An Ol' Broad's Ramblings
Archive for February 2010
Tennessee Health Freedom Act
SB 3498 by *Beavers, Tracy, Black. (*HB 3433 by *Harwell, Weaver.)
Health Care – As introduced, enacts “Tennessee Health Freedom Act.” – Amends TCA Title 8; Title 56; Title 63; Title 68 and Title 71.
Fiscal Summary
Increase State Expenditures – Not Significant
Bill Summary
This bill provides that it is the public policy of this state that every person within this state is and will be free to choose or decline to choose any mode of securing health care services without penalty or threat of penalty, and this bill provides that with this bill the state is exercising its sovereign power to declare this public policy.
This bill provides the following in regard to this state public policy:
(1) The policy stated in this bill will not be applied to impair any right of contract related to the provision of health care services to any person or group;
(2) No public official, employee, or agent of this state or any of its political subdivisions may act to impose, collect, enforce, or effectuate any penalty in this state that violates the public policy set forth in this bill; and
(3) It is the duty of the attorney general and reporter to seek injunctive and any other appropriate relief as expeditiously as possible to preserve the rights and property of the residents of this state, and to defend as necessary this state, its officials, employees and agents in the event that any law or regulation violating the public policy set forth in this bill is enacted by any government, subdivision or agency thereof.
ON FEBRUARY 17, 2010, THE SENATE ADOPTED AMENDMENT #1 AND PASSED SENATE BILL 3498, AS AMENDED.
AMENDMENT #1 specifies that it will be the public policy of this state for Tennesseans to be able to choose their mode of securing health care services without penalty or threat of penalty by the federal government.
What a novel concept. Allowing citizens to make their own decisions. /snark
I’d like to congratulate our Tennessee legislators for standing up to do what’s right for US! Please pass this bill!! Get it signed into law!
Urkel With The Credit Card
Cutting spending in N.J.
Garden State governor offers Obama an example of fiscal courage
The Washington Times
President Obama could learn a lot about fiscal responsibility from New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie. The governor is making hard choices to close a $2.2 billion state budget deficit by freezing spending and erasing surpluses to meet current needs.
Mr. Christie is cutting money for schools, colleges, hospitals and the New Jersey Transit system – 375 line items total. He is removing noncitizens from the state health care system and canceling a jobs program that mainly created jobs for government bureaucrats. His cuts are intended to impose efficiency and accountability on government spending, concepts people generally do not associate with New Jersey politics.
Honestly, I don’t think many of the states up in that area would have the cajones for this type of ‘get tough’ move. And before anyone gets their knickers in a twist, cutting spending for schools and colleges is not a bad idea. Public schools have become a black hole, and education has gotten worse. The rest? Kick ‘em where it hurts Mr Christie! 
Mr. Christie is taking withering fire for his efforts, which is a knee-jerk response to making hard choices, particularly when they affect government spending that some came to view as entitlements. But he is doing what he was elected to do. Mr. Christie’s rationale is that, “We cannot spend money on everything we want.” It’s an approach refreshing in its simplicity and common sense.
Just exactly when did the folks in this country go from hard working, independent minded to YOU OWE ME? The ridiculous “social programs” have done more damage to our society than anything I can think of, including war. It’s nice to see at least one politician stepping up to the plate, using REAL common sense.
On Feb. 2 in Nashua, N.H., Mr. Obama lectured the American people on fiscal responsibility. “When times are tough, you tighten your belts,” he said. “You don’t go buying a boat when you can barely pay your mortgage.” However, his budget proposal is the most fiscally irresponsible in American history. It lavishes billions of dollars on unnecessary programs, pet projects and pork for cronies. There is no belt-tightening in his reckless budget; he does not believe in budget cuts. He’s the guy who can’t pay his mortgage but decides to buy a boat, a sports car and a home theater and then browbeats his unemployed neighbors about doing more to make ends meet.
Do as I say, not as I do! Obama is the kid in the candy store, and no one has the guts to tell him NO? Let him throw a tantrum, then take him home and paddle his behind!
Mr. Obama’s proposed deficit commission is another gimmick, a front to allow him to avoid responsibility for necessary hard choices. This is evident before the commission has even been formed. Mr. Obama admitted he is “agnostic” about middle-class tax increases, and that it would be up to the commission to assess if that is necessary. He is laying the groundwork to break a critical campaign pledge and shoving responsibility onto others. Presumably the American people elected a president to make these decisions, but a vote for Mr. Obama always was more a fashion statement than a realistic assessment of his executive abilities, as is now painfully clear.
Fashion statement. Now that’s funny right there. Heh. Seriously, many people voted for the man because of the color of his skin, and actually knew nothing about his policies. They hung on every word, but didn’t hear a thing. Fortunately, many are now waking up to a new world they helped create, but don’t recognize. It’s not to late to bring sanity back, but it won’t be easy. I applaud Mr Christie for taking these first steps. Hopefully, many others will follow.
Weasel Time
P(eople) E(ating) T(asty) A(nimals)
Iowa Lawmaker Tells PETA Not to Have a Cow Over Raccoon Kill
On Tuesday, the animal welfare group challenged the Iowa Republican to “pick on someone your own size, not a small animal seeking warmth in a blizzard.”
“It doesn’t give you comfort in your representatives when a member of Congress finds it amusing to boast of shooting a desperately cold animal who is 100 times smaller than he is and whose only misstep was trying to get into a large, warm house,” Jaime Zalac, a PETA spokeswoman, said a written statement provided to FoxNews.com.
“I hope he’s not on any committees that made decisions regarding cruel and unusual punishment,” Zalac added. “Decent people would call animal control for help, not get on Twitter to boast about having a really, really big gun.”
I wonder if Zalac lives in the middle of a large city, where raccoons aren’t common visitors? Obviously, Jaime isn’t aware that raccoons, quite commonly, carry rabies. Perhaps we should toss a raccoon or two into his home, and see how he reacts.
Last week, King tweeted that a “Crazy Raccoon chewing & clawing his way into my house” didn’t make it out alive.
“Desert Eagle 1, Crazy Raccoon 0,” King wrote, revealing the pistol he used to kill the raccoon.
LOL I like this guy!
Yeah, they’re cute little suckers, but ya see those teeth? They can do some serious damage.
King told Fox News on Tuesday that he’d offer PETA more hospitality than the animal.
“That crazy coon ran up against ‘a man’s home is his castle’ and this man’s castle won. But if it had been PETA volunteers outside in the middle of a blizzard, I’d like to think they would have rang the doorbell, instead of trying to claw into the house. And I would have given them shelter for the night and served them bacon and eggs the next morning,” he said in a statement.
Heh. I know some folks that wouldn’t have been so polite. I might, but it would be depend how loony they are at the time. 
But then, I’m a nice person too.
Such A Funny Guy
Biden: ‘The recovery act is working’ for Michigan
Vice President Joe Biden joined dozens of other administration officials today who fanned out across the United States to tout the successes of the $787-billion stimulus act passed one year ago.
He visited a chemical processing training lab at Delta College just north of Saginaw, an area with a 14% unemployment rate that’s been particularly hard hit by the economic recession.
At Delta College, about 75 invited guests greeted Biden, including U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, Lt. Gov. John Cherry and U.S. Rep. Dale Kildee, D-Flint.
The stimulus act was “Not meant to just merely drag us out of this ditch,” Biden said. “When we got out of the ditch and we’re on the road again, we’ll have the biggest economic engine in the world. Second place in not an option for us.”
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Is it possible for Biden to remove his foot from his mouth? In case ol’ Joe hasn’t noticed, the so called ‘stimulus’ hasn’t stimulated diddly, except for politicians. The unemployment rate of the U.S. is over 9%. For Michigan, where he was flapping his gums, it’s over 14%.
H/T: Gateway Pundit
Good News!
From The Courier, (related to this post):
Arrests made in livestock shootings
Two arrests have been made in connection to a string of livestock shootings which occurred the last week of January, Hardin County Sheriff Sammy Davidson said today.
Drew Hunt, 19, of 90 McKelvey Hollow Road near the east side of Pickwick Lake in Hardin County, and a 17-year-old male juvenile are both charged with four counts of intentional killing of an animal and one count of criminal attempt to intentionally kill an animal, he said.
Hunt, whose bond was tentatively set at $25,000, is scheduled to be arraigned in Hardin County General Sessions Court this afternoon.
Why did these little weasels think killing someone else’s animals was a good idea? Hopefully, the legal age one will be paying for a long time. The juvenile? Well, I think his parents would be wise to rip him a new one! It might be wise for the court to make him, and his buddy, start working off the debt they both owe to the owners of these animals.
Bless His Yankee Heart!
I’ve been having some computer issues recently, so finally broke down and asked for some help. Did you know that someone way up there in Wisconsin can connect to your computer and fix stuff? Well, ok, so I’m technically challenged. Hush!
The last couple of days, Mr Chad has been invading my computer. It’s kind of funny to watch things happening on the screen when you aren’t touching anything. Finally had to turn the thing away from me cuz the cats wanted to play with the ‘mouse’. Yeah, he charges, but it’s a whole lot more economical to pay him, than buy a whole new computer, don’cha think? Yeah, the Mr thought so too! 
BO, Going On Tour…..Again
Obama to announce Georgia nuke loan guarantees today
President Barack Obama today will announce the loan guarantees for the construction and operation of two new nuclear reactors in Georgia, the first new nuclear power plant to break ground in the United States for nearly three decades.
An administration official said late Monday that the loan guarantees will apply to work at the Southern Co. plant in Burke, where Georgia Power is planning the new reactors at its Plant Vogtle facility.Southern Co. estimates the project will create 3,000 onsite construction jobs and about 850 permanent positions.
That’s nice. I’m glad there will be some work for the folks down there in Georgia. But I have a question: Since when does the POTUS, any POTUS, have the right to guarantee loans?
The Obama administration is pushing for utilities to build more nuclear power plants as part of a nationwide effort to curb greenhouse gas emissions. The president mentioned nuclear power and clean coal, along with renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, in his State of the Union address.
Since it seems that debunking the flawed science isn’t having an effect on Obama’s policies, I’ll just add that a good deal of those “green” energy sources appear to be a major flop. Make you wonder if this is the future for Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
To fund the project, they will pay 9 percent more on their electric bills. That increase will be phased in over seven years, starting in 2011. It will last the life of the plant, but is expected to gradually decline over that time, the company said.
My question here is, if Obama is guaranteeing these loans (his own money?), loans I’m guessing are for the purpose of building these plants, why are the rates for consumers going up? 9% is a pretty good chunk of change if you are just scraping by. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for nuclear power plants. I do have a major problem when the federal government gets involved. Yes, safety is an issue, but we’ve got these regulating bodies telling companies, you can’t do this, you can’t do that, ya can’t built here cuz there is an annoying mosquito that lives in the area, or something to that affect. Give me a break!
For its part, Georgia Power suffered from huge cost overruns when it built the first two nuclear plants at Vogtle in the late 1980s. The original estimate was $975 million for four reactors. The final price tag was $9 billion for two reactors.
How much ya wanna bet the major cost overruns were, in part, due to oppressive regulations? Were unions involved? Just wondering.
Seriously, if we are to ever become energy independent, see our economy bounce back, and have some chance at a future, the federal government needs to get the hell out of the way. Private industry ALWAYS works better than the government, at EVERYTHING! Get rid of the unions, start producing real products, and watch the jobs come back!
No Free Speech For Oren
Is this proof that Muslims don’t teach their children manners? That they don’t understand the concept of ‘free speech’? Or that they’ve learned their tactics from the leftists in this country? Both groups seem to have the idea they only THEY have the right to speak.
Towards the end of the video, the students (?) are shouting “Anti-Israel, anti-racism”. Does anyone else see the hypocrisy?
Related:
Michael Oren Shouted Down at UC Irvine
Campus Intifada: Where are the adults?
UC Irvine’s Free Speech Problem
In defense of the rude children:
Free 11 Muslim Students Representing America’s Conscience
Muslim Group Wants Investigation Into Students Arrests at Speech
Guess I Better Toss This In The Mix
Climategate U-turn as scientist at centre of row admits: There has been no global warming since 1995
- Data for vital ‘hockey stick graph’ has gone missing
- There has been no global warming since 1995
- Warming periods have happened before – but NOT due to man-made changes
Yeah Yeah….
….it’s purdy and all that, but seriously, make it go AWAY! It should be in the mid 50s by now, with a hint of little sprigs of green stuff peeking out. Instead, this is what we get?
Enough already! Hey algore…and all the rest of you ‘global warming’ chumps!! 
Facts Can Be Scary
Is the Great ‘Global Warming’ Snowjob Finally Coming to an End?
As the east coast recovers from Snowpocalypse, some global warming alarmists have said that we shouldn’t read too much into the blizzards. We can’t draw broad conclusions about climate change based on particular storms or regional weather trends. You know what? They’re right.
Now there is irony in the fact that the blizzards hit just as the President announced the formation of the Climate Service, charged with managing and coordinating the effects of “climate change.” But that’s all it is: irony. Snowpocalypse neither proves nor disproves the theory that human activities are disastrously effecting earth’s climate, but it did provide an opportunity for several conservative commentators, like Limbaugh and Hannity, to crack wise at the expense of the alarmists.
Chris Matthews wagged his finger at such jocularity, piously declaring that “…the average global temperature last year was the second highest on record…” and that “…cold weather in one area over several days doesn’t change the reality of what’s happening to this planet…” You know what? He’s right too. Well, Chris was right as far as he goes.
Unfortunately, Matthews stopped short of explaining the whole story, which this scientist finds rather disappointing coming from a fellow who, like me, boasts a Jesuit university as an alma mater. Perhaps Chris missed those critical thinking lessons that the Jesuits try to impart on eager young students.
Read the entire piece here.
As I’ve stated MANY times, the government has no interest in the climate, health care, or any number of other issues they are trying to ram down our throats. It’s all about control. Control of the world’s finances, control of their “subjects’, control of our children so they can turn them into good little socialists robots. Unfortunately, due to the lack of voters ability to pay attention and parenting skills on the part of many of our fellows citizens, they are succeeding.
I would suggest to Tingles that he get his head out of Obama’s ass, and start doing his own research. It’s really not that difficult. For the time being, you can find just about everything on the internet, and that includes THOUSANDS of dissenters to the ‘warming’ scam. I’m not talking about people like me, who know algore is full of male bovine excrement. I’m talking about actual SCIENTISTS, who have made it their life’s work to find truth.
He Did Say He Would “Change” Things, Didn’t He
Save your Confederate Money, Boys!
The South’s Gonna Rise Again!
by J. D. Longstreet
In my youth there was a popular song entitled: “Save Your Confederate Money, Boys… the South Is Gonna Rise Again!”
I began think about it as I watched a group of talking heads discussing the future of America, as a single entity comprised of 50 states. The consensus was — America will not survive as a 50-state nation. It is a conclusion, which I, unhappily, arrived at years ago.
I am convinced we Americans are being lied to by our government. I am also convinced our economy is on the verge of collapse. Maybe it is just my natural paranoia, but I simply don’t see the “silver lining” inside the dark clouds hanging low over Wall Street and other financial centers in America. I think we are in for a total collapse of our economic system.
Wisdom From The Sultan
The Temperature at Which Global Warming Freezes
A snippet:
Prior to this season’s unfortunate weather, Global Warming advocates had staked their bets on a mild winter in order to show people the pernicious effects of people driving to work and using extra shopping bags. Which was a decent enough angle, considering that we had been experiencing milder winters over the last few years. But the problem with betting that the weather will help prove your point, is that the weather may have other plans. And now digging out of a snowstorm and their own lies, Global Warming advocates are arguing that colder winters and snowstorms are actually another effect of global warming. Which may now need to be renamed, Global Temperatures We Don’t Like.
Had environmentalists hedged their bets by calling Global Warming something vaguely neutral like Global Temperature Imbalance, they would have had a much easier time covering their asses. Because temperature imbalances are a more subjective thing and the graphs are easier to fake. But Global Temperature Imbalance is much less entertainingly alarmist than Global Warming, and the environmentalists knew that they needed a name with some heft to frighten the public. Armageddon. Apocalypse. We think of destruction as a fiery event. And Global Warming was an environmentalist apocalypse, supposedly backed by science. No wonder it got as much traction as it did.
But it isn’t just the weather that’s turning on Global Warming, from Anglia to the IPCC, the scientific case for Global Warming is being undermined by revelations of fraud and malfeasance. And the political case for Cap and Trade is being undermined by the refusal of politicians and nations to cut their own throats so that Al Gore and George Soros can make a few billion selling “Right to Emit Carbon” certificates to every factory on the planet.
Read the whole post here. It’s well worth your time.
Me Too
Warner Todd Houston: I Am A Tired American
H/T: Jay at Stop the ACLU
