Living History

The modern Democratic Party has become a lesson in everything the Founding Fathers feared in government and attempted to prevent.  George III was no more autocratic than Obama.  We know how that worked out last time.   One hopes things work out as successfully this time.

The plan vs. the actuality

Surely everyone who matters has seen this chart already.

Something to keep in mind about it is that this is a BUDGET.  It is planned spending.  The reality is that there were never surpluses as shown in ’00 and ’01.  How do we know that?  Because the National Debt went up in those years.

A balanced budget amendment will be useless if actual spending is not constrained by it.  We don’t need a balanced budget amendment, we need a balanced spending amendment.

Saving the Obama Presidency…Why?

William McGurn at Wall Street Journal Opinion Journal makes the case that Obama can save his presidency by moving politically to the right.  He uses as his example of Bill Clinton who for two years ran hard left under trying to take the lead from the Democrats in Congress, and then tacked back to the right when the Republicans took control in 1994 and by adopting the policies of his opponents, bought himself a second term.

Bill Clinton was the consummate politician throughout his career.  He governed a midwestern, almost southern state for almost 12 years.  He had exposure to and success with a broad political spectrum.  His swing to the right may easily have been no more artificial than his swing to the left, following his political nose in search of opportunity.

So you can talk about a Republican resurgence giving Obama an opportunity to renew his administration by allowing it to let the Republicans lead the country from disaster, and then blaming them for it as Clinton did.  But then you can talk about snakes putting on shoes and tap dancing across the floor.  ‘Tain’t gunna’ happen.  Obama is as leftist an ideologue as any mainstream politician in the business.  Even if Congress can neutralize the damage he is doing domestically, there is little they can do to stop his disastrous foreign policy of open support for anti-American elements and undermining of the US at every turn.  “Rescuing” the Obama administration from itself will still leave an incompetent, narcissistic anti-American socialist in charge of the myriad elements of the Executive branch of the federal government.  I’m not seeing the goodness in that.

My…this is disturbing

The US National Debt Clock.

Nothing new.  Just proving the point that conveying information rather than data is all in the presentation…like haute cuisine.

The big one in my mind is the US Unfunded Liabilities.  Approaching $59Trillion.  It is the number that if realized as debt will crush the country.  It’s also the part that is subject to change.  It’s going to be painful for someone.  But first and foremost it should be painful for the Democrats and other politicians who have created this disaster.

Quote of the Day

Probably a little premature to claim anything of the day at 12:16 in the morning, but I’m going with it anyway.

From Ace of Spades, capturing the incompetence of the Obama White House:

“Left hand doesn’t know what the Far Left hand is doing.”

Tea Party tomorrow

Gonna’ have a family gathering.  Gonna’ get together at Clare McCaskill’s office in University City.  12:00 on Saturday.  Y’all come by now.  The St. Louis Tea Party site has the details. ‘course I didn’t get started on signs until like 10:30 pm the night before.

Being fishy probably isn’t treason against the Crown anymore.  Since Obama declared himself to be an equal partner to God, the Obamabots are probably going to start calling protesters heretics.

Obama the God

I’ve been reading some of the stuff Obama said on a teleconference with a bunch of religious folks.  I’ll give Ann Althouse the nod here so I can shamelessly link back to her site.  Somehow I think his effort is going to backfire like everything else he says.

What does he really mean when he says “partner with God”?  I believe that it is Obama’s way of saying that he is God’s equal.  Yeah, that ought to sway the truly religious.

What Obama exhibited was the crassest form of stereotyping.  He turned a political discussion into religious terms.  Opposition becomes sin.  Spreading the Word of God becomes Shilling for Obama.  I’ve seen this kind of behavior in hard core liberals before.  He wasn’t talking to people.  He was talking to a caricature of those people as he views them, translating his thoughts into “a language they can understand.”  It fits right in with the “clinging to their guns and religion” line he used.  I hope his audience recognized the absolute and utter contempt he exhibited for them.

I’m picturing Jesus all dressed in robes and everything, looking all spiffy because he’s got some angel honey polishing his…uh…halo.  Yeah, polishing his halo.  He descends to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave on his cloud ride.  “Hey…Obama.  A word with you please.  It’s “I am my brothers keeper.”, not “I am my brother’s owner.”  It’s “I am my brother’s keeper”, not “You are my brother’s keeper.”  And speaking about being your brother’s keeper, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about your relatives.”

Obama made a speech once…it might have been his “grandmother is a typical white woman” speech…where he basically stated that he believed in God as long as God served his purposes.  That folks, is the antithesis of faith.  And it puts his 20 years sitting in Rev. Wright’s church in glaring perspective.  He wasn’t there to praise God.  Obama doesn’t believe in God.  Obama is God.  He was there solely to get points in the community as a ‘religious man’ and to bask in the light of Rev. Wrights racist rants.

Electorate of America…What Has’t Thou Wrought.

What’s wrong with painting a Hitler mustache on Obama?

It’s the wrong mustache, silly.

Why do people think she’s smart?

…or even competent.

I’ve been countering for some time the PR campaign that convinced half the country that Obama was some superhuman intellectual when in fact he is an imaginationless dogmatic liberal working straight from whatever leftist playbook he happens to have read last.

Allow me now to shine the light on another falsely anointed “genius”, Hillary Clinton.  Most people have heard about her shameless childish rant in the Congo last week.  And of course, the liberal press that has carried her water since Bill became president is trying to spin it to blame the person who asked the question.  But let’s get back to basics.  What qualified her for the job of Secretary of State and why did she take the position?

Clinton has zero diplomatic experience.  Meeting with diplomats spouses and having pictures taken with the kitchen staff while dodging imaginary bullets at the airport do not make a person a diplomat.

Smart?  She was one of five partners at the Rose Law Firm.  Four of them became convicted felons while she worked at the office, yet she didn’t know anything illegal was happening.  She didn’t know anything was happening.  She claimed to be ignorant of even the legal activities going on in the office, admitting that she put her name on legal documents sight unseen that had been prepared by legal aides.  Why did she sign them then?  Because then the firm could then charge partner rates for the services done by underlings.  She cheated her clients.  How do you bribe a sitting governor?  Pay a retainer to his wife’s law firm.  She gets a piece of the action that goes right to the governor’s mansion’s bank account.

Smart?  She hamfisted the 1st War On Healthcare in ’93.  She ran for senator solely on her husband’s name in a state she never lived in before because she knew she didn’t stand a chance in any state that had had anything to do with her.  She blew the presidential nomination after running for president for almost ten years because she thought it was about the Clinton popularity polls and not getting delegates at the convention.  Then she gave up a secure senate seat to become her arch nemesis’ secretary.  I wonder if he makes her get coffee.  I wonder if he makes her get under the desk?  (OOHHHH!  I didn’t say that.  I have to go pour Draino in my mind’s eye.)  Did she think becoming Secretary of State would give her a platform to run for the presidency again?  Obama offered her that position to bury her.  Yeah, I can barely open my eyes in the presence of such brilliance.

Now on top of that we can add harpy.  Shrill, egotistical harpy.  Should we really be surprised that she compares US presidential elections to African kleptocracies.  Yeah…smart diplomacy.  After she leaves the room, Obama can’t be anything but an improvement when he hands out iPods of his own brilliant speeches.  GAWD, we’re in the best of hands.

The good news.  These were the two best minds in the Democratic quiver.  And the press accuses the Republicans of lacking leaders?

Why is a health care “system” desireable?

Hot Air linked to an article at Huffington Post by Michael Brenner discussing the Narcissist-in-Chief.  As much fun as it is to highlight the almost infinite failings of the Won, and almost as enjoyable pastime watching the angst of the pseudo-intellectuals of the left who, having having so loudly and obnoxiously denied a god in heaven, struggle with the reality of those failings in their new found God in the White House  that those with a functioning eye, a functioning ear and a functioning brain cell to tie them together figured out lo-o-o-o-o-o-ng before the election, there’s actually another point he brings up that I want to address. (Note to self, use more periods.)

In the article, Mr. Brenner grieves about the American private healthcare model, describing it as “…our costly and inefficient non-system.” The implication in the statement and purpose of the article being that there should in fact be a system and that is what our betters, by virtue of their superior intellect are offering to bestow on those of us who are in reality, unworthy.

Ummm…..<hand raised in back of class where the dunces sit> “Teacher.  Teacher.  Why should there be a system of healthcare?”

I’m glad you asked that question.

Let’s go back to the beginning.  Healthcare starts with the relationship between the healthcare provider and the afflicted.  I use healthcare provider intentionally.  True intellectuals (Not me.  Despite three degrees, I’m still not stupid enough to be an intellectual) would say doctors, because only people with doctor as a title are deserving of recognition.  But in reality, this relationship can be between nurse and patient, x-ray tech and patient, midwife and patient, acupuncturist and patient, medicine man and patient, chiropractor and patient…you get the picture.  The issue ultimately comes down to the hands-on application of some form of healing art.  It’s not a system.  It’s a relationship.  Involved in that relationship is renumeration for the service such as; money, goats, chickens, clams or whatever other sort of barter system is prevalent in the society.  It’s not just a relationship, it’s a transaction.  The application of that service is not a system.  It is skill set…sometimes science, sometimes art, sometimes a pig in a poke.  Sometimes it’s high technology, sometime hard science, sometimes borders on pure blind luck.  (Ouch, that paragraph’s getting painful.)

Let me describe a healthcare system for you.  There was an eye clinic in the Soviet Union where they mass produced eye surgeries.  They had surgical beds on a conveyor belt. (no kidding.  This is not the face I use when I kid around)  At various stations, different processes were carried out.  At one station you climb on the bed.  Then they draped you, then the forgot to anesthetize the eye.  Then they started the right procedure on the wrong eye and the wrong procedure on the right eye (unless the right eye was the left eye).  Then they stitched up the incisions, and sent you home blind to die of the raging septic infections.  Of course if anything goes wrong during one of the step of the procedure, it doesn’t matter.  The conveyor belt will keep moving so the next victimpatient would be moved into position to get their equal access to the “healthcare system”.  This is the “system” that the Leftists are offering the people of the United States.  And why is this “system” desirable?  Because it meets all the requirements liberals think is proper for the masses.

• It was cheap.  Always remember that the goal of socialized medicine is not to save lives.  It’s to save money.  The fact that it is totally ineffective is immaterial.  The Ruling Elite have no intention of exposing themselves to the “healthcare system” they are going to impose on the unwashed masses.  The Soviet nomenklatura didn’t use the eye surgery production line.  They went to good hospitals reserved for them and if they needed very specialized care, they went to Western European hospitals.  The eye clinic wasn’t an exception.  The Women’s Hospital in Moscow was thought to be a major contributor to the dirth of births there.  One trip to that chamber of horrors was enough for even the toughest women.
• It provides equal treatment for all, even if the condition you have isn’t the same as the person on the bed in front of you.  “Your cataracts will be cured whether you have them or not.”  It’s not about getting effective care, it’s about getting equal care.  Everybody will have the inalienable right to see a general practitioner who will hold the hand and speak palliative words about accepting the pains that life brings, growing old gracefully and accepting the little red pill that will make all that darkness go away, especially if you’re past the politically correct age.

Auschwitz was a system.  It was a cost effective, smoothly running machine to sort its ‘guests’, extract the last useable value from them whether it was their labor, their gold teeth, or their hair and then dispose of the rest based on their remaining life quality index.  Shooting people and burying them had proven to take to long, used too many expensive bullets, and killing women and children was having deleterious effects on the Wehrmacht troops involved.  It wasn’t very systematic.  The gas chambers performed bulk late term abortions and the ovens sped the disposal process along nicely.  They were run by a few select personnel (inmates) who had no stress issues that the managers had to worry about.  And it turns out that human fat is combustible, reducing the oven’s carbon footprint.  What’s not to like for someone into human processing systems that use what people have to serve society, but don’t keep them hanging around too long.  Why, it was enough to make an intellectual swoon with its economy and logic.

Saying that the US healthcare industry isn’t a ‘system’ keeps sounding more and more like a feature than a bug.