The Grinch Who Stole Liberty

Oh my gosh. Seriously. My oldest kids are home from college, my house if full children ages 12-22. I'm shopping, cleaning, cooking, wrapping, and going to Christmas parties. I don't have time to blog. But here I am because this is so important.

The Democrats are trying to rush this health care bill through when everyone is busy just like I am. It's a travesty. The ironic thing about is that BOTH the left and right are against this health care bill (although for very different reasons). But no matter, Dem Majority leader Harry Reid is determined to shove this down our throats. Senators are still reading the bill, and yet they are going to be forced to vote on it within two days. This process is a travesty. They are voting on a bill they have not even read through about something that affects every person in America’s quality of life. All small businesses will be affected with taxes and mandates. It’s going to cut Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements to hospitals. This bill won't even take affect until 2014 (except for the taxes of course). There is NO reason to rush this before Christmas. 61% of Americans are against this. Just about everyone (excepts Democrats in Congress) wants to start over. It boggles the mind.

Even though Reid has payed off Democrat Senator Nelson from Nebraska big time for his vote, who was against the abortion part of the bill, the abortion language is still egregious (I believe this is what's called selling your soul to the devil). It would be the first time since 1977 that there would be federal funding for elective abortions. The Catholic Bishops have come out and said that this bill in it's present form is "morally unacceptable."


One Senator is saying that the bill sets up a constitutional challenge:

Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) asserted that the compromise on abortion contained within the bill, which would seek to segregate federal funds from subsidizing health plans covering abortion, is unconstitutional.

Harry Reid can be the Grinch who stole liberty in Health Care this Christmas, but this is far from over. The American people aren't going to stand for it this time.

That, I can promise you.

Climate Change Summit Update

For those of you interested or keeping up, Copenhagen's Climate Change Summit has been a disaster. India and China had had enough. Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh and China premier Wen Jiabao walked out of the summit along with their respective delegations as talks failed. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev left the deadlocked UN climate summit today because of another scheduled event. Obama's badly given speech didn't impress anyone (click the link to see how pathetic Obama is without a teleprompter).

A multilateral meeting between President Obama, Premier Wen, Prime Minister Singh, and President Zuma secured "a meaningful agreement". It's said to not be "sufficient to combat the threat of climate change but its an important first step." It's a "legally non-binding" agreement to do all sorts of climate change stuff, but pretty much means no one HAS to do anything.

All in all, a very good day for those of us who find the global warming alarmists silly at best, and dangerous at worst.

And once again Mother Nature laughs and laughs as over a foot of snow is expected to greet Obama as he flies from this global warming crisis back to Washington D.C.

Global Warming and Blizzards

It's just too funny.

World leaders flying into Copenhagen today to discuss a solution to global warming will first face freezing weather as a blizzard dumped 10 centimeters (4 inches) of snow on the Danish capital overnight.

“Temperatures will stay low at least the next three days,” Henning Gisseloe, an official at Denmark’s Meteorological Institute, said today by telephone, forecasting more snow in coming days. “There’s a good chance of a white Christmas.”
...

Denmark has a maritime climate and milder winters than its Scandinavian neighbors. It hasn’t had a white Christmas for 14 years, under the DMI’s definition, and only had seven last century. Temperatures today fell as low as minus 4 Celsius (25 Fahrenheit).

via Ace (bloombergnews)

This does seem to happen to Gore a lot. I think Mother Nature is yanking his chain.

Death Panels. Yeah, I said it....

Republican Sen. Tom Coburn recently suggested that seniors will die sooner if Congress passes the medicare cuts in the health care bill. He has gotten all kinds of grief about that from the left, but I think they may have forgotten that Coburn was a practicing physician for 25 years. I think he knows how Doctors see things. He explains in a piece at the WSJ today (emphasis mine):

Doctors respond to government coercion instead of patient cues, and patients die prematurely. Even if the public option is eliminated from the bill, these onerous rationing provisions will remain intact.

For instance, the Reid bill (in sections 3403 and 2021) explicitly empowers Medicare to deny treatment based on cost. An Independent Medicare Advisory Board created by the bill—composed of permanent, unelected and, therefore, unaccountable members—will greatly expand the rationing practices that already occur in the program. Medicare, for example, has limited cancer patients' access to Epogen, a costly but vital drug that stimulates red blood cell production. It has limited the use of virtual, and safer, colonoscopies due to cost concerns. And Medicare refuses medical claims at twice the rate of the largest private insurers.

Let's see... an independent Medicare Advisory Board that decides rationing practices. Gosh, that sounds like a...(dare I say it?)..a death panel. Sure it's hyperbolic, but it's certainly true. This panel will limit access to certain procedures and/or drugs based on such things as cost concerns, and some seniors will die sooner. Sarah Palin was right, and any honest person looking at that part of the bill would admit that she was indeed.

But this "death panel" won't just affect seniors. We are all at risk. Coburn points out that the health care bill explicitly states that health insurance plans "shall provide coverage for" services approved by the U.S Preventive Services Task Force. You may have heard of them lately. They are the ones responsible for advising women under 50 not to have mammograms. So in a world where this health bill is implemented and those guidelines for mammograms accepted for example, health insurance plans wouldn't cover mammograms for women under 50. That saves money for them for sure, but who do you think would die sooner there? By the task force's own numbers, 47,000 women under 50 could die under these guidelines.

Death panel indeed.

Read Coburn's piece. He has much more on the tragic consequences of the government run Medicaid as well.

But this part struck me. In the bill there is a penalty of $750 if you do not buy insurance. As Coburn points out, how long until savvy consumers realize that it's much cheaper to pay the penalty than the $5,000 in annual premiums when they know that coverage can't be denied if they get sick? Not long.

These are just a few of the things horribly wrong with this bill. It's time to start over. It's time to do this right. The Democrats are trying to rush this through for their own political agenda, and that is just wrong. All of us want to fix things in health care. There is agreement on many many things, but the Democrats are shutting out the Republicans and the American people on this.

We aren't happy. If this passes, I don't think you will see the usual resignation of defeat from the American people. This is different. We are done being railroaded. We are done being ignored. There will be the largest non violent protest since the days of civil rights.

You just wait and see.

Tiger and Obama

Well, you knew the comparison was bound to happen. Tiger and Pres. Obama. But who would have guessed it would come from a liberal at the Huffington Post?

In the past few weeks, the two most famous and arguably most successful black men in America have taken a huge fall. It has become clear that both pro golfer Tiger Woods, just named Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press, and the American president, Barack Obama, the first black person to lead the country, suffer from a surfeit of hubris which has finally caught up with them. If both men somehow thought they were untouchable, they have been put to right. Both have crashed to earth and it may well be true that they can never recover their earlier status again.

Let me ask a real simple question. What in the world does having hubris or crashing to earth have to do with both men being black?

Oh, maybe she answers it here:

It is tragic when an icon falls. When a black icon stumbles the tragedy seems doubly problematic.

Really? Doubly problematic? And why would that be? Good grief. The implication here is that since most black men can't even dream of doing what these two have done by achieving so much while being black, that it makes it ever the more tragic. Gee, Obama and Tiger, you are letting the entire black race down here.

How ridiculous. Neither Tiger or Obama would be any different, acted any differently, governed any differently, played any differently, had they been white. This has NOTHING to do with color. Sure, both are historical, but they aren't the sole identifiers for black people. They are not defined by their color. Neither of them have ever made a big deal out of their color. They are proud of their heritage, sure. But Tiger was about golf, and Obama was about politics. They rose from the ranks because they were good. Both were as talented as they come. Obama can give a speech like no other, and Tiger can hit a golf ball like no other.

Now, they both are proving they are human. They are proving that they aren't perfect. But what they do or don't do has nothing, and I mean nothing, to do with the color of their skin.

Tiger is a promiscuous rat. Selfish at best, a pervert at worst. Never once thinking of his wife or children as he went after what he wanted. Obama is a liberal disappointing liberals. He is finding it much harder to lead than it was to campaign. But again, what has any of that got to do with color?

Hey, if a liberal or anyone else wants to rant and be critical of Tiger or Pres. Obama, be my guest. I don't have much use for either one. Both of them go against my beliefs, my politics, my faith, and my values. But lets keep the criticism on those issues. Let's look at these men for what they believe and what they do, not as some icon for blacks.

I'm not one for icons, no matter what kind. I'm of the "believe in yourself" crowd. Does having Tiger as the best golfer in the world and Obama as the President inspire black kids? Sure, as well it should. But that is just a small part of who they are and what they represent. If they fall, it doesn't say one thing about the black community. It only says something about them themselves. They don't speak for all. They speak for themselves.

Smart Girl Nation!! (bumped!)

Check out my new radio show on RFCradio.com with my co-host Smart Girl Politics chicks Teri Christophe and Molly Teichman! Listen every Tuesday 9pm eastern, 8pm central! Hear our first two shows in podcast at site!

Code Red!

From SmartGirlPolitics:

Can't be in DC for today's Code Red rally at the Senate? No problem, you can still participate. Please call or visit the district offices of your Senators and tell them to kill this bill. If you have some time to make a few extra calls, please contact these moderate Democrats and let them know that the country is counting on them to vote against this disastrous legislation:

Byron Dorgan (D-ND) 202-224-2551
Kent Conrad (D-ND) 202-224-2043
Jim Webb (D-VA) 202-224-4024
Ben Nelson (D-NE) 202-224-6551
Joe Lieberman (I-CT) 202-224-4041
Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) 202-224-4843
Mary Landrieu (D-LA) 202-224-5824

Code Red twitpic here.

Today Is The Day

We are at a tipping point. I think today we will know if this boondoggle of a healthcare bill will pass or not. We Republicans have never been a part of this. The Democrats like to pretend that Republicans were holding things up, but it was always the reasonable people in their own party.

Yesterday they gave in to Sen. Joe Lieberman's demand to take out the buy in to medicare starting at age 55. The public option is dead, thank God (I do imagine it as a zombie, coming back to eat us later though). I imagine they will give in to Sen. Nelson's demand to take out any funding of abortion. All they care about now is passing something, anything. What's important now is to be able to say they did it. They can say they finally passed "comprehensive healthcare reform," which will cost nearly $1 trillion over a decade. We still have the tax hikes and Medicare cuts in the bill, but no matter. They will jaw for weeks about how historic and important it is. Never mind that the majority of the American people are against it. That doesn't matter to the Democrats, because they have always believed that they know best. They believe they know what the American people need more than the American people know themselves. At the very core of the Democrats's belief system is their certainty that the American people are ignorant. They will never say it of course, but they feel it is their duty to provide for the masses, who can't be trusted to make decisions for themselves. In an astounding display of denial yesterday, Majority Leader Harry Reid declared, "Democrats aren't going to let the American people down." Ummm...Harry? If you pass this you will let 61% of us down. You just don't get that, do you?

We all know that once a government program begins, it never ever ends. Ever. So, if this passes, it will just be the beginning. It will forever be tweaked, added to, enlarged, and petted until it grows into the blob that is most government programs. Ezra Klein at the WaPO says it plainly enough here:

"With $900 billion in subsidies already in place, it's easier to add another hundred billion later, if we need it, than it would be to pass $1 trillion in subsidies in 2011. With the exchanges built and private insurers unable to hold down costs, it's easier to argue for adding a strong public option to the market than it was before..."


Don't think we are taking this laying down. As Michelle Malkin reports, the Tea Party activists are turning up the heat today in Washington for the Code Red Rally on Capitol Hill. Laur Ingraham is hosting. Speakers include Sen. Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-Okla.) and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.). The Tea Party activists here in Houston sent us a special deal to fly to D.C. today and return tonight. I have never seen anything like it before. So if you are in the area, PLEASE join them at 1:30 pm, Upper Senate Park, on Constitution Ave. between New Jersey and Delaware St. NE. More info here and here.

In all probability we will know which way it goes after the Senate Democrats meet at 5:30 p.m. If Reid comes out saying he's going to file cloture, we are done. If it falls apart, it falls apart there.

This is how bad Cuba is....

Ever wondered what it must be like to live in Cuba? You know, that socialist/hollywood dream of healthcare for everyone?

This is how bad it is:

...the national soccer team of Eritrea went to Kenya to play in a local tournament. Looks like they all defected.

When the team plane landed back home, it was reportedly only carrying the coach and an official.

Nairobi may not be your idea of heaven, but if you're from Eritrea, it looks real good.

The Desperate Democrats Fight Dirty on Health Care Bill

You know the healthcare fight is getting desperate on the left when they start going after the wife of the independent they see standing in their way. Oh boy.


Washington (CNN) - Sen. Joe Lieberman whose opposition to a public insurance option has drawn outrage from liberal groups for months is used to finding himself in progressive crosshairs.

Now it's his wife's turn.

Activists are setting their sights on Hadassah Lieberman, launching a celebrity-studded petition drive to convince the nation's largest breast cancer non-profit to end the Connecticut senator's wife role as a spokeswoman.

The move to pressure the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation came the same day Lieberman's husband angered Democrats by announcing that he would not support an expansion of Medicare to cover individuals under the age of 55. Organizers did not point to that decision, instead citing Hadassah Lieberman's own ties to the health care industry.

Wow. This is hardball. Lieberman refuses to vote for the healthcare bill in it's present form, and they go after his wife.

Add to that this the video and audio of Obama speaking about how to get to a single payer healthcare system, that just so happens to beReid's exact new plan, and you have Democrats scrambling. They had hoped that this kind of thing wouldn't be exposed. Clearly it is a government run plan that they want. This game we are playing right now is just a means to an end. The end being a single payer system. We don't even have to speculate or accuse. They have said it themselves. They (especially Obama) don't want you to remember past statements. And if the MSM have anything to do with it, you won't.

A new CNN poll shows 61% of Americans opposed to a dramatic new health care system, and this "new" proposal by Reid about a Medicare buy-in doesn't seem to be going anywhere even with some in his own party. On CBS's "Face The Nation" this Sunday, Sen. Nelson called the buy-in proposal "the forerunner of single-payer, the ultimate single-payer plan, maybe even more directly than the public option."

If I were Nelson, I'd make sure his wife is watching her back.

No Surprise

This shows video and audio of Obama speaking about about how to get to a single payer system in healthcare. It just so happens it's Reid's exact new plan.

via HotAir

Palin Rocks Late Night

In case you missed it. This is awesome. Leftys can say what they want about Palin, but no one can deny she has the "it' factor. She sparkles. No doubt.