Pelosi is right about one thing, the vote on health care will be historic. There’s going to be a massacre one way or another. A lot of Democrats know they’ll be left lying on the battlefield. General Obama calls for courage.
This proposal makes medicare stronger. It makes the coverage better and it makes the finances more secure. Anybody who says otherwise is either misinformed or they’re trying to misinform you. Don’t let them hoodwink you. They’re trying to hoodwink you.
Now, so, look, Ohio, that’s the proposal and i believe Congress owes the American people a final up-or-down vote. We need an up-or-down vote. It’s time to vote.
You know, now as we get closer to the vote, there’s a lot of hand-wringing going on. We hear a lot of people in Washington talking about politics, talking about what this means in November. Talking about the poll numbers for Democrats and Republicans. we need courage.
Obama’s right about one thing too. It does come down to what kind of country we want to be–the one Democrats want or the one the American people want.
Maynard appends:
The blatant lies coming out of Obama’s mouth boggle the mind. Setting aside the lies about the finances, and the lies about access, there’s the call for the “up-or-down vote”…which is an innocent-sounding call for the Senate to invoke the “nuclear option”, a Senatorial procedure that (as we’ve blogged on) has never been used for this sort of lawmaking. Obama is doing EXACTLY what he (falsely) accused Bush/Rove of doing. Watch this video clip. Obama campaigned on the promise of a broad consensus rather than a 50%+1 majority to ram through his legislation; he says Rove governed by 50%+1 because Rove “doesn’t believe in government”. Could anything be clearer? The man has no shame. Not to mention the promises of debates on CSPAN and no payoffs to the lobbyists and special interests and bills to be posted on the Internet for public viewing. Every statement he’s made has been shown to be a barefaced lie.
Tom Friedman thinks Democracy is becoming a hindrance.
The media is wringing it’s hands over the political climate. It’s always sunny when Democrats get their way. The forecast is for stormy weather. All this opposition and people in the street, it’s not a good thing.
Tom Friedman was on Meet the Press today with Tom Brokaw and David Brooks. He thinks we’d be better off if we were more like the Chinese government.
Brokaw: Tom, are we at a kind of turning point in America in terms of being able to make this a functioning country again or are we dysfunctional?
Friedman: This is what worries me that I’ve been saying for a while there is only one thing worse than one party autocracy, the Chinese form of government, and that’s one party democracy. In china if the leadership can get around to an enlightened decision, it can order it from the top down. Here, when you have one party democracy, one party ruling, basically and the other party basically saying “no”, every solution is suboptimal. When your chief competitor can produce optimal and you can only produce suboptimal! Because what happens whether it’s health care or the energy bill, votes 1 through 50 cost a lot; votes 50 to 59 cost you a fortune and 60, his name is Ben Nelson. By the time you made those compromises you wind up with the description out of the health care bill, which is this Rube Goldberg contraption, I hope it passes but I can’t tell you I think it’s optimal.
It’s so much easier to get things done when there’s no opposition, no one to say “no”. Of course to achieve that you have to round up and imprison or kill dissidents and impose censorship. As long as something optimal comes out of it once in awhile, say universal health care, it’s well worth it or so the thinking goes in some circles. History is well acquainted with optimal solutions from unopposed governments.
Neither Brokaw nor Brooks seemed to think Friedman was talking like a madman. This is what worries me.
Old Mother Hubbard
Went to the cupboard,
To give the poor dog a bone:
When she came there,
The cupboard was bare,
And so the poor dog had none.
Poor doggie. If Mother Hubbard went to the cupboards of some hospitals in the U.K. today, she’d find plenty of bones though still in living bodies. We hope. The NHS is having some money problems. Oh, and by hospital “cupboards” they mean mop closets.
No, we sure wouldn’t want to maintain the status quo with our health care system in the U.S. Medicare and Medicaid are going to bankrupt us. Private insurers keep raising their premiums and denying coverage to people. The solution from Obama and the Democrats is government intervention to turn the screws on private insurers and “keep them honest”. Ultimately, a single payer system will solve everything. Just a matter of time.
You’d think we’re the only country experiencing a health care crisis since we’re the ones so backward about universal health care. Actually, most major economies are having a health care crisis right along with us.
It just goes to show that however perfectly a health system is designed, funded and organised, it is always going to have its problems. Right now, the health services of all advanced economies – good, bad, and ugly together – face a common challenge. The demographic time-bomb of baby-boomers about to hit the age of maximum health care cost has pretty much made all of them fiscally unsustainable. Either we are going to have to pay a whole lot more for our health care, or it will have to be rationed.
So how does a system that is already government run handle a health care crisis? The NHS instituted drastic cutbacks including reducing the number of hospital beds and curtailing medical procedures. Something will have to be done about the elderly too. A recommendation will be made to the NHS to provide “a minimum level of service” to the elderly.
Flipping the idea that a diploma was your ticket to a better job, the UK is giving kids GCSE-equivalent credit (roughly a U.S. High School course) for working at McDonald’s for two weeks. McDonald’s and other businesses will be awarding these certificates in “Work Skills” which will be recognized by one of Britain’s biggest exam boards.
Teenagers will be able to gain the equivalent of a B grade GCSE for completing two weeks’ work experience at McDonald’s, it was announced today.
They will gain a certificate in “Work Skills” after being given a crash course in preparing burgers, serving customers and communicating with colleagues. [...]
The new qualification – billed as the first of its kind in the UK – will be accredited by Edexcel, one of Britain’s biggest exam boards.
During the placement, teenagers will prepare food, serve customers on the tills, learn how to work in a team and improve their communication skills. They will also be supervised by a staff “buddy” and given a mock interview.
Around 20 per cent of the course will be completed at school – after the placement – when pupils are expected to show completed workbooks to teachers and take part in a group discussion.
McDonald’s insisted that it represented 80 hours of learning which was “equivalent to the amount of time required to attain similar level qualifications in other subjects”. Applications for the course open on Thursday.
But Prof Alan Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at Buckingham University, said the bar on qualifications was being “set too low”.
“This is really devaluing the qualifications currency,” he said. “If someone can get the equivalent of a GCSE in work experience, how are people going to judge pupils who get an A in physics? They are going to say, ‘that’s almost the same as two weeks at McDonald’s’.”
Well, you can’t flip burgers without physics being involved.
Michael Moore thinks he’s just the person to whip Obama and the Democrats into fighting shape if given the job of White House chief of staff. He’d have the President up everyday at 5 a.m.. They’d both do 100 jumping jacks and get into the right frame of mind for the fight. (Ahh, how to avoid taking cheap shots?)
Michael Moore is pledging to whip Obama and Democrats in Congress into shape – liberal shape – if he is named the next White House chief of staff. And Moore vows to sleep in the White House basement and work for $1 per year if the president hires him.
“Now, don’t get too giddy with excitement over my offer, because you and I are going to be up at 5 in the morning, 7 days a week and I am going to get you pumped up for battle every single day,” Moore writes in a letter posted on his Web site that he said was sent to Obama. “Each morning you and I will do 100 jumping jacks and you will repeat after me: “THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ELECTED ME, NOT THE REPUBLICANS, TO RUN THE COUNTRY! I AM IN CHARGE! I WILL ORDER ALL OBSTRUCTIONISTS OUTTA MY WAY! IF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE DON’T LIKE WHAT I’M DOING THEY CAN THROW MY ASS OUT IN 2012. IN THE MEANTIME, I CALL THE SHOTS ON THEIR BEHALF! NOW, CONGRESS, DROP AND GIVE ME 50!!”
Liberals are already hopping mad at the lack of progress on the liberal agenda. By now the masses should be happily waiting in long lines at a dwindling number of clinics, grateful for single payer health care. After all, we own the government and we know what’s best. Holy Lenin! You’d think Obama would know how to put together a proper politburo.
As for Michael Moore’s personal delusions, we all know he’d be more intimidating naked in the Congressional showers, but in fact would spend all his time in the White House kitchen. (I couldn’t resist.)
Pakistani government official told ABC News that the Taliban leader arrested in Pakistan is not Adam Gadahn.
According to ABC News, the arrested man is possibly Abu Yahya Mujahdeen al-Adam, another American member of al Qaeda, but the Pakistanis have not made a positive identification.
A senior Pakistani government official told CNN that Gadahn was arrested Sunday in Karachi, but a U.S. intelligence official said there appears to be no validity to reports of Gadahn’s arrest. Other U.S. officials also said they have no indication that Gadahn has been captured.
—
The reported arrest of Adam Gadahn, U.S. born al Qaeda spokesman, has not been confirmed by U.S. officials as yet.
Reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan – Security forces in the southern port city of Karachi have arrested Adam Gadahn, a Southern California native who became a top propagandist for Al Qaeda and is wanted by the U.S. on treason charges, Pakistani intelligence sources in Karachi said Sunday.
The capture of Gadahn becomes the starkest signal yet that Pakistan has decided to ratchet up its cooperation with the U.S. in hunting down Islamic militants. In the last two months, Pakistani security forces have seized several top Afghan Taliban commanders, including the insurgency’s second in command, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.
Gadahn, whose most recent video, posted Sunday, praised the U.S. Army major charged with killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, was arrested in a pickup truck with a driver Saturday night, the sources said. The sources requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on such issues.
Pakistani police and intelligence agents said they collaborated on the arrest after receiving information about Gadahn’s whereabouts, but the sources would not say what the source of the information was.
The CIA had no immediate comment on the reports from Pakistan.
If you throw out your leftover fish in the U.K., the chips will know it. The latest from the land of CCT, surveillance drones, ID cards and the world’s largest DNA database — microchips in your trash can to keep track of how much you throw away.
It’s the new front in the nanny state: Microchips placed in garbage bins to monitor how much people throw away.
A pro-privacy group [Big Brother Watch] warns in a new report that more than 2.6 million of the chips have been surreptitiously installed in what is seen as a first step toward charging those who toss too much. Proponents say it’s a bid to push recycling. Opponents say it stinks.
A government official says the chips will be useful to reward people who reduce household trash. The program, according to the government, is intended to encourage recycling. Many people expect they will be fined for throwing away more than some bureaucratic allotment of trash.
The chips haven’t been activated yet. There’s a concern the program won’t be popular. Maybe because not everyone has gone balmy in the crumpet over there. When this kind of monitoring was tried in Ireland, people started to burn their garbage instead of throw it away. Only their garbage?
“It’s voluntary, not compulsory,” he said. “A compulsory plan would not work. We’ve managed to persuade the people of Bristol to participate in the recycling program. We want to encourage the people who aren’t using it to join in as well.”
The government’s ambitious information-gathering plans go still further. Security officials working on counterterrorism plans have lobbied for greater powers to track every e-mail, text, and phone call made in the U.K. The country already maintains an extensive DNA database that is, per capita, the largest in the world.
Come on Brits, how about getting a chip on your shoulder?
Hazardous materials crews have been called to an Internal Revenue Service building in Ogden, Utah, after a suspicious substance was found.
The FBI says parts of the building were evacuated. It says some people had medical emergencies but that they did not “appear to be related to this incident.”
Video on the Web site of KSL-TV showed two people being taken out on stretchers.
The FBI says its investigation is ongoing and it couldn’t release further details.
The IRS confirmed the incident in a statement Monday.
No details were available about the substance found or those taken from the building on stretchers.
What to do with the dead behemoth known as health insurance reform? The American people don’t want it but nothing will deter the Democrats. Not now. They pursued the great whale their whole lives. They have never been closer. If drastic measures are required, so be it. They know best and they are determined to disseminate the benefits to all. They believe you will love the results, just wait and see.
Not exactly Moby Dick, but I think you’ll enjoy the symbolism.
A destructive shower of stinking blubber that no self-respecting seagull will come near. Get ready for disaster.
From the Mongols to the Czars to the Commissars, life for the Slavs has been hardship and oppression. Their literature and music reflect a bleak and resigned spirit. They survive.
Marriage, well that’s a challenge that may be more daunting. Ask the man from Omsk who jumped from a ninth-floor window during an argument with his wife. He thought he would escape his troubles through death. He failed. Not only did he live, but he must pay the medical bills for the 7-yr old girl he fell on. I suppose even with that, the worst is yet to come. He may have to go back home to his wife.
It doesn’t say if he tried drinking to alleviate the pain of living. They’re pretty fond of self-medicating with alcohol in Russia. Even some of the animals.
A Russian chimpanzee has been sent to rehab by zookeepers to cure the smoking and beer-drinking habits he has picked up, Komsomolskaya Pravda reported Friday.
An ex-performer, Zhora, became aggressive at his circus and was transferred to a zoo in Rostov, where he fathered several baby chimps, learned to draw with markers and picked up his two vices.
“The beer and cigarettes were ruining him. He would pester passers-by for booze,” Komsomolskaya Pravda reported, adding that the monkey is now in rehab in Kazan.
Could be a story out of Hollywood except for the skill with markers.
Marriage and fame. Universal challenges to the soul.
After more than seven hours, the real purpose of the Health Care Summit was revealed in Pres. Obama’s closing remarks. It was to set an excuse for reconciliation. Earlier in the day Harry Reid scornfully denounced any talk of reconciliation as unfounded.
All day long the President showed impatience with Republicans. Democrats told sob story after sob story. They claimed passing health care was within reach. Republican points were parried as either politically based or addressed in the pending legislation. Only Republicans were challenged to show a serious effort to compromise the differences.
Obama said he put some things on the table he hadn’t supported [?] and was willing to work with Republicans. He asked Republicans to do some soul-searching and show significant movement not just gestures. He wondered aloud if perhaps politically they would not be able to do that, but he felt it was worthwhile to give this meeting a try.
[...] If we can’t close that gap, then I suspect Mitch McConnell and Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi and John Boehner will have a lot of arguments about procedures in Congress about moving forward.
[...]
We cannot have another yearlong debate about this. The question I ask of myself and all of us, is there enough serious effort that in a month’s time or few weeks’ time or six weeks’ time, we could actually resolve something.
And if we can’t then I think we have to go ahead and make some decisions and that’s what elections are for. We have honest disagreements about the vision for the country and we will go ahead and test those out over the next several months until November.
So that was the purpose of the day. The Democrats can’t stand idly by while children die and people are forced to use dead relative’s dentures. They are going to make reconciliation an act of heroism.
Today Hillary Clinton spoke before Congress and reiterated a call for crippling sanctions against Iran. The Obama ‘extended hand’ approach is the utter failure every sane person knew it would be. Rather than admit failure, Hillary recently pointed to the obvious that Iran shows signs of being a dictatorship. That revelation was to give a CYA for the administration to pretend it wasn’t their idiotic policy that failed. Oh shucks, what would have worked with the peace-loving mullahs doesn’t have such a bright future with that nasty Republican Guard.
Clinton probably knew better all along but had to defend the extended hand policy. She made brave attempts to convince everyone it was a great accomplishment that Russia and China were more accepting of sanctions than they had ever been under Bush. She’s still talking about how the international community is coming together on sanctions despite the fact that Russia and China both issued statements within the last 36 hours that they do not support crippling sanctions against Iran. We wasted a year. We crippled ourselves.
The following three stories were published on the same day.
A post by Pat
Meaning he is beyond all that patriotic stuff, a rejection of American exceptionalism.
Bolton speaks about Obama’s motives, failures to date and future dangers.
Motives
On January 20th last year Barack Obama was not qualified to be President. Today, 13 months later, he is still not qualified
Obama doesn’t care that much about foreign policy
Obama doesn’t [...]
A post by Pat
While still pressing ahead for yet another massive entitlement program, President Obama created a Deficit Reduction Commission. Alan Simpson is the Republican co-chair. The Honorable Mr. Simpson has a flare for colorful speech which prompted Robert Gibbs to tell the press Simpson will bring levity to the commission.
Would You Like a Diploma With Your Happy Meal? – UK giving ‘Work Skills’ credit for training at McDonald’s
by Pat_S on March 12, 2010 · 2 comments
A post by Pat
Flipping the idea that a diploma was your ticket to a better job, the UK is giving kids GCSE-equivalent credit (roughly a U.S. High School course) for working at McDonald’s for two weeks. McDonald’s and other businesses will be awarding these certificates in “Work Skills” which will be recognized by one of Britain’s biggest exam boards.
‘GCSEs’ in work experience at McDonald’s
Well, you can’t flip burgers without physics being involved.
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