Thursday, August 27, 2009

Lessons from the Camelot Compound

If we can learn anything from Senator Kennedy and the Kennedy family at large it is that we need term limits for Senators, for Congressman and perhaps even Justices from the Supreme Court on down. Senator Ted Kennedy enjoyed his life in politics, and he should not have been allowed to do so because he should not have been allowed to make politics a matter of his whole life. Serving in political office, particularly national office should not be a career because first, last and otherwise these individuals are performing a public service. A life in politics means running the risk of losing your private persona and as free men and women we can only be governed by other free and otherwise private citizens who relinquish their private lives on a temporary basis. A government for the people, our government is by the people and of the people and not by a professional ruling class different from the rest of us and therefore detached from us.

I honestly don't believe our Founders envisioned this type of service becoming a lifelong calling. To the contrary. Most returned to private life after terms of service and before their deaths. George Washington declined the offer to be made President for Life because that would have been too much like becoming a King and this is exactly what they sacrificed blood and treasure to defeat in our Revolutionary War. They were private citizens first and performed their various public duties out of necessity, out of a sense of duty. Their country needed them so they served but with the other prerequisite that they were common citizens and not some quasi-royalty.

Perhaps our Founders' one miscalculation was that their progeny, these future generations of Americans would read and fully comprehend the core values, the true meanings, the haecceity of this most essential document: The Constitution - the one that grants average citizens temporary authority over their fellow citizens. The Founders perhaps expected future leaders to understand that the uniqueness of America's system of government was the temporary and fleeting nature of the power bestowed upon it's rulers.

Unfortunately, in our time the professional political class, which is a distinct subset of all our politicians, have elevated themselves above common citizenship. We bear witness to this in their arrogant responses during the Health Care Rationing debate in the town hall meeting. This is why they find angry citizens to be an affront to their position, their title and their authority; albeit a temporary authority per the Constitution. This professional political class has subverted aspects of our democratic system to allow themselves, first and foremost to maintain power. Their sense of public service is clearly becoming secondary to their other goal of staying in office.

The Kennedy family has formed a dynasty in American politics and is probably the best example, a symbol of what is wrong with our government and how these more recent generations of leaders have misinterpreted the self-government instruction manual, a.k.a. The Constitution, assuming they've even read it.

The tragic story of Camelot is that the Kingdom ultimately fell and the Round Table was disbanded when the King perished. There is no epilogue in any version of this tale that I've read which speaks of Arthur or Guinevere's legacy beyond mere memory of their kingdom and their finite dominion over it. The other key element of the story is that it is largely myth.

I want our real, non-mythical country to outlast all of its current politicians, to outlast me and all of its current citizens in the same fashion it has outlasted all of our antecedents and that's why granting power to any one of us over the rest even for the span of a mortal life is too long.

Monday, August 17, 2009

A Death Panel By Any Other Name . . .

Perhaps you are not familiar with the name Saul Alinsky. I will tell you who is very familiar with that name -- Barrack Obama. Part of the Saul Alinsky method is obfuscation or confusing people about the facts through a "creative" use of language. Essentially if you can find a way of getting enough people to say "gray" when looking at something that is actually white you can control how people "see" and think. I say fight Alinsky-ites with Alinsky-ism. When calling this health care "reform" Read "reform" as "rationing" because that's what it really is.

So these Alinsky tactics are why they color me a "birther" or a "deather" or "astroturf" or perhaps just an "Axlerod anti-spammer" when in reality we are all just U.S. citizens excercising our 1st Amendment rights. The imprortant things to note at this point is the opposition to Obama's health care rationing is getting traction. Perhaps it's the astroturf so be careful, you may tear your ACLu if you try to pivot as quickly as Pelosi and Reid.

Let's not lose the war because we are celebrating battles won at town halls in August. Now is the time to Double Down. If you haven't already sent your Congressman and Senators a letter, sit down and write one now. If you have already sent them a letter or email or called them, send another now, perhaps thanking them if you are fortunate like I am to have two Senators and a Congressman who are all opposed to this legislation. Perhaps that's not the case but remind them that you haven't forgotten about this bill just because Obama and the media are moving on to their next agenda item.

There is still a threat that H.R. 3200 or some form of it will take away your freedom to choose and access to health care. This won't really be defeated until conservatives control the debate in Congress (2010?) or until Obama leaves office.

Perhaps some of you are senior enough or at least approaching your own Medicare years. If so you may remember a little sci-fi flick starring Michael York, Farrah Fawcett (r.i.p.) and Peter Ustinov as the "Old Man". Now when you think of Obama Care in any form - public a.k.a. government options, Freddie Med co-ops, Doctor Post Office or any other compromised version of the bill - you may also want to start glancing at your hand and hope that the newly installed jewel in your palm doesn't start glowing red.


Before you think the important part of the fight is over realize that the "public option" was a minor organ like a spleen or appendix and not the true guts of this bill. The other aspects of this thousand page, multi-trillion dollar monstrosity still has the teeth to take away your freedom.

Take, for instance, QALY or Qualitative Adjusted Life Years may sound innocuous enough, just like the other Alinsky-esque word play being practiced by Obama and the extremists in Congress but Federally mandated health care "reform" will result in some form of rationing. QALY is one of the mechanisms used by bureaucratic "death panels". QALY or whatever it will end up being called is how government run health care denies you treatment. It's the reason cataracts sufferers in the U.K. have had to go blind in their second eye before receiving treatment or why a woman in Oregon was not allowed to fight her second round of cancer because the pain pill was far less expensive than the proven cancer drug. Obama's "reform" will allow bureaucrats to make decisions based on cost benefit analysis. The older you get the less likely the government will want to "invest" in an expensive procedure to keep you alive for those ever shrinking productive (a.k.a. taxpaying) years in your life. When you stop coming out far enough on the positive integer side of that QALY mathematical formula get ready because it's time to "renew" or run.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Worst Sales Pitch Ever

"You need to do this. You need to do this right now. If you don't bad things will happen."


"But I just came in to look around and maybe test drive a new one."


"Time for test drives is over. Listen, we close the doors in an hour and then I go on summer vacation. It could be a whole month before you get out of the one you are in now."


"Dude, I really don't have a problem with the one I have now. I just heard some things about the new one and wanted to check it out for myself."


"Friend . . . I only say that because even though I've only known you for ten minutes I consider you one of my friends, by the way, what did you say your name was? We need it spelled correctly too so we can put it on the contracts."


"Whoa! Just a second, I ain't signing anything!"


"Listen friend . . . Listen. It is way past the time to be checking it out for yourself. Plenty of experts have already checked it out and signed off on it and it's not like you are an expert on this stuff so trust me when I tell you that you have to trust them."


"That doesn't sound right. I mean, I heard they just came out with this last week. Can I talk to a manager?"


"He's not here right now. . . . but you are already talking to the only guy who will ever matter when it comes to this decision and my friend, you have only one choice here."


"Yes, you are right . . . "


"See, I knew you were a reasonable sort of fellow . . . "


". . . and that's the choice to leave right now."


"Whoa! C'mon now! That wouldn't be very friendly of you. That would be downright un-American to act that way."


"Seriously! What does that have to do with anything?"


"I'm just saying. And questioning me, well, that's even more un-American."


"Dude! At first you were being kind of pushy but now you are becoming insulting."


"Listen to me and let me be perfectly clear: you don't want to say these things. You don't want to act this way. There are cameras and microphones all over this place and they are watching you and hearing what you are saying. That's not a good thing for you if you decide to act this way. Trust me. I am a good guy . . . like you. We were both thrown into this. I just inherited this situation. I have to deal with the hand that I've been dealt. Please don't make me out to be the bad guy. It's them. They put us both in this situation together. We've got to stick together and we've got to do something and do it right away."


"What are you talking about? Who’s this ‘they’ you speak of?"


"I'm talking about keeping your hope alive. I am talking about change you can believe in. These are scary times and you don't want to go it alone. You don't want to be on the side of the losers. You want to be in this with me."


"What does that have to do with my decision about this? My decision to leave right now and think about this a little more?"


"Whoa! Hold on friend. Let's just slow it down now. We don't need any knee jerk reactions. You're just reacting to all their scare tactics."


"But you are the one who was in a hurry."


"No. THEY ARE. They are hurrying both of us and using their scare tactics and lies and confusing you with arguments about things that don't matter."


"You mean like how much it will cost. Because frankly, I don't even know if I can afford it right now. Aren't you even the least bit concerned if I can pay for it."


"Don't worry about that. Most can't and besides, it's not like you can afford to not do it. Doing nothing would be far more expensive."


"How do you figure? You know nothing about me and what I pay. And actually, I just made my last payment so I am good for another month. I'm really in no hurry and I'd like to check out what they are offering over there across the . . . "


"NOOOooooooo. I forbid it."


"Why?"


"Friend, stop asking all of your annoying questions and just go with me on this!"

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Hey-Bama, Stop Looking!! I'm Right HERE !!!

So I would like to say that I am as shocked as I am outraged. I'd like to say I'm shocked, but I read my history including the books on our President's true history and I saw this one coming since November.

This latest intimidation tactic by the Obamakins to try and shout down the general public who oppose this Health Care Abolition bill is right out of the trick bag of some of the most accomplished totalitarian fascist. That dirty trick bag has Rahm Emmanuel's fingerprints all over it but so far he's only sprinkled his evil fairy dust on a very select few who dare oppose Obama's Ruin America agenda. But today we all join the ranks of hedge fund execs, Conservative GM car dealership owners and young war veterans ripe for conservative radicalization (oxymoron alert - had to be a liberal coming up with that notion). Now the threat of oppression is truly democratic. Every American citizen with volition over their own thoughts and the courage to give voice to those thoughts, in other words Every American has the opportunity to land on the official White House "snitch list".

So for about fifteen minutes this morning I contemplated putting a cot in the attic and picking up a copy of The Diary of Anne Frank at a garage sale (because after all, buying it at bookstore or checking it out at the library runs the risk of landing on some other list of names they are probably collecting). Instead I took another direction and decided to spit in the face of the vermin who dare try and scare Americans from exercising their rights. Don't bother wasting your time by ratting me out. I already "informed" on myself to save you all the trouble. I am really taking one for the team in that respect because anyone weaselly enough to inform on someone to Obama and his minions has already lost a very precious and valuable thing, namely their claim to Constitutional rights. At the point where you find yourself reporting fellow citizens for exercising their Constitutional freedoms you have abandoned all hope of enjoying those freedoms yourself.

And what will you get for selling out your 1st Amendment rights this way? A big fat nothing. I didn't even get a coupon for a free month of Netflix rentals when I ratted out myself. I was hoping to use that first month to rent that Al Gore Mystery Science Theater award winner to laugh myself to sleep then send it back and wait for the Bill Maher intellectual masterpiece in hopes of hitting the liberal depression trifecta by losing my country, my sanity and my faith in God all in one week.

I am thinking of a certian in-law who really shall remain nameless in the midst of the White House urging everyone to name names; he's one of those Obamatons and it wouldn't surprise me in the least that he is turning this into a cottage industry of sorts. He's probably using all the industriousness he hasn't squandered on any of life's other pursuits and poured that energy into ferreting out all instances of "fishiness" (about? you mean) opposed to health care and reporting them promptly. Maybe he's got it figured out though. Perhaps the most earnest and diligent participants in this new program of government volunteerism will get their names on another list, the one in which they are the select 2 or 3 % of Americans who actually get access to Health Care under the new Obama rationing plan. Start stocking up on your cyber-chits now because it will take a hefty bag full of those little critters to get some preventative medicine in a country where many of the doctors, daring to act fishy about their whole new arrangement (eg. not performing abortions or assisting suicides) means even fewer practicing doctors on this side of the concentration camp fences.

And before you think this is a bit much stop and ask yourself the question

"What do they intend to do with the list?"

Wait until some of those "named" individuals start getting visits from an IRS auditor. Who knows what other forms of invasive government proctology will be performed on this fishy contingent of our citizenry. This is how it all starts . . .

So if it looks like fascism, if it sounds like a fascism, if it has that "fishy" smell of fascism then it's probably fascist minions of the Obamerikorp. You and I better report that to the true powers that be.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

CANADIANS UNITE AGAINST U.S. HEALTH CARE REFORM

Winnipeg Telegraph
Winnipeg, Manitoba - Canadians from the Yukon and British Columbia to Newfoundland and the Labrador Coast are ready to charge en masse to form a Million Canuck March on Washington District of Columbia, U.S. They are feeling the need to preserve their way of life, namely, the ability to come to the United States to obtain urgent, life saving health care when needed.


In our informal Rasberry Poll 82% of Canadians responded favorably when asked if they liked their current health care system. Many respondents were found to say, "I like not having to pay for it here in Canada when I am not really using it anyway." The remaining 18% were broken up pretty evenly between those who would be more satisfied if they could get access to their "free" care, those who live too far from hospitals and tend to treat most ailments with whiskey and a sharp object of some sort and the rest who have given up hope ever seeing a doctor again in their natural lives. All respondents currently living their final days in hospice were not counted in this poll, not because their opinion does not count, only because it was unlikely they would live long enough to read this article.

Asked what they would do aboot health care if they had an urgent need for a life saving procedure or medication, an almost universal 98% including many Canadian doctors and nurses responded, "I will come to the U.S. eh?" Half of those indicating they'd come to avoid the long wait to get access to care in Canada and the other half stating they'd come to the U.S. because they were fairly certain they'd be denied much needed care after the long wait anyway.



This reporter caught up with Saskatoon native, Roy LeBlanc under the camper shell of his pickup truck stuffing in supplies for what appeared to be a long stay in his deer blind. Roy corrected us, saying the packing list was for his march on Washington, D.C. "I have a history of cancer in my family, eh? So I am relying on health care from our neighbors to da south when I need it." Asked how long he would stay to protest the Obama Health Care reform bill, "as long as it takes . . . logging season is over and hey, while I am der I might catch a hockey game or two. All our best hockey players moved der years ago because da health care was better, don't ya know?"


In a related story conjouned / siamese twins from around the world are running to the United States as fast as their unique birth defects will allow them to run in hopes that they can get the life changing surgeries unavailable in their own countries before it is too late.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

We're All On Notice Now . . . or Perhaps Death Watch over our own Freedom

“I just want to put everybody on notice, because there was a lot of chatter during the week that I was gone: We are going to get this done,” the president said. “Inaction is not an option. And for those naysayers and cynics who think that this is not going to happen, don't bet against us.”


I think the last time a President took this tone with the American public it was Billy Bob Clinton “not-pologizing” for his affair with Monica Lewinski. He was going to scold us, the American public, to get himself out of a tight spot.


I see many of the same connotations in the tone of his voice and Obama’s word choice.


Back from Europe, Obama establishes this tone with “during the week that I was gone” – as if to say the parents were out of town on a business trip and the American people and Congress, like a bunch of teenagers, were having an unsanctioned house party replete with underage drinking and Kid and Play mixing the music selection until the police showed up in response to a noise complaint. To that I say, Mr. Obama, I am not your child. In fact, until you provide an actual birth certificate for review I might even suggest that I am older than you - prove otherwise. More importantly, when it comes to maturity, I am not the one spending money as if the credit card bill is delivered in mom & dad’s name; as if I don’t have to figure out how to pay for all those purchases when the bill comes due.


More disturbing are his first words though, “I just want to put everybody on notice” as if he proceeds from some moral high ground, again like a parent talking to a child.


As I heard one person in the conservative ranks say, “we put our enemies on notice, not the American people”

By calling the open debate “chatter” he is being derisive of the wholesome and healthy, free speech nature of our still Democratic and Free nation.


The founders designed our system to be one of compromise. And if the end result of said compromise on any specific piece of legislature was not agreed to be a generally good compromise the Congressman and Senators could vote it down. Of course then it would never come across the President’s desk for approval.

And this is Obama's primary concern. He wants a piece of legislation on his desk before the fall recess as long as it provides the provisions he’s seeking, namely: resting control of Health Care from private enterprise and making it the domain of the government – a.k.a. his control. Like Banking and the Auto Industry, etc.


It’s very telling that he:

  • a) Speaks to the legislature and the public with words normally reserved for enemies
  • b) He derides the debate component of our legislative process simply because it doesn’t jive with his agenda.

There are many famous cases in history that bear a striking comparison to this same attitude - ones of tyranny and despotism. There is an unspoken part of Obama’s phrase “on notice” an underlying threat of "you better or else" which means that if you don’t give him what he wants he will overrule you, circumvent you or eliminate you from the forum if not disbanding that forum all together.


And Obama has been practicing this next annoying verbal tic for some time, even before teleprompters dictated his verbiage. He’s a petty name caller. If you don’t agree with his version of Health Care Reform (a.k.a. health care abolitionism) then you are a “naysayer” and a “cynic” and you are gambler who is taking a risk a.k.a. “bet(ting) against us.”


We live in a country where we're not supposed to call “terrorists” by name but our own citizens are “naysayers” and “cynics” for disagreeing with the President ?!? Today's naysayers and cynics are tomorrow's dissidents and heretics. From that point it's not so far before our disagreement with the Obama is branded as an act of treason.


But while the rest of this may just appear to be semantics there is one part of his fallacious statement requiring a closer examination and that is when he says "Inaction is not an option."


BZZZZZTTT!!!!

Wrong!!!

INACTION IS ALWAYS AN OPTION

when it comes to our legislative process.


In fact there are very specific Constitutional provisions which bring about "inaction" like those requiring a two thirds or three fifths majority. There are a number of scenarios that occur in which legislation SHALL NOT PASS if it is unable to gain widespread support. Failure to obtain a majority, failure to be passed in identical form in both the House and Senate . . . these are specifically outlined in our Constitution. This is all by design. Our Founding Fathers structured the government not only with the possibility that massive sweeping legislation would fail but with the high probability that it would not pass because after all, the country is a ship full of three hundred million people now and not a speed boat zipping a few of us from one point of the coastline to the next on a whim.


So this brings me to my next point, well, roughly 12 of them.


A Baker's Dozen Reasons Why A Health Care Bill Is Not Needed This Year


  1. The exact number of legal U.S. citizens that do not have access to health care in our country is ZERO (0). That’s right. People who don’t have insurance and can’t afford to pay for health care procedures directly on their own are covered under an existing government plan called Medicaid (not to be confused with Medicare).
  2. Even illegal aliens are not kicked out of Emergency Rooms when in need of critical care.
  3. I haven’t stopped hearing new stories from the Socialized Medicine Horror Show like those found in Canada and the U.K. of women being denied a pap smear only to find out too late that they have cervical cancer, men contracting incurable cases of colon cancer after being denied a colonoscopy, women dieing of breast cancer because they were denied treatment having had cancer once before, people who had to wait until they were blind in both eyes before receiving cataracts surgery and people coming to the United States and paying out of pocket to receive needed medical care they weren’t going to receive in time in these same countries.
  4. Legislation does not have to be 1000 pages and all encompassing to fix specific issues with health care or any other issue. In fact it will be easier to draft, pass, administer and monitor the results of very specific, finite, targeted legislation in 50-100 page increments. It might even get read by everyone signing it then.
  5. And the last two times a single bill comprised of a thousand pages of legislation was passed it was
    1. Not read in its entirety before the vote
    2. The National deficit went up by Trillions of Dollars
    3. It had no positive impact on the items the bills addressed ($timulus and the omnibus appropriations bills have not created any new jobs or fixed any facet of the economy or failing aspects of a bloated government)
    4. deemed unsustainable by the non-partisan government accountants a.k.a. the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) after crunching Obama's numbers. In layman's terms that means the U.S. is taking out an ARM loan on Obama's McMansion when we are only pulling down a janitor's salary. The U.S. will be in foreclosure by the time we miss our third payment on these ridiculous spending bills. Our predatory lending slum lord in this case is China.
  6. So while looking at #5 I suggest we all should be suspicious when being told by the President, members of his cabinet and certain members of Congress that everyone’s in agreement and that something has to be done and it has to be done by some immediate and arbitrary deadline or things will get worse. $pendulus passed and the economy and unemployment got worse anyway. What would waiting a week or month have done? First and foremost it would have given us a chance to read the bill.
  7. I have read a half dozen articles on the topic of our strained Health Care system. No two argue the same reasons for what is wrong with our system and what changes need to take place to fix that system. If experts can’t agree how can hundreds of Congressman and Senators, most with no expertise in Health Care, come to a consensus in less than two months? What's more when a cause and effect question is posed to the public, like "Do you support health care for everyone - even if to pay for such a benefit would mean many employers, like your own would have to lay off workers?" most answer "wha? Wait a minute? NO. I don't think SO."
  8. If you have health care through an employer and you don’t expect to lose your job in the next six months then nothing should change in your current health care situation until your employer’s next annual open enrollment period. For me that happens at the end of the year. I would rather “spend” the next six to seven months seriously examining and debating the reform options.
  9. And if you are not covered under any kind of health insurance – bzzzt – see #1
  10. Because anything done by the federal government is inefficient and fraught with incompetence and compromise. This is not really a recipe for success when it comes to my family’s health and well being. Try filling in the blanks of this sentence next time you sit down with a loved one using those words. "Honey, I know this new system may be inefficient but just think there's a good chance the doctor that is chosen for us will only be mildly incompetent and when it comes to your health we should be willing to compromise."
  11. Because more than 50% of people are opposed to an idea and that trumps any notion of a moral imperative Obama might think he has on this topic, at least as long as we are still a representative Democracy and not a totalitarian dictatorship.
  12. Because they still haven't fixed Social Security and that's been in crisis since my first paycheck at age 16 yet Social Security is still trucking along for decades. It must be. It keeps coming out of my paycheck. Perhaps Obama and Congress should fix that government entitlement program first before inventing new ways of bankrupting the country.
  13. Because I haven’t heard Obama or the Democrats provide one serious reason why this single, do-everything-with-no-regard-for-how-and-who-will-pay-the-cost - piece of legislation can’t wait until the end of the year or next year or the year after that. Like any big ticket item that my wife and I buy, like any decision we are going to have to live with for a long time, perhaps the rest of our lives, like any time I have a salesman trying this hard to close the deal, I reserve and often exercise the right to sleep on it, to wait and not make a decision until I gather more information and to even walk away from the bargaining table. That’s real negotiating leverage. That’s real power. I’m not buying what Obama is selling. Are you? Can you afford it?


Watch the videos linked here and consider the possibilities.


Where we're headed, straight from the mouths of English speaking folks living in technologically developed countries . . . with socialized medicine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbHh86HkBhk


For a scary little laugh

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPC6CqAFA4E


And for some historical perspective. That's right, this has been part of a liberal agenda for decades . . . and we are still here as a nation even though it was a moral imperative for Ted Kennedy half a century ago:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOZsD9X4R6A


So take action as I have and proceed to this link and contact your Senators and Congressman and if you have a few extra minutes on your cell phone plans call the offices of the Senators and Congressmen in some other states too.


Find U.S. Senators

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm?


Find a Congressman with a Zip Code + 4

http://www.house.gov/


AND CPR for American Freedom

http://www.conservativesforpatientsrights.com/