Archive for August, 2009
Sarah Palin will single-handedly bring down Obamacare using only Facebook to do it
This is remarkable…truly, truly remarkable.
But, Sarah Palin is almost single-handedly bringing down Obamacare using only Facebook.
Let that sink in for a moment. The woman the Loony Left demonizes as Anita Bryant 2.0 and Tina Fey lampoons as some sort of space cadet, the woman the Lefties in Chicago constantly make the butt of their jokes or use as a straw (wo)man for whatever they need a villain for, posts remarks on Facebook that fuel Americans’ anger and resentment over the way Democrats are rushing through healthcare reform so recklessly.
The woman these Lefties claim is so, so stupid sure seems mighty smart to us.
Here’s her latest posting on Facebook…it is spot-on, perfect. If anyone doesn’t believe this woman is running for president, we just don’t know what to tell you…she is doing exactly what Republicans need to do…she is stirring up the lawyers, the ambulance chasers, and threatening the Democrats’ insurance-company-suing-trial-lawyer-donations-ATM in the process. If Republicans can drive that wedge between the Democrats and their trial lawyer sugar daddies…man alive, 2010 could make 1994 look like a day at the beach for Democrats.
President Obama’s health care “reform” plan has met with significant criticism across the country. Many Americans want change and reform in our current health care system. We recognize that while we have the greatest medical care in the world, there are major problems that we must face, especially in terms of reining in costs and allowing care to be affordable for all. However, as we have seen, current plans being pushed by the Democratic leadership represent change that may not be what we had in mind — change which poses serious ethical concerns over the government having control over our families’ health care decisions. In addition, the current plans greatly increase costs of health care, while doing lip service toward controlling costs.We need to address a REAL bipartisan reform proposition that will have REAL impacts on costs and quality of patient care.
As Governor of Alaska, I learned a little bit about being a target for frivolous suits and complaints (Please, do I really need to footnote that?). I went my whole life without needing a lawyer on speed-dial, but all that changes when you become a target for opportunists and people with no scruples. Our nation’s health care providers have been the targets of similar opportunists for years, and they too have found themselves subjected to false, frivolous, and baseless claims. To quote a former president, “I feel your pain.”
So what can we do? First, we cannot have health care reform without tort reform. The two are intertwined. For example, one supposed justification for socialized medicine is the high cost of health care. As Dr. Scott Gottlieb recently noted, “If Mr. Obama is serious about lowering costs, he’ll need to reform the economic structures in medicine—especially programs like Medicare.” [1] Two examples of these “economic structures” are high malpractice insurance premiums foisted on physicians (and ultimately passed on to consumers as “high health care costs”) and the billions wasted on defensive medicine.
Dr. Stuart Weinstein, with the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, recently explained the problem:
”The medical liability crisis has had many unintended consequences, most notably a decrease in access to care in a growing number of states and an increase in healthcare costs.
Access is affected as physicians move their practices to states with lower liability rates and change their practice patterns to reduce or eliminate high-risk services. When one considers that half of all neurosurgeons—as well as one third of all orthopedic surgeons, one third of all emergency physicians, and one third of all trauma surgeons—are sued each year, is it any wonder that 70 percent of emergency departments are at risk because they lack available on-call specialist coverage?” [2]Dr. Weinstein makes good points, points completely ignored by President Obama. Dr. Weinstein details the costs that our out-of-control tort system are causing the health care industry and notes research that “found that liability reforms could reduce defensive medicine practices, leading to a 5 percent to 9 percent reduction in medical expenditures without any effect on mortality or medical complications.” Dr. Weinstein writes:
“If the Kessler and McClellan estimates were applied to total U.S. healthcare spending in 2005, the defensive medicine costs would total between $100 billion and $178 billion per year. Add to this the cost of defending malpractice cases, paying compensation, and covering additional administrative costs (a total of $29.4 billion). Thus, the average American family pays an additional $1,700 to $2,000 per year in healthcare costs simply to cover the costs of defensive medicine.
Excessive litigation and waste in the nation’s current tort system imposes an estimated yearly tort tax of $9,827 for a family of four and increases healthcare spending in the United States by $124 billion. How does this translate to individuals? The average obstetrician-gynecologist (OB-GYN) delivers 100 babies per year. If that OB-GYN must pay a medical liability premium of $200,000 each year (which is the rate in Florida), $2,000 of the delivery cost for each baby goes to pay the cost of the medical liability premium.” [3]You would think that any effort to reform our health care system would include tort reform, especially if the stated purpose for Obama’s plan to nationalize our health care industry is the current high costs.
So I have new questions for the president: Why no legal reform? Why continue to encourage defensive medicine that wastes billions of dollars and does nothing for the patients? Do you want health care reform to benefit trial attorneys or patients?
Many states, including my own state of Alaska, have enacted caps on lawsuit awards against health care providers. Texas enacted caps and found that one county’s medical malpractice claims dropped 41 percent, and another study found a “55 percent decline” after reform measures were passed. [4] That’s one step in health care reform. Limiting lawyer contingency fees, as is done under the Federal Tort Claims Act, is another step. The State of Alaska pioneered the “loser pays” rule in the United States, which deters frivolous civil law suits by making the loser partially pay the winner’s legal bills. Preventing quack doctors from giving “expert” testimony in court against real doctors is another reform.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry noted that, after his state enacted tort reform measures, the number of doctors applying to practice medicine in Texas “skyrocketed by 57 percent” and that the tort reforms “brought critical specialties to underserved areas.” These are real reforms that actually improve access to health care. [5]
Dr. Weinstein’s research shows that around $200 billion per year could be saved with legal reform. That’s real savings. That’s money that could be used to build roads, schools, or hospitals.
If you want to save health care, let’s listen to our doctors. There should be no health care reform without legal reform. There can be no true health care reform without legal reform.- Sarah Palin
[1] See http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204409904574350370729883030.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
[2] See http://www.aaos.org/news/aaosnow/nov08/managing7.asp
[3] Id.
[4] See http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/new_laws_and_med_mal_damage_caps_devastate_plaintiff_and_defense_firms_alik/print/
[5] See http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/OpEd-Contributor/Tort-reform-must-be-part-of-health-care-reform-8096175.html
Friday Open Thread, August 21st 2009
What’s on your mind this Friday?
Official "I'm Sorry I Voted For Obama" Group Forms
We will not be joining the official “I’m Sorry I Voted For Obama” group, because we didn’t vote for Dr. Utopia or the Ice Cream Bandit in the first place.
We voted for the grown-ups in the 2008 race, the ones who aren’t socialists, the ones who didn’t want to destroy the country with Alinsky methods and make America “just one of 190 countries in the world”, as Dr. Utopia so loves to say. We voted first for Hillary Clinton…and then for John McCain and Sarah Palin. So we don’t have any regrets. Not only did we vote for them, but some of us here pretty much ruined our lives burning bridges in a Democrat-controlled city by refusing to drink the Kool-Aid. But we know in our hearts we did everything humanly possible to stop Dr. Utopia every chance we could. No one can ever blame us for anything Dr. Utopia does.
No one can blame us that you no longer have any ice cream.
But, it’s interesting people who voted for Dr. Utopia and the Ice Cream Bandit felt the need to create the I’m Sorry group and corresponding nifty logo.
And it’s fascinating that, when out walking in Boystown this afternoon, we popped into shops we like such as Gay Mart, and still found all these anti-Bush buttons and magnets and “I don’t support the war!” underpants or whatever. Love the store…but we’re puzzled why this stuff is still on the shelves. Did they buy too much of it? Surely no one is still hungry for anti-Bush magnets when Bush has absolutely nothing to do with what’s going on now.
This is all Dr. Utopia.
That Trillion Dollars Dr. Utopia dumped into Democrats’ pet projects and called it a stimulus? Dr. Utopia OWNS THAT.
The Alinsky attacks on anyone who opposes the crazed healthcare push that no one properly understands, with a bill that hasn’t even been written? Dr. Utopia OWNS THAT.
Cash for Clunkers, which is being junked on Monday because it was an epic fail and also has decimated charities that used to reap big benefits from used car donations? Dr. Utopia OWNS THAT.
Cap & Tax? Dr. Utopia OWNS THAT.
Broken promises to the LGBTQ community? Dr. Utopia OWNS THAT.
Owns it, owns it, owns it.
We have no idea who started the “I’m Sorry I Voted For Obama” group, but he OWNS THAT now too.
Shakeup in the Illinois GOP: one of the real, honest to goodness GOOD GUYS, Pat Brady, takes over
Pat Brady became the new Illinois GOP Chair in a major shakeup this week.
Pat and his wife Julie are two of the most decent, honest, wonderful, and reasonable people there are. They were part of the driving force of Team McCain in Illinois last year, and were the ones who reached out to Hillary Democrats and made DeMcCrats for McCain happen. These two people did more in several months to truly create a new kind of politics, to change the old partisan divisions, than everyone else who talks about this stuff ever did in DECADES.
The Bradys are work horses, not show ponies. And they are SMART. THE REAL DEAL that comes along too seldom in life.
Having Pat at the helm of the GOP in Illinois is a major, major asset going into 2010. Republicans have, up until now, not seemed to capitalize on the mess Democrats made in Illinois, or the weaknesses of people like Giannoulias runing for the Senate. If anyone can push Mark Kirk to a win, it will be the Bradys. The GOP now has a chance to take down Governor Pat Quinn, too (which we won’t weigh in on, because many Clinton people support Quinn, so this is a conflict of interests area for us…that Senate seat, which we feel should remain Roland Burris’, is another matter…we WANT Kirk to beat Giannoulias eight ways to Sunday…but the Governor’s race we feel differntly about).
Such good people, the Bradys. We cannot say that enough.
So smart. We cannot say that enough, either.
Things just got so much more interesting for the 2010 races in Illinois. One of the honest to goodness GOOD GUYS just got a major promotion that’s going to make a big difference in this state.
We do not get to say this often enough in life, but HIP, HIP, HOOOOOORAY!
How many women are in the United States Senate currently?
Currently, there are 17 female members of the United States Senate. They are:
Lisa Murkowski (R), Alaska, up for re-election in 2010 (Class 3)
Blanche Lincoln (D), Arkansas, up for re-election in 2010 (Class 3)
Dianne Feinstein (D), California, up for re-election in 2012 (Class 1)
Barbara Boxer (D), California, up for re-election in 2010 (Class 3)
Mary Landrieu (D), Louisiana, up for re-election in 2014 (Class 2)
Olympia Snow (R), Maine, up for re-election in 2012 (Class 1)
Susan Collins (R), Maine, up for re-election in 2014 (Class 2)
Barbara Mikulski (D), Maryland, up for re-election in 2010 (Class 3)
Debbie Stabenow (D), Michigan, up for re-election in 2012 (Class 1)
Amy Klobuchar (DFL), Minnesota, up for re-election in 2012 (Class 1)
Claire McCaskill (D), Missouri, up for re-election in 2012 (Class 1)
Jeanne Shaheen (D), New Hampshire, up for re-election in 2014 (Class 2)
Kirsten Gillibrand (D), New York, up for special election in 2010 (and re-election in 2012 as Class 1)
Kay Hagan (D), North Carolina, up for re-election in 2014 (Class 2)
Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R), Texas, would be up for re-election in 2012 but is resigning to run for Texas governor
Patty Murray (D), Washington, up for re-election in 2010 (Class 3)
Maria Cantwell (D), Washington, up for re-election in 2012 (Class 1)
There are three states that have 2 female Senators representing them: California, Maine, and Washington.
Some of these people are good Senators. Some of them are bad Senators. Some of the good ones are Democrats; one of the good ones is a Republican. Some of the bad ones, such as Claire McCaskill, are Democrats. Some of the bad ones, such as Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, and Kay Bailey Hutchinson are Republicans.
While there indeed needs to be more women in the Senate (at least 50), there needs to be GOOD PEOPLE who make GOOD SENATORS, period, in the Senate.
Who is Martha Coakley and should she be the next Senator for Massachusetts?
Martha Coakley is Massachusetts’ Attorney General and the former District Attorney of Lowell, Massachusetts. She’s who some people believe should replace ailing Ted Kennedy in the Senate should a vacancy emerge before the 2012 elections (when Kennedy would have to run for and win another term).
The Kennedy Family wants to install one of Ted’s nephews to take his place…so it’s smart to start learning about and advocating good candidates who aren’t Kennedys who could give Massachusetts fresh representation should a vacancy arise.
Use this thread to fill in whatever you know about Coakley. Would she be a good Senator? What has she been like as Attorney General? What do you know about her and her record?
From Wikipedia, it seems the only time she made a lot of news was during the Aqua Teen Hunger Force bomb scares a few years ago (where Cartoon Network put up guerrilla/experiential marketing materials that some people thought looked like bombs with flashing lights and wires hanging out of plastic boxes…since the units were placed on bridges, overpasses, etc. the police responded accordingly and Coakley defended their actions, rightfully in our opinion). We also found some references from the fringe that claim Coakley went on a “Middlesex witch hunt” against Father Paul Shanley, because the fringe believes the men who accused him of molestation were lying (like the girls in the Salem Witch trials, only this time it was little boys…now grown into men 15 years later). Shanley was convicted because of testimony by witnesses who had recovered memories of abuse. This was all part of the Boston clergy sex abuse scandal.
It doesn’t seem like either the Aqua Teen Hunger Force bomb hoax or the Shanley case would do any harm to Coakley’s Senate bid. Quite the contrary in our opinion. The people who seem to hate her for prosectuing Shanley appear to be in the serious minority…as every time Shanley’s case has been appealed, the conviction has stood.
But, we don’t know Massachusetts…so we wonder if an opponent claiming Shanley was railroaded by recovered memories would do any damage to Coakley? Massachusetts has a lot of Catholics…are they still angry over all the attention the molestation scandals had? We’re all from the Midwest around here, and with one exception all grew up Catholic. We were in grade school and high school when all these scandals with the Church broke. We still think it’s horrible that , at Halloween here in Boystown, tall guys dress up as priests (or nuns) and short guys dress up as altar boys and they go out together as couples costumes, joking about priests molesting kids. We knew so many great priests and nuns growing up who were kind and decent and never did anything horrible like that…so it’s unfair the whole Church was painted with scandal committed by the few. We do believe Shanley did it…having followed that trial closely back when it happened. The jury believed he did it. Appeals courts believed the trial was fair and conducted properly. So, we’d never fault the prosecutors in a case like this for anything.
But would Massachusetts voters if they were stirred up against the woman who prosecuted a priest?
Does anyone know the answer to that, or have more potential pros and cons for a Coakley run for the Senate?
NOTE: As much as we dislike Ted Kennedy, and believe he should be in prison for what he did to Mary Jo Kopechne, we don’t like speculating on whom will replace someone in office when they die…we don’t wish Ted Kennedy dead…but we do believe he needs to retire, spend more time with his family, and come clean about what he did in that Oldsmobile. We do not believe his place is in the Senate…and so he should step down. And when he does, he should be replaced by a special election in which a non-Kennedy should win.
We don’t support Martha Coakley to win that special election just because she is a woman. In fact, we don’t know if we support Coakley yet or not. We want to learn more about her to see if she’s a candidate we could indeed support. That’s what we do with elections: we look at the candidates and decide which one would be best for the job. We support all kinds of women, like Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, Barbara Mikulski, Kirsten Gillibrand, Maxine Waters, Sheila Jackson Lee, and Stephanie Tubbs Jones (RIP)…not because they are women, but because they are people we like and support who happen to be women. Then there are women we don’t support because we don’t like them for a number of reasons: Claire McCaskill, Kathleen Sebelius, Janet Napalitano, Kay Bailey Hutchinson, Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, Elizabeth Dole, Sarah Feigenholtz, Jan Schakowsky, HRH Princess Caroline of Kennedy, and other terrible people.
Just because you are a woman does not mean you are a good person who should hold an elected office. While we want to see the US Senate 50 women, 50 men and the House evenly split male/female and women like Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin at the highest levels of the executive, the women we want in those seats are THE GOOD ONES. Not Claire McCaskill. Not HRH Princess Caroline. Not Jan “married to convicted bank fraud felon Robert Creamer” Schakowsky.
Identity politics got us Sonia Sotomayor on the Supreme Court…the “wise Latina” who seems destined to make a fool of herself, since she was overruled 60% of the time by higher courts and, by all accounts, has never shown any intellectual curiosity or legal brilliance to warrant her installation onto the Court. But, she was a woman. And a wise Latina too! So, now, on the SCOTUS she sits…instead of a more brilliant person of either gender…or a woman who wasn’t a wise Latina, but is a brilliant, hard-working, remarkable black judge (like Ann Claire Williams…who will, indeed, be a SCOTUS Justice too…when identity politics don’t get away like this push for “the first Hispanic Justice” business).
People need to be judged by what’s inside their skulls and inside their hearts, not what’s below their belts or shading their epidermis.
Ted Kennedy is trying to change Massachusetts state law to keep his Senate seat in the Kennedy family
It’s truly sick the Kennedys believe Ted Kennedy’s seat in the United States Senate is not, in fact, one of two seats representing the people of Massachusetts, but instead the Senate seat representing the Kennedy family. The Kennedy seat. Now and forever.
And it’s funny that Democrats in Massachusetts forced legislation through in 2004, while Mitt Romney was Governor, to prevent Romney from appointing a replacement for Kerry should Kerry have won the White House. Instead of a Governor-appointed replacement, Democrats changed the law so that Massachusetts is required to have a special election to fill a vacated Senate seat.
Now Ted Kennedy wants to change the law back to the pre-Kerry cunundrum days, since there’s currently a Democrat in the Governor’s mansion and Kennedy has very likely secured a promise from Deval Patrick to appoint a Kennedy family member to his seat when he leaves this world to answer for the murder of Mary Jo Kopechne.
The Kennedys are very much prepping for the end of Senator Kennedy’s days on this Earth and in our Senate.
And they are utterly and completely SHAMELESS.
This is even worse than what HRH Princess Caroline tried to do back in December, when she demanded Governor Paterson appoint her to Hillary Clinton’s vacated Senate seat…just because she was a KENNEDY and wanted it. At least Princess Caroline didn’t demand actual laws were changed so she could get her way. For once, there’s something nice we can say about Princess Caroline…she’s not as loathsome as her uncle!
It’s just so interesting, too, that Ted Kennedy knows the dynasty’s over without this law change…because a Kennedy heir does not seem likely to win that special election the law requires. If the Kennedys thought they had the seat locked down, Ted wouldn’t be up to these tricks. He wants to guarantee at least one more generation of Kennedys sits in that seat…most likely a nephew, since his wife Vicky is just a Kennedy by marriage.
We sure hope the people of Massachusetts raise Hell over this. Deval Patrick, according to some polls, has an approval rating of just 19% or so. That does not bode well for having the ability to ram through Kennedy-saving legislation. There’s a good chance, if the GOP gets its act together, that there could soon be a Republican Governor of Massachusetts again, with potentially a Republican Senate pickup as well. But, the GOP in Massachusetts has a lot of issues and could very well fumble this golden opportunity. We hope they don’t, because we’d love to see David Axelrod’s first HopeyChangey candidate booted from office…and we’d love to see someone other than a Kennedy in that Massachusetts seat.
Will it happen? We don’t know enough about Massachusetts to say, but it sure looks like Ted Kennedy’s mighty scared of the possibility.
Or, maybe that fear’s more about answering to a higher power than the Kennedy family about what he did to a beautiful, smart, and talented young woman in an Oldsmobile on the Chappaquiddick tidal bridge back in 1969.
Levi Johnston offered $25,000 by StraightCollegeMen.com to pose nude
Redeye, a publication of the Chicago Tribune, has an article in it today about Levi Johnston, the father of Bristol Palin’s son, being offered $25,000 to pose nude for a website called StraightCollegeMen.com. The site’s owners, Bait & Tackle Enterprises, created an open letter website to Levi called LeviNaked.com inviting him to Las Vegas to continue making an ass of himself…just with less clothes on than when he does it on Larry King or on Kathy Griffin’s arm.
It’s amazing Johnston continues to do what he’s doing, in either an attempt to lashout at the Palins, or just because he enjoys the attention. We have no idea what his motivations are…but it’s probably the latter. Being from small town Alaska, not graduating high school, having no future, really, it must be thrilling to bask in all the attention in New York, Los Angeles, Vegas, wherever.
But, he’s a very short-sighted and stupid young man.
With his looks, and inadequate morals, if he really wanted to be famous, and didn’t care about the Palins, he could have very easily parlayed his time in the spotlight into a modeling gig or a role on something the CW network would show (the updated Melrose Place is still casting, we hear). Instead, he’s making news for being offered $25,000 to bare his ass on a website.
We hope the clown does it. And not for the reason you think, because he is hot, no matter how much of a loser he is. He’s a hot loser. And we have never once questioned what Bristol saw in him…as we’ve always had a thing for hockey players. But, the reason we hope he really goes for the $25,000 is because this would really be the last thing he’d realistically be able to do with that last .30 seconds of his Warholian 15 minutes.
Once you go nude, dude, not even Larry King will have you on as a legitimate assailant against the Palins. Even MSNBC would be loathe to have Johnston on, after showing his johnson on a website (and doing much more than showing, if you catch the drift). That feels like it would cross a line that even Olbermann wouldn’t touch (as much as he might want to).
So, keep hoping Levi Johnston does this. Because then the only time you’d ever have to see him would be if you’d logon to that website to que up his video…and see all there is to see of him.
(kind of like this, but more…)
Thursday Open Thread, August 20th 2009
What’s on your mind this Thursday?
Chris Kennedy will not run for Senate…Princess Caroline did much more damage to the family brand than we at first thought.
This is fascinating…Chris Kennedy has announced he will not run for the Democrats’ Senate nomination in Illinois.
There are a lot of reasons for this…not the least of which is the simple fact that all of Kennedy’s shady business dealings in Ohio would come up in a Senate run. But, Alexi Giannoulias, one of Dr. Utopia’s basketball buddies, is running and will most likely be the Democrats’ nominee…and his family owns Chicago’s mob bank, Broadway Bank. The Giannoulias Family is also connected to convicted felon Tony Rezko, and just about every shady deal in Chicago for the last few decades. So, Kennedy could have gone round for round with Giannoulias in terms of sleaze, corruption, and scandal.
Why did Kennedy REALLY back out? No one knows, but on the ground here in Chicago people say it’s because of the disastrous attempt Kennedy’s cousin, HRH Princess Caroline, made in December to appoint herself a United States Senator.
The Kennedys realize they are very much on thin ice…having greatly overplayed their hand…after Princess Caroline made herself into a complete and utter laughingstock.
The “Camelot Mystique” was forever destroyed by the spoiled, inarticulate, lazy, um, you know, daughter of former President Kennedy.
And the Kennedys know it.
People have also, surprisingly, started questioning why the Kennedys have abused their wealth and connections to block coastal wind farms in Massachusetts because they’d obstruct some of the views the self-styled royals have in Hyannis Port. They’ve been blocking this project for years, but it was only after Princess Caroline made an ass of herself that people really started to wonder why the Kennedys have been getting away with it.
So many days of Princess on the news, looking so foolish, inviting people to look behind the mystique and myth and see these people for who they really are. With Ted Kennedy ill, there’s a very good chance 2010 could, at last, bring us a United States Senate without one of these aristocratic leeches in it.
No more Kennedys in the Senate, at last…though when Ted Kennedy finally leaves this plane to answer for the murder of Mary Jo Kopechne, we imagine Deval Patrick would appoint either his wife or one of his children to his Senate seat. Hopefully a Republican governor will be in office when Kennedy’s seat goes vacant, so someone other than a Kennedy family member could actually serve the best interests of the people of Massachusetts…and not just be the Senator in charge of keeping the views at Hyannis Port glorious for this one family.
We thought Princess Caroline’s embarrassing antics just nipped her own political career in the bud…but it sure feels like she went a step further and really bit her own family in its bulbous collective butt. They just didn’t seem to have the ability to rally together behind Chris Kennedy and win this seat for him in Illinois…when, a year ago, that’s exactly what they probably would have done.
Very interesting.
Now, it’s just up to Republicans to wait until Giannoulias wins the primary against Cheryle Jackson, and then pound him to the ground for his mob connections while defending Kirk from all the dirty secrets that are going to flood out of his divorce…and Republicans win Dr. Utopia’s old Senate seat.
