Interesting Items by Alex Gimarc <[email protected]> Interesting Items by Alex Gimarc Monday, July 20, 2009
Howdy all, a few Interesting Items for your information. Enjoy - In this issue: 1. Health Care 2. Chicago Way 3. AK Medicare 4. Epiphany 5. ACU 6. Revolt 7. Special Session -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Health Care. Details of the two ObamaCare bills started leaking out last week; so did cost estimates. And it is worse than anyone expected. On page 16 of the House Bill, Investor’s Business Daily found a line that essentially outlaws the writing of any new health care for any American once ObamaCare is signed into law. If you have health care coverage that is not immediately shifted over to the new federal program, the instant you change jobs, you will end up on the new program. There are provisions to provide complete medical coverage for the estimated 12 million illegals here in the US. Those illegals make up around 25% of the mythical 47 million uninsured democrats are so famously worried about. It also appears that the legislation will replace Medicare. It may also replace Medicaid. It will also force military retirees and family members into the federal program, eliminating Tricare and Tricare supplementary coverage completely. Obama last week started to address the notion of health care rationing, contemptuously brushing aside a question about rationing by noting that if you were really old, you might not need that operation and would instead be able to simply take pain medicine. Thank you Doctor Obama. The fact of the matter it that should this legislation pass, it will create in instant shortage and immediate rationing of medical care. It does not address the problem of lawsuit abuse. It will not address the problem caused by FDA regulatory abuse; that of slowing down innovation and approval of new drugs. Indeed, under this administration, that already slow approval process is slowing down even more. And with all things, democrat, what they don’t get right in congress, they will leave to their buds the trial lawyers to create in court via a series of lawsuits. Should this pass, the elderly and the disabled will be the first inconvenient people to get thrown under the bus by rationing away what they need to stay alive and live decently. The only good news out there is that the entire thing is incredibly expensive, and the general public is rejecting new expenditures more forcefully every day. Keep fighting this and don’t up. One final note: Congress and the Executive have excluded themselves from inclusion in this legislation. When enacted, there will be a two-tier medical system here in the US – one tier for our Masters in Washington and one for the rest of us. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Chicago Way. One of the things that Obama and Rahm Emanuel brought with them to the WH is the Chicago Way – the technique of strong-arming, intimidation, payoffs, and bribes for their friends and enemies. Last week, Arizona got a demonstration of how the new game is to be played. Early last week, John Kyl (R, AZ) called for the stimulus debacle to be stopped, unspent money returned to the taxpayers, and cancel all projects not currently underway. The next day Janet Napolitano’s replacement, a strong conservative Jan Brewer (R), received letters from four cabinet secretaries – Transportation, HUD, Interior and Agriculture – all pointing out how important the money was, how it was going to be spent, and suggesting that if she agreed with Senator Kyl, they would be pleased not to spend any of it in Arizona. So under this WH, if you criticize spending, they will threaten to take that money from your state and spend it elsewhere. This is not the first time they have done this, having done it earlier in the year threatening to withhold Medicare / Medicaid money from California. If this is to be the standard, imagine what this WH could do if they controlled all money for health care, energy and the environment. Personally, I would like several of the states to get up and tell the Obama WH to go straight to Hell and force the issue. Hewitt, Thurs. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. AK Medicare. Wednesday the Feds announced a halt in signing up new Alaskans for senior and disability services. The halt will only impact about 1,000 who are being processed into the system. The reason given for the halt is that the state-run program is a mess. Speculation up here immediately turned to a discussion of an anti-Palin hit orchestrated by the Obama administration, as Alaska is the only state with this sort of shutdown in place, as we know of other states with much larger problems than Alaska. I would tend to not put much stock in that explanation, as there is a federal audit of the program underway, and one of the ways to take a variable out of the audit would be to simply shut down intake of new people for a time. The program is intended to provide in-home care and support for the elderly and disabled Alaskans. Nobody currently in the program will be affected. There are currently 3,200 people receiving in-home care and other 3,800 receiving more extensive services. The feds said that the program shutdown was triggered by a waiting list of around 2,000 people. ADN, Weds. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Epiphany. It has long been said that a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged by reality. So it is for comedian Paul Rodriguez who was for years a typical Hollywood leftist, democrat, green, and supporter of all the usual trendy causes. Rodriguez also is a farmer, and has seen first hand the devastation on the agricultural sector in California wrought by environmental lawsuits. Last December a new management plan was approved by the feds that would shift the primary use of water used for farming in the Sam Joaquin Valley from farming to protection of the delta smelt. There has been a significant drought in California in recent years and water for farming and drinking has been at a premium. As a result, the farms are failing due to lack of water. So often, environmental rules and restrictions created in reaction to lawsuits by Big Green hit voiceless people who are put out of business, lose everything they have, and move out of the area. Rodriguez was one of the people hit by the new management plan and has apparently seen the light. He started speaking out strongly against the greens in particular and the leftist democrats in general. Conservatives have a real opportunity here to stand up for the property rights of businessmen and people who actually work for a living against Big Green, who makes their money by putting people out business, out of their homes, and into poverty. Hewitt, Fri. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. ACU. One of the reasons that term limits have long been popular among conservatives is the demonstrably corrosive effects of spending long periods of time inside the Beltway (Washington DC). The latest demonstration of that principle has been the actions of American Conservative Union Chairman David Keene and Executive Vice President Dennis Whitfield. Politico reprinted a letter from Whitfield to FedEx promising public support in their fight against a Teamsters and UPS backed provision in the FAA Reauthorization Act that would change which labor laws they are governed by. The letter stated that if FedEx were to “donate” two million dollars to ACU, the group would write letters, studies and opinion columns in opposition to the legislation. FedEx refused and David Keene started writing letters blasting FedEx and in support of UPS and the legislation. Ed Morrissey and Michelle Malkin carried the story, prompting a strong reaction by ACU, saying that Keene was doing this on his own time and with his own dime and that ACU’s position in opposition to the legislation was consistent. Whitfield did not explain his earlier letter to FedEx nor did he explain the attempted shakedown of FedEx. The ACU may have been a great organization for a very long time, but this episode demonstrates very nicely why it is not a conducive for anyone to spend a long time inside the Beltway. Hot Air, Sat. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. Revolt. The uprising in Iran continued to percolate along last week with a fatwa tossed over the fence by the cleric who was considered to be Khomeini’s replacement. He called the regime illegitimate, said that confessions forced out of protestors were without merit, and called for the people to remove the illegitimate rulers from their positions of power. After the fatwa, protests in Tehran cranked up once again. For our part, the Obama administration released five Quds Force commanders captured by American forces in northern Iraq two years ago to Iraqi government, which promptly sent them back to Iran. These five commanders were pretty important captives, as they had been directing Iranian participation in the insurgency, particularly the use of armor penetration explosive rounds manufactured in Iran, imported into Iraq, and used effectively against American forces. Apparently the release was in exchange for release of British hostages and an American journalist taken hostage during the street riots currently going on in Iran. Unnamed “senior US officials” referred to these guys as innocent civilians. The Carterization of the war against radical Islam continues. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7. Special Session. It appears that the Alaska Legislature will call itself into a special session on August 10. The two current topics would be a veto override of a Palin veto of $28 million of stimulus money dedicated to energy (mostly weatherization improvements); and confirmation of LtGen Craig Campbell as Lieutenant Governor. The special session is simply an excuse to stick a sharp stick into Palin’s eye after she has resigned. More later - - AG "If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen." - Samuel Adams, speech at the Philadelphia State House, August 1, 1776. Note: Interesting Items can be found at the following locations: The Alaska Standard http://thealaskastandard.com/ MatSuValley News http://www.matsuvalleynews.com District 28 http://www.dist28.com/ subscriber and supporter Elbert Collins at http://thatselbert.wordpress.com/ and the home page: http://home.gci.net/~agimarc Rod Martin's The Vanguard site is also a long-time supporter of this column: http://www.thevanguard.org/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- How it started http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkFFwyyjZC8 COMING SOON Nationwide protests at Capitol House & Senate Offices July 17 http://www.teapartypatriots.org/ Labor Day Tea Party ??? First Monday in Sept http://www.teapartyday.com/ (with before and after) March on Washington Washington DC 18,406 members and growing www.the912project.us -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Shout Out * To any one organizing a Tea Party. 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