Archive for October, 2009

Dan Sherrier

When the right warns of socialized health care, the left says that we already have socialized firefighting, so shut up and stop whining.

But there’s a huge difference between the federal government’s involvement in health care and local governments’ involvement with their local fire departments. Can you seriously tell me there’s not a giant disparity in scope here?

Karl and Vladimir grab a hose.

I realize that universal health care is not on the table right this second. Still, some in this country would love to see it, and some of the reform being considered could serve as a sort of gateway legislation in that direction. So for the sake of discussion, I’ll use the extreme of universal health care.

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Bob Maistros

News Item:  The New York Times reports that President Obama has been “criticized by women’s advocates and liberal bloggers for hosting a high-level basketball game with no female players” and notes that “he presides over a White House rife with fist-bumping young men who call each other ‘dude’ and testosterone-brimming personalities like Rahm Emanuel, the often-profane chief of staff; Lawrence Summers, the brash economic adviser; and Robert Gibbs, the press secretary, who habitually speaks in sports metaphors.”

Delightful!

In yet another exclusive, we bring you into the Oval Office for a get-together called by the president with Emanuel, Summers and Gibbs along with White House advisors Valerie Jarrett and Anita Dunn and Deputy Chief of Staff Mona Sutphen.  Let’s roll the tape:

Obama: “Darlings, I have to say it’s been good to have you all in today, and I must say, you look mah-velous.  Anyone else want more tea and scones?”

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Dan Calabrese

Democrats want the government to pay for health care for everyone, but there is a problem. That costs an obscene amount of money, and with existing entitlements alone costing more than $2 trillion this year, and Democrats raising discretionary spending more than 8 percent, we’re already in hoc up to our eyeballs.

Nice country you got there. Be a shame if anything happened to it.

The obvious answer, especially to a Democrat? Raise taxes! And their favored target for these taxes is the most generous of existing health care plans, the so-called “Cadillac” plans. Tax the most generous plans, Democrats figure, use the money to pay for everyone else’s health care. (As if this would raise anywhere near the money you would need, but that’s a subject for another day.)

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Bob Franken

There’s a song by the blues ensemble “Fathead” with a terrific title: “First Class Riff-Raff”. I would call it to the attention of all our big-headed politicians who get so caught up in their delusions of grandeur they don’t remember how Americans see them: As First Class Riff Raff.

Riff-raff.

It’s easy for them to forget that the their esteem and the terrific honorifics are merely the reflected glory of their offices. We chose them after they probably went through demeaning gyrations in order to be elevated onto their government pedestals. So it’s easy to understand why we take great delight in knocking them off.

Candace Talmadge

The U.S. military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy (DADT) toward homosexual members of the armed forces is more accurately described as “snitch and ditch.”

Under this odious law, passed by Congress in 1993, the military command is not to look into or inquire about (“don’t ask”) the sexual orientation of potential recruits or active service members without evidence of disallowed behavior.

Snitch and ditch.

Recruits and service members, for their part, may not engage in homosexual conduct or openly talk (“don’t tell”) about their sexual orientation or same-sex relationships while serving in the military.

The wording of the DADT statute attempted to remove the president’s authority over military separations.

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Andy Hefty

It’s one thing as president of the United States to surround yourself with a cabinet and group of czars that do your bidding.  It’s completely different to direct their general path and provide decision-making leadership that doesn’t embarrass you.  Now that nine full months have passed into the record books of the Obama Administration, I believe we can safely assume a few things about his ability to lead.

In a nutshell, he can’t.

Lost?

When it came to the so-called stimulus bill, he left the architecture of it to the leaders in Congress.  It was like handing clean needles and raw opium to a kingpin dealer.  Congress, instead of crafting legislation that would cut taxes, diminish overburdening regulation, and decrease spending, went on a spending binge that would make an alcoholic look like he only drank in moderation. Read the rest of this entry »

Mark Watson

Most Americans want their president to be somewhat arrogant. After all, this is the greatest and most powerful country the world has ever known. But there is arrogance emanating from knowledge, and then there’s arrogance coming from ignorance.

President Obama is exhibiting the arrogance of ignorance.

Theory.

During his weekly address on Saturday, Obama stressed that banks needed to make more loans to small businesses. “It’s time for those banks to fulfill their responsibility to help ensure a wider recovery, a more secure system, and more broadly shared prosperity.”

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Brett Noel

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Pamela Troy

“He doesn’t like the Constitution. I’ve said it over and over again and now here are his own words, ‘The constitution allows for many things, but what it does not allow is most revealing. The so-called founders…’ This is his thesis, his college thesis at Columbia… The constitution is the most liberty promoting and freedom acknowledging document in the history of the world!

Fake but accurate.

“And this little boy, in college, writing about it with utter disdain and he still shares those same feelings!

” . . . I’ve had quotes attributed to me that were made up. And when it was pointed out to the media that the quotes were made up, they said, “It doesn’t matter. We know Limbaugh thinks it anyway.”… so I shout from the mountaintops, it was satire. But we know he thinks it. Good comedy, to be comedy, must contain an element of truth, and we know how he feels about distribution of wealth; he’s mad at the courts for not going far enough on it.” Rush Limbaugh, on a recent Michael Ledeen article that used quotes President Obama never uttered from an undergraduate thesis he never wrote.  October 23, 2009

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