Ethel The Frog

  • Sheriff Joe Arpaio Flogs a Dead Horse, Again!

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    March 20th, 2012EthelCurrent Affairs, Politics
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    family guy joe arpaio

    Is it just me? Or does Joe Arpaio look and act like Peter Griffin?

    Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who has a history of “investigating” and persecuting those who oppose him, criticize him, or fail to share his view as to how “things should be”, has renewed his campaign to prove that US President Obama’s purported birth certificate is a fraud and a sham.

    (Note: Arpaio has been under investigation by the US Federal Government pretty much ever since the outset of the Obama presidency – It’s been like two school-yard bullies pushing each other around!)

    For those unfamiliar with Arpaio, he is the (some would say) disgraced Sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona. Joe Arpaio, is generally known for his office’s purported rampant racial profiling against Latinos, but more recently for assembling a team of volunteer self-styled “investigators” to examine Obama’s birth certificate. Earlier this month, that team concluded that the birth certificate is a “forgery and fraud.”

    Throwing fuel on the fire, today, Florida Congressman Cliff Stearns called for credence to be given to birth certificate investigations (apparently making reference to Arpaio’s investigation), saying,“I think we are just going to hold in abeyance a final decision until we hear, you know, some of these people seem to have legitimate concerns, so I don’t think it is unreasonable just to see what they have to say,” Stearns said.

    (Not so long ago, Stearns actually accepted the fact that President Obama was born in the United States. In 2009, his office looked into the matter and concluded that there was “no reason to question  the President’s citizenship.” )

    Here’s how Arpaio’s claims were presented on a Phoenix television station:

    One of Arpaio’s most vocal critics, “The Phoenix New Times, (which has had numerous tussels with Arpaio over the years – see http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/arpaio) today posted on its blog:

    Joe Arpaio’s Birther Squad Strikes Again: Mailman Claims “Foreign” Barack Obama Chatted Him Up at the Ayers’ House

    ​Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s “birther” squad continues to add to the absolute embarrassment of an “investigation” that the sheriff has ordered in his name.

    Newman

    The former craziest mailman in America.

    This time around, Arpaio’s conspiracy-nut buddies have released a signed affidavit from a retired mailman claiming the legitimacy of the Bill Ayers aspect of the “birther” investigation released at the beginning of the month.

    Mailman Allen Hulton — who was only indentified as a “retired government employee” at the “birther” press conference — has taken an oath swearing that Ayers’ mother told him about a “foreign, black” student at her home, and that guy with the “unusual foreign sounding name” hinted to him some time in the ’90s that he had a “prearranged” presidency.

    Clearly, Hulton realized in 2008 that this was the one-and-only Barack Hussein Obama.

    Remember, this is just part of the evidence that Arpaio has taken in to call for a “bi-partisan congressional investigation,” as Arpaio actually thinks the president’s birth certificate is about as real as Dolly Parton’s chest.

    The mailman’s affidavit, which comes attached to documentation stating he spent 39 years with the post office, talks about his experiences delivering mail to the parents of Bill Ayers in Illinois during the ’80s and ’90s.

    Hulton never actually met Ayers, he says, but his father just so happened to speak “like a Marxist and talked about the class struggle between the rich and poor” while he was putting mail in his mailbox.

    Then some time in the “early 1990s,” Mary Ayers — Bill Ayers’ mother — said she was “impressed with a foreign, black student.”

    “I do not recall from what country she said he was,” the affidavit says. “I recall that the student had an unusual, foreign sounding name. Mary stated Thomas Ayers was helping this student through school financially.”

    Some time after that — “I am not sure of the exact period of time,” he says — Hulton claims a black guy with an “unusual, foreign sounding name” introduced himself.

    “He stated during the conversation the male stated that he was ‘going to be’ President
    of the United States,” Hulton swears. “I was taken aback by this statement because he came across as if his presidency was prearranged.”

    By 2008, the friendly postman who spoke with the neighborhood “Marxist” and chatted up foreigners made his discovery.

    “During the 2008 presidential campaign, Isaw several news reports detailing a relationship between candidate Barack Obama and radical activist Bill Ayers,” Hulton says.”These stories reminded me of my conversations with the Ayers and my encounter with the young black male with the foreign sounding name. The facial and physical characteristics, as well as candidate Obama’s voice, matched that of the young black male I met at the Ayers’ home. Iam positive that the black male I spoke with in front of the Ayers house that day was indeed a young Barack Obama.”

    Just like the rest of the “birther” squad’s evidence, it’s recycled from stuff that’s been passed around like tinfoil at a conspiracy-theorist conference, but Arpaio’s pals at the World Net Daily says it’s officially been submitted to Arpaio’s “Cold Case Posse.”

    While the affidavit just claims Obama was “foreign,” the mailman tells Arpaio’s pals, “… I believe [Mary Ayers] said he was from either Kenya or Indonesia, and I favor Indonesia in my recollection.”

    Looks like the sheriff’s boys are building a real quality case over there. Click here for the sworn affidavit.

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    (Ethel: Come on, “New Times” . . . don’t beat around the bush . . . tell us what you really think about Arpaio and his “investigation”)

    Does anyone know what would happen if it were actually proved that Obama’s birth certificate is a fraud and that he was not born in the USA? Would he immediately be removed from office and (God forbid!) VP Joe Biden would become President? Or would the Presidency be taken away from Obama and given to  John McCain, his “runner up” in the last election? Would Obama be permitted to serve out his current term, but be prohibited from running again?

    Maybe Obama is an illegal alien and should be deported to Kenya or Indonesia or somewhere? I bet that’s what Joe would say!

    As always, your comments are encouraged.

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    • Could Obama be Impeached Due to Libya? Let’s Ask Joe Biden?

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      March 23rd, 2011EthelCurrent Affairs, Politics
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      As you all know, US President Obama initiated a military attack on Libya, without Congressional approval (or even consultation).

      This video speaks for itself:

      Directions: Open Mouth. Insert Foot.


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    • Read What President Obama Is Reading

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      February 8th, 2010EthelBooks
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      I found it interesting that US President Obama is reading The Post-American World, by Fareed Zakaria.

      Obama

      In this book, the author describes a world in which the United States will no longer dominate the global economy, orchestrate geopolitics, or overwhelm cultures. He sees the “rise of the rest”—the growth of countries like China, India, Brazil, Russia, and many others—as the great story of our time, and one that will reshape the world.

      The tallest buildings, biggest dams, largest-selling movies, and most advanced cell phones are all being built outside the United States. This economic growth is producing political confidence, national pride, and potentially international problems.

      You can order this book from Amazon.com by clicking HERE.

      What else has the president has been reading lately?  According to deputy press secretary Bill Burton, President Obama brought the following books with him to his August 2009 vacation at Martha’s Vineyard:

      The Way Home by George Pelecanos, a crime thriller based in Washington, D.C.

      Lush Life by Richard Price, a story of race and class set in New York’s Lower East Side.

      Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Tom Friedman, on the benefits to America of an environmental revolution.

      John Adams by David McCullough, a biography of the Founding Father and 2nd U.S. President.

      Plainsong by Kent Haruf, a drama about the life of eight different characters living in a Colorado prairie community.

      Blogger Ann Althouse, in her blog Althouse, says this:
      I never believe Presidents are actually reading the books their people tell us they’re reading, so, for me, the only question is what they thought they were saying with these titles and why they thought it was a good idea to say that.
      . . . . .
      I’m just noticing that all Obama’s books are written by men. Maybe these really are the books he’s reading. If it’s PR, his PR people have a big blind spot.
      ADDED: Didn’t everyone who wanted to read that bloated John Adams book already read it? And wasn’t Obama supposed to be reading that Tom Friedman book last year?
      Friedman’s dumb books full of “I went golfing somewhere in India, reminding me of the Asian pizza I ate at the airport in Dubai” globalization-fellating idiocy are Required Reading in certain middlebrow circles….
      [O]nce “going green” became so safely uncontroversial that motherfucking Garfield was eating solar-powered lasagna, it was time for Tom Friedman to incoherently rebuke everything he ever wrote before — about Earth and how for some insane reason he thinks saying it’s “flat” is some deep enigmatic statement of the times rather than, really, just an idiot trying to make up a catch phrase. So, once the carbon-farting global golfer hitched his tortured prose to the Green bandwagon, everybody in every management situation had to act like they read this awful book.
      But they didn’t. Nobody read the whole thing. Of course it’s still on Barack Obama’s fake reading list. And there it will stay, year after year, just like back in the 1990s when Dan Quayle comically claimed that he tried (and failed) to read Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince each summer, because that seemed — to Dan Quayle, anyway — like the kind of thing a politician maybe should’ve know about, 20 years ago.

      ______________________________________________________________________________

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    • New Obama Jokes

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      December 4th, 2009EthelCurrent Affairs, Humor
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      I’m sorry Dr. Fegg, but I just couldn’t help myself.  These are funny!

      Q: Have you heard about McDonalds new Obama Value Meal?
      A: Order anything you like and the guy behind you has to pay for it.
      Q:  Have you heard about McDonalds new Obama Value Meal?
      A:  Order anything you like and the guy behind you has to pay for it.
      America needs Obama-care like Nancy Pelosi needs a Halloween mask.
      Q.  If Pelosi, Reid, Kerry and Obama were on a boat in the middle of the ocean and it sank, who would be saved?
      A.  America!
      Q: What’s the difference between Obama and his dog, Bo?
      A: Bo has papers.

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    • Who Do You Want Answering The Phone?

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      November 18th, 2009EthelCurrent Affairs, Humor
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      Remember Hillary Clinton’s famous campaign ad:

      Who do you want answering the phone?

      How about this guy:

      Hello? . . Hello? . . . Hello?

      Hello? . . Hello? . . . Hello?

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    • More Thoughts on Health Care in the USA

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      August 4th, 2009EthelCurrent Affairs, Health and Wellness
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      Although I am not a US citizen and I reside in Costa Rica, I do have some thoughts (for what they’re worth) about the health care situation in the USA.

      I think that, for a country that purports to be the richest, most powerful country in the world, and that likes to think it has the highest standard on living on the planet, it should be embarrassing that people go without health care (and often die) because they either can’t afford health insurance or they are “uninsurable” due to a “pre-existing condition”.

      I’ve been to US cities where people are dying in the streets, holding up cardboard signs that say, “Help me, I have AIDS”.  I’ve known people (with what would be considered decent-paying  jobs) who are sick, but don’t go to a doctor “because they can’t afford it”.

      Health care, like education, should be a right, not a “privilege” in a country that “beats it’s chest” like the USA does.

      Don’t get me wrong . . . I don’t know the solution to the problem . . . if I did, I’d be one of the pundits on CNN or Fox News.

      However, from what I’ve heard and read, it doesn’t seem to me that President Obama’s proposed healthcare system is the solution either.  It sounds too much like the socialized medicine system that is struggling and failing in other countries.

      Socialized medicine or “the single payer” system (or whatever you want to call it) used to work brilliantly in countries like Canada and the UK – when their populations were less and when the citizenry had a strong work ethic.  However, those countries have experienced exploding poplulation growth, especially due to immigration, and among those that are unemployed and on welfare or government assistance already.  Combine that with the near dissappearance of the work ethic and of the incentive to achieve, and the socialized health care systems in these countries are in ruins . . . because the number of people “feeding from the trough” far exceeds the hard-working citizens paying into the system.  Patients in Canada and the UK now wait for months and months for desperately needed tests and surgery . . . because there are too many people “taking” and not enough “giving”.

      healthcarecrisis_lg

      The United States is already in a financial crisis . . . adding socialized health care to the situation will only make things worse, in my humble opinion.

      John Stossel, on last Friday nights edition of ABC’s 20/20, slammed socialize medicine. According to the Wall Street Journal:

      On Friday’s 20/20 on ABC, co-anchor John Stossel exposed the flaws in the Canadian and British government-run health care systems, and even showed viewers a clip of President Obama as he once expressed a belief that single-payer health care would be an acceptable system, even while taking the position that he would not pursue it, during one of the Democratic party presidential debates in 2008. During the January 21, 2008, debate on CNN, Obama said:
      It’s fine for us to have a debate about how the best way to get there is, but to suggest somehow that I’m not interested in having everybody covered, or to suggest, as Hillary just did, that I was in favor of single payer, I never said that we should try to go ahead and get single payer. What I said was that if I were starting from scratch, if we didn’t have a system in which employers had typically provided health care, I would probably go with a single-payer system.
      During the six-minute, 20-second segment, Stossel informed viewers of the long waits patients must endure in countries with government-run health systems – like Canada and Britain. He recounted that some patients – including world leaders and wealthy celebrities – come to America for treatment of serious conditions, and relayed the case of one Canadian woman who came to America to treat a clogged artery whose American doctor told her she would not have survived waiting a few more weeks for Canada’s government health care. Additionally, Stossel found that even patients waiting in emergency rooms in Canada have to wait an average of 23 hours for service.
      Stossel recounted the case of a Canadian town with so many people waiting in line to be assigned to a family doctor that each month a lottery chooses four lucky residents. And in England, the shortage of dentists leads some Britons to pull their own teeth or try to repair problems on their own.
      The 20/20 co-anchor summed up the importance of a profit motive for the health care industry to function adequately as he recounted that in Canada, private veterinary clinics provide health care for animals much more rapidly than the government-run system provides similar services for human patients.

      On Friday’s 20/20 on ABC, co-anchor John Stossel exposed the flaws in the Canadian and British government-run health care systems, and even showed viewers a clip of President Obama as he once expressed a belief that single-payer health care would be an acceptable system, even while taking the position that he would not pursue it, during one of the Democratic party presidential debates in 2008. During the January 21, 2008, debate on CNN, Obama said:

      It’s fine for us to have a debate about how the best way to get there is, but to suggest somehow that I’m not interested in having everybody covered, or to suggest, as Hillary just did, that I was in favor of single payer, I never said that we should try to go ahead and get single payer. What I said was that if I were starting from scratch, if we didn’t have a system in which employers had typically provided health care, I would probably go with a single-payer system.

      During the six-minute, 20-second segment, Stossel informed viewers of the long waits patients must endure in countries with government-run health systems – like Canada and Britain. He recounted that some patients – including world leaders and wealthy celebrities – come to America for treatment of serious conditions, and relayed the case of one Canadian woman who came to America to treat a clogged artery whose American doctor told her she would not have survived waiting a few more weeks for Canada’s government health care. Additionally, Stossel found that even patients waiting in emergency rooms in Canada have to wait an average of 23 hours for service.

      Stossel recounted the case of a Canadian town with so many people waiting in line to be assigned to a family doctor that each month a lottery chooses four lucky residents. And in England, the shortage of dentists leads some Britons to pull their own teeth or try to repair problems on their own.

      The 20/20 co-anchor summed up the importance of a profit motive for the health care industry to function adequately as he recounted that in Canada, private veterinary clinics provide health care for animals much more rapidly than the government-run system provides similar services for human patients.

      Even though I am embarrassed to say that I once was a lawyer, I think that tort reform is an essential part of the solution.  As long as physicians and surgeons are forced to pay huge malpractice insurance premiums and live in fear of being sued for millions of dollars by the glut of ambulance-chasing lawyers that infest the country, health care will continue to be expensive.  In addition to malpractice insurance premiums, billions of dollars are spent on unnecessary tests and surgery, just to prevent some greedy lawyer or “whore” medical “expert” from “second-guessing” the physician or surgeon.

      Secondly, I think that hospitals and physicians need to take a look in the mirror.  I have seen hospitals charge a dime for every tissue that a patient blows his nose into, and $5.00 for every disposable rubber glove that is used by a nurse. Basic aspirin is doled out at a buck or two per tablet, when the cost to the hospital is probably less than a penny.

      Virtually every physician or dentist I’ve seen in the USA has one price if you have insurance and a lower price if you don’t.  That seems to me to be insurance fraud . . . but it’s common, accepted practice.

      Also, physicians and surgeons certainly need to compensated for what they do . . . but they should practice their profession because they love what they do and because they want to help people . . . not because they want to get rich. As I see it, a lot of Americans need to adjust their sense of “entitlement” . . . and it’s not just physicians and surgeons – it’s corporate executives, professional athletes, auto-workers, lawyers, etc., etc.   Perhaps a physician who has spent many more years, dollars, and sleepness nights to attain his or her education, experience and professional license should earn more than a teacher . . . but not hundreds of thousands of dollars per year more!

      In any event, as I said, I sure don’t know what the solution is . . . but I am interested in what others have to say.

      The following is an interesting interview with Betsy McCaughney, former Lieutenant Governor of New York. Patient advocacy and health care policy have become her life-work.  In 2005, she founded the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths and serves as its chairman. The comment to this interview, found on YouTube.com, reads as follows:

      Its goal is to develop a healthcare program which will provide the same quality of care for all required for all to be covered by it, no alternatives.

      Medicaid and Medicare are already terrible government funded health programs.

      Page 425 of the Obamacare bill mandates that the elderly and seriously ill undergo sessions to pressure them to choose death. Remember: Obama said the vote he MOST REGRETTED in the Senate was the vote to give Terri Schiavo one more chance to live. Obama wants DEATH for Americans and for America.

      Learn from the mistake of the UK:

      -Fewer Doctors

      -Less Advance Medical Technology

      -Waiting Lists

      -Selective Service/Care

      -Higher Taxes

      -Choices are made by the Government

      Medicaid and Medicare are great examples of the kind of health care the Government can provide; specific clinics and hospitals you may go to, limited pharmaceutical coverage (generic only, limited prescriptions in a month…), dental is NO LONGER covered by Medicaid as of July 2009, and many other debasements.

      With this we will be forfeiting, yet again, another one of our freedoms.

      Here are plenty of articles which advocate both sides of the issue:
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    • America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009

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      August 3rd, 2009EthelCurrent Affairs, Health and Wellness
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      If you’re interested President Obama’s healthcare plan, you can read all 1,017 pages of the bill (H.R. 3200) by clicking HERE.

      I spoke with a well-respected physician in Physican a couple of days ago and his comments were:

      • That he doubts that the members of the House of Representatives, or even President Obama himself, have read the entire 1,017 pages of the bill; and
      • If the plan is so good, will the members of the House, the President, and their respective families be participating in this plan? . . . or will they continue to get the premiere healthcare that they now enjoy at the taxpayers’ expense?

      My physician friend believes that, if this plan comes into existence, the US healthcare system will “go to hell in a handbasket”.

      A gentleman named Peter Fleckenstein (who just coincidently also lives in Phoenix) has read the bill and has posted a number of tweets, providing his interpretation of much of the bill.  The following is taken from his Twitter.com tweets:

      Pg 22    of the HC  Bill MANDATES the Govt will audit books of ALL EMPLOYERS that self  insure!!
      Pg 30    Section 123 of HC Bill – THERE  WILL BE A GOVERNMENT COMMITTEE that decides what  treatments/benefits you get
      Pg 29    Lines 4-16  of the HC Bill – YOUR HEALTHCARE IS  RATIONED!!!
      Pg 42    of the HC Bill – The Health Choices  Commissioner will choose YOUR HEALTHCARE Benefits  for you. You have no choice!
      Pg 50    Section 152 of  the HC Bill – HEALTHCARE will be provided to ALL non   US citizens, illegal or  otherwise
      Pg 58    of the HC Bill – Government will have  real-time access to individuals finances & a National ID  Healthcard will be issued!
      Pg 59    Lines 21-24 of the HC  Bill – Government will have direct access to your bank  accounts for electronic fund transfers
      Pg 65    Section 164 of the HC Bill – Payoff subsidized plan  for retirees and their families in Unions & Community  Organizations (ACORN)
      Pg 72    Lines 8-14 of the HC Bill  - Government is creating an HC Exchange to bring private HC  plans under Government control
      Pg 84    Section 203 of  the HC Bill – Government mandates ALL benefit packages for  private HC plans in the Exchange  Pg 85 Line 7 of  the HC Bill – Specs of Benefit Levels for Plans = The  Government will ration your HC!
      Pg 91    Lines 4-7  of the HC Bill – Government t mandates linguistic appropriate  services – Example: Translation for illegal  aliens
      Pg 95    Lines 8-18 of the HC Bill – The  Government will use groups i.e., ACORN & Americorps to  sign up individuals for Government HC plan
      Pg 102    Lines 12-18 of the HC Bill – Medicaid Eligible  Individuals will be automatically enrolled in Medicaid. No  Choice
      Pg 124    Lines 24-25 of the HC Bill – No  company can sue the Government on price fixing. No “judicial  review” against Government Monopoly
      Pg 127    Lines 1-16  of the HC Bill – Doctors/AMA – The Government will tell YOU  what you can make
      Pg 145    Lines 15-17 of the HC Bill – An  Employer MUST auto enroll employees into public option  plan. NO CHOICE
      Pg 126    Lines 22-25 of the HC Bill –  Employers MUST pay for HC for part time employees AND their  families
      Pg 149    Lines 16-24 of the HC Bill – ANY  Employer with a payroll of $400k and above who does not  provide the Public Option must pay 8% tax on all  payroll
      Pg 150    Lines 9-13 of the HC Bill –  Businesses with payrolls between $251k and $ 400k that  don’t provide the Public Option must pay 2-6% tax on all  payroll
      Pg 167    Lines 18-23 of the HC Bill – ANY  individual who doesnt have acceptable HC according to  Government will be taxed 2.5% of income
      Pg 170    Lines  1-3 of the HC Bill – Any NONRESIDENT Alien is exempt from  individual taxes (Americans will pay)
      Pg 195    of the HC  Bill – Officers and Employees of HC Administration (GOVT) will  have access to ALL Americans financial/personal records
      Pg  203    Lines 14-15 of the HC Bill – “The tax imposed under this  section shall not be treated as tax”.  Yes, it says  that
      Pg 239    Lines 14-24 of the HC Bill –  Government will reduce physician services for Medicaid.   Seniors, low income, poor affected
      Pg 241    Lines 6-8  of the HC Bill – Doctors, doesnt matter what specialty you have,  will all be paid the same
      Pg 253    Lines 10-18 of  the HC Bill – Government sets the value of  Doctor’s time, professional judgement, etc.   Literally value of humans
      Pg 265    Section 1131 of the  HC Bill – Government mandates and controls productivity  for private HC industries
      Pg 268    Section 1141 of the  HC Bill – Federal Government regulates rental & purchase  of power driven wheelchairs
      Pg 272    Section 1145 of the HC  Bill – TREATMENT OF CERTAIN CANCER HOSPITALS – Cancer  patients, welcome to rationing!
      Pg 280    Section 1151 of  the HC Bill – The Government will penalize hospitals for what  the Government deems preventable readmissions
      Pg 298    Lines 9-11 of the HC Bill – Doctors that treat a patient  during initial admission that results in a readmission – The  Government will penalize you
      Pg 317    Lines 13-20 of the  HC Bill – OH MY GOD!!!!! – PROHIBITION on  ownership/investment. The Government tells  Doctors what/how much they can own
      Pgs 317-318    Lines  1-3 and 21-25 of the HC Bill – PROHIBITION on expansion –  Government is mandating that hospitals cannot  expand
      Pg 321    Lines 2-13 of the HC Bill – Hospitals  have opportunigy to apply for exception BUT community input  required. Can you say ACORN?!!
      Pg 335    Lines 16-25 and  Pgs 336-339 of the HC Bill – Governmtent mandates  establishment of outcome based measures.  HC the way  they want. Rationing
      Pg 341    Lines 3-9 of the HC Bill –  Government has authority to disqualify Medicare Advanced  Plans, HMOs, etc. Forcing people into the Government  Plan
      Pg 354    Section 1177 of the HC Bill –  Government will RESTRICT enrollment of Special needs  people!
      Pg 379    Section 1191 of the HC Bill –  Government creates more bureaucracy – Telehealth Advisory  Committee.  Can you say HC by phone?
      Pg 425    Lines  4-12 of the HC Bill – Government mandates Advance Care  Planning Consultant.  Think Senior Citizens and the end  of their life!
      Pg 425    Lines  17-19 of the HC Bill – Government will instruct  and consult regarding living wills, durable powers of  attorney, etc. Mandatory!
      Pg 425    Lines 22-25 and  Pg 426 Lines 1-3 of the HC Bill –   Government provides approved list of end of life  resources, guiding you into death
      Pg 427    Lines 15-24 of the  HC Bill – Government mandates program for orders for end of  life. The Government has a say in how your life  ends
      Pg 429    Lines 1-9 of the HC Bill – An  ”advanced care planning consultant” will be used frequently  as patients health deteriorates
      Pg 429    Lines 10-12 of the  HC Bill – “advanced care consultation” may include an ORDER  for end of life plans. AN ORDER from GOVERNMENT!
      Pg 429    Lines 13-25 of the HC Bill – The Government will specify which  Doctors can write an end of life order
      Pg 430    Lines 11-15  of the HC Bill – The Government will decide what level of  treatment you will have at end of life
      Pg 469    of the HC  Bill – Community Based Home Medical Services = Non profit  Organizations.  Hello, ACORN Medical Services has  arrived!!! Pg 472   Lines 14-17 of the HC Bill – PAYMENT TO COMMUNITY-BASED  ORGANIZATIONS. 1 monthly payment to a community based  organizations.  ACORN?
      Pg 489    Section 1308 of the  HC Bill – The Government will cover Marriage and  Family therapy. Which means they will insert  Government into your marriage
      Pgs 494-498    of the  HC Bill – Government will cover Mental Health Services  including defining, creating, rationing those  services
      • Pg 22    of the HC  Bill MANDATES the Govt will audit books of ALL EMPLOYERS that self  insure!!
      • Pg 30    Section 123 of HC Bill – THERE  WILL BE A GOVERNMENT COMMITTEE that decides what  treatments/benefits you get
      • Pg 29    Lines 4-16  of the HC Bill – YOUR HEALTHCARE IS  RATIONED!!!
      • Pg 42    of the HC Bill – The Health Choices  Commissioner will choose YOUR HEALTHCARE Benefits  for you. You have no choice!
      • Pg 50    Section 152 of  the HC Bill – HEALTHCARE will be provided to ALL non   US citizens, illegal or  otherwise
      • Pg 58    of the HC Bill – Government will have  real-time access to individuals finances & a National ID  Healthcard will be issued!
      • Pg 59    Lines 21-24 of the HC  Bill – Government will have direct access to your bank  accounts for electronic fund transfers
      • Pg 65    Section 164 of the HC Bill – Payoff subsidized plan  for retirees and their families in Unions & Community  Organizations (ACORN)
      • Pg 72    Lines 8-14 of the HC Bill  - Government is creating an HC Exchange to bring private HC  plans under Government control
      • Pg 84    Section 203 of  the HC Bill – Government mandates ALL benefit packages for  private HC plans in the Exchange
      • Pg 85 Line 7 of  the HC Bill – Specs of Benefit Levels for Plans = The  Government will ration your HC!
      • Pg 91    Lines 4-7  of the HC Bill – Government t mandates linguistic appropriate  services – Example: Translation for illegal  aliens
      • Pg 95    Lines 8-18 of the HC Bill – The  Government will use groups i.e., ACORN & Americorps to  sign up individuals for Government HC plan
      • Pg 102    Lines 12-18 of the HC Bill – Medicaid Eligible  Individuals will be automatically enrolled in Medicaid. No  Choice
      • Pg 124    Lines 24-25 of the HC Bill – No  company can sue the Government on price fixing. No “judicial  review” against Government Monopoly
      • Pg 127    Lines 1-16  of the HC Bill – Doctors/AMA – The Government will tell YOU  what you can make
      • Pg 145    Lines 15-17 of the HC Bill – An  Employer MUST auto enroll employees into public option  plan. NO CHOICE
      • Pg 126    Lines 22-25 of the HC Bill –  Employers MUST pay for HC for part time employees AND their  families
      • Pg 149    Lines 16-24 of the HC Bill – ANY  Employer with a payroll of $400k and above who does not  provide the Public Option must pay 8% tax on all  payroll
      • Pg 150    Lines 9-13 of the HC Bill –  Businesses with payrolls between $251k and $ 400k that  don’t provide the Public Option must pay 2-6% tax on all  payroll
      • Pg 167    Lines 18-23 of the HC Bill – ANY  individual who doesnt have acceptable HC according to  Government will be taxed 2.5% of income
      • Pg 170    Lines  1-3 of the HC Bill – Any NONRESIDENT Alien is exempt from  individual taxes (Americans will pay)
      • Pg 195    of the HC  Bill – Officers and Employees of HC Administration (GOVT) will  have access to ALL Americans financial/personal records
      • Pg  203    Lines 14-15 of the HC Bill – “The tax imposed under this  section shall not be treated as tax”.  Yes, it says  that
      • Pg 239    Lines 14-24 of the HC Bill –  Government will reduce physician services for Medicaid.   Seniors, low income, poor affected
      • Pg 241    Lines 6-8  of the HC Bill – Doctors, doesnt matter what specialty you have,  will all be paid the same
      • Pg 253    Lines 10-18 of  the HC Bill – Government sets the value of  Doctor’s time, professional judgement, etc.   Literally value of humans
      • Pg 265    Section 1131 of the  HC Bill – Government mandates and controls productivity  for private HC industries
      • Pg 268    Section 1141 of the  HC Bill – Federal Government regulates rental & purchase  of power driven wheelchairs
      • Pg 272    Section 1145 of the HC  Bill – TREATMENT OF CERTAIN CANCER HOSPITALS – Cancer  patients, welcome to rationing!
      • Pg 280    Section 1151 of  the HC Bill – The Government will penalize hospitals for what  the Government deems preventable readmissions
      • Pg 298    Lines 9-11 of the HC Bill – Doctors that treat a patient  during initial admission that results in a readmission – The  Government will penalize you
      • Pg 317    Lines 13-20 of the  HC Bill – OH MY GOD!!!!! – PROHIBITION on  ownership/investment. The Government tells  Doctors what/how much they can own
      • Pgs 317-318    Lines  1-3 and 21-25 of the HC Bill – PROHIBITION on expansion –  Government is mandating that hospitals cannot  expand
      • Pg 321    Lines 2-13 of the HC Bill – Hospitals  have opportunigy to apply for exception BUT community input  required. Can you say ACORN?!!
      • Pg 335    Lines 16-25 and  Pgs 336-339 of the HC Bill – Governmtent mandates  establishment of outcome based measures.  HC the way  they want. Rationing
      • Pg 341    Lines 3-9 of the HC Bill –  Government has authority to disqualify Medicare Advanced  Plans, HMOs, etc. Forcing people into the Government  Plan
      • Pg 354    Section 1177 of the HC Bill –  Government will RESTRICT enrollment of Special needs  people!
      • Pg 379    Section 1191 of the HC Bill –  Government creates more bureaucracy – Telehealth Advisory  Committee.  Can you say HC by phone?
      • Pg 425    Lines  4-12 of the HC Bill – Government mandates Advance Care  Planning Consultant.  Think Senior Citizens and the end  of their life!
      • Pg 425    Lines  17-19 of the HC Bill – Government will instruct  and consult regarding living wills, durable powers of  attorney, etc. Mandatory!
      • Pg 425    Lines 22-25 and  Pg 426 Lines 1-3 of the HC Bill –   Government provides approved list of end of life  resources, guiding you into death
      • Pg 427    Lines 15-24 of the  HC Bill – Government mandates program for orders for end of  life. The Government has a say in how your life  ends
      • Pg 429    Lines 1-9 of the HC Bill – An  ”advanced care planning consultant” will be used frequently  as patients health deteriorates
      • Pg 429    Lines 10-12 of the  HC Bill – “advanced care consultation” may include an ORDER  for end of life plans. AN ORDER from GOVERNMENT!
      • Pg 429    Lines 13-25 of the HC Bill – The Government will specify which  Doctors can write an end of life order
      • Pg 430    Lines 11-15  of the HC Bill – The Government will decide what level of  treatment you will have at end of life
      • Pg 469    of the HC  Bill – Community Based Home Medical Services = Non profit  Organizations.  Hello, ACORN Medical Services has  arrived!!! Pg 472   Lines 14-17 of the HC Bill – PAYMENT TO COMMUNITY-BASED  ORGANIZATIONS. 1 monthly payment to a community based  organizations.  ACORN?
      • Pg 489    Section 1308 of the  HC Bill – The Government will cover Marriage and  Family therapy. Which means they will insert  Government into your marriage
      • Pgs 494-498    of the  HC Bill – Government will cover Mental Health Services  including defining, creating, rationing those  services

      Some cultures respect the old.  Many believe that, under Obama healthcare, we will kill them off, instead.

      Peter Singer, professor of bioethics at Princeton University, in a New York Times Magazine article, Why We Must Ration Health Care,  is already deciding who to kill off once national healthcare hits.

      Robert Wenzel, writing for the blog, EconomicPolicyJournal.com, has responded to Mr. Singer’s article:

      [Singer]: Governments implicitly place a dollar value on a human life when they decide how much is to be spent on health care programs and how much on other public goods that are not directed toward saving lives. The task of health care bureaucrats is then to get the best value for the resources they have been allocated. It is the familiar comparative exercise of getting the most bang for your buck. Sometimes that can be relatively easy to decide. If two drugs offer the same benefits and have similar risks of side effects, but one is much more expensive than the other, only the cheaper one should be provided by the public health care program. That the benefits and the risks of side effects are similar is a scientific matter for experts to decide after calling for submissions and examining them. That is the bread-and-butter work of units like NICE. But the benefits may vary in ways that defy straightforward comparison. We need a common unit for measuring the goods achieved by health care. Since we are talking about comparing different goods, the choice of unit is not merely a scientific or economic question but an ethical one.

      As a first take, we might say that the good achieved by health care is the number of lives saved. But that is too crude. The death of a teenager is a greater tragedy than the death of an 85-year-old, and this should be reflected in our priorities. We can accommodate that difference by calculating the number of life-years saved, rather than simply the number of lives saved. If a teenager can be expected to live another 70 years, saving her life counts as a gain of 70 life-years, whereas if a person of 85 can be expected to live another 5 years,then saving the 85-year-old will count as a gain of only 5 life-years.

      That suggests that saving one teenager is equivalent to saving 14 85-year-olds.

      On to quadriplegics:

      How can we compare saving a person’s life with, say, making it possible for someone who was confined to bed to return to an active life? We can elicit people’s values on that too. One common method is to describe medical conditions to people — let’s say being a quadriplegic — and tell them that they can choose between 10 years in that condition or some smaller number of years without it. If most would prefer, say, 10 years as a quadriplegic to 4 years of nondisabled life, but would choose 6 years of nondisabled life over 10 with quadriplegia, but have difficulty deciding between 5 years of nondisabled life or 10 years with quadriplegia, then they are, in effect, assessing life with quadriplegia as half as good as nondisabled life. (These are hypothetical figures, chosen to keep the math simple, and not based on any actual surveys.) If that judgment represents a rough average across the population, we might conclude that restoring to nondisabled life two people who would otherwise be quadriplegics is equivalent in value to saving the life of one person, provided the life expectancies of all involved are similar.

      This is the basis of the quality-adjusted life-year, or QALY, a unit designed to enable us to compare the benefits achieved by different forms of health care…If a reformed U.S. health care system explicitly accepted rationing, as I have argued it should, QALYs could play a similar role in the U.S.

      Want to go out and buy your own healthcare program if a Singer type program kicks in. Well maybe. Here’s Singer, again (my emphasis):

      This would mean extending Medicare to the entire population, irrespective of age, but without Medicare’s current policy that allows doctors wide latitude in prescribing treatments for eligible patients. Instead, Medicare for All, as we might call it, should refuse to pay where the cost per QALY is extremely high…Those who want to be sure of receiving every treatment that their own privately chosen physicians recommend, regardless of cost, would be free to opt out of Medicare for All as long as they can demonstrate that they have sufficient private health insurance to avoid becoming a burden on the community if they fall ill…Every American will have a right to a good standard of health care, but no one will have a right to unrationed health care. Those who opt for unrationed health care will know exactly how much it costs them.

      Get that? Medicare treatments will be roped to stop “… wide latitude in prescribing treatments…” If you try and get treatment on your own, you will have to get bureaucratic permission to do so.

      Who knows how far down the line Obama’s thinking is in line with Springer? My guess a lot. Singer writes that Obama has told people not to use the word rationing. Is this because he is against rationing or because he knows the outward advocacy of rationing will justifiably alarm Americans? I think it is the

      19health.1-190 latter. Obama thinks he knows what is good for all of us and will lie and mislead to force it upon us all.

      The big problem with Singer’s argument is that he makes the mistake of assuming a fixed pool of healthcare services. This is a world where the evidence shows that in a free market economy, innovations are a daily occurrence. Cell phones, big screen televisions and personal computers get better and cheaper. Expensive new products that only the rich can afford are in many ways simply inferior “test” products before they get to the masses in better quality and much cheaper. Would you rather have the current cheaper jumbo screen televisions, cell phones and personal computers or the much more expensive clunkier jumbo tv, cell phones and pc’s of yesteryear that only the rich could afford?

      By rationed healthcare, and limited bureaucratic controlled access to “expensive” healthcare, new innovations, creativity and advancements in the healthcare industry will be greatly reduced, perhaps eliminated. The incentives will be gone. Remember, there are never any stats on what innovations, discoveries and advancements will have never been created. Those who argue that medical care works in national health care countries fail to understand the innovations that are killed off. This is, of course, in addition, to the usual problems of rationing and bureaucratic distortion of prices—and the government taking the role of decider on whether you deserve to walk or not, or whether you calculate out for life or death.

      As always, your comments are welcomed.


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    • Hon. James David Manning, PhD

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      August 1st, 2009EthelCurrent Affairs
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      Oscar Levant, the late American pianist, composer, author, comedian, and actor, once said: ”There’s a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line.”  James David Manning, the shockingly (frighteningly?) popular, and energetic pastor of the ATLAH World Missionary Church located in ATLAH, New York, has crossed way over that line.

      As a younger man, Manning burglarized homes, mostly on Long Island. He spent about three and a half years in prison in New York and Florida for burglary, robbery, larceny, criminal possession of a weapon, and other charges before his release in 1978.  While in prison, he became a devout Christian.

      Since then, Manning has founded three schools and developed a national church ministry.  He holds a PhD in philosophy, is the author of The Oblation Hour book, and was (purportedly) a Marketing Executive with  Proctor and Gamble and the Ford Motor Company.

      According to Wikipedia:

      Manning came to public attention in the 2008 presidential election after ATLAH posted several sermons of his that were harshly critical of Democratic candidate Barack Obama on the website YouTube. Among other accusations, he called Obama a “good House Negro” in one sermon while in another he referred to Obama as “trash” due to his mixed race heritage and accused him of being a “pimp” (pimping “white women and black women”) and “long-legged mack daddy,” and an “emissary of the devil”, citing the viral video “I Got a Crush… on Obama”. He stated that Obama “has the cadence of an Islamic person,” and he called Obama’s mother “trash” for becoming pregnant by a black man out of wedlock. Manning revisited this latter issue during a press conference at the National Press Club on 8 December 2008: “Generally the most noble of white society choose not to intercourse sexually with African men. So it’s usually the trashier ones who make their determinations that they’re going to have sex.”

      Manning defended his sermons in an interview on Fox News, saying that “we also have to talk about his character.” He compared TV personality Oprah Winfrey, who supported Obama’s campaign, to the Whore of Babylon, the “Queen of the Universe”, and an Antichrist.  [Footnotes omitted].

      Here are some examples of his more fiery rhetoric:

      First, he is predicting a “Patrick Henry style revolution’ and “white riots” in the US:

      In this video, Manning calls a Barak Obama a “snake” and “the biggest criminal in the history of the planet”, and he calls Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and others “sell outs” for not speaking about Obama’s ineligibility to be President.

      If you’re interested, you’ll find more of Dr. Manning at the ATLAH Worldwide YouTube Channel, or at the ATLAH World Ministries Web site.  If nothing else, the man is entertaining.

      Even if you don’t like Manning’s “White Riot”, you can’t help but enjoy this version by The Clash:

      clash

      Essential Clash

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    • If . . .

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      July 28th, 2009EthelCurrent Affairs
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      Here’s an interesting email that is making the rounds:

      If George W. Bush had given Gordon Brown a set of inexpensive and incorrectly formatted DVDs, when Gordon Brown had given him a thoughtful and historically significant gift, would you have approved?
      If George W. Bush had given the Queen of England an iPod containing videos of his speeches, would you have thought this embarrassingly narcissistic and tacky?
      If George W. Bush had bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia, would you have approved?
      If George W. Bush had visited Austria and made reference to the non-existent “Austrian language,” would you have brushed it off as a minor slip?
      If George W. Bush had filled his cabinet and circle of advisers with people who cannot seem to keep current on their income taxes, would you have approved?
      If George W. Bush had been so Spanish illiterate as to refer to “Cinco de Cuatro” in front of the Mexican ambassador when it was the fourth of May (Cuatro de Mayo), and continued to flub it when he tried again, would you have winced in embarrassment?
      If George W. Bush had mis-spelled the word advice would you have hammered him for it for years like Dan Quayle and potatoe as “proof” of what a dunce he is?
      If George W. Bush had burned 9,000 gallons of jet fuel to go plant a single tree on “Earth Day”, would you have concluded he’s a hypocrite?
      If George W. Bush’s administration had okayed Air Force One flying low over millions of people followed by a jet fighter in downtown Manhattan causing widespread panic, would you have wondered whether they actually “get” what happened on 9-11?
      If George W. Bush had been the first President to need a teleprompter installed to be able to get through a press conference, would you have laughed and said this is more proof of how he inept he is on his own and is really controlled by smarter men behind the scenes?
      If George W. Bush had failed to send relief aid to flood victims throughout the Midwest with more people killed or made homeless than in New Orleans , would you want it made into a major ongoing political issue with claims of racism and incompetence?
      If George W. Bush had ordered the firing of the CEO of a major corporation, even though he had no constitutional authority to do so, would you have approved?
      If George W. Bush had proposed to double the national debt, which had taken more than two centuries to accumulate, in one year, would you have approved?
      If George W. Bush had then proposed to double the debt again within 10 years, would you have approved?
      If George W. Bush had reduced your retirement plan’s holdings of GM stock by 90% and given the unions a majority stake in GM, would you have approved?
      If George W. Bush had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to take Laura Bush to a play in NYC, would you have approved?
      So, tell me again, what is it about Obama that makes him so brilliant and impressive? Can’t think of anything? Don’t worry. He’s done all this in 5 months — so you’ll have three years and seven months to come up with an answer. No-common-sense, naive, incompetent, uninformed and media-brainwashed voters did this to themselves. Insanity is widespread. Real Americans are waking up.

      If George W. Bush had given Gordon Brown a set of inexpensive and incorrectly formatted DVDs, when Gordon Brown had given him a thoughtful and historically significant gift, would you have approved?

      If George W. Bush had given the Queen of England an iPod containing videos of his speeches, would you have thought this embarrassingly narcissistic and tacky?

      If George W. Bush had bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia, would you have approved?

      If George W. Bush had visited Austria and made reference to the non-existent “Austrian language,” would you have brushed it off as a minor slip?

      If George W. Bush had filled his cabinet and circle of advisers with people who cannot seem to keep current on their income taxes, would you have approved?

      If George W. Bush had been so Spanish illiterate as to refer to “Cinco de Cuatro” in front of the Mexican ambassador when it was the fourth of May (Cuatro de Mayo), and continued to flub it when he tried again, would you have winced in embarrassment?

      If George W. Bush had mis-spelled the word advice would you have hammered him for it for years like Dan Quayle and potatoe as “proof” of what a dunce he is?

      If George W. Bush had burned 9,000 gallons of jet fuel to go plant a single tree on “Earth Day”, would you have concluded he’s a hypocrite?

      If George W. Bush’s administration had okayed Air Force One flying low over millions of people followed by a jet fighter in downtown Manhattan causing widespread panic, would you have wondered whether they actually “get” what happened on 9-11?

      If George W. Bush had been the first President to need a teleprompter installed to be able to get through a press conference, would you have laughed and said this is more proof of how he inept he is on his own and is really controlled by smarter men behind the scenes?

      If George W. Bush had failed to send relief aid to flood victims throughout the Midwest with more people killed or made homeless than in New Orleans , would you want it made into a major ongoing political issue with claims of racism and incompetence?

      If George W. Bush had ordered the firing of the CEO of a major corporation, even though he had no constitutional authority to do so, would you have approved?

      If George W. Bush had proposed to double the national debt, which had taken more than two centuries to accumulate, in one year, would you have approved?

      If George W. Bush had then proposed to double the debt again within 10 years, would you have approved?

      If George W. Bush had reduced your retirement plan’s holdings of GM stock by 90% and given the unions a majority stake in GM, would you have approved?

      If George W. Bush had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to take Laura Bush to a play in NYC, would you have approved?

      So, tell me again, what is it about Obama that makes him so brilliant and impressive? Can’t think of anything? Don’t worry. He’s done all this in 5 months — so you’ll have three years and seven months to come up with an answer. No-common-sense, naive, incompetent, uninformed and media-brainwashed voters did this to themselves. Insanity is widespread. Real Americans are waking up.

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    • International Disrespect for Obama! “President Pantywaist”? How Rude!

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      July 20th, 2009EthelCurrent Affairs
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      Left wing media sources in the USA like to portray President Obama as being highly respected throughout the world.  Apparently, the truth is somewhat different.

      Here’s a video of Mr. Obama being obviously and intentionally snubbed as he tries to shake hands with Russian officials:

      Here’s what The Canadian Press has to say:

      top_banner

      Obama’s White House is Falling Down
      By Daniel Greenfield Thursday, June 11, 2009
      In the sixth month of his presidency, Obama has turned an economic downturn
      into an economic disaster, taking over and trashing entire companies, and
      driving the nation deep into deficit spending expected to pass 10 trillion
      dollars.
      Abroad, Obama seems to have no other mode except to continue on with his
      endless campaign, confusing speechmaking with diplomacy. It is natural
      enough that Obama, who built his entire campaign on high profile public
      speeches reported on by an adoring press, understands how to do nothing else
      but that.
      While the press is still chewing over Obama’s Cairo speech, this celebrity
      style coverage ignores the fact that Obama’s endless world tour is not
      actually accomplishing anything. Instead his combination of ego driven
      photo-op appearances and clueless treatment of foreign dignitaries have
      alienated many of America’s traditional allies. Those who aren’t being
      quietly angry at Obama, like Brown, Merkel or Netanyahu, instead think of
      him as an absurdly lightweight, as Sarkozy, King Abdullah or Putin do.
      While his officials carry out their dirty economic deeds, Obama responds to
      any and every crisis as if it were a Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland musical,
      with a cry of, “Let’s put on a show.” Thus far Obama has put on “shows”
      across America, Europe and the Middle East.
      And what the adoring media coverage neglects to cover, is that Obama’s shows
      have solved absolutely nothing. They have served only as high profile
      entertainment.
      Neither alienating America’s traditional allies, through a combination of
      arrogant bullying and ignorance, nor appeasing America’s enemies, has
      yielded any actual results. Nor does it seem likely to. Islamic terrorism is
      not going anywhere, neither are the nuclear threats from North Korea and
      Iran. While Obama keeps smiling, the global situation keeps growing more
      grim.
      At home, if Obama was elected as depression era entertainment, the charm of
      his smiles and his constant appearances on magazine covers appear to be
      wearing thin on the American public. Despite the shrill attacks on Rush
      Limbaugh or the Republican Enemy of the Weak– the Democratic party of 2009,
      is polling a lot like the Republican party of 2008. The Democrats have
      suddenly become the incumbents, and the only accomplishment they can point
      to is lavish deficit spending, often on behalf of the very same corporations
      and causes they once postured a gainst.
      The European Union Parliament’s swing to the right cannot be credited to
      Obama, though doubtlessly some European voters seeing socialist economic
      crisis management on display in the world’s richest country decided they
      wanted none of it, but it is part of a general turning against federalism.
      And Obama’s entire program is dependent on heavily entrenching federalism at
      the expense of individual and state’s rights. Yet that is precisely his
      Achilles heel with independent voters who are polling against more taxes and
      expanded government. And no amount of speeches by Obama can wish away his 18
      czars or the national debt he has foisted on generation after generation of
      the American people.
      That leaves Obama with a choice between socialism and the independent voter.
      And thus far he has chosen socialism.
      Obama’s tactic of hijacking Bush Administration era policies on the economy
      and the War on Terror, and exploiting them as Trojan horses to promote his
      own agenda, have left him coping with a backlash from his own party, as well
      as general Republican opposition.
      His Czars are meant to function as the bones in an executive infrastructure
      accountable to no one, but a lack of accountability isn’t just another word
      for tyranny, but for incompetence. A functional chain of command is
      accountable at multiple levels if it is to function effectively. Obama’s
      White House by contrast is in a state of over-organized chaos, the sort of
      organized disorganization that undiscip lined egotistical leftists naturally
      create for themselves, complete with multiple overlapping levels of
      authority and no one in charge but the man at the top, who’s too busy doing
      other things to actually be in charge.
      Dennis Blair as National Intelligence, who collaborated with the Muslim
      genocide of Christians in East Timor, trying to muscle out the CIA to create
      his own intelligence network, is typical of the kind of chaos being spawned
      by every chief in an expanding government bureaucracy working to make sure
      that all the Indians answer to him.
      Similarly the National Security Council wrestling with the State Department,
      highlighted by Samantha Power getting her own specially created NSC position
      to butt heads with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, illustrates the state
      of conflict and chaos in American foreign affairs. A state of chaos so
      pervasive that incompetence has now become commonplace, and no one can even
      be found to double check the spelling of a Russian word that is meant to be
      the theme of American’s diplomatic reconstruction with Russia, or to pick
      out a gift for the visiting British Prime Minister.
      The death of Chrysler at the hands of Fiat and the UAW
      Meanwhile on the economy, Obama exploited the ongoing bailouts, transforming
      them from bailouts into takeovers meant to shift the balance of power in
      what had been a democracy and socially engineer not only corporations, but
      the lives of ordinary Americans.
      But the public’s patience with corporate bailouts is at an end, most
      Americans were never happy with them to begin with, and want them to end.
      The death of Chrysler at the hands of Fiat and the UAW might look like a
      victory in the union ranks, but it doesn’t play too well outside Detroit.
      And tacking on CAFE standards that will kill the pickup truck and the SUV
      will badly erode Obama in the swing states, if exploited properly in 2010
      and 2012. Despite the constant media barrage, orchestrated out of the White
      House, the public is growing disenchanted with the performance of Obama and
      the Democrats.
      With unemployment booming and the economy dropping, the jobs aren’t there
      and the spending is out of control. Republicans today are polling better on
      ethics and the economy, than the Democrats are. That shows a trend which is
      likely to register in the mid-term elections in 2010, in the same way that
      the EU parliamentary ele ctions served as a shock to the system.
      In the opposition, Republicans are free to embrace the rhetoric of change,
      to champion reform and push libertarian ideas about the size and scope of
      government. In turn all Obama has is his celebrity fueled media spectacle
      world tour. A charade now serving as a parallel to the depression era
      entertainment that functioned as escapism in a dour time. B ut before long,
      it may be Obama that the American public will want to escape from.
      A shallow, manipulative and egotistical amateur who is in over his head
      Obama has tried to play Lincoln, Reagan, JFK and FDR– but in the end he can
      only play himself, a shallow, manipulative and egotistical amateur who is in
      over his head, and trying to drag the country down with him. Obama’s White
      House is falling down and while the flashbulbs are still glittering and the
      parties are going on in D.C. and around the world, Obama and the Democratic
      Congress may be headed for a recession of their own.

      Obama’s White House is Falling Down

      By Daniel Greenfield Thursday, June 11, 2009
      In the sixth month of his presidency, Obama has turned an economic downturn
      into an economic disaster, taking over and trashing entire companies, and
      driving the nation deep into deficit spending expected to pass 10 trillion
      dollars.
      Abroad, Obama seems to have no other mode except to continue on with his
      endless campaign, confusing speechmaking with diplomacy. It is natural
      enough that Obama, who built his entire campaign on high profile public
      speeches reported on by an adoring press, understands how to do nothing else
      but that.
      While the press is still chewing over Obama’s Cairo speech, this celebrity
      style coverage ignores the fact that Obama’s endless world tour is not
      actually accomplishing anything. Instead his combination of ego driven
      photo-op appearances and clueless treatment of foreign dignitaries have
      alienated many of America’s traditional allies. Those who aren’t being
      quietly angry at Obama, like Brown, Merkel or Netanyahu, instead think of
      him as an absurdly lightweight, as Sarkozy, King Abdullah or Putin do.
      While his officials carry out their dirty economic deeds, Obama responds to
      any and every crisis as if it were a Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland musical,
      with a cry of, “Let’s put on a show.” Thus far Obama has put on “shows”
      across America, Europe and the Middle East.
      And what the adoring media coverage neglects to cover, is that Obama’s shows
      have solved absolutely nothing. They have served only as high profile
      entertainment.
      Neither alienating America’s traditional allies, through a combination of
      arrogant bullying and ignorance, nor appeasing America’s enemies, has
      yielded any actual results. Nor does it seem likely to. Islamic terrorism is
      not going anywhere, neither are the nuclear threats from North Korea and
      Iran. While Obama keeps smiling, the global situation keeps growing more
      grim.
      At home, if Obama was elected as depression era entertainment, the charm of
      his smiles and his constant appearances on magazine covers appear to be
      wearing thin on the American public. Despite the shrill attacks on Rush
      Limbaugh or the Republican Enemy of the Weak– the Democratic party of 2009,
      is polling a lot like the Republican party of 2008. The Democrats have
      suddenly become the incumbents, and the only accomplishment they can point
      to is lavish deficit spending, often on behalf of the very same corporations
      and causes they once postured a gainst.
      The European Union Parliament’s swing to the right cannot be credited to
      Obama, though doubtlessly some European voters seeing socialist economic
      crisis management on display in the world’s richest country decided they
      wanted none of it, but it is part of a general turning against federalism.
      And Obama’s entire program is dependent on heavily entrenching federalism at
      the expense of individual and state’s rights. Yet that is precisely his
      Achilles heel with independent voters who are polling against more taxes and
      expanded government. And no amount of speeches by Obama can wish away his 18
      czars or the national debt he has foisted on generation after generation of
      the American people.
      That leaves Obama with a choice between socialism and the independent voter.
      And thus far he has chosen socialism.
      Obama’s tactic of hijacking Bush Administration era policies on the economy
      and the War on Terror, and exploiting them as Trojan horses to promote his
      own agenda, have left him coping with a backlash from his own party, as well
      as general Republican opposition.
      His Czars are meant to function as the bones in an executive infrastructure
      accountable to no one, but a lack of accountability isn’t just another word
      for tyranny, but for incompetence. A functional chain of command is
      accountable at multiple levels if it is to function effectively. Obama’s
      White House by contrast is in a state of over-organized chaos, the sort of
      organized disorganization that undiscip lined egotistical leftists naturally
      create for themselves, complete with multiple overlapping levels of
      authority and no one in charge but the man at the top, who’s too busy doing
      other things to actually be in charge.
      Dennis Blair as National Intelligence, who collaborated with the Muslim
      genocide of Christians in East Timor, trying to muscle out the CIA to create
      his own intelligence network, is typical of the kind of chaos being spawned
      by every chief in an expanding government bureaucracy working to make sure
      that all the Indians answer to him.
      Similarly the National Security Council wrestling with the State Department,
      highlighted by Samantha Power getting her own specially created NSC position
      to butt heads with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, illustrates the state
      of conflict and chaos in American foreign affairs. A state of chaos so
      pervasive that incompetence has now become commonplace, and no one can even
      be found to double check the spelling of a Russian word that is meant to be
      the theme of American’s diplomatic reconstruction with Russia, or to pick
      out a gift for the visiting British Prime Minister.
      Meanwhile on the economy, Obama exploited the ongoing bailouts, transforming
      them from bailouts into takeovers meant to shift the balance of power in
      what had been a democracy and socially engineer not only corporations, but
      the lives of ordinary Americans.
      But the public’s patience with corporate bailouts is at an end, most
      Americans were never happy with them to begin with, and want them to end.
      The death of Chrysler at the hands of Fiat and the UAW might look like a
      victory in the union ranks, but it doesn’t play too well outside Detroit.
      And tacking on CAFE standards that will kill the pickup truck and the SUV
      will badly erode Obama in the swing states, if exploited properly in 2010
      and 2012. Despite the constant media barrage, orchestrated out of the White
      House, the public is growing disenchanted with the performance of Obama and
      the Democrats.
      With unemployment booming and the economy dropping, the jobs aren’t there
      and the spending is out of control. Republicans today are polling better on
      ethics and the economy, than the Democrats are. That shows a trend which is
      likely to register in the mid-term elections in 2010, in the same way that
      the EU parliamentary ele ctions served as a shock to the system.
      In the opposition, Republicans are free to embrace the rhetoric of change,
      to champion reform and push libertarian ideas about the size and scope of
      government. In turn all Obama has is his celebrity fueled media spectacle
      world tour. A charade now serving as a parallel to the depression era
      entertainment that functioned as escapism in a dour time. B ut before long,
      it may be Obama that the American public will want to escape from.
      A shallow, manipulative and egotistical amateur who is in over his head
      Obama has tried to play Lincoln, Reagan, JFK and FDR– but in the end he can
      only play himself, a shallow, manipulative and egotistical amateur who is in
      over his head, and trying to drag the country down with him. Obama’s White
      House is falling down and while the flashbulbs are still glittering and the
      parties are going on in D.C. and around the world, Obama and the Democratic
      Congress may be headed for a recession of their own.
      . . . and from the London Telegraph:
      telegraphBarack Obama: all the bad guys are giving President Pantywaist the finger

      Kim Jong-il, the charismatic and popular (if you are a Pyongyang resident and covet a life expectancy of more than 24 hours) Dear Leader of North Korea, is on his sixth or seventh missile this week. See the pretty vapour trails streak across Asian skies, in an impressive firework display to celebrate the arrival of President Pantywaist in the Oval Office.
      School’s out! Suddenly it is playtime for all the naughtier elements in the more “reclusive” parts of the world who enjoy kicking Uncle Sam’s butt but didn’t much relish tangling with Dick Cheney and (what was that other guy’s name?). This time Comrade Kim is really throwing his toys out of the playpen. He has even unilaterally revoked the 1953 armistice between the Korean War belligerents, which means, in case anybody is interested, that North and South Korea are once more at war.
      So, what is the response of the Messiah in the Oval Office? Really severe rhetoric, is the answer. The soundbite manufacturers have been burning the midnight oil and the auto-cue is going into meltdown. So is the confidence of Asian leaders. The word is out: the most powerful nation on earth has got itself a pussycat for a president and all the bad guys are queuing up to give him the finger.
      It is a measure of Obama’s acknowledged impotence that some of those who are now cheeking him are doing so with a degree of sophistication they had not previously exhibited. Irony and sarcasm are being deployed in an unlikely place: Tehran. It is the worst-kept secret in the world that Iran is dependent on North Korea for the development of its nuclear programme. When Kim last lit the blue touch-paper, in 2006, Tehran roundly supported him. This time the mullahs have come up with a more teasing ploy: they have righteously condemned him.
      President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran said piously: “We recommend all countries not to waste national resources and their people’s wealth on moving toward nuclear proliferation and making weapons of mass destruction.” You have to have respect for a man who can deliver a statement like that with a straight face. On Britain’s Got Talent such a virtuoso performance would have knocked Susan Boyle off the radar.
      President Pantywaist’s enemies are taking his measure and they are liking what they see. Perhaps, in some Macchiavellian way, Obama thinks the appointment to the Supreme Court of a Latina woman of apparent bias, who seems unlikely to find in favour of a white male American, will either appease or frighten his foes.
      Come back, Dick Cheney, all is forgiven.
      infobase

      translation

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