Political Digest for August 12 2009

You have to laugh, or you’d cry.
For longer than I care to remember, the left has shouted down conservative speakers on campuses, those bastions of free thought. Try to hold a peaceful “affirmative action” bake sale as a protest, and you could be subject to violence, certainly to intimidation. For years they’ve bussed in activists to disrupt meetings. In Madison, WI where I lived, our car was keyed (had a Bush sticker) and Bush lawn signs were stolen and swastikas burned into lawns with weed killer, according to the Wisconsin State Journal. In Milwaukee, thugs, including a Congresswoman’s son, vandalized vans Republicans had rented to take voters to the polls. In the last election, Black Panther thugs armed with nightsticks intimidated voters at polling places in Philadelphia, on camera, a crime our black Attorney General has declined to prosecute, over-ruling career DOJ employees.

Now, suddenly, protests at Town Hall Meetings of the Congresscritters are “un-American.” The White House has established an e-mail address for BO supporters to report people spreading “fishy” information (i.e., things that disagree with the Supreme Leader) about health care. Imaging if Bush had established such an enemies list? They’d have screamed “NAZI” at the top of their lungs.

White House Director of New Media, Macon Phillips, asserted that there was "a lot of disinformation out there," and encouraged citizens to report "fishy" speech opposing “your” health care policies to the White House. Phillips specifically targeted private, unpublished, even casual speech, writing that "rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation." Phillips wrote "If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov."

I’d like to suggest we flood the e-mail list with self-reports, but it occurs to me that being on BO’s enemies list could jeopardize my employment. For the same reason, I think I’ll turn down the invitation I received from my Congresswoman to attend her Town Hall Meeting on Health Care. I might say something “fishy” and get on the enemies list. Or the union thugs might be there and I might get a broken head, thus increasing health care costs in America.

I’d like to ask her how we control health care costs without tort reform, to eliminate defensive medicine, which costs all of us billions each year. I was recently sent for an expensive test, to rule out cancer, a long shot in this case. But the doc didn’t dare not order the test, because a missed cancer, even one in a million, could mean a lawsuit. I considered the odds and declined at the last minute. I’d like to ask how we get tort reform with the League of Leftwing Lawyers in complete control of the White House, House and Senate. But I’m intimidated—I need my job, and my head. And now I know that asking questions of Members of Congress is “un-American” and “fishy.”

It’s not like I was going to chant, “Hey, Hey, Ho, Ho, Commie Health Care Has To Go!”

Can the dogs, fire hoses and a new “House Un-American Activities Committee” (HUAC) be far behind?

OK for them?
M E M O R A N D U M
To: Democratic Members of Congress From: House Democratic Leadership
Date: Friday, July 31, 2009
Re: Strategic Communications Plan for August: Health Insurance Reform COORDINATION The Leadership is working in close coordination with the White House and outside groups (including but not limited to HCAN, Families USA, AFSCME, SEIU, AARP, etc.) to ensure complementary efforts during August. The President, Secretary Sebelius and other principals in the reform debate will be working throughout the month to hold events, promote the message in the press and move the reform effort forward. We are also working closely with supportive organizations to ensure they are implementing comprehensive plans for August that include grassroots efforts, media strategies and anything else that can add to the momentum. In addition, a list of groups supporting health reform has been provided to your offices with information on ways you can partner with them in your districts.
(If opponents coordinate speakers, they are “un-American.”)

HCAN Playbook for Thwarting Town Hall Protesters
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/documents/2009/08/hcan-playbook-for-thwarting-town-hall-protesters.php?page=1

The House Health Bill: Energy and Commerce Amendments
http://blog.heritage.org/2009/08/10/the-house-health-bill-energy-and-commerce-amendments/
Excerpt: Gutting Consumer Choice: (Stearns #9, Rogers and Gingrey #10) The President and his congressional allies routinely insist that if Americans like the health insurance that they currently have, they can keep it. But the simple fact is that this is a presidential promise that will not be kept if the House bill, in its current form, is signed into law. Under the House bill, the federal government is authorized to determine what health benefits must be included in Americans’ health insurance plans and federal officials will determine the health plans that would be considered “acceptable” coverage under the law.

True Confessions
http://bloodthirstywarmonger.blogspot.com/2009/08/true-confession.html
Excerpt: Another falsehood that I am spreading. In 2003 there must be another Barack Obama that spoke to the AFL-CIO and stated: "I happen to be a proponent of a single payer universal health care program...A single payer health care plan, a universal health care plan. And that's what I'd like to see." I think that Barack Obama should also be sent to the re-education camp to be taught the truth of Obama is not for a single payer plan. We must be indoctrinated by 'his story' and fight against those who oppose our beloved leader. (Gotta love this blog name.)

Democrats flummoxed by health care protests
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Democrats-flummoxed-by-health-care-protests-52904087.html
Excerpt: This morning we were treated to a smug USA Today opinion article by Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer. “Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American,” they write. Actually, drowning out a speaker—by the boos some Democratic members of Congress have been greeted with or by the loud cheering that greeted Barack Obama so often during the 2008 campaign season—is not un-American or illegitimate. Preventing someone from speaking altogether—drowning them out permanently—is rude, boorish and often self-defeating; but not un-American. But the more interesting part of the article is not the headline quote, but the oozing condescension toward so many American voters toward the bill Pelosi and Hoyer assert the House “will” pass in September. “Health care is complex.” To paraphrase another common saying: It’s a complex thing; you wouldn’t understand. You should listen docilely and take instruction from your betters.

Man vs. Mutt
Theodore Dalrymple on who gets the better treatment, and what this means for U.S. health-care reform.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204908604574334282143887974.html
Fishy Alert: As a British dog, you get to choose (through an intermediary, I admit) your veterinarian. If you don’t like him, you can pick up your leash and go elsewhere, that very day if necessary. Any vet will see you straight away, there is no delay in such investigations as you may need, and treatment is immediate. There are no waiting lists for dogs, no operations postponed because something more important has come up, no appalling stories of dogs being made to wait for years because other dogs—or hamsters—come first. The conditions in which you receive your treatment are much more pleasant than British humans have to endure. For one thing, there is no bureaucracy to be negotiated with the skill of a white-water canoeist; above all, the atmosphere is different. There is no tension, no feeling that one more patient will bring the whole system to the point of collapse, and all the staff go off with nervous breakdowns. In the waiting rooms, a perfect calm reigns; the patients’ relatives are not on the verge of hysteria, and do not suspect that the system is cheating their loved one, for economic reasons, of the treatment which he needs. The relatives are united by their concern for the welfare of each other’s loved one. They are not terrified that someone is getting more out of the system than they… And what I want, at least for that part of my time that I spend in England, is to be a dog. I also want, wherever I am, the Americans to go on paying for the great majority of the world’s progress in medical research and technological innovation by the preposterous expense of their system: for it is a truth universally acknowledged that American clinical research has long reigned supreme, so overall, the American health-care system must have been doing something right. The rest of the world soon adopts the progress, without the pain of having had to pay for it. —Theodore Dalrymple is the pen name of Anthony Daniels, a British physician.

Will Obama pay the price for cutting Medicare?
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Will-Obama-pay-the-price-for-cutting-Medicare-8088240-52913592.html
Excerpt: Unlike a number of experts, many of the president's Democratic colleagues apparently believe that. And in doing so, they are singing a far, far different tune from the last time Medicare was the subject of an all-out political battle. Back in 1994 and 1995, the newly elected Republican majority in Congress concluded that Medicare's costs were spiraling out of control. Then-Speaker Newt Gingrich and then-Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole proposed to slow the rate of growth of Medicare expenditures -- not cut them, just reduce the speed at which costs were rising. Democrats, from President Bill Clinton down, beat the hell of out them for it. From mid-1995 through the 1996 presidential election, hardly a day went by without some Democrat accusing Gingrich, Dole, and the Republican Congress of plotting to slash Medicare benefits and throw America's seniors on the streets. "The onslaught was unbelievable," recalls J.D. Hayworth, who at the time was a backbench GOP lawmaker from the retiree haven of Arizona. "We were ripped up one side and down the other. In my district, the AFL-CIO spent $1.8 million telling old people I was going to cut off their Medicare."

Panel sees race bias in health care bill
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/aug/11/panel-sees-race-bias-in-health-care-bill/print/
Excerpt: The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights says some little-noticed provisions in the House health care bill are racially discriminatory, and it intends to ask President Obama and Congress to rewrite sections that factor in race when awarding billions in contracts, scholarships and grants. The commission also fears the programs, which are designed to improve health care in underserved areas, will not be effective. In a draft of a letter the commission approved Friday, the group raises constitutional questions about giving preferential treatment to minority students for scholarships, and about favoring medical schools and organizations that have a record of sending graduates to areas with inadequate health care services.

Obama to Jane Sturm: Hey, take a pill
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-dQfb8WQvo
Yup.

Random Thoughts by Dr. Sowell
http://www.townhallmail.com/bfpkpntjkkcypjkjyjpftysqqzyqqjztbbfnmpcljlggdp_hmhvmvqnhhf.html
Excerpt: Different people have very different reactions to President Barack Obama. Those who listen to his rhetoric are often inspired, while those who follow what he actually does are often appalled.
New York and Chicago have both recently had their coldest June in generations. If they had had their hottest month, it would have been trumpeted from the media 24/7 by "global warming" zealots. But the average surface temperature of the earth has not changed in more than a decade, according to the Cato Institute.

Jihadis thrice attacked Pakistan nuclear sites
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/world/pakistan/Revealed-Jihadis-thrice-attacked-Pakistan-nuclear-sites/articleshow/4879235.cms
Excerpt: Pakistan’s nuclear facilities have already been attacked at least thrice by its home-grown extremists and terrorists in little reported incidents over the last two years, even as the world remains divided over the safety of the nuclear weapons in the troubled country, according to western analysts.

Gaza jihadists lob shells at Israeli border crossing as Palestinian patients enter Israel for medical treatment
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/027172.php
Excerpt: The ironies abound. The headline of this Reuters story is "Israeli planes bomb Gaza tunnel." Only in the fourth paragraph do we learn that this strike was in retaliation for rocket and mortar attacks upon Israel from Gaza, and only in the sixth paragraph do we learn that Palestinians crossing into Israel in an ambulance for medical treatment were at the border crossing when the jihadists fired upon it.

Suu Kyi and American Intruder Convicted by Burmese Court
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/10/AR2009081000746.html?wpisrc=newsletter“By the old Moulmein Pagoda, lookin' eastward to the sea,There's a Burma girl a-settin', and I know she thinks o' me.”(I still have the copy of Kipling’s poems, held together with surgical tape, that I carried in my pack in Vietnam). My guess is she was doing something “fishy,” which is not allowed in socialist states.

White House Objects to Poster That Invokes Obama Children
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/10/AR2009081003126.html?wpisrc=newsletter
How about, “Why won’t my kids get the same healthcare coverage as President Obama’s kids?”

Republicans Go After Democratic Base in N.J.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/morning-fix/081109-morning-fix.html?wprss=thefix
Excerpt: A recent Quinnipiac University poll suggests that the RGA may find some fertile ground in their appeals to Democrats. Christie was winning nearly one in five (19 percent) Democratic votes in the survey while dominating among New Jersey's traditionally Democratic-leaning independents (64 percent to 28 percent).

We Broke The Bank!
http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=18306
Excerpt: Our total national private net worth, according to the Federal Reserve Board, is about $51.5 trillion. That means our federal unfunded liabilities represent 2.3 times our collective net worth. That's pretty darn broke, says Whalen.

I Accuse!
http://www.chronwatch-america.com/articles/5361/1/I-Accuse/Page1.html
Excerpt: I accuse the United Nations environmental program in general and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in particular of creating a huge hoax, “global warming,” in order to reduce energy use and to create a phony market for so-called “carbon credits,” based on the lie that carbon dioxide plays a role in the alleged warming process. The Earth is not warming. It is cooling. Meteorologists, climatologists, and solar physicists agree that it has been cooling for at least a decade and predict the cooling will continue for several decades to come. I accuse the President of the United States and politicians from both political parties for engaging in this deception for their own purposes, while ignoring the peril to the nation’s economy and future. Billions have been and continue to be misallocated to bogus “solutions” such as solar and wind power, the mandate for an ethanol mixture with gasoline, and the construction of a vast regulatory and grant-making apparatus based on the global warming hoax.

Our Unconstitutional Census
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052970204908604574332950796281832.html
The fix is in, democracy is out.

Arizona’s Budget Breakthrough
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203946904574300083865544254.html?mod=djemITP
Excerpt: Perhaps states are starting to learn the right fiscal lessons from the red-ink blowouts in high-tax California and New York. Today, the legislature in Arizona will vote on a tax reform designed to entice more employers and high-income taxpayers to the state. Sponsored by Republican Governor Jan Brewer, the plan would cut state property taxes, the corporate tax and personal income taxes, in exchange for a temporary rise in the sales tax. Most economic studies agree that states have more jobs and higher income growth when they tax consumption rather than savings, investment and business profits. This explains why most of the nine states with no income tax at all—such as Texas, Florida and Tennessee—have been economic high-flyers in recent decades…. The opponents should consult a new study of state business taxes by former U.S. Treasury economist Robert Carroll for the Tax Foundation. He examined 50 states and found that states with lower corporate tax rates have higher wage gains and more productivity over time. This tax cut sounds like a high-return investment.

Trinkets that stick it to Obama start to sell
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/aug/11/cashing-in-on-no-he-cant/
Excerpt: The Cafepress.com store, a cultural barometer of sorts for political and social expression, offers about 3 million Obama products, she said, but now is up to about 1 million that are "anti-Obama-oriented," reflecting a "significant shift in the last couple of months than what was the trend a year ago."