Surge in casualties undermining Afghan war effort, Army report says

Do you remember all those protesters demanding to know why we were in Iraq instead of Afghanistan?
Here's one reason why...

By Sean Rayment, The Telegraph's Defence Correspondent

A top level report ordered by General Sir Richard Dannatt, the chief of the general staff, warns that pressure on the Army is being "compounded" by the growing number of troops wounded in Afghanistan.

In an astonishing admission the report also reveals that the Army does not have accurate figures for the number of seriously injured soldiers within its ranks and admits that many are not receiving the appropriate medical support.

Details of the document can be disclosed as the Ministry of Defence (MoD) named three soldiers killed in a multiple improvised explosive attack close to Sangin on Thursday.

Captain Mark Hale, 42, Rifleman Daniel Wild, 19, both of the 2nd battalion the Rifles and Lance Bombardier Matthew Hatton, 23, of 40th Regiment Royal Artillery, were killed in two separate explosions.

Their deaths brought to 199 the number of British troops killed in Afghanistan since 2001.

The document, entitled the Chief of the General Staff's Briefing Team Report, also warns that "soldiers' morale and operational effectiveness" is being undermined by a shortage of vital equipment and that troops of all ranks are suffering from "widespread professional dissatisfaction".

* The Army has great concern over long-term care of wounded;

* There is widespread concern that soldiers are waiting too long for treatment for non-operational injuries;

* Families fear returning troops are suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder;

* Thousands of soldiers are not fit for operations;

* Every unit is carrying "gaps" in officer numbers;

* Increases in pre-deployment training are leading to tour lengths of 10-12 months;

* Bureaucracy is increasing across all levels of the Army;

* Territorial Army (TA) soldiers can earn more working shifts in Starbucks;

* It is "not unusual" for TA pay to be delayed by six to eights months;

* The Treasury has consistently refused to give soldiers on operations a tax-free allowance.

It also states that commanders are increasingly worried that they are being asked "to do too much with too few resources".

(More...)

Whole Foods Boycott Picks Up Steam

An update to the inspiring article below.
Click Here

The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare

Eight things we can do to improve health care without adding to the deficit.

By JOHN MACKEY (Wall Street Journal)

"The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out
of other people's money."

—Margaret Thatcher

With a projected $1.8 trillion deficit for 2009, several trillions more in deficits projected over the next decade, and with both Medicare and Social Security entitlement spending about to ratchet up several notches over the next 15 years as Baby Boomers become eligible for both, we are rapidly running out of other people's money. These deficits are simply not sustainable. They are either going to result in unprecedented new taxes and inflation, or they will bankrupt us.

While we clearly need health-care reform, the last thing our country needs is a massive new health-care entitlement that will create hundreds of billions of dollars of new unfunded deficits and move us much closer to a government takeover of our health-care system. Instead, we should be trying to achieve reforms by moving in the opposite direction—toward less government control and more individual empowerment. Here are eight reforms that would greatly lower the cost of health care for everyone:

• Remove the legal obstacles that slow the creation of high-deductible health insurance plans and health savings accounts (HSAs). The combination of high-deductible health insurance and HSAs is one solution that could solve many of our health-care problems. For example, Whole Foods Market pays 100% of the premiums for all our team members who work 30 hours or more per week (about 89% of all team members) for our high-deductible health-insurance plan. We also provide up to $1,800 per year in additional health-care dollars through deposits into employees' Personal Wellness Accounts to spend as they choose on their own health and wellness.Money not spent in one year rolls over to the next and grows over time. Our team members therefore spend their own health-care dollars until the annual deductible is covered (about $2,500) and the insurance plan kicks in. This creates incentives to spend the first $2,500 more carefully. Our plan's costs are much lower than typical health insurance, while providing a very high degree of worker satisfaction.

• Equalize the tax laws so that employer-provided health insurance and individually owned health insurance have the same tax benefits. Now employer health insurance benefits are fully tax deductible, but individual health insurance is not. This is unfair.

• Repeal all state laws which prevent insurance companies from competing across state lines. We should all have the legal right to purchase health insurance from any insurance company in any state and we should be able use that insurance wherever we live. Health insurance should be portable.

• Repeal government mandates regarding what insurance companies must cover. These mandates have increased the cost of health insurance by billions of dollars. What is insured and what is not insured should be determined by individual customer preferences and not through special-interest lobbying.

• Enact tort reform to end the ruinous lawsuits that force doctors to pay insurance costs of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. These costs are passed back to us through much higher prices for health care.

• Make costs transparent so that consumers understand what health-care treatments cost. How many people know the total cost of their last doctor's visit and how that total breaks down? What other goods or services do we buy without knowing how much they will cost us?

• Enact Medicare reform. We need to face up to the actuarial fact that Medicare is heading towards bankruptcy and enact reforms that create greater patient empowerment, choice and responsibility.

• Finally, revise tax forms to make it easier for individuals to make a voluntary, tax-deductible donation to help the millions of people who have no insurance and aren't covered by Medicare, Medicaid or the State Children's Health Insurance Program.Many promoters of health-care reform believe that people have an intrinsic ethical right to health care—to equal access to doctors, medicines and hospitals. While all of us empathize with those who are sick, how can we say that all people have more of an intrinsic right to health care than they have to food or shelter?

Health care is a service that we all need, but just like food and shelter it is best provided through voluntary and mutually beneficial market exchanges. A careful reading of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution will not reveal any intrinsic right to health care, food or shelter. That's because there isn't any. This "right" has never existed in America

Even in countries like Canada and the U.K., there is no intrinsic right to health care. Rather, citizens in these countries are told by government bureaucrats what health-care treatments they are eligible to receive and when they can receive them. All countries with socialized medicine ration health care by forcing their citizens to wait in lines to receive scarce treatments.

Although Canada has a population smaller than California, 830,000 Canadians are currently waiting to be admitted to a hospital or to get treatment, according to a report last month in Investor's Business Daily. In England, the waiting list is 1.8 million.

At Whole Foods we allow our team members to vote on what benefits they most want the company to fund. Our Canadian and British employees express their benefit preferences very clearly—they want supplemental health-care dollars that they can control and spend themselves without permission from their governments. Why would they want such additional health-care benefit dollars if they already have an "intrinsic right to health care"? The answer is clear—no such right truly exists in either Canada or the U.K.—or in any other country.

Rather than increase government spending and control, we need to address the root causes of poor health. This begins with the realization that every American adult is responsible for his or her own health.

Unfortunately many of our health-care problems are self-inflicted: two-thirds of Americans are now overweight and one-third are obese. Most of the diseases that kill us and account for about 70% of all health-care spending—heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes and obesity—are mostly preventable through proper diet, exercise, not smoking, minimal alcohol consumption and other healthy lifestyle choices.

Recent scientific and medical evidence shows that a diet consisting of foods that are plant-based, nutrient dense and low-fat will help prevent and often reverse most degenerative diseases that kill us and are expensive to treat. We should be able to live largely disease-free lives until we are well into our 90s and even past 100 years of age.

Health-care reform is very important. Whatever reforms are enacted it is essential that they be financially responsible, and that we have the freedom to choose doctors and the health-care services that best suit our own unique set of lifestyle choices. We are all responsible for our own lives and our own health. We should take that responsibility very seriously and use our freedom to make wise lifestyle choices that will protect our health. Doing so will enrich our lives and will help create a vibrant and sustainable American society.

Mr. Mackey is co-founder and CEO of Whole Foods Market Inc.

Hat tip to Left Coast Rebel

Two Democrats on an Escalator

The Blue Dog "Forlorn Hope Brigade"

Nancy Pelosi does not care if the passage of ObamaCare costs her seats in the House come 2010. She has already done a head count. And she knows exactly how many Blue Dogs and other vulnerable Democrats in that chamber she can spare in 2010 to fully enact her and Barack Obama's radical agenda to quickly implement a government takeover the health care system.

Call them the Blue Dog "Forlorn Hope Brigade." The real Forlorn Hope Brigade was nicknamed after the French army pawns that would always be the first to charge into battle, with little to no hope of survival. They were in essence cannon fodder. But they were told to think of the glory. To know that their sacrifices were for a good cause.

And that's the position Pelosi and Obama have put the Blue Dogs into. They are now the sacrificial lambs by which to enact an agenda that is almost alien to the American people. They gave the radicals in the Democrat Party the numbers they needed to achieve a majority in 2006.

And if 30 or so of them must now be sacrificed to achieve that end, then that's just what Pelosi is going to do. They're expendable.

Only they have a choice. Which was undoubtedly why 40 Blue Dogs in June signed a letter stating they would not support a plan that was not "deficit-neutral." Barack Obama said that, too, only one hopes that the "Forlorn Hope" actually means it.

Testifying in July the director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Douglas Elmendorf, told the nation that the plan now proposed would not include "the fundamental changes that would be necessary to reduce the trajectory of federal health spending by a significant amount."

"On the contrary," he said, "the legislation significantly expands the federal responsibility for health-care." Mr. Elmendorf said the cost curve was being raised instead of cut. Previously, Barack Obama and Democrat leaders had promised to cut the growth in spending of health care programs with their proposal.

In July, Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson explained the dynamics involved, "The Blue Dog Democrats realize that there is blood in the water. They are hearing from constituents angry over the $1.8 trillion deficit, the $13 trillion in committed bailouts, the failed, wasteful $787 billion 'stimulus', and the costly cap-and-tax. So, the Dogs know that their political necks are on the line."

Wilson added, "The American people do not want government-run socialized medicine. Right now, the Blue Dogs have enough signatories to kill the legislation or, at the very least, slow it down. And if they value their political survival, that's exactly what they will do."

They did slow it down, but now they know that will not save them in the end.

Recently, meeting with El Dorado Tea Party leader John Wilson, Congressman Mike Ross (AR-CD4), a Blue Dog leader, on Wednesday told his constituent that he did not think the final version of the bill would include the contentious public "option"—the mandatory government-run health care currently contained in the bill.

Which is funny. Because he already voted for the so-called public "option," in a compromise deal with lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Is he now saying he will not vote for the bill when it comes up again on the floor?

John Wilson does not know, because Ross did not say. "I certainly hope he's right, but what I still want to know is, will he support or oppose having a government-funded 'public option?'" Good question.

The fact is, Ross' silence on the matter is telling. He is, after all, the captain of the Blue Dog "Forlorn Hope Brigade." And now he is simply hoping that he is not going to be sacrificed when in his heart he knows the fateful decision has already been made.

By Robert Romano
GetLiberty.org

Debbie Stabenow

How's that Hope and Change workin' for ya?





"Climate change is very real," she confessed as she embraced cap and trade's massive tax increase on Michigan industry - at the same time claiming, against all the evidence, that it would not lead to an increase in manufacturing costs or energy prices. "Global warming creates volatility. I feel it when I'm flying. The storms are more volatile. We are paying the price in more hurricanes and tornadoes." - U.S. Senator DEBBIE STABENOW (D) Michigan
(More...)

Both U.S. Sens. Carl Levin, of Detroit, and Debbie Stabenow, of Lansing, said they could support the detention of nearly 230 Taliban, al-Qaeda and other foreign fighters in Michigan if security concerns are addressed and state and local officials agree.

The Michigan Department of Corrections said it has also received interest from Pennsylvania prison officials to house inmates in Michigan.
(More...)

The “cash-for-clunkers” trade-in program begun this month has spurred 16,351 new-vehicle sales so far, the Transportation Department said on July 29. The plan, which set aside $1 billion, ran through the money six days after it began, a sign of its success, Senator Debbie Stabenow said yesterday.
(More...)

Thomas Athans, the husband of U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow told police he paid a prostitute $150 for sex at a hotel. Stabenow and Athans married in 2003. He started liberal TalkUSA Radio in 2006 after leading programming at Air America, the liberal network that declared bankruptcy that year. Stabenow, D-Mich., said in a statement it was "very disturbing and serious. Obviously it's a deeply difficult and personal matter..."
(More...)

CNN Reports: Philadelphia Eagles change name to "Beagles", and in Unrelated Development Sign Michael Vick

(Cutter Network News) -- In a stunning development today, the Philadelphia Eagles changed their name to the Philadelphia Beagles. The name change was announced via a press release delivered to only three news outlets at 10 AM EST: the CNN, Philadelphia Daily News, and Zoo Too.

The Beagles' statement read, "We believe that changing the name to the Beagles reflects our values of being sensitive to the plight of animals, particularly dogs. Many of our players own dogs, and we determine that they all like dogs before we draft or sign them. We work our players like dogs, but that means we love them. We will do anything pretty much anything for dogs now."

This announcement came as a rumors mounted that NFL's Philadelphia franchise was being required to make heavy concessions to animal rights' activists as a condition for signing convicted dog-abuser and closet Republican, Michael Vick.

Four hours later at 2 PM EST, the Beagles informed all local and national media that QB Michael Vick had indeed been signed, ending intense speculation as to where the convicted dog-fighter would land. "I'm very happy to be out of the dog house and with the Beagles," Vick said.

An unnamed Beagles spokesman in the GM's office confirmed that, as a condition of Vick's signing, in lieu of interminable lecturing by sanctimonious animal rights' activists, Vick would be required to write 100 times on the Eagles' chalkboard before every game:

"I swear that I understand how insufferable pro-abortion liberals are steaming mad at me and would hold me -- an NFL jock -- to a higher moral standard than the U.S. Congress, I swear I do ... What a steaming 'Fortress'!!"

Surgeon General Seeks a Healthier America

(GNN) - President Obama's nominee for surgeon general, whose job it is to help encourage Americans to get thinner and healthier, has been working part time as a scientific adviser to the fast-food giant that sells sandwiches like the Whopper and BK Triple Stacker.

Dr. Regina Benjamin, hailed by Mr. Obama for her efforts in running the Zoftig Sisters Health Clinic in hurricane-ravaged rural Alabama, has been paid $10,000 since last year for serving on a scientific advisory board for Burger King, according to newly filed public financial disclosures.

The Goomba News Network has now compiled a comprehensive list of healthy Burger King innovations initiated by Dr. Benjamin:

1. Dr. Benjamin is an acknowledged advocate for offering healthy and delicious food choices. She stopped Burger King's selling of the Dutch Apple Pie (a hot and gooey apple filling in a flaky baked crust) at 360 calories, and replaced it with a slightly higher calorie but significantly more nutritious Lo-Cal Cheesecake Slice.

2. On her first day of decision-making, she immediately removed CHEESY TOTS® (Hot, golden brown fried cheese balls filled with melted cheese) from the menu and replaced the popular item with SUPER CHEESY CHEESY TOTS® with an added nutritious melted cheddar cheese topping.

3. She modified the ANGRY TENDERCRISP® (tender, premium breaded white meat chicken filet topped with sizzling bacon, Pepper Jack cheese, deliciously spicy jalapenos, angry onions and the signature angry sauce) by adding a sprinkling of healthy feta cheese, and served the sandwich with small packets of high-fiber blue cheese sauce.

4. Dr. Benjamin fought hard against the continued sale of the Oreo® BK® Chocolate Shake Sundae. Benjamin argued that the concoction was almost entirely without protein, but Burger King officials refused to add any cheese products into their popular dessert item. It was finally resolved that 2 small packets of blue cheese sauce would be offered with each sundae.

Thus Spake Zora

At City Journal, John McWhorter visits the inspiring life of Zora Neale Hurston.

Thus Spake Zora
Zora Neale Hurston’s writing challenged black people as well as white.

One of the last photos of Zora Neale Hurston, taken in the late fifties, is heartrending. Once renowned as a handsome figure who could dominate any room, she sits outside a Florida bungalow, a bloated old woman living in poverty, chatting with locals. As sanguine as she looks, we can’t help wishing that she had been in New York, plugging her latest novel on The Jack Paar Show. But all her books were out of print, and she was supporting herself on piddling jobs, including working as a maid (not for the first time). She seems to have reached the state of mind that her character Janie describes at the end of her masterwork, Their Eyes Were Watching God: “Ah done been tuh de horizon and back and now Ah kin set heah in mah house and live by comparisons.”

Hurston decried the assumption that successful blacks were somehow “beside the point,” arguing that “these comfortable, contented Negros are as real as the sharecroppers.” In saying that the black vote should not be one “dark, amorphous lump,” she anticipated today’s black conservatives in pointing out the pitfalls of reflexively supporting one party: “It’s time for us to cease to allow ourselves to be delivered as a mob by persuasive ‘friends’ and become individual citizens.”

"Now, suppose a Negro does something really magnificent, and I glory, not in the benefit to mankind, but in the fact that the doer was a Negro. Must I not also go hang my head in shame when a member of my race does something execrable? . . . The white race did not go into a laboratory and invent incandescent light. That was Edison. . . . If you are under the impression that every white man is an Edison, just look around a bit."

Please, do yourself a favor and read the entire article by clicking the link below.

Thus Spake Zora by John H. McWhorter, City Journal Summer 2009

Whack-A-Mole

The 'Cap And Tax' Dead End
By Sarah Palin

There is no shortage of threats to our economy. America's unemployment rate recently hit its highest mark in more than 25 years and is expected to continue climbing. Worries are widespread that even when the economy finally rebounds, the recovery won't bring jobs. Our nation's debt is unsustainable, and the federal government's reach into the private sector is unprecedented.

Unfortunately, many in the national media would rather focus on the personality-driven political gossip of the day than on the gravity of these challenges. So, at risk of disappointing the chattering class, let me make clear what is foremost on my mind and where my focus will be:

I am deeply concerned about President Obama's cap-and-trade energy plan, and I believe it is an enormous threat to our economy. It would undermine our recovery over the short term and would inflict permanent damage. - (More...)

Obama heading West to plug healthcare reform
A poll reports that 49% of Americans disapprove of the president's handling of the issue and 43% approve.
By Christi Parsons and Mark Silva

Reporting from Washington - As debate over his healthcare overhaul heats up, President Obama is taking off for a family vacation this week that combines classic American sightseeing with the challenge of trying to sell his ideas to audiences out West.

He will be visiting Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon with his wife and daughters starting Friday, but the president also plans to hold town halls in Montana and Colorado to address problems facing the healthcare system and pitch Democratic plans to fix them.

His congressional allies have seen eruptions of anger during healthcare meetings around the country in recent days. But Obama's interactions with voters have been civil as he tries to provide a counterpoint to critics' complaints.

With polls showing Americans are split on the question of how the president is handling the healthcare issue, the White House strategy is to put its chief salesman on the road throughout the August congressional recess. - (More...)

Obama's Tone-Deaf Health Campaign

Dorothy Rabinowitz is not surprised that ObamaCare is meeting resistance.


"Neither has she (Linda Douglass) seemed to entertain any second thoughts about the tenor of a message enlisting the public in a program reeking of a White House effort to set Americans against one another—the good Americans protecting the president's health-care program from the bad Americans fighting it and undermining truth and goodness."


"There was no such hand-wringing over the decline of civil debate, during, say, election 2004, when cadres of organized demonstrators carrying swastika-adorned pictures of George W. Bush routinely swarmed about, and packed rallies. There was also that other “breakdown of our media culture,” that will dwarf all else as a cause for embarrassment, the town-hall coverage included, for the foreseeable future. That would be, of course, the undisguised worshipful reporting of the candidacy of Barack Obama."


"The president has a problem. For, despite a great election victory, Mr. Obama, it becomes ever clearer, knows little about Americans. He knows the crowds—he is at home with those. He is a stranger to the country's heart and character." He seems unable to grasp what runs counter to its nature. That Americans don't take well, for instance, to bullying, especially of the moralizing kind, implicit in those speeches on health care for everybody. Neither do they wish to be taken where they don't know they want to go and being told it's good for them."

Read the full article HERE

Why am I here?

The foregoing exchange came to mind when I got the call from Goomba ... And when the Goomba calls, you answer.

So, though I am not on the formal blogging circuit (at least until June 2010), Nick has asked me to contribute here from time to time. I said "yes" and am honored to do so. I do understand that I am only a naturalized Goomba and that this remains Nick's show (and thankfully so). But still ... I thought it might be fun, and also an opportunity to put some thoughts up without worrying about keeping the operation running/afloat. Nick's got the best combination of commenters, spirit, graphics, humor, and conservatism on the internets. So, it's a pleasure to be a small part.

Here is a little bit of history for the unitiated. Nick and I go way back to Homespun Blogger days in 2004. We are personally responsible for electing George Bush in 2004. I carried Texas, and Nick took care of California. We've had a lot of fun through the years. If you search "Goomba" at my site, you can get a flavor.

I remember when we both got hacked. He was shot up pretty good. His site looked like Miss South Carolina's scrabble board. "They got me good", he said, as I knelt at his blogside. I helped nurse him back, and he recovered to award me a "Golden Meatball", and for that I will forever be grateful. Once you have reached that pinnacle, well, it's all meatsauce after that.

But in all seriousness, I am here to share my thoughts from time to time because I love this site (and the man behind it) so much. I have hung around here because I love coming here, plain and simple. This is a unique place -- conservative, informative, inspirational, funny, proudly American ... human. So, I pledge fealty to Goomba and will lend my keyboard to the cause. And I also pledge to pop his underwear whenever he needs it (which is at least fortnightly). But ... don't expect me to pop Rhod's. I am not getting killed just for the sake of good entertainment on the internets.

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I think I should tell you exactly how the phone call went down when I got (and accepted) this gig:

Goomba: DC, that you?

DC: Yes, Your Malfeasance.

Goomba: Just a word with you, my Lord. Do you think you could come and join the blog and save my asparagus? We are going down, brother. Comments are down. The remaining commenters are driving me crazy. Obama is going to tax all my profits and use them to provide free medical care to your blog readers. The country is in great need ...

DC: Yes, I know Goomba, my liege. But ...

Goomba: I knew I could count on you. God, I do love you so.

DC: But ...

Goomba: What is it, my dearest cyber friend upon whom I have never had the pleasure of laying mine eye?

DC: That's not true. Remember when your glass eye popped out at Patrenellas and I nearly mistook it for a black olive?

Goomba: Let's not dredge up old dirt, shall we? Thanks for accepting my generous offer.

DC: But wait ...

Goomba: What?

DC: How much does it pay?

Goomba: What the he ... ?! You ungrateful hick! I pull your hillbilly butt fresh out of the trailer park, save your hillary, and offer you a way off of skid row .... and this is the thanks I get!?! Three times what you're making now at your blog. That's my final offer, I swear!

DC: Liar!! Make it four.

(Three minute pause.)

Goomba: Three-and-a-half and a health plan that will cover your zit treatments! For the love of God, man, and the sake of all things decent ... accept my offer or I die!!

DC: Deal. But what of the Impaler?

Goomba: You mean "Rhoderick"? (Laughs). Ar-Hod?!! (Laughs louder).

DC: You wouldn't laugh if he was here.

(One minute silence).

Goomba: I love it when you talk Texan. But ... last I heard Rhod went off the deep end when one of his neighbors rode by with the windows down and a "Boy Named Sue" playing on the radio. He cammoed up and just lost it.

DC: I know. He's been bent about that silent "H" his whole life. He's like Curly and "Pop Goes the Weasel" when "Sue" comes on. ...

(Then it got really good. But that, dear readers, is private. A man has to have standards, after all. Nickie might blab about private encounters, but I remain steadfast in my commitment to provide a counter-balance.)

See you around the 'nets, and thanks, Nick, for the opportunity.

Okay, folks, hug your loved ones, grab your wallets and hold onto your hats. Time to ride to the fight ...

The Lightning Man

Steve "The Lightning Man" is a newish blogger based in South Carolina. You might enjoy a visit to his site. Be warned, he's a passionate dude!

And, while you're there, and his virtual back is turned, help yourself to one of the collection of posters he's displayed in this post. (Perhaps you'll be tempted to design your own)

One of them will surely enhance the spirit and decor of your blog. Well done, Steve.

Thanks for being yet another soldier in the battle for Liberty.

Hillary's Three Unfortunate Outbursts

Poor Hillary Clinton!

(GNN) - The US Secretary of State lost her cool at a meeting in Kinshasa, Congo, as she was asked what her husband thought about Chinese aid to the troubled nation.

She is in the midst of a grueling trip to Africa, bringing a message of US commitment to the unhappiest corners of an unhappy continent. Yet it is now likely to be remembered, if at all, for a profane answer to a question involving her husband – a question that almost certainly was mis-relayed to her in translation.

Yesterday she became the first Secretary of State to visit Goma, ground zero of the civil war that for a decade has ravaged eastern Congo. This visit will probably be eclipsed by her reply at a town hall meeting on Monday with university students in the capital Kinshasa.

Unfortunately the translator messed up the question, originally in French. What did President Obama think of concerns about massive Chinese aid to the country, he apparently meant to ask. Alas the President in question was identified not as Mr Obama, but her own spouse, Bill Clinton.

"You want me to tell you what my husband thinks?" she replied, glaring with anger. "My husband is not the g*dd*m Secretary of State, I am. If you want my opinion, you little shit, I will tell you my f**king opinion. I am not going to be channeling my f**cking husband."

The room fell to silence as Clinton gestured to security offices to escort the translator from the gathering. Afterward, aides said that the student had apologized to Mrs Clinton, explaining that he had intended to inquire what President Obama thought about the China's loan offer. But the damage had been done.

Just three hours later, visiting a religious snake sanctuary in Angola, Mrs Clinton struggled as she strolled with a large poisonous serpent when an observer, in broken English, inquired whether the Secretary of State was having difficulty walking with an asp that size. Yet again, Clinton glared and this time slapped the young man with the back of her ample hand.

Finally, that evening at a State dinner in Johannesburg, South Africa, Mrs Clinton's hands were pried from around the neck of the Chinese Minister Xait Juong, when Xait, using a substandard Soviet-era translation book, and intending to ask if Clinton would care to join in a spirited limbo dance, haltingly requested if she would care to "boogie under my wiggle stick."

All in all, it was an unfortunate series of events. The misogynists who love to cast powerful women as thin-skinned and irrational will never let her forget it.

Hooray, Chairman Obama makes it easy to pay your medical costs. Thanks, Big Brother!

Stop this by opposing ObamaCare.

Everybody seems to be posting information about the House's proposed government health program. Now, it's my turn. Take a read of this:


Page 57, under section 163:

"be authoritative, permitting no additions or constraints for electronic transactions ..." (C) "be comprehensive, efficient and robust, requiring minimal augmentation by paper transactions or clarification by further communications;" and, finally, (D) enable the real-time (or near real-time) determination of an individual’s financial responsibility at the point of service and, to the extent possible, prior to service, including whether the individual is eligible for a specific service with a specific physician at a specific facility, which may include utilization of a machine-readable health plan beneficiary identification card;" ... (E) "enable, where feasible, near real-time adjudication of claims ..."

The government has the sole authority to move money out of patient bank accounts without constraint and in real time. Under (4)(C) of this subsection it says the government would have the capability to "enable electronic funds transfers, in order to allow automated reconciliation with the related health care payment and remittance advice..."

This program will tie your health records and financial records to IRS records.

• If you trust the government, this won't bother you.
• If you want the government to have automatic access to your financial records, you'll sleep fine at night.
• If you want the government to have the power to remove money from you accounts without your authorization, just go dust off the Obama sticker on your Prius.

But if it concerns you, read on:

• Page 16: States that if you have insurance at the time of the bill becoming law and change, you will be required to take a similar plan. If that is not available, you will be required to take the gov option!
• Page 22: Mandates audits of all employers that self-insure!Page 29: Admission: your health care will be rationed!
• Page 30: A government committee will decide what treatments and benefits you get (and, unlike an insurer, there will be no appeals process)
• Page 42: The "Health Choices Commissioner" will decide health benefits for you. You will have no choice. None.
• Page 50: All non-US citizens, illegal or not, will be provided with free healthcare services.
• Page 58: Every person will be issued a National ID Healthcard.
• Page 59: The federal government will have direct, real-time access to all individual bank accounts for electronic funds transfer.
• Page 65: Taxpayers will subsidize all union retiree and community organizer health plans (example: SEIU, UAW and ACORN)
• Page 72: All private healthcare plans must conform to government rules to participate in a Healthcare Exchange.
• Page 84: All private healthcare plans must participate in the Healthcare Exchange (i.e., total government control of private plans)
• Page 91: Government mandates linguistic infrastructure for services; translation: illegal aliens
• Page 95: The Government will pay ACORN and Americorps to sign up individuals for Government-run Health Care plan.
• Page 102: Those eligible for Medicaid will be automatically enrolled: you have no choice in the matter.
• Page 124: No company can sue the government for price-fixing. No "judicial review" is permitted against the government monopoly. Put simply, private insurers will be crushed.
• Page 127: The AMA sold doctors out: the government will set wages.
• Page 145: An employer MUST auto-enroll employees into the government-run public plan. No alternatives.
• Page 126: Employers MUST pay healthcare bills for part-time employees AND their families.
• Page 149: Any employer with a payroll of $400K or more, who does not offer the public option, pays an 8% tax on payroll
  
• Page 150: Any employer with a payroll of $250K-400K or more, who does not offer the public option, pays a 2 to 6% tax on payroll
• Page 167: Any individual who doesn't have acceptable healthcare (according to the government) will be taxed 2.5% of income.
• Page 170: Any NON-RESIDENT alien is exempt from individual taxes (Americans will pay for them).
• Page 195: Officers and employees of Government Healthcare Bureaucracy will have access to ALL American financial and personal records.
• Page 203: "The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as tax." It really says that.
• Page 239: Bill will reduce physician services for Medicaid. Seniors and the poor most affected."
• Page 241: Doctors: no matter what specialty you have, you'll all be paid the same (thanks, AMA!)
• Page 253: Government sets value of doctors' time, their professional judgment, etc.
• Page 265: Government mandates and controls productivity for private healthcare industries.
• Page 268: Government regulates rental and purchase of power-driven wheelchairs.
• Page 272: Cancer patients: welcome to the wonderful world of rationing!
• Page 280: Hospitals will be penalized for what the government deems preventable re-admissions.
• Page 298: Doctors: if you treat a patient during an initial admission that results in a readmission, you will be penalized by the government.
• Page 317: Doctors: you are now prohibited for owning and investing in healthcare companies!
• Page 318: Prohibition on hospital expansion. Hospitals cannot expand without government approval.
• Page 321: Hospital expansion hinges on "community" input: in other words, yet another payoff for ACORN.
• Page 335: Government mandates establishment of outcome-based measures: i.e., rationing.
• Page 341: Government has authority to disqualify Medicare Advantage Plans, HMOs, etc.
• Page 354: Government will restrict enrollment of SPECIAL NEEDS individuals.
• Page 379: More bureaucracy: Telehealth Advisory Committee (healthcare by phone).
• Page 425: More bureaucracy: Advance Care Planning Consult: Senior Citizens, assisted suicide, euthanasia?
• Page 425: Government will instruct and consult regarding living wills, durable powers of attorney, etc. Mandatory. Appears to lock in estate taxes ahead of time.
• Page 425: Goverment provides approved list of end-of-life resources, guiding you in death.
• Page 427: Government mandates program that orders end-of-life treatment; government dictates how your life ends.
• Page 429: Advance Care Planning Consult will be used to dictate treatment as patient's health deteriorates. This can include an ORDER for end-of-life plans. An ORDER from the GOVERNMENT.
• Page 430: Government will decide what level of treatments you may have at end-of-life.
• Page 469: Community-based Home Medical Services: more payoffs for ACORN.
• Page 472: Payments to Community-based organizations: more payoffs for ACORN.
• Page 489: Government will cover marriage and family therapy. Government intervenes in your marriage.
• Page 494: Government will cover mental health services: defining, creating and rationing those services.

If you're interested, or want to show this to friends or family, read the whole pile of manure by clicking HERE

California Earthquake

Schwarzenegger spokeswoman Camille Anderson responded to the ads by pointing to the state's entertainment and high-tech prowess. “There is no rival to California,” she shot back.

Talk about kicking a neighbor while he's down: Nevada is spending $250,000 for an ad campaign that compares California legislators to talking chimps and tells business owners they can “kiss their assets goodbye” if they stay put.

It's the latest salvo in a generally friendly rivalry that's taken on a harder edge with both states among the recession's hardest-hit areas and desperately fighting to stay afloat — California recently had to issue more than $1 billion in IOUs to survive a prolonged budget crisis while trying to slash a $26.3 billion debt.

Nevada leaders paint their clever but biting campaign — aimed at California business owners considering a move — as simply a matter of helping the Silver State fight high unemployment and diversify an economy heavily dependent on struggling casinos and tourism. Nevada business advocates are pitting their state's low taxes against rising workers' compensation rates and fears of bankruptcy in California.

But there is clearly a certain amount of grim glee at getting under the skin of their Golden State counterparts. Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said he can't wait for the new ads and a chance to needle California leaders about picking off companies and jobs.

“It's going to drive them bonkers,” Goodman said. “We're going to crush them.”

He and others say they want to erect one billboard outside California's state Capitol building in Sacramento. (More...)

Weather Records are a STATE SECRET

The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) computer models have proved just as wrong in predicting global temperatures as the Met Office has been in forecasting those mild winters and heatwave summers, says Christopher Booker of The Telegraph.

Everyone has enjoyed the discomfiture of the Met Office, caught out over its April forecast that we were in for a "barbecue summer" – not least because this is the third year running that our weathermen have got their predictions for both summer and winter hopelessly wrong. In 2007 and 2008 they forecast that summers would be warmer and drier, and winters milder than average – just before temperatures plunged and the heavens opened, deluging us with abnormal rain or snow according to season.

"When Mr McIntyre made Freedom of Information requests to see the data used to construct the HadCrut record (as he has chronicled on his ClimateAudit blog) he was given an almighty brush-off, the Met Office saying that this information was strictly confidential and that to release it would damage Britain's "international relations" with all the countries that supplied it."

One cause of the blunders that have made the Met Office a laughing stock is less widely appreciated, however. It is that the multi-million pound computer it uses to assist its short-term forecasting for Britain is also one of the four main official sources of data used by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to predict global warming. In this respect the IPCC's computer models have proved just as wrong in predicting global temperatures as the Met Office has been in forecasting those mild winters and heatwave summers.

More...

New Poster Reveals the Ugly Face of Racism

On the heels of the much commented upon Joker poster of President Obama, a new poster has emerged from an another anonymous artist that has people chattering once again...

Don't be misled. These new posters featuring Barack Obama's face imposed over the likeness of Tinky Winky may appear benign, but they're not.

Their intent is far deeper and insidious: to stir ugly racist thoughts in America's subconscious.

On the surface, the posters don't add anything new to the discussion. Obama has been called a “socialist” before. But, subliminally, the posters draw heavily on stereotypes of the worst kind.

Consider the following evidence:

- First, the obvious: Purple is only a tick or two away from black on the color spectrum, so it's clearly no coincidence that Obama's likeness was imposed over Tinky Winky and not Dipsy, Laa-Laa, Noo-Noo, or Po. Tinky Winky is an unspeakably devious subliminal reminder of the pigmentation of our President's skin.

More... New Poster Reveals the Ugly Face of Racism - Real Clear Politics

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Army National Guard Recruiting FEMA Camp Or “Internment/Resettlement” Specialists

Canada Free Press brings us this disturbing development...

The Army National Guard is now recruiting individuals to fill job positions described as an internment/resettlement specialist according to job postings on Monster.Com and other employment based Internet sites such as one listed here. In other words, they are recruiting individuals to man facilities that could be used to house political dissidents, so-called terrorists and other individuals that the government doesn’t like. The term “resettlement” indicates that individuals holding this job position could also be responsible for moving people to other locations against their will. It is a documented fact that the U.S. government has numerous facilities at their disposal that could easily be used to house large numbers of people. Combine that, with this new job posting by the Army National Guard, and it seems as if the U.S. government is continuing to prepare for an eventual popular uprising.

Let’s look at some of the evidence we have of the U.S. government’s intentions to establish the infrastructure that could be used to house large numbers of political dissidents, so-called terrorists and other individuals the U.S. government wants locked up.

HR 645 the National Emergency Centers Establishment Act is a proposed bill in the U.S. House of Representatives that would authorize FEMA to build no less than six National Emergency Centers throughout the U.S. on closed or open military facilities. These facilities are to be designed to house large numbers of people. Why would emergency centers need to be built on closed or open military facilities unless there was a need to keep people from coming in and out of them?