Saturday, April 3, 2010

Illegal Immigration, the FCC, & Demonizing by Political Opponents

Obama’s Greatest Crime

Posted by Ralph Peters on Apr 2nd, 2010


President Barack Obama’s greatest crime against our flag and the republic for which it stands isn’t his administration’s health-care theft bill.  That’s mere shoplifting compared to what’s coming next.
Obama and the leftwing of the Democratic Party intend to turn ten to eleven million illegal immigrants into voters as expeditiously as possible, giving them a permanent national electoral majority based upon a beholden Lumpenproletariat.  If they succeed, our country will face mob rule.
No individual who broke the law to enter this country should ever be allowed to decide who becomes our president, governor, senator—or town council member.  If there is one message patriotic Americans must act upon during the remainder of Obama’s reign, it’s this: No voting rights for illegals.
No other issue of our time matters remotely as much—not our lukewarm struggle with Islamist terror or even our metastasizing deficits.  This isn’t about tax increases or where to hold terror trials.  It’s about preserving our democratic institutions for law-abiding citizens.
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According to the Washington Times, Internet taxation (on goods and services) is on the way in the proposed FCC bill,  inserted within page 58 of the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) National Broadband Plan released this week:
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A Mount Dora doctor posted a sign telling Obama health care supporters to go elsewhere.

Sign at the office door of Dr. Jack Cassell, a Mount Dora 
urologist.
For his patients, Obamacare begins right now......   This won't last, but it is interesting, since Obama says all the doctors are for his bill.
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I learned today that Capital Blue Cross announced this week that it has eliminated 182 jobs in what the Harrisburg, PA-based health insurer said is an ongoing effort to increase efficiency and lower operating costs.
There were 11 mass layoffs impacting 50 or more jobs at the nation's nongovernmental hospitals in February, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced today.
February's mass layoffs, coupled with the 13 mass layoffs at hospitals in January, are on a pace with the first two months of 2009, a year that ended with a record 152 mass layoffs affecting more than 13,000 hospital jobs.
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This following story about Andrew Breitbart points out to all conservatives that when we gather in public, we must behave ourselves, and take photos and videos of leftist radicals who will be trying to make us look like the terrorist Tea Party people they excoriate.  The last time Andrew Breitbart went to a large Tea Party-related event populated by liberals… well, the video speaks for itself. This time around, he got caught in the crossfire of an anti-Tea Party egg-throwing escapade– and was almost arrested after being accused of attacking Tea Partiers himself.
It’s a pretty remarkable story. Breitbart claims that, upon arriving in the area, he found an individual who identified himself as a pro-Reid union member directing Tea Party participants in the opposite direction of the Searchlight event, along with a “group of people who were agitating and egging on literally the procession of cars coming into Searchlight.” When confronted about what he was doing there, the man responded nonchalantly, “I’m misdirecting traffic.”  The incident, meanwhile, fits perfectly into Breitbart’s “false narrative” media theory: the extreme left-wing media has such control over information that “they know they can get away with things in daylight,” including highly-infantile use of edible projectiles. And, worse, they have control of the government, too. “What I find very suspicious was that the police were happy to investigate me,” he said, but when he told them he had video evidence of the crowd’s guilt, “the police had zero interest in going into that crowd.” Breitbart promised an avalanche of video footage to back up his claims, including the above clip, to be released sometime this week.
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In Sept. of '06, the Boston Globe wrote the following: 
On Air America, talk show host Randi Rhodes recommended doing to Bush what Michael Corleone, in ``The Godfather, Part II," does to his brother. ``Like Fredo," she said, ``somebody ought to take him out fishing and phuw!" -- then imitated the sound of a gunshot. In the Guardian, a leading British daily, columnist Charlie Brooker issued a plea: ``John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, John Hinckley Jr. -- where are you now that we need you?"
For the more literary Bush-hater, there is ``Checkpoint," a novel by Nicholson Baker in which two characters discuss the wisdom of shooting the president. ``I'm going to kill that bastard," one character fumes. Some Bush-hatred masquerades as art: At Chicago's Columbia College, a curated exhibit included a sheet of mock postage stamps bearing the words ``Patriot Act" and depicting President Bush with a gun to his head. There are even Bush-assassination fashion statements, such as the ``KILL BUSH" T-shirts that were on offer last year at CafePress, an online retailer. 
Which brings us to ``Death of a President," a new movie about the assassination of George W. Bush.
Written and directed by British filmmaker Gabriel Range, the movie premieres today at the Toronto Film Festival and will air next month on Britain's Channel 4. Shot in the style of a documentary, the movie opens with what looks like actual footage of Bush being gunned down by a sniper as he leaves a Chicago hotel in October 2007. Through the use of digital special effects, the film superimposes the president's face onto the body of the actor playing him, so that the mortally wounded man collapsing on the screen will seem, all too vividly, to be Bush himself.

Now President Barack Obama says he finds harsh rhetoric from political opponents "troublesome" and says such talk isn't surprising in times of economic distress and sweeping societal changes.
He tells CBS a president has to have "pretty thick skin" and said he worries about a climate in which "the other side is demonized" by political opponents. 

[What arrogance and hypocrisy!  This is the man who tells conservatives to "bring it on", who laughingly says Armageddon has not occurred as those who don't trust him with the Presidency have said it would.
One would like to assume that he isn't aware that Harry Reid called George Bush stupid.  I would like to think that he is unaware of the fact that Democrats are calling us Tea Baggers, spitters and "n" word shouters (with absolutely not a shred of proof). I would like to think that he condemns Charley Rangle for comparing Tea Party members to segregationists.  It was Obama who said progressives  should argue with conservatives and get in their faces, that he'd like his friend to debate Sean Hannity and tear him up.  It was he who said that he doesn't want to quell the anger against Wall Street companies - leading to busloads of liberals intimidating them in front of their homes.  And yet he is saying that it is we who are demonizing him and his band of America haters. We are not that stupid, Mr. President.
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From the New York Daily News: Obama Inc. is making a buck off Joe Biden calling the health care victory a "big f----ing deal."! The "Health Reform is a BFD" T-shirt appeared this week on the fundraising website hosted by President Obama's perpetual campaign, Organizing for America. The Tee is available to anyone who makes at least a $25 online contribution to OFA. "Traffic on the Web site spiked considerably since we put the shirts on sale," spokesman Hari Sevugan said Thursday.  [So - we have FDR's New Deal, Harry Truman's Fair Deal, and now Barack Obama's Big F-ing Deal. Yes, our public discourse has surely been degraded through the years.]  




Friday, April 2, 2010

Here is my letter to editors of several MI newspapers:  The proof is in the pudding.  In order to assure health insurance for 10% of us, President Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reed now control 100% of Americans.  This is not about health care, but further government take-over of Americans.  We must fire all Democrats in November, and thank the Republicans for standing firm.  Included in this bill, by the way, is what campaigning Obama said he wanted: "We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful..."  (More on that later next week)
Here is something we all can do:  let your voice be heard by contacting the Detroit News, the Detroit Free Press or the Grand Rapids Press, the Traverse City Record Eagle and the Petoskey News Review.You could chose one of the following email addresses or links and send them a letter-to-the-editor explaining why you support the fight to overturn Obamacare!
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[I have listened to the entire interview with John Dingell by now, after being accused of taking his words out of context concerning government CONTROL of 300 million people.  I have not changed my mind.  He said that he really wanted a Single Payer system, but he helped to pass this bill because this is, and I'll quote: "Incremental progress which meets the ability of [a slight majority of] Congress to accept." He is admitting that he hopes, as many others politicians have admitted, that this is just a way to open the door to getting the single payer system. The truth sometimes seems inflammatory, but we deserve to get the truth:  it is good that we all really get a chance to hear what our politicians are saying, hoping and working for.  If we had really paid attention to the quotes of our President during his campaign, for instance, we would have known that he really did have the intent to, in his own words "fundamentally transform" America as he promised, not just be a good steward of the greatest land of opportunity in the world.  In order for the Congressional Budget Office to say this will "save" us money, they had to score it with us paying for it for 4 years prior to when it begins - all the time paying for our current insurance as well.  It didn't even take 4 days for businesses across America to figure out that it will cost them billions, and that cost will trickle down to Americans.  Does it not seem curious to you that in 4 years, when the Democrats actually thought that the toll it might take on America would begin, our President and all Democrats will have had a chance to already be reelected?  Do you never question the wisdom and words of politicians?  All those good changes we keep hearing about could have been passed into law without government control over us all.

My intent is to bring the news which our paper does not cover, as local papers have refused to even run some letters to the editor, because it is not the message they want the readers to hear.  I let the readers decide what to do with it - other than giving them inspiration to get out of their easy chairs to actually do something to turn the tide, and especially to vote this fall.  We shall not be the Silent Majority any longer.  Decades of liberals skewing our public school education to worship Socialism (and Che and Fidel) instead of small government and free enterprise has taken it's toll on young people who now believe America is bad.]
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Fox News reports, by the way: Powerhouse student loan provider Sallie Mae says layoffs are imminent as a result of President Obama's new student loan overhaul. "This legislation will force Sallie Mae to reduce our 8,600-person workforce by 2,500," Conwey Casillas, Vice President of Sallie Mae Public Affairs, said in a statement to Fox News.
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Anti-Obama Billboards Appear on Atlanta Highways; 'Stop Obama Socialism'...


VERIZON Expects to Incur $970 Million Expense From Health-Care Legislation...


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http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/04/obamacares_economic_dominoes.html                                   Now that health care reform in the shabby disguise of ObamaCare has been crammed through Congress, a peek at the president's precariously stacked dominoes confirms that sooner than you may suppose, there won't be any private companies selling health insurance in America. Consider:

There are approximately 1,300 insurance companies in America today. 

Beginning January 1, 2011, these companies will be required to pay out 85% of all premiums collected as direct medical care, leaving 15% of corporate income to fund operations and yield any potential profit. 

The health care industry has a profit margin of about 3%. Most American businesses rely on securing annual profits of 8% to 10%. American oil companies operate on about 4% profit. Alcoholic beverage sales net annual profits of 26%.
This is a very long article, but well worth the reading if you really want to understand why Obama's proclamation that the sky is not yet falling has no meaning.  It takes time for all the ramifications to produce a devastation of our country, and he knows it.
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Byron York of the Washington Examiner exposes the true aim of the new bill:  "The new health care legislation, Senator Baucus promised, "will have the effect of addressing that maldistribution of income in America." [Really?  And here we thought it was about insurance for all].
Howard Dean, the former Democratic National Committee chairman and presidential candidate, said the health bill was needed to correct economic inequities. "The question is, in a democracy, what is the right balance between those at the top ... and those at the bottom?" Dean said during an appearance on CNBC. "When it gets out of whack, as it did in the 1920s, and it has now, you need to do some redistribution. This is a form of redistribution."
After Baucus' statement, I asked a Democratic strategist (who asked to remain nameless) whether fighting income inequality was one of his goals in supporting the legislation. Never, he said. "That's what the tax code is for."
'Redistribution' is an easy charge to make," the Democrat said. "I'm not surprised that it's an argument critics make; what I'm surprised at is that Democrats are making it."
This week the DNC group Organizing for America offered a commemorative certificate to supporters who helped pass the health care bill. The certificate said, "We achieved the dream of generations -- high-quality, affordable health care is no longer the privilege of a few, but the right of all."
The privilege of a few? It is widely accepted that about 85 percent of all Americans have health care coverage, and the overwhelming majority are happy with it. There's simply no way anyone could plausibly claim that health coverage is the privilege of a few."

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Who Is Fomenting Violence, More Health Care Bill Costs, and More

The Pittsburgh Post Gazetter writes: Franklin Roosevelt had the "New Deal," Harry Truman the "Fair Deal," and now Barack Obama has what Vice President Joe Biden described as a "big [expletive] deal." There's been a decline in more than the quality of the rhetoric over the years. Democrats hailed Obamacare as a triumph along the lines of Social Security and Medicare. But Social Security and Medicare were popular. Eighty-one Republicans in the House and 16 in the Senate voted for Social Security in 1935. In 1965, 70 Republicans in the House and 13 in the Senate voted for Medicare.
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We should be eternally vigilant against attempts to check the expression of opinions that we loathe.  -Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
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Andrew Thomas of the American Spectator asks: The question I have is, why did these congresspeople, including Emmanuel Cleaver (the alleged "spitee", who actually walked too close to a protester shouting "kill the bill" and got sprayed), Barney Frank, and Nancy Pelosi deliberately march into the demonstration and confront the Tea Partiers?  After all, wasn't it Nancy herself who said she was "frightened" by these supposedly violent people?  Is it possible that they wanted to provoke a reaction from the crowd to be used by the media to demonize the Tea Party movement (i.e., "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it")?  Is it also possible that when there was nothing sufficiently provoked by the lawmakers' confrontation, they decided to fabricate it?  I believe their previous record of untruthfulness supports this hypothesis.   
What do you suppose will be the next move by the Alinsky left?  There are a large number of Tea Party demonstrations scheduled around the country in April.  I don't believe there is any doubt that the left will step up their attempts to provoke a Tea Party incident that they can capture on video.  Even more likely, they will infiltrate demonstrations and create ugly incidents masquerading as Tea Party participants.  The progressive media, doing their part for the cause, will appear at more of these events for the sole purpose of broadcasting the "proof" of Tea Party racism and/or violence.

Those of us who intend to participate in these demonstrations need to do two things:
  • 1) Do not allow yourself or another Tea Partier to be taunted or provoked into saying or doing anything that could be interpreted as racist or violent. Always be civil and act intelligently. You never know when you are being recorded.
  • 2) Take a video camera with you and record the faces of anyone instigating or participating in any such incidences so that they can be identified later.
Remember, to those on the Alinsky left, this is a war.  And as Saul Alinsky wrote, "The third rule of ethics of means and ends is that in war the end justifies almost any means...."
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The NYT reports: An association representing 300 large corporations urged President Obama and Congress on Monday to repeal a provision of the health care overhaul that prompted AT&T, Caterpillar and other companies to announce substantial charges for the current quarter. 
Mr. Waxman and Bart Stupak, a Michigan Democrat who is chairman of the House Commerce Committee’s subcommittee on oversight and investigations, wrote to AT&T’s chairman, Randall L. Stephenson, “The new law is designed to expand coverage and bring down costs, so your assertions are a matter of concern.”
Their letter said AT&T’s moves “appear to conflict with independent analyses,” including a finding by the Business Roundtable, an association of chief executives, that health care reform would reduce insurance cost trends for businesses by more than $3,000 for each employee over the next 10 years.
Responding to such criticism, Mr. Klein said: “These announcements are required under accounting rules, and we should all expect more of such announcements in coming days and weeks. We’re very troubled that these announcements have been challenged by officials in Obama administration and Congress.”
Many employer plans for retiree drug coverage are part of union contracts. In December, the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s legislative director, Bill Samuel, joined Mr. Klein in writing to Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, urging the Senate not to enact this provision.
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American Spectator, by James P. Gannon: [In part] Most of the angry [citizens]are not out marching in the streets, waving signs or shouting into bullhorns. And they are not smashing windows or phoning death threats to politicians. They are simply waking up angry in the morning, and going to bed angry at night. And their resentment is multiplied by the media's efforts to portray them all as dangerous, crazy people, and by the effort of certain Democrats to tar them with brush of violent intent.
They are tired of being told they are too stupid to understand the country's complex problems, too rooted in the past to find solutions, too selfish to share what they have worked for with everyone else who wants it.
Their quiet rage abides, waiting till it can be expressed in that silent place behind the curtain where the ballot lists the names that they have now committed to an angry memory.
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The Hill [Washington, DC], by Michael O'Brien   The Democratic National Committee (DNC) said Monday that it will donate money it had received from a man charged with threatening to kill a top Republican. A DNC official said it was researching contributions made by Norman Leboon, a Philadelphia man charged Monday with threatening to kill House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.), and donate any money he had donated to charity.
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A secretive foreign network of Islamic radicals now operates dozens of charter schools -- which receive government money but are not required to adopt a state-approved curriculum -- on U.S. soil. The inspirer of this conspiratorial effort is Fethullah Gülen, who directs a major Islamist movement in Turkey and the Turkish Diaspora but lives in the United States. He is number thirteen among the world's "50 most influential Muslims," according to one prominent listing.
 But in startling news for Americans, the Gülen movement operates more than 85 primary and secondary schools on our soil. A roster of the Gülen schools and of the numerous foundations that support them has been released to the public by the patriotic group Act! for America. The Gülen schools are often designated as "science academies" and are concentrated in Texas, Ohio, and California -- with others scattered across the rest of the country.
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The father of a Marine killed in Iraq and whose funeral was picketed by anti-gay protesters from Kansas was ordered to pay the protesters' appeal costs, his lawyers said Monday. Fox News reported today that he will defy a court order and not pay the protesters' appeal costs. "I don't think I'm going to be writing a check until I hear from the Supreme Court," Snyder told Fox News on Tuesday. "I'm not about to pay them

Read more: http://www.kansas.com/2010/03/29/1246609/marines-dad-ordered-to-pay-protesters.html#ixzz0jl3P6fgK
       


    Monday, March 29, 2010

    Free Health Care's Costs and The Class Act

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    (Bloomberg) -- AT&T Inc. will book $1 billion in first-quarter costs related to the health-care law signed this week by President Barack Obama, the most of any U.S. company so far.
    A change in the tax treatment of Medicare subsidies triggered the non-cash expense, and the company will consider changes to the benefits it offers current and retired workers, Dallas-based AT&T said today in a regulatory filing.
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    From the Wall Street Journal: On top of AT&T's $1 billion, the writedown wave so far includes Deere Co., $150 million; Caterpillar, $100 million; AK Steel, $31 million; 3M, $90 million; and Valero Energy, up to $20 million. Verizon has also warned its employees about its new higher health-care costs, and there will be many more in the coming days and weeks.
    As Joe Biden might put it, this is a big, er, deal for shareholders and the economy. The consulting firm Towers Watson estimates that the total hit this year will reach nearly $14 billion, unless corporations cut retiree drug benefits when their labor contracts let them.
    [Meanwhile, Henry Waxman and House Democrats announced yesterday that they will haul these companies in for an April 21 hearing because their judgment "appears to conflict with independent analyses, which show that the new law will expand coverage and bring down costs."]
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    Christian Science Monitor: President Obama’s healthcare reform law is coming under attack by those who claim it violates the separation of church and state. At least two lawsuits have been filed challenging the new healthcare mandate on religious grounds. One was filed by a Michigan-based group, the Thomas More Law Center. The other was filed on behalf of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va.
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    As the American Spectator reports:  "These are Republican CEOs who are trying to embarrass the President and Democrats in general," says a White House legislative affairs staffer. "Where do you hear about this stuff? The Wall Street Journal editorial page and conservative websites. No one else picked up on this but you guys. It's BS."  One Washington office head said that the White House calls were accusatory and "downright rude."
    The companies are taking the charges because in 2013 they will lose a tax deduction on tax-free government subsidies they have had when they give retirees a Medicare Part D prescription-drug reimbursement. Many of these companies have more than 100,000 retirees each. AT&T may have more than three-quarters of a million retirees to cover. 
    "Most of these people [in the Administration] have never had a real job in their lives. They don't understand a thing about business, and that includes the President," says a senior lobbyist for one of the companies that announced the charge. "My CEO sat with the President over lunch with two other CEOs, and each of them tried to explain to the President what this bill would do to our companies and the economy in general. First the President didn't understand what they were talking about. Then he basically told my boss he was lying. Frankly my boss was embarrassed for him; he clearly had not been briefed and didn't know what was in the bill."
    "We had memos on these issues, but none of our people, we think, looked at them," says  a staffer. "When they saw the stories last week about the charges some of the companies were taking, they were genuinely surprised and assumed that the companies were just doing this to embarrass them.  They really believed this bill would immediately lower costs. They just didn't understand what they were voting on." 
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    Andrew Breitbart, [who does not believe the charge that protesters were screaming the "N" word to Rep. Lewis as he walked to the Capitol to cast his health care vote], has offered to donate $100,000 to charity via Rep. John Lewis, D-GA, if anyone can provide video evidence that racial epiteths were dropped on Congressional Black Caucus members. Breitbart said the allegations were made as a way for the left -- abetted by the mainstream media -- to "marginalize" Tea Party supporters. [Videos of his walk have been posted, with only "Kill The Bill" being yelled.  In my view, this is an effective way to have hate crimes fomented against those who are peacefully disagreeing with their government - and I'm sure Nancy Pelosi would be against that!]



     

    Saturday, March 27, 2010

    Troy Elenbaas's Letter to the Editor - Traverse City, MI, & Obama's Arrogance

       PROCEEDING WITHOUT TRUTH

         What happens when your president says he's saved jobs, even though we keep losing them?
         When he says, "Let me be clear", but makes absolutely no sense?
         When he blames his predecessor for being fiscally irresponsible, but goes on an unprecedented spending spree?
         When he says he won't appoint lobbyists, then appoints lobbyists?
         When he says he'll fix Washington corruption, then makes it worse?
         When he says we must fix the climate, even though it's not broken?
         When When he says we must borrow from China to fix our economy?
         When he states Obamacare should not use Reconciliation, then tries to pass it that way?
         When terrorists receive Miranda rights and they testimony prosecutes soldiers?
         When everyone deserves health care, even though some won't work?
         When he claims to be Christian, but prays in Islamic mosques?
         When the government takes over private business, despite the Constitution?
         What happens when an ornament of Mao Tse-tung hangs on the White House "holiday" tree?
         What happened to the truth, and how can we proceed without it?
        Courtesy of Troy Elenbaas of Traverse City, Michigan
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    [The arrogant, mocking, totally unpresidential President, in Iowa, celebrating the passage of his health care bill]:  "There's been plenty of fear-mongering, plenty of overheated rhetoric. You turn on the news, you'll see the same folks are still shouting about there's going to be an end of the world because this bill passed. (Laughter.) I'm not exaggerating. Leaders of the Republican Party, they called the passage of this bill "Armageddon." (Laughter.) Armageddon. "End of freedom as we know it."
    So after I signed the bill, I looked around to see if there any -- (laughter) -- asteroids falling or -- (applause) -- some cracks opening up in the Earth. (Laughter.) It turned out it was a nice day. (Laughter.) Birds were chirping. Folks were strolling down the Mall. People still have their doctors.  [Just give it some time...]

    Scott Brown was discussing this speech while appearing on Good Morning America:  At a rally in Iowa on Thursday, Obama dared Republicans to try to repeal the new health reform law. "If they want to have that fight, I welcome that fight," Obama said. "My attitude? Go for it."
    Brown told "GMA" the president's rhetoric is "inappropriate."

    Friday, March 26, 2010

    Sestak, Obama's View of the Constitution, Medicare Into Deficit This Year, John Dingell

    Rep. Darrell Issa, the top Republican on the House Oversight committee, told CBS News Wednesday that he will call for a special prosecutor to investigate the White House if it does not address Rep. Joe Sestak's claim that he was offered a federal job in exchange for dropping out of the Pennsylvania Senate primary.
    "If the public doesn't receive a satisfactory answer, the next step would be to call for a special prosecutor, which is well within the statute," Issa (pictured) told Hotsheet.
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    American Spectator reminds us:  Barack Obama has long seen the U.S. Constitution as an obstacle to what he considers progress. In a 2001 interview that surfaced during the presidential campaign, he made this very clear: the Supreme Court under Justice Earl Warren had failed to break "free from the essential constraints that were placed by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution," Obama mused on a radio show. The Warren Court was insufficiently radical, he said, conceding too much ground to the traditional interpreters of the Constitution as a "charter of negative liberties," "says what the states can't do to you, says what the federal government can't do to you, but doesn't say what the federal government or state government must do on your behalf."
    The Founding Fathers, he implied, produced a defective document, much too passive in its understanding of government's possibilities. The founders had set up a form of government to protect liberty; he clearly wished they had formed a government to enact equality.
    Anyone who was informing themselves about this man would have known this prior to his election.]
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    The Atlantic reports: Every since the early eighties, when the Greenspan commission kicked the can down the road with a combination of tax increases and later retirement ages, analysts have been awaiting the day when the system would finally go into deficit. That date has been sliding around between 2016 and 2020 for some years now, but the suspense is finally over: the system is going into deficit this year. " . . . payments have risen more than expected during the downturn, because jobs disappeared and people applied for benefits sooner than they had planned.
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    Fox News: The Medicus Firm a medical recruitment company, found in a survey that 46 percent of physicians said they’d quit or retire if Obamacare became law. According to the survey, "even if a much smaller percentage such as ten, 15, or 20 percent are pushed out of practice over several years at a time when the field needs to expand by over 20 percent, this would be severely detrimental to the quality of the health care system." 
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    WJR Radio- Detroit, Paul W. Smith morning show, March 24.
    Congressman John Dingell of Michigan (D): "Let me remind you. This has been going on for years... the harsh fact of the matter is when you're going to pass legislation... it takes a long time to do the necessary administrative steps that have to be taken to put the legislation together to control the people."
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    From the Washington Examiner: In Iowa, President Obama repeated the myth that his bill forces insurers to cover children with pre-existing conditions:
    Starting this year, tens of thousands of uninsured Americans with a preexisting condition and parents whose children have a preexisting condition will finally be able to purchase the coverage they need.  (Applause.)
    ObamaCare does not require coverage of children with pre-existing conditions until 2014, despite their talking-points to the contrary in the run-up to its passage.  [I will add that he also repeated his admitted lie that if we like our current health care plan, we can keep it.  Oops, he forgot to mention that this is  only if we don't get fired or find a new job.  As Nancy Pelosi said, "we will do whatever it takes...."]

    Wednesday, March 24, 2010

    New Taxes - And No Five Days to Read the Bill As Promised.....

    FLASHBACK: Obama promises 'public will have FIVE DAYS to look at every bill that lands on my desk'...
    Uninsured: 'Going to be like Christmas... It's going to be great. You know, no worries about the bills'...
    IBD: 20 Ways ObamaCare Will Take Away Freedoms...



    "Tonight, at a time when the pundits said it was no longer possible, we rose above the weight of our politics. We pushed back on the undue influence of special interests."  [Is he talking about SEIU, the ACLU, AARP, ABA, Big Pharma, Insurance Companies, the Apollo Alliance, and the Tides Foundation?  Is he talking about the special interests of Nebraska, Florida, California, Louisiana and New York?  How about Alan Mollohan, who has had a pesky FBI investigation hanging over his head for a few years. Now, presto, right before the health care vote, it went away. The Justice Department, headed by Attorney General Eric Holder, announced that the FBI was closing the inquiry. Or how about the man whose brother was given a Judgeship?  Well, no - didn't' mean those special interests.  He means the Tea Party members, FreedomWorks, Taxandspendmustend, Code Red Join Patients First and others whose interest is the Constitution.]   "We didn't give in to mistrust or to cynicism or to fear. Instead, we proved that we are still a people capable of doing big things and tackling our biggest challenges. We proved that this government -- a government of the people and by the people -- still works for the people." [ But - government for and by which people?  It's important for us to understand just for which people this bill actually works, and for whom it doesn't work.  It interests me that fully one third of Americans either pay no taxes, or get money back for not making enough to pay taxes.  Do we suppose that perhaps those who actually PAY taxes have a better sense of what paying taxes means, and care more about our country's deficits? As one of the new beneficiaries said yesterday:  "It's going to be like Christmas!"]
     
                                         NO NEW TAXES?  TRY THESE:


    Free Republic lists some of them for us:  For the first time, the Medicare payroll tax would be applied to investment income, beginning in 2013. A new 3.8 percent tax would be imposed on interest, dividends, capital gains and other investment income for individuals making more than $200,000 a year and couples making more than $250,000.


    The bill also would increase the Medicare payroll tax by 0.9 percentage point to 2.35 percent on wages above $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for married couples filing jointly.


    The 40 percent tax on health benefits would be delayed until 2018 and would apply only to premiums exceeding $10,200 a year for individuals and $27,500 for families.
    Democrats argue that high-income families fared well under tax cuts enacted in the past decade, so it's time to pay up. Republicans argue that many of those taxpayers are small business owners struggling to stay afloat.


    Under the new health care bill, married couples with combined incomes approaching $250,000 would have to keep tabs on their spouses' pay to avoid an unexpected tax bill. Those with investments would have to pay even more attention to the income they earn from interest, dividends and capital gains.


    Unless they are very conscientious folks who constantly monitor their income tax withholding, they're going to have quite a surprise when they go to file their income taxes," said Jeffrey L. Kummer, director of tax policy at Deloitte Tax LLP.


    The new Medicare taxes would raise an estimated $210 billion over the next decade. The new tax on investments would be on top of capital gains and dividends tax increases already proposed by Obama. The president wants to increase the top tax rate on capital gains and dividends from 15 percent to 20 percent. If Congress goes along, the new top rate would be 23.8 percent in 2013, when the health care taxes kick in.


    The new tax on high-cost insurance plans, $32 billion.


    -- A fee on the makers and importers of brand-name drugs, $27 billion.


    -- An excise tax on the makers and importers of certain medical devices, $20 billion.


    -- An annual fee on health insurance providers, starting in 2014, $60 billion.


    -- The repeal of a tax loophole that could allow paper manufacturers to get tax credits for generating alternative fuel in the paper making process, $24 billion.


    ---a possible end to the income tax exclusion for employer-paid health benefits.


    The IRS will be the agency in charge of compliance in purchasing insurance or paying fines......collecting and enforcing mandatory "premiums".  So much for smaller government.]
    Boustany said the bill, allocating $10 billion to pay for 16,500 new government jobs in the IRS, would allow the IRS to confiscate refunds if there are penalties for not buying health care.
    Taxpayers could be required to buy insurance under President Barack Obama’s reform proposal by 2014 or face penalties of roughly $325 per individual that the IRS would collect. [Gee, shall I pay the fine, or pay thousands of dollars for insurance?  I think I might choose to go without insurance, especially now that pre-existing conditions are a-okay.  So, let's follow this trend.  Fewer people actually get insurance until they get sick or injured.  Insurance companies are forced to take a pool of customers who have a 100% risk, so they must increase premiums to everyone else or go out of business.  Oh, perhaps that is the ultimate plan, just as has actually been stated by this administration?  The Cloward and Piven strategy works so well!  Now we will all have our hands out to the government, completing the move to Socialism, and to perpetual votes for the Democrat Party.]
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    President Obama starts a victory lap on health care Tuesday, signing it into law at a White House lawn party - and hitting the road to sell it to the American people. That may be the tough part. A national CNN poll last night found Americans opposed the bill 59% to 39%
    [Does anyone else find it interesting that about 40% of Americans either pay no taxes or pay very little?   The Tax Foundation reports: Despite the charges of critics that the tax cuts enacted in 2001, 2003 and 2004 favored the “rich,” these cuts actually reduced the tax burden of low- and middle-income taxpayers and shifted the tax burden onto wealthier taxpayers. Tax Foundation economists estimate that for tax year 2004, a record 42.5 million Americans who filed a tax return (one-third of the 131 million returns filed last year) had no tax liability after they took advantage of their credits and deductions. Millions more paid next to nothing.  In addition to these non-payers, roughly 15 million individuals and families earned some income last year but not enough to be required to file a tax return. When these non-filers are added to the non-payers, they add up to 57.5 million income-earning people who will be paying no income taxes.
    Table 2. How “Refundable” Tax Credits Work
    Married Couple with Three Children
    Tax Liability Under 2004 Tax Law


    Adjusted Gross Income in 2004
    $40,000
    Minus Standard Deduction
    -$9,700
    Minus Personal Exemption
    -$15,500
    Taxable Income
    $14,800
    Gross Taxes Owed
    $1,505
    Minus 3 Child Credits
    -$3,000
    Taxes Owed
    $0
    "Refundable" Credit Received
    $1,495


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    Please know that there is something we can do here in Michigan to protect the rights Washington Democrats are threatening.  Cameron Brown is proud to be the only candidate for Secretary of State to co-sponsor Senate Joint Resolution K, which would allow Michigan residents to vote on an amendment to our state constitution guaranteeing our right to make our own health care decisions. Thirty-eight other states are in the process of adopting similar measures. 
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    And for those of you who want to be part of history by co-signing the health care bill, Organizing For America has provided a site for you to do so:   http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/hccosign?source=20100322_FB&share-fb=
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    The health care reform bill signed into law by President Barack Obama Tuesday requires members of Congress and their office staffs to buy insurance through the state-run exchanges it creates – but it may exempt staffers who work for congressional committees or for party leaders in the House and Senate. Staffers and members on both sides of the aisle call it an ''inequity'' and an ''outrage'' – a loophole that exempts the staffers most involved in writing and passing the bill from one of its key requirements.
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    IBD reports: "HR 4872, Heritage reports, would "force companies to pay a tax penalty if that business employs 50 or more workers as soon as one worker qualifies for, and opts to accept, a health insurance premium subsidy."
    That $3,000 penalty is on top of the $2,000-per-worker penalty for all workers beyond the first 30 for such companies not offering a "qualified" health plan or paying 60% of employee health premiums. Such companies would be faced with a $3,000 penalty for hiring a single parent, the very kind of person desperately in need of employment.
    Here's where it gets even more bizarre. According to Heritage, under the reconciliation bill, if Company A lays off an employee with a working spouse, this could generate a $3,000 tax penalty for the other spouse's employer, unless Company B also lays off the other spouse.
    The power to tax is indeed the power to destroy. As we have said, this is not about health care. This is about power and the redistribution of wealth. And the IRS will be making a list and checking it twice to see who's being naughty and who's being nice."
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    Finally, The Washington Examiner reports:  "Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, Tuesday night offered an amendment that would require the president, vice-president, members of Congress, political appointees and congressional staff to get their federal health benefits through the soon-to-be-created health insurance exchanges."  [This one is so much better than the one insuring that felons in prison do not get to have Viagra.]
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    Monday, March 22, 2010

    Health Care and Canada Free Press