Twenty years ago today, history was made as Prime Minister Gorbachev of the USSR, challenged by President Ronald Reagan, began dismantling the Berlin Wall, allowing the citizens of East Berlin their first (legal) taste of freedom since 1946.  With all my heart, I wish I could use this post to talk about how, since that moment, freedom has flourished, both here and abroad.  But I can't.

Instead, I get to talk about the travesty of a bill that was barely passed in the House late Saturday night--the thing we've been dreading and waiting for since Obama took office in January, HR 3962, the health care reform.

I really don't want to talk about it, because the fact that this nearly 2,000 page thing was passed in less than a week (I'm sorry, nobody could read that thing in a week), and it's full of all kinds of horrble.  So, instead, I did the research.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703932904574511794170939688.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/08/AR2009110818453.html

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748704795604574519671055918380.html

http://blog.aul.org/2009/10/30/analysis-of-life-provisions-in-h-r-3962/

http://biggovernment.com/2009/11/03/exclusive-poll-of-likely-voters-to-know-obamacare-is-to-oppose-it/

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703399204574505423751140690.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

http://biggovernment.com/2009/11/01/obamacare-vs-the-hippocratic-oath/ -written by a doctor

http://biggovernment.com/2009/10/30/pelosi-health-care-bill-blows-a-kiss-to-trial-lawyers/

http://cei.org/on-point/2009/10/22/cure-worse-disease

For good measure, here's a link to the alternative plan offered by Republicans.  Just because Pelosi refuses to let it be heard in the House and the media refuses to report it doesn't mean it doesn't exist:  http://www.gopleader.gov/UploadedFiles/06-17-09_House__GOP_Solutions__Group__Outline.pdf

The one traitor in the House that needs to go, the only "Republican" to vote for this humdinger of a liberty-killer, is Joseph Cao (R-LA).  VOTE HIM OUT!!

Finally, a "big shout-out" (in the words of our oh-such-a-smarty-pants President) to the 39 blue dogs who had the cajones to stand up to this.  Trust me, if the NY Times is mad at you, you're doing something right:  http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/11/08/us/politics/1108-health-care-vote.html

This bill is headed to the Senate next, and it has to die there.  This bill has nothing to do with mercy.  It has everything to do with creating MANY (not just one) new government bureaucracies that are going to tell you how to live YOUR life.

This bill strains credulity; is this even Constitutional?
 
 
Welcome to 9/9/09!  That auspicious day that will go down in history...for...this:
Now, I don't mind that the guy who did it, Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) is going to get reprimanded so bad it will feel like he's been punched in the groin, because it wasn't the time or place for that.  But man, I wish he were my representative.

Think about it.  No one else in that entire room that I can think of would ever have the cajones to call the President a liar, much less to his face!  Which, by the way, according to HR 3200, the most often quoted health care reform bill, is a lie.

I love the site Bighollywood.  Like, check it everyday and read almost every article love it.  Over there, they looked into this very subject a little bit, and here's what a "Big X" had to say:

"Let’s take a look at the text, shall we?  The provision he cited is located on page 143 and reads as follows: 

SEC. 246. NO FEDERAL PAYMENT FOR UNDOCUMENTED ALIENS 

Wow.  Can’t get much clearer than that!  It looks like the Big O is right: Undocumented aliens are excluded from collecting benefits under the plan 

But… hey, wait a cotton-pickin’ minute!

On page 50, SEC. 152 explicitly prohibits discrimination under the act with “regard to personal characteristics extraneous to the provision of high quality health care or related services.” 

In other words, undocumented aliens are not only eligible for ObamaCare, but their coverage is mandated.

So what’s up, Big O?  Quit jacking us around!  Are they covered or not? 

A further reading of Section 246 reveals that the plan only disallows “Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.” 

“Affordability credits” are federal subsidies that offset the cost of monthly health plan premiums for low income earners. 

So, in short, undocumented aliens are eligible for the plan under Section 152, but ineligible for premium subsidies. 

Now, let’s do the math:

  1. Though illegal aliens will be prohibited from receiving Federal premium subsidies, they are not prohibited from participating in the plan.
  2. Every benefit dollar received by the participant in excess of premium paid represents a deficit against the plan; and…
  3. The plan is funded by tax dollars and benefits are paid by the Fed."
So, who's the liar now?  And what else is Obama blatantly lying about?  I could only stomach watching this speech for a few minutes (I'm sorry, but Obama's speeches make me seasick...stupid teleprompters), but it sounded just like all his other speeches, especially his campaign speeches:  a lot of lofty ideas, middle-of-the-road, pie-in-the-sky "approaches" to problems, and very little actual meat.  And what meat was there, was factually faulty at best.

For the life of me, I wish I knew who the representative was at the end of the clip.  Either he's making a statement about the fact that Obama's pushing a bill that has yet to be written, or he doesn't realize that 5 bills are actually in existence, with HR 3200 having passed in Henry Waxman's committee just before the August break.

Any questions?

 
 
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It's been awhile.  Mostly because more important things have been happening in my life, but also because I've been too depressed about what's going on in the world to comment on it.  Right now, all the hullabaloo is about Obama's (aka Nancy Pelosi's, since Obama has yet to write any of the Legislation he's so supportive of) health care/insurance reform.  I add the /insurance because that's how the Left is trying to frame the debate; that our insurance system is so terrible and flawed that that's what needs to be fixed. But don't worry, they're not socializing the system.  Just making single-payer (for the uninformed, they're the same thing.  Rather, single-payer leads to socialization).  But I'm not here to talk about the actual flaws of the bill, but about all the focus being put on the people showing up to protest it.

All of the House of Representatives and a third of the Senate are facing reelection next year, so they've started to follow Obama's lead and are holding town hall meetings with the people in their districts/states.  But they're not following Obama's lead in packing the house with supporters or disciples, and they're letting in the unwashed masses (read:  you and me).  And they're letting these people ask them questions about the bill.  At least, they were until they realized that the people were furious about the bill.  The worst part is, the Congress members quickly realized that many of the people showing up angry had read the bill...and they hadn't.

But because they don't really have a leg to stand on against the town hall-ers (after all, that bill is really, really long!  And the Administration just tells them the important points anyway, so what's the point in reading it?), they've been attacking the people rather than answering their complaints.  So now they're Republican hacks, shills for the insurance agency, or spreading mis- and dis-information.  It all came to a head when Linda Douglass, communications director for the White House health reform office, told people to report anything "fishy" to flag@whitehouse.gov, a "1984"-esque tactic that brings our country further to the brink of tyranny.  Here's the video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fubrjxYMzeM.

All of that is background information to what I really wanted to point out, which is how different the town hall protestors are being treated in the media, compared to the anti-war protestors.  Recently, a poster has been created depicting Obama as the Joker from "The Dark Knight" (it's shown above).  Yesterday, it was reported that a post office was defaced with a bunch of these posters.  While I don't condone that, there are a lot of people who are so offended by the mere existence of this picture; I have to wonder if they were offended by the other picture above, comparing Bush to Hitler.  Did they find that particular piece offensive as well?

Hillary Clinton said a few years back that dissent was patriotic.  Does she still feel that way, now that the dissent is coming not just from the other party, but from every side and every person who doesn't believe that this country needs to be 4 trillion in debt (a conservative estimate) and nationalize the best (not the perfect) healthcare system in the world?  I really don't like being compared to sexual deviants (tea-baggers or tea-bagging), and I only wish I could be a paid hack or shill for...well, anyone.  Unemployment is not my friend.

Finally, I want to leave you with two videos.  This one is a video from the "RNC welcoming committee," an organization of anti-Bush protestors who went to the RNC convention in St. Paul in 2008.  Here's the video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmGYfgVi5gk
And the second video is from one of the more recent town halls, where Kathy Castor is told by her constituents to "Read the Bill."  Here's that video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTxhWLbEH-Y&feature=related.  I tried to find two comparable videos; I didn't want the anti-war and -Bush protestors to come off as overly violent or herd-ish, and I didn't want the town hall protestors or tea party protestors to come off as too peaceful or knowledgeable.  Because both sides dabble in a little bit of the other's forte.  Form your own conclusions.  Better yet, go out and do the research for yourself, then form your own opinions.  And flag me!  Send in my site to flag@whitehouse.com!