On The Tax Burdened Trail

It's a well known fact that there isn't a spending program that Democrats can really say they hate. They want to spread your dollars out everywhere so they can buy themselves votes. You work hard, you come home tired, you still have to do things around the house, you go to bed, and get up just to do the same thing all over again....just so you can pay for programs like the one Harry Reid is describing in this short clip:



I hope that Nevadans who voted for this moron are pleased with themselves. This bozo has never held a real job in his entire life, yet he wields power in the Senate to spread your money around, so some poor down and out cowboy poets (who don't have real jobs either) can sit around and have a place to recite poetry. I bet NPR even covers it.

Yippee the @#$%!! ti yi yay.

No Time For Talk

Time is short this week, so I am sorry for the absence.

But here is a short video put out by the Heritage Foundation that I think many of you will find interesting.



I think all of it made sense, but two comments stood out the most.

1. Did you note what Rep. Allen West (R-FL) said at the 0:47 mark?

It takes five miles to turn an aircraft carrier. So if we want this thing turned around, we have to start sometime. We have to do it now. Nancy Pelosi and her band of bitter screechers will just have to scream how unfair it is. We have to turn it around or it's going to sink. We have no choice.

2. Did you note what Rep. James Lankford (R-OK) said at the 1:27 mark?

Every generation I have been acquainted with in my time on this earth has worked hard to make things better for their children and grandchildren. My parents did it for me, their parents did it for them.

Take heart folks, because this is no game. It used to be funny, jokes about politicians spending money have always been around and have been quite entertaining at times. But not anymore. now it's going to take men and women with guts to make tough decisions.

Time to suck it up folks. Time to see who gives a damn and who doesn't.

Desperate Measures In A Surreal Existence

Since late last year, there was a concerted effort to cast Obama as channeling Reagan as part of his miraculous recovery, from liberal tax and spend policies to just plain spend. Someone who says he's Howard Fineman is thus quoted:

"The irony here is that the president is sort of channeling Ronald Reagan in an effort not to become Jimmy Carter ... but the point is, the president is validating the idea of tax cuts as the centerpiece of economic policy."

That was HuffyPo.

In Time magazine, it's still being discussed.

...it became clear to several in the room that Obama seemed less interested in talking about Lincoln's team of rivals or Kennedy's Camelot than the accomplishments of an amiable conservative named Ronald Reagan, who had sparked a revolution three decades earlier when he arrived in the Oval Office.

Okay, let's really channel Reagan right now and see what he would say. Wait....it's coming....hold on......

Thus saith Ronald Wilson Reagan to Barack Obama:

Cut taxes, cut spending, and get government off of the backs of the people. Let the market decide.

Reagan was far from perfect, as even the staunchest of conservatives may not want to admit. He was forced to compromise with a Democratic Congress too often, which always ends up bad. But he picked and chose his battles wisely. And if avoiding being painted like Carter is Obama's goal, it's way too late for that.

As we watch the events in the Middle East unfold and learn more details about the sad economic numbers, it only stands to reason that what we are doing isn't working. If Obama really wants to surrender his heart and soul to what is right and true, this is what he needs to be able to say this publicly... and often.

But somehow we all know this isn't going to happen.

He isn't giving up his core beliefs that includes government being the answer to all problems. He is trying to cozy up for the moment, to see what he can do in order to get the priority things on his agenda through. So far, he's agreed to let people keep the tax cut they already had. Nothing changed.

I really think he and his handlers are trying to BS the people into thinking that he cut taxes, when he really didn't. Simply put, Obama and his wayward Congress didn't allow the Bush tax cuts to expire. Nothing went up or down. He'll have to do way better than that to claim some inner channeling of the Gipper.

Reagan made the country stronger in mind and spirit, and generally uplifted people by restoring their pride in their country. Obama has embarrassed this nation, time and time again by bowing to despots and kissing a monarch's ring. Reagan went to Iceland and walked away from a crappy deal offered to him by Gorbachev, who thought the U.S. President was as weak as the one who preceded him. Obama gave the Russians everything they asked for with no bargaining, whatsoever.

In the desperate moments of what will likely become a failed presidency, it will be hard to note which act or inaction caused the most damage. Equally, it will be difficult to determine how long the damage caused will last. If nothing else, this bunch is setting the thing up for further failure in the next administration, should they not win re-election.

So, we must hope and pray that someone along the way can get some detailed plans together and put them to the test. Getting something solidly together in the the way of spending cuts all around the board, makes a good first gesture. If Mr. Obama is serious, he'll have no problem giving up a goodwill gesture and offer to cut spending in every government department. No exceptions.

Despite these things I noted in this story, I still have to shake my head in disbelief at what we have now seen ourselves become in the last four years, with the last two being the clincher.

We are watching the Middle east explode, we have not seen any real gainful improvement in the jobs numbers, food and oil prices are going up, and we have a press that wants to assist the White House by creating a myth for an image. We are watching nation after nation lose confidence in both, our integrity, resolve, and our financial solvency.

And despite these massive red flags, very few people are the least bit concerned. The biggest dilemma in this life for them is, they cannot decide whether or not they like the new American Idol without Simon.

If this is a dream, please wake me now. If not, pour me a stiff drink.

In The Aftermath Of The Giffords Shootings: An Entreaty And Explanation

Part I: The Entreaty

After an entire Sunday news cycle has been driving (and dictating the pace of) this post-shooting discussion, we have a little more information to work with and have had some time to sort through what we do have and analyze it, more judiciously.

It comes as no surprise that the Left Wing establishment has made every effort to demonize those who do NOT stand for their positions on important issues, or their worldview in general. Almost immediately, we heard about Sarah Palin's target map of Blue Dog Democrats who conservatives wanted to unseat in the November election, and we heard almost incessant rhetoric about the TEA Party movement in general. Naturally, the fingers were pointed at them.

If commentators were not directly pointing fingers, they were subtlety leading in that direction through the way they phrased their questions in general. Their goal seemed to be creating sound bites to be used over and over, in order to plant suspicion that the killer was probably a Right Wing nut job, affiliated with the TEA Party organizations.

And why not?

Over the course of the last two years we have seen the desperate attempts to discredit the movement with hateful rhetoric, accusations of racism, going so far as to plant union thugs at rallies who claim to be white supremacists. We have even witnessed members of the CBC (while putting up a brazen display of arrogance and power drunkenness) claiming that they heard someone use the "N" word and accused another of spitting, on one of them. None of that has ever been proven even with a $100,000 reward at stake, but that has not stopped their desperate accusations.

Still, none of that worked, as was made evident by the last election.

Bluntly put, that kind of fiery inflammatory rhetoric made no difference in the outcome. And it has driven the Left crazy to no end.

So what do they do now?

They, being the crass and desperate opportunists they are, use a tragic and senseless situation/event to take the opportunity to stoke the fire even more. The goal is the same, the methods are just a little different.

No one of any political influence has failed to be in utter shock and disbelief, anymore than the officials who have benefited from this last election. They are hurt every bit as much as those who did not.

This is not who we are as a nation or a movement. Decent people do not seek this kind of thing, nor do we revel in it. But, this is exactly what the despicable extremes of both sides want and they will surely get it, if cooler heads do not prevail on BOTH sides.

It is not enough for the conservatives in power to condemn this kind of thing, we must have help from the people who we merely disagree with us on policy issues. And where are these people? Where is Harry Reid? Where is Nancy Pelsoi? Nowhere.

I personally do not want anyone who I vehemently disagree with on politics, to suffer anything like this.... in any way, shape, or form. I want them VOTED out of power, into the private sector. But I do NOT wish them to become dead at the hands of anyone else, because of their politics. NONE, not one. I respect life way too much.

Believe it, for it is true. And in the meantime, know without a doubt I personally know of no one else who believes in this kind of thing either. And I kniow many who are far more conservative than me.

So if the reader of this post is still with me, please understand something clearly. There are some things that are not being made known by the Media hacks who are advancing this inflammatory discussion Many of them are directing this story toward decent citizens. who merely want to slow the government down from spending our children's and grandchildren's future away. NOTHING MORE.

What we know is still relatively limited. More may be known than has been released, but for some reason the information hasn't been made public. Bits and pieces about the event itself and the possible motives behind it, are slowly coming out. But some things have been refuted along the way, as well.

The 24-hour news cycle has been a double-edged sword at times, since its development. Thus, it is always important for intelligent people to realize that what we think we may know at a given moment, may or may not be true. The 24/7 news networks do this for ratings.

"This just in, but we cannot verify it yet"...."we have word from some source"....all of that kind of thing has to be dealt with much patience and prudence. It is utterly imperative to be circumspect in the formation of our conclusions.


Part II: The Explanation

From what we have been able to establish so far, we can say with much certainty that this gunman was a bit deranged. Derangement comes from a variety of sources, one of those is mental illness.

In the case with physical illness, the sources are different in nature and must be looked at differently. But we also know that some organ systems can affect others, causing other complications along the way. Such is the case with mental illness. And I have worked with mentally ill patients some years ago and can say from a professional perspective that not all disorders are exactly the same.

My intention in this portion of the post is not to teach a class on mental illness per se, but to help lay people to understand a little something about what we term, thought disorders. One of those disorders is Schizophrenia.

There are several types. But for the purposes this discussion is not important to know much about them or their differences. It takes years of experience to have the ability to diagnose more specifically.

What is important is that you know that a huge component of a thought disorder is based on the kinds of delusional material they think about. They may be have grandiose thoughts, thoughts of persecution, or may exhibit paranoia. Whatever the nature of those thoughts, most of the time, they are not right thoughts.... but just know the person affected establishes them as fact, in their own mind.

There are primarily three topics that these people can ruminate and fixate on: Sex, religion, and politics. They can have one, all, or any combination of the three. It makes no difference the number or which ones.

As we we believe we now know, this gunman put up some videos along with a My Space page, and possibly a Facebook page. (I have seen the videos and I will not link to them. If you wish to see them, others have done so and you can see them if you wish.) The important thing to note here is he was fixated on both religion and politics.

We know that he has a history of erratic and disruptive behaviors. How many times have we seen this before now? How many times have we heard the people say, there were red flags everywhere, yet nobody did anything at all?

A guy gets fired for erratic behaviors or just being creepy in some way and later he shoots the place up. Many times we find the man was paranoid and could have been helped, if someone would have made an effort to intervene properly.

But let's refocus here.

Remember, the thoughts of the person with a thought disorder are not accurate.

It is the person's perception that is deluded. Many times there are impulsive acts, sometimes they are more deliberate after long periods of fixation. We still do not know for a surety what angle this guy came from, in the political component of his delusions.

We do know that he wanted some kind of new currency, but what that was and why was not made particularly clear. We have evidence that has been spiraling into this inaccurate world of his, for awhile now.

The argument now becomes the motive.

Was it political in a real sense... or was it as a result of a series of delusional thoughts?

From the evidence we have, it strongly points to the delusions.

Was it driven by Left Wing or Right Wing politics?

From what we have gathered so far, we cannot tell right now. The real issue here is whether the guy was able to make a true conscious decision based on some real cause, or something he merely believed to be a cause.

I do not believe that Timothy McVeigh was mentally ill. He had a cause and a belief system and was fully capable of planning and implementing a heinous act that will forever be in our minds, whenever these kinds of things occur. The mentally ill person with a thought disorder is typically not capable, because they are disorganized and erratic as his videos have shown.

So Hillary Clinton can travel the world and tell others that an extremist shot Rep. Giffords if she wants. But she clearly does not have her facts correct to make such a statement. Neither do the MSM hacks or the Left Wing web sites like the Daily Kos.

So in forming your own judgments, be careful that you do not buy into just one aspect or component of this event, without considering all things together. And more than anything, let your conscience me your guide and leave the hacks to make utter and complete fools of themselves.

The fact remains that there are six people dead and others wounded, and a Congresswoman fighting for her life. Let's pray for them and their loved ones that they can find the strength to endure a very difficult situation, they did not ask to be put in.

Friday Flashback

Not taking a side on the issue either way, but the goal here is to highlight one of the most arrogant pieces of equine excrement's past statements. Here is a short video of FORMER Representative Alan "Disgracin" Grayson, grilling NASA Administrator Charles Bolden Jr. early last year:



I am not Bolden's biggest fan by any stretch. But after Grayson's pompous behavior had been made manifest to all involved here, he had the audacity to say this about the prospect of commercial space flights for humans:

"I think that what you are doing is taking a shot in the dark. You have no way of knowing if any commercial entity will ever be able to put a man in orbit, no matter how much money you throw at them."

Now...fast forward to this story.

PRIVATE companies have been promising for years that they can slash the cost of space travel, breaking the government monopoly on space flight and opening up the final frontier to the rest of us. At long last these efforts may be bearing fruit.

On 8 December, the California-based firm SpaceX launched its Dragon capsule into orbit and safely parachuted it into the ocean - the first time a private company has achieved the feat.

Again..... this not a debate on the the issue itself. But it does demonstrate that Alan Grayson is certainly no visionary and probably one of the biggest assholes on the planet.

Thankfully, most of the good people of Florida's 8th Congressional District woke up and voted this clown out. It only goes to show that any jerk in Congress can be voted out, no matter how much money you throw at them.

Friday Funnies

For those of you who are sentimental about preserving history for the next generation, you might want to take a look at this offer:



Call now. Phones are ringing off the hook and supplies are limited.

Have your credit card ready.

An Open Letter To The Senate

Dear Senators,

We write this correspondence mainly to the Blue Dog Democrats and the RINOs who are up for re-election in the Senate in 2012, you know who you are. But we also feel it necessary for all to see because as you now well know, nothing is impossible when decent people make their voices heard.

We are requesting and seriously suggesting you do NOT change the Senate rules on filibusters. It will do you no good because BS legislation you whip up will now fail in the House anyway. Not only that, you will be rewriting one of the unique and special safeguards designed to protect the people from a juggernaut government, like the one we just witnessed these past two years.

We need checks and balances, we need legislation to be well thought out and deliberate. We need government to move slowly, in order to preserve the republic from the irresponsible power hungry hacks we have seen over the years, both historically and recently. We do not need one party or another ramming crap down our throats. without some way to block it.

As we just witnessed in the last election, many elected officials can and will be defeated in any given election. We prefer that you do the jobs we sent you to do, but we are not beyond firing any of you, if you do not. The choice is yours, we will be watching closely and you will be hearing from us periodically.

If there are any questions as to whether or not you need to do something (or NOT do something) please refer to the U.S. Constitution. If it lines up with that document and there is still some question, contact your constituents anytime.

If you are not able to read, the House of Representatives will be reading the Constitution later today. If you are unable to catch it live on C-SPAN, we are sure you can catch it later on repeats and/or on the internet 24/7, on You Tube or the C-SPAN site.

Thank you in advance for your attention in this matter. We will be in touch.


Respectfully submitted,

The American People.

The Order Of Business

Sorry, but there isn't much time for me to post a lot right now. But todays the new Congress takes charge. Here's a man who I am looking forward to seeing make speeches on the House floor:



If he and the others like him can make some noise, we can make some significant strides in slowing down this juggernaut we call the federal government. We need to:

1. Slow it
2. Stop it
3. Reverse its direction.

Don't expect miracles right away. But we must be methodical and persistent.

True Vision, True Hope

The proverb states it quite emphatically: Where there is no vision, the people perish.

Although he was not perfect and certainly had his share of flaws, Ronald Reagan had a vision. He knew there were forces that wanted government to grow, at the expense of freedom and liberty. He fought those forces back then and I believe that he knew they would not surrender easily, after he left.

Here is a prime example of today's forces that seek to plant government deeper in our lives at the expense of our personal liberties, and those who will follow us:

We hear many voices, today. We hear them clamor, we hear them insult, we hear them intimidate. Many of us know and understand what their motives are, we knew it back in 2008. But enough people on the fence were willing to ignore the pleas of those of us who knew. And this is what we got for it.

Folks, it's going to be tough. We have a huge mess to clean up and there is no guarantee it will be easy. It may take some time and we may have to make some sacrifices along the way.

But we can do it. If I didn't think we could, I wouldn't be wasting my time typing this out.

It is said that the WWII generation was the world's greatest generation. After all, it was them, who sacrificed so much to save the world from a maniacal madman and his distorted vision for the world. His vision was being implemented by force. They did not fear those who advanced their beliefs by violence and the threat thereof. They were steadfast, brave, and determined to not allow him to succeed.

Today, we have many people in power who have distorted visions of their own. They are not using the barrel of a gun to implement them. But they haven't acquired enough power or leverage from the citizenry to do this just yet.

Nevertheless, they are intent on ramming it down our throats against our will in a different way. They listen not to the people, but to their own selfish and aggrandizing spirits. They issue executive orders and pass unpopular legislation under the guise of humanitarianism, but under it all it is still a huge power grab to set things up for more abuses in the future.

They may not be rolling tanks into our yards right now, but it is still by force.

Today, that great generation is dying off and we who were raised by them are all that is left to carry on that torch. But if within this nation there are a few men and woman who have clear and concise visions of the way things ought to be, then there is an opportunity to restore that which is slipping away from us, and into the hands of an increasingly more corrupt government.

This is our chance, this is our moment. This is my sincere hope.

If we rise to the occasion as it has been done in generations past, we can become an even greater generation than those who preceded us. If not, then their sacrifice will have been in vain, our nation will crumble before our very eyes, and there will be no more hope.

It Does Not Compute

This is why I think the Democratic Party is worried.

Sixty-five percent (65%) of voters nationwide now hold populist, or Mainstream, views of government. That’s up from 62% last September and 55% last March.

Mainstream Americans tend to trust the wisdom of the crowd more than their political leaders and are skeptical of both big government and big business (see crosstabs). While Republicans and unaffiliated voters are more likely to hold Mainstream views than Democrats, a majority of those in the president’s party (51%) hold such views.

It's why they are mounting a smear campaign against common decent people who simply disagree with the way the nation is headed (and the methods in which it is being run). Nothing criminal about it, nothing immoral about it, and there is damned sure nothing racial about it.

We have been told ad nauseum that feelings are important and not to be ignored. Well....from this usually accurate poll... we can hypothesize that this is how most of the country feels.

When we consider these numbers as factors in calculating fairness, how does it compute that 35% of the population gets to dictate to the majority? How does THAT make you feel?

Fetch The Ball. Good Media. (Good, Good, Good.)

A textbook example of a willfully and purposely contrived act of desperation can be seen in the video found over at Advance Indiana.

Go listen to it for yourself.

But before you do, just know and understand that they would have liked to have heard racial slurs. They wanted to hear them. But from the video, I honestly cannot hear anything. From that vantage point, there were no examples of what was alleged.

Here's what I think:

I think they tipped off the news media, told them they'd be trying to provoke a response from the Tea Partiers. The media ran to the site and started the preconceived, preplanned story with nothing but an accusation. The government officials seen on the tape set it up.

They threw a ball. Then, the media ran after it. They chased it out of the muck faster than a retriever chasing his favorite ball. It's classic.

If anything was said, I do not know how it could have been heard in a crowd that large and vocal. We certainly don't hear it in this video. So far we haven't heard anything. More evidence that they cannot defend their decision, so they must resort to ridiculing and telling lies.

Mike Malloy - Hypocrite At Large

Okay. I have heard enough of this crap. I have had my fill of listening to bastards like this:



It is plain to most intelligent people who have integrity and those who thirst for truth. Good people cannot condone this kind of behavior, on either side of the spectrum.

Stop: In The Name Of America

I am not in a particularly humorous mood today, so there will be no Friday Funnies.

I will say this very clearly, with no fears or reservations. I want it to be utterly clear just where I stand. I do not now, nor have I ever, supported malicious acts as a means of protest. I do not condone threats of violence on any elected official, for any reason.

In case someone did not understand me, let me say again that I am not supporting any act that threatens any of our government officials. None. Not one.

All it takes is a handful of crazies to create the impression that the political opposition is complicate in the criminal acts that I have condemned. The vast majority of those who do not support this current government or its leftist policies, are not the kind of people who approve of this either.

And the Democratic leadership knows it.

All it takes is an opportunist bunch of politicians who cannot resist embellishment to score political points, and a complicate media that gives them the forum to do so. They want this to be a big deal, so they can justify taking more extreme measures down the road, to solidify their power and control over those who are not in lock-step with them.

So, let's be clear once again. If anyone who stumbles along this blog is tempted to allow their righteous indignation to turn into the kind of rage that leads to violence and criminal threats, just stop it. Stop it now.

There are politicians (like Jim Clyburn, and the President of the United States of America) who find it politically expedient to taunt and dare the crazies to do things like this. They would rather add fuel to the fire, they want discord.

The modus operandi of this current government has been (and still is) to create the illusion that something is far worse than it really is. And what's worse, they use that strategy as a means and a platform to campaign to show people, that they alone are the ones who can put a stop to it.

They never met a problem that couldn't be generated into a crisis. There has never been a crisis they couldn't fix.

All the while, they use fear and intimidation to coerce people to get in line. They use ridicule as a science to berate and goad people into angry responses so they can crack down with more authority. And it only works when people let these bastards manipulate them into their traps.

Everyone needs to stop and stop right now. It is childish, it is wrong, and it's not the kind of America that most decent people want.

Assuming Control

If anyone thinks that this healthcare facade is about anything but control, they need to listen to this audio. It's short and pretty much to the point.



If anyone is listening, they are finally being truthful about their intentions. They told us during the campaign and they are telling us now.

I believe them, do you?

A Bed Made Of Straw

I have been inundated with an overwhelming workload the past two days. For this reason, I haven't had much time to analyze the obvious repercussions that will follow the passage and signing of one of the worst laws to ever get manure shoveled out of the halls of Congress and onto the heads of the American people.

Evidently, Victor Davis Hanson has time to sort it out and did so quite well in this essay. It is long....but well worth the time it takes to read it.

Like Mr Hanson and a host of others, I am one of those people who truly believe that this bill is not about healthcare coverage for the poor, anymore than cap and trade is about preserving the environment. It is about increasing power, control, and the authority of the federal government over the American people. It accomplishes this by increasing the dependency of the people upon said government, just like many other programs forced upon us by the nanny state.

Now, the Leftist technocratic robots (who cannot form a remotely intelligent opinion outside of the socialist/statist box) will have us all believe that we are racists, as well as selfish and greedy jerks who care nothing about the poor. They will have us believe that we are insensitive and that we want people to fail, so we can capitalize on their misfortunes.

One only needs to read this piece of garbage to see that this is a bitter, hateful, and malicious bunch of hacks who engineered this trash into law. Instead of humility and gratitude, they seek to destroy people who merely do not agree with their socialist ideology.

As I sit here and ponder the future outcome of this massive wholesale trashing of the American people's rights and institutions, one thing is clear and will certainly come to pass:

The Democrats will lose big this November and the shoe will once again be on the other foot.

Now that the bar has been lowered to include the blatant disregard of the will of the majority of the American people, there will be a time, when they will live according to that same disregard -- when they once again are in the minority. And when that time comes to pass for all to see, please remember something:

They made their bed and they will be required to lay in it.

Notice

It's going to be a couple of difficult (and possibly long) days ahead. As a result, my blogging here and my reading at your blogs might be limited.

Besides that, the low-life, scum-sucking, and lying Congress has gone against the will of the majority of the people and passed the pathetic bill anyway. So what else is there to say?

Words Of Destruction

Words are powerful entities. They can influence those who do not understand the concepts, behind them.

By now most of us know the latest stunt being considered by the corrupt and foolish Democratic leadership, in a sneaky and underhanded attempt to ram the healthcare bill through to the President's desk. Details and commentary can be found here at the Washington Post.

After laying the groundwork for a decisive vote this week on the Senate's health-care bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested Monday that she might attempt to pass the measure without having members vote on it.

Instead, Pelosi (D-Calif.) would rely on a procedural sleight of hand: The House would vote on a more popular package of fixes to the Senate bill; under the House rule for that vote, passage would signify that lawmakers "deem" the health-care bill to be passed.

I could spend a lot of time using cute quips to parse the article, but that would not be the way to effectively make a sound argument. The bottom line in all of this is quite plain to me, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out.

One of the objectives of the progressive movement is to isolate issues by controlling the narrative. They do this by trying to use a multitude of over inflated words....so they can cloud up the simplest of concepts. They also can use them to overstate the severity of a problem, or they can just use them to communicate false information.

They can use our responses to their weak arguments, against us and our positions. They can counter the words of our narrative and by the time you figure out how to respond to that, you find you have allowed yourself to get off message.

So what's the message? Well, let's look at it closely.

It has taken over a year for a bill to come out and it's still not passed. That tells us, it's not a good bill.

But that isn't enough.

Pelosi, Reid, and Company sought to use reconciliation to jam it through. Until the parliamentarian said it wasn't right, they were more than happy to pursue that course of action without any regrets. They called it opening the gate, but the gate was shut. So now they are parachuting over the fence with this newest scheme.

It just goes to show the utter desperation of those who are losing this argument, and the lengths they are willing to go just to make a bad bill into a bad program. It makes them look childish and immature, like someone who cannot lose gracefully and concede defeat. It also makes them look bitter and vindictive, like someone who can't get their way.

More importantly, it shows other things.

If they are willing to make every effort to pass this bill using this method (or any other that will not require their members to go on record, and give it an up or down vote), it cannot be good for the overall health and well-being of the republic. It can only mean trouble.

They are telling us they are more in line with Soviet style government reform, than any provision made in the United States Constitution. If they do not do this the way the system has intended, they are showing us some major outward signs that their agenda is notin the best interests of the United States. They are demonstrating loudly and clearly that they want to reserve the right to overrule the will of the people at any time of their choosing --- thus exercising some measures of dictatorial totalitarianism.

If this is the case in this issue today and they are allowed to do it without protest, what will they do when it is time to cede power after losing it through an election? Will they come up with some obscure parliamentary procedure? Will they try to seize control by using obscure wording to claim a Constitutional crisis (and seize "temporary" power as a result of the fake perception of said crisis)?

It's something to think about, America. I would suggest thinking about it long and hard, before you cast your votes for progressives again. Because it is the White House who has command over the military. And if this were to become a stark reality, what commands would he give to it in the event of such a chain of events taking place?

Just asking.

Prolonging An End

In my many years, I have seen countless instances of family members refusing to accept that a loved one is dying a painful miserable death, and they want every possible thing done to keep them from dying. They even go as far to demand that if that dying person's heart were to stop beating at anytime during their hospital visit, the medical and nursing staff would then be required to resuscitate that person. They somehow think that by sticking a tube down into their lungs and pressing on their chests (only to have them die a day, week or month later) is going to buy them more time, while some miracle occurs.

Now let's take a look at the sick and dying bill the Congress has been trying to revive, over and over.

Seen today on Drudge was this little walk down memory lane:

'END' OF THE 'END GAME' OR 'THE END'?

TODAY: Obama pushing on health care end game (AP)

Last year:

July 28: Healthcare endgame on Capitol Hill (Reuters)

August 21: Analysis: Health care endgame near but uncertain (AP)

October 14: Senate, administration begin healthcare endgame as Dem leaders express unity (Hill)

October 25: Senators say health care bill endgame is in sight (Politico)

October 27: End Game: So When Will Health Care Really Happen? (TPM)

October 30: Health reform inches closer to endgame (WaPo)

November 23: The Health Care Endgame (NPR)

Let's think about this for a moment. The Democrats have control of both houses of Congress and the White House. All of last year, they had a filibuster-proof super majority in the Senate. And yet, they could not get a bill passed and sent to the President for a signature.

Doesn't this indicate to anyone besides the majority of the American people that this is not a good bill? Maybe it's time to stop heroic measures on this one and allow it to die an honorable death.



Addendum: Not so far off topic is this video that clearly speaks for itself:



I have had my differences with Sen Byrd over the years on certain issues, but he got this one right.

Dead right.

Taxation Infection

If you visit San Francisco and eat out in a restaurant, you might find a little extra charge on your bill. From the Chicago Tribune comes this story:

Nothing succeeds in the travel industry like a bad idea. The latest hidden mandatory add-on is a "health" charge added to restaurant bills. As far as I know, this scam cropped up first in San Francisco, but you can count on it to spread.

The rationale for this one is to cover the employers' mandatory contribution to the City's "Healthy San Francisco" health-coverage system. The charge actually is levied on employers, but at least some restaurants are adding a few dollars or percentage points to each customer's bill to cover this charge.

The restaurants' excuse for assessing this charge separately is to let customers know how much they're paying for employees' health coverage. That's the same excuse hotels use when they add "resort" or "housekeeping" fees to unsuspecting guests' room bills. It's the same excuse airlines would use to exclude fuel surcharges from their advertised fares if the Department of Transportation would allow them. And it's sheer nonsense. Employees' health insurance is no less of a cost of doing business than rent, property taxes, food costs, security services and all the other inputs businesses require to operate. To single out health care for a separate surcharge is unwarranted.

I can understand the outrage....to a degree. But let's look at something may not be so apparent to the person who wrote this article.

I have worked in businesses both large and small, over my many years in the workforce. The cost of doing business is the cost of doing business. Whatever cost a business owner or corporation must pay to keep the doors open is part of the overhead, and it always gets passed onto the customer. This includes taxes and fees levied by all levels of government.

In this case, the restaurants in SF are passing this city tax (and it is a tax) to cover the additional cost forced upon them. The only difference is they are not building it into the price of the items on the menu. They are showing it for all to see.

This is why additional taxes on corporations and businesses in a time of recession only creates inflation, which can (and often does) result in more recession. This is why a tax on commerce of any kind, is a tax on the consumer.

Let's look at this in healthcare terms:

Whenever government sticks its nasty snot-dripping noses into our lives, it infects every thing it touches. Whether bacterial or viral, it spreads like wildfire and weakens the system.

Presidential Prevarication

Pathological liars make such a habit of lying, they often forget the lies they tell. Now, I wouldn't be so bold as to say that President Obama is a pathological liar. But after watching this video, I must wonder just what kind liar he is:



These things are a bit perplexing, especially when the President is now said to be pushing the Nuclear Option of Reconciliation on Healthcare.

So let's review.

We cannot establish that President Obama is a pathological liar. But we can say with a certainty that he is a liar, if he presses forward with the prospect of Reconciliation. My guess is he is so desperate to fulfill his goal of transforming this nation into a European style entitlement model that he really doesn't care what he once said.

My grandmother once had a saying, "promises are like pie crust, easy made and easy broken". She wasn't an educated woman by any standard, but she was wise and knew the concepts of life well. If she were alive today she'd no doubt see another fine example of her often used cliche, that is, if the events of the past year hadn't killed already by now.


UPDATE:

Desperate times call for desperate measures, sometimes. It appears that Obama is doing everything he can to sell this lemon and promising the world to do it.

Politik Chikago is alive and well.