Archive for April, 2010
Time to separate the men from the drag queens: Charlie Crist goes Independent to ensure Democrat Senate victory in Florida. How the GOP responds is a test of mettle.
Florida's orange Governor, Charlie Crist (arrow), announcing his Independent bid for Senate in a time-traveling visit to the set of Diffr'nt Strokes
We really and truly don’t understand why Republicans are so averse to going for the throat, and really and truly ripping out the jugular, when it comes to people like Charlie Crist who so betray their constituents.
Crist should have been taken down a long, LONG time ago. He should have been given the Eric Mass/Mark Foley treatment.
The skeletons in Crist’s closet are hot pink, bedazzled with rhinestones, clutching the collected recordings of Liza AND Barbara, on limited-edition collector’s vinyl.
His antics — and drag appearances — at the Green Iguana in Tampa, Florida are legendary. Crist’s political career should be so over that he needs to submit an application to move to Chicago and come work at The Baton, where his “Sweet Charlotte, Belle of the South” drag shtick might even land him a regular gig at Second City, should they find need for a Mrs. Garrett/Charlotte Rae impersonator.
The facts of life in Florida politics for the GOP are this: Crist has been coddled and protected, with his many, many secrets kept from the public, for too long.
Do you not understand the simple fact that Democrats probably have photos of Crist not only nancing it up at the Green Iguana, like Tobias Funke, without any comical misunderstandings, but most likely dressed in full-on, sham-glam drag (and not in the way Rudy Giuliani used to do it, which was supposedly just for laughs)?
Democrats have a file on Crist.
Democrats wanted Crist to sabotage the GOP’s chances in this Senate race.
Crist, like Lindsey Graham in South Carolina, and other closeted gay Republicans out there, succumbs to Democrats’ blackmail and does their bidding — even when it’s against the best interests of their constituents, as well as their party.
Crist is the Democrats’ spoiler in the Florida Senate race.
We urge the GOP to break from habit and tradition and focus everything they have got in exposing Charlie Crist for the liar and fraud he really is. Out him. Get those photos of him from the Green Iguana. Expose his sham of a marriage — to a novelty and fake beard heiress, no less.
Absolutely ruin this man by revealing every last one of his secrets, so he won’t be able to get so much as a seat on the board of a Key West bed & breakfast after this campaign is over.
Make an example of Charlie Crist.
So much so that Lindsey Graham might learn a lesson, so that he, too, stops bending over so readily and merrily whenever the White House or DNC bark their orders.
Florida’s orange Governor Crist must become TOAST.
Time for the GOP to man up and do unto Crist what Democrats would do to him, if he started out as a Dem and then switched to Independent to throw a race to Republicans.
Do you really think the DNC would let him get away with that?
So, why does the GOP allow a problem like Crist to persist?
Laura Bush impresses us yet again: comes clean about Michael Douglas car crash in new book
We’re recently big fans of Laura Bush, and hope to someday thank her in person for serving so well as a graceful, stylish, kind, patriotic, hard-working, and role model of a First Lady for 8 years. Only after her successor moved in, and started her antics, did we come to reevaluate Mrs. Bush, since Michelle Obama has proved that not everyone can just automatically take the stage as a First Lady Americans can always be proud of (for the first time in their adult lives).
We need to admit, though, that during the great majority of the Bush presidency we bought into the attacks on Mrs. Bush, most especially when zeroed in on the car accident she caused back in high school, which killed classmate Michael Douglas.
Obviously, not the one in the movies (though, when seen next to Catherine Zeta-Jones, or out in daylight of any kind, it’s easy to be confused and think he’s in fact been dead for 40 years himself).
We thought Mrs. Bush should have been open and honest about the night Douglas was killed, but this was kept strictly out of bounds in any interviews Bush conducted while her husband was a candidate for president, or while he occupied the Oval Office.
She made a mistake, and it clearly haunted her, and we felt, at the time, she was hiding something about that night — perhaps drunk driving — so she needed to come clean.
We’ve since reevaluated that position, for several reasons, while reevaluating Mrs. Bush herself.
First off, we can’t begin to imagine what it would be like to be First Lady, or to be the spouse of even an unsuccessful candidate for office. Here at HillBuzz, we’re attacked on a daily basis by the Left, occasionally in very personal terms, but it’s not 1/millionth of what Mrs. Bush endured. Just imagine having the worst night of your life, something that’s a private torment, used as a political weapon against your husband.
The public’s need to know about that night does not eclipse or nullify Mrs. Bush’s own personal need to continue handling her torment in her own, quiet, Laura Bush way. So, it was wrong for anyone to press her on this. Very much unlike other presidential spouses, including Hillary Clinton herself, Mrs. Bush never made herself a part of the Bush presidency policy-wise, so George W. running for office was NOT promising “two for the price of one”.
Mrs. Bush fully intended to focus on being a First Hostess and literacy advocate in the White House, and decidedly, from Day One, made it clear she would not exert any influence over anything controversial or outside the First Spouse’s traditional purview.
As such, things Laura Bush may or may not have done as a teenager didn’t matter to anyone. If she had been running for office herself, then she should have indeed answered questions about Michael Douglas’ death. That would have gone towards her character as a candidate. But, as the candidate’s spouse? No — her personal torment in a very private matter should have been respected.
So, we deeply regret ever thinking ill of Mrs. Bush for not being open about discussing that terrible night, and we apology to her for ever believing there could have been drinking involved, and thus some determined conspiracy to avoid ever speaking about the accident.
Mrs. Bush has proved herself beyond reproach. We trust her judgment. We see her heart. We know she is a good woman and a great believer in America. And we know she must wake up every day thinking about her classmate, Michael Douglas, and what she could have done differently 40 some years ago to save him.
The fact she shoulders this burden, and yet consistently remains a shoulder for other Americans in pain to lean on, makes us appreciate and respect this fine woman even more.
Mrs. Bush has a new book out that we CANNOT WAIT to read…it’s being released next Tuesday, and it’s called Spoken From the Heart.
We hope her book tour comes somewhere near Chicago, so we can thank her for her service to America in person, and get the chance to apologize to her for ever doubting her, and for ever believing the accident with Douglas was something any of us ever had any business talking about.
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Because, honestly, not only is a picture worth thousands of words…but the comparison cannot be made more starkly enough.
Change.
Indeed.
Class vs. Crass.
Breaking the Fourth Wall Again: An Interesting New Breed of Troll
In the last season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a destructive force known as “The First Evil” came to Sunnydale, and had the ability to take various forms to infiltrate Buffy’s Scooby Gang, work against her, and generally employ Alinsky tactics to troll and poison the Scoobies against the Slayer.
In one memorable round of these games, the “First” took the form of a deceased Slayer potential named Eve (a girl who, in the show, was on the mystical list of young women who could possibly have been made a Slayer in the future, if the Slayer succession ever elevated her to the post…sort of like how Secretary of Education’s up there on the list of who can become president, in a Doomsday scenario).
As Eve, the First pretended to be one of the Scoobies, but seized every opportunity to malign and conspire against Buffy — taking little jabs here and there, slowing working a plan to turn the Scoobies as a group against her, and expertly mastering the most subtle levels of Alinsky operations. When Buffy left the room, Eve would pick apart everything she did, keeping a running track of all her faults, just waiting for an opportunity to attack her. For anything, really, but in general using the weird “purist” meme that we see employed by the Left against Republicans, mainly, but anyone else it wants to attack as well.
For some reason, about a month or two ago, we picked up a whole new breed of troll around here at HillBuzz. Maybe we should be flattered, because it looks like we, as a site, got bumped up from low-level DNC interns to someone with much more subtlety and computer skills. These are trolls that hide their identities better, and who take the time to post innocuously for several months — thus, earning a place outside moderation queue — before they engage in full-on Eve antics.
We were really quite taken aback by an attack we received by a troll posting as “Nervygirl” last weekend, involving our road trip down to Washington, IL to hear Sarah Palin speak. Nervygirl must have been waiting for an opportunity to attack us and, weirdly, she chose this Palin speech to do that. Most likely, it was the Palin aspect of it that made her jump, because in a way it was not only hitting at us, but hitting at Palin too, so it was just too good to pass up in Troll Town.
Some of you might be very fast readers, speed readers even, so it might take you no more than a minute or two to read something we write. And, on average, we clock in about 15,000 words here. Every day. That’s a lot of reading.
Know what else?
It’s a lot of writing.
A college application essay is 2,500 words or less.
That’s one post on HillBuzz.
We have an average of 10-15 posts a day on here.
So, essentially, we write 10 college application essays a day. We write the equivalent of 10-15 of Michelle Malkin’s columns a day. We churn out 10-15 of George Will’s weekly columns. Every day.
Sometimes, we can riff on something quickly, just off the top of our heads, and get the content out there quickly without caring so much about how good our take on it is. That’s how things are most days, so what you read is really a freestyling on our part, and is usually based on conversations we’re having, or had the night before, here at Buzzquarters in Boystown. Sometimes, what you read is a transcript, essentially, of an actual conversation, as remembered, or from notes taken on a little Bruce Chatwin moleskin. Other times, it’s dictated right into the computer, with someone typing, like right now.
Rarely, we run into something important enough to really take our time with, because there’s an internal pressure to do something justice. Does this make any sense? Taking a road trip is actually a pretty big deal for us, as it’s just so outside our norm. It’s an adventure. Going to meet Sarah Palin was a VERY BIG deal for us, as big a deal as any of our encounters with Hillary Clinton or Madeline Albright or Stephanie Tubbs Jones or whomever. That does not happen to us every day. It might be a normal Saturday for us to write 15,000 words on immigration policy, the healthcare debacle, or whatever ridiculous costume the current First Lady is wearing, but it’s not a normal Saturday to drive down to the middle of the state to meet the next President of the United States.
So, back to Nervygirl. We went to the event on Saturday April 17th, slept in on Sunday April 18th because, frankly, all that driving, and getting back into the city well after 1am after returning the rental car, was exhausting. Looking through notes, writing up the report of the adventure, proofing it, tweaking it, and becoming satisfied we did the trip justice took us until Monday April 19th — at which time we posted it.
The whole time this process was going on, Nervygirl was posting some of the nastiest things we’ve read in a while about us — demanding that report, wailing about why it was not done sooner, and generally being an ass.
The intent, we firmly believe, on the part of Nervygirl was to do what Eve did to Buffy and the Scoobies. She saw we have a large readership. She saw that people like experiencing these adventures in Boystown. She sees that we are popular — for whatever reason (and that still boggles us sometimes).
So, Nervygirl decided to drive a troll wedge, using the Palin write-up as an opportunity to hit at us…for not writing faster.
We’re sorry, but this is just all so bizarre to us.
You might get one book a year from David Sedaris or Sarah Vowell. You get several chapter-length essays a day from us. FOR FREE. So, it’s just beyond bizarre that we’re ever attacked for “not working hard enough”, when you people need to remember that we’re not David Sedaris or Sarah Vowell. We are guys just barely getting by in a very tough city to live in, and every word you read is written in free time between all the random and exhausting gigs we do to stay alive.
In addition to the full experiential essay on what it was like to have the adventure down to Washington, IL on the 17th, we’re also working on a policy piece on the excellent speech Sarah Palin gave that day — an analysis we’re taking our time with because we truly do believe she spelled out her presidential campaign that day, and revealed an immense amount about herself and her vision for leading America in the Q&A session conducted by the remarkable Sherril West (an interviewer far more skilled than James Lipton on “Inside the Actors Studio” or any of the talking heads out there — really, the woman is incredible, and pitch-perfect in what she does).
When you were in college, did you work two or three full time jobs?
When you had to write papers in college — major, final, term papers — how long did they take you?
Did you sit yourself down, with your research and notes, and go through a few drafts of something important, and ever want to do a good job with something that mattered to you?
Because that’s how we feel about Sarah Palin’s “Lifeguard Speech” in Washington, IL. That’s how we feel about that Q&A session with Sherril West. We only have one shot to get our analysis on this right, and never have time to go back in the future and rework a piece like this, because there is just too much going on everyday. So, it’s almost, but not quite, done yet — and when we are finished with it, it’s a piece we want to be proud to know gets in front of Palin herself. We want it to be so good that it becomes a tool Palin supporters can use to advance Palin’s candidacy for 2012. We don’t want it to be just some throwaway post, one of 15, on a little gay Hillary blog in Boystown that’s read over a cup of coffee and then forgotten about.
Though Nervygirl is permanently blocked — as this is what happens to trolls — someone writing SUSPICIOUSLY SIMILAR to her started trolling in the last few days, pulling that same Eve “the First Evil” garbage with us about the Palin speech analysis.
“Well, they said they were going to write up Part Two of that speech, but then they didn’t, and it’s been weeks now, so that must mean they don’t believe in Sarah, so that’s proof right there that no one should support Sarah, if even they don’t. If they supported her, they would have that done by now.”
That’s an actual troll dropping from our spam filter.
So is this:
“I’ve been waiting and waiting and waiting for that write-up of Palin’s speech and I’m just going to stop coming here because they lied to me and I bet they never even went to that event because I don’t see that write up, so I’m never coming back again.”
This is just beyond ridiculous.
And it’s classic Alinsky.
The event was April 17th. Today is April 28th. The Palin speech was a little over one week ago, not “weeks ago”. The speech’s content was widely distributed by the news media, so it’s not like we were the only ones there — that we have some secret we are sitting on from that day that will change the world and deliver unto the masses the wonders of cold fusion. We doubt anyone stays awake all night, hitting refresh, putting their life on pause waiting and waiting and waiting for us to say or do anything.
If so, you need to get on the Internet and discover Craigslist and find you a date.
Or a therapist.
Or go watch episodes of Buffy on Hulu, for free, and chill out in Sunnydale for a spell.
Sometimes we think we need to make these “Breaking the Fourth Wall” posts more frequent, because some of the crazy things we deal with every day are just so ridiculous we feel the need to share. Also, we realize, all the normal people out there might not appreciate the full force of the insanity the Left engages in against its supposed enemies. We all but completely ignore the truly vile and vulgar hatemail we get — and we keep evolving our tolerance for troll attacks of any kind.
But, this “First Evil”, posing as friends only to wait for a chance to attack stuff is a new tactic employed against us. Its effective in the sense that it does momentarily take our eye off the game. Time is a precious resource around here, so any hour spent dealing with troll garbage is an hour that can’t be devoted to something productive…something that can smack back against the Left or help people like Sarah Palin, Jan Brewer, Michelle Bachmann, and others who are standing up for the country.
We work so hard every day, pumping out as much content as we can, reading, learning, studying, researching, and trying our level best to run one little engine here in Boystown that’s dedicated to stopping the Left dead in its tracks — like the Scoobies in their Magic Box in Sunnydale convening to take down the Hellmouth itself, despite every effort of the trolls, vampires, and goblins to stop them.
It’s exhausting, but we’re never going to stop. Even near hospitalization won’t throw us off our game completely, though it will slow us down for a spell.
The fact new breeds of trolls are dispatched against us on a regular basis to keep shaking up the attacks and finding new ways to get to us means we must be achieving some of our goals, and we must be rattling the DNC and Alinsky Machine in ways that, well, apparently rattle them quite well.
Why else send Eves, Nervygirls, and others to lurk, troll, and attack us?
David "Popcorn" Kernell Trial Watch: Day Six
Last night, we were able to ask a good friend who is an avid Court TV and trial watcher what she thought of the case against Obama operative David “Popcorn” Kernell.
She told us that she had only peripherally been watching the trial, but was surprised the defense did not put Kernell himself up on the stand. “Popcorn must be a total brat for them to have done that, because if the defense is claiming this was all a prank, then the best way to convince the jury of that would be to have a contrite Popcorn sit up there, curly-haired, and bat his eyes at those 12 jurors and tell them he was “veddy swarry, peoples, so veddy swearry ‘peese forgives me!”. The fact the defense kept him off the stand makes me think someone realized what a little turd this kid can be, and they didn’t want to take the chance his smartass remarks would cook his goose, or pop his kernel, as the case against him may be”.
Our friend said a jury on a case like this won’t take long to deliberate.
She also says that crimes like the one committed by Kernell are serious business, and that he cost the federal government a lot of time and money dealing with the situation he caused. What he did was only a “prank” if you consider what Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy did in “War Games” to be “just clowning around”.
“Since his trial was not televised, but should have been, so that it would have taught other punks a lesson, I could not see the jurors’ faces, so I have no idea what they will do, but I did look at all the evidence presented and the case against Popcorn is strong, with his excuse and defense quite paltry. My best guess is that he will be convicted on almost all counts and will do a few years in prison.”
Perhaps the jury will return today.
While we wait, we’ll just have to enjoy Ms. Julia Sugarbaker, in all her glory, having at it as jury foreman…hoping there’s a Terminator like this in Tennessee right now, revved up to pop her some Kernell with 12 strong GUILTY votes in her hand.
Any news on the trial and verdict?
What do you think will happen?
How awesome was Dixie Carter, on a scale of 0-eleventy?
Hey – do you like to buy stuff? Then buy stuff from Arizona. It's BUYCOTT time, baby.
So, last night we had to order a couple of books for a project we’re working on, and we went to ABEbooks.com, like we usually do, to find the cheapest titles we could find. Instead of ordering from one of the Illinois or Indiana sellers like normal (because it would get to us faster), we looked through all the available books until we found a seller in Arizona.
Since the Left is caterwauling to “boycott Arizona” because Governor Jan Brewer decided to enforce the law against illegal aliens, we decided to support Arizona in our own small way, and bought something we needed, and were going to buy anyway, from an Arizona business.
While we were at it, we also looked online for an Arizona company that sells cactus candy, because we happen to love the stuff, and haven’t had any in a while. So, we got ourselves some of that, too, for the candy bowl here at Buzzquarters.
For the foreseeable future, whatever else we need, from candy to books to an Urn of Osiris or a kaleidoscope, we’re going to buy it from an Arizonan business as much as possible.
It’s a BUYCOTT, baby.
And, it’s hella on.
We urge you to do the same, and to use this thread to highlight any Arizona businesses you can think of that people can order their usual goods from. If you are doing anything online anyway, instead of buying from Amazon.com directly, for instance, why not consider looking for an Arizona book seller who is using Amazon, and buy from that person?
If you are ordering from a catalog, why not look for a business in Arizona that sells the same thing? If the price is comparable, wouldn’t it be nice to pump a little into the economy of a state with enough testicular fortitude to enforce existing law?
What a novel concept — a Governor doing what she’s supposed to do, standing up to fools, and using her office to protect her citizens.
The Left is pilloring Brewer.
For enforcing the law.
Let’s all counter that, and make Arizona the first mental stop when making any new purchases.
And, if you are the vacationing sort, why not consider Arizona for your next trip? It’s been years since any of us have been there, and almost as long since we’ve taken a vacation, but honestly, if we ever did get the chance to leave Chicago for a few days to relax, the first place on our list to go would be Arizona. For as long as the Left lays siege to this state, consider us a part of its Convention and Visitors Bureau, because we are going to sing its dry-heat praises from here to Phoenix.
Buy Arizonan.
Kick the Alinksy Method in the teeth.
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YOUR HELP NEEDED:
What products are unique to Arizona that people can start buying, and hopefully using to replace whatever they buy from California, New York, Illinois, and other states that are urging residents to boycott Arizona?
Wouldn’t it be fun to stop doing business with, say, San Francisco, and instead start hooking up with Phoenix?
If you’ve ever wanted to go see the Grand Canyon, now’s a great time to plan that trip. Print out the Arizona postcard above, glue it to a card, and send it to Gavin Newsom at City Hall in San Francisco and let him know that his attack on Arizona is what made you want to go there and spend your money — instead of seeing the Golden Gate Bridge, you will gaze upon the wonder of the Grand Canyon, and Newsom only has himself to blame.
You betcha.
Class vs. Crass: A History of First Ladies, Part Ten
H/T Chrissy the Hyphenated
Julia Grant refused to have any procedures done to change the way she looked or hide who she really was.
Michelle Obama is about as honest about her wigs, rhinoplasty, oddball costumes, and true feelings as Michael Jackson ever was.
And at least he could sing.
Though it was true Julia Grant loved throwing parties and entertaining in the White House, Michelle Obama’s record-smashing whirl of a major party or cocktail reception just about every day means she’s already burned through more taxpayer dollars as First Lady than Julia Grant did in her husband’s entire presidency.
Mrs. Grant considered it an extreme honor and privilege to serve the American people, doing her best to be demure and upstanding always in her role.
Mrs. Obama considers it appropriate to don beach and resort wear to official state functions, and vibrant, almost flourescent colors to memorial ceremonies.
Wednesday Open Thread: April 28th, 2010
What’s on your minds this Wednesday?
What are people talking about in your part of the country?
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Question: Is the intent of the DNC to replace black voters with Hispanic ones, as low-information pets of the party?
Today we wondered if there’s something much bigger behind the Left’s push for amnesty and open borders, something akin to what the Labour government in Great Britain did with unrestricted Muslim immigration…which was to import a new segment of low-information, presumably easily controlled voters to replace a voting bloc the party previously depended on (but has now decided to cast aside and stop dealing with).
In 2008, Donna Brazile famously declared, during the presidential primaries, that the DNC no longer needed blue collar workers, rural voters, senior citizens, or gay and Jewish voters, because the coalition they were building of blacks, college-aged first time voters, Hispanics, and women were enough to win national elections. No one else need apply.
We wonder if Brazile’s candor didn’t leave out part of what’s going on — and that’s actually the DNC’s abandonment of blacks completely, replacing them as pets and dependents with newly imported Mexicans.
There are a lot of coincidental variables that add up to a scenario where the DNC has decided, on some high level, to just stop dealing with black voters at all. What the Socialist-Democrats learned in 2008 was that all it takes is to have a black face on a ballot, and blacks will race-vote for that candidate, no matter what policies the party pursues or what Socialist-Democrats actually deliver to urban areas.
We’ve long believed that Liberal-controlled public schools in cities like Chicago are deliberately kept so terrible that black students never learn the social, academic, or life skills to succeed in life — and are instead kept dependent on the government for their welfare. Dependent blacks remain loyal voters because they owe everything to the DNC that provides their food, shelter, spending money, and other goodies. So long as they don’t have to work, but still get to live large, they will keep voting for the Democrat Machine in Chicago. Since Republicans are forever depicted as people who would make blacks work for a living, get off welfare, and adhere to the same standards of conduct and social behavior as everyone else, Republicans are demonized on Chicago’s Southside…while Socialist-Democrats are painted as the “guys who give me stuff for free”.
Either Socialist-Democrats want to replace these black dependents with an even more easily-controlled demographic (namely, illegals who can’t speak English, so they have even less ability to succeed on their own and get off the dole), or they want to create new pets that will depend on them for absolutely everything.
The influx of Mexicans is attractive to Socialist-Democrats, just as the surge of Muslims in Britain is to Labour, because these people don’t speak English, don’t assimilate into the wider culture, and largely form demographic locked-bloc pockets wherever they are settled. Since they essentially setup bubble communities wherever they land, and insulate themselves to the point where some live their whole lives only having to speak to other Mexicans or Muslims, respectively, all Socialist-Democrats and Labour needs to do to control these people is to manage the message being carried by the community leaders who have these people’s ears.
Mexicans are more attractive than blacks for this purpose, because blacks speak English and can read the newspapers, watch TV, and get information from others on the street if they so choose. Socialist-Democrats then have to worry about spreading their message across multiple platforms, instead of just directing their marching orders at specific ethnic pockets they’d like to control in key geographic areas…where racial bloc-voting can carry the day.
The reason Liberals shout RAAACIST! at anyone who challenges them is because they are projecting their own racism at others.
They don’t care about blacks or illegal aliens any more than Labour in Britain really cares about Muslims. These two political parties are just looking for the easiest ethnic groups to manipulate, and have set their sights on those that race-vote in strict numbers, that insulate themselves from the population at large, and that willingly congregate in enclaves the political parties establish for their pets.
The pets’ numbers are grown. Their community leaders are collared and leashed firmly to the parties — and their influence over their low-information, deliberately under-educated, and purposefully dependent followers is used to marshal lock-step voting for Socialist-Democrats or Labour, as the case may be.
We don’t know what either Socialist-Democrats’ or Labour’s ultimate end game really is. It sure feels like these Liberal academics in their Ivory Towers want to become some breed of Eloi, eating lotus blossoms and sipping nectar as the ruling elite, while their pet Morlocks keep them aloft…in this example by somehow forcing the working class and blue collar Americans to tender all of their earnings in taxes to support not only the utopia of the ruling elite, but the gravy train to the Socialist-Democrats’ and Labour’s pets as well.
Hard-working Americans are overtaxed to the point of slavery.
Blacks, Mexicans, and Muslims are debased as pawns and animals, treated as sub-humans, and prevented from ever succeeding in life on their own merits because the welfare system hinders their personal development.
This is deliberate, because the Socialist-Democrats, in particular, want to establish a communist-style utopia where they get to be the palace-dwelling party elite, while “regular Americans” in “flyover country” fund their high life in big cities like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Blacks and Mexicans are kept economic-captive in key districts needed for the Socialist-Democrat elite to maintain their stranglehold on the nation.
It feels like the endgame is to establish a permanent majority for these Eloi, with the burden for funding all of this falling upon the working-class Americans this Leftist elite has always looked down upon as inferior to itself.
Are we in left field on all of this, or does this seem to be what the DNC is aiming for, in all that it’s done since Donna Brazile gave the game away in 2008?
Howard Brown: A Boystown Example of the Financial Ruin to Come Under Obamacare (pertaining to Medicaid reimbursements)
This is a story that should be national news, but is, to our knowledge, only being covered in the local LGBTQ papers in Boystown. It involves a scandal at Chicago’s Howard Brown — a community health organization focusing on HIV/AIDS education and research, which has been running one of the most important HIV infection studies in the world for the last 26 years.
Recently, the executive directors of Howard Brown were ousted for what at first seemed like financial malfeasance, but in reality turned out to be a rob-Peter-to-pay-Paul illegal maneuvering of federal grant funds to cover the shortfall that hit Howard Brown because the state of Illinois is over $4.6 billion in debt and can’t pay its Medicaid reimbursements.
This is FASCINATING because we bet it’s happening at health-related nonprofits like Howard Brown all over the country. If not already, then it will be soon.
Here’s the situation Howard Brown was in:
* The federal government funds its HIV/AIDS cohort study, to the tune of an annual $3.4 million a year.
* Howard Brown depends on timely payments from the state of Illinois to keep the doors open — those are Medicaid reimbursements the state is mandated, by law, to pay within 30 days to an agency like Howard Brown. Illinois is so broke it just stopped paying all of its bills a year or two ago. There is a backlog of, literally, close to $5 BILLION in unpaid bills — money owed to everyone from small freelance contractors to agencies like Howard Brown.
* Because Howard Brown stopped receiving Medicaid payments, its directors engaged in creative accounting, and decided to risk moving the HIV/AIDS Multicenter Cohort money into daily operating expenses accounts, just to keep the doors open. The intent was to replace that money once the state of Illinois coughed up some Medicaid funds. That never happened, Howard Brown was audited, and all Hell broke loose.
* Nonprofits in Illinois have been cutting staff left and right because the state has not been paying its bills. Couple this with the worst fundraising climate in memory for private donations, and you have a doomsday scenario for many health organizations, in particular.
If this is happening NOW, before Obamacare is enacted, we wonder just how massive the financial ruination to hit states will be once those Medicaid entitlements quadruple in coming years.
If Illinois already does not have the money to pay its Medicaid bills, how will it be able to pay bills that will be four or five times higher once Obamacare ensures even illegal aliens get “free care” any time they want.
If organizations like Howard Brown are struggling to stay afloat now, how will they stay open after 2011, 2012, and into 2014-2015, when Obamacare REALLY starts to kick in?
Where is all the money going to come from to pay for all of this?
AND – on top of the funding needed for the expansion of these programs, no one is talking about the massive debts the states already have.
Think about that a minute: if Illinois currently has close to $5 BILLION in unpaid bills, won’t those bills have to be paid before the bills it will start incurring under the unfunded mandate can be paid?
Logic would dictate any federal funds pouring into the state would have to pay off the existing debt first, and then, in a BizarroWorld where those are ever resolved, the newest bills will start to be paid.
All of this feels like someone with a credit card who has no idea what he or she is doing with her personal finances. He went on a big shopping spree around town for the last two years, and has a massive amount of debt racked up. Even if he gets two new jobs to help pay for it, if he does not stop spending, and does not cut those shopping sprees out, he will never pay for the new purchases because any money poured into the black hole of his debt will only go towards covering the past due bills and all that interest. It will be years before the purchases made today are even addressed. This guy’s still paying for the steak dinner he had on his birthday in 2007. The skateboard he buys tomorrow won’t be paid for until children born today are starting kindergarten.
Illinois, we bet, isn’t even in the worst shape. We shudder to even think about California’s Medicaid payment process. How much in the hole is the Golden State…and how big of a disaster will it be once the illegal aliens in that state are granted full access to the limited pool of resources?
Obamacare is going to bankrupt and collapse the economy of Illinois.
It’s already started, if reputable organizations like Howard Brown — a Chicago institution for decades — are having to resort to what amounts to financial crimes just to keep the doors open.
If people are this desperate now, one month after Obamacare’s passage, we can’t imagine how bad things are going to get once it is in full force.
You can only raise taxes so much.
You can only dig a hole of debt so deep.
Before something has to give.
A Good Guy Wins: Alinea named one of top ten restaurants in world
Talented chef, total babe, and all-around-nice guy. Why'd he have to be straight?
This is such great news for a very nice young man that we had to give it its own post.
The newest list of the top 50 restaurants in the world’s been released, and Chicago’s own Alinea is ranked #7…the best showing for the US on the list, beating New York’s Daniel (and other favorite HRH Princess Caroline of Kennedy haunts, no doubt).
The chef/owner of Alinea is a delightful young guy named Grant Achatz, who we’ve encountered numerous times around Chicago over the last few years.
He’s an American success story, who engages in magical molecular gastronomy in a degustation menu that makes you feel like you’re eating dinner far in the future, or in the headmaster’s private dining room at Hogwart’s.
“Degustation” is a tasting menu, meaning it’s multiple courses of small bites, presented with utmost imagination.
Before Alinea really hit the big time, we were lucky enough to attend a dinner there, and we remember being served one dish on a silk pillow that was filled with orange scented air. When this beautiful square plate was placed atop the pillow, the air inside was forced out, adding a light citrus mist to the atmosphere at the table.
Another dish was “Hot Potato/Cold Potato”, which had a circus-like trapeze suspending a bit of baked potato over a vichyssoise pool below. With each pass of the trapeze, the hot potato would flirt with the cold puree beneath, creating a beautiful rippled pattern — edible art.
It’s all whimsical and inspired in the way “whimsical and inspired” should be — and not forced and one-note like Le Cirque in New York, or other “molecular gastronomy” high-concept, poor execution spots you might have seen on TV.
What makes all of this even more remarkable is that Chef Achatz had tongue and mouth cancer just two or three years ago, which came close to permanently stealing his sense of taste. Just imagine the Greek-tragedy-levels of cruel Fate threatened in this: an up-and-coming, brilliant chef, losing the key to his success, his remarkable sense of taste, just as he was readying himself for the big time.
All of Chicago came together hoping and praying for Chef Achatz to get better. Even the big egos out there in this city of highly competitive restaurants came together for various events to support him. It was remarkable, because it’s so rare for anything like that to happen. If you thought Al Capone was rough to his competitors, you’ve never seen Chicago’s top chefs battle it out over that last batch of exceptionally fragrant truffles from France (where “fragrant” means “stinky”, and “top chefs” is code for “crazy foodies”).
If you’re ever in Chicago for any sort of special occasion, you have to try to get a table at Alinea. It’s really a very special place, and it would be like going to Studio 54 in its heydey, or the Rainbow Room back when every star in Hollywood made a point to dance there when in New York. It’s a place we know 50 years from now people will be talking about, because it’s just so unique, and such a gem. We’re blessed we had the chance to experience this back when we could still get a table — and we won’t ever forget it. Hot Potato, Cold Potato, Orange Scented Pillows, and Magic.
Honestly, it’s one of the few meals in all our lives that we still talk about.
Just incredible.
We are so happy for a very deserving and adorable man living his dream in the big city.
