An Ol' Broad's Ramblings
Archive for December 2009
Inside The “Can”
Dems Want Granny To Croak
Well? How else can you explain this:
Democrats win $400B in Medicare cuts
In the first showdown over the Senate health care bill, Democrats on Thursday successfully defended more than $400 billion in Medicare cuts, turning back a potentially lethal stab at the measure.
On a 58-42 vote, the Senate defeated an effort by Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, to send the bill back to a committee where lawmakers would have had to drop the cuts in Medicare payments and instead find another way to pay for the bill, which overhauls the nation’s health insurance system and guarantees coverage for tens of millions of people who lack insurance.
“This isn’t the first time defenders of our broken health care system have tried to scare seniors, and it won’t be the last,” said Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, Connecticut Democrat and chairman of the Health, Education Labor and Pensions Committee.
Excuse me, Dud….er…Dodd, since when is the truth a “scare” tactic? When you cut funding for Medicare, there will obviously be a shortage of services. Contrary to what you might believe, we’re a WHOLE lot brighter than ya think. And hey, while we’re at it, why are you still a chairman of ANYTHING? Why aren’t you hanging your head in shame, hiding under your desk…resigned from your position, or behind bars? Hmm… Oh yeah….you’re a DEMOCRAT!
Perhaps there should be a LOT of oversight on approving all the fraudulent claims? How many BILLIONS have been wasted due to rubber stamping? I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, but I have always taken that “Thou shalt not steal” thing pretty seriously. Isn’t it a shame we can’t say the same for everyone, including taxpaid government employees?
FCC Plays Hide and Seek
Mark Lloyd, whose grand title is “Associate General Counsel and Chief Diversity Officer”, has come up with this brilliant idea of providing broadband internet access to every single American. Sounds nice, eh? Well, I’m a bit confused. There are companies that already provide access to the internet. Privately owned companies, you know, the kind of companies that actually provides jobs for the general public.
Granted, when you live out in the middle of nowhere, sometimes, it’s difficult to get high speed internet. For those areas, there are satellite types, like Wild Blue, and Hughes Net. Yes, you have to pay for access, no matter where you live, whatever company you choose, however you get your internet. Well, unless of course, you go to your local public library, and there you get free access, funded by taxpayer money. Rather nice of the public, eh? 
Now, here comes the big question: What’s the problem? Don’t you want everyone to get their news on the internet? Well, sure, if they pay the bill, I have no problem with it at all! But that’s not really the issue.
Notice that “chief diversity officer” part? Well, that’s where the problem comes in.
The definition of diversity: 1. the state or fact of being diverse; difference; unlikeness. 2. variety; multiformity. 3. a point of difference. How about a few synonyms: change, difference, variation, dissimilarity.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 was signed into law on February 17, 2009. The Broadband Initiatives funded in the Act are intended to accelerate broadband deployment in unserved, underserved, and rural areas and to strategic institutions that are likely to create jobs or provide significant public benefits.
So, our tax dollars are being spent on something the private sector has been already doing for a while now. Um….why?
There have been a few ‘open’ meetings held by the FCC, supposedly to inform the public, and respond to concerns. Now, you might be asking yourself why should anyone care if folks get the internet? Well, if that were all that was involved, there really wouldn’t be any reason for concern. At the recent ‘field meeting’ held in Charleston, SC:
True to form the FCC was in full regulatory mode at today’s so-called field hearing in Charleston -censuring any conversation they deemed unworthy. What was billed as a means to solicit input on a National Broadband Plan was nothing more than a staged discussion on the need for increased access to broadband by the FCC and their hand-picked panelists.
It’s indeed disheartening that Commissioners Clyburn and Copps would not accept any questions a number of attendees had regarding the role Diversity Czar Mark Lloyd will have in the process. While most people agree that more access to broadband technology is needed, there is real concern that Mr. Lloyd -who has been identified as having a seat at the table -will use development of this plan as a means to regulate speech.
Mr. Lloyd’s position regarding free speech -which he terms a “distraction from the critical examination of other communications policies” -along with his and the FCC’s association with the radical media reform group Free Press must be part ofthe broadband conversation if they are serious about this being the “transparent” process Ms. Clyburn described.
Free speech is a distraction? I see. So, the 1st Amendment isn’t relevant? I’m so glad that was clarified.
Evidently, the same song and dance is being planned in Memphis. What is suppose to be an open session, held on a specific day, a specific time, at a specific place. At one point, it was going to be held this coming Monday, Dec 7, at the Civil Rights Museum. Well, that’s now been changed. I understand it’s been changed a few times. Now, according to the site, Broadband.gov, the meeting will be held on Dec. 14. No place, no time, just the date. Could it be that Lloyd and the FCC don’t really want the public involved? Sure seems that way.
Memphis, TN
Let’s go back to Mark Lloyd, shall we? Prologue to a Farce: Communication and Democracy in America was published in 2006, where Lloyd presented the idea “for making private broadcasting companies pay licensing fees equal to their total operating costs to allow public broadcasting outlets to spend the same on their operations as the private companies do“.
Also, “Federal and regional broadcast operations and local stations should be funded at levels commensurate with or above those spending levels at which commercial operations are funded,” Lloyd wrote. “This funding should come from license fees charged to commercial broadcasters. Funding should not come from congressional appropriations. Sponsorship should be prohibited at all public broadcasters.”
Along with this money, Lloyd would regulate much of the programming on these stations to make sure they focused on “diverse views” and government activities. (source)
Enter the very misnamed Free Press. On a recent posting on their blog, there was this little tidbit titled The Internet Must Not Become a Segregated Community that seems to equate the internet to the civil rights struggle of the 60s. Sorry, I don’t see the connection at all. If you work, you can pay your bills. If you have a computer, anyone, and everyone can read, and/or write, on the internet. (Hey! I’m here, right? Proof positive!)
Underneath it all, the issue comes down to control. Control of what you hear, read, and say, through all avenues of the media…radio, television and internet. Oh, and probably what few newspapers will be left at the end of the day. You see, the ‘diversity czar’, and evidently the FCC wants a ‘level playing field’. The thing is, there is no such thing in real life. This isn’t a football game, played in a big stadium, on fake grass. Out in the real world, we are all individuals, with a variety of tastes in music, movies, books, and even politics.
When it comes to politics, conservative Fox News tops in television, where as falling over left MSNBC comes in on the bottom. Talk radio host, very conservative Rush Limbaugh, is the most listened to on the airwaves, but moonbat central, Air America…..is that even still on the air?
So, when the FCC says it’s going to have meetings, open to the public, to discuss the issues at hand, shouldn’t they establish a date, a place, and a time, and leave it? The idea of consistently changing an already established venue makes one wonder. Is the purpose actually not to have the public speak its mind? Perhaps only allowing supporters of “The Plan” are being informed of just where this meeting is to be held in advance, to limit the number of dissenters? Naw. Obama’s people wouldn’t really do such a thing, would they? Or would they. Hmmm…
Feckless Free Spending Weasels
Two very connected columns:
The Road to Recovery Begins with the End of Obamacare
Stimulus is boon for D.C. area contractors
Free spending politicians doing what they do best….spend other people’s money! Take the time to read them both, but make sure you have the duct tape ready so your head won’t explode!
“It’s the economy, stupid!”
A Tingles Apology
Matthews Apologizes for West Point ‘Enemy Camp’ Slur, Then Interviews Marine-Slandering Murtha
Matthews opened the show by saying he received a “some very tough calls from parents of cadets and former cadets,” for calling West Point an “enemy camp,” and offered, “I deeply apologize.” But after attempting to repair that bridge, he didn’t do himself any favors by turning to Democratic Representative John Murtha to talk Afghanistan war policy. For the record Matthews followed Murtha with Republican Representative Mike Pence, but given the damage done with the “enemy camp” remark perhaps he should have had aired Murtha second, or even better, brought on a Democrat who isn’t being sued by a Marine for falsely smearing him of slaughtering innocents.
As often as this clown has both feet stuck in his pie hole, it’s amazing he’s still on the air. I guess the few actual dihard lefties think he’s brilliant? I’ve actually tried to watch his show, to get a perspective, but he just makes my skin crawl. He doesn’t interview the ‘opposition’, he brow beats.
PJTV: Hicks File
Liar, Liar: The World’s Not on Fire
Wish there was a way to embed the video, but alas, it’s not to be. Ya might have to register, but it’s free, so not to worry.
Ann on the Phonies
Do Smoking Guns Cause Global Warming, Too?
by Ann Coulter
As we now know (and by “we” I mean “everyone with access to the Internet”), the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit (CRU) has just been caught ferociously manipulating the data about the Earth’s temperature.
Recently leaked e-mails from the “scientists” at CRU show that, when talking among themselves, they forthrightly admit to using a “trick” to “hide the decline” in the Earth’s temperature since 1960 — as one e-mail says. Still another describes their manipulation of the data thus: “[W]e can have a proper result, but only by including a load of garbage!”
Am I just crazy from the heat or were they trying to deceive us?
Have You Signed?
I have a link over there on the left you may, or may not have noticed, for Manhattan Declaration.
From their website:
We are Orthodox, Catholic, and evangelical Christians who have united at this hour to reaffirm fundamental truths about justice and the common good, and to call upon our fellow citizens, believers and non-believers alike, to join us in defending them. These truths are:
- the sanctity of human life
- the dignity of marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife
- the rights of conscience and religious liberty.
Please check out the FAQs for more information. If these are issues that are important to you, please consider signing the declaration.
Weasel Time
Why Is This Even An Issue?
H.R. 17: Citizens’ Self-Defense Act of 2009
To protect the right to obtain firearms for security, and to use firearms in defense of self, family, or home, and to provide for the enforcement of such right.
Has anyone read the U.S. Constitution? There’s the section often referred to as The Bill of Rights. Right there, in the second one, it says: A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
First, it speaks of the militia. Well, communities need local folks to protect them, so there are local law enforcement. Many believe that the National Guard is what is referred to as ‘militia’. Not exactly. Individuals need to be involved in their ability to protect their ‘free state’. It also states that the people, as in “We, The People”, have the right to keep and bears arms, aka, personal weapons.
Infringe-
Definition:
1. (tr) to violate or break (a law, an agreement, etc.)
2. (intr; foll by on or upon) to encroach or trespass
Synonyms:
contravene, run afoul, conflict, breach, infract, transgress, violate, go against, offend, break
How difficult is this to understand?
Read full bill below:
One of The Many Ugly Sides of Humans
State lawmaker considering bill that would make animal abuse a felony
Tennessee Rep. Janis Sontany is considering legislation that would make abuse of any confined animal a felony.
The Nashville Democrat visited the Tennessee State Fairgrounds on Tuesday and viewed 82 nearly starved horses and two mules that had been moved there last week after being found in atrocious conditions on a Cannon County farm.
Sontany told The Tennessean that farm animals were not included when a measure that addressed dog and cat abuse passed the Legislature because of objections from farming community representatives.
However, she said such treatment of horses — or any confined animal — should be a felony like it is when a dog or cat is abused.
Cannon County Sheriff Billy Nichols said the two men from whose farm the animals were removed face misdemeanor animal cruelty charges.
This is NOT how you treat animals!
It’s not often I agree with a Democrat, but I’m inclined to do so in this case. It’s not secret I love critters. All critters. I don’t think animals are equal to humans. I do believe if you choose to take an animal into your home, yard, whatever, you should treat them as a loved pet.
Living out in the middle of nowhere, I’ve learned just how oblivious, and callous, people can be when it comes to animals. Allowing your dogs (and cats) run wild, free to get hit by fast moving vehicles, dumping them off in sparsely populated areas to starve, is beyond my comprehension. We have ‘neighbors’ who rarely fed their horses, and luckily, finally sold them, hopefully to someone who will actually care for them. Most people who have been coming around know about our battles with peacocks and goats, neither of which are of the pet variety. One is only good for the tail feathers and the other is some good eating. Period.
There are purposes for different animals. Using them as food to sustain our bodies, work on farms, or to provide us company and love us unconditionally. They were NOT put on this planet to be abused!
H/T: Post Politics
Courtesy of Senator Alexander
A Page by Page Guide to Democrats’ Health Care Bill
The Democrats’ $2.5 trillion, 2,074-page health care bill contains many provisions that will increase the cost of health care in America. Here are just a few:
- Page 324 includes an $8 billion tax on individuals that have non-government “approved” health plans.
- Page 348 levies a $28 billion tax on businesses that cannot afford to offer insurance to their employees.
- Page 1979 raises an almost $150 billion tax on many middle-class workers using so-called “Cadillac” health insurance plans.
- Page 1997 will cost families and individuals an additional $5 billion by prohibiting the use of savings set aside for health care expenses through health savings accounts, flexible spending accounts or health reimbursement accounts for the purchase of non-prescription or over the counter medicines.
- Page 2010 will make the cost of lifesaving medicine more expensive by taxing pharmaceutical research firms an additional $22.2 billion.
- Page 2020 will ultimately lead to increases in the cost of advanced medical devices like pacemakers by raising taxes on medical device manufacturers an additional $19.3 billion.
- Page 2026 will increase the health care premiums paid by millions of Americans through a new $60.4 billion tax on health insurance companies.
- Page 2040 increases the Medicare payroll tax on those earning more than $250,000. This new tax would cost $53.8 billion.
- Page 2044 will eliminate a tax break in current law on Blue Cross / Blue Shield Providers and Beneficiaries, which equals about half a billion dollars annually, if at least 85 percent of revenues are not spent on clinical services. This new tax will result in higher premiums.
- Page 2045 will create a $5.8 billion tax for patients receiving elective cosmetic surgery.
Click here to read the bill for yourself.
President Oblivion
It’s Called Morale Mr. President – You Are Supposed to Provide It
The Foundry
Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower once said: “Morale is the greatest single factor in successful wars.” So why did President Obama choose last night’s address to further disintegrate what morale is left in the fight in Iraq? Choosing the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York was on first blush a wise decision. These are the young men and women who will put their lives on the line, or may have already, to defend the President’s decisions. This is not the “enemy camp” as MSNBC’s Chris Matthews described them. And these are not merely props in a photo op as President Obama poorly joked while at Osan Air Base in South Korea earlier in November.
But when President Obama chose to give a full throated, campaign-like outburst against the Iraq war and former President Bush to the future troops who may be deployed there, a gripe that was also heard by the troops already based in Iraq, he crossed a line that no other President would have, or has previously, crossed. This was not a speech designed for an audience of brave souls willing to lay their life on the line for this great nation, but a speech designed to appease a political base in desperate need of conciliation. But let’s be clear, this was a muddled and defensive speech to begin with.
Diversity on the Front Porch
Tax Cut Fails
Voters reject Concerned Citizens call for lower sales tax rate
Twenty-one percent of Hardin County’s 16,108 registered voters turned out for today’s referendum deciding one of the most controversial local issues in years.
By a vote of 804 to 2,553, the election determined the local option sales tax will remain unchanged at 2.5 percent.
Concerned Citizens For Community Schools, a grassroots group opposed to the current school consolidation project, forced the county-wide referendum by obtaining some 3,000 signatures on a petition calling for a special election on the sales tax rate.
The organization argued the Hardin County Board of Education and county commission broke their word when officials decided earlier this year to scrap a 1997 long-range school renovation and construction plan that did not involve consolidation.
Voters in 1997 overwhelmingly approved a one cent increase in the local option sales tax rate based on that plan and would not have done so at the time if they thought community schools would be shuttered, Concerned Citizens contended.
I still think they should have used my idea, and compromised at 2%. The fear tactics of raising property and wheel taxes seem to have worked.
They asked the residents to approve taxes for a specific purpose, then turn around and use said money for a different purpose. Sounds like a ‘political machine’ to me. Wonder if it is possible to clean the slate locally as well as nationally? Just a thought.
