NAIVE AND EGOTISTICAL

"French president Nicolas Sarkozy considers Barack Obama 'incredibly naive and grossly egotistical,' [and] is convinced that 'nothing can dent [Obama's] naivete.' ”



This is news?

AN OFFICIALLY OFFICIAL AFGHANISTAN POLICY

Now that we know what General McChrystal needs to succeed in Afghanistan, the Obama administration will not look at McChrystal’s request. The Pentagon hold it until Obama officially makes an official decision about the officially official policy he wants to officially pursue in the war.
And since it’s a policy decision, there’s clearly no need for military input.

Besides, there are more important things to do than succeed in Afghanistan.

OBAMACARE OR JAIL

Senator John Ensign (R-NV) asked the [Joint Committee on Taxation]’s Chief of Staff Thomas Barthold about the penalty for not obtaining health insurance. Barthold responded:

People who fail to pay the $1,900 fee for not purchasing coverage under Obamacare would be charged with a misdemeanor, charged a penalty of up to $25,000 or face up to a year in jail.

Will they get ObamaCare while in jail? And will they be required to pay for it?

A TOUGH SELL?

Sarah Palin ... might not have an easy time on the lecture circuit. ... [A]n industry expert tells Page Six: "The big lecture buyers in the US are paralyzed with fear about booking her, basically because they think she is a blithering idiot."

I suspect the “industry expert” will be very surprised.

HEALTH WORKERS SPURN FLU SHOTS

“CDC figures ... show that just 45.4 percent of U.S. health care workers ages 19 to 64 were immunized against seasonal flu [last] year. Three British surveys released in recent weeks suggest the same pattern with the novel H1N1 virus, commonly known as the ‘swine flu’ virus.”

Do they know something we don’t?

LIBERALISM DEFINED

Liberalism: the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be responsible (cf. H.L. Mencken on Puritanism).

PRIORITIES

As if we didn't already know.

ADVICE FOR REPUBLICANS

“If you want to win, look at whom the Democrats and their media chums are so frantic to destroy: That's the better guide to what they're really worried about.”

THE BRAINY BUNCH

Thomas Sowell comments on the utility of intellect:

There is usually only a limited amount of damage that can be done by dull or stupid people. For creating a truly monumental disaster, you need people with high IQs.

In an age when facts seem to carry less weight than the visions of brilliant and charismatic leaders, it is more important than ever to look at the actual track records of those brilliant and charismatic leaders.

A case in point: Argentina

Argentina began [the 20th] century as one of the 10 richest nations in the world [but] politically brilliant and charismatic leaders, promoting reckless government spending-- of whom Juan Peron was the most prominent, but by no means alone-- managed to create an economic disaster in a country with an abundance of natural resources.

Read the rest of the article to find out where Sowell fears the U.S. might end.

BE CAREFUL WHEN ORDERING A SHOT

Guns allowed in Arizona bars starting Wednesday.

Oh, this should be interesting to watch over the next few months.

TAX BREAK FOR CATS

Should there be a tax break for pet expenses?

PetExemption.com founders Leo Grillo and Robert Davi are pleased that the Humanity and Pets Partnered Through the Years (“HAPPY”) Act was introduced last week in the U.S. House of Representatives. The legislation introduced by Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI) is a federal bill that would reward pet owners by allowing them to deduct up to $3,500 for pet care costs, including veterinary services.

Why not just declare pets to be dependents? I’ll gladly take the $3500 standard deduction for Shadow, Daisy, and Diamond ....

AMERICA’S NEXT GREAT PUNDIT

The Washington Post is looking for America’s next great pundit.

[T]en prospective pundits will get to compete for the title of America’s Next Great Pundit, facing off in challenges that test the skills a modern pundit must possess.... The ultimate winner will get the opportunity to write a weekly column that may appear in the print and/or online editions of The Washington Post .... We’ll set our promising pundit on a path to become the next byline in demand ....

And join the ranks of Eugene Robinson? Dana Milbank? Richard Cohen? Ezra Klein?

No, thanks.

Link from Michelle Malkin.

MESSENGER GOES TO MERCURY

NASA's Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry, and Ranging spacecraft—known as MESSENGER—will fly by Mercury for the third and final time on Sept. 29. The spacecraft will pass less than 142 miles above the planet's rocky surface for a final gravity assist that will enable it to enter Mercury's orbit in 2011.

More images here.

WHEN SARKOZY MOCKED OBAMA

"It's a sad state of affairs when a Frenchman mocks an American president and you have to go with the Frog."

NO PUBLIC OPTION

The Senate Finance Committee has voted against creating a new government health insurance plan to compete with the private market.

A good beginning, but only a beginning.

THE BLOOM IS OFF THE ROSE (AGAIN)

It’s time to act like a president.

Sooner or later it is going to occur to Barack Obama that he is the president of the United States. As of yet, though, he does not act that way, appearing promiscuously on television and granting interviews like the presidential candidate he no longer is. The election has been held, but the campaign goes on and on. The candidate has yet to become commander in chief.

From Richard Cohen, one of the Washington Post’s chief Obama apologists, no less.

The trouble with Obama is that he gets into the moment and means what he says for that moment only. He meant what he said when he called Afghanistan a "war of necessity" -- and now is not necessarily so sure. He meant what he said about the public option in his health-care plan -- and then again maybe not. He would not prosecute CIA agents for getting rough with detainees -- and then again maybe he would.... [H]e gave Congress an August deadline for passage of health-care legislation -- and then let it pass.

Cohen has belatedly recognized that every Obama promise -- every single one -- comes with an expiration date. What’s next? -- recognition that Obama will vote “present” until someone else is forced to make a decision -- and then “tut,tut” the decision with his (inevitably) perfect hindsight?

VOTING RIGHTS

Instapundit: "Personally, I think that no incumbent should run unopposed."

Personally, I think no incumbent should be reelected.

WHEN IS A HATE CRIME A HATE CRIME?

Okay, Mike Adams is often over-the-top with his Christian conservatism, but with this question, he nailed the hate crime hypocrisy: “When a white abortion doctor kills a black baby, is it a hate crime?”

WINDOW OF OPPORTUNISM

The Defenestration of Prague occurred in 1618 when two royal officials were summarily thrown out of some rather high windows and landed, as luck would have it and history recorded it, on a pile of manure. The Defenestration of New York happened just the other day when Barack Obama tossed New York Gov. David Paterson out of a window ....”

“Obama ... is not from Chicago. He is from the Land of Ambition. That is a storied realm where all the posted signs warn, ‘Don't Get Between Me and What I Want.’ Obama wants a second term, and neither racial fellowship nor bonhomie nor a touching consideration for the bruised feelings of others will, in the end, make a difference.”

Gov. Paterson, meet Obama’s bus.

HEALTH CARE EGO-TRIP

Robert J. Samuelson in the Washington Post:

What's driving the great health debate of 2009 is not a popular clamor for universal insurance.... The underlying driver is politicians' psychological quest for glory.

I’m afraid he’s right.

HEALTH CARE FOR ILLEGALS

Liberals Seek Health Care Access for Illegals.

I’m all for it. They should be required to purchase healthcare - in their native countries.

STILL WHINING AFTER ALL THESE YEARS

Bill Clinton said a vast, right-wing conspiracy that once targeted him is now focusing on President Obama.

Funny, I don’t recall George W. Bush whining about a (half)-vast left-wing conspiracy targeting him for eight years ....

More proof that Democrats are adolescent whiners in need of parental discipline (a hockey mom, perhaps?).

OBAMALYMPICS

Obama Heading to Denmark in Olympic Appeal.

I’m of two minds on this one.

On the one hand, what the hell is Obama doing? He’s the President of the United States , for Christ’s sake, not a Chicago snake-oil salesman.

On the other hand, maybe it’s a good idea -- the more involved with trivia he is, the less damage he can do to America’s real national interests.

PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY

Commenting on his newspaper’s coverage - or rather its lack thereof - of the ACORN scandal, Clark Hoyt, "public editor" of the New York Times, writes that

[Jill Abramson, the NYT managing editor for news] and Bill Keller, the executive editor, said last week that they would now assign an editor to monitor opinion media and brief them frequently on bubbling controversies. Keller declined to identify the editor, saying he wanted to spare that person "a bombardment of e-mails and excoriation in the blogosphere."

Somehow, I think that the refusal to identify the editor is to protect him/her (and the New York Times) from being “bombarded” with facts, tips, research, stories, leads, etc., from the right side of the blogosphere. It’s hard to maintain plausible deniability of knowledge of a story when a hundred bloggers can post “Hey, I sent you a tip on ... and here’s the email to prove it.”

MY WAY OR THE HIGHWAY

No more business for "Nobama" salesman. Mall officials met with [the owner of the mall kiosk] and told him to take down the anti-Obama items on display by closing time or face immediate eviction. And it wasn't political.

Oh, no. Absolutely. Not. Political.

Via Instapundit.

FAULTY CONSERVATION

Victor Davis Hanson, writing on California's water shortage.

[E]ach acre of food we idle in the United States - just like every barrel of oil we don't pump - means we will import what we take for granted from somewhere else.

We can be sure that even if we find the money to pay those who sell us our imported food and fuel, they will produce it in a lot messier fashion than we can ever imagine - ensuring a poorer America and a dirtier planet all at once.

TANSTAAFL.

NOWHERE TO GO BUT HOME ALONE

Brigid Schulte, a reporter for The Washington Post, is upset.

With the start of sixth grade this year, my son officially became a latchkey child. School lets out at 3:15. My husband and I both work and often don't get home until well after 6. [I]n elementary school, there were at least four different formal after-school programs that filled the gap between the end of his school day and the end of our workday [but] the little that [i]s available for his age group [i]sn't right for him.

Well, she and her husband both work - doesn't that suggest something?

I found smug comments lamenting parents' love of two incomes over the well-being of their children. (Anybody bother to digest the statistic that nearly 80 percent of women with school-age children work outside the home? That's up from 55 percent in 1975. And my guess is they all love their children very much.)

But did she think to look for data about what percent of women with school-age children had to work outside the home? Nope. She has a right to work outside the home, a right to have children, and a right to have the government take care of them.

[Ellie] Mitchell, director of the Maryland Out of School Time Network, argues, as does U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, that the school day is outmoded. "After-school is always seen as something extra," she said. "But I don't know why 9 to 3 is so much more important than 3 to 6. It's all just the time that kids are not with their families."

Doesn't she have a responsibility somewhere in all those rights?

[Update] It's illegal to be a good samaritan and do something liberals believe the government should be doing.

GOVERNMENT TRANSPARENCY

What Obama said. "Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this Presidency."

What Obama meant.

CAN SODA TAXES

Soda tax myths.

1. Sin taxes are for our own good.
2. Soda is causing the obesity epidemic.
3. Soda taxes help everyone.
4. High-fructose corn syrup is extremely hazardous to your health.
5. Obesity is driving health-care costs up. A soda tax is just a user fee.

The myths are obvious, but go ahead and read the article for details.

WHAT 'CADILLAC' REALLY MEANS

When is a Cadillac not a Cadillac?

When it's my Cadillac.

WE, THE JOURNALISTS

Michael Gerson on ”cyber-bigots:”

The triumph of Nazi propaganda in this period is the subject of a remarkable exhibit at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum....

Ah, yes ... let’s start with the Nazi comparison, shall we?

[I]n the course of a few years, a fringe party was able to define a national community by scapegoating internal enemies; elevate a single, messianic leader; and keep the public docile with hatred....

This obviously doesn’t apply to the Democrat party, right?

But it was radio that proved the most powerful tool.... “You were bombarded by information that you were unable to verify or critically evaluate. It was the Internet of its time,” [says Steve Luckert, curator at the Holocaust
Museum]....

Ah, yes, the “poor dumb masses” trope.

It is a disorienting atmosphere in which information is difficult to verify or critically evaluate, the rules of discourse are unclear, and emotion -- often expressed in CAPITAL LETTERS -- is primary. User-driven content on the Internet often consists of bullying, conspiracy theories and racial prejudice.... It ... allows hatred to invade respected institutional spaces on the Internet, gaining for these ideas a legitimacy denied to fringe Web sites.

And “professional-driven” content doesn’t? (cf. “teabaggers”.)

Legally restricting such content ... is impossible. In America, the First Amendment protects blanket statements of bigotry. But this does not mean that popular news sites ... are constitutionally required to provide forums for bullies and bigots. As private institutions, they are perfectly free to set rules against racism and hatred. This is not censorship; it is the definition of standards.

And the standards should be set by?

Some online institutions, such as The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, screen user comments ... to identify objectionable content.... [H]atred must be confined to the fringes of our culture -- as the hatred of other times should have been.

And just the Obama administration is full of “thin-skinned whiners”? Oh, ... never mind.

MORE FROM MY EMAIL

Another email gone viral:

I guess I must be on the wrong page …

A vehicle at 15 mpg and 12,000 miles per year uses 800 gallons a year of gasoline. A vehicle at 25 mpg and 12,000 miles per year uses 480 gallons a year. So, the average clunker transaction will reduce US gasoline consumption by 320 gallons/year.

They claim 700,000 vehicles – so that's 224 million gallons/year. That equates to a bit over 5 million barrels of oil. Five million barrels of oil is about 1/4 of one day's US consumption. And 5 million barrels of oil costs about $350 million dollars at $70/bbl.

So we all contributed to spending $3 billion to save $350 million.

How good a deal was that?

They'll probably do a better job with healthcare, though!

Cash for Clunkers is just another example of government failure to think through all the possible ramifications of a policy. My Three Laws of Systems Engineering apply, at least indirectly, in that the intended consequence was to demonstrate environmental sensitivity without regard to cost.

I will submit that the intended consequence of ObamaCare is substantially the same.

LEFT RIOTS; RIGHT PROTESTS

“Police fired canisters of pepper spray and smoke and rubber bullets at marchers protesting the Group of 20 summit Thursday after anarchists responded to calls to disperse by rolling trash bins, throwing rocks and breaking windows.”

The demonstrators numbered less than 1,000; there were 17-19 arrests. Contrast that to the 9/12 DC anti-tax protest: upwards of 500,000 demonstrators; no police in riot gear; no violence; no arrests.

And no garbage to be cleaned up afterward.

WHY PAY FOR THE CARELESS?

From a letter to the editor in the August 23 (Jackson, MS) Clarion-Ledger.

During my last shift in the ER, I had the pleasure of evaluating a patient with a shiny new gold tooth, multiple elaborate tattoos and a new cellular telephone equipped with her favorite R&B tune for a ringtone.

Glancing over the chart, one could not help noticing her payer status: Medicaid.

She smokes a costly pack of cigarettes every day and, somehow, still has money to buy beer.

And our president expects me to pay for this woman's health care?

Our nation's health care crisis is not a shortage of quality hospitals, doctors or nurses. It is a crisis of culture - culture in which it is perfectly acceptable to spend money on vices while refusing to take care of one's self or, heaven forbid, purchase health insurance.

Life is really not that hard. Most of us reap what we sow.

Starner Jones, MD
Jackson, MS

This came to me as an email gone viral, but it is real - the author is on the emergency room staff at the Anderson Regional Medical Center in Meridian, Mississippi, and an 8th-generation Mississippian.

It's easy to sympathize with Dr. Jones, but the question remains: what is society's responsibility, if any, to those unwilling or unable to care for themselves?

JUST LIKE THE POST OFFICE

Democrats moved Thursday to give special relief to the financially strapped Postal Service, which would be allowed to defer $4 billion in payments due at the end of this month to cover retirement benefits for its employees.

Since Obama himself offered the USPS as the model of the public option, we can point to this as the inevitable result of a government program in a private market. When it fails or runs over its revenue, the government will inevitably act to subsidize it. The public option will be no different at all in this regard.

Surprise, surprise.

DEMOCRACY VS. LIBERTY

Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote! — Ben Franklin

Found in the comments to this post.

AMERICA IS OBAMA U

President Obama thinks America is a university and that he is our campus president.

Victor Davis Hansen is at his best:

It is the role of the university, from a proper distance, to help [the unwashed masses] by making sophisticated, selfless decisions on health care and the environment that the unwashed cannot grasp are really in their own interest — deluded as they are by Wal-Mart consumerism, Elmer Gantry evangelicalism, and Sarah Palin momism. The tragic burden of an academic is to help the oppressed, but blind, majority.

Read the complete article.

NAVIGATING POLITICS

I wish I had said this:

It's becoming so simple to find the right path through the political mine-field -- If the Democrats are in favor, I'm against it. If the news media says it, I doubt it. If a politician says its critically important, I know it's pork.

But I didn’t, so I’ll have to give credit where credit is due.

YOU ARE ALL MORONS

Another email that's gone viral around the internet. I've edited it to fit within a blog post.

Dear members of the Legislature:

It is now official: You are all morons.

The U.S. Postal Service was established in 1775. You have had 234 years to get it right. It is broke. Social Security was established in 1935. You have had 74 years to get it right. It is broke. Fannie Mae was established in 1938. You have had 71 years to get it right. It is broke. The War on Poverty started in 1964. You have had 45 years to get it right. One trillion dollars of our money is confiscated each year and transferred to "the poor"; it hasn't worked. Medicare and Medicaid were established in 1965. You have had 44 years to get them right; they're broke. Freddie Mac was established in 1970 - you have had 39 years to get it right. It is broke.

Trillions of dollars in the massive political payoff called the TARP bill of 2009 show no sign of working.

And finally to set a new record: "Cash for Clunkers" was established in 2009 and went broke in 2009! It took good dependable cars (that were the best some people could afford), replaced them with high priced, and mostly Japanese models, so a good percentage of he profits from the sales went out of the country.

So with a perfect 100% failure rate and a record proving that the "services" you shove down our throats are failing faster and faster, you want Americans to believe you can be trusted with a government-run health care system? 15% of our economy? Are you crazy?

Truly, the inmates are running the asylum!

It's a fair point. Every one of the programs mentioned started with good intentions; every one - with the possible exception of the Postal Service - failed to live up to expectations. So if one agrees with the quotation often misattributed to Ben Franklin, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results," it follows that the inmates are indeed running the asylum.

PRESIDENTIAL POLLS

Instapundit put up a reader preference poll of possible Republican presidential candidates for 2012. The results: Palin, 32%; Petraeus and Romney, 15%; Pawlenty, 10%, Jindal, 9% as of 11 pm on the 24th. All other candidates in Reynolds’ poll came in at 5% or less.

Given Glenn’s readership, I expected significant Palin support, but I didn’t expect such miniscule support for Huckabee -- a surprise 2%.

[Added Note] Hot Air has just published a PPP (Public Policy Polling) presidential preference poll. Different polling population, obviously, and in it, Huckabee does quite well, equalling Sarah Palin in popularity.

What’s happening with Huck?

[Update] Instapundit has a new poll up. Results as of 4:40 pm on 9/25: Palin, 37%; Romney, 15%; Petraeus, 13%; Jindal, 7%; and Huckabee still hovering at under 2%.

FROM MY EMAIL

Another of the emails that regularly come around:

Does anybody remember the reason given for the establishment of the Department of Energy during the Carter Administration?

Anybody? ... No? ... Didn't think so. Bottom line .. we've spent several hundred billion dollars in support of an agency ... the reason for which no one can remember.

It was very simple and at the time everybody thought it very appropriate. The Department of Energy was instituted on August 4, 1977 to lessen our dependence on foreign oil.

And now it’s 2008, 31 years later, and the budget for this necessary department is $23 billion a year. It has 6,000 federal employees and approximately 100,000 contract employees and look at the job it has done!

This is where you slap your forehead and say “What was I thinking?” And now we are going to turn the banking system, auto industry, and health care over to them?

Another example of an unintended but easily foreseeable consequence of a "good idea."

MR. OBAMA GOES TO TURTLE BAY

Our president has now spoken at the United Nations. Quick synopsis:

Ok, I came in, dissed Bush, offered hope and change, and deigned to sacrifice myself, the smartest you’ll ever meet, for you, the world. So now we aren’t Bush’s America, but Obama’s America, and therefore I expect you to reciprocate in kind — since you only have one last chance to get a divine American president of my caliber.

Victor Davis Hanson observes: “Obama tragically does not understand that America made him — he does not make America.”

More proof that America made a mistake electing him.

THE PROMISE OF PUBLIC HEALTH

Just tune in to the local radio station ....

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT

From The Buckets cartoon (9/25/09) by Scott Stantis.

Granddad: "I remember thinking we could trust politicians to do what's best for us."

Dad: "I remember thinking that some politicians might not be lying sometimes."

Son: "I'm thinking that if a lobbyist paid 'em to, there isn't one who wouldn't kick a nun in public ... then write a book and blame 'the system'."

My thoughts, too. In terms of attitude, I went from Granddad to Dad during the Watergate years; and from Dad to Son following the 2008 presidential election.

Is it possible to get more cynical?

START THE DAY WITH A SMILE

How to start each day with a positive outlook.

1. Open a new file in your computer.
2. Name it ‘Barack Obama’.
3. Send it to the Recycle Bin.
4. Empty the Recycle Bin.
5. Your PC will ask you: ‘Do you really want to get rid of ‘Barack Obama?’
6. Firmly click ‘Yes.’
7. Feel better?
GOOD!
Tomorrow we’ll do Nancy Pelosi…

Via Don Surber. Thanks for the laugh!

FAMOUS [NEA] ARTISTS SCHOOL

Does anyone remember the “Famous Artists School” advertisements? They were very popular in my youth, often found in comic books and on matchbook covers.

Well, they’re back!

Via Instapundit.

OBAMA WORSHIP

Children are captured in an online video singing songs that overflow with campaign slogans and praise for "Barack Hussein Obama."



The video was apparently made at a New Jersey elementary school. The news report is unclear exactly when it was made and when it was posted on You Tube.

What’s next -- Obama’s visage omnipresent in every public building?

WHAT IF?

What would happen if we removed stop signs, stoplights and traffic signs?

How about slower traffic, less accidents, safer streets?

In a never ending quest to make our streets safer and more predictable, we may have actually made them more dangerous and so mind numbingly easy to drive that we enable bad behaviors ... while driving.

Let me reiterate .. the design of our streets may be partially to blame for drivers text messaging.

I've argued something similar - that seat belt usage can encourage more aggressive driving habits.

It's an interesting "what if," but the evidence is anecdotal.

THE PACEMAKER TAX

"In an effort to improve health care, make it more affordable and make it available to more people, President Obama and his minions in Congress are about to slap a tax on pacemakers."

"This will raise the price of pacemakers making the pacemaker less affordable and less available, while forcing people to do without, which will worsen health care."

In engineering, it's a result of the the Laws of Unintended Consequences.

ObamaCare is too complex; too hurried. It's time for Congress to stop, take a deep breath, and start over.

LOOKS LIKE A TAX TO ME

Mandatory health insurance is not a tax; it’s a “personal responsibility principle.”

So personal responsibility is now taxable?

LET THEM DRINK WATER

What a fat tax really means for America.

Via Instapundit.

IT'S NOT A BUG

It's a feature.

IN HIS NARCISSIST’S SERVICE

If only this had been posted on 9/11.

IGNORANCE? OR ARROGANCE?

“We can only conclude that Democrats who support high taxation, larger government, gun control, and rabid environmentalism are either ignorant or arrogant. If ignorant, their liberalism is lamentable but it can be overlooked. If arrogant, their liberalism is unforgivable, for it is practiced to the peril of their own countrymen.”

Read it all.

IT’S NOT A TAX

It's a way to cap employer-provided health benefits.

From the Clinton playbook: Barack Obama and the meaning of “tax.”

ON OBAMACARE OPPONENTS

There’s an old saying, "If you can't blind them with your brilliance, baffle them with your bullsh*t." And if that doesn't work, play the race card. And if that fails ....

"Our country is great because people can say what they think and they believe," [Speaker of the House Nancy] Pelosi added. "But I also think that they have to take responsibility for any incitement that they may cause."

... play the 'fear' and 'violence' cards.

THREE VIDEO CLIPS

From PJTV:

 Why You Should Run For Office
 How the #1 Public University Produces First-Rate Idiots
 Getting Rich Off Racism

Watch them all.

UNCLE KNOWS BEST

What happens when you let the inmates run the asylum.

When it comes to greenhouse-gas emissions, Energy Secretary Steven Chu sees Americans as unruly teenagers and the Administration as the parent that will have to teach them a few lessons.

“The American public…just like your teenage kids, aren’t acting in a way that they should act,” Dr. Chu said. “The American public has to really understand in their core how important this issue is.”

Yep. Put pre-K in charge of the high-school classroom.

ROUGHING UP THE MIDDLE CLASS

“They’ll turn us all into beggars ’cause they’re easier to please.”

OBAMA'S GESTURES

Is President Obama an incompetent boob, or something more ... malevolent? Hillsdale College Professor Paul Rahe thinks it's the latter:

We are living in a dangerous time. It seems highly unlikely that Barack Obama will get his way in domestic affairs. The Democrats may control Congress, but they now fear a rout in 2010, and they are likely to tread with caution from now on. In foreign affairs, however, presidents have a relatively free hand, and this president has ample time to do damage to a country that, there is reason to suspect, he deeply hates.

Read it all, and make your own decision.

HOT LANES ARE RACIST

Our government is officially insane. “A lawsuit filed by Arlington County last month claims the [HOT] lanes benefit wealthy white people and discriminates against minorities.”

Are HOT (high occupancy toll) lanes stupid? Certainly. Racist? C’mon. Give me a break.

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES

The chickens have come home to roost.

2008: Peter Orzag, director of the Congressional Budget Office from January 2007 to November 2008: “deficits in Social Security would not come until 2019.”

2009: Peter Orszag, director of the [White House] Office of Management and Budget, member of the Obama Cabinet: “the CBO has determined that Social Security will run cash deficits next year and in 2011, and by 2016 will be more or less in permanent deficit mode.”

At least I’ll get (some of) mine. Tough luck for the rest of you.

OBAMA LIES AGAIN

"Obama has always been a liar .... The MSM gave him a pass ..., enabling his election, because he was their candidate. They were evidently unfazed by the ancient Roman legal principal: Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus."

"Well, there have been plenty of omnibuses since, but few so risible as Obama’s answers this Sunday to George Stephanopoulos concerning the ACORN scandal:"

STEPHANOPOULOS: How about the funding for ACORN?
OBAMA: You know, if — frankly, it’s not really something I’ve followed closely. I didn’t even know that ACORN was getting a whole lot of federal money.

ACORN is the best-known community organizing group in the country. Obama was a community organizer. He knows perfectly well where their money comes from.

And Joe Wilson was admonished by Congress for speaking the truth?

[Update & Bump] ACORN, I hardly knew ya.

A BLINDING GLIMPSE OF THE OBVIOUS

Howard Kurtz tries to understand why the tea partiers are angry.

Did I mention that liberals (and that includes the media) are so adept at reading between the lines that they can't actually read the lines? Why, yes. Yes, I did.

THREAT ASSESSMENT

Will McChrystal resign if Obama doesn’t act?

Today, the military is perceiving that the administration is punting the question of a troop increase in Afghanistan, and the military is even questioning the administration’s commitment to succeed in Afghanistan.

It appears that Obama is trying to vote “present” again. He should pay less attention to Jimmy Carter and more attention to another Democrat former president, Harry Truman, who famously said “The buck stops here.”

KILLING GRANNY

Would Obama kill Granny?

In his Newsweek column, Evan Thomas makes the case for letting Granny go (or thinks he does) in the context of discussing his mother's decision to forgo heroic measures to keep her alive at the end of her life. Unfortunately, in his concern for keeping the cost down, Mr. Thomas danced around the essential point: it was his mother's decision; not his, not doctors, not lawyers, not insurance companies, not Medicare.

Ken Blackwell responds: "No, of course President Obama doesn’t want to unplug your grandmother.... It’s just that when he takes over health care, ... millions of decisions are going to be made. And they’ll be made by well-intentioned but fuzzy-thinking Obama [acolytes]."

They won't be made by Granny.

OFFICIAL RECOGNITION

Former president Jimmy Carter can quit digging.

Senator John McCain: Carter worst president in 20th century.

STILL SMUG AFTER ALL THESE YEARS

Jim Sleeper, a lecturer in political science at Yale University, argues that it’s not (all) about race, it's about (conservative) fear and loathing.

The mistake of crying racism is especially tempting to upscale, influential liberals who, no less than protesters on the right, are ducking the true causes of dispossession, fear and rage: the premises and practices of financial capital, predatory consumer marketing and a national-security state boondoggling.

After all these years, liberals are still smug in their certainty that there can't possibly be principled opposition to their plans and programs.

THE DEVIL WEARS PRAVDA

"It [the mainstream media] has only gone way downhill into Soviet-era Pravda territory. The MSM’s modus operandi today is identical ...."

Da Svidaniya, America.

DANCING WITH THE CZARS?

Boob Czar. Beer Czar. Transparency Czar. Stimulus Czars. Green Czar. "We were going to have 20+ people dance in front of the White House in costume .... We wanted to illustrate absurdity by using absurdity. Make a mockery of the czars."

Does anyone have ideas for more czars? Death czar? Too grim. Media czar? Too real. Teleprompter czar? Maybe.

NONDEDUCTABLE MEDICAL EXPENSE

A tax lawyer will continue to challenge rulings disallowing medical expense tax deductions for spending on prostitutes and pornography. "It's a holistic approach to medicine."

Perhaps he should try claiming a medical expense deduction for prosthetutes.

Via Instapundit (here and here).

TIMING IS EVERYTHING

The Obama administration’s decision to scrap the European missile shield may or may not have been wise, but the timing was atrocious.

[The] U.S. president’s cancellation last week of plans to place missile interceptors in Poland and a radar station in the Czech Republic ... came on Sept. 17, the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland.

The Poles were not amused.

JIMMY CARTER, PLEASE SHUT UP

Haven’t you embarrassed yourself enough already?

There's an old saying you might want to keep in mind: when you're in a deep hole, stop digging!

NEA: SUPPORT OBAMA’S AGENDA

”An official at the White House Office of Public Engagement encouraged a group of artists on a conference call with the National Endowment for the Arts to produce works that supported the Obama administration's agenda ...”

What I don’t understand is why the Obama administration felt the need to ask.

Details here.

AN EMPTY SUIT

Historical anecdotes describe the Rio Grande as "a mile wide and an inch deep." Ed Morrissey (and others) have used that phrase to describe President Obama.

I think they’re overestimating his depth.

GIANT CATERPILLAR FOUND IN COLLEGE DORM

THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING PRESIDENT

Chris Wallace (Fox News Sunday: “These guys, everything is personal. I gotta tell you, everything. They are the biggest bunch of crybabies I have dealt with in my 30 years in Washington.”

Read through the comments for the post title.

FLEAS, AD INFINITUM

I’ve always been enamored of the couplet that contains the words “little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum.” I always thought the author was Ogden Nash, or perhaps Lewis Carroll (“mimsy were the borogroves”) and was surprised to find the couplet has a
much longer history.

The couplet is from the great British mathematician Augustus De Morgan (1806-1871), who adapted it from the Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist and author Jonathan Swift (1667-1745).

De Morgan:

Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite 'em,
And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum.
And the great fleas themselves, in turn, have greater fleas to go on;
While these again have greater still, and greater still, and so on.

Swift:

So, naturalists observe, a flea
Has smaller fleas that on him prey;
And these have smaller still to bite ’em;
And so proceed ad infinitum

[Added Note]: The phrase “mimsy were the borogroves” is from Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky. It’s also the title of a science fiction book written by Lewis Padgett (aka Henry Kuttner and Catherine L. Moore), published in 1943, which I read - and enjoyed - as a teen sci-fi addict.

NASA WATCH

Norm Augustine, chairman of the U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee (Augustine Commission) testimony to the House Science and Technology Committee (15 Sept 2009):

The Committee concludes that no rational exploratory program can be funded under the existing funding constraint and that plans for America's space exploration program would de facto be halted and human operations limited to low earth orbit.... The reason ... is, simplistically stated, that for sixty percent of the needed funds, one cannot go sixty percent of the way to Mars.

Given the proclivities of the current Administration, this doesn’t look good.

INSURANCE EXCHANGE RISKS

In an earlier post, I suggested that the health insurance exchanges proposed by President Obama which I agreed could be a good idea if the government would limit its role to writing the law allowing them to be created.

Regina Herzlinger, a professor at the Harvard Business School, adds detail to my concern, using the Massachusetts government exchange, the Connector, as Exhibit A.

I’d like to believe that the health insurance exchange concept would work, provided that exchanges are entirely private, have national reach, and enjoy the same tax status as employer-sponsored plans.

P*SS ON EARTH

Everything you didn’t need to know.



Over Hungary, by the Ruins of Essegvar. Last Wednesday, several skygazers scratched their heads when they saw this mysterious glow in the sky. To anyone who's ever pondered what urine looks like in space -- c'mon, don't be shy -- we say: wonder no more, because photos of the phenomenon have finally hit the internet.

Via Instapundit.

YOU DON’T SAY

'Racist' claims defuse once powerful word. Umm, why? Just because conservatives are using the word correctly?

Okay, so how about if I just call them bigots?

MUGGED BY REALITY

Irving Kristol has died. Kristol was known as “the godfather of Neoconservatism” for his definition of a neo-conservative as “a liberal mugged by reality.” It was a great gift: an unforgettable reminder that ideas matter because of the realities they nurture or discourage. Rest in Peace.

MAINSTREAM UNICORNS

From the comments section of a Hot Air post on race-baiting: ”Liberals painting their critics as outside of the mainstream is nothing new ....”

Of course not. Liberals believe they are the mainstream. They also believe in unicorns.

ADVANCED PLANNING DIRECTIVES

Much has been said and http://a-shadow-world.blogspot.com/2009/09/your-life-your-choices.htmlwritten about advanced planning directives under ObamaCare. Here are some lighter views.

From Brewster Rockit:





And my personal ObamaCare counseling invitation:



(with apologies to the cemetary; the mailing just happened to arrive at the right time)

OBAMACARE IS DEAD?

Are the Democrats signaling defeat on ObamaCare?

Maybe it’s time to start reading HR3200, the Republican alternative, which can be found here. As with the Democrat’s bill, it is only 1,000 pages long, which (to me) says it’s also problematic.

WHY ARE LIBERALS STILL ANGRY?

After all, they won the Presidency, the Senate, and the House of Representatives. Frank J. Fleming explains:

The most fundamental principle liberals have is that they are all very, very smart, and everyone should listen to them. Nothing angers them more than [having someone challenge] them.

Heh.

CLUELESSNESS

"We have seen an ongoing theme from Barack Obama of general cluelessness on private industry, and especially on profit. For Obama, profit is part of 'overhead,' or 'taken off the top.' "

"Profits are not taken off the top but are what’s left at the bottom, after expenses get paid — and expenses are the 'overhead,' which includes items like salaries, supplies, rent, and so on."

"By the way, that’s why it’s called 'the bottom line,' because that’s where people find the profits in a ledger. Profits come last."

WIMP OR WARRIOR?

"It's time for conservatives--mainstream Americans, in other words--to throw off the shackles and get aggressive. Our beliefs are correct, our values are the foundation of any society that doesn't have a death wish, and our interests, unlike those of the leftists, are legitimate. We deserve to govern this country, and before long, we will."

Yes.

GRADING THE QDR

The Center for Strategic and International Studies grades the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review:

The 2010 QDR seeks to answer the question of whether the US should posture its forces and focus its acquisitions on dealing with conventional threats from rising peer competitors or more asymmetric threats emanating from weak and failing states.

The search for answers is being structured around the concept of "hybrid warfare," ... a concept ... so loosely defined that it does not provide clear criteria for decision-making. Service efforts to define it have so far been little more that shopping lists for every possible contingency mixed with buzzwords that appear to have meaning only as long as they are not examined in any detail.

In practice, any concept that effectively justifies anything ends in justifying absolutely nothing.

The QDR is, at its best, a difficult high-wire act with no safety net, long on good intentions and short on successful actions. Given the dramatic philosophical difference between the Bush and Obama administrations and the demonstrated incompetence of the Obama administration with respect to its domestic agenda, dead on arrival looks right.

THE PROBLEM WITH YOU CONSERVATIVES

An enlightened leftist reaches across the aisle.

This would be funny if it weren't almost word-for-word the Pacifica radio script I listened to last month.

ACORN FALLS; PELOSI CLUELESS

In the week or so since the ACORN scandal broke, the Census Bureau has cut ties with ACORN; the IRS has been urged to follow; the Senate has refused to further fund ACORN by a vote of 83-7; and Minority Leader John Boehner (and 114 co-sponsers) have introduced HR 3571 (the Defund ACORN Act) in the House of Representatives.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is clueless, which I wouldn’t have believed possible.

As Glenn Reynolds usually puts it, ”The country’s in the very best of hands.”

IT’S AUTUMN AND THE ACORNS ARE FALLING

In their undercover videos (here and here, among others), James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles have set off an avalanche of criticism against the liberal nonprofit ACORN, which has long been accused by conservatives of misusing federal funds and falsifying voter registration forms.

Jon Stewart (skip to 05:00) wondered where the media was; and (finally) a major newspaper has taken a (squishy) stand, rebuking ACORN while decrying O’Keefe’s and Giles’ method as “distasteful.”

Commenter The Grey Man gets the last word: “Why are these methods “distasteful”? And why is ... [the MSM] ... being so elitist? O’Keefe and [his] partner are merely poor, undocumented journalists doing the work that regular American journalists do not want to do. I think Congress should enact legislation to give ... undocumented [journalists] amnesty, or at least a pathway to full journalism.”

TWELVE STEPS TO SANITY

From an email that has been circulating recently. I’ve edited it for brevity.

“I no longer feel any political party or representative in Washington represents my views or works to pursue the issues important to me.”

One, illegal immigration. [S]top coddling illegal immigrants and secure our borders.

Two, the TARP bill. Freeze, repeal.

Three, Czars. Fire the czars.

Four, cap and trade. The debate on global warming is not over.

Five, universal healthcare. Slow down. Don't you dare try to pass this in the middle of the night.

Six, growing government control. Shrink it down. I want less government, not more.

Seven, ACORN. I want them investigated.

Eight, redistribution of wealth. No, no, no. I work for my money. It is mine.

Nine, charitable contributions. Charity belongs in our local communities. Butt out.

Ten, corporate bailouts. Knock it off. [Let them} sink or swim like the rest of us.

Eleven, transparency and accountability. How about it? [G]ive the buzzwords a rest and have some straight honest talk.

Twelve, unprecedented quick spending. Stop it now.

“Democrat, Republican, independent, libertarian. Understand this. We don't care. We are going to fire all of you who abuse power and seek more. It is not your power. It is ours and we want it back..”

Well said.

IT'S NOT RACISM

Michael Steele speaks out.

SCRAP THE EUROPEAN MISSILE SHIELD

According to Fox News, President Obama will scrap the ballistic missile defense shield in Europe.

European reaction is mixed. Russia applauds the policy change; Poland and the Czech Republic are relieved not to be targets, but have based much of their future security policy on getting the missile defenses from the United States.

The immediate reaction in the US from the left is that the change "makes strategic sense;" from the right, the reaction appears to be that “[t]his represents a complete capitulation to Russia's Vladimir Putin, who had demanded that the proposed deployments be halted as a price for improved relations.” Instapundit put it this way: ”It really is like Jimmy Carter all over again. Well, actually that’s looking like a best-case scenario these days.”

I doubt it’s as bad as the right's position makes it to be, since the Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) is in fact still a developmental system, but the “sell-out” image does leave a bad taste.

JOHN GALT, M.D.

“Two of every three practicing physicians oppose the medical overhaul plan under consideration in Washington, and hundreds of thousands would think about shutting down their practices or retiring early if it were adopted, a new IBD/TIPP Poll has found.”


“The poll contradicts the claims of not only the White House, but also doctors' own lobby — the powerful American Medical Association — both of which suggest the medical profession is behind the proposed overhaul.”

The article is here.

Thanks to Instapundit for the title.

FINANCIAL REFORMS

Obama pushes new finance regulationss: straw men hardest hit.

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION EXPLAINED

Victor Davis Hanson explains the Obama administration's positions.

On healthcare:

“[W]ould you want an autonomous family practitioner, entrepreneurial, keen to adopt to patient needs and tastes, juggling 10 employees and a 2-million-dollar family practice budget, grossing $400,000 a year in profits, highly opinionated and self-reliant, using his profits once in a while to ski or buy a BMW—or have him transmogrified into a GS-something, at $100,000 a year, with government benefits, unionized, docile, and waiting to go home when his shift at the dreary government clinic ends, wearing his doctor union T-shirt to work and eager to vote in politicians who ensure him lifetime tenure, generous retirement packages, and guaranteed pay raises?”

On wealth:

“[B]y April 16 of each year we will all make about the same: those who make “too much” will return their stolen goods; those who were fleeced and ‘make too little’ will receive it back through recycled entitlements, with the proper amount skimmed off at the top by the technocracy, immune from the very statutes they craft.”

On the environment:

“[T]he rambunctious ignorant American should put away his energy-stealing boat, SUV, and snowmobile, and instead live in accordance to the green dictates of an Al Gore, John Kerry, Tom Friedman and others, all once again, properly exempt from the effects of their own ‘small earth’ advocacies.”

On racism:

“I fear that this is the most polarizing administration we have seen in matters of race since the 1920s. If those around Obama, and his supporters in Congress, had just substituted the word ‘black’ each time they have angrily invoked the word ‘white’, they would have been branded abject racists.”

SIGN THE PETITION

Congressman John Fleming (Louisiana physician) has proposed an amendment that would require congressmen and senators to take the same healthcare plan they force on us (under proposed legislation they are curiously exempt).

Congressman Fleming is encouraging people to go on his website and sign his petition.

I did, and why not? It can't hurt; it may help.

THE NEXT GREATEST GENERATION

"Wait 'til all the young people who championed Obama find out that they are the ones who'll be funding health care reform."

Thanks, kids. You're already picking up the tab for my retirement. It's really, really nice of you to agree to pay for my healthcare too.

Love,
Dad

MARY TRAVERS HAS DIED

At 72. Of leukemia. Vocalist for the folk-singing trio Peter, Paul, and Mary, I saw her at New Mexico State University in the early 60's. I don't care for her politics, but damn, she could sing!

My condolences.

HOME OF THE WHOPPER

"Trust is a terrible thing to lose. Bitterness and disillusion are its inevitable progeny. In private life, the loss of trust forces a rearrangement of sympathy and affection. In public life, the loss of trust instigates a fundamental realignment of political affiliation."

And President Obama's lost it. Read the entire article.

JUST A THOUGHT

Have you noticed that the liberals, progressives, and other pseudo-intellectual elite are so nuanced, so adept at reading between the lines, that they can't actually read the lines?

JIMMY CARTER OPENS MOUTH; INSERTS FOOT

“Former President Jimmy Carter ... [said] in an interview that Rep. Joe Wilson's ‘You lie!’ outburst last week was ‘based on racism’ and that an ‘overwhelming portion’ of similar demonstrations against President Obama are rooted in bigotry.”

James Earl Carter, Jr. is himself a racist bigot.

[Update] More Mush From The Wimp: “Jimmah’s empty slander is just another sign of the unbecoming moral vanity at the heart of the modern Left, to say nothing of its overweening intolerance for any hint of dissent.”

Via Instapundit.

HOW 'BOUT THAT?

Rep. Maxine Waters (D, CA) thinks I'm a racist: "The Hill reports that Waters identifies racists by their use of the term 'ObamaCare', which would apparently include me. Gee, when I called it HillaryCare in 1993, was that racist too?"

Jeez, is she ever dumb.

A DOCTOR ON OBAMACARE

Dr. Arthur M. Feldman, a cardiologist and chair of the department of medicine at Jefferson Medical College, isn’t enamored with ObamaCare as presently envisioned.

I want [my patients] to have insurance that will pay for their care, and I want to be able to offer new medications and the most sophisticated treatment. I want to be able to give preventive care as well as to monitor patients effectively if they develop diseases. I want to be able care for my patients in their homes, and I want to offer palliative care if it becomes necessary. I want them to be able to afford all this.

I want to see major reforms in health care -- I just don't want what is on the table.

Here’s Dr. Feldman’s “top ten” list. My comments are in italics.

1. Private insurance companies escape real regulation.

I respect his experience, but I suspect the problem is over-regulation rather than under-regulation. I’d like to be able to buy health insurance to my own specification, even with a pre-existing condition, outside an employer plan, as an individual or as a member of a “common-interest” coalition, out-of-state, if necessary. Over-regulation, not under-regulation, prevents me.

2. We urgently need tort reform, but it's nowhere to be seen.

Yes, but ... the neurosurgeon who operated on my mother was afraid of single-payer healthcare specifically because there would be no lawyers. His fear is that malpractice will increase rather than decrease under a single-payer healthcare system.

3. "Prevention" won't magically make costs go down.

Too true, and much under-discussed. The fact is that “prevention” has been driving costs up, not down.

4. Reform efforts don't address our critical shortage of health-care workers.
5. We need more primary-care physicians -- but we also need specialists.

Agreed, but 4 and 5 are not health insurance issues.

6. We have to streamline drug development and shake up the Food and Drug Administration.

Yes, but again it isn’t an insurance issue. The FDA is far too conservative, and its “nanny-ish” tendencies badly need curtailing.

7. We can't fund health-care reform by cutting payments to doctors.

We can if we cut their overhead at the same time. I’ve read that something on the order of 30% of a doctor’s income is spent to comply with pointless bureaucratic regulation.

8. We can't forget about research.

OK, but again, this isn’t an insurance issue.

9. Cutting reimbursements could shut some hospitals down.

Same comment as 7 above.

10. We need to improve the quality of care.

Quality? or process? In either case, it isn’t an insurance issue.

My bottom line is that we need to put the patient (me!) back in charge. To put it somewhat crudely, I own the car; I drive it; I’m responsible for it. Therefore I make the decisions.

ANOTHER DEFINITION OF INSANITY

The US won’t buy from China, but will borrow from China.

Same result in either case, but by buying, at least we get something tangible in return - and without %!$$-ing off the Chinese to boot.

DC PROTEST NOT TOO SHABBY

Click on the image and start counting.

The source is here.

[Update] The best estimate is now more than 500,000.

AMERICA’S HEALTHY FUTURE ACT OF 2009

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., has released the Democrats' 10-year, $856 billion health care reform plan. The outline is here. The text of the bill is here.

USE FINE PRINT

A nonprofit group is seeking permission to write every word of the healthcare bill on the Capitol steps.

Is there such a thing as extra-fine tip chalk? And if there is, will our Congresscritters be able to read it?

The stairs along the West Front of the Capitol are impressive, but the healthcare bill now stands at over 1,000 pages.

[Update] They should use the Senate bill - it's only 223 pages.

THOUGHTS ON OBAMACARE

”What's not to like? Or to like, for that matter. Form, not content, is what matters. Design, not engineering. As in an Italian sports car on the showroom floor. Never been driven. Maybe not meant to be driven. Everything shimmers, everything is negotiable. And the salesman's style is Armani impeccable. Substance? It can come later, if at all.”

HEALTHCARE

After reviewing President Obama’s remarks on health care in his address to the joint session of Congress, here are my thoughts.

Obama: "There is “agreement in this chamber on 80% of what needs to be done.”

Eighty percent? There may an 80% agreement that certain things need to be fixed, but I think the agreement on how to fix them is substantially less.

DETAILS

Obama: “Nothing in this plan will require you or your employer to change the coverage or the doctor you have.”

Unless the plan you have disappears, or the doctor leaves. That’s already true under the current system, and there’s nothing in ObamaCare that leads me to believe that it won’t get worse, with the “public option” as the plan of next resort.

Obama: “[It will be against the law for insurance companies to deny you coverage because of a preexisting condition ... or ... drop your coverage when you get sick or water it down when you need it most.”

Obama: “[Insurance companies] will no longer be able to place some arbitrary cap on the amount of coverage you can receive ....”

Obama: “We will place a limit on how much you can be charged for out-of-pocket expenses ....”

And every one of these “against-the-laws” will cost additional money. How can they not increase the basic cost?

Obama: “[Insurance companies] will be required to cover ... routine checkups and preventive care ....”

First, it’s already been shown that preventive care does not save money in either the short or long term.

Second, if it covers routine/preventive care, it’s not insurance; it’s prepaid medical care. I have no problem if some folks want to buy prepaid medical care, but what of those of us who want insurance for catastrophic events (like hospitalization)?

Obama: "We’ll creat[e] a new insurance exchange - a marketplace where individuals and small companies will be able to shop for health insurance at competitive prices.”

This is actually a good idea, and one I could agree with if Obama would limit the government role to writing the law allowing private cooperatives to be formed.

For example, I’m a member of the Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative, which supplies electricity to my house. I own it (well, along with thousands of others) and consequently have immediate motive to ensure that it’s well run.

I’m also a member of a number of professional organizations and credit unions who could serve as the “sponsor” of an insurance exchange. In each case, I have reason, responsibility, and means to ensure it would be run to my satisfaction.

Obama: “[F]or those ... who still can’t afford ... [insurance] ... we’ll provide tax credits ....”

Which will have to be paid for by taxes somewhere else. Who? I'll bet that since I'm the one who can (barely) afford insurance, I'll get the "privilege" of paying more for the same service. Give me a reason why I should.

Obama: "[I]ndividuals will be required to carry basic health insurance.”

The auto insurance analogy Obama used is clever, but wrong. States require auto liability insurance - for damage to others. Personal property, collision, and comprehensive are not required (except by the lienholder).

More importantly, how does the administration propose to verify -and enforce - the requirement that every individual has insurance? Never mind the probable invasion of personal privacy; think about this: How many uninsured vehicles are on the road, despite the fact that all cars must be registered with the state to travel on public highways?

LIES AND MISREPRESENTATIONS

In choosing to discuss the "lies and misrepresentations" promoted about Obamacare, the President asserted that with his health care reform, there will be:

“No death panels.”

Of course not. The “death panel” is a metaphor - vivid, it's true - for the certain knowledge that Obama’s health care reform will be resource limited and inevitably rationed.

Our current system already rations health care - by price. So knowing that rationing already exists, the "death panel" question is simply one of "Who gets rationed?"

And knowing what we already know about the government’s efficiency at delivering services, is there any reason to believe that the rationing won’t get worse?

“No insuring illegal immigrants.”

Technically, the statement is true, I suppose, but without an enforcement mechanism - which isn't in the bill before Congress - it’s meaningless.

“No federal dollars for abortions”

So does that mean that the “public option” will cover less than private plans? I suspect that there's a discrimination question yet to be addressed in the "no federal dollars" assertion.

“No ‘government takeover -’ public plan is an option only for those who don’t have [private] insurance.”

Obama [intentionally?] misses the point. The fear is that the “public option” cost will be low enough to encourage employers to quit offering insurance (and insurance companies to quit offering individual plans) and thereby force Americans into a public option plan backed by the federal government (where the risk is lower).

“No taxpayer subsidy for the ‘public insurance’ option.”

Here’s the question: if there’s no taxpayer subsidy, isn’t it almost by definition just another private insurance option? For the answer, look to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Both are obstensibly private corporations, backed by "full faith and credit" of the federal government. Now ask yourself “What was the proximate cause of the housing bust?” Answer: government meddling.

PAYING FOR OBAMACARE

Obama: “I will not sign [a plan] if it adds one dime to the deficit, now or in the future, period.”

If true, then Obama can’t sign the bill he outlined in his speech, as it’s already been scored as not deficit-neutral by the Congressional Budget Office.

Obama: “[M]ost of this plan can be paid for by finding savings within the existing health care system, a system that is currently full of waste and abuse.”

Unfortunately, we’re all too aware that the federal government is bloated, inefficient, wasteful, and pork-laden; so there’s little doubt that savings are potentially there. How much? And can Obama produce them? Produce the savings first; then fund the reform.

Obama: “[M]uch of the rest would be paid for with revenues from the very same drug and insurance companies that stand to benefit from tens of millions of new customers. And this reform will charge insurance companies a fee for their most expensive policies, which will encourage them to provide greater value for the money .”

Okaaaaay. I see two realistic possibilities. One, prices for the ‘gold-plated’ policies go up, or two, the gold-plating turns bronze. The latter seems more likely (and is probably the administration’s preferred option).

To summarize my thoughts, essentially there was nothing new in President Obama's address. Despite his assertion to the contrary ("My door is always open ..."), there was no hint of bipartisanship in his address. His use of phrases such as “scare tactics,” “score short-term political points”, and “think it is better politics to kill this plan” were aimed directly at Republicans and intended to exclude them.

The President doesn’t, can't, or won’t understand that there can be principled opposition to his plan. John Hinderaker had this to say: “I’m not sure whether Obama and his handlers understand how this sort of talk grates on those of us who are not liberal Democrats (a large majority of the country). Debating public policy issues is not ‘bickering.’ Disagreeing with a proposal to radically change one of the largest sectors of our economy is not a ‘game.’ This kind of gratuitous insult – something we never heard from President Bush, for example – is one of the reasons why many consider Obama to be mean-spirited.”

The President’s “cost analysis” simply doesn’t hold water. The CBO has already scored the health care reform as budget-busting, and no amount of smooth-talking is going to change that. As I noted above, if there is so much waste and inefficiency in Medicare/Medicaid, why not wring it out and only then use the savings to fund reform? Arnold Kling had the same thought but was more sarcastic: “Reducing the waste and inefficiency in Medicare and Medicaid will pay for most of this plan ... And if we don’t pass this plan, does he intend to keep the waste and inefficiency, out of spite?”

The answer is “of course he will” simply because no administration or Congress has ever been able to reduce it.

And that’s why Obama's "payment plan" doesn't hold water.

FOR THEE, BUT NOT FOR ME

"One of the clearest messages from the Town Hall forums during the August congressional recess was that people want Congress to be covered by the same health care reform plan they impose on the rest of us.... [A]n amendment offered by Rep. Dean Heller, R-NV, during a House Ways and Means Committee meeting just before the recess began that would have required Members to be covered by the Public Option plan if they approve it for private citizens. Predictably ... the Heller amendment was defeated, with all 21 committee Democrats voting against it. "

Or, in other words: “'The higher taxes, debt payments and interest rates needed to pay for health reform mean lower living standards.' But lower living standards for you are a small price to pay in exchange for more power for the political class — whose living standards won’t be going down at all . . . . "

CABLE NEWS HEADLINES

Just for curiosity, I decided to check the headlines for two cable news websites, FOX NEWS and CNN, to see how they compared. The lists below were taken from screen captures at 11:15 am this morning, September 15. FOX had 19 “top stories;” CNN, 21.

FOX Headlines

- Mullen: More Troops = Victory
- Senate Cuts ACORN Loose
- Closing In on Ivy League Campus Killer?
* 'Cash for Clunkers' Spawns Retail Sales Hike
- Airline Workers Busted on Drug Smuggling Charges
- Israel, Palestinians Guilty of 'War Crimes'?
- North Korea Unwilling to Give Up Nukes, South Says
- Recount Ordered at 10 Percent of Afghan Polls
* Iraqi Shoe Thrower Freed, Claims He Was Tortured
- H1N1 Spreads Long After Fever
- Obama Renews Push for Wall Street Oversight
* House to Discipline Wilson for 'You Lie!' Outburst
- FBI: Watch Out for Bomb Materials in NYC
- Schools on Pledge: You Have Right to Remain Silent
- Teens Sue Team Over 'God Bless America' Ejection
- Tracking Taxes: Unnecessary Earmark Projects Linger
? Baucus Health Bill May Leave Dems Cold
- Iran Nuclear Talks Likely to Be Held in Turkey
- McCain and Graham Hold Town Hall

CNN Headlines

- Student fatally stabbed at Florida school
- Actor Patrick Swayze dies after cancer fight
- Al Qaeda operative reported dead in U.S. strike
* Clunkers drives up retail sales
- 16 hurt after train hits barricade
- Ted's sons: Father 'very good at overcoming ...'
- Is Obama witch doctor image racist?
* Bush shoe thrower says he was tortured
? Don't cut my (public) health care
* Rep. Wilson faces resolution of disapproval
- Dem's 'urine' comments raise eyebrows
- Insurgents blown up by their own IED
- Girl, 8, hides, calls 911 during robbery
- Kanye tells Leno outburst 'was rude, period'
- Kanye gets called every name in the book
- Whitney Houston spills drug secrets
- Del Potro U.S. Open win is 'dream come true'
- 9 photos hooked on a feeling
- Police dog poisoned with anti-freeze
- Woman, 107, fears hubby No. 22 will leave her
- Senators split on approach to Afghanistan

Of 40 stories, only 4 (!) were common to both, and one (marked with question mark instead of the asterisk) I gave the benefit of doubt, since both the FOX and CNN stories were generally about healthcare.

Do FOX and CNN report on the same America?

HARDENING OF THE ATTITUDES

President Obama’s approval index has improved significantly in the last week, from -13 on September 7 to -4 today. It was at -8 on September 10, the day of his healthcare address to a Joint Session of Congress.

The approval chart (updated today), though, shows a distinct hardening of the attitudes. Strong approvals (green) are clearly leveling, at about 30%. Strong disapprovals (red) are still rising, however, and show little tendency to flatten. The worrisome trend for Obama is that the undecideds (black) are continuing to jump ship and move strongly toward disapproval.


The trend lines are almost unchanged from a post earlier this month.

JACKASS

President Barack Obama, a black man, calls Kayne West, another black man, a jackass. ABC reports: “Now THAT’S presidential.”

Imagine that.

Now imagine “President George W. Bush, a white man, calls Kayne West, a black man, a jackass. ABC reports: ‘Now THAT’S presidential.’ ”

I can’t either.

BEWARE THE LIBERAL ARISTOCRACY

Michael Barone: “The lesson I take ... is to be wary when media, university and corporate elites warn that we must change our ways or face disaster 50 years hence, and when they insist ... that the time for argument is over.”
“In our two-party democracy, it never is. And shouldn't be.”

DID YOU FAIL YOUR COMMON SENSE TEST?

Then you might be eligible to run for public office since it appears that failing is a prerequisite. (Look at the direction arrow in the bottom right of the picture.)

DECONSTRUCTING THE MINISTRY OF TRUTH

Victor Davis Hanson: “Nothing is so fatal to a con as boredom. Tragically, when a Rangel, Paterson, Jones, or Obama—all enjoying privileges and successes that 300 million Americans might only dream of—start in on the now accustomed trope, the public turns the channel and sighs ‘Been there, done that.’ And I think they really mean it this time.”

I don’t think the public is “changing the channel” this time. I think they’ve decided to turn the set off.

WORKS AND DAYS

For those of us who like to check in with Dr. Hanson regularly, here’s a link to his columns.

CZARS I CAN LIVE WITH

Via Instapundit.

The "Boob Czar" reminds me of Dolly Parton's reply when asked if she would run for public office: "We've got too many boobs in office already."

LISTENING TO A LIAR

Dr. Thomas Sowell asks ”Why the rush?” on the stimulus, and on healthcare. His answer:

There are lots of people in the Obama administration who want to do things that have not been done before-- and to do them before the public realizes what is happening.

It’s all about control. Read the entire column.

THE TRAGEDY OF THE COMMONS

Dr. Sam Nussbaum asks: So who, then, are the real villains in health care?

Are they the world's best-trained physicians and health care professionals who care for our loved ones? Perhaps our hospitals, which bring both employment and cutting-edge medical technologies to our communities? Our pharmaceutical, biotechnology and device companies, whose researchers give hope to those afflicted with diseases once thought incurable? Or our insurance companies, which provide access to these vital health services and whose nurses help coordinate care for patients? The answer is all of these groups standing together. The villain is our collective overgrazing on the commons of the U.S. health care system.

He forgot the most important villan - us.

DEFENDING VAN JONES

Charles Krauthammer: "Having once written a column praising Vice President Cheney's pithy deployment of the F-word -- on the floor of the Senate, no less -- I rise in defense of [Van]Jones [President Obama's "Green Czar," who called Republicans "assholes"]. True, Jones's particular choice of epithet had none of the one-syllable concision, the onomatopoeic suggestiveness, the explosive charm of Cheney's. But you don't fire a guy for style."

No, you fire him for being an idiot.

PROVE IT, MR. PRESIDENT

Newt Gingrich has an ultimatum for President Obama: prove you're not lying.

MEDICARE FOR ALL?

To solve the healthcare problem, former Senator and presidential candidate George W. McGovern wants to extend Medicare coverage to all Americans.

There's just one minor problem. Medicare is in the hole and digging faster than ever. The projected deficit in 2007 was $74.6 trillion; in 2008, the projected deficit grew to $85.9 trillion.

PROTEST ENDS - GOD BLESS AMERICA

DC 9/12 - CROWD SCENES AND COMMENTS

We arrived at the Vienna/Fairfax Metro station, the western terminus of the Orange line, about 11 am. Since we were late, we didn't expect much of a crowd.

Surprise! the parking garage was at least 2/3 full (on Saturday? Never) and the line to get on the train was at least 100 yards outside the station. After an hour, we finally boarded a packed train.


By the time we arrived in Washington, nearly 2 pm, the march down Pennsylvania Avenue was over - only stragglers and latecomers were still on the sidewalks. It was almost a normal Saturday along the street.


This photo was taken as we were nearing the National Mall approaching the Capitol building. It was still relatively quiet, but we could see some crowding ahead of us.


Now approaching the protest site, we can see crowds ahead. The area reserved for the protest is still ahead of us, well beyond camera range.


Now we're joined the crowd. We're still several hundred yards from the reserved area, we're now well inside the crowd.


At this point, we're still in the "outer ring" of protestors. Crowd density is about the same no matter which direction we turned.


Finally! We've gone another hundred yards or so and have made it almost to ihe inside edge of the outer ring.


At last - the ares of the Capitol grounds reserved for the protest. It's so crowded inside that the Capitol Police are only allowing new arrivals inside as some of the protestors inside depart. It takes about 30 minutes of waiting before we're finally allowed inside, but at least we can (barely) hear the speakers from our waiting area.


Inside at last. We've finally made it to within about 100 yards of the speakers' podium. We can't see the speakers easily, but large-screen televisions and loudspeakers allow us to see and hear reasonably well. It's now about 3 pm, the scheduled end for the protest.


Close to 4 pm, the protest is finally over and people begin to exit. The Mississippi contingent (!) is outside the gate, waving good-bye to the protestors.


This is a view of the Capitol reflecting pool, taken about a half-hour after the protest officially ended. The perimeter of the pool is ringed with people, 2 and 3 deep in many places.


An hour afterward, these folks, from Connecticut as I recall, are sitting on the Mall waiting for their bus to take them back home. A long day for them.

How many people attended? I don't know. The estimates I've seen/heard ranged from a low of 50,000 to as high as 2.5 million. Fifty thousand is ridiculously low by any counting standard. We were never in a position to see all, or even most, of the crowd even though we moved around as much as was possible in the crush of people, but I'm sure we saw many more than 50,000 people.

Judging from the crowding on Metro and the number of buses we saw both at the Mall and the Metro stations, the minimum had to be several hundred thousand, and a million is probably high, though certainly not out of the question.

A final note. The attendees were mostly middle-aged and middle-class, typical of working Americans everywhere. Minorities were well-represented, though probably not in proportion to the general population. Everyone was extremely well-mannered; we neither saw nor heard any disruptions for the entire time we were there.

I've seen reports on other blogs remarking how clean the area was left. The reporters are correct. There was plenty of trash, but it was all deposited in the trash containers on site. The Park Service groundkeepers will have very little to do cleaning up.