Monday, November 30, 2009
NPR Promotes 'We Need Health Reform Now' Mural In DC; Artist Paints Opponents As Abused Little Girl
Subject: txt 1st hcare msm sclm crpt libs - bdd -
On Monday night’s All Things Considered newscast on National Public Radio, reporter Joseph Shapiro recounted the sympathetic story of Regina Holliday, who lost her 39-year-old husband Fred to kidney cancer. Holliday painted a mural in Washington demanding "We Need Health Reform Now." (It’s headlined "A Widow Paints a Health Care Protest" and it's the most popular story on Wednesday at NPR.org.)
But Shapiro’s story actually skimmed over just how passionately ideological Holliday’s mural is. She's amazed anyone could possibly be against health reform. On her blog she explained that she painted her opponents as a little girl in a red, white, and blue outfit: "I wondered 'How can you be against this?' Then I realized they were acting like people who have been abused. She is a pretty little girl with welts on her legs..."
On air, NPR stuck to the heart-tugging narrative. The politics emerged late in the story:
[Your tax dollars at work.]
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MEDICARE PLAGUED BY WASTE, FRAUD, ABUSE
Medicare does not regularly review bills for accuracy and to prevent fraud
Cost savings through reduction of waste, fraud, and abuse in the Medicare system being offered as a key funding source for health care reform currently under consideration on Capitol Hill. Ironically, eliminating this corruption would require Medicare to adopt private-sector reforms, says the Heartland Institute.
- Fraud is rampant and unchecked throughout the Medicare system, while private carriers do a much better job of preventing it.
- Private carriers spend a lot on efforts [to prevent fraud], raising their administrative expenses in the process.
Many Medicare abuses happen in the market for durable medical equipment (DME), such as wheelchairs and oxygen equipment. A draft OIG audit released in August 2008 flagged almost a third of the 2006 DME claims sampled as having been improperly reimbursed.According to a July report by the Government Accountability Office:
- Medicare paid as much as $92 million since 2000 for equipment purportedly prescribed by doctors who were dead.
- Claimants have submitted counterfeit documents, forged doctors' signatures, and filed bills on behalf of patients who were dead or had never been seen by the prescribing physician.
[The obviouse thing to do is move away from our private system and reward government with more of the business.
Its got nothing to do with health 'care'.]
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Reality Check...
Subject: txt msm 1st hcare libs -
"For two years on the campaign trail, this was what I heard from women, that they were being crushed, crushed by the current structure of our health care. Crushed."- Michelle Obama, First Lady
Source: US Dept. of Health and Human Services.
- Of 100,000 white females born alive, those still alive at age 90: 28,082.
- Of 100,000 black females born alive, those still alive at age 90: 21,627.
- Of 100,000 white males born alive, those still alive at age 90: 16,145.
- Of 100,000 black males born alive, those still alive at age 90: 10,432.
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WhiteHouse Attacks Krauthammer’s Washington Post Column Criticizing HCare Bills
Subject: txt hcare lbrty msm crpt bbro sclm -
While Krauthammer may be pleased to know someone within the White House find his column to be "cogent and well-written," it appears to be business as usual with the Obama administration taking on a media personality head-on. (CNBC's Jim Cramer and Rick Santelli, Fox News Channel's Glenn Beck and conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh are other such examples.)
Pfeiffer took umbrage with the final paragraph of Krauthammer's piece that suggested the "better choice" for health care reform should contain specific components.
"The better choice is targeted measures that attack the inefficiencies of the current system one by one -- tort reform, interstate purchasing and taxing employee benefits," Krauthammer wrote. "It would take 20 pages to write such a bill, not 2,000 -- and provide the funds to cover the uninsured without wrecking both U.S. health care and the U.S. Treasury."
Also, the rebuttal is completely mum on one of the main complaints in Krauthammer's article - the creation of massive bureaucracies in the name of this so-called health care reform.
‘The fundamental problem with the 2,074-page Senate health-care bill (as with its 2,014-page House counterpart) is that it wildly compounds the complexity by adding hundreds of new provisions, regulations, mandates, committees and other arbitrary bureaucratic inventions,""Worse, they are packed into a monstrous package without any regard to each other. The only thing linking these changes -- such as the 118 new boards, commissions and programs -- is political expediency."
Amazingly, Pfeiffer seemed to embrace such bureaucracies in his response by suggesting such commissions and programs were an essential asset to health care 'reform'...
[And they are - when viewed through the prism of all private sector efforts being inherently evil...
They think we're stupid. Time will tell.
Recommended > ]
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POLL: Most Voters Still Oppose Health Care Legislation
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The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 49% are opposed to the plan.
Intensity is still stronger among those who oppose the push to change the nation’s health care system: 25% Strongly Favor the plan while 39% are Strongly Opposed.
Since July, support has generally remained between 41% and 46%. Last week, the effort was supported by 45% of voters. Two weeks ago, it was supported by 42%.
As has been the case for months, Democrats favor the plan while Republicans and voters not affiliated with either major party are opposed. The latest numbers show support from 79% of those in the president’s party. The plan is opposed by 78% of Republicans and 61% of unaffiliated voters.
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Voter Anger Is Building Over Deficits
Subject: txt hcare mny -
After engineering an unprecedented spending surge for nearly a year, President Barack Obama now wants to signal that he takes deficits seriously.
[Today's insult. Anger won't do it - action is necessary.]
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Despite US Debt Woes, Healthcare Proposal Gathers Steam
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The $12 trillion US debt is bringing up new doubts about the price of President Barack Obama's healthcare bill, according to a recent Reuters report.
The Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan scorekeeper of federal costs, estimated that the Senate healthcare bill would come in at $849 billion.
Those who disagree with the overhaul, a huge goal for Obama, insist that those numbers reveal the bill's true costs and that the price tag is shocking overall.
The White House is responding quickly, insisting that these numbers are not skewed at all. Senior officials say that the legislation is already paid for and that suggested savings would be very beneficial...
[If we're stupid enough to allow this to happen, we deserve the consequences - but do our children?
YOU need stop it.]
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"OPPOSE GOVERNMENT-RUN HEALTH CARE -DEMAND TORT REFORM & INTERSTATE INSURANCE"
Whitehouse: mailto:president@whitehouse.gov
YOUR Senator: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
YOUR Congressman: https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml
and as always, pass it on...
contact-template
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Ashcroft: Holder lacks legal authority to order terror trials
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Attorney General Eric Holder lacks authority to make a decision on moving terror detainees to civilian courts for trial, one of his predecessors said Wednesday. Former Attorney General John Ashcroft, who held his position during the Bush administration from 2001-2005, said that Holder lacked the legal standing to decide to move alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and other terror detainees to federal courts in New York City to stand trial.
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The Reality of Middle East Anti-Semitism
Subject: txt islm israel - gwot -
"The scale and extremism of the [anti-Semitic] literature and commentary available in Arab or Muslim newspapers, journals, magazines, caricatures, on Islamist websites, on the Middle Eastern radio and TV news, in documentaries, films, and educational materials, is comparable only to that of Nazi Germany at its worst."
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Israel: Seized rockets were to kill civilians
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Jerusalem - Israel said Thursday that the arms seized in its largest-ever haul would have given Hezbollah firepower to bombard the country for a month and urged the world to focus on the threat from the Lebanese militants' chief backer.
Israeli commandos seized the ship before dawn on Wednesday and defense officials said it had been carrying missiles and rockets bound for Lebanon's Iranian-backed Hezbollah guerrillas, believed to have come from Iran.
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Obama's Mideast tutor bemoans Hamas' inability to fire more rockets into Israel
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In a front page Los Angeles Times article "Allies of Palestinians see a friend in Obama" , a going away party for Rashid Khalidi, a Palestinian academic and activist with a long-record of anti-Israel action, Barack Obama gave a special tribute to Khalidi, his friend and frequent dinner companion. [snip]
In an interview sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations, Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said professor of modern Arab studies at Columbia University, out-and-out declares it "unsatisfactory" that Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist organization, is "too weak" to have fired a rocket in almost nine months since the end of Israel's attack on Gaza in January
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Annex Judea and Samaria
Everyone knows that there is no diplomatic solution. Israel won't make further compromises to those offered and the Arabs have never compromised in a hundred years
So far Israel, has adamantly opposed abrogating the Oslo Accords, no matter what the provocation. After fifteen years of trying to negotiate a deal, perhaps its time for Israel to do so. The PA's unilateral declaration, should it happen, could be just the pretext, if a pretext is needed.
Everyone knows that there is no diplomatic solution. Israel won't make further compromises, and the Arabs have never compromised in a hundred years. As a result of such an impasse, the PA threatens a unilateral declaration, and the EU (and some in the U.S.) threaten an imposed solution. Israel also is contemplating unilateral action. What might that be?
It would involve annexing parts, if not all, of Judea and Samaria. No land would have to be conquered. Israel has already annexed Jerusalem and the Golan. The Israelis could do the same for other settlements, such as Ariel and Maaleh Adumin, and perhaps the Jordan Valley. At a minimum, it would signal that these settlements, like Jerusalem, are non-negotiable.
[Finally some one states the obvious. Recommended > ]
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POLL: Voters Continue to See Deficit Reduction as Top Priority
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While official Washington has seen many twists and turns in the legislative process this year, voter priorities have remained unchanged.
Deficit reduction has remained number one for voters ever since President Obama listed his four top budget priorities in a speech to Congress in February. Forty-two percent (42%) say cutting the deficit in half by the end of the president's first term is most important, followed by 24% who say health care reform should be the top priority.
Fifteen percent (15%) say the emphasis should be on the development of new energy sources, while 13% say the same about education. Those figures have changed little from a month ago.
While voters have consistently seen deficit cutting as the most important, they also have seen it as the goal the president is least likely to achieve. Today, 62% hold that view.
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Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and Federal Trust Funds
The Congress of the United States of America is consigning you, your children, and their progeny to slavery
Here's another way to put our debt into context (same source):
- $82M 1800
- $2.1B 1900
- $5.6T 2000
The national debt went up by a factor of 25+ in the 19th century and by a factor of 2,666+ in the 20th century. That means the national debt rose 106+ times faster in the 20th century than in the 19th century. I'm beginning to see a pattern here: When we go forward in time, the debt curve gets even steeper... [snip]
The word is "unsustainable."
The federal government cannot continue on its course of insane spending much longer. Soon, Congress will be forced to consider spending cuts. But what will Congress cut? We've already seen what the current regime thinks of corporate bonds (a form of debt) in its treatment of Chrysler bondholders. Contracts no longer mean what they used to. Nor does private property. Nor does the Constitution. So will Congress discriminate between foreign and domestic owners of U.S. treasuries? When commercial banks fail, will Congress allow the FDIC to renege on insured bank accounts? Or will Congress at long last make adjustments to entitlements?
Or will Congress tax the bejesus out of you? That's where that business about you being a slave comes in. Steyn again:
Joe Schmoe's credit card debt is as nothing compared to what the government's signed him up for: USA Today recently calculated that the average American household is on the hook for $546,668 in federal debt -- i.e., not including state and municipal. The Atlantic crunched the numbers further and reckoned that, to pay off the federal/personal debt over half a century at three per cent, the average household would have to write an annual cheque for $25,971.
Rather than putting the breaks on spending, Congress is hitting the accelerator with the "mother of all entitlements": government-run health care. Instead of backing away from the abyss, Congress is joining hands and jumping in.
And Congress expects us to join hands and follow them...
[It's happening right now. What are you doing about it?]
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China says no emissions checks without foreign funds
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BEIJING (Reuters) - A top Chinese climate envoy said Friday only emissions curbs carried out under its newly announced carbon intensity targets that have international financial support will be considered...
[I.e., again we pay.]
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Whistleblower: IEA Oil Forecast Is Bunk
Subject: txt engry -
Demand for energy will increase by 40 percent between now and 2030, yet an insider at the International Energy Association (IEA) warns that there just isn’t enough oil in the world to supply that need.
Presuming alternative energy sources aren’t easily developed or fall short of projections, and new oil production falters, much higher prices are inevitable, as experts including T. Boone Pickens have warned.
Pickens has repeatedly said that $300-a-barrel oil is in our future.
According to the agency’s just-released World Energy Outlook 2009, global oil consumption over the next five years will grow to just 88 million barrels a day, well below the 94 million barrels a day the agency forecast a year ago for total demand in 2015.
The energy watchdog’s figures are overly optimistic, according to a whistleblower within the agency, who describes IEA estimates of remaining oil supplies as more fiction than fact.
"Many inside the organization believe that maintaining oil supplies at even 90 million to 95 million barrels a day would be impossible but there are fears that panic could spread on the financial markets if the figures were brought down further,” the source told the UK Guardian.
The agency says a new global deal to limit carbon emissions could sharply curtail the growth in oil consumption in the years ahead as alternative energy resources and efficiency measures are tapped, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The report concludes that global agreement to reduce greenhouse gases could help restrain future crude oil price rises.
To do so, the global economy will need to invest $10.5 trillion in low-carbon energy technologies and energy efficiency to combat projected oil production declines, says the agency...
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Reality Check...
Subject: txt engry msm bias hstry othr =
"The oil and natural gas that we rely on for 75 percent of our energy are simply running out. In spite of increased effort, domestic production has been dropping steadily at about 6 percent a year. Imports have doubled in the last 5 years. Our Nation's economic and political independence is becoming increasingly vulnerable. Unless profound changes are made to lower oil consumption, we now believe that early in the 1980's the world will be demanding more oil than it can produce."President Jimmy Carter, 1977.
Source: Human Events, based on Congressional Research Service report.
Total fossil fuels (oil, coal, natural gas) reserves of the US, in Barrels of Oil Equivalent: 1,321.3 billion BOE.
US consumption of fossil fuels in 2008: 14.8 billion BOE.
Source: Congressional Research Service.
[The history of energy is one of ever expanding availability above demand - if we'd only go get it.]
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Isn't it a Little Racist to Call it Black Friday?'
There's nothing like tuning into an episode of "The View" for a little exploration of social sensitivities in the modern American culture.
[The race industry: too big to fail, despite the election of a black {may I call him that?} PRESIDENT.]
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As More Carry Guns, State Makes It Easier
Whether it's a fear of increased gun control or a perceived rise in crime, the numbers show more people than ever are buying guns and getting permits to carry them. At least one area sheriff tells Channel 4's Rob Sweeting that is a good thing.
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Winston Churchill and Senator Landrieu
[HT:DH]
Reports that Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu sold her vote to bring the Senate health scare bill to the floor for $300 million are reminiscent of an apocryphal tale told of Winston Churchill and Lady Astor.
"Would you sleep with me for a million dollars," Churchill asks.
"A million dollars?" says Lady Astor. "Why, sure."
"How about a dollar?"
"Why I never," Lady Astor huffs. "What do you take me for?"
"That, my dear," says Sir Winston, "has been established. We are just negotiating price."
Senator Landrieu's honor has been established. Obama, Reid and Pelosi just had to haggle over the price.
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