Archive for December, 2009
The Twelve Days of Obamamas: Day Eleven
Everyone sing along!
On the Eleventh Day of Obamamas, Oblahblah sent to me…
* Eleven weeks dithering like a fool on Afghanistan
* Ten apologetic bows
* Nine-eleven disrespecting
* Eight pols a’ bilking
* Seven non-existent states
* Six media lapdogs
* Five tax scofflaws
* Four hate-filled slurs
* Three bankrupt coal states
* Two cups of UniTea
And a Unicorn in an ACORN tree!
H/t Chrissy the Hyphenated
H/t Chrissy the Hyphenated
H/t Chrissy the Hyphenated
H/t Chrissy the Hyphenated
H/t Chrissy the Hyphenated
H/t Chrissy the Hyphenated
H/t Chrissy the Hyphenated
H/t Chrissy the Hyphenated
H/t Chrissy the Hyphenated
Christmas in Mineral City – by Patricia Melton and the Mineral City Coffee Club
Dear HillBuzz,
My name is Patricia Melton and, as you know, I am the President-for-Life of the Mineral City Coffee Club, the foremost Coffee Club in all of Ohio, a land known for its natural wonders, idiot politicians, Muppet preserves, and Coffee Clubs. We also have the best damn Christmas decorations in the entire Ohio River Valley, as you’d know if you cracked open just about any book or spent any time at all awake in school. Christmas and Ohio are synonymous, which, if you really paid attention in school, would know means “the same thing, basically” (and not, as my husband Earl thinks, “covered in cinnamon, like doughnuts or those little twisty things at Taco Bell they have for dessert”).
This Christmas, it is my job to make sure everyone on my block, in my neighborhood, and in all of Mineral City has somewhere to go and something to do on Christmas Day (if they want to). That’s my job every year, and will be until the day I either die or just stop giving a damn. My son Robby up in Chicago knows this is his job too, and I already checked up on him and his little butt was up bright and early like I told him to be kicking ass and taking names and spreading that Christmas cheer. My daughter Ann-Louise in New York is still asleep, and will probably be still asleep until cocktail hour, as she’s still sleeping off yesterday’s peppermint martinis, cold syrup, or whatever else she’s gotten into, slumped over her white suede couch still wearing a rumpled Christian Siriano ostrich feather party dress, no doubt. My daughter, the cautionary tale. Merry Christmas to me!
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Question of the Day: How unconstitutional is the Healthcare Rationing Bill?
We’re going to be very clear about this, and are perfectly willing and able to suffer the consequences if and when they should come: we are, under no circumstances, going to purchase health insurance.
We don’t need it. We don’t want it. We’ve almost never had it. We are not paying a $750 penalty to keep not doing something we’ve never done.
Arrest us.
We’ve been working two or three part time jobs each just to make our rent and keep dinner on the menu. Three hots and a cot on the state’s dime sure sounds good, rent-free, even if the accommodations aren’t as nice as Buzzquarters.
But, how on Earth the government is going to afford to lock people in jail for not buying insurance — when it can’t afford to house the murderers and drug dealers already in jail — is just beyond us.
Our question of the day is posed to any lawyers out there: how can the government compel you, under our Constitution, to purchase anything?
If Congress can pass laws requiring you to purchase the product known as “health insurance”, can Congress also mandate you purchase “time shares” in vacation property in Florida?
Can it require you to purchase Washington state apples, pineapples from Hawaii, or tickets to Broadway shows in New York?
Will Congress require you, by penalty of fine or imprisonment, to purchase cars from GM, since the government owns that car company, and Detroit needs the jobs?
We know the Commerce Clause is the most abused claus since Santa’s little brother, Rufus, thought it was a good idea to spend Christmas Eve at The Jackhammer, but does the Commerce Clause give the federal government the authority to tell you what to buy, under penalty of law?
If the Healthcare Rationing bill is allowed to stand, what sort of precedent does that set?
How far down the slippery slope before you really are required to buy GM cars, work whatever job the government tells you, and stand in line all day to buy certain goods at certain stores because The Ministry of Production requires it?
Christmas Eve Open Thread: December 24th, 2009
What’s on your mind this Christmas Eve?
Those are our favorite Christmas songs EVER right up there. What are yours?
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Here’s a MUST-READ, written by the Daley Machine here in Chicago. It’s signed by Bill Daley, the Mayor’s brother, but it would not have been written if Mayor Daley didn’t approve of it himself. Essentially, it’s a warning to Democrats that they’ve moved too far left and are going to be trounced in 2010…a warning that says they’ve alienated not just Independents and Republicans who were stupid enough to vote for Dr. Utopia, but they’ve alienated moderate Democrats.
We are, of course, living proof of this. We no longer see the Democrat Party as the party we grew up in. We now see it as the Liberal-Socialist party, and we want nothing to do with it. We don’t see that changing anytime before 2012, when the Utopians can be purged, Sarah Palin can be installed in the White House, and Clinton Democrats take back the DNC and the party to reform it along Centrist lines. Maybe a giant, earthquake level defeat in 2010 can hasten this process, but we don’t think real change will come for Democrats until Utopia is out of office. He is a committed Liberal-Socialist, who doesn’t know the meaning of the word moderate.
Just as his wife has no concept of the words “good taste”.
*******
BREAKING: OBAMA MAKES HISTORY SOME MORE
Christmas colors sure are pretty.
As of this latest Rasmussen poll, Dr. Utopia is now finishing his first year with a lower approval rating than any president in history. That’s historic #1.
Historic #2 is the fact that in just one year, Dr. Utopia has managed to completely switch his “Strongly Approve” and “Strongly Disapprove” numbers. This latest poll actually shows MORE people who strongly disapprove of him today than strongly approved of him on January 20th, 2009, the day The Golden Age of Hope and Change began.
That’s actually stunning.
It’s never happened before.
We used to think there was no way the current president could dip into the 30s in terms of approval rating in 2010, but now we’re not so sure.
The 30s actually seem like a possibility for him.
Which is fitting, because it sure feels like the 30s to the rest of us. The 1930s. No chickens in any pots. No more cars in the garage. No jobs to be had.
Hope!
Change!
Unicorns!
The Senate needs Martian gold, unicorns, and alien slaves to make the Healthcare Rationing bill work financially
The Healthcare Rationing bill being forced through the Senate this week by Liberals is the biggest con in our history.
Harry Reid and the other 59 Democrats have pulled a fast one with the numbers: lying about the costs and abusing the Congressional Budget Office’s projections to fit the numbers they need at this moment, but fully intend to explode once the bill passes.
Liberals are profligate spenders, liars, thieves, cheats, and quite possibly the most corrupt people to ever walk this planet.
This video needs to go viral. Let’s see how long it will take to get it to a million hits.
An Open Letter to Sarah Palin – By Patricia Melton and the Mineral City Coffee Club
Dear Governor Palin,
My name is Patricia Melton, and I am the President-for-Life of the Mineral City Coffee Club here in Mineral City, Ohio. I don’t know if you have Coffee Clubs up in Alaska, but you should. I imagine it gets really cold up there, and there’s nothing like a hot cup of coffee and spirited conversation with good friends (and even people you can’t stand) to take the chill out of the air and get a little fire in your belly.
This morning, the Mineral City Coffee Club is getting our little care packages ready to take out tomorrow on Christmas Eve, visiting with people we know don’t have a lot of friends or family. We’ve baked cookies, made some ornaments, and are putting together little stockings for people. We’re all Hillary Clinton supporters here, who long ago found inspiration in her book, “It Takes A Village”, and we’re here to tell you that this little village in Ohio makes it our business to ensure the spirit of Christmas remains alive and well, thank you very much. I have my son Robby do this up in Chicago where he lives too, and would ask my daughter Ann-Louise to do it in New York, too, but I know she won’t because she’s so damn selfish. I honestly don’t know what’s wrong with her, but I’m not going to let her spoil another Christmas. The less said about her, the better.
Photoshop Needed: Death Panel
H/t MG; Cryptkeeper Sebelius, Dr. Utopia, and the Reaper itself sit on a Death Panel deciding your healthcare fate
H/t Erica; Democrats' Dracula
H/T BKeyser; Democrats' Death Panels, wth Dr. Utopia and Sebelius looking on
The Healthcare Rationing Bill that Democrats are ramming through the Senate before Christmas indeed has a Death Panel in it: the Secretary of Health and Human Services (currently the ghoul, Kathleen Sebelius) has the power to decide who receives life-saving treatment, which treatments should be allowed, and who’s had too much healthcare and should just die.
This legislation elevates a woman who, by all accounts, seems barely able to tie her own shoes and find her way to her office without spilling coffee all over herself into some sort of demigod with powers over life and death.
How long will it take for Sebelius’ Death Panel to get political? Registered Democrats get all the treatment they want, while Republicans are left out in the cold. Have you made a large contribution to the DNC lately? If so, cancer’s not going to be a problem for you. Have you ever taken part in a Tea Party protest? Sorry, Charlie, looks like the Death Panel rules that very-treatable ailment will now be fatal for you.
Welcome to Healthcare Rationing, Sebelius style.
We need good visuals on what a Death Panel is.
For the public to rebel against this, viral images of Death Panels need to go everywhere.
We imagine a long oak table with sick patients in front of it, like the American Idol judging stage, but instead of Randy, Paula, and Simon, you’ve got Dr. Utopia, Sebelius, and a Grim Reaper. Behind these three, instead of the American Idol audience, you see hundreds of skeletons, ghosts, and ghouls. The whole thing’s in a creepy, Transylvanian environment.
On one side of the room, there are doctors…on the other side, there are morticians. The Death Panel decides where you are sent.
This is very real, people. It’s happening. The Rationing will start in January. The faster we get visuals out there, the faster they can spread via email, Facebook, you name it, and the faster regular people start to understand what’s going on.
AMERICA NEEDS SARAH PALIN MORE THAN EVER
Sarah Palin, from her base in the Arctic, has launched some new devastating red and green Christmas ninja throwing stars at the White House. May Santa bring her enormous bags full of these things for 2010 and beyond. Each one’s better than the one before it. America needs Sarah Palin, and it sure looks like she’s ready to step up and provide the leadership we need to take back this country and drive Liberals from Congress next year…and from the White House two years after that.
Here’s her latest on Facebook:
Midnight Votes, Backroom Deals, and a Death PanelLast weekend while you were preparing for the holidays with your family, Harry Reid’s Senate was making shady backroom deals to ram through the Democrat health care take-over. The Senate ended debate on this bill without even reading it. That and midnight weekend votes seem to be standard operating procedures in D.C. No one is certain of what’s in the bill, but Senator Jim DeMint spotted one shocking revelation regarding the section in the bill describing the Independent Medicare Advisory Board (now called the Independent Payment Advisory Board), which is a panel of bureaucrats charged with cutting health care costs on the backs of patients – also known as rationing. Apparently Reid and friends have changed the rules of the Senate so that the section of the bill dealing with this board can’t be repealed or amended without a 2/3 supermajority vote. Senator DeMint said:“This is a rule change. It’s a pretty big deal. We will be passing a new law and at the same time creating a senate rule that makes it out of order to amend or even repeal the law. I’m not even sure that it’s constitutional, but if it is, it most certainly is a senate rule. I don’t see why the majority party wouldn’t put this in every bill. If you like your law, you most certainly would want it to have force for future senates. I mean, we want to bind future congresses. This goes to the fundamental purpose of senate rules: to prevent a tyrannical majority from trampling the rights of the minority or of future congresses.”
In other words, Democrats are protecting this rationing “death panel” from future change with a procedural hurdle. You have to ask why they’re so concerned about protecting this particular provision. Could it be because bureaucratic rationing is one important way Democrats want to “bend the cost curve” and keep health care spending down?
The Congressional Budget Office seems to think that such rationing has something to do with cost. In a letter to Harry Reid last week, CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf noted (with a number of caveats) that the bill’s calculations call for a reduction in Medicare’s spending rate by about 2 percent in the next two decades, but then he writes the kicker:
“It is unclear whether such a reduction in the growth rate could be achieved, and if so, whether it would be accomplished through greater efficiencies in the delivery of health care or would reduce access to care or diminish the quality of care.”
Though Nancy Pelosi and friends have tried to call “death panels” the “lie of the year,” this type of rationing – what the CBO calls “reduc[ed] access to care” and “diminish[ed] quality of care” – is precisely what I meant when I used that metaphor.
This health care bill is one of the most far-reaching and expensive expansions of the role of government into our lives. We’re talking about putting one-seventh of our economy under the government’s thumb. We’re also talking about something as intimate to our personal well-being as medical care.
This bill is so unpopular that people on the right and the left hate it. So why go through with it? The Senate is planning to vote on this on Christmas Eve. Why the rush? Though we will begin paying for this bill immediately, we will see no benefits for years. (That’s the trick that allowed the CBO to state that the bill won’t grow the deficit for the next ten years.)
The administration’s promises of transparency and bipartisanship have been broken one by one. This entire process has been defined by midnight votes on weekends, closed-door meetings with industry lobbyists, and payoffs to politicians willing to sell their principles for sweetheart deals. Is it any wonder that Americans are so disillusioned with their leaders in Washington?
This is about politics, not health care. Americans don’t want this bill. Americans don’t like this bill. Washington has stopped listening to us. But we’re paying attention, and 2010 is coming.
- Sarah Palin
West Virginians prepare for Robert Byrd's last Christmas
Last year, we told you people we know in the Democrat party made a big deal about Christmas in Massachusetts, because it was widely known it was going to be Ted Kennedy’s last — and, like every day, one of the last chances that murderer had to come clean about what he did to Mary Jo Kopechne in a tidal canal back in 1969. Instead of doing the right thing, Kennedy most likely drank some more, made the vulgar jokes about women and gays he was known for, and enjoyed Christmas at his Massachusetts palace, where all his family pretends to be royalty. It was indeed his last Christmas here on Earth. Something tells us his spirit is celebrating the holiday this year somewhere much, much warmer than Hyannis Port. And, we’re not talking Boca.
We’re hearing Democrats in West Virginia are treating this Christmas as Robert Byrd’s last, as it’s not expected he’ll live through 2010.
Personally, we think Senator Byrd is a shameful human being. Like Ted Kennedy before him, he knows full well he is too sick to execute his duties as an elected representative of his state. Instead of retiring with dignity, he drifts in and out of consciousness in office, leaving West Virginians to suffer. It’s sorrowful he doesn’t have the sense or decency to step aside when he knows full well he cannot perform his sworn duties for the fools who keep sending him to Washington.
West Virginia has a Democrat governor, and it’s whole Congressional delegation (save one) is Democrat — so Byrd’s death won’t change things in terms of ramming bad legislation through the Senate at breakneck speed along party lines. Byrd’s replacement would be a Democrat, too, so that would maintain the status quo.
Who knows: maybe West Virginians kept sending him back to Washington BECAUSE he’s infirm and in and out of consciousness most of the time. Maybe that’s what they want from their Senator, someone who really can’t do much and is severely restricted physically from actually being in the Senate to vote for more craziness.
Maybe Byrd is the ideal Democrat Senator after all.
