Filed under: Bureaucracy, Communism, Democrat Corruption, Domestic Policy, Economics, Economy, Election 2020, Foreign Policy, Law, National Security, Progressivism, Regulation, Socialism, The United States | Tags: Congress, Democrat Corruption, Democrat lies, Healthcare, Politics
Newsy day! We have had one death from Coronavirus here in Washington State, apparently with some Korean connection. Joe Biden has won the South Carolina caucus. Corona beer has NO Connection to the virus with “corona” in the name. I know it’s hard, but try to pay attention and not get panicky.
Democrats are trying their hardest to make President Trump responsible for the Coronavirus, but they are, as usual, making no sense, and lying through their teeth. You need to understand that the Democrats believe themselves to be morally superior and thus entitled to be in charge of, well, everything! They are morally superior because they care.
For example, they care about anyone in Mexico who wants to cross the border, and assume that we should allow them in because they might have coronavirus, and we need to help them. Most sane Americans would admit that Mexico has a number of cases of coronavirus, a number of deaths, and that Mexico has an obligation to take care of their own people, which they are trying to do. We do not have any obligation to open up our borders to anyone from another country. Elizabeth Warren has proposed a “Bill to Take All Money From Trump’s ‘Racist Wall,’ Give to HHS to Fight Coronavirus.” Some polls suggest that Elizabeth Warren might not win her own state of Massachusetts. “Racist Wall” ??? A President of the United States’ first responsibility is to the people of his own country, not to the citizens of Mexico, nor of all the other countries’ citizens trying to illegally cross the border. If Warren does not understand that basic fact, she has no business considering herself qualified to run for anything. There is a legal way to come to America and become a citizen. You apply, and wait your turn.
AOC, who never fails to demonstrate her ignorance, was outraged (isn’t she always?) that Vice President Pence, appointed to lead the Coronavirus program, said he would pray as he took on the effort. He is a religious man, and of course would pray for help in doing an important job. AOC promptly announced “Mike Pence literally does not believe in science. It is utterly irresponsible to put him in charge of US coronavirus response as the world sits on the cusp of a pandemic.” Well we all make silly mistakes, Hank Johnson worried about Guam tipping over. Just refrain from suggesting that the folks serving in government are our “betters.”
We elect people to serve us in government so we don’t have to do it. They want to serve because it’s a good paying job with all sorts of benefits, among which are lots of attention from the media, and if you get to be some sort of celebrity, there are even more benefits that involve recognition, name familiarity, and maybe a book deal somewhere down the road, aside from being able to steer business to your family. We have to keep an eye on them, and, if they get too far out of line, elect someone else.
Joe Biden has won the caucus in South Carolina as I said, in spite of getting a little confused about whether he was running for the Senate or the Presidency. It helps to maintain a good sense of humor regarding politics, but it’s hard when one candidate announces that he is a socialist. Socialist/Communist, there’s not much difference. If you don’t know what the term “socialist” means, it’s time to seriously educate yourself. The public schools and our colleges and universities will not do it for you. The universities are staffed with those who got deferments for being in school as they protested the Vietnam War, and a college education doesn’t mean what it once did. Head to your public library, look for The Black Book of Communism, The Gulag Archipelago, The Passing of an Illusion, Property and Freedom, Mao, or any of dozens of books explaining what “socialism” really is. Socialism does not mean free health care, or anything else free for that matter. It costs more than can be endured.
*I don’t know the source of this image, but it expresses the reality clearly
Filed under: Domestic Policy, Health Care, Politics | Tags: A Mess, Democrat lies, Obamacare, Poorly Conceived
Here is a really important article laying out just exactly why Obama Care is such a mess. Now that Chief Justice Roberts has decided that the intent, the viability of the Affordable Care Act is more legally important than its actual language, it’s worth taking a few moments to remember just how the law was passed, and why the inconsistencies and internal contradictions were not just predictable, but inevitable.
Obama keeps calling it health care and assumes that he has given millions of people who lacked health care a great gift. But he has given them only health insurance, and really poor insurance at that. The American people did not want it, and it polled poorly. The Democratic leadership, fearful that the momentum was failing decided to rush a bill through the Senate before they left for Christmas 2009.
On December 18, Majority Leader Harry Reid merged two separate pending bills into a bill to be voted on by the Senate…. To meet the self-imposed Christmas deadline, Reid provided only six days for debate. The Senate bill passed on a strict party line vote, 60-39.
Few people, including Senators and their staffs, had time to read the whole 2,700 page bill, much less note any possible weaknesses, flaws, or ambiguities. Reid and other Senate Democrats weren’t terribly worried about this. The bill was set to go to the House, then back to the Senate, then to “reconciliation” between the House and the Senate versions, and then to the president for his signature. Everyone thought there would be plenty of opportunities to make changes.
But a major impediment arose soon after the Senate bill passed. Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy had died that past summer, and the January special election to replace him was won by Republican Scott Brown, who ran as a strong opponent of Obamacare. This deprived the Democrats of their filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, and meant that the Senate would not be able to pass a revised bill. The only way to pass Obamacare at this point was to have the House vote on identical legislation to the Senate bill, while engaging in legally dubious procedural maneuvering. And that’s what the Democrats did.
They passed the bill as is and a separate reconciliation bill with minor changes, eliminating some of the most obvious flaws, but leaving the rest intact. So they passed a Senate Bill that nobody wanted and that no one had read in its entirety, and no one understood. Obama and the Democrats believed that it would become increasingly popular and Democrats would continue to control both houses of Congress. Anything wrong with it could be quickly fixed.
Didn’t work out that way. The people never liked it and Republicans took over the House and then the Senate, partly because of ObamaCare. Republicans don’t want to fix a law that they unanimously opposed. The Court, it was hoped, would realize that those who rush through a mess of a law that they haven’t read and don’t understand, with no political support from the other side have to live with the consequences. Instead the majority decided that when the law is unworkable as written they should help out the other branches.
So, you blithely promise Americans who don’t want any such thing that their cost of heath care will go down, that they can keep their doctors, that their medical care will be more efficient, add volumes of regulations and taxes, add a vast bureaucracy to manage it all and make more regulations — pay for the new bureaucracy, then add all sorts of gimmicks sure to reduce costs (that don’t work at all) wrap it up in a computer debacle that only the federal government could manage to come up with, and there you have it. Only a Democrat would believe that could work.
Filed under: Global Warming, Politics, Progressivism | Tags: Democrat lies, Gina McCarthy, Obama, The EPA
EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy told an audience gathered at a White House conference that “normal people.” not “climate deniers” will win the debate on global warming. This is not the first time she has said that distinguished scientists were “not normal people.” And of course “deniers” is the usual crude leftist language.
McCarthy’s remarks came as she was talking about the reasons why the EPA put out a report on the negative health impacts global warming will have on public health. She said the agency puts out such reports to educate the public, not answer critiques from global warming skeptics.
Ms. McCarthy is an administrator, not a scientist, and it shows. The agency hasn’t yet been able to come up with the science on which their regulations are based. When questioned at hearings, she doesn’t have simple answers to simple questions. One of my personal irritations is the frequency with which they attempt to sell their power grabs by claiming the number of lives (usually children;s) they will save in the future because of their actions. That’s disgraceful, and pure hogwash.
More hogwash: The EPA has released a report claiming “global action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will bring fewer extreme droughts, floods, storms and wildfires. The report claims cutting emissions would result in billions of dollars in benefits for the U.S. and save thousands of lives every year. Floods, storms and wildfires are not caused by climate, future benefits can’t really be predicted unless the computer climate suddenly developed astonishing new powers. Ms. McCarthy, like far too many federal bureaucrats is on a power trip to grab new responsibilities, more funding and a bigger agency. Here she goes again:
Regardless, the EPA says a global effort to cut emissions would result in about 70,000 fewer people dying from extreme heat and poor air quality in the U.S., less damage from flooding and storm surges on coastal properties and other weather events by 2100.
More interestingly, the EPA said global emissions cuts would mean an “estimated 40%-59% fewer severe and extreme droughts” in the U.S. by the year 2100. The report adds that in “the Southwest, the number of severe and extreme droughts is projected to nearly quadruple by the end of the century” if nothing is done. But with emissions reductions, “the incidence of drought is not projected to change substantially from present day.”
She added “We can save tens of thousands of American lives and hundreds of billions of dollars annually in the United States…” Hubris and hyperbole, and as I said — hogwash.
Speaking at a fundraiser in San Francisco on Friday, President Obama warned “Well within our children’s lifetimes, on our current pace, the oceans go up maybe two, maybe three, maybe four feet.”
Filed under: Democrat Corruption, Election 2010, News, News the Media Doesn't Want You to Hear, Politics | Tags: Democrat Dirty Tricks, Democrat lies, Unions, vote fraud
From massive registration fraud, to disenfranchising military votes, to backing spoiler candidates and more, Democrats are pulling every dirty trick they can think of to hold on to as many seats as possible. And these are just the stories we know about. Vote fraud is inherently difficult to catch, so if we are hearing about this many cases already, you can bet there is a great deal more fraud going undiscovered.
This is why we all need to volunteer to help get out the Republican vote. It’s very simple: we need to get SO many Republicans out to vote, that there simply aren’t any close elections. It’s the close elections that Democrats try to steal. Just ask George Bush, Dino Rossi or Norm Coleman. We can’t just win, we have to win by more than the margin of fraud.
You can volunteer to help your Republican candidate, or (if your local race isn’t competitive) OTHER vulnerable Republican candidates by going here, or by calling your local GOP. Volunteering is extremely easy. They give you a script, and tell you everything you need to do. Most campaigns are looking for people to call Republican voters and remind them to get their ballots in, go door to door at houses they have pegged as likely Republican leaners to ask if they plan to vote, and they are looking for people to poll watch on election day to prevent/record/and object to Democrat cheating.
A HUGE hat tip to Michelle Malkin, Gateway Pundit, and Hot Air for finding the vast majority of these stories. I just wanted to put them all together in one place. I will try to update this post as new stories come in. Be sure to send us tips if you see stories that aren’t reported here.
Nevada:
- Harry Reid and Unions bribing voters.
- Voting machines automatically selecting Harry Reid.
- SEIU in charge of servicing voting machines. Talk about putting the fox in charge of the hen house.
- Unions and other Harry Reid-supporters behind phony “tea party” candidate.
Florida:
- Daytona Beach Commissioner arrested on vote fraud charges.
- Democrats back third party candidates to siphon votes from Republicans.
- Florida Republicans accuse Alan Grayson of being behind phony “tea party” candidate.
Colorado:
- SEIU and Mi Familia Vota caught in attempt to turn in 6,000 fraudulent voter registrations.
Arizona:
- Democrat activist groups turn in thousands of shady registrations.
- Ninth Circuit tosses out Arizona’s proof of citizenship requirement.
Washington:
- Illegal aliens canvassing across state for Patty Murray and Democrats . (ACORN was previously convicted in Washington for committing the worst case of registration fraud in state history. And heavily Democrat King County has been a regular source of corrupt shenanigans from disenfranchising military ballots, to disenfranchising voters in Republican leaning districts, to “finding” hundreds of previously uncounted and in some cases unsecured ballots to steal the gubernatorial race from Dino Rossi after he won the first two counts.)
New York:
- New York Democrats under investigation for “massive voter fraud scheme“.
- Democrat Charles Schumer “outraged” that 50,000 military voters won’t get ballots in time to be counted.
Michigan:
- Michigan Democrats behind phony “tea party” candidate.
Texas:
- Accusations of registration fraud in heavily Democrat leaning Houston.
- Suspicious fire destroys voting machines in county accused of vote fraud.
Kentucky:
- FBI investigating charges of voter fraud in Breathhitt County.
Illinois:
- Democrat-dominated state board of elections caught lying about failure to send out military ballots.
- Hundreds of thousands of Illinois voters may be disenfranchised.
Ohio:
- Cincinnati students bussed to vote and given Democrat ballots only.
Pennsylvania:
- Democrat Congressman accused of voter registration fraud scheme.
- Democrats back third party to siphon votes from Republicans.
North Carolina:
- Voters report machines turning Republican votes into Democrat votes.
California:
- Democrats backing third party campaigns to siphon votes from Republicans.
New Jersey:
- Union official confesses to past voter fraud scheme on video.
Missouri:
- Democrat Russ Carnahan funneled money through seance group to pay for smear campaign against opponent.
Update: Pajamas Media has started a Vote Fraud Watch with a primer by an election law expert on what to watch for.
Filed under: Democrat Corruption, Economy, Health Care | Tags: Democrat lies, Health Insurance Rate Hikes, Obamacare
In California, state regulators have allowed Anthem Blue Cross to move ahead with rate hikes, which average 14%. Blue Shield of California is allowed by regulators to move ahead with rate increases — averaging 19% and as high as 29% — for 250,000 individual California policyholders. Anthem’s original plan was to increase premiums as much as 39%, but they got a lot of criticism from consumers regulators and even President Obama. A consultant found math errors.
Here in Washington State, we just got notification of a 16% rate hike. Welcome to ObamaCare. Eventually government insurance will begin to look cheap — but that was the plan all along. They promised that ObamaCare would save money, their ideas would make health care more efficient, everyone would be insured, preventative care would save money, computerizing health care would save money. All lies. All Lies. All Lies.
[ed: slightly altered headline ‘cus we like this one better]
Filed under: Democrat Corruption, Military, National Security, News, Politics, Progressivism | Tags: Afghanistan, Democrat lies, General Petraeus, President Bush
Democrats unanimously confirm the four-star General they previously accused of lying about the Surge and referred to as General “Betray Us.”
How anyone who votes Democrat can even face themselves in the mirror is utterly beyond me.
Filed under: Democrat Corruption, Junk Science, News, Politics | Tags: Democrat lies, Obama
…one space-heater with a feather-duster taped to it at a time:
The federal government has been slapping “energy-efficient” ratings on products that don’t even exist — including a bogus space heater with a duster stuck to it and an alarm clock supposedly powered by gasoline.
These fake products were submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy for approval as part of an undercover investigation by the Government Accountability Office.
The office wanted to see how easily the feds could be duped, since the Energy Star program used to identify products as energy savers serves as a guide to businesses looking for such modern marvels and the basis for millions of dollars in incentivizing tax credits — including $300 million from the stimulus.
The products fooled the federal government three out of four times. Of the 20 products submitted for approval, 15 were given the thumbs up. GAO reported that the federal government generally did not ask for critical evidence to back up its claims about how energy-efficient — or real — its bogus products were. [read more]
It turns out that when Democrats talk about “restoring science to its rightful place,” they mean corrupting it and lying about it in order to grow government. Or, in other words, pretty much the same thing they do with everything else.
Filed under: Health Care, Politics, Socialism, Statism | Tags: Alexander Tytler, Benjamin Franklin, Democrat Corruption, Democrat lies, Obama, Socialism, Thomas Jefferson
Happy Dependence Day!
Mark Steyn sums up my feelings well, with far fewer expletives. Read his piece. I know many people don’t understand how destructive this bill is. Steyn’s piece is a good starting place. We can either be a nation of free independent people, or we can be a nation of welfare recipients. We cannot be both. It doesn’t work. Our founders (and others) understood what Obama and the rest of the socialists do not:
“The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.”
~ Thomas Jefferson
“When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.”
~ Benjamin Franklin
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years.
Great nations rise and fall. The people go from bondage to spiritual truth, to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence back again to bondage.”
~ Alexander Tytler
Obama and the Democrats have just lurched us towards decline. We were a very abundant, very generous nation. Democrats and Obama are using greed and selfishness to try to skip straight to dependency, Dependency on Democrats. It truly is evil.
I’ll write more when I recover my optimism. The Elephant’s Child chose today to have computer problems. She’ll hopefully be back tomorrow.
Until then, America WILL overturn or repeal this. If not because we still cherish liberty, than at least because the punishment in higher premiums, higher costs, higher taxes, less employment, less opportunity will start long before any supposed benefits.
Filed under: Capitalism, Democrat Corruption, Economy | Tags: Democrat lies, Government Motors, The Car Companies
Mitt Romney’s new book, No Apology” The Case for American Greatness apparently makes the claim that “government is calling the shots on every major decision at GM, including which plants to expand and which to close.”
According to long-time Detroit newspaperman and political cartoonist Henry Payne:
White House spokesman Matt Lehrich told the Detroit News: “While the president will continue to monitor the taxpayers’ investment in these companies, he has enough on his plate to have no interest in running them. Decisions and management are handled by the company alone.”
Payne lists the ways in which Washington isn’t running GM.:
- The Obama administration forced GM into Chapter 11 last March and rejected its first restructuring plan as inadequate.
- The Obama administration fired GM CEO Rick Wagoner.
- The Obama administration appointed new GM board chairman, Ed Whitacre.
- The Obama administration forced GM to reverse a decision to build its new small car in Asia. To satisfy UAW demands, the car will be built in Orion Township, north of Detroit.
- Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) strong-armed GM into keeping open a facility slated for closure in his district.
- Congress has balked at GM’s dealer streamlining plans, passing a law requiring dealer arbitration.
- And just today, the Obama administration GM announced that it would discontinue the gas-hungry Hummer.
Makes sense to me. Once again, Obama’s ideology trumps the facts. He believes firmly that oil and gas are dirty and evil, that “clean green” policies will save the planet, in spite of all evidence to the contrary. Or perhaps it is just payback for the environmental organizations that supported his campaign. The Chicago Boys are very big on paying back your supporters. It’s called “crony capitalism.” Used to be called “graft.”
Filed under: Health Care, News, Politics | Tags: Democrat lies, Obama, Obamacare, Scott Brown
[click image to watch]
Before yesterday’s election, when Obama was trying to scare up votes for Martha Coakley’s floundering campaign, he warned Democrats this election was a referendum on him and his agenda. Now that even liberal Massachusetts has rejected his agenda, Obama says Brown won because people are angry with…I kid you not… President Bush…
The same thing that swept Scott Brown into office swept me into office; people are angry and they’re frustrated; not just because of what’s happened in the last year or two years, but what’s happened over the last eight years.
The president is a child.
(h/t Hot Air)
Filed under: Capitalism, Economy, Freedom, Statism | Tags: Anti-Business Mindset, Democrat lies, Progressivism
From the Wall Street Journal”s “Notable and Quotable” column.
Heather MacDonald writing at secularright.org, Dec. 26:
The anti-business mindset . . . is worthy of a pampered adolescent who is searching for a cause with which to display his unique moral sensibility. It is not worthy of an adult who should be able to use his imagination, if not actual experience, to appreciate the extraordinary human effort that has gone into creating the delightful tools that we daily take for granted. On my desk sit various humble objects—a tiny clock, a stapler, a paper clip box, a Lucite cook book stand for holding up drafts and other papers while I type. Each object represents a fractal geometry of complexity, composed as it is of parts that themselves require enterprise to manufacture, assemble, and deliver, all born along on waves of energy and infrastructure to which yet another set of entrepreneurs contributed. The fact that all of those distributors and manufacturers tried to make a profit does not detract from the fact that they offered goods which enhance our lives. . . .
It is the ingratitude that kills me the most among anti-business types. The materials that furnish a single room in an American home required daring, perseverance, and organizational skill from millions of individuals over generations. I hope they all got filthy rich.
Filed under: Domestic Policy, Economy, Health Care, Taxes | Tags: Congress, Democrat Demagogues, Democrat lies, Health Care Reform
The California Health and Human Services Agency is ending mammogram subsidies for low-income women under age 50. Under the old rules, women unable to pay could get a subsidy for annual breast-cancer screening beginning at age 40.
The decision by the State of California, which takes effect Jan. 1, follows a federal task force recommendation last month that mammograms before the age of 50 are not generally needed. As Carly Fiorina notes, the task force does not include any oncologists or radiologists, but simply a bunch of bureaucrats.
HHS Secretary Sibelius, noting the outcry, hastened to say that the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force recommendations were not regulation, and they really didn’t have any say.
California public health linked the change to the Task Force advisory and also to California’s budget woes.
Breast cancer is a high-profile disease. Most women know someone who has died of breast cancer. The only appeal from a government decision is strong opposition. Congress takes note of opposition if it is loud enough. But many diseases and conditions are not high-profile, and cost a lot, and under ObamaCare the guidance will not come from your doctor, but from statistics gathered by bureaucrats to see what is cost-effective.
Democrats claim that they will increase preventive care to control costs. Studies show that preventive care will not control costs, but increase them. Democrats don’t know anything whatsoever about controlling costs, or budgeting. The current health-care bill clearly demonstrates this.
American medicine has always been about saving lives. Democrat health-care reform is, first of all, about control. To get that control, they have divided the electorate into groups to whom they promise favors. Planned Parenthood and feminists demand paid abortions; members of the Democrat caucus opposed to abortion, demand no paid abortions or they will vote against the bill. Trial lawyers are second only to labor unions as Democrat donors. No tort reform, and extra goodies for the unions. Pleasing everyone means very high costs. Democrat health-care reform becomes about saving money, and saving money becomes about rationing, because the costs are going to be very high, and rationing is all that’s left.
Republican health-care reform is about individuals, not groups. They look at where the real problems are in our current health care, and advocate solving the problems before attempting drastic reform. Doctors freely admit that they practice defensive medicine, ordering more tests than necessary just to be on the safe side for fear of lawsuits. and nobody really knows how much this costs, but it’s a lot.
Insurance costs differ widely in different states because of requirements imposed by insurance commissioners and legislatures. Opening competition to insurance companies across state lines would bring costs down sharply. Competition always does. Bringing the cost of health insurance policies down will make health-care affordable for far more people. Republicans have all sorts of good ideas. Correcting the things that are wrong first seems far more sensible than trying to rearrange a big chunk of the economy, with no idea whether any part of it will work at all.
American Elephants 