Tuesday, August 18, 2009
http://joshuapundit.blogspot.com/
Brit MEP Daniel Hannon Warns Us Against Creeping Socialism
You remember Daniel Hannan, of course..the conservative Brit politician who eviscerated Britain's socialist PM Gordon Brown as "..the devalued Prime Minister of a devalued government" in a classic and brilliantly eloquent Parliamentary flogging.
Here he is again in a brilliant speech at the Heritage Foundation, warning America about going down the same neo-Marxist path and detailing what can be done to stop the damaging process. A bit long, but well worth your time, trust me.Hannan starts the fireworks at about 4:30.
A major hat tip to those midnight sun burnt revolutionaries at Tundra TabloidsToday's Must Reads...
Here are today's must read links. See something interesting out there? Send me anything you want me to review for this section atRmill2k@msn.comThe New Obamacare Strategy - "Co-ops"
Having taken a beating on government run healthcare, Obama and his minions are going to try and sneak it by labeled as 'co-ops'. You'll be hearing that word a lot in the near future.
In the real world, co-ops are private organizations ostensibly supported and run by and for the members, who pay a fee to use a service. AAA, certain credit unions or your local organic produce co-op are examples. But that's not the kind of 'co-op' Obama has in mind.
This is simply the so-called public option with a new, poll-tested name. It's indistinguishable from Obamacare because it's going to likewise benefit from the use free capital robbed from the taxpayers whether they use the system or not.
This is similar to the way Japanese companies took over whole segments of the US economy in the 1980's.The Japanese government subsidized exporters with interest free loans so they could afford to undercut the competition and drive them out of business to acquire market share.After which, of course, the price can go up, and rationing can be instituted.
And of course, one reason the Japanese were able to afford to do that is because they undervalued their currency and made consumer goods highly expensive in their home market, basically mandating savings the government could draw on to continue the process. That didn't end well for some very good reasons, and unlike '80's Japan, our currency doesn't really have any room to be revalued without producing Weimar level inflation.
The so-called co-ops will also benefit from the fact that the federal government will be making the rules that govern all insurance companies. Does anyone actually think the Obama Administration won't slant the rules to favor Obamacare and put private companies out of business?
The government isn't involved in 'competition' with private business when the government is subsidizing its own government program and is also writing the rules.
And not a word about tort reform, the real boogeyman behind rising costs.
Nor is anybody saying anything about the ultimate price tag involved, or what effect free healthcare for illegal aliens will have on increasing a problem that's already out of hand and a major drain on the economy.
Don't be fooled by these con artists.Keep the pressure up on your congressmen.Monday, August 17, 2009
Mike Huckabee: "The US Shouldn't Be Telling Jews Where To Live"
Ex-Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee has always been a plain spoken supporter of Israel, among his other attributes.Presently, he's in Jerusalem criticizing the Obama Administration's policies towards the Jewish State, and is scheduled to make a speech in East Jerusalem's Shepard's' Hotel, a Jewish owned property where two families of Arab squatters who weren't paying their rent were recently evicted after a court decision.
While the Obama Administration has no problem trying to tell Jews where they can build homes and own property, they have absolutely no problem with illegal Arab construction - or the Arab purchase of land in Israel through foreign buyers. Obama Drops White House Snitch Line
Well, I have to admit this made me chuckle maliciously:Following a furor over how the data would be used, the White House has shut down an electronic tip box — flag@whitehouse.gov — that was set up to receive information on “fishy” claims about President Barack Obama’s health plan.
E-mails to that address now bounce back with the message: “The email address you just sent a message to is no longer in service. We are now accepting your feedback about health insurance reform via: http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck.”
The “flag” service was introduced Aug. 4, with a White House blog post saying: “There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.”
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said at a briefing shortly after the service launched: “We're not collecting names from those e-mails. … [A]ll we're asking people to do is if they're confused about what health care reform is going to mean to them, we're happy to help clear that up for you. Nobody is keeping anybody's names.”
That's just another whopper from Obama's spokesmouth. Under US law any data colected in this fashion must be retained. And as for not keeping anyone's name, once the Obama Administration has you e-mail address its a simple matter for them to access your name, IP address and any other information you gave out connected with establishing your e-mail account - your home address, for instance, and even your credit card numbers. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, wrote a letter to Obama raising privacy concerns about what the senator called an “Obama monitoring program.”
“I can only imagine the level of justifiable outrage had your predecessor asked Americans to forward emails critical of his policies to the White House,” Cornyn wrote. “So I urge you to cease this program immediately.”
In a later statement, Cornyn said: “Of course the White House is collecting names. … [I]t is inevitable. Anyone with access to the flag@whitehouse.gov account has access to the names and email addresses that are collected in that account. … How are they purging names and email addresses from this account to protect privacy?”
Well, Senator Cornyn, I don't think they are going to be deleting anything.Aside form it being illegal, it's obvious that just as Obama has a database of his supporters, he now has a database for his 'enemies' list.And oh yeah, part of that enemies list is a whole slew of people from Nigeria and other places with very interesting business propositions for the Prevaricator-In-Chief....culled from my e-mail spam blocked list and duly sent to flag@whitehouse.gov as 'fishy'. From a public computer, of course.
You know me, anything I can do to help.Sunday, August 16, 2009
Retreat From The Public Option - Obamacare Begins To Crumble
The walk back from Obamacare has begun, with key Democrats admitting that the 'public option', AKA the part of the bill designed to force private insurers out of business simply isn't going to fly:A key Senate negotiator said Sunday that President Barack Obama should drop his push for a government-funded public health insurance option because the Senate will never pass it.
Democratic Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota said it was futile to continue to "chase that rabbit" due to the lack of 60 Senate votes needed to overcome a filibuster.
"The fact of the matter is there are not the votes in the United States Senate for a public option. There never have been," Conrad said on "FOX News Sunday."
I guess somebody isn't willing to queer his chances for re-election by ignoring his constituents. And he's not the only one. Even Obama's leftist Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has changed her tune all of a sudden: Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said providing citizens with the option of government-run insurance isn’t essential to the Obama administration’s proposed overhaul of U.S. health care.
“What’s important is choice and competition,” Sebelius said today on CNN’s “State of the Union.” The public option itself “is not the essential element.”
If she's talking this way,you can take it for granted that it's coming directly from the Bossman.
What it amounts to is that Obama and his minions realize that the tribe has spoken, and the numbers aren't in his favor.And the flak is coming from his own party...the Democrats have the numbers to pass absolutely anything they want to - provided they're unconcerned about the consequences come election day.
Look for a rearguard action to try and preserve as much of this bogus legislation as possible while still saving Obama's face.
Wednesday, 19 August 2009
"It concerns me when there are some in the United States who would want to tell Israel that it cannot allow people to live in their own country, wherever they want" - Mike Huckabee, speaking from Jerusalem.
Posts
