Bob's Political Digest for August 6 2009

Veterans groups have ‘grave concerns’ on health bill
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/veterans-groups-have-grave-concerns-on-health-bill-2009-07-31.html
Excerpt: the groups state “the legislation could limit the health care choices for veterans, increase the cost of health care for veterans, deny coverage to dependent family members of veterans, and threaten the quality of health care offered to veterans through the VA health care system.”

Police called on retirees at senator's LA office
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/07/30/state/n184320D61.DTL
Who do they think they are? Citizens?

Christian woman faces 40 lashes in Sudan for wearing trousers
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/027074.php
Waiting for the outcry from American feminists.

Lashley's Letter To Crowley
http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/20230991/detail.html
Excerpt: One of the major problems stemming from the events of July 16 is that I, now known as 'the black Sergeant', have had my image plastered all over the Internet, television and newspapers. Subsequently, I have also become known, at least to some, as an 'Uncle Tom.'

You can bet on it: Obama will raise your taxes
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/You-can-bet-on-it_-Obama-will-raise-your-taxes-8060649-52382632.html
Excerpt: Obama is solidly popular (64 percent job approval) with voters making less than $24,000. But after that, his support starts to slide. Among the group making between $24,000 and $60,000, it's 53 percent. In the group between $60,000 and $90,000, it's 52 percent. Among those above $90,000, it's an even 50 percent. (While that last group includes anyone from Bill Gates down to a welder who works a lot of overtime, it's safe to say that most are clustered in the lower end of the scale, sharing many of the same concerns with those in the next-lower category.) In January, Obama's job approval rating among the two highest income groups was 69 and 67 percent, respectively. Now, more than a quarter of that support has disappeared. Put another way, a large segment of the broad middle class is dropping away from Obama.

One Year after Universal Car Care
http://www.theabsurdreport.com/2009/one-year-after-universal-car-care/
Too funny

Is Race for Governor More About Obama?
Some Voters Who Backed President Disillusioned Over Economic Pledges
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/04/AR2009080402787.html?wpisrc=newsletter
Excerpt: For Cleland, it was another example -- one of many this day -- of the broken promises of a president who she thought would be different. Obama pledged to change a Washington culture that favored corporations and the connected and instead lift families such as the one sitting next to Cleland out of their economic funk. Rather, she said, Obama has backed billions of dollars to banks that continue to "act like they're broke" and started the country down a path that Cleland said she thinks will lead to more grief for the middle class. "He's just not as advertised," she said. "Nothing's changed for the common guy. I feel like I've been punked." (Gee, who would have guessed?)

How to Fix the Health-Care ‘Wedge’
There is an alternative to Obamacare
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204619004574324361508092006.html
Excerpt: The health-care wedge is an economic term that reflects the difference between what health-care costs the specific provider and what the patient actually pays. When health care is subsidized, no one should be surprised that people demand more of it and that the costs to produce it increase. Mr. Obama’s health-care plan does nothing to address the gap between the price paid and the price received. Instead, it’s like a negative tax: Costs rise and people demand more than they need…. A patient-centered health-care reform begins with individual ownership of insurance policies and leverages Health Savings Accounts, a low-premium, high-deductible alternative to traditional insurance that includes a tax-advantaged savings account. It allows people to purchase insurance policies across state lines and reduces the number of mandated benefits insurers are required to cover. It reallocates the majority of Medicaid spending into a simple voucher for low-income individuals to purchase their own insurance. And it reduces the cost of medical procedures by reforming tort liability laws.

Obama Energy Policies Will Hike Prices By 20 Percent
http://hotair.com/archives/2009/08/04/obama-energy-policies-will-hike-prices-by-20/
Excerpt: Barack Obama recently claimed — incorrectly — that he had yet to sign a bill that raised taxes, but the worst burdens will avoid the clear label of taxation. A new study by the Energy Information Administration, an arm of the Department of Energy, determines that the cap-and-trade bill passed by the House in June would hike energy costs to consumers by 20% by 2025.

Lawyers Emerge As Winners
http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=18287
No surprise-- and the Congress & many legislatures are now controlled by the Lawyers’ Party.

Did Secretary LaHood lie to Congress?
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Did-Secretary-LaHood-lie-to-Congress-52514122.html
BO’s tame IL Republican.

Special interests cash in on clunker boondoggle
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Special-interests-cash-in-on-clunker-boondoggle-52473487.html
Excerpt: And who are the customers? Not poor people — they don’t shell out five figures for new cars. No, this is a middle-class to upper-middle-class subsidy, which is probably why politicians love it so much. But the real benefit to business — and harm to the economy — comes after the car sale. The law requires the dealers destroy the “clunker” engine (which, to be eligible, was drivable upon trade-in), scrap the car and shred almost all its parts. This government-required waste reduces the supply of used cars on the road. Reduce the supply of drivable used cars, and you drive up the price of all cars.

Obama would stifle military and medical creativity
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Obama-would-stifle-military-and-medical-creativity-52473217.html
Excerpt: Cases in point: Most people in the rest of the world are free riders on the productivity and ingenuity of the American military and American medicine. They get the benefits of American military protection and American medical innovation without paying, or without paying in full, for them.

MS-13 Smuggles Muslim Terrorists into U.S.
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.3901/pub_detail.asp
Probably they’ll get empathy from a wise Latina judge….

Canada vs. US Healthcare
http://www.larryjohnwright.com/tvspots/HeatherSandstrom.wmv
Video by a woman who has lived under both.

Care Versus Control
http://townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell/2009/08/04/care_versus_control
Excerpt: Are decisions made by doctors who have treated the same patient for years to be over-ruled by bureaucrats sitting in front of computer screens in Washington, following guidelines drawn up with the idea of "bringing down the cost of medical care"?
The idea is even more absurd than the idea that you can add millions of people to a government medical care plan without increasing the costs. It is also more dangerous.

“We want a Christian-free society!”
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/027127.php
Excerpt: At the urging of local Muslim leaders, police in western Bangladesh have tortured a pastor and two other Christians for legally proclaiming Christ. (Ah those tolerant Muslims we keep hearing about.)

"In principle, Jihad is an offensive Jihad, which was instated in order to spread Islam throughout the world"
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/027120.php
Excerpt: An American branch of this group met recently in Chicago. No one seemed to mind. Note also that when non-Muslims point out that according to mainstream Islamic teaching, "in principle, Jihad is an offensive Jihad, which was instated in order to spread Islam throughout the world," thuggish pseudo-moderate groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations charge them with "bigotry" and "Islamophobia." But don't hold your breath waiting for CAIR's Honest Ibe Hooper or Brave Ahmed Rehab to charge Salah Al-Din 'Adhadhda or Muhammad Ibrahim with "bigotry" and "Islamophobia."

House Orders Up Three Elite Jets
http://www.rollcall.com/media/37552-1.html
Excerpt: Last year, lawmakers excoriated the CEOs of the Big Three automakers for traveling to Washington, D.C., by private jet to attend a hearing about a possible bailout of their companies. But apparently Congress is not philosophically averse to private air travel: At the end of July, the House approved nearly $200 million for the Air Force to buy three elite Gulfstream jets for ferrying top government officials and Members of Congress. (Do as I say, not as I do.)

Hand Salute for Vets
SALUTING the FLAG: Traditionally, members of the nation’s veterans service organizations have rendered the hand-salute during the national anthem and at events involving the national flag only while wearing their organization’s official head-gear. The National Defense Authorization Act of 2008 contained an amendment to allow un-uniformed service members, military retirees, and veterans to render a hand salute during the hoisting, lowering, or passing of the U.S. flag. A later amendment further authorized hand-salutes during the national anthem by veterans and out-of-uniform military personnel. This was included in the Defense Authorization Act of 2009, which President Bush signed on 14 OCT 08. All other persons present should face the flag, or if applicable, remove their headdress with their right hand and hold it at the left shoulder, the hand being over the heart. Citizens of other countries present should stand at attention. All such conduct toward the flag in a moving column should be rendered at the moment the flag passes.