DNC Ad to Promote Obama Health Care Plan Uses Scare Tactics and Negativity

Here’s the latest Democratic ad used to promote President Obama’s health care takeover plan. 

You have to wonder, where are all the people who’ve needed medical attention and had excellent experiences?  Whose doctors saved them from heart attacks, spent countless hours treating the patient with their best care, and who would never go to Canada, Britain or anywhere else but their own doctor for their health care coverage?

Care in the United States isn’t perfect, but it is the best in the world.  At least for the time being.

Obama Says Stimulus Bill Worked as U.S. Approaches 10% Unemployment

President Barack Obama said that the stimulus bill has “done its job”, yet unemployment rose closer to 10% in June. 

Employers cut a larger-than-expected 467,000 jobs in June, driving the unemployment rate up to a 26-year high of 9.5 percent, suggesting that the economy’s road to recovery will be bumpy.

Fuzzy math?

U.S. Soldier Captured by Insurgents in Afghanistan

A U.S. soldier has gone missing and is believed to have been captured by insurgents, possibly the Taliban, in eastern Afghanistan.

Please pray for this soldier. The enemy views this as a high valued prize, the highest of value.

There is a possibility that a ransom would satisfy the captors, or an exchange of prisoners.

If he is murdered, we’ll see if closing Gitmo makes our enemies treat us better.  If not, President Obama has a lot of apologizing to do.

WH Deputy Press Sec: Obama Doesn't 'Prefer' To Break Promise on Raising Taxes

But he will!

President Obama ran for president on the promise that he would absolutely not raise taxes, “not a single dime”, on Americans earning less than $250,000 a year.

But in order to pay for his massive health care scheme, he must do just that. 

The Obama administration has been dodging the question for a week with sidesteps and shell games to not actaully lie in answering the question, “Will Barack Obama break his promise not to raise taxes on Americans earning less than $250,000 a year?”

Here’s the answer from the White House Deputy Press Secretary on Bill O’Reilly last night, hosted by Juan Williams:

JUAN WILLIAMS: Here’s the question no one seems to want to answer. David Axelrod wasn’t answering it on Sunday, Robert Gibbs wouldn’t answer it earlier this week, and the President wouldn’t answer it today at the town hall meeting, so will the President break his campaign pledge to raise the money to pay for the new health care plan by taxing people who earn less than $250,000 a year on the health care benefits they get from their jobs?

BILL BURTON: The President has been clear that that is not what he prefers. When he began this process, he didn’t carve his plan into stone tablets….

I don’t think that anybody is going to accuse the President of being responsible for any cost that go up for American families.

Yes, Mr. Burton, we know you’re banking on that. What gall.

Obama Seeks to Kill Supplemental Health Care for Seniors, Pass Savings to Uninsured Families

During his so-called town hall meeting yesterday on his planned government take over of the health care system in America, Barack Obama described how we will pay for this massive nationalized venture. One great idea was to eliminate the Medicare Advantage program that allows seniors to electively add to their health care coverage through private companies, thus eliminating their choice and passing those savings along to families with no coverage.

But it’s okay! It’ll only hurt private health insurance companies and senior citizens! And we know those old people are too expensive, anyway.

(White House transcript)

OBAMA: We spend right now about — over the next 10 years, we will spend $177 billion — $177 billion over the next decade — in unwarranted subsidies to insurance companies under something called Medicare Advantage.

Now, this does not make seniors healthier. People who are signed up for this private insurance subsidized program don’t get any better care than those who aren’t. The subsidies don’t go to the patients; they go to the insurance companies.

Now, think if we took that $177 billion and helped families so that they could have insurance, and that we could have preventive care.

“Now just think”….. if we eliminated the millions of crippled people in our society how much money we’d save and we could give it to people who deserve it! Smart money, indeed, Mr. President.

Think I’m being melodramatic? Look what Comrade Obama had to say to the New York Times in April:

NYT: And it’s going to be hard for people who don’t have the option of paying for it.

OBAMA : So that’s where I think you just get into some very difficult moral issues. But that’s also a huge driver of cost, right?

I mean, the chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives are accounting for potentially 80 percent of the total health care bill out here.

NYT: So how do you — how do we deal with it?

OBAMA: Well, I think that there is going to have to be a conversation that is guided by doctors, scientists, ethicists.

Hmmm, doctors, scientists and ethicists…. all of whom are above Obama’s pay grade on the subject. Comrade Obama chooses his words carefully. Don’t be fooled; he’s referring to the same outcome in which he said knowing whether life begins at conception in the context of abortion was above his pay grade, a convenient acquiescence that allows for an unethical, immoral practice that he believes keeps his hands free of guilt.

With the Obama plan, we can kill seniors and privatized competitive health care.

PREVIOUSLY: Obama Used His Grandmother to Make the Case for Euthanasia

Meet the 'High Point of Contact' to Iraq: Joe Biden

In a sick twist of irony, Barack Obama has appointed VP Joe Biden the ‘high point of contact’ to Iraq.

Biden will serve as a “high point of contact” in the West Wing on Iraq, a senior administration official said, taking a more active role in reaching out to Iraqi officials and serving as a go-between for American officials on the ground and the White House.

The new assignment was timed to the pullout of U.S. combat forces from Iraqi cities this week but the vice president’s specific duties are still developing and the role is open-ended.

White House officials were careful to define Biden’s role – he is not an envoy and this is not a full-time position. U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Christopher Hill and Gen. Ray Odierno do not report to the vice president, but because of Biden’s foreign policy background, the president wanted him to take a more active role on Iraq policy.

 This isn’t good.

Alan Carlin on EPA Suppressing His Findings Contradicting Global Warming

Alan Carlin, the senior EPA research analyst who authored a study critical of global warming that was suppressed by agency officials and the Obama administration, speaks out about his ordeal in this interview on Fox News. 

EPA officials wrote an e-mail to Carlin rejecting his findings that the earth is actually cooling, not warming, saying that his report wasn’t helpful to their current global warming agenda.  Carlin has been reassigned.

How Many Troops Coming Home Due to U.S. Withdrawal From Iraqi Cities? "None!"

As the U.S. military honored the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with Iraq and pulled all combat troops from Iraqi cities, leaving Iraqi forces to take the lead, CNN hunk and war correspondent Michael Ware was asked how many troops would be coming home now that they have left Iraqi cities. His answer, “None.”

CNN: How many troops does this mean will actually be coming home because of the pull out?

MICHAEL WARE: Betty, the answers very simple: NONE. You’re still gonna have 130,000 US troops based here in the country, though their hands military will be very much be tied by the Iraqi government.

……..

This doesn’t mean that any of the GIs will be coming home any time soon. In terms of today meaning that there’s any homecomings about to happen, I’m afraid to disappoint, Betty.

……..

U.S. Forces are now very much in a supporting role. What they’re doing however is called ‘Stability Operations’, making sure the Iraqis don’t get themselves killed in any great numbers….

Meanwhile, former Vice President Dick Cheney isn’t the only one worried that the pullout could potentially” waste all the tremendous sacrifice that has gotten us to this point.” The withdrawals are”making many Iraqis and the American troops nervous”, according to CBS News:

On June 30, U.S. troops will withdraw from patrolling Iraqi cities. This is making many Iraqis and the American troops nervous. In the last week more than 250 have died in various attacks and bombings, and fears are growing about increased sectarian violence and terrorism once U.S. troops pull back.

Sadly, 4 U.S. soldiers were killed in combat during today’s pullout, the deadliest attack against U.S. forces since May 21 and there was a significant spike in violence in June.

President Obama should be aware that ending U.S. participation in the war doesn’t mean the war is over.  The war will go on and we should continue to be an ally of Iraq as long as they need us. 

The astonishing development of an entire military, security and police force in Iraq leading to their complete sovereignty in only 6 years is a testament to the wisdom of the invasion and the fortitude of the U.S.-Iraq partnership.

Or would Mr. Obama prefer to be dealing with Mahmound Ahmadinejad, Kim Jung Il and Saddam Hussein?  George W. Bush eliminated 1/3 of the Axis of Evil, a denuclearized Libya and a much more democratic Middle East to work with.

Democratic NY State Senators Refuse to Stand for Pledge, Try to Silence Republicans

New York State Senators locked themselves in their chamber so they could be first into a special session called by Dem Gov Patterson in order to take possession of the podium and silence NY Senate Republicans.

Then as the session opened, Dems refused to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and when one attempted to, he was pulled down into his seat by colleagues.

From the NY Daily Balance:

Here’s shocking video of State Senate Democrats, including Darrel Aubertine, Dave Valesky, Bill Stachowski, Brian Foley and every other Democrat lawmaker, sitting through the Pledge of Allegiance in protest over their loss of power in Albany.

The video shows one Democrat, Brooklyn’s Martin Dilan, trying to join in reciting the Pledge, but he is immediately and forcefully pulled down by two fellow Democrats, Kevin Parker of Brooklyn and Ruth Hassell-Thompson of Westchester.

Not a single Democrat lawmaker stood during the Pledge, including Sens. Darrel Aubertine, Bill Stachowski, Dave Valesky and Brian Foley.

I couldn’t be more shocked if they were Chicago Democrats, could you? 

U.S. Supreme Court Overturns Obama Nominee's Reverse Discrimination Case

The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of white Connecticut firefighters in a 5-4 ruling that reverses an appeals court finding by Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, the Associated Press report.

The high court found that the firefighters in NewHaven, Conn., were unfairly denied promotions because of their race, reversing a decision that Sotomayor endorsed as an appeals court judge.

Barack Obama nominated appeals court judge Sonia Sotomayor  to replace retiring liberal Supreme Court justice David Souter back in May 2009. 

But many believe Ricci v. DeStefano  was a VOTE FOR RACISM: Sotomayor decided against a 2004 lawsuit filed by white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., who say they passed an exam for a job promotion only to have the test results thrown out because no African-American candidate received a high enough score to also be considered for promotion.

This certainly makes the Sotomayor confirmation process more challenging, which is the least that she deserves.

Update on Wednesday, July 1, 2009 at 06:54AM by Amy Proctor

Frank Ricci, one of the plaintiffs in the Supreme Court case, gives his side of the story shortly after the verdict was announced:

Obama Stops Funding Pro-Democracy Groups In Iran

Bill Clinton funded $8 million for assistance to the Iraqi democratic opposition in the 1998 Iraq Liberation Act,  but Barack Obama has “zeroed out funding for pro-democracy programs inside Iran from the State Department budget for fiscal 2010, just as protests in Iran are ramping up.”

Funding for pro-democracy programs began in 2004, when Congress earmarked $1.5 million of the State Department budget for “educational, humanitarian, and non-governmental organizations and individuals inside Iran to support the advancement of democracy and human rights in Iran.”

The funding ramped up dramatically two years later, when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice requested $75 million for pro-democracy programs. More than half of the $66.1 million Congress finally appropriated went to expand U.S. government-funded Persian language broadcasting services at Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

But no money has been earmarked for such programs in the administration’s fiscal 2010 foreign operations budget request. Congressional sources told Newsmax they doubted that a Democrat-controlled Congress would add it when the budget comes before a committee next week.

Nice timing, Mr. President.

Gay Ski Week Gives 'Queenstown' New Meaning - Fabulous!

I vacationed for 10 incredible days in New Zealand in April and fell in love with the country immediately. So it is a point of interest that the Gay Ski Weektakes place in Queesntown, in the southern island, from 29th August to 6 September. Novotel Queenstown Lakeside, a hotel I almost stayed in, is the home base for the event. I’ll remember not to stay there next time I’m in Queenstown.

For the seventh fabulous time, Gay Ski Week NZwill turn Queenstown into the pinkest place in the world. Special highlights include the Welcome Party, Cowboy Dinner, night skiing at Coronet Peak, Karaoke Casino Night, Big Gay Out adventure days, Horizontal Bungy night and the grand finale White Out Party.

Apparently “Gay Ski Week NZ will have a strong presence at both Queenstown skifields - Coronet Peak and The Remarkables”. 

Part of the festivities include Fag Tag:

Sunday 30 August: Snow fun at Coronet Peak; Fag Tag at the Novotel; Cowboy Dinner at the Lone Star Restaurant followed by mayhem at the Rattlesnake Bar.

Monday 31st August: Snow fun at The Remarkables; Fag Tag at the Novotel; Horizontal Bungy.

Now if I said “Fag Tag” I’d be a homohobe.

I landed atop the Remarkables on my vacation via Heliworks.  Please don’t sully the soil, folks. 

McCain Proud America Has Given Iranians Means to Communicate with the World

Here’s a great American whoisn’t ashamed of his country and, when the world is listening, to praise America rather than apologize for her.

On Face the Nation yesterday, John McCain proudly noted that the United States has helped Iranians in their struggle for freedom against their dictatorial government by providing the only technology in the world able to penetrate the government’s brutal censorship. While Iranian police confiscated satellite dishes andcut off internet access, citizens have beenable to cry for help to the outside world using Twitter, You Tube and Facebook, which are all inventions of American entrepreneurialship.

(transcript) 

MCCAIN: The workers in Gdansk, we gave them printing presses, and that was a key element in doing so. You know what America, either intentionally or unintentionally is giving these young people (in Iran)? We’ve given them Twitter, YouTube, FaceBook, and they are communicating in an incredible fashion.

It’s unbelievable, the spread of information that’s going on. And again, if I might say, I’m very proud that these are American technologies that they’re using to such incredible effect. It’s a wonderful thing to see.

When’s the last time you saw a presidential nominee beaming with pride over his country’s accomplishments like that? That’s how its done, President Obama.

McCain: Obama Should "Interfere", Give Hope to Iranians

Republican Senator and former Presidential nominee John McCain rebuffed president Obama’s soft response to the Iranian government’s violent crackdown on its citizens protesting the recent fraudulent election which gave Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the presidency for another term in Iran. On Face the Nation, he told Bob Schieffer that America should “interfere” in Iran by giving Iranians hope with words of encouragement and support. 

(transcript)

McCAIN: And this is a human rights issue. This is an issue about whether people can freely demonstrate their disagreement with their government without being beaten and killed in the streets. And this has a long, long history of American advocacy and leadership for human rights.

And frankly, it’s not only what’s about taking place in the streets of Tehran but it’s also what takes place in America’s conscience.

Here we are again having to be on the right side of history. We have to be on the right side of history. Now every time that there’s been a totalitarian or dictatorial government that has faced protests from their citizenry, they blame the United States.

When — when the Prague spring took place, there were many on the left in American politics who said don’t encourage them. When the workers of Gdansk in Poland were fighting for their freedom, “We shouldn’t interfere.” We did give them moral support.

After the Berlin Wall came down, guess what? They said, “You were the beacon of hope.”

One of the great honors of my life, and I’m sure yours, was to meet Natan Sharansky.

After the president’s “axis” — “Evil Empire” speech, he said it spread like wildfire throughout the gulag. There were those, at that time, that said — including the then-Soviet Union — “Don’t interfere in our affairs.”

America has the moral obligation. And again, that does not mean that we are for sending arms or anything else, although we certainly gave assistance to certain elements during the Cold War.

SCHIEFFER: But what are our options, besides just giving moral support right now?

MCCAIN: Actually, we don’t have a lot. We didn’t have a lot during the Cold War. And we may have made a mistake when we gave too much encouragement to the Hungarian revolution. But during the Prague spring and in Poland, but still — talk to Polish people today. They’ll say you were a beacon. You were the hope. And yet there were many who said, no, no, you will incite violence, there will be further repression.

Bob, we’ve seen this movie before. And again, it’s not so much about Iran, although it certainly is at the moment, but it’s also about being on the right side of history.

And I don’t consider it meddling when you stand on the side of the principles that made our nation the greatest nation in the history.

Imagine this kind of decisive and sure moral stance coming from the White House rather than the waffling “let’s see how this thing turns out before we comment too harshly” statements from Obama.

North Korea May Be Planning 4th of July Missile Launch Toward Hawaii

This isn’t a story you want to believe if you’re a military family living in Hawaii or like me, in South Korea.

According to Japanese intelligence, the People’s Democratic Republic of Korea is readying to fire a missile in the direction of Hawaii between July 4-8. This claim has been corroborated by U.S. intelligence.

A launch on July 4 would coincide with Independence Day in the States.It would also be the 15th anniversary of North Korean president Kim Il-Sung’s death.

News of the launch would put ‘enormous military pressure on the United States,’ the Yomiuri said, citing the ministry report.

Growing tensions come as arms-watchdog the International Crisis Group (ICG) claimed North Korea has several thousand tonnes of chemical weapons it could mount on missiles.

The report from the non-government organisation said they believed the North’s army have about 2,500 to 5,000 tonnes of chemical weapons which include mustard gas, sarin and other deadly nerve agents.

ICG also also warned South Korea may become a target.

‘If there is an escalation of conflict and if military hostilities break out, there is a risk that they could be used. In conventional terms, North Korea is weak and they feel they might have to resort to using those,’ said Daniel Pinkston, the ICG’s representative in Seoul.

The North has been working on chemical weapons for decades and can deliver them through long-range artillery directed on Seoul which is home to about half of South Korea’s 49 million people and via missiles that could hit all of the country.

Meanwhile, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates says the U.S. is prepared to protect American territory. 

Gird your loins.

Jolie: 'US Troops and Refugees are Both Fighting Extremists in War Zones'

Angelina Jolie was asked a question by NBC’s Ann Curry after the World Refugee Ceremony yesterday about refugees fleeing war zones, prompting this answer:

CURRY:  42 million people were forced from their homes world wide just in 2008, but some Americans don’t have a lot of sympathy for the people in these countries because U.S. lives are being lost in war there. Why do you?

JOLIE:  The element that our men and women are fighting against is the same element that these decent families are fighting against, which is extremism.  And the reason they are running and fleeing is that they are not extremists….

What?  Troops aren’t terrorizing civilians in the dead of night or killign women and children?  It’s always nice when someone in Hollywood understands what the troops are doing in the Middle East.

Iran's Ayatollah Defends Bogus Election Amid Cries of 'Death to US, UK and the Zionists"

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said during a speech at Friday prayers in Tehran that their election results naming Mahmoud Ahmadinejad President were valid despite massive cheating by the Iranian government giving Ajmadinejad the victory.  He also denied human rights abuses despite the many images showing the Iranian government injuring and murdering Ajmadinejad protesters in recent voter protests, or that the government is involved in a massive censorship effort to stop the outside world from witnessing Iran’s human rights abuses.

The Ayatollah also discussed Barack Obama’s comments on the election, the Clinton administration’s decision to surround the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas in the 1990’s and other odd things, which received eerie chants of “Death to America”, “Death to the UK” and “Death to the Zionists”. 

The entire speech from the Ayatollah is below:

S. Korean Paper: Obama's Direct Talks With North Korea Will Hurt South Korea

In his article Seoul Must Prepare for the Worst-Case Scenario, columnist Yang Sang-hoon of the South Korean paper Chosun Ilbo describes the threat from North Korea and how the South feels a bit abandoned and out manuevered by the Obama administration.

Sang-hoon writes that if the Obama policy carries out its desire for direct talks with the regime in North Korea, it will play right into the hands of dictator Kim Jung Il and block South Korea from any diplomacy.

The Barack Obama administration’s North Korea policy is against recognizing North Korea as a nuclear power. But recognized by the U.S. or not, the North is one. The nuclear bomb it tested recently must have been smaller than the one tested in 2006. If the North carries out a third nuclear test, chances are that it will be a nuclear warhead, plutonium or uranium, that is small enough to be loaded on a missile.

Seoul, Busan, Tokyo, Osaka, Beijing and Vladivostok are already within range of North Korean missiles. The intercontinental ballistic missile the North reportedly plans to test-fire is aimed at showing that Seattle and San Francisco will also be within range. Even if the test fails, it will also be a matter of time before the North perfects the technology.

The situation on the Korean Peninsula is entirely different now. The U.S. has never been exposed to a nuclear threat from a rogue regime like North Korea. Pyongyang is a terrorist regime that has blown up a private passenger airliner. Its leader proclaims in public that he will crush his country’s enemies. The North’s nuclear missiles mean an emergency for the U.S., which is anxious about Pakistan’s nuclear facilities. The missile defense system under construction by America and Japan is all but useless, a senior Japanese official has said.

Chances are that the U.S president will have to conduct nuclear disarmament talks with the North. With this in mind, Kim Jong-il has set the year 2012 as the “year opening the gate to a great, prosperous and powerful nation.” There is no room for the South to squeeze itself into the talks. That is exactly what the North wants. It is more than evident that the talks won’t discuss nuclear disarmament only. What North Korea and the U.S. will talk about behind closed doors does not bear thinking about. Washington will repeatedly promise the South a nuclear umbrella, but that is little more than fine words.

McCaskill: Obama Did Not Follow the Law in Inspector General Firing

From Jack Tapper of ABC News:

After being briefed today on President Obama’s firing last week of Gerald Walpin, Inspector General of the Corporation for National and Community Service, Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said the president did not abide by the same law that he co-sponsored – and she wrote – about firing Inspectors General.

“The White House has failed to follow the proper procedure in notifying Congress as to the removal of the Inspector General for the Corporation for National and Community Service. The legislation which was passed last year requires that the president give a reason for the removal.”

McCaskill, a key Obama ally, said that the president’s stated reason for the termination, “Loss of confidence’ is not a sufficient reason.”

She added that she was “hopeful the White House will provide a more substantive rationale, in writing, as quickly as possible.”

Gerald Walpin was fired last week as inspector general for the Corporation for National and Community Service after investing Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, a former NBA star and an Obama supporter who heads a nonprofit education group, for misuse of funds.

Walpin said of his firing: “I am the victim of being fired because I was doing my job and doing it properly.”

New politics or Chicago politics? 

Update on Thursday, June 18, 2009 at 08:48AM by Amy Proctor

Obama has fired 2 IGs in 2 weeks, leashed another

The firing of Gerald Walpin as Inspector General was not an isolated incident, as the Chicago Tribune reports today…..

South American Glacier Grows Despite Global Warming

Argentina’s Perito Moreno glacier constantly grows even as it spawns icebergs the size of apartment buildings into a frigid lake, maintaining a nearly perfect equilibrium since measurements began more than a century ago. 

 

“We’re not sure why this happens,” said Andres Rivera, a glacialist with the Center for Scientific Studies in Valdivia, Chile. “But not all glaciers respond equally to climate change.”