no more impact climate with our minuscule actions then we can make poverty go away.

Argh!

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POLITICS: Unemployment numbers are misleading

Saturday, December 19, 2009

http://www.jibberjobber.com/blog/2009/12/18/unemployment-lies-and-deception

Unemployment Lies and Deception

December 18th, 2009

*** begin quote ***

As far as I know, unemployment numbers are based on those who are reporting to the government — those who are collecting unemployment insurance.

Guess what… unemployment insurance RUNS OUT. And then, you are so worthless, you aren’t even counted as a statistic! You are essentially written off the books.

Yeah, this really gets under my skin. And we aren’t even talking about UNDEREMPLOYED people!!

*** end quote ***

And, don’t forget the underemployed and the old farts who are now “retired” for want of anything better to do.

I fault the gooferment and it’s absolute stupidity.

First, average wage in gooferment is twice that of private industry. Regardless of how they slice and dice the numbers, gooferment workers are in the ascendancy in both quantity and money. TARP — bailout to the banks; should have just let them fail. (Cynically, I’d bet that they’d have figured out how to survive. The bail out of AIG was a direct payoff to Goldman Sachs. The same Goldman Sachs that paid gigantic bonuses.)

Second, every dollar the gooferment “gives” in unemployment benefits has to come from some taxpayer. Remember Basiat and the unseen victim. In this case, we now have four generation of “welfare farmers”. Some of those on “welfare” are rich companies and individuals. Milk and sugar subsidies come to mind.

Third, the poor economy has landed hard on the young and old. Youth unemployment — especially minority — is skyrocketing. And, the older workers are being forced into early retirement; some after burning through their savings from reduced retirement portfolios.

My solution is reduce gooferment. They need to cut, cut, and cut some more. Some entities need to be killed — Agriculture and Education would be my starting point. We need to cut the corporate income tax from 30+ to say ZERO. (Corporations don’t pay taxes. Only real people do. Corps pass them along or go out of business.) When Ron Paul campaigned, he asserted that cutting gooferment back to 1990 levels would allow the income tax to be ZERO.

Not like any of this is going to happen. But I wouldn’t trust anything the gooferment says or does. This included “running health care or health insurance”.

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POLITICAL: Grading politicians

Thursday, December 17, 2009

http://libertyslifeline.com/2009/12/15/grading-on-a-curve/

Grading on a Curve
Liberty’s Life Line
Dec 15, 2009

*** begin quote ***

Such a disconnect between Obama’s opinion of himself and the American people’s opinion is a serious problem. It drives him to continue to pursue policies that Americans adamantly oppose (e.g., 61% oppose the Senate health care bill). Most reasonable people would take such feedback and reassess their actions. But if an employee is blind to his shortcomings, the only thing to do is show them the door. The sooner, the better, folks because it’s not going to get any better.

*** end quote ***

Well said! For a fellow with no experience, he has “accomplished” zero so far. And, like I remember Regan saying something like a President only gets to do 2 or 3 things and pick a few people, his choices for action (i.e., health care something, cap ‘n’ tax, stimulus) have been bad for us (me?) and his personel picks are terrible (i.e., Timmy the tax cheat and Rahm the fish).

I’d say he’s closer to an F than a B+. How low can grades go?

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POLITICAL: George Bush’s Third Term

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

http://channel-surfing.blogspot.com/2009/12/war-is-peace-or-something-like-that.html

Friday, December 11, 2009

War is peace, or something like that

*** begin quote ***

Barack Obama is more like George W. Bush than any of his supporters has been willing to admit. The 44th president, like his predecessor, has shown a willingness to break disagreements down into simple, binary equations, especially when it comes to his defense of empire.

*** end quote ***

>peace speech

This old little L libertarian would merely point out: “Actions speak louder than words”!

Your “extra ordinary” just committed 30k (if you beleive the number) boys and girls to kill their opposite numbers.

Some peace!

Note that this is the George Bush Third Term that everyone was so afraid of.

So how’s that “hope and change” working out for you?

(And, yes, I spoke, blogged, and bitched about Bush as well. I just wasn’t fooled by any politician. And, I wrote in Ron Paul! Not that it matters much.)

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POLITICAL: Rolling Stone calls out the corruption

Saturday, December 12, 2009

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/31234647/obamas_big_sellout

Rollingstone.com
Obama’s Big Sellout
The president has packed his economic team with Wall Street insiders intent on turning the bailout into an all-out giveaway
MATT TAIBBI
Posted Dec 09, 2009 2:35 PM

*** begin quote ***

Taken together, the rash of appointments with ties to Bob Rubin may well represent the most sweeping influence by a single Wall Street insider in the history of government. “Rather than having a team of rivals, they’ve got a team of Rubins,” says Steven Clemons, director of the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation. “You see that in policy choices that have resuscitated — but not reformed — Wall Street.”

While Rubin’s allies and acolytes got all the important jobs in the Obama administration, the academics and progressives got banished to semi-meaningless, even comical roles. Kornbluh was rewarded for being the chief policy architect of Obama’s meteoric rise by being outfitted with a pith helmet and booted across the ocean to Paris, where she now serves as America’s never-again-to-be-seen-on-TV ambassador to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Goolsbee, meanwhile, was appointed as staff director of the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board, a kind of dumping ground for Wall Street critics who had assisted Obama during the campaign; one top Democrat calls the panel “Siberia.”

*** end quote ***

The President, at least according to Regan as I remember, has a very limited scope of influence. (That’s always stunned me.) The agenda might have three items and be lucky to get two done. It’s the appointments — picking people — where he has the most impact.

Clearly, Rolling Stone points out how poorly that picking was done.

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