Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Right must learn to tell great stories

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“Give me the making of the songs of a nation and I care not who makes its laws.”
- Andrew Fletcher, 1703.

Communicators on the Left have mastered and now continually deploy narrative - a strategic weapon far more potent than the World Wide Web (which, however, is proving an extremely efficient delivery vehicle).

Wikipedia describes narrative as, "along with exposition, argumentation and description, narration, broadly defined,...one of four rhetorical modes of discourse.”

Typically, conservatives present our case in exposition, argumentation and description. By empirical observation, these are much less potent persuaders than narrative. Consider, for example, “global warming” (note, though, that, since it has become clear that global warming is unsubstantiated by the data, proponents now call it the vaguer “climate change.”)

The global warming narrative is based entirely on junk science, with the phenomenon, its cause (if it exists) and the corrective steps unsubstantiated by data. And yet we recently saw Secretary of State Hillary Clinton apologizing to the government of India for America being the bad guy in this drama.

This apology came even though the government of India – and China - refuses to adopt the anti-growth and prosperity-throttling policies called for by proponents of this (ultimately preposterous) story.

Why is this happening? The power of narrative. A compelling narrative, artfully deployed, captures the imagination of the people...

[Recommended > ]

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Expelled From the New York Times



Then, two things happened to change and end my career at the Times. Well, maybe three.

But the two main things, as I see them, were that I started criticizing Mr. Obama quite sharply over his policies and practices. I had tried to do this before over the firing of Rick Wagoner from the Chairmanship of GM. My column had questioned whether there was a legal basis for the firing by the government, what law allowed or authorized the federal government to fire the head of what was then a private company, and just where the Obama administration thought their limits were, if anywhere.

This column was flat out nixed by my editors at the Times because in their opinion Mr. Obama inherently had such powers...

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Strong Grassroots Support For Palin’s SarahPAC

The political action committee associated with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin , SarahPAC, reported strong support from small donors in its mid-year report. SarahPAC reported $733,000 in total receipts through June 30, of which $420,000 was “unitemized” or from donors who contributed $200 or less...

[As predicted, the MSM's orchestrated opinion that Sarah's resignation was political suicide isn't selling with those who put their money where their mouths are.

Et Tu?]





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Tipping Smart cars the latest prank trend

Edmonton - Owners of pint-sized Smart cars aren't laughing about reports that vandals may be targeting the tiny vehicles in a 21st-century take on tipping cows over.

The Internet and blogosphere are abuzz with media reports that pranksters may have pushed several of the tiny vehicles into canals in Amsterdam...

[Stop laughing, it's not funny. Ok a little funny. Actually, go ahead - ]

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[I've no idea.]

Tuesday, August 18, 2009


image toon - 1st hcare = Government hcare = DMV

I Don't Accept the Premise

I haven't read the health care bill, HR 3200. It's not because I don't care what's in it; rather, I oppose the bill because I don't accept the premise that it's needed or even constitutional. This debate is not about health care; it's about control. To let progressives frame the debate around a specific bill allows them to bypass the exposure and probable defeat of their larger agenda: government centralization and control. It's time we stop permitting progressive Trojan Horses through our nation's gates and start looking these gift horses in the mouth.

Our Constitution is very clear on a limited federal government. Providing health care and other social services on a federal level are not what our founders intended. In fact, they all spoke at great length about avoiding the tyranny of oppressively large government, emphasizing individual freedom & limitations on federal government.

This health care debate is the perfect place to make an ideological stand. We shouldn't invest ourselves entirely in a debate over the legislation, but should direct our efforts more broadly to question its intent. The health care bill must be defeated and not negotiated. Congress will offer us everything we want and more, so long as a bill for socialized health care gets signed into law. There are no sacred cows in HR 3200; the only thing that matters to progressive elites is the precedent of its passage. They will eventually, patronizingly capitulate to our demands to change the bill.

We will have been taken as fools who bought the snake oil because we won the haggle over price...

[Highly Recommended > ]

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image toon = hcare =Huge Oby care pill for taxpayers

GREAT BRITAIN: NHS IS PUTTING THE PATIENT LAST

While British health ministers have been quick to applaud the advantages of a "national" health system to fight the swine flu outbreak, the very centralized nature of the service cuts two ways, say researchers from Civitas, a British think tank.

They argue that the "customer" of the National Health Service (NHS) -- Great Britain's government-run health care model -- is the health secretary rather than the patient.

The report sees much in favor of attempting to introduce private provision within the state system and competition between NHS trusts to attract patients.

But this has been stymied by incessant interference from the Department of Health, says researchers:

  • According to health service managers, a staggering total of 69 public bodies -- excluding the Department of Health and 10 regional strategic authorities -- currently regulate, inspect or demand information from NHS organizations.
  • The nature of Great Britain's centrally funded system inevitably means that ministers are constantly intervening and setting targets because they see themselves as the taxpayers' guardian; thus, undermining the market mechanism.
Researchers conclude that the NHS has put into practice the 10 Commandments of Business Failure as drawn up by Donald Keough, past president and former CEO of Coca-Cola:

  • Among these commandments are "assume infallibility;" however its outcomes are worse than other universal health care systems and the NHS ranks low in international surveys.
  • Another commandment is "isolate yourself" -- healthcare is conducted in separate "silos," particularly regarding communication between GPs and hospitals.
  • A further commandment, "be inflexible," is met by hamstringing units with state control: staff pay is set centrally, capital expenditure is constrained, IT is a top-down program and availability of drugs, such as expensive cancer treatments, is centrally determined.
Source: "Putting Patients Last: How the NHS Keeps the Ten Commandments of Business Failure," Institute for the Study of Civil Society, August 10, 2009.

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Canada Considering Healthcare Overhaul With Private Insurance

[HT:SE]

As President Obama and his Democrat-controlled Congress try to force healthcare reform on an American population largely pleased with the current system, our neighbors to the north are actually considering improving their structure by -- wait for it!!! -- welcoming additional competition from private insurers.

Within hours of the Obama administration saying that it might consider a reform package without a government option, the Canadian Press inconveniently reported the following...

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image toon - 1st hcare = Oby's Co-Ops- Public Options steps toward single payer

Elite Meltdown

The face-off between the ruling party and the people continues to unfold...

The politicians continue to manufacture faux outrage at the American people for failing to 'understand' the nuances, the broad outline, of a 1,000 page plus bill that the politicians haven't even read.

The American people understand all too well, and the politicians false acting has been replaced by real outrage... [snip]

Peons from fly-over country are daring to challenge the carefully scripted and (deliberately?) misleading talking points. Talking points which, by the way, have been endorsed by the media. Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are using the standard liberal tactic of diverting attention from the issue by demonizing the dissenter, in this case, the American people.

According to Pelosi and Reid, voicing objections to the federal government's take over of 17% of the formerly free market economy is 'un-American.' Harry Reid has gone a step further, tarring dissenter's as 'evil mongers'. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs has blithely dismissed the burgeoning dissent by informing one and all that these 'townhalls are not representative of America.' Obama, meanwhile, is trying to divert the issue by blaming the 'headline hungry television networks', accusing them of 'enflaming an ugly backlash.', and have launched a new $12 million ad campaign [taxpayer paid] designed to soothe Americans into relying on the government instead of common sense... [snip]

The only problem is, Americans aren't buying it.

Americans have been deceived and beaten up by the government so many times lately, that, even thought they still love Obama, they're taking steps to distance themselves from what has become an increasingly dangerous relationship. Flowers, new cars, and soothing words are no longer effective. Even the race card isn't ringing their bells.

Liberals have finally succeeded in persuading Americans to look at the broad picture instead of inconvenient details.

The kicker is, as more Americans see the broad picture, they see the unprecedented devolution of power to the federal government. They see the loss of America's traditional reliance on individuals instead of government. They see the loss of personal liberty and freedom of choice.

And they don't like it...

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image toon - 1st hcare = Town Hallers have questions for witch doctors

POLL:54% Say Passing No Healthcare Reform Better Than Passing Congressional Plan

Thirty-five percent (35%) of American voters say passage of the bill currently working its way through Congress would be better than not passing any health care reform legislation this year.

However, a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that most voters (54%) say no health care reform passed by Congress this year would be the better option.

Not surprisingly, there is a huge partisan divide on this issue. Sixty percent (60%) of Democrats say passing the legislation in Congress would be the best course of action. However, 80% of Republicans take the opposite view.

Among those not affiliated with either major party, 23% would like the Congressional reform to pass while 66% would rather the legislators take no action.

Voters who earn less than $20,000 a year are evenly divided but a majority of all other voters would prefer no action. Middle income voters, those who earn from $40,000 to $75,000 a year, are most strongly in favor of taking no action.

A plurality of voters under 30 say passage of the Congressional legislation is better. A majority of adults take the opposite view.

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Malley Stumbles Upon the Truth: Peace Isn’t Possible

At Camp David, Arafat turned down an astounding offer for a Palestinian state in nearly all the West Bank, Gaza, and part of Jerusalem that was put forward by then Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak with the encouragement of President Clinton. Malley pioneered the practice of dismissing this offer as insignificant and rationalizing Arafat’s refusal to take yes for an answer, as well as his decision to answer that peace deal with a terrorist war of attrition, known as the second intifada.

Malley’s version of the Camp David debacle ran contrary to the facts, but it has gradually gained ground, especially on the Left. By discrediting the Israeli proposal and thereby absolving the Palestinians of blame for Arafat’s unwillingness to make peace, Malley helped set the stage for a decade of anti-Israel vituperation.

Malley, who was listed for a time as an unofficial adviser to the Obama presidential campaign, is at it again today in an op-ed in the New York Times... [snip]

But they do stumble upon a key truth about the entire peace process—they understand that what the Palestinians want isn’t merely sovereignty in the West Bank, Gaza, and Jerusalem. Jews want a Jewish state and are willing to let the Palestinians have their own state too in order to live in peace. The problem is that the core of Palestinian national identity is a desire not for a Palestinian state but for eradicating the Jewish one, which they view as illegitimate no matter where the borders are drawn. Agha and Malley write:

Even fewer Palestinians take issue with the categorical rebuff of [a Jewish state], as the recent Fatah congress in Bethlehem confirmed. In their eyes, to accept Israel as a Jewish state would legitimize the Zionist enterprise that brought about their tragedy. It would render the Palestinian national struggle at best meaningless, at worst criminal.

Yet instead of urging Palestinians to give up goals incompatible with peace, the authors merely say that the next step for peace processors is to go back to 1948 and revisit the issues of that era—i.e., whether there should be a Jewish state at all...

[If you've no true 'partner in peace', you're only left an adversary to be defeated.]

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Those 'other refugees' in Arab-Muslim lands

While "moderate" Fatah ended its convention with business as usual -- "Constant war against Israel," "No peace with Israel," mimicking its most "extreme" rival Hamas, and both of them moaning about the "refugees" of 61 years, the real refugees, the Jews in Arab lands living under Muslim oppression, are forced once again to run for their lives.

The latest are the tiny remnant of Jews remaining in Yemen, fleeing after continuous oppression including forcible pressures to convert to Islam led to kidnappings and murders. After the latest murder, the remaining Jews are going to Israel the Yemeni new agency Sana admits.

What Yemini news reports don't mention is, that unlike Arabs in Lebanon and other Arab lands, the fleeing Jews won't be refugees but welcomed as citizens of Israel... [snip]

But 61 years after Arabs[*], heeding their leaders' call to leave as they would soon return to a land purged of Jews, left what is now Israel, the Arabs are still refugees; their Arab/Muslim brethren refusing them citizenship.

Even Jordan, that artificial country whose population is mainly Arab/Muslim, restricts citizenship: by law, Jews cannot be citizens of and/or live in Jordan.

And no UN or human rights outcry...

[*Note: While most Arabs in Israel left to make way for the looming genocide, roughly a third didn't. They stayed and flourished - an astounding demonstration of Jewish tolerance {given the risks involved at a time of war} never reciprocated by Arabs.

**Note too: the so-called 'right of return' demanded by Arabs includes "their descendants". This is a transparent ploy to import unidentifiable Arabs, who've never lived there, into Israel and destroy it from within. The idea should be laughed at outright, but of course the UN...]


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[HT:PK]:

"The quickest way to end a war is to lose it".
- George Orwell
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The Makeup of Human Rights Watch

Who Is Human Rights Watch’s Joe Stork?

He is, of course, the author of last week’s Human Rights Watch report, which claimed that IDF soldiers murdered white-flag-waving Palestinian civilians in cold blood. He is also the deputy director of HRW’s Middle East and North Africa programs. We already knew from NGO Monitor that he has—to put it politely—a rather extremist history on all matters Israel.

But now there is a better accounting. Ben-Dror Yemini of the Israeli newspaper Ma’ariv has a blockbuster article laying out the ugly truth of Stork’s history. The Hebrew is available here; below is a complete English translation.

That HRW would place in a senior position someone who has written in explicit support of terrorism against Israel, lauded the murder of Israeli athletes at Munich in 1972 as providing “an important boost in morale among Palestinians,” and stated that “Zionism may be defeated only by fighting imperialism” should be the final verdict on a cretinous organization’s already tattered credibility...

[But it won't be. Recommended > ]

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WHAT IS THE OPTIMUM SIZE OF GOVERNMENT

The optimal size of the government is a problem that has attracted the attention of researchers for decades. Arthur Laffer illustrated that there is tax revenue maximizing tax rate, and in a similar way other authors try to identify the government share of gross domestic product which maximized the GDP growth.

The Institute of Market Economics (IME) is adding to the literature with their new study that estimates the optimum size of government, the share of government spending that maximizes economic growth.

Previous studies have tried to determine and quantify the optimum size of government, recognizing that not all governments and societies are the same, and most have shown that the optimum size is between 12 and 30 percent of GDP. However, IME finds that the government sector should be no larger than 25 percent (and perhaps considerably smaller) to maximize GDP growth:

  • All major governments, including the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Italy greatly exceed the 25 percent level. The average government sector for the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries now exceeds 41 percent of GDP.
  • In addition, the evidence indicates that the optimum level of government consumption of final goods and services as a share of GDP is 10.4 percent based on a panel data of 81 countries.
  • However, due to model and data limitations, it is probably that the results are biased upwards, and the "true" optimum government level is even smaller than the existing empirical study indicates.
  • Optimal government size is also, of course, influenced by the quality of a government.
Furthermore, researchers indicate that policy makers who are enlarging their government sectors in the name of "economic stimulus" are likely to be retarding the renewal of economic growth and job creation rather than enhancing it.

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image toon - mny sclm bbro othr reps - Citizen outrage at CEOs vs politicians

Clunky Economics

When asked who his favorite economist was, Ronald Reagan used to say Fredric Bastiat. Bastiat was a 19th-century economic philosopher from France, and while his numerous books are full of countless insights, he's probably best known for introducing the notion of the "seen and the unseen."

To explain this in easy-to-understand terms, Bastiat referenced a broken window. In this case, the "seen" was a shopkeeper's broken window that would create economic growth for the shopkeeper hiring a glazier to replace the window, with the glazier spending the money earned elsewhere. Break enough windows and suddenly a great deal of economic activity occurs.

The unseen, however, is the investment that doesn't occur so that windows can be fixed. Wouldn't the cost of repairing broken windows reduce the funds available to expand one's shop, not to mention reduce the shopkeeper's demand for products from other suppliers? Broken windows would stimulate glaziers, but the shift from consumption to building repairs would necessarily depress others.

Bastiat wanted his readers to consider the unseen...

[Like, say, promoting the destruction of perfectly good cars to boost the auto unions {under the guise of saving the planet, natch}. How many other goods aren't being bought with the money now allocated for new-car payments?]

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UN Sec-Gen Ban Ki-moon Goes Batty Over Climate Change, Upcoming Conference; Press Mostly Mum

Readers are advised to make peace with the Maker soon. If we are to believe the recent utterings of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (pictured at right), humanity -- or at least humanity living life as we know it -- is not long for this earth.

The Sec-Gen's August 11 speech at the Global Economic Forum in Incheon, North Korea, was so over the top that it's likely the world's media kept its coverage of the event relatively muted to spare the poor man from worldwide embarrassment:

"If we fail to act, climate change will intensify droughts, floods and other natural disasters.

Water shortages will affect hundreds of millions of people. Malnutrition will engulf large parts of the developing world. Tensions will worsen. Social unrest – even violence – could follow...

The damage to national economies will be enormous. The human suffering will be incalculable...

We have just four months. Four months to secure the future of our planet."

Despite this coming from the Secretary General of the United Nations, there is nothing about the speech that I could find in searches on "Ban Ki-Moon United Nations" (not typed in quotes) at the New York Times or the Washington Post. A search on the same string at AP.org at 3:30 p.m. came up empty.

An identical Google News search came back with a very light total of 42 results.

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[A: yes; that's why the press is covering for him. The most pervasive spin: omission.]
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Bill Ayers and the real threat to education

[HT:JB]
Imagine your child's teacher telling you his days in jail and violent protesting were formative to his teaching philosophy.

Most parents would have a serious discussion with the principal, at the minimum. But the teacher who brags about such beginnings is now a "Distinguished Professor of Education."

Despite his specialty as "Professor of Curriculum and Instruction," he trains future teachers to dispense with curricula and discipline, as well as tests and grades...

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image toon - bdd edu - William Ayers - EDUCATOR

NBC Launches Liberal Site For 'The' African-American Perspective On News

"There is not a Black America and a White America and a Latino America and an Asian America -- there's the United States of America."

-- Barack Obama, 2004 Democratic National Convention keynote address.

"theGrio.com. The African-American perspective on news. Our lives, our world, our stories. theGrio.com. Part of NBC News."

-- promo for new NBC News website, August 9, 2009.

So much for post-racial America.

NBC News apparently believes that African-Americans can be pigeonholed. In NBC's view, there exists "the" African-American perspective on news.

View video here.

[The grievance industry: "too big to fail".]

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SWEET LEMONADE KID $LAPPED WITH FINE

Clementine Lee, who lives just blocks from the Upper West Side Riverside Park, had dreamed of opening a lemonade stand since last year and took advantage of yesterday's beautiful weather to set up shop.

"It was such a hot day I figured people would want a cold drink,"

the aspiring juvenile juice mogul told The Post. But their day turned into the pits at 3 p.m. when a group of city workers iced their operation.

"They approached us nonchalantly but then surrounded us, ... They were very hostile as soon as they approached, saying 'Where's your permit? Where's your permit?' "

When her father they didn't have the right to sell on Parks property, the agents immediately slapped the dad and daughter with a summons for selling food without a license, which carries a maximum fine of $200.

Dozens of onlookers rallied to the pair's defense, shouting that the Parks officers were violating the Lees' civil rights, but the brokenhearted pair packed up and went home.

[Government is the problem - we need less of it.]

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We can't spare this woman: she fights

Moe Lane at Red State channels Abraham Lincoln in succinctly stating the value of Sarah Palin to the future of the Republic. His headline to a summary of Andy McCarthy's dissent to the NRO editorial slamming Palin's "death panel" comment is

Andrew McCarthy: I can't spare this woman. She fights.

I think McCarthy's dissent is excellent, too.

...Palin was right to argue her point aggressively. Largely because she did, a horrible provision is now out of this still horrible Obamacare proposal. To the contrary, if the argument had been made the way the editors counsel this morning, "end-of-life counseling" would still be in the bill. We might have impressed the Beltway with the high tone of our discourse and the suppleness of our reasoning, but we'd have lost the public.

The entire Republican establishment has lost a large section of the public for some time now. The elected officials did it by refusing to limit spending. The pundit class has done it by has largely showing themselves to be both obsessed with style over substance and forever ceding the shape of the debate to the Democrats and the mainstream media.

That's like playing Charlie Brown to Lucy, as it is proven that whenever it looks like conservatives have a winning argument, the Democrats and the media declare that attack off limits, unfair, racist, old news, etc., etc., etc.,

For an NRO editorial to dismiss the only politician who fights on despite taking hits because her highly effective arguments lack nuance is simply ridiculous.

To score a debate that has brought out thousands of demonstrators all around the nation like they were members of the Potomac High School debate club makes the NRO editorial board look every bit as jejune as Barack Obama.

[The largest grandees in that party all seem to belong to the fairer sex.]

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60 Minutes Chief: Dan Rather’s Work ‘Not Even Close to the Standards We Expect’

Sunday’s Los Angeles Times had an update on Dan Rather’s continuing lawsuit against CBS News over what Dan might call the

“forged-memos-to-torpedo-Bush’s-re-election-in-2004 scandal.”

60 Minutes executive producer Jeff Fager described Rather’s work as deficient:

“I hate to say it in public, but many of [his] stories were not even close to the standards we expect at 60 Minutes.”

Gold also said that Rather’s pursuit of CBS has brought to light the fact that the ex-Evening News anchor was turned down for jobs at: ABC, NBC, CNN, A&E, History, HBO, Discovery and National Geographic.

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[HT:GC: "Canadian Speed Control"]





[Hmm - not sure about this - nobody swerves to miss 'em?]

Monday, August 17, 2009


image toon - 1st fnn hcare lbrty crpt libs = Pelosi loves silent middle-America

Specter: Town halls shouldn't dominate process

Lawmakers are debating along party lines whether [???] the outrage expressed at town hall meetings around the country is representative of wide opposition to healthcare reform.

Democrats, led by one of the party’s newest members, Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.), said Sunday those shouting at town halls represent a minority of Americans.

As such, Specter and others said Congress should be careful not to let the events drive substance on the healthcare legislative debate...

[After all, they're only individuals - it's not like they represent unions or anything. The arrogance.]

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First, do no harm

A new Rasmussen poll suggests that voters want Congress to follow the maxim, Primum non noceres when addressing the issue of health care.

[Both poignant and pertinent. Why doesn't it apply here?]

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Obama Uses Op-Ed to Criticize Health Insurance Industry

The op-ed in The New York Times escalated an approach the White House and congressional Democrats have taken in recent weeks, demonizing another private sector industry to justify its intentions to take over the health care industry rather than arguing the merit of legislation currently being considered by both houses.

Though health care reform critics have flooded town halls over the past month, Obama wrote in his column that media have focused too much on the "loudest voices" -- he suggested that those with inadequate insurance policies are clamoring for reform.

The president claimed that insurance companies "discriminated" against more than 12 million Americans over three years because of pre-existing conditions, adding:

"Almost everyone knows that we must start holding insurance companies accountable"


Obama wrote that he's confident health care reform will pass.

[Again; when a politician {or anyone} uses the 'argument' that "everybody knows", it means they've no factual data or logical construction to support their view. It's the most hollow of demagoguery.]

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THE TRUTH ABOUT HEALTH INSURANCE

Nine out of 10 people under 65 are covered by their employers, most of which cover all employees and charge everyone the same rate:

  • If you develop an expensive condition such as cancer or heart disease, and then get fired or divorced or your employer goes out of business -- the individual insurance will be very expensive if it's available.
  • Obama wants to wave away this reality with new regulations that prohibit "discrimination against the sick," but if insurers are forced to sell coverage to everyone at any time, many people will buy insurance only when they need medical care. [I.e., it will raise the % of policy holders who are net-debtors of the system.]
Another proposed reform known as "community rating" imposes uniform premiums regardless of health condition:

  • New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts have both community rating and guaranteed issue, and, no surprise, they have the three most expensive individual insurance markets among all 50 states.
  • In 2007, the average annual premium in New Jersey was $5,326 for singles and in New York $12,254 for a family; ObamaCare would impose New York-type rates nationwide.
There are better ways to go, says the Journal. Tax credits to individuals to buy insurance would make it more affordable and thus strengthen the individual market. Other tax rule changes could also make it easier for people to form their own risk pools beyond their employers.

In turn, that would free insurers to compete for the business of all patients, including those with pre-existing conditions, because then they could charge enough to cover the costs -- instead of passing them to others...

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Obama: TV Misreporting What's Happening At Town Hall Meetings

The man who has received more favorable press coverage than any political candidate or President in history struck back at television news outlets Friday for focusing attention on town hall meeting protesters.

Imagine the nerve of these Obama-loving media members daring to broadcast some dissent in the population despite their having been informed {by Obama himself} it's all being manufactured by conservative organizations.

But none of that matters, for Mr. Obama has grown accustomed to nothing but glowing adoration and sycophancy, and what's been shown on recent television newscasts just doesn't fit what he believes is necessary to force healthcare reform down the throats of a nation becoming more and more fearful of the long-term consequences (video embedded below the fold with partial transcript, relevant section at 1:00):



"I know there's been a lot of attention paid to some of the town hall meetings that are going on around the country, especially when tempers flare. TV loves a ruckus.

Earlier this week I held a town hall in New Hampshire, a few thousand people showed up. Some were big supporters of the health insurance reform. Some had concerns and questions. Some were downright skeptical, didn't believe it could be done.

But I was glad to see that people were there not to shout. They were there to listen and ask questions. That reflects America a lot more than what we've seen covered on television for the last few days."

So, his totally controlled, scripted, hand-picked-questioner town hall meeting in New Hampshire "reflects America a lot more than" what's going on all around the country when regular people spontaneously address concerns to their representatives.

That's how democracy's supposed to work? Whose democracy, Mr. President?

Our Founding Fathers regularly yelled at each other as they debated independence and eventually our Constitution. There were even fist fights in Independence Hall.

That's how OUR democracy works, Mr. President, and despite how it displeases you, people around the country raising their voices desperately hope media continue to air such emotional displays even in the dishonest fashion they're currently doing it.

[When our 'representatives' lie to our faces, our reactionary options diminish. We're past time to calling them out on their transparent malfeasance - it's the only thing they've left us.]

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Lies, lies and more lies

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President Obama's lies in Montana are the most egregious falsehoods since Bill Clinton said "I did not have sexual relations with that woman".

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image toon - 1st fnn hcare lbrty - Oby's 2nd opinion = decenters are Nazi's

CBS Describes Democrats as ‘Orchestrating’ Pro-Obama Town Hall

[Credit where due.]

On Friday’s broadcast network evening newscasts, the CBS Evening News uniquely noted that Democrats in Montana had "orchestrated" a friendly environment for President Obama at a Montana town hall event as many Democrats arrived early to secure tickets. After CBS correspondent Chip Reid filed a report in which he relayed that

"this crowd was on [Obama's] side," and that "the questions were mostly softballs," Reid brought up "orchestration" as one of the reasons for a friendly crowd: "So why wasn't there more anger in here? For one thing, after accusing Republicans of orchestrating their protests, Democrats did some orchestrating of their own, getting in line early in large numbers and snatching up most of the tickets."

On the NBC Nightly News, substitute anchor Ann Curry led with the story:

"The President was to squarely take on the anger we’ve seen in recent weeks over health care reform, flying to a town hall in a conservative part of Montana. The audience, we were told, was not pre-screened. But the meeting was more like a campaign rally than a debate over health care. The President even getting a standing ovation."

[Again, how does one have a 'civil debate' on an issue the opposition is willing to lie to your face about? 'Civility' to those folks is only a half step down from silence, which we all know is interpreted as consent - so what are the realistic options to conveying to our corrupt 'representatives' that the jig is up and we're not buying their stories, given that if we fail to do so we (and worse, our children) will be saddled with government dictated health 'care'?

I.e., raucous discourse is a last-resort option, but the only one these play-actors have left us. ]


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ABC Tries to Tie Health Care Town Hall Protesters to Hate Groups

ABC News correspondent Brian Ross tried to connect the health care town hall protesters to hate groups on Friday’s GMA. Ross cited the Southern Poverty Law Center, whose left-wing political affiliation he omitted, and used two sound bites from the SPLC’s Mark Potok, who hyped that President Obama supposedly

“triggered fears among...white people...that they are somehow losing their country.”

After summarizing how police in Los Angeles arrested a man suffering from “mental problems” for making threats against the White House, and how the case is apparently part of a “disturbing pattern,” Ross played his first clip from Potok, who emphasized,

“I don’t think that these are simply [i.e., 'just'] people who are mentally ill or...you know, kind of off their rockers. I think that...in a very real sense, they represent a genuine reaction- a genuine backlash against Obama.”

[Because of his race, of course.]

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Racism in health care bill seen by US Commission on Civil Rights

The US Commission on Civil Rights is proving a thorn in the side of the Obama administration. First it has problems with Attorney General Eric Holder's Justice Department dropping of the New Black Panther voter rights intimidation case. Now it sees the House health care bill having provisions that are racially discriminatory.

How? By making overt a preference to award billions of taxpayer dollars and preferential treatment to minority students for scholarships, and favoring medical schools that have a record of sending graduates to areas with inadequate health care services. Jennifer Haberkorn of the Washington Times has an exclusive story:


"These programs are unlikely to reduce health care disparities among racial and ethic groups," according to the draft letter obtained by The Washington Times. "A growing body of evidence indicates that increasing access to high-quality physicians - whatever their racial or ethnic ancestry - is the best way to mitigate such disparities."

The draft letter also cites testimony from Dr. Amitabh Chandra of Harvard University who said the idea that expanding the number of minority physicians and providing "cultural competence training" [?] will bridge the health status gap is "grounded in hope more than science," according to the draft language.

It cites research from Dr. Chandra that found that improving the quality of health care in the 500 largest minority serving areas would improve minority health care more than the elimination of racial disparities within every provider in the U.S.
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image toon - vals lbrty bbro = Oby's new race czar = Sharpton

Press Largely Ignored Hostile Protester Rhetoric Towards Bush

As Obama-loving media continue their assault on town hall meeting protesters, they seem to have forgotten how they covered civil disobedience when George W. Bush was in the White House.

As Fox News's Bill Sammon pointed out Wednesday, when former President Bush was greeted by hostile protesters on a fund raising trip to Portland, Oregon, in August 2002, the news media didn't bother sharing with the public some of the truly incendiary signs in the crowd or the vulgar behavior of the attendees.

In fact, some of the television reports at the time painted the protesters as innocent victims of an overly aggressive police force...

UPDATE: video added at end of post with footage of the Portland protest.

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Uribe says US agreement is a 'step in the right direction'

Colombia's President, Álvaro Uribe, said that the controversial agreement with Washington, which would allow US military to use bases in Colombia, is a step in the right direction to fight terrorism.

"There is no looking back," said Uribe, referring to the politics of the situation. Terrorism must be "fully eliminated and this is a step in the right direction,"

he said during a political act involving members from his Cabinet.

[We've not better friend in the region nor one more capable should he be supported. Meanwhile, the free trade bill he desperately needs to fund his government has been stonewalled in our House of Representatives for over a year at the behest of labor unions who don't want any more competition.

For shame.]


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The Hijra

Modern Day Trojan Horse: The Islamic Doctrine of Immigration

Within the past few decades, mosques have increasingly dotted the landscapes of American and European cities and towns. Islamic schools or academies and a host of Muslim organizations have become omnipresent across the West, and Americans and Europeans have made countless accommodations to Muslim demands.

They have included footbaths; high-decibel, five-times-daily calls to prayer; segregated male-female gym and swimming pool hours; halal food; workplace dispensations for handling pork products and for female head and face coverings; and special, public prayer rooms. Also, shari'ah-compliant financial transactions, the expunging of offensive likenesses of Mohammed or imagined depictions of Arabic characters that connote "Allah," official swearings-in on Korans in place of customary Bibles, the revision of so-called offensive content in movies and television programs, the removal of representations of pigs from the public sphere, and many other acculturations to Muslim entreaties have all been made in the service of respecting Muslim religious beliefs and practices.

This strategic pattern of demands is part of an insidious, 1,400-year-old proscription for Muslims that originates in the Koran and the Sunnah, the deeds of Mohammed. It is the Hijra or doctrine of immigration. Modeled by Mohammed's migration from Mecca to Medina, this immigration is not to a romanticized melting pot wherein newcomers gratefully search for opportunities for a better life in liberty and freely offer their talents and loyalty to benefit their new homeland.

No, Hijra is immigration designed to subvert and subdue non-Muslim societies and pave the way for eventual, total Islamization... [snip]

... former professor of shari'ah law and convert to Christianity, and Elias Al Maqdisi, an expert on Islamic teachings, explain the migration of Muslims to the Dar-al-Harb, the "land of war," as a religious edict with a basis in Islamic doctrine...

... They delineate the step-by-step process of this 1,400-year-old strategy of conquest. It is a transitional strategy which they characterize as the most important step in spreading Islam and preparing an environment ripe for jihad...


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British swimming pools imposing Muslim dress codes

Croydon council in south London runs separate one-and-a half-hour swimming sessions for Muslim men and women every Saturday and Sunday at Thornton Heath Leisure Centre.

Swimmers were told last week on the centre's website that

"during special Muslim sessions male costumes must cover the body from the navel to the knee and females must be covered from the neck to the ankles and wrists".

There are similar rules at Scunthorpe Leisure Centre, in North Lincolnshire... [snip]

Ian Cawsey, the Labour MP for the North Lincolnshire constituency of Brigg and Goole, said:

"I don't think that in a local authority pool I should have to wear a particular type of clothes for the benefit of someone else. That's not integration or cohesion."

"It's seen as yet another demand for special treatment. I can't see why special clothing is needed for what is [already, due to prior Muslim pressure] a single-sex session."

Muslim swimming sessions are also held at a number of state schools around the country. At Loxford School in Ilford, east London, a local Muslim group organises weekly sessions for Muslim men, with the warning that "it is compulsory for the body to be covered between the navel and the knees.

"Anyone not adhering to the dress code or rules within the pool will not be allowed to swim".

The practice of holding special Muslim swimming sessions has led to non-Muslims being turned away... [snip]

After discovering the rules at Thornton Heath one Croydon resident, 34-year-old Alex Craig, said:

"I think it is preposterous that a council should be encouraging this type of segregation over municipal facilities. Surely if Muslims want to swim then they should just turn up with their modest swimwear at the same time as everyone else."


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Putin's Reset Button: Pressing Ukraine

It's really amazing how soon the Obama administration's chickens are coming home to roost. They made a big deal out of finding a "reset" button for U.S.-Russia relations. They wanted to reject what they saw as George W. Bush's truculence over the Russian invasion of Georgia last summer. So they went out of their way to send a message to Russia that they wanted a new beginning in their relations with Moscow.

Well, they've gotten it. London's prestigious Financial Times reports that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has sent a tough "ultimatum" to Ukraine's leadership... [snip]

The 2004 elections in Ukraine were widely hailed in the West as an "orange revolution" because that was the color of Viktor Yushchenko's victorious political party. Persuaded by the U.S., Ukraine gave up nuclear weapons. It seemed a good idea at the time, to reduce the number of countries with nukes might make non-proliferation treaty enforcement easier, it was believed.

When Boris Yeltsin's star was on the rise in the Russian Republic, it seemed reasonable to think that Russia might be headed for a new future as a free and democratic state. That was before Vladimir Putin ... [snip]

Even liberals understand what's happening now. Lilia Shevstova is a senior analyst at the Moscow Carnegie Center. She told FT that the Medvedev letter is

"a message to any new leader [in Ukraine] that we will deal with you only when you accept our demands."

The freedom of 45 million people in Eastern Europe is very much at risk. If Ukraine is clawed back into Moscow's orbit, can Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia hold out? What about the tiny, freedom-loving Baltic States?

When we see Barack Obama and his administration of amateurs falling all over themselves to appease Russia, is it any wonder Vladimir Putin is pressing his own reset button?

It's Ukraine--and Putin is pressing it hard.

[And with Ukraine in-hand Europe follows, as it's the only remaining alternative to Russia controlling virtually all of Europe's oil and gas imports - for which they'll do whatever they're told.]

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The Manufactured Healthcare 'Crisis'

The seeds of the so-called health care crisis were planted long ago, and quite consciously and deliberately

If there were ever any doubt that Barack Obama personifies the Crisis Strategy, it should long since have been removed for anyone with a mind.

For those of you who aren't familiar with it, the Crisis Strategy was the brainchild of two radical socialist college professors, Richard Cloward and Frances Fox Piven. The idea was to overwhelm government with demands for services to the point where the system would collapse and provide an opening for the socialists to take over.

Their strategy was behind creation of the National Welfare Rights Organization in the 1960s and 1970s which dramatically increased the welfare roles and caused the near bankruptcy of New York City in 1975; creation of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), prime instigators of the mortgage meltdown; the national Motor Voter law signed by President Clinton in 1993, which opened the floodgates to vote fraud, and the illegal immigrant amnesty movement.

As we all should know by now, Barack Obama worked with and trained ACORN workers for many years, and is known and supported by all the major players in this movement.

Healthcare nationalization is a major component of this strategy.

The Left has agitated almost since the turn of the last century for some kind of socialized healthcare system. In fact, from 1939 forward, practically every Congressional session proposed national healthcare legislation. As aptly described in an incisive analysis of Medicare by the Cato Institute:

For more than 50 years before the 1965 enactment of Medicare, the American people repeatedly rejected the idea of government-mandated health insurance. Yet advocates of such federal power inside and outside of government did not take no for an answer. Year after year they kept coming back--pursuing incremental strategies, misrepresenting their proposals, even distributing propaganda paid for with government money in apparent violation of existing law.

Their dream was partially realized with creation of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965 as part of President Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society." The stated goal of these programs was to provide comprehensive healthcare for seniors and the poor. As the programs grew, the Left clamored for ever more benefits to these groups and ever expanding definitions of covered individuals.

Like any free good, demand for services under these programs has skyrocketed. Spending levels were insignificant in the early years, but today Medicare and Medicaid today comprise 36 percent of total US healthcare spending.

In 2006, Medicaid spending alone totaled $314 billion. For perspective, this is roughly equivalent to the baseline defense budget. In 2008, federal Medicaid and Medicare spending totaled $676 billion. Comprising only 2 percent of the federal budget in 1967, these two programs alone today consume 23 percent of total federal spending.

Corrected for inflation, total federal and state government spending on healthcare has increased by 2,591 percent since Medicaid and Medicare funding began in 1967. That is a real annual growth rate of 8.4 percent, almost three times the annual rate of economic growth for the same period.[1]

All these effects were predicted by economists, and we were repeatedly warned.

The Left knew... [snip]

The left has attacked the private healthcare system from another angle as well: malpractice lawsuits. It has gone largely unreported in the mass media, but the dramatic expansion of all forms of liability lawsuits since the 1960s is the result of a deliberate, organized effort by leftist law professors to turn civil courts into agents of income redistribution.

We see the consequences of their handiwork directly in the increased cost of products, liability insurance of all kinds, and the decline or in some cases elimination of domestic industries. According to a study performed by the Pacific Research Institute (PRI), the United States pays out $589 billion per year in excessive tort litigation. That is approximately 5 percent of GDP and costs a family of four on average about $8,000 per year... [snip]

Let me put this as bluntly as possible. The Left has never cared about the elderly or the poor, but ruthlessly uses them as part of their long-term strategy to overburden private healthcare until it ultimately collapses. It is a power grab, pure and simple. There is nothing more to it.

While doubtless some think they are doing good, the ultimate goal, as elucidated by the Left, has everywhere and always been Socialism.

Can you see the Left laughing at you?

[Q: How can we control a government that controls our health care?
A: We can't, its leverage over us will be nearly absolute: any move to cut taxation will be immediately answered with its detrimental effect to our 'care' - reference California cutting emergency services {police, firefighters} first whenever voters push for reduced spending.

More, Highly Recommended > ]


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Earmark Update

Amid all the concern over Health Care Reform and Cap & Trade it is best not to lose sight of the issue that began the current protest against out of control spending -- the earmark process.

According to an analysis by the Taxpayers for Common Sense and Center for Responsive Politics earmarks in 2009 spending bills total $19.9 billion. Earmarks in 2008 spending bills were worth $18.3 billion.

This increase comes despite the fact that both President Obama and Congressional leaders have talked about the need to reform the process.

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image toon - mny = Oby promises not to raise taxes on strenght of his record

BIAS TWOFER

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Senator Rips Fox: 'Nothing More Than An Arm of the Republican Party'



It's not enough that much of the mainstream media cheered on Barack Obama to the presidency in 2008. No, it's time for a "progressive television network" and for left-wingers to support radio hosts that are sympathetic to liberal causes according to Sen. Bernie Sanders.


Sanders, a self-described socialist, appeared on MSNBC's Aug. 13 "Rachel Maddow Show" and blasted Fox News and conservative talk radio. He blamed both for creating 'obstacles to Democratic Party' led efforts to fundamentally alter health care in the United States. But he also said it's time the left attempted to replicate the right and created their own left-wing networks.

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[Attempted? And what, pray tell, are all other channels considered if not liberal?

Exempting its opinion shows {you know, the loud guys}, Fox's 'news' coverage {'coverage' principally defined as story selection, not commentary regarding} is more balanced than any other national organization {by virtue of said selection} and can only be labeled particularly conservative in comparison to the rampantly-left bias which permeates the MSM.

I'm not a Republican. I don't own Fox stock. I dislike their highest rated opinion shows everyone associates with the network. But I peruse more news than probably 98% of the populace and I tell you {yes I know, again} that their newscasts' story selection is consistently broader, and so less consistently left-bias than anyone else.

Exhibit A: Global Warming; at least on Fox you'll occasionally hear of the daily research that's being produced debunking the whole theory - good luck with that on other stations.

Exhibit B...]



'We've Got Two Problems. Um, I Mean, The Dems Do'



Jonathan Capehart let the mask slip on just how much the MSM is one with Pres. Obama and Democrats at large. Here's the WaPo editorialist on Morning Joe today, discussing the daunting task of selling ObamaCare to a doubting public:

"We've got two problems here. We: I should say the administration or Democrats have two problems."

Sorry, Jonathan. Cat out of bag. Toothpaste out of tube. Bell rung.

Not that we doubted the MSM's identification with PBO and the Dems, but still amusing to have it confirmed in this Freudian-moment.

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Woodstock: Was it something, or was it nothing?

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My God.... can we stop this nonsense? Hippies were not revolutionaries.

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NYT: Palin Sees Obama As 'Human Prey' She Seeks To Shoot

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[I.e., she disagrees with him. The Horror.]

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Palin Wins

The first we heard about Sarah Palin's "death panels" comment was in a conversation last Friday with an acquaintance who was appalled by it. Our interlocutor is not a Democratic partisan but a high-minded centrist who deplores extremist rhetoric whatever the source. We don't even know if he has a position on ObamaCare. From his description, it sounded to us as though Palin really had gone too far.

A week later, it is clear that she has won the debate...

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'Death panel' is not in the bill... it already exists

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The Associated Press recently ran a ‘Fact Check' article rebutting Sarah Palin's claim of a "death panel" in the health care bills currently in the House and Senate. The New York Times has joined in the death panel bashing. Both are technically correct in stating that end-of-life counseling is not the same as a death panel and that the health care bill contains no provision setting up such a panel.

What both outlets fail to point out is that the panel already exists.

H.R. 1 (more commonly known as the Recovery and Reinvestment Act, even more commonly known as the Stimulus Bill) contains a whopping $1.1 billion to fund the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research. The Council is the brain child of former Health and Human Services Secretary Nominee Tom Daschle.

Daschle's stated purpose for creating the Council is to empower an unelected bureaucracy to make the hard decisions about health care rationing that elected politicians are politically unable to make. The end result is to slow costly medical advancement and consumption. Daschle argues that Americans ought to be more like Europeans who passively accept "hopeless diagnoses."

Before the Porkulus Bill passed, Betsy McCaughey, former Lieutenant governor of New York, wrote in detail about the Council's purpose:

Daschle said health-care reform "will not be pain free." Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them.

Who is on the Council? One of its most prominent members is none other than Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, who's views on care of the elderly should frighten anyone who is or ever plans on being old. He explains the logic behind his discriminatory views on elderly care as follows:

"Unlike allocation by sex or race, allocation by age is not invidious discrimination; every person lives through different life stages rather than being a single age. Even if 25-year-olds receive priority over 65-year-olds, everyone who is 65 now was previously 25."

[Ah, equal opportunity discrimination - that's better.][snip]

Ultimately it was Obama himself, in answer to a question on his ABC News infomercial, who said that payment determination cannot be influenced by a person's spirit and

"that at least we (the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research) can let doctors know and your mom know that...this isn't going to help. Maybe you're better off not having the surgery, but taking the painkiller."

Maybe we should ask the Associated Press and New York Times if they still think we shouldn't be concerned about a federal "death panel."

[Apologies for beating this news to death - I'm sure you've already reached saturation via the 24/7 coverage that TV's provided - I just think it's important, is all.]

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