Government Does Suck!

A huge h/t goes out to BOBBY HARRELL over at the Wall Street Journal Online. Bobby is simply one of the folks responding to the previous article I posted by Karl Rove.

Bobby points out magnificently how Government is to blame for healthcare getting so damned expensive. Enjoy a really good read.

Gio-

I Have Heard it All Before

This is about health care and its high cost. I am one who has had experience with the US health care system over a very long period of time. I have had enough experience to tell you that The Democratic Party is directly responsible for the high cost of health care today. I can tell you that before government entered health care it was much less expensive. The garbage about “we have to fix it” is not new! There was a time when I was able buy insurance with the income from a very small business. There was a time when I used my equity in a very small home as my catastrophic insurance policy. Thanks for the fact that we did not have a catastrophe. I have heard it all before. It was expensive and destructive then as it will be now. Any sensible person knows this.

One of my most vivid memories is seeing Ted Kennedy on television pushing the need for the first Medicare bill to be passed. I wonder why someone does not find a copy of his television interview and play it for the people (I have a site listed below where you can hear LBJ tell what a great thing Medicare passage was) . Is a TV interview from around 1965 still in the archives? I was attending Hillsborough Community College at night and the instructor had just discussed the fact that government does nothing well. I knew that if the government got involved nothing good would happen. Ted sounded sooo … convincing and concerned about our mature citizens.

Kennedy said that our old people should not have to worry about having all their savings consumed by a serious illness in their old age. At the time Medicare was passed most people paid for their own health care. It was a free market item. It had to be priced so that people could buy it or the provider could not market the product. I remember my wife calling me and telling me that a private room at Tampa General was $19 a day. She thought that a bit high. She was having a procedure done and I had told her to get a private room. To put this in prospective the Howard Johnson Motel at Gandy and Dale Mabry was new and it cost $10 a night. Howard Johnson’s was considered to be pretty nice at the time.

Employers once provided health insurance at many jobs as a way to keep employees happy. Employers were glad to do that! The health of employees in important to any business. Heath insurance was affordable because government was not involved. I remember paying $45 a month for Blue Cross and Blue Shield and thinking it not too expensive. Soon after the passage of Medicare the bill came and it was $500 a month. Effectively that was a cancellation notice. BT (before Teddy) doctors made a good bit more that teachers but not outrageous amounts. In the late 50’s a doctor customer and friend was getting rich taking out tonsils every morning at Tampa General for the rate of $100 per child. What would the charge be today? I was making about $90 dollars a week fixing televisions and other electronics.

Teddy and the Democratic party got their bill passed. It is easy for you to look up the Medicare vote on the internet. The site is listed below. Government and the Democrats are making something free for the people. I know! But the people don’t! After Medicare was passed it was difficult for the recipients to find a doctor at first. No doctor wanted to bother with filling out the forms and waiting to get paid. I well remember my grandmother hunting a doctor to treat her on Medicare.

http://www.ssa.gov/history/ssa/lbjmedicare1.html#2
http://www.ssa.gov/history/mpeg/videosound.html
http://www.socialsecurity.gov/history/tally65.html

What happened? Doctors and hospitals soon figured out that they were no longer constrained by the free market. The government would pay the average of what a procedure cost in the area where it was preformed. Pretty simple to mine this gold! You just raise the average price! That is exactly what happened. It was not long before doctors and hospital preferred Medicare holders! I remember when doctors were not too anxious to work for people who paid money. It was difficult to tell a man the price of an office call. Doctors didn’t have the gall to tell a man who made $100 a week that a ten minute office call was $80. The cost of medical care was soon beyond reason. There were many attempts to place blame. High insurance cost for doctors took some blame. It was true that people were ready to sue doctors. The new outrageous cost caused people to have little respect for the medical profession. Anyone who sued Doctor Grable or Doctor Greenwell in the old days would be a town outcast.

I must emphasize that the medical profession bears loads of blame. Government gave a blank check and they took unreasonable amounts. I often wondered how a doctor felt when he took $100 for spending 5 minutes with a guy who made $125 a week. Pretty bad I think. It got to where they hid behind the office personnel. You don’t see your doctor at McDonalds much. Once they had coffee at the local coffee shop. Seeing a doctor around town is like seeing the Easter bunny. I think they group up in a herd at Hilton Head.

In the defense of the doctor please notice that almost everyone in state and local government as well as individuals are happy to grab all the “stimulus” money and any other handouts that are offered. Also note that all this casts a reflection on good people who wish to serve the people in medicine. That is very unfair to great doctors who don’t care about money. There are some who worked hard against all odds to serve there fellow man. (I am thinking of you Veronica).

To make it so simple that a Democratic senator can understand it I will summarize.
1. Medical care was very reasonable when it was a free market item.
2. Ted Kennedy and his Democratic buddies passed a “Medicare” bill.
3. The government entered the picture and prices sky rocketed because no one cared what the price was. The government was paying.
4. Teddy wants to give it to everyone. It will be free! Employers will give ever one insurance.
5. No business can ever gives anything to anyone. The cost is always in the product or service the business provides. This is not a criticism but a simple business fact unknown by government!.
6. Teddy and Bo are about to give it to you!
7. Ted Kennedy and the Democratic Party are directly responsible for the high cost of healthcare.

Healthcare – The Real Story

I’m not a journalist, nor do I pretend to be one. With the reputation that journalists have today I’m not even sure if I want to ever be associated with them, but that’s for another post. I want to comment on the Headline and what I’m going to call the Sub-Header (see now why I backed off of claiming to be a journo?). The Header you see below in the color blue, and the Sub-Header you se in the color red, are the actual headers, and in that order if you were to go to the Wall Street Journal website. Click on the blue header to see for yourself.

The only reason why I find any of this interesting is how the sub-header in this case is the important start of this article. The actual headline is simply an after-thought. Combine what’s in this article with the fact that Seniors and those on S.S. Disability will NOT be recieving a ‘cost-of-living-increase’ in their monthly checks for the next two years, and you are going to have one very large pissed-off group of voters. Even those that are confined to a bed will want to crawl to the nearest polling site to vote out anyone dumb enough to sign on to the complete overhaul of our healthcare system. Or what is rightfully known as… Socialism.

Gio-

Obama Targets Medicare Advantage

Seniors would lose with health ‘reform,’ and seniors vote.

By KARL ROVE

President Barack Obama was wise to vacation this week on Martha’s Vineyard. Not because it’s one of the few places in America where his health-care plan is still popular, but because by getting out of Washington he gave staff time to repair his vaunted message machine, which was starting to break down.

Two weeks ago, White House Senior Adviser David Axelrod said in a now legendary “viral” email that, “It’s a myth that health insurance reform would be financed by cutting Medicare benefits.” This was sent out the day before Mr. Obama told a Montana town hall that he’d pay for health-care reform by “eliminating . . . about $177 billion over 10 years” for “what’s called Medicare Advantage.” And it was two days before Mr. Obama told a Colorado town hall he’d cover “two-thirds” of the “roughly $900 billion” of his plan’s cost by “eliminating waste,” again citing Medicare Advantage.

Who’s right? As a former senior adviser, I can tell you who: the president. What’s more, according to a White House fact sheet titled “Paying for Health Care Reform,” Mr. Axelrod was misleading his readers. It notes the administration would cut $622 billion from Medicare and Medicaid, with a big chunk coming from Medicare Advantage, to pay for overhauling health care. Mr. Obama heralded these cuts as “common sense” in his June 13 radio address.

Medicare Advantage was enacted in 2003 to allow seniors to use Medicare funds to buy private insurance plans that fit their needs and their budgets. They get better care and better value for their money.

Medicare Advantage also has built-in incentives to encourage insurers to offer lower costs and better benefits. It’s a program that puts patients in charge, not the government, which is why seniors like it and probably why the administration hates it.

Already, an estimated 10.2 million seniors—one out of five in America—have enrolled in Medicare Advantage. Mr. Obama is proposing to cut the program by nearly 20% and thus reduce the amount of money each will have to buy insurance. This will likely force most of them to lose the insurance they have now. Yet Mr. Obama promised in late July in New Hampshire that, “if you like your health-care plan, you can keep your health-care plan.”

There are roughly 23,400 seniors on average in a congressional district who have Medicare Advantage, but who face losing it if Mr. Obama has his way. That’s enough votes to tip most competitive House and Senate races.

Back in 2006, Mr. Obama and other Democrats railed against GOP efforts—modest though they were—to slow future Medicare spending growth. Now he and his party may reap what they have sown. As the president pushes to enact an overall cut to Medicare he will imperil Democrats in tough re-election races. Mr. Obama has a dangerous old tiger by the tail. Seniors are much more likely to vote than the population at large.

Adding to the Democrats’ woes are polls that show weak support for ObamaCare among Independents and Democrats. In the new ABC/Washington Post poll, only 45% approved of Mr. Obama’s plan and 50% opposed it—with 40% “strongly” opposed.

Despite Mr. Obama’s barnstorming tour, last week’s Fox/Opinion Dynamics poll said “the health care reform legislation being considered right now” is opposed by 21% of Democrats, 50% of Independents, and 81% of Republicans. Only 37% of Democrats and 15% of Independents think their families would be better off if it passed.

The problem for Mr. Obama is that he lacks credibility when he asserts his plan won’t add to the deficit or won’t lead to rationing; that people can keep their health plans; that every family’s health care will be better, not worse; and that a government run plan isn’t a threat to private insurance. A large number of Americans don’t believe the president on this.

With this week’s $2 trillion upward revision in the White House’s deficit projections, August has been the cruelest month for Mr. Obama. The president is now facing a politically explosive mix of unpopular policies and an angered electorate.

It’s still too early to count Mr. Obama out. His team will be back in Washington next week. They’ll work on their messaging and have more than $100 million—much of it from pharmaceutical companies—to spend on ads bludgeoning reluctant Democrats and energized Republicans.

The White House will exert enormous pressure—and in the spirit of Chicago-style politics, employ threats when necessary—with Senate and House Democrats. The health-care battle, already intense, will get more so in the months ahead. ObamaCare is unpopular, but it is far from defeated.

My Tribute To Ted Kennedy

The Government Can!

This is terrific. Catchy tune and a really good singer as well

H/t GiovanniWorld member Sal!

~Eowyn

………….

On Ted Kennedy’s Death

Ted Kennedy, the last of the Kennedy brothers, died today from brain cancer. Expect a media frenzy, heaping accolades on the “Lion of the Senate.”

My reaction when I heard the news upon awaking this morning?

Ted Kennedy lived 40 years longer than Mary Jo Kopechne, whom he abandoned to drown to death, trapped in the car that inebriated Ted drove off a bridge into the waters of Chappaquiddick Island on July 18, 1969. Mary Jo was 29 years old. Ted lived to the ripe old age of 77.

Throughout his long career in the Senate, Ted Kennedy was also a forceful advocate of abortion. He repeatedly voted against all attempts to stop taxpayer financing of abortions and opposed the ban on partial-birth abortions.

Nominally a Catholic, I hope for the sake of his immortal soul that Mr. Kennedy confessed and expressed remorse for his many many sins of murder — of Mary Jo Kopechne and the millions of aborted human lives.

Here’s Rush Limbaugh on Ted Kennedy, from Rush’s website:

RUSH: I want to close here by repeating part of my eulogy that I gave in the first hour to Ted Kennedy.  The left is going to exploit him, they’re going to exploit his death, they’re going to exploit his legacy to push health care through.  But the greatest tribute would be that every American, every man, every woman and child would get the same health care options that Ted Kennedy got.  Tedcare for all, forever. Will there be a single liberal to come forward and embrace Senator Kennedy’s example of seeking and securing the best medical care available?  Ted Kennedy, lion of the Senate, the United States government was never a partner in his death.  Obama, remember, said that we are God’s partners in matters of life and death to the rabbis.  Ted Kennedy never invited any bureaucrats into the decision-making process.

There are lessons to be learned in life and death.  Senator Kennedy’s last days and his death are a powerful manifestation of the survival instinct, of the will, the spirit to live.  God bestowed on each of us the miracle of life.  It’s a gift that is personal, and it is priceless.  The suggestion that a partnership between government and God in life and death is vulgar, it’s a debasement of life.  It’s un-American.  Ted Kennedy’s passing is a powerful reminder of the respect and dignity of the intensely personal will to live we all possess.  The state was excluded from that part of Ted Kennedy’s life speaks well of the country and government that Ted Kennedy was elected to serve, and to put his name on a health care bill to try to ramrod a health care bill through in his name, in his honor, that does not honor the will to live, is hypocrisy and insulting.  To pass and ramrod a health care bill in his name that would deprive people, by its existence, by virtue of law, that would deprive people of the health care he got, that’s the most insulting thing the left could do, and they’re not even aware of it.

More On VA Death Book

Since Giovanni’s World first posted on August 20 on the Veteran Administration’s Death Book, which bears the innocuous title of Your Life, Your Choices, others also commented on this macabre handbook. Among them are Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Sean Hannity.

The latest is an editorial in today’s (Aug. 26) Washington Times, which concludes with the following:

There is no attempt to ask people, “What would it take for you to want to live?” Instead, the booklet focuses on wanting to die. “Your Life, Your Choices” originally was put together by the Clinton administration and then shelved during the George W. Bush presidency. Jim Towey, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives during the Bush administration, said the booklet was problematic because it made injured veterans feel like a burden and encouraged severely injured soldiers to want to die.

After a ruckus over the booklet this past week, the Obama administration added a new note saying the work was being revised. Either way, the Death Book is instructive as a reflection on Obamacare priorities and perspectives and what the administration might view as a “waste.” This is important because Mr. Obama and other administration officials regularly talk about a need to cut back on what they term as massive waste in health care.

What government considers a waste, many patients and doctors consider a necessity. Denying this care based on vague notions of efficiency is rationing. Even the New York Times admitted last week that “the concerns [about rationing] are not entirely irrational.” Concern about rationing has been particularly acute among the elderly for good reason. The Death Book shows government’s perverse interest in the end of life rather than its extension.

Meanwhile, former RINO Senator Arlen Specter (D-Pennsylvania)  said yesterday (Aug. 25) he may introduce legislation to prohibit the use of the VA Death book because it sends a “hurry-up-and-die” message to injured troops. (For more on this, go HERE.)

To which I say, “Good for you, Senator Specter. You’re finally doing something that’s useful and decent!”

~Eowyn

You’re Racist If You Criticize Obama

If you disagree with WeeWee Obama, Janeane Garofalo calls you racist!

One useful tool from the liberal playbook is the charge of racism. Racism is America’s Original Sin. Racism is also an accusation against which it’s near impossible to defend, for how does one prove one is not racist?

One way to do that is to take The Pledge. If you haven’t already done so, check it out!

H/t compatriot GiovanniWorld member Steve!

~Eowyn

………….

Every Critic a Racist

John Stossel – 8/24/2009  – http://blogs.abcnews.com/johnstossel/2009/08/every-critic-a-racist.html

During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama’s supporters promised that his election would allow America to “transcend race.”  Among the headlines:

The Boston Globe: “Obama shows an ability to transcend race”

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:  “Obama’s success suggests we can transcend race”

But of course that hasn’t happened. Jonah Goldberg writes:

It was Obama’s supporters who hinted, teased, promised, and prophesied that Obama would help America “transcend race.” But now, it is they who shrink from their own promised land…

From Day 1, Obama’s supporters have tirelessly cultivated the idea that anything inconvenient for the first black president just might be terribly, terribly racist.

Goldberg has plenty of examples:

For instance, actress Janeane Garofalo summed up the tea parties thusly: “This is about hating a black man in the White House. This is racism straight up.”

In an ABC News story about how racist white militias are somehow connected to town-hall protests, Mark Potok of the dismayingly left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center insists Obama has “triggered fears among fairly large numbers of white people in this country that they are somehow losing their country.”

Come on. Every president eventually is criticized by the media – even one as “transcendent” as Obama. The President’s supporters should engage his critics with facts, not charges of racism.

Attention North Carolinians

IMPORTANT UPDATE AT BOTTOM.

A message from William/NC State Director to all members of North Carolinians for the Preservation of the Constitution on Patriotic Resistance!

Hello William W,

Rep. Sue Myrick is holding three townhalls. At tonight’s townhall, in Matthew’s, moveon.org is planning on attending to voice their pro-universal healthcare opinion. We need a lot of people there to counter their presence! Bring signs, flags, and loud voices!

The times and locations are as follows:

Union County:
August 25, 2009
Weddington High School Auditorium
4901 Monroe Weddington Road
Matthews, NC 28104
6:30pm

Mecklenburg County:
August 26, 2009
J.V. Washam Elementary School Gymnasium
9611 Westmoreland Road
Cornelius, NC 28031
7:00pm

Gaston County:
August 27, 2009
Gaston Day School Auditorium
2001 Gaston Day School Road
Gastonia, NC 28056
7:00PM

No tickets, nor RSVP, are required for Rep. Myrick’s townhalls.

In liberty,

Matthew Ridenhour
The Jeffersonian
www.charlotteteaparty.org
charlottetaxdayteaparty@gmail.com
DON’T TREAD ON ME
http://www.charlotteteaparty.org/

www.matthewridenhour.com

Visit North Carolinians for the Preservation of the Constitution at:
http://www.resistnet.com/groups/group/show?id=2600775%3AGroup%3A56010

IMPORTANT UPDATE

A message from T Medlin to all members of North Carolinians for the Preservation of the Constitution on Patriotic Resistance!

NCFreedom Triangle Constitutional Town Hall
Tonight! Tuesday, August 25th, 7 PM – 9 PM
Lighthouse Convention Center
326 Tryon Road, Raleigh, NC 27603

Congressmen Miller, Price, Etheridge and Sen Kay Hagan and Burr all received hand delivered invitations to this event.

Rules and etiquette for questions.
The questions should be prepared and written in advance. Facts supporting the question should be included. We will have state of the art projectors and three large screens to show HR 3200 information in detail. If the question is related to this bill, provide the page number so that it can be shown on the screen for verification.

The questions will not be limited to health care.

I know it’s late notice, but I hope you can attend.

There will be a panel of experts available to answer questions. on healthcare, the constitution, illegal immigration, and the economy.

*****UPDATE****another event this week!!!!!

WCTA monthy meeting, Thursday, August 27

Wake County Sheriff Donnie Harrison, Commissioner Paul Coble, and School Board candidates will be speaking at the Wake County Taxpayers Association Monthly Meeting, Thursday, August 27.  The meeting will start at 6:30 PM at the Barbecue Lodge on Capital Blvd in Raleigh

Visit North Carolinians for the Preservation of the Constitution at:
http://www.resistnet.com/groups/group/show?id=2600775%3AGroup%3A56010

Somebody Is Hungry Part II

Eowyn’s hungry little fur-ball will put a smile on the face of all animal lovers, just as the following video will put a smile on the face of all you political junkies out there…

Glenn Beck Fights Back

Fox News’ Glenn Beck has been under attack by a far-Left organization Color Of Change (COC) that is spearheading a boycott campaign, urging businesses to pull their ads from Beck’s talk show.

COC was co-founded by Van Jones, an admitted black nationalist and communist, who is also WeeWee Obama’s green jobs czar.

Beck and his supporters are fighting back with such websites as DefendGlenn.com and jenkinsear.com/.

For a list of businesses that have withdrawn their ads from Beck, go HERE and HERE.

Here’s Beck’s expose of Van Jones.

H/t to conservative warrior GiovanniWorld member Steve!

~Eowyn

………….

Somebody Is Hungry

Hope this lightens your cross, if only just for a day!

~Eowyn

…………

Somebody is hungry… and some other body forgot to feed that somebody!

Urgent Message: To All Senior Citizens

You may not have noticed, but over the past few days the Obama administration has been quietly letting the media know that anyone collecting Social Security and/or SS Disability will not be getting a ‘Cost Of Living Allowance’ increase for the next two years. Basically, he’s going to make darn sure that you will be poorer than you are now.

Americans and John McCain

You be the judge. This man is a fool, IMHO.

No & Hell No!

These are the very same people that want the USA to be a Fascist/Marxist state. Anotherwords, the enemy!

Ok, I know we live in a free country (not for long at the rate we are going), so until they come and lock my Conservative ass in a Federal Snitch Jail, I will continue to speak out…

It is obvious to any American that is over the age of 12, and to almost everyone NOT in a coma, that the vast majority of Americans are against the Socialist healthcare bills being floated by our representatives in DC. So what does the Obama machine do? Keep reading…

H/T to Giovanni’s World member and fellow patriot, Tom in NC.

Democrats plan hundreds of reform rallies

Faced with a souring public mood on health care reform, Democrats and their supporters are launching a national grassroots push Wednesday to show lawmakers that the majority of Americans still support overhauling the system.

 
Reform supporters are planning to hold more than 500 events between Wednesday and when lawmakers return to Washington Sept. 8, ranging from neighborhood organized phone banks to professionally staffed rallies with hundreds of people.

 
The Democratic National Committee and its grassroots arm, Organizing for America, are helping to organize the effort along with the Health Care for America Now, a group pushing to create government-run insurance plan.

 
“In these last few weeks of recess we want to demonstrate the energy, passion and commitment that the American people have to health insurance reform so that when members return after Labor Day they know that they can turn their attention to getting this done because they have the backing of the American people,” said DNC spokesman Brad Woodhouse.

 
Supporters have their work cut out for them. Many lawmakers were thunderstruck over the August recess by the anger and outrage expressed by their constituents in town hall meetings across the country. And in poll after poll, support for reform has eroded throughout the month.

 
But Democrats and their allies insist that the majority of Americans still support reform and have organized the grassroots campaign to buck up lawmakers as they get ready to head back to Washington.

 
A health-insurance-reform-now bus will travel the country starting Wednesday and anchor events in 11 cities: Phoenix, Albuquerque, Denver, Des Moines, Pittsburgh, Raleigh, Charlotte, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Indianapolis and Columbus, Ohio.

 
But the talk of broad health insurance reform does not mean that progressives have backed off their push for a government-run insurance option.

 
“We want members of Congress to get back to work and pass reform that means something. We need affordable care. We need real insurance regulation. And we need a strong public health insurance option,” said HCAN spokeswoman Jacki Schechner. “It’s doable and we expect it to get done now.”

———————————————–

“Cry Havoc, and Loose the Dogs of War”!

The above actions and more, is what the Democrats plan for the next few weeks, so don’t be surprised when things get real ugly. This is NO longer a struggle over healthcare, it’s about power. It’s about the power to transform this country into a Fascist/Marxist society.

Under threat of bodily harm, which will be clear as a bell, we should still go to one of these rallies in our own areas. While the thugs of the left try to cave in my skull, I will be fighting with everything I have to save this nation.

WE  ARE  NOT  A  FASCIST/MARXIST  NATION  AND  I WILL  BE  DAMNED  IF  THE  LEFT  TAKES  US THERE,  E-V-E-R!!!

Faced with a souring public mood on health care reform, Democrats and their supporters are launching a national grassroots push Wednesday to show lawmakers that the majority of Americans still support overhauling the system.

 

Reform supporters are planning to hold more than 500 events between Wednesday and when lawmakers return to Washington Sept. 8, ranging from neighborhood organized phone banks to professionally staffed rallies with hundreds of people.

 

The Democratic National Committee and its grassroots arm, Organizing for America, are helping to organize the effort along with the Health Care for America Now, a group pushing to create government-run insurance plan.

 

“In these last few weeks of recess we want to demonstrate the energy, passion and commitment that the American people have to health insurance reform so that when members return after Labor Day they know that they can turn their attention to getting this done because they have the backing of the American people,” said DNC spokesman Brad Woodhouse.

 

Supporters have their work cut out for them. Many lawmakers were thunderstruck over the August recess by the anger and outrage expressed by their constituents in town hall meetings across the country. And in poll after poll, support for reform has eroded throughout the month.

 

But Democrats and their allies insist that the majority of Americans still support reform and have organized the grassroots campaign to buck up lawmakers as they get ready to head back to Washington.

 

A health-insurance-reform-now bus will travel the country starting Wednesday and anchor events in 11 cities: Phoenix, Albuquerque, Denver, Des Moines, Pittsburgh, Raleigh, Charlotte, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Indianapolis and Columbus, Ohio.

 

But the talk of broad health insurance reform does not mean that progressives have backed off their push for a government-run insurance option.

 

“We want members of Congress to get back to work and pass reform that means something. We need affordable care. We need real insurance regulation. And we need a strong public health insurance option,” said HCAN spokeswoman Jacki Schechner. “It’s doable and we expect it to get done now.”

Support the HAPPY Act!

Calling all animal lovers!

I’ve read and heard about people abandoning their pets because their homes foreclosed and/or because they lost their jobs. Pet dogs and cats find themselves out in the streets; the lucky ones get rescued by an animal shelter.

Congressman Thaddeus McCotter (R-Michigan) is sponsoring H.R. 3501, a bill that would provide Americans with a tax deduction for the cost of caring for a pet in these difficult economic times.

McCotter, who represents a Detroit-area district, introduced the HAPPY (Humanity and Pets Partnered Through the Years) Act on July 31. It would allow taxpayers to take a deduction of up to $3,500 a year for “qualified pet care expenses,” including veterinary care. It is now in committee.

For more on this, go HERE.

To find and contact your representatives in Washington, DC, go HERE.

~Eowyn

Killing-Off Glenn Beck

Last month Glenn was a guest on the ‘Fox and Friends’ morning show. During his appearance he made a few comments about Obama that folks on the left call controversial. Me, I call his remarks truth. Anyway, the left has decided it’s time to kill-off Glenn Beck. Although Glenn has gotten plenty of death threats, I don’t mean kill-off in the literal sense, they just want him off the airwaves, both Radio and TV.

What’s interesting is how the mainstream media seems to be going along for the ride. There could be a number of reasons why. One, this is traditionally a slow news month. Two, Glenn is hugely popular so people are interested in him. Third, they are being used by the left. Or my personal pick… Fourth, the mainstream media in this country has a left leaning bias, and would love to help bring down a popular Conservative Political Opinion Host.

From now on I’m going to follow how this all goes down. Why, because it’s now quite obvious that the game plan is for the Fascist left to pull out all the stops to kill-off Glenn Beck. Remember, the comments he made that has the left so upset were made last month and yet we see new articles on the how the boycott’s are going on a daily basis. In the meantime we will try to collect and give out any info pertinent to this pre-meditated murder, so we may best help support Glenn in his hour of need. “Power to the people” and Glenn is one of the people. Anotherwords, he’s one of us!

Below is just the latest, which is basically all old news.

Gio-

P.S.  One of my readers has suggested posting a list of the advertisers that are boycotting Glenn’s show. Does anyone have one handy?

Advertisers bail after US talk show host calls Obama ‘racist’

(AFP) – 1 hour ago

WASHINGTON — A conservative talk show host who called President Barack Obama a “racist” is facing a loss of advertisers after a group launched a campaign to persuade companies to pull their ads from his program.

Websites supporting Fox News Channel’s Glenn Beck have sprung up meanwhile on the Internet, launching online lobbying campaigns calling for a boycott of firms which yank their plugs from his show.

The television talk show host sparked controversy last month when he said Obama, America’s first black president, has a “deep-seated hatred for white people.”

“This guy is, I believe, a racist,” Beck said during an appearance on another program on News Corp.-owned Fox.

Bill Shine, Fox’s senior vice president of programming, in comments to Mediabistro’s TVNewser at the time, said Beck had expressed a “personal opinion which represented his own views, not those of the Fox News Channel.

“And as with all commentators in the cable news arena, he is given the freedom to express his opinions,” Shine said.

Beck’s comments prompted ColorofChange.org, a group whose stated mission is to “strengthen Black America’s political voice,” to launch a campaign to try to persuade companies to pull their ads from “The Glenn Beck Program.”

“There’s been a long-standing pattern of racially divisive rhetoric with right-wing talking heads on Fox and elsewhere,” ColorofChange.org‘s executive director, James Rucker, told AFP. “Beck has taken it to a new low.

“He’s been basically repeating this overall message that essentially Obama is trying to destroy this country,” he said. “It’s really preying on people’s fears.”

ColorofChange organized an online petition to be sent to the presidents, chief executives and boards of companies advertising on Beck’s show urging them to “immediately cease all advertising on the Glenn Beck Program.”

“I want to alert you to the fact that Glenn Beck — whose show you sponsor on Fox — is using his platform to make outlandish accusations about the President and to advance baseless theories that prey on race-based fears.

“I presume your company does not want to enable such rhetoric, nor have your products or services associated with the kind of views and tactics espoused by Beck,” the petition said.

Rucker said nearly 165,000 people have responded to the online appeal and ColorofChange said 36 companies have “committed not to support Beck’s show.”

Fox acknowledged that some companies had pulled their ads from Beck’s show but stressed that they had not left the network entirely.

“The advertisers referenced have all moved their spots from Beck to other programs on the network so there has been no revenue loss,” a Fox spokesman said.

Rucker said that appeared to be the case. “We do have a few advertisers who’ve said they’re done with Fox — now that’s really one or two out of the 36,” he said.

Beck’s supporters have come to his defense launching websites such as DefendGlenn.com and SupportGlennBeck.com.

“This website was created to counter a current campaign against Glenn Beck’s sponsors,” said SupportGlennBeck.com. “It is time to show these companies that the hard-working Americans who support Glenn are willing to boycott their products and stand on principle.”

Beck was back on the air on Monday after a vacation and did not specifically mention the campaign to pressure his advertisers.

He did, however, run a profile on Van Jones, a co-founder of ColorofChange, and questioned how such a “committed revolutionary” could serve as one of the “chief advisers” to Obama.

Jones is an adviser to the White House on environmental issues.

Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved.

Ever Heard of “Hospital Futile Care Policy”?

Ever heard of a hospital Futile Care Policy (FCP)?

This is a policy in more hospitals than we’d like to think, all across the United States, wherein a physician is entitled to refuse life-sustaining treatment if he/she believes the quality of a patient’s life is too low or the cost is too high to justify further treatment — even if this goes against the patient’s or his/her family’s wishes and instructions!

Notwithstanding Obama and the Dems’ denial about ObamaCare’s “death panels,” involuntary euthanasia by omission is already a practice in some hospitals. Whatever it’s called, it certainly will be a reality under ObamaCare.

H/t Catherine Austin Fitts’ Blog!

~Eowyn

…………

Hospital “Futile Care” Policies- Deciding Who Should Die

posted by Julie Grimstad – May 22, 2008

http://www.lifeisworthliving.com/2008/05/hospital-futile-care-policies-deciding_22.html

Imagine visiting your 75-year-old mother in the hospital after she has had a disabling stroke. She is unable to speak or swallow. Her immediate needs include artificially provided food and fluids (tube-feeding) and antibiotics to fight an infection. If she survives, nursing home care as well as physical and speech therapy will be required to help her recover. Your mother chose you to be her health care decision-maker (agent) and told you that, no matter what, she wants to live. Nevertheless, her attending physician refuses to provide further “life-sustaining treatment”—including tube-feeding. When you object, the doctor explains that this is what he thinks is best for your mother. You are stunned.

Sound far-fetched? It’s not. Similar scenes are playing out all over the country in hospitals which have quietly adopted “futile care policies.” These policies are based on the theory that a physician is entitled to refuse life-sustaining treatment when he/she believes the quality of a patient’s life is too low or the cost is too high to justify further treatment. Such policies permit so-called “futile care” to be stopped, not because the care or treatment won’t sustain the patient’s life, but precisely because it will. If the patient, family or agent objects, the case is referred to the hospital ethics committee for the final decision.

A hard question needs to be asked. Is it advisable, or even legal, for doctors and hospital ethics committees to have this kind of power?

In 1998, I was interviewed for an article entitled “Medical Futility: Who has the power to decide?” which appeared in Nurse Week and Health Week. I said then that I believe medical futility policies are designed for one reason: cost-containment. And, I say it again. The high-sounding motive of “doing what is best for the patient” is simply camouflage.

Most people assume that they will have the right to make their own medical decisions. Insistence, against a patient’s wishes, that every means be used to postpone death would be senseless and inhumane. (While we have a moral obligation to use ordinary means to preserve our lives, treatments that are extremely burdensome, overly zealous or otherwise extraordinary are optional.) However, it is just as cruel to refuse available and potentially effective treatment to a patient who wants it. If a person wants to fight for every last moment of life, this is his or her right. There is absolutely no concern for the rights of patients in “futile care” policies.

Not only do these policies permit the wishes of a patient’s family and even a patient’s advance directive (Living Will or Power of Attorney for Health Care) to be ignored, they also allow doctors to override the medical decisions of a patient who is conscious and asserting the desire to live! The essence of any “futile care” policy is involuntary euthanasia by omission. [Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), 2277-2278]

“Futile care” policies make people with disabilities extremely nervous. Diane Coleman, president of the disability rights group Not Dead Yet, says, “It’s not news to us that health professionals judge our quality of life to be far less than how we judge it ourselves. The view that our lives are futile is frightening, no matter who holds it.” (“A Duty to Die” by Karla Dial, Citizen magazine, 2/04.)

“Quality of life” judgments are extremely unsettling. Based on the notion that certain lives are not worth living, they are totally incompatible with the fundamental Christian principle that “human life is sacred.” [CCC, 2258] Part of the spiritual war being waged between the Culture of Life and the Culture of Death is the ethical battle between the Sanctity of Life Ethic and the Quality of Life Ethic. We all have a stake in the outcome. If the Quality of Life Ethic prevails, hospitals may as well post signs warning patients, “We reserve the right to refuse treatment to anyone.”

Julie Grimstad is the Executive Director of Life is Worth Living, Inc. She can be reached by E-mail at LifeIsWorthLiving@sbcglobal.net or by phone at (715) 342-4249.

AARP Hellbent On ObamaCare

Say "No" to the ObamaCare death star

AARP ramps up support for ObamaCare with TV/Radio ads

August 24, 2009

Although the AARP says it is not “officially” endorsing President Obama’s healthcare reform, it is conducting a huge and costly television ad campaign in support of ObamaCare and hosted the president at an online forum recently to promote his agenda to AARP members.

On its website, AARP says, “We share the President’s commitment to act this year” and “We look forward to working with leaders of both parties, including the President.”

AARP even developed a dedicated website to help promote the president’s agenda. See this national television ad by AARP using scare tactics to promote ObamaCare. The website states specifically states, “AARP members will visit their representatives and senators in their district offices and attend events in support of health care reform.”

Senior citizens who went to a meeting sponsored by AARP were left to themselves after the AARP hostess walked out. The seniors were trying to get answers concerning ObamaCare and why AARP would support a government controlled health system that many believe would lead to euthanasia and rationing of health care.

Why would AARP, the nation’s largest group, supposedly working for the elderly, support an ObamaCare bill? Here is what Dick Morris, former advisor to President Clinton, said: “The interest groups that usually speak up for the elderly, particularly AARP, are in Obama’s pocket, hoping to profit from his program by becoming one of its vendors. Just as they backed Bush’s prescription drug plan because they anticipated profiting from it, so they are now helping Obama gut the medical care of their constituents.”

FOX News network reported about 60,000 seniors have quit AARP since July 1 due to the group’s support for health care reform.

* Send an e-mail to AARP letting them know you don’t agree. If you are a member, consider what others are doing – cancel your membership. AARP is clearly using membership dues to help push ObamaCare.

* Forward this information to others so they can see how AARP is spending their dues in promoting ObamaCare.

* American Seniors Association (ASA) is an alternative we suggest you check out. AFA does not officially endorse ASA, but simply offers it as a conservative alternative to AARP. By the way, ASA is offering any senior that sends in a torn AARP card a special deal that provides them with a two-year membership for the price of one year.

Sincerely,

Tim

Tim Wildmon, President
American Family Association

………

Submitted by Eowyn

Even Worse Deficits – Update

Wasn’t it just the other day that we were told we’re coming out of this recession? This morning we are told it’s actually getting worse.

~Eowyn

……………

Breaking News:

White House projects bigger deficits, bigger debt

Citing worse than expected economy, White House projects bigger deficits and bigger debt

By Jim Kuhnhenn – August 25, 2009 – http://finance.yahoo.com/news/White-House-projects-bigger-apf-2714959279.html?x=0&.v=2

WASHINGTON (AP) — White House officials project lingering high unemployment in the short term and a massive 10-year federal deficit of $9 trillion that feeds a ballooning national debt.

White House budget director Peter Orszag and economic adviser Christina Romer cited a worse-than-expected economic crisis for the dire fiscal landscape. The new projections were released Tuesday morning.

In May, the administration had predicted a $7 trillion deficit for 2010-2019. In documents and in remarks, the White House officials said the economy this year will contract by 2.8 percent, more han twice what they had predicted earlier this year.

…..

Also this morning, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) warned that the economy could spiral into hyperinflation not seen since the early 1980s if the Federal Reserve does not tighten its monetary policy soon.

Grassley, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, said that inflation as a result from government spending on bailouts could result in inflation rivaling rates in 1980, when it hit a peak of 13.5 percent.

For more on this, go HERE.

UPDATE:

About the $9 trillion in deficits over the next 10 years, here is what financial analyst and best-selling author Bill Bonner has to say:

One of the great mysteries of our time is: where will the money come from? Even if every dollar of US savings is applied to the task, the feds will still be short. And if they make up the difference with funny money, the Chinese vigilantes are likely to get cheesed off and dump their US Treasury bonds. The evidence shows that the Chinese…and other Asians…are already trying to lighten up on their US debt holdings. This from The New York Times:

“Figures released by the Treasury Department this week indicated that China reduced its holdings of Treasury securities by $25 billion in June, the most China had ever sold in a month.”

Dems Down Reps Up?

Everyone better pay attention to this piece from the Wall Street Journal. We all know that the Democrats are in deep doo-doo (or wee-wee’d) and this should mean great times for the GOP. Nope! This article explains the pitfalls of an electorate that is getting smarter by the day.

On a personal note… It’s going to be very hard for me to vote for a Republican in the mid-terms because the GOP has still NOT proven it’s gotten the message. In the meantime, I’m looking hard at the Constitution Party.

Gio-

Democrats’ Woes Won’t Cure GOP

In this August of Democratic difficulty, here’s something that Republicans ought to keep in mind: Politics isn’t a zero sum game.

That is, just because one party is down doesn’t automatically mean the other party is up. That’s an underlying principle of American politics, but it’s remarkable how often it’s forgotten.

In this case, it means that even as Democrats hit rough seas, Republicans shouldn’t forget that they still face significant deficiencies and structural problems of their own — problems that just a few months ago seemed almost insurmountable. The danger for Republicans right now, in fact, is that they become so entranced by the recent decline in President Barack Obama’s fortunes that they lose sight of their own problems.

A reminder of this challenge comes in the form of a long article in the forthcoming issue of Commentary magazine by two of the Republican Party’s deeper thinkers, former Bush White House speechwriters Pete Wehner and Michael Gerson. They lay out what their article calls a “path to Republican revival,” making the point that simply opposing Obama initiatives isn’t sufficient to bring about such a revival.

They also argue that being anti-government isn’t sufficient in a country where “it is patently clear that most Americans do not locate the source of all of today’s social ills in an overactive government.” Instead, they argue, Republicans need to be seen as a party with new ideas for reforming “ossified” features of that very government, particularly regulatory and tort systems that are behind the times, and an education system that needs to make teachers both better paid and more accountable for their performance.

Intriguingly, Messrs. Wehner and Gerson also suggest that Republicans steal a page from the playbook that British Conservative Party leaders David Cameron and Iain Duncan Smith have used to revive their party. Those British conservatives have, the authors note, “emphasized a range of issues that directly influence the quality of life in community: homelessness, addiction, prison reform, family breakdown, long-term unemployment.” So far, the authors note, “Republicans have no comparable agenda to address such issues of social justice from a conservative perspective.”

It may seem odd to highlight such deficiencies at a time when Republican fortunes seem to be rising. But Mr. Wehner argues in an interview that this is, in fact, precisely the time to refill the party’s reservoir of ideas.

“When we started thinking about this piece and working on it, the Republican Party was in the depths of despair,” Mr. Wehner says. “Now it’s almost as if Republicans feel the collapsing numbers for Obama are by themselves enough. The Republican Party itself isn’t out of the woods yet.”

Indeed, the woods in which Republicans found themselves after the 2008 election are, and remain, thick. Republicans lost across the board because they did badly with the two most important voting constituencies of the future, young people and Hispanics. Moreover, they could suffer for some time from last year’s record wave of voters registering as Democrats.

Republicans have no obvious national leader, and some of the most prominent personalities that have arisen (Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh) carry plenty of baggage. Nor have recent Democratic travails made Republicans broadly popular by comparison. In the most recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, 42% of respondents had positive feelings about the Democratic Party, compared with just 28% for Republicans.

Even on health care, where Republicans have made hay by attacking Democrats’ plans for a big and expensive overhaul, it would be hard for voters to put their fingers on a coherent GOP alternative. That doesn’t matter much now, but it will if, as now seems possible, the health debate stretches on for months or years.

Indeed, in one sign of the GOP’s disjointed message on health, national party Chairman Michael Steele published in Monday’s Washington Post a piece that opens by objecting to Democrats’ plans for a “government-run health-care system” — and then proceeds to object, at length, to proposals to curb Medicare, which is, after all, the biggest government-run health system in the land.

(Something about Medicare, by the way, seems to make both parties lose all sense of equilibrium. The same Democrats who howled in protest when then-President George W. Bush proposed relatively modest cutbacks in Medicare spending in 2006 now are proposing their own much bigger cuts in Medicare spending to pay for expanding health coverage for others.)

The best news for the GOP this summer, Mr. Wehner says, is that “the issue set that is dominating the national debate is in the Republican wheelhouse, which is taxes and spending.”

In the Commentary article, he and Mr. Gerson also suggest Republicans continue to offer a “full-throated stand for a strong national defense” amid conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and peril in North Korea and Pakistan.

But other areas remain problematic for the party, not least immigration. There, Republicans remain deeply divided over whether to back an overhaul that offers citizenship to illegal immigrants. Meanwhile, the party’s tone often comes across as hostile toward all immigrants. Count that as one big area where Democrats’ woes aren’t sufficient to solve Republicans’ own problems.

Write to Gerald F. Seib at jerry.seib@wsj.com