.comment-link {margin-left:.6em;}
Heavy-Handed Politics

"€œGod willing, with the force of God behind it, we shall soon experience a world
without the United States and Zionism."€ -- Iran President Ahmadi-Nejad

Sunday, March 07, 2010

Brian Miller : The Health Care Bill That Just Won't Die
Just when you think that the Democrats' Health Care Bill is dead . it rises from the grave like a zombie propelled by the sheer will of liberals in Washington who think they alone know what's best for the American people. President Obama today ordered Congress to pass the Health Care Bill in the next two weeks so that it can be written into law by a strategy called "reconciliation". The promise of bipartisanship has faded. Now, the bill will pass without Republican support.

While the Democrats in the House are busy lining up their......


Thomas Sowell : Alice in Medical Care: Part IV
Some years ago, one of my favorite doctors retired. On my last visit to his office, he took some time to explain to me why he was retiring early and in good health.

Being a doctor was becoming more of a hassle as the years went by, he said, and also less fulfilling. It was becoming more of a hassle because of the increasing paperwork, and it was less fulfilling because of the way patients came to him.

He was currently being asked to Xerox lots of records from his files, in order to be reimbursed for another......


Religion of the Sword

Dr. Jack Wheeler quote:

"Moslems are not really the problem, neither Moslem terrorists nor Moslem imperialists insisting on their medieval Sharia laws.

Christendom has been fighting Islam for almost fifteen centuries. The Spaniards fought 800 years to get rid of the Moslem invaders of their Christian lands. 800 years! That's how long the Reconquista took. How long have we in America been at it - two decades?

Islam is a self-identified religion of the sword. It cannot be anything else but. "Islam" is an Arabic word. It means submission. Moslems claim this means submit to Allah. What it really means is submit to them or die. Just the same as it was for the Communists of the Soviet Union.

Thus there can be no peace between Jihadi or Sharia Moslems and us, anymore than there could be with Soviet Communists. "Peace" for us means the absence of violence. "Peace" for Jihadis and Communists means the absence of disobedience. So there can be no peace, there can only be victory or submission."

New York's "enormous cigarette smuggling problem."

Dr. Jack Wheeler writes:

"Richard Rahn this week discusses the economics of raising cigarette taxes in New York, and parenthetically mentions New York's "enormous cigarette smuggling problem."

One thing I learned while in the Middle East is that our military intel guys there believe that much of the cigarette smuggling operation on the US East Coast is run by Moslems working for Al Qaeda.

Someone needs to tell New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg his cigarette taxes are resulting in scores of millions of dollars funding Al Qaeda terrorism. Someone needs to tell the DHS lady, Janet Napolitano, to do something about this. You wonder why nobody has. Or maybe they just don't care to listen."

Thursday, March 04, 2010

Massive fraud crackdown goes nowhere

By William Campbell Douglass II, M.D.

"I hope you've got a little extra in the piggy bank -- because ObamaCare is going to need a lot more help.

Don't want to pay? Tough. Don't have the money? Too bad. The key word here is sacrifice -- and you're playing the part of the lamb while the Washington party rolls on.

The little Bolsheviks behind ObamaCare claim one of the ways they'll pay for their socialist medicine scheme is through cost savings...like eliminating the $60 billion lost each year to Medicare fraud.

There's just one problem: We've either got the world's smartest crooks, or the Keystone Kops have been placed in charge of catching them.

Two years into a major crackdown on Medicare freeloaders, fraudsters and other crooks...and we've got practically nothing to show for it. Medicare fraud prosecutions were up just 2 percent last year.

That's it -- 2 percent.

Since this crackdown began under President Bush in 2007, it's proof that failure is truly a bipartisan effort. That's two different administrations who've tried -- and failed -- to rein in Medicare fraud.

And as a taxpayer, you're getting the bill three times over. The first bill is for those $60 billion in fraudulent claims paid each year. The second bill is to pay for all those Kops, investigators and prosecutors who aren't cracking down on it (I'm sure they're enjoying those nice offices in Miami, though). And the third bill will come due with ObamaCare -- when you'll be forced to pony up extra bucks because the savings never materialized.

I've done the math. For many Americans, their monthly ObamaCare bills will be the biggest cost in their household -- even more expensive than mortgage payments, and that's if you believe the numbers they're throwing around right now.

Trust me, it'll be more -- a lot more.

Remove those imaginary savings from the equation, and when the real bill comes due, no health-care system in the world will be able to ease the pain.

They can't seem to find the freeloaders and fraudsters -- but they'll sure as heck find you. And then, Obama's call for change will turn into cries of, "Buddy, can you spare some change?"

That's not the only trouble Big Brother's brewing for you... keep reading to find out how they're tracking your babies.

Baby DNA kept on file...forever

Big Brother is watching you...and he's keeping an even closer eye on your baby.

Docs routinely turn every delivery room into a CSI scene by scraping up baby DNA and sending it out for government- mandated tests without the parents' consent or knowledge.

Welcome to the Brave New World, kid -- where your future has already been written.

Think I'm exaggerating? They're already using that DNA to screen the poor thing for diseases, then sharing the results with your insurance company. These tests usually don't even reveal what the kid has -- just what he has the potential to have.

But you know insurance companies. They're always on the lookout for preexisting conditions.

Those samples are also shared with researchers. Again, don't expect to find a permission slip in the mail.

But that's not even close to the worst of it, because a recent report on CNN shows that at least nine states -- including Florida, California and Michigan -- keep those DNA samples indefinitely.

The rest store them for periods of time ranging from a few months to a few decades -- but the genie's out of this beaker. Once they have that sample, they can do whatever they want with it...for as long as they want.

If they find a disease risk, they can drug you up regardless of whether you actually have the condition. If employers get access to that data, they'll hire and fire based on what they know about your DNA. Maybe someday they'll find a criminal gene...so they can arrest you before you've committed a crime.

I know some of you are saying, "But they'd never do that!"

Hold your outrage and go get your Social Security card. Take a good look at those numbers. You probably have them memorized.

Why?

When they were created in 1935, those numbers were never meant to be used for personal identification. Now just look at this monster they've created. All you need is a name and those nine digits and you can peek into anyone's life...or ruin it.

But those are just numbers. Think of how much more they could do with your DNA.

If you're not scared yet, you should be.

Keeping watch over Big Brother.

Our Greecey Future

Only immediate, drastic action can keep us from a Greek-style meltdown.

By Dan Kennedy
Business & Media Institute

On Feb. 24, ABC News announced it was cutting 300 jobs. Too bad Congress and the President refuse to join in recognizing reality.


Networks Ignore New Request for $15 Billion Bailout for Fannie Mae

Mortgage-backer has bled taxpayers for more than $75 billion, but is rarely criticized by the news media

By Julia A. Seymour

Business & Media Institute

A business partly responsible for the economic downturn requested another $15.3 billion bailout last week.

It wasn’t one of the news media’s usual suspects, like the banks or insurance giant AIG – the ones they have repeatedly scorned and scrutinized for needing bailouts. It was government favorite and Democratic donor Fannie Mae, the Federal National Mortgage Association, created as a public-private hybrid in 1938 but taken over by the federal government in Sept. 2008.


DUMB AND DUMBER

"Why does Barack Hussein Obama hate insurance companies? He explained why he was traumatized by one of them at the recent "Healthcare Summit." He had to buy auto insurance for a "beat up old car" when he got out of college. When he got rear-ended, he called up the insurance company to get his car repaired, and "they laughed at me."

He's hated them ever since. Especially now, when they won't cooperate with his ObamaCare program. For, as he put it, "it's one thing if you've got a beat up old car that you can't get fixed. It's another thing if your kid is sick or you've got breast cancer."

25 years ago, college-graduate Obama didn't understand - just as President Obama still doesn't understand today - the difference between liability insurance, required by law to protect other drivers from injuries or damage you may cause, and collision insurance to protect you and your car (and which he had not purchased).

So of course the insurance agent he called laughed at him. After laughing at him ourselves, we need to ask, Just how dumb is this guy?" -- Jack Kelly, columnist

Failure to admit that raising taxes reduces tax receipts is irresponsible

Fraudulent tax revenue forecasts - Washington Times
By Richard W. Rahn

If New York City decided to increase its cigarette tax by another $5 per pack, would it gain more or less revenue from the extra tax?

Before you answer the question, you should......


Betraying freedom in Latin America - NYPOST.com
By Ralph Peters
I was wrong. For years, I've argued that our government should pay more attention to South America. Now Hillary Clinton has -- and, boy, is it ugly.


ANOTHER DEM CALLING IT QUITS

Delahunt will not seek reelection - Boston.com
By Susan Milligan, Globe Staff
WASHINGTON -- Representative William Delahunt will not seek re-election to Congress, the seven-term Democrat will announce tomorrow, ending a nearly 40-year career in elected office and giving Republicans hope of capturing the seat, which stretches from Cape Cod to the South Shore.


Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Charles Rangel to quit key tax post - (1450 WHTC)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The embattled chairman of the tax-writing House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, Charles Rangel, said on Wednesday he will step aside temporarily as chairman after being admonished by a House ethic panel.


Monday, March 01, 2010

Al-Qaida growing in strength and numbers in Africa
WASHINGTON (AP) - Al-Qaida's terror network in North Africa is growing more active and attracting new recruits, threatening to further destabilize the continent's already vulnerable Sahara region, according to U.S. defense and counterterrorism officials.


Soros swoops in, takes another bank

Accusations of favoritism swirl in deals for institutions seized by government
By Aaron Klein
WorldNetDaily

A company formed by an investor group that includes billionaire George Soros swooped in to purchase a failed California bank in the latest acquisition by the company, despite controversy surrounding some of its previous bank takeovers.


Fannie Mae's election-year loss duty.

Fannie Mae's $126.9 Billion Loss, and Counting
It was another impressive three months at Fannie Mae, as Uncle Sam's mortgage finance company reported a fourth quarter loss of $16.3 billion. That wasn't quite as strong as the third quarter loss of $19.8 billion, but give Fannie's managers credit for trying.



American reliance on government at all-time high
The so-called "Great Recession" has left Americans depending on the government dole like never before.



Chinese spy buy caught on surveillance video
FBI surveillance video made public Sunday reveals details of a Chinese espionage operation to obtain secrets from the Pentagon through a group of Americans who spied for China.



No finish in sight for 'virtual' border fence
A multibillion-dollar "virtual fence" along the southwestern border promised for completion in 2009 to protect the U.S. from terrorists, violent drug smugglers and a flood of illegal immigrants is a long way from becoming a reality, with government officials unable to say when, how or whether it will ever be completed.



COMMENTARY

Congress Tries to Break Hawaii in Two
BY GAIL HERIOT AND PETER KIRSANOW

A racial spoils precedent that could lead to new 'tribal' demands across the U.S.

ON CULTURE

"Personal responsibility is a real problem for those who want to collectivize society and take away our power to make our own decisions, transferring that power to third parties like themselves, who imagine themselves to be so much wiser and nobler than the rest of us. Aimless apologies are just one of the incidental symptoms of an increasing loss of a sense of personal responsibility -- without which a whole society is in jeopardy. The police cannot possibly maintain law and order by themselves. Millions of people can monitor their own behavior better than any third parties can. Cops can cope with that segment of society who have no sense of personal responsibility, but not if that segment becomes a large part of the whole population. Yet increasing numbers of educators and the intelligentsia seem to have devoted themselves to undermining or destroying a sense of personal responsibility and making 'society' responsible instead." --economist Thomas Sowell

Faith & Family

"One of the major differences between the right and the left concerns the question of authority: To whom do we owe obedience and who is the ultimate moral authority? For the right, the primary moral authority is God (or, for secular conservatives, Judeo-Christian values), followed by parents. Of course, government must also play a role, but it is ultimately accountable to God and it should do nothing to undermine parental authority. For the left, the state and its government are the supreme authorities, while parental and divine authority are seen as impediments to state authority. ... In a nutshell, the left wants to have ever-expanding authority over people's lives through ever-expanding governmental powers. It does so because it regards itself as more enlightened than others. Others are either enemies (the right) or unenlightened masses. It is elected by demonizing its enemies and doling out money and jobs to the masses." --radio talk-show host Dennis Prager

ON INDEPENDENCE

"Americans cherish their independence. One interesting aspect of the spontaneous tea party movement is the constant invocation of the Founders and the prominence of the 'Don't Tread on Me' flag. ... Americans tend to see themselves as independent doers, not dependent victims. They don't like to be told, especially by those with fancy academic pedigrees, that they are helpless and in need of government aid. That's why the politically popular American big government programs -- Social Security, Medicare, veterans' benefits, student loans -- all make a connection between effort and reward. You get a benefit because you've worked for it. In contrast, Americans have loathed and rejected big government programs with no nexus between effort and reward. Welfare was begun in the 1930s to help widows with children, whose plight, as Russell Baker's memoir 'Growing Up' showed, was often dismal. But when welfare became a mass program to subsidize mothers who didn't work and to excuse fathers from responsibility for their actions, it became wildly unpopular. Bill Clinton recognized this when he signed welfare reform in 1996. ... Barack Obama, who has chosen to live his adult life in university precincts, sees ... Americans generally as victims who need his help, people who would be better off dependent on government than on their own. Most American voters don't want to see themselves that way and resent this condescension."
--political analyst Michael Barone

"There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty, that makes human nature rise above itself, in acts of bravery and heroism." --Alexander Hamilton

Democrats Ready to Pass Health Care Reform Without Republicans
By Jim Kuhnhenn, Associated Press

Washington (AP) - The White House called for a "simple up-or-down" vote on health care legislation Sunday as Speaker Nancy Pelosi appealed to House Democrats to get behind President Barack Obama's chief domestic priority even it if threatens their political careers.



Mexican Drug Gangs Taking Over U.S. Public Lands
By Alicia A. Caldwell and Manuel Valdes, Associated Press

Sequoia National Forest, Calif. (AP) - Not far from Yosemite's waterfalls and in the middle of California's redwood forests, Mexican drug gangs are quietly commandeering U.S. public land to grow millions of marijuana plants and using smuggled immigrants to cultivate them.



Pence Says Obama Needs to Fire Catholic-Bashing Adviser

(CNSNews.com)
– Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) says the time is "long overdue" for President Barack Obama to fire Harry Knox from the White House Advisory Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships because of the "vehement anti-Catholic statements" Knox has made.

Economic Issues

PROMISES TO KEEP

Extravagant promises of pensions, health care and other benefits made to an ever-growing number of government retirees means that an enormous bill looms in the not-too-distant future for states, say observers...

THE ECONOMIST

Federal Spending & Budget Issues

STATE ABUSE OF THE MEDICAID PROGRAM

Since Medicaid is an entitlement with no statutory limit on spending, there is no limit to how much state officials can try to gain from the program, say Dr. Roger Stark, a policy analyst, and Colin Swanson, a research assistant...

WASHINGTON POLICY CENTER

Health Issues

HEALTH REFORMERS' WORST IDEA

Price controls for insurance or anything else simply won't work, says Michael F. Cannon, director of health policy studies at the Cato Institute...

PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER

THE MASSACHUSETTS "MODEL" MOVES TO PRICE CONTROLS
Massachusetts is teaching the country a valuable lesson in how not to reform health care, if only anyone would pay attention, say observers...

"....average Massachusetts insurance premiums are now the highest in the nation; since 2006, they've climbed at an annual rate of 30 percent in the individual market."


Federal Judge Rule Teacher has Constitutional Right to Display Patriotic Banners that Mention "God"

Thomas More Law Center - News

ANN ARBOR, MI – California Federal District Court Judge Roger T. Benitez ruled late this past Friday that the Poway Unified School District in San Diego, CA, violated math teacher Bradley Johnson’s constitutional rights when it ordered him to remove two patriotic banners from the walls of his classroom because they “over-emphasized” God.