An Ol' Broad's Ramblings
Archive for 26 February 2010
Weasel Time
Dr Dud
UT to give honorary degree to Gore
Former vice president and Nobel Peach Prize winner Al Gore will receive an honorary doctoral degree from the University of Tennessee.
The degree – an Honorary Doctor of Laws and Humane Letters in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology – will be given to Gore at the spring commencement exercises of the College of Arts and Sciences on May 14, where he will be the featured speaker.
Have they lost their minds? No offense to UT-Knoxville fans, but if they go through with this sham, I sincerely hope they never win another football, basketball, baseball, or any other sort of contest, sports or academic, until they yank that honorary degree out of the Great Boracle’s mits!
“Vice President Gore’s career has been marked by visionary leadership, and his work has quite literally changed our planet for the better,” UT Knoxville Chancellor Jimmy G. Cheek said in a statement. “He is among the most accomplished and respected Tennesseans in history, and it is fitting that he should be honored by the flagship education institution of his home state.”
Did this guy really say this??? Really? Honestly, this clown needs to get off the campus a LOT more often! I’ve yet to speak to one single Tennessean who has a bit of respect for that rip off artist!
Entertainer and philanthropist Dolly Parton and former Sen. Howard H. Baker Jr. are the only other recipients of honorary degrees from UT Knoxville.
At least those two have actually ACCOMPLISHED something honorable!
While discussing the proposal this morning, some trustees expressed concern about whether Gore is too controversial for the university to award an honorary degree to him.
“I know we’re expected to push the envelope … but should we be concerned as a board about awarding degrees to controversial advocacies?” asked trustee Crawford Gallimore.
They should have listened to Gallimore!
Trustee Doug Horne said Gore, a native of Carthage, Tenn., “has been a leader and a courageous Tennesseean.”
“I can’t think of anyone … who is more deserving,” Horne said. “We need to realize that we have recognized other public leaders … every leader deserves more praise than they get.”
Gore is NOT a leader. He’s a sore loser, and a major phony! I’ve seen alley cats with more honor!
Board vice chairman Jim Murphy encouraged trustees not to view the honorary degree as an endorsement of Gore’s advocacy areas or political beliefs but as a way to recognize Gore as an accomplished Tennesseean who has received national acclaim. By shying away from awarding honorary degrees to people who are deemed too controversial, “more people would be disqualified from receiving honorary degrees,” Murphy said.
“Not many Tennesseans have received the Nobel Prize – that alone distinguishes Al Gore from many other folks,” Murphy said. “The area of his current advocacy is an area UT and Oak Ridge National Lab have a significant area of expertise, and it’s an area where we need to promote that expertise across the globe. Nothing will do that more than (presenting the honorary degree to Gore).”
And Gore didn’t do a damn thing to earn that gold wrapped chocolate, unless of course, you forget all the lies, cheating, and fudging. He started out sucking off the public teat, and nothing has changed!
See the results, an take the poll here.
Plus, get a handy dandy worthless piece of paper from a university.
Lamar Alexander Can Not Be Trusted!
I’d say this was a ‘guest post’, but in reality, it’s a copy and paste from Paula, posted on Smart Girl Politics. 
The Bill has been referred to Committee. Is this the plan that they will implement when Obama care fails?? Is this a back up plan? Why did LAMAR Co-Sponsor a Bill that REQUIRES you to purchase insurance? That states specifically : Sets forth penalties for failure to enroll? WE need to Flood his office with Calls – Letters – and Faxes.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:s391:
S.391 is a Bill introduced by Sen Wyden, Ron [OR] on February 5, last year. This is a Summary of the Bill:
Title: A bill to provide affordable, guaranteed private health coverage that will make Americans healthier and can never be taken away.
Healthy Americans Act – Requires each adult individual to have the opportunity to purchase a Healthy Americans Private Insurance Plan (HAPI), which is: (1) a plan offered by a state; or (2) an employer-sponsored health coverage plan. Makes individuals who are not enrolled in another specified health plan and who are not opposed to coverage for religious reasons responsible for enrolling themselves and their dependent children in a HAPI plan offered through their state of residence. Sets forth penalties for failure to enroll.
Establishes standardized coverage and state options for HAPI plans. Requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to promulgate guidelines concerning the benefits, items, and services to be covered. Sets forth requirements for setting premiums. Requires the Secretary to establish the Healthy America Advisory Committee to provide annual recommendations concerning modifications to the benefits, items, and services required.
Provides for school-based health centers.
Authorizes states to establish and operate a State Choices for Long-Term Care Program.
Requires the Secretary to establish Chronic Care Education Centers.
Requires states to establish or designate a state Health Help Agency to carry out the administration of HAPI plans and to promote prevention and wellness for residents.
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to require employers and individuals to each make shared responsibility payments for HAPI plan premiums.
Sets forth requirements for health insurance issuers offering a HAPI plan.
Establishes the Healthy Americans Public Health Trust Fund for the payment of: (1) premium subsidies; and (2) bonuses to states for implementing medical malpractice reform.
Terminates federal health benefits coverage, including coverage provided under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).
Check out Smart Girl Politics. There really ARE a lot of ‘smart girls’!
Once Again, Tingles Gets It Wrong
No, Chris, what it did was make Obama look like a petulant child. Anyone who speaks of that clown in chief, using the words “like God”, isn’t dealing with reality.
Since I Missed Her…
….I’m posting these two videos of Marsha Blackburn at the Obama Show.
If you watch the videos, you’ll notice that Obama did NOT address Marsha’s issues. He turned it around, as usual. We want to be able to buy across state lines, which will create more competition, and stop the monopoly of state regulations on the insured. Instead, he talks about letting more insurance companies into California, that would be regulated by that particular state.
When we moved down here from Wisconsin, I was able to keep the same insurance company, because it is “allowed” to provide insurance in Tennessee, but not the same coverage. My rates changed to reflect this states regulations. They actually went up. Since I bought that policy nearly 6 years ago, the annual rate increased dramatically. Every year. The last premium payment was a whopper! Why? Well, I had the audacity to actually use what I was paying for last year with all the heart crap. IF, we had the ability to shop around the country, look for the best rates with the coverage that fits our needs, perhaps I would have been able to find a much better deal with a company that doesn’t raise the rates at the drop of a hat due to the fear that I might just drop THEM.
I dunno, but I’d say an annual premium of $2400 increasing to $8400 was a bit of a push on the consumer. As one hospital billing person told me, it’s not so much the medical procedure that increases the rates, it’s the paperwork that’s involved. Paperwork?
The 7 Hour Obama Show
What we learned at the health care summit
Roughly halfway through Thursday’s televised summit meeting on health care reform, Sen. Mike Enzi, a Wyoming Republican, told the president what many were thinking:
We should have done this nine months ago.
We should have tried to have an honest conversation about the crippling financial burden that the health care delivery and insurance system has placed on our country. We should have tried to draft a reform package in the sunlight. We should have had you, Mr. President, at the table from the beginning.
What we’ve had instead is a year of threats, secret deals, angry town hall meetings and polarizing debate between cocky Democrats and petulant Republicans. Democratic majorities pushed packages just over the finish lines in each chamber, but shifting political fortunes have put the entire project in jeopardy.
Read the rest here.
While this editorial board thinks ‘something will happen’, I, on the other hand, pray it doesn’t. At least not until the Democrat majorities are soundly defeated in November. However, in those few paragraphs, they’ve covered a great deal of what the American people have been saying.
If you watched any of the Obama Show yesterday, you will know that it was not so much a ‘give and take’, as it was a ‘photo op’ for the president. He was rude, condescending, and flat out oblivious. I won’t even mention the numerous “misspeaks‘. And even after the much publicized snooze fest took place, Obama and his minions have no intention of doing the RIGHT thing, and start over, as predicted by many.
IF, and I repeat that word if, the Democrats were serious about actual health care, and finding an honest way of making it more affordable, they would scrap those jokes they call bills, and go back to the drawing board. One issue at a time, starting with TORT reform, and moving on. ONE issue at a time! Not the over bloated tax and control bill they have been trying to force feed us.
