Category Archives: Pages

Visualizing Obamacare

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obmacare regs edHere is picture of the Obamacare regulations that have been printed so far. It is more than 20,000 pages. There are many more pages to come because the law calls for over 150 new bureaucratic boards and agencies, many of which have not been formed yet. Think of hordes of bureaucrats churning out regulations, processing forms, making critical healthcare decisions for people they do not know, and making excuses for why this monstrously inefficient system is so monstrously inefficient.

Representative Kevin Brady of Texas prepared a chart showing the labyrinthine bureaucratic mess that is Obamacare.  This chart and story below were published in 2010 here.  You can study the chart in detail here.

This chart was meticulously compiled over the last four months after perusing the 2,841 pages of Obamacare that no one who voted for the bill bothered to read. This so-called “reform” has morphed into a new monstrosity of mandates, taxes & rationing, it will hurt seniors and hand healthcare into a bureaucracy which has now taken over 1/6 of our economy. This is a massive expansion of government & the bewildering complexity of this new law is overwhelming.

The HHS czar, Kathleen Sebelius, has 2200 references in the law and 600 new authorities which cannot be challenged. On the chart everything in dark blue to the left are expansions, orange are those empowered with rationing healthcare in the future. In the bottom left hand corner in blue, 150 new bureaucracies and boards have been created between doctor and patient. Those in yellow are specific mandates and there are 17 new mandates on insurance. Rep. Brady stated this law is so complex he couldn’t get the chart to fit on one page, the chart is only actually 1/3 of the size of the law so he shows “bundles of bureaucracy.” For example, one brown bundle hides 59 grant programs. Green diamonds are the taxes this law has created. In the far right corner are 19 special interest provisions, including the “Louisiana Purchase” and special interests for unions.

Buried deep in the law are 19 special sections that cannot be challenged by the courts or any regulatory system. What the public is being sold and what the law actually has are 2 totally different things. House Republicans are dedicated to repealing this law. If they take back the House they plan to block the most egregious parts of this law & replace it with common sense reform. They are also backing states who want to block this law. Rep. Brady stated if these mandates are allowed to stand there are no boundaries to what this government can do.

And jobs created? Yes. Many. 16,500 new IRS agents to police the law and an explosion of jobs in the HHS Department with probably no jobs created in the private sector. This law will eventually need even more taxes to fund it and the US will have an “anchor around Her neck” with difficulty competing with other countries.      [end of quoted story.]

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I take issue with part of the quote above.  The statement, “House Republicans are dedicated to repealing this law” is false.  They are dedicated to acting like they would like to repeal it.  They are not, as a group, taking a principled stand against it.  They are not educating the public about the certain disaster that lies ahead.  In fact, the public is ahead of them in this regard.  The majority of Americans continue to oppose Obamacare.  But will the Republicans rally this army and engage in a real fight to overturn this horribly bad law? No, they won’t. They are unprincipled weaklings.

The House of Representatives has the power of the purse.  They can fund what they want and they can defund the programs they don’t want to support.  They are spending money to support the implementation of Obamacare.  Obamacare will be the largest black hole of debt ever created.  It will suck up resources faster than anything ever has.  It’s the end-game.  It’s socialist check-mate.

If you think about the images above, it is clear that Obamacare cannot be a cost-efficient way to provide health care.  You may wonder, “Why would someone who wants inexpensive health care propose such a system?”.   Because it is not about health care.  It is about centralized power and control and it achieves that goal very well.

Update: You can make the case that as the disaster of Obamacare unfolds, voters will see the light and will repeal it.  Betsy McCaughey makes that case very well today right here.  McCaughey has written a book on Obamacare and understands it as well as anyone.  Obamacare was written so that the popular provisions kicked in first with the more painful ones postponed until after the last Presidential campaign.  McCaughey details the pain that is coming and the backlash she expects.  It’s an optimistic scenario, so it’s a nice change of pace from doom and gloom.

Can We Borrow Our Way Out Of This Debt?

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Let’s face it, it’s tough to conceptualize the meaning of trillions of dollars of debt because the numbers are so big. There is an interesting visual representation of a trillion dollars here, that you should take a look at.  There is also a superb video below that reduces the debt and spending problem to an easily understandable human level.  Pay particular attention to the involvement of the child at the end of the video and ask yourself about the morality of using our children in this way.  [ Thanks to reader Kirsten Curtis for finding the video.]

If you would like another short explanation of the debt crisis, and our future, take a look at this:

In the midst of these insane and self-destructive levels of borrowing and spending, we have leaders who say that we do not have a spending problem or an entitlement problem.  In an interview that aired yesterday on ABC, Obama said, “we don’t have an immediate crisis in terms of debt. In fact, for the next ten years, it’s gonna be in a sustainable place“.   So it’s full speed ahead.  Patty Murray’s budget unveiled this week calls for huge increases in taxes and a 62% increase in spending over the next decade.  Party on!

People who call for more borrowing and spending are called the moderate and reasonable people by the mainstream press.  People who fear the destruction of this unsustainable course, the Tea Party types, are called extremist kooks.

You decide.

Forward

The More Pura Vida: Day 1

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Unemployed, homeless, & 34. With a Costa Rican entry visa and no exit strategy, I can see my road in life going one of two ways…

Way # 1: That guy on the beach hiding a beer belly under a flowered shirt that onlookers age somewhere between a bad 40 and a pretty good 65. If such a man, we’ll call him “Big Wayne”, were to have a heart attack it would merit the two octaves higher “Aww, that’s a bummer!”, but no one would act genuinely shocked. Somewhere on his Maine Lobster hewed neck it is safe to assume that skin cancer is playing “Waldo” among the various blotches and sunspots. Big Wayne’s habitat consists of bars and on the beach next to his long board, where he honors what seems to be a restraining order of 20 yards from the water’s edge. His affect is pleasant and people automatically assume that there is some level of wisdom behind his droopy-eyed grin. To be clear, by “wisdom” I don’t mean what a at an Oxford graduate might seek on a Peace Core mission building infrastructure projects in the scorched deserts among the plighted people of the Serengeti… No, Big Wayne’s body of wisdom earns the hallowed badge of “He’s seen some shit.” This aura lures some of the younger generation into earnest conversations with Big Wayne in hopes that he may cast some pearls of such wisdom. A conversation ensues and goes swimmingly until Big Wayne gets into his comfort zone. Around the point that Big Wayne drops, “I switched over from margaritas to straight gin on account of the diabetes”, the younger generation grows uneasy and starts thinking exit strategy. The nervous demeanor turns into a mild panic when Wayne, whose voice is clearly audible a throughout the small beach bar, starts discussing his affection for “fine Tico pussy”…

Option #2:  I decided I didn’t want to go that way… well, not much anyway. I want to be the focused 30-something with a ripped late-20-something body who’s odd intensity about learning a sport in a laid back country pays off with respectable skills and knowledge of secret surf spots, but does nothing to help his problem with run on sentences and overusing the ellipsis… To that end, the second I got into the hostel/hotel, rather than pony up to the bar showing a constant stream of 80’s music videos and reward myself for successfully sitting on my ass for 9h of travel, I rented a board at the local shop. The French long-haired instructor I rented the beginner long board from told me that as “ehhh beginnaire ewww doont go too ze outaire break” (Turns out he is Costa Rican). Excited, I ran, pausing only twice to take deep wheezy breaths, with that board the whole 200 yards to the beach and paddled out to the outer break.
The dynamic of the outer break was a near perfect microcosm of California (and most of the West). A large gathering of good looking well-built guys who really looked like they knew what they are doing sat in a lineup just beyond where they would be able to catch about 90% of the waves rolling through. These alpha sharks were looking for bigger prey – the big sets that only crash on the outside. Sitting upright on their boards with taut arms crossed over formidable chests, these heroes stared of into the distance looking for some minor distant pre-wave ossilation in the ocean chop that their trained eyes and instincts would never miss. Almost on que they identify the monster swell as it quickly mounts and comes our way and start paddling in unison. I wonder which of the many of them is going to get the priority position on the wave? As the swell grows and starts to cast a sunset shadow toward our boards, their strokes grow more powerful as they swim at the wave head on. Just at the critical moment comes for them to turn their boards around, they dig in for one last push and every single one of them powers over the top of the wave with authority… wait… What? Seriously? Not one single guy who bic’ed his head that morning to look like Kelly Slater has the balls to turn his board around and drop into a mushy sand-bottomed wave???

To truely understand the power of Guanacaste waves, have your grandmother’s friend with late-stage emphysema blow on the back of your neck. If the wave were to perform an interpretive dance to express itself, it would draw heavily form early David Bowie musical videos:

There did turn out to be two groups willing to drop anything mother nature threw their way: women and the local Ticos (slang for Costa Rican… their word, not mine). Rather than focus on breaking ranks with the washed-out (though anything but clean) Big Waynes of the world, I decided to expand my aversion to all of the white males in the water. I would love to say that I was a hero for the long rides I had on the waves, but the conditions give you everything but the “atta boy” pat on the ass after helping you onto your board. No matter what points my rides may have won with the local womenfolk, they were more than countered by the sight of me after making it through the break – harmlessly slapping the ocean with limp arms, frog-kicking at the water (though not actually touching it) when the arms completely failed, and making congested whale blow-hole noises with my mouth as I attempted to breathe with my forehead resting on a half-submerged board…

There was some live music in the bar across the street last night, but who can keep up with the kids these days?  I made a decision to show a bunch of New York 30-somethinngs how to party like a New York 30-something tomorrow night and drifted off to a happy place…

Some Lessons

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pie-chart

Sequestration:  Originally a legal term referring generally to the act of valuable property being taken into custody by an agent of the court and locked away for safekeeping, usually to prevent the property from being disposed of or abused before a dispute over its ownership can be resolved.          from auburn.edu glossary of political terms

As I see it, valuable property, in ever-increasing amounts, is being taken into custody by the State, but not for safekeeping.  Through debt, the valuable property of our children and grandchildren is being taken into custody, but not for safekeeping.  Most people understand that our rapid growth in spending and debt is unsustainable and will result in economic destruction.

The question before us in the current ‘sequestration battle’ is this:  Are our politicians willing to make even small adjustments to slow the rate of growth of government?

No, they are not willing.  They are kicking and screaming against even a slowdown in the rate of growth.  Imagine the impossibility of making real cuts in spending, where we spend less next year than this year.  Imagine the impossibility of getting on a sustainable path.

So we will stay on an unsustainable path of wildly increasing debt.  You can count on it.  And we will go to where that path leads.  I believe the current administration knows this and is focused solely on making sure the blame for the economic destruction is placed on their enemies.  If you create chaos and can successfully blame it on your enemies, then the chaos you created increases your power.  That’s the Cloward-Piven way.

The fact that there was not a healthy recovery in Obamas first four years was successfully blamed on George Bush.  Obamas’ economic policies will not allow a healthy recovery in the next four years either.  But he and the lap-dog press control the narrative, so all economic problems will  be blamed on Republicans.  ”If only they had not forced the draconian cuts of the sequester…” .  In Obama’s press conference this morning he said that the economic problems we will see in the future should all be blamed on the Republicans and how they handled the sequester.  He did not have to tell the media to do this.  They would have done it anyway.

A short but great Cato video on “Sequestration Panic:

Take a minute to read Charles Krauthammers’  Hail Armageddon .   Really.  It’s worth reading.

Here are some lessons we can take from the sequestration drama:

1. The “firemen first rule” still applies.  If we ask government to spend less of our money, they will say, “OK, we are going to lay of the firemen and teachers and let the prisoners out of jail.”  It’s a form of extortion.  Give us what we want, or else…

2. Obama is comfortable with lying (something we already knew).  His administration created the sequester plan.  He verbally supported the plan when he wanted to look like a budget cutter, saying he was absolutely not going to let the Republicans block the automatic cuts.  Now he is absolutely against these same automatic cuts that he says the cold-hearted Republicans are pushing.  It is worth noting that one or two people in the mainstream press have called him out on his lies.  Journalists doing real journalism is news.

3. It is increasingly clear that Obama’s Presidency is not about finding solutions to problems.  His Presidency is a performance aimed at creating divisions and laying blame.  It’s a constant campaign.  The sequestration deadline and the debt ceiling deadlines are known long in advance.  He does no work to solve these problems in advance.  He simply performs the blame campaign as the deadlines arrive.  This has worked quite well for him so far.

4. Obama’s “balanced approach” means:  more taxes.   He wants a ‘balanced approach’ where serious budget cutting is something we might do some day in the future and raising taxes is something we need to do right now.

5. People still get away with pretending that a modest cut in the rate of growth is a draconian cut in spending.  When you spend more next year than this year, that is an increase in spending.  If you were planning to spend an extra 100 billion next year and you instead spend an extra 98.5 billion, that is called an increase in spending.

6. The primary lesson is that there is no chance that the growth of government will be stopped.  What needs to be done will not be done.  We must plan accordingly.  [It would be more accurate to say that politicians will not reverse the growth of government, but that reality will bat last and will cut the size of government in some very unpleasant ways.  Reality will not allow the borrowing and spending to continue indefinitely.]

7.  People are asking the wrong question.  They are focusing on the negative effects of slowing the rate of growth of government.  The more important question is, what are the negative effects of not slowing the rate of growth of government.

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“If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading” ― Buddha
Things that can’t go on forever, won’t. Debt that can’t be repaid, won’t be.  Promises that can’t be kept, won’t be. —                        –Glen Reynolds

For more, see: Things That Can’t Go On Forever, Won’t

Update: Mark Steyn asks -

Can you pierce the mists of time and go back all the way to the year 2007? Back then, federal spending was 40 percent lower than it is today. In a mere half-decade, has all that 40 percent gravy become so indispensable to the general welfare that not even a teensy-weensy sliver of it can be cut?

If you really believe that, then America is going to die, and a gullible citizenry willing to give this laughable charade the time of day will bear ultimate responsibility.

Odds ‘n Ends

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Best Actor in a Tragic Drama:   Barack Obama     in    “Nothing Is Our Fault”

On the attempt to disown his sequestration plan:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNBhue9OMTY&feature=player_embedded

 

Dan Mitchell has a good column explaining that the “devastating budget slashing of sequestration” is really just a slight decrease in the rate of growth.

sequester cuts

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White House confirms:  Obama did NOTHING on Benghazi.  President Obama made no phone calls seeking help or information on the evening of September 11, 2012, during the seven or eight hours when Americans were fighting for their lives in Benghazi.

But, we can report that finally there are some arrests in Benghazi.  Four missionaries were arrested and charged with distributing Christian literature, a crime punishable by death.

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George Will on “State of the Union Nonsense“….   in which Obama said that all his new programs would “not increase our deficit by a single dime”.   In spite of this and other lies, the national press again proved that they are foolish lapdogs with the single-minded goal of attacking conservatives.

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Here is the great writer and thinker, Victor Davis Hansen, pondering how the world has changed in the last few years.

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On Krugman and Zombies…

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twinkie_funeralAnd last, but not least, a Twinkie update…

After Bankrupting Hostess, Union Workers Rake In The  Federal Dough

It’s lawlessness and corruption, just like the “restructuring” of General Motors in which vast amounts of money were funneled to unions.

SOTU Preview

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Tonight, he will pile it higher and deeper….

Expect a string of straw-man arguments.  Expect claims of accomplishments that are not really his.  Expect grandiose promises.  Expect special tributes to Latinos and women. Expect arrogance.

Skip SOTU and Watch This

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Rather than watch the State of the Union pack of lies tonight, you could listen to an honest man address some of our country’s big problems here:

Dr. Carson has been widely criticized for challenging Dear Leader.  Laura Ingraham made this observation about the criticism of Dr. Carson, “We can have celebrities talk about fracking and all sorts of political  issues…but the head of pediatric neurosurgery at one of the top hospitals in  the world” shouldn’t discuss healthcare.”

The Wall Street Journal Online adds to the healthcare discussion with this post:

Great Moments in Socialized Medicine “Shockingly bad care and inhumane treatment at a hospital in the Midlands led to hundreds of unnecessary deaths and stripped countless patients of their dignity and self-respect, according to a scathing report published on Wednesday,” reports the New York Times’s Sarah Lyall from London:

The report, which examined conditions at Stafford Hospital in Staffordshire over a 50-month period between 2005 and 2009, cites example after example of horrific treatment: patients left unbathed and lying in their own urine and excrement; patients left so thirsty that they drank water from vases; patients denied medication, pain relief and food by callous and overworked staff members; patients who contracted infections due to filthy conditions; and patients sent home to die after being given the wrong diagnoses.

We certainly hope the Times’s public editor sets Lyall straight. After all, as former Enron adviser Paul Krugman points out: “In Britain, the government itself runs the hospitals and employs the doctors. We’ve all heard scare stories about how that works in practice; these stories are false.”

What Difference Does It Make?

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Benghazi

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta confirmed Thursday that, on the night of September 11, 2012,  Obama had no interested in the attack on the American Consulate in Benghazi.  Panetta informed Obama, at a regularly scheduled meeting, that an armed assault on the consulate, an act of war, had commenced just before their meeting.

Astonishingly, the Commander-in-Chief was not interested in this news.  Panetta testified that Obama had no further contact with him that evening.  Obama did not even contact him to see how things were going.  There is testimony that Hillary Clinton was similarly uninvolved.  Even for someone like me, who does not have a high opinion of Obama or Clinton, this callous incompetence is almost unbelievable.

As far as we know, the first serious involvement of Obama and Clinton in Benghazi was to concoct lies and alibis the next day, something they both do well.  Their adoring press was ready, as always, to help them with the cover-up.  A scandal that is 1000 times worse than Watergate was swept under the rug.  And Republicans, including Romney, were herded into submission.

The President knows that September 11 is a date when Osama’s Islamic warriors are especially likely to attack.  He knows that an armed attack on a diplomatic post is an act of war.  He knows that any response to the attack that involves U.S. forces crossing a country’s border requires Presidential approval.  And he could have known, if he cared, that brave Navy Seals were on the rooftop of the compound in Benghazi, fighting for their lives and begging for help.  The Seals were in radio contact with their superiors for most of the 7 hour ordeal.

But he didn’t care.  He did nothing.  He went to bed.  He went to a fundraiser in Vegas the next day.  This is stunning.  And the fact that both Obama and Hillary knew that the media would cover for them is equally stunning and disturbing.

Obama and Clinton both lied repeatedly about their actions and about the cause of the attack.  David Axelrod, the minister of propaganda, said, “when word of the attack came, the president was meeting with his top national security folks. He was talking to them well into the night. He was in touch with them during the day, as – during the next day as well. So, there is no question about the fact that he was focused on this.”

All B.S.. The President was focused on how to lie about this disaster and protect his chance for re-election.  The things that were truly important to him were how to hide the real unemployment figures, how to misrepresent the growth in the economy, how to sell the stories that Al Qaeda was dead and the Arab Spring was a good thing, how to destroy the character of the good man who was challenging his power.

Obama said Benghazi was “a bump in the road” and that voters would not pay much attention to it.  He was right.  We are still on his road, going downhill fast.

Media Groupies Out In The Open

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The overwhelming media adulation for Hillary Clinton this week really brings into focus the fact that mainstream media is a branch of the Democrat party.  They don’t attempt to hide it much any more.  They are simply cheerleaders for leftists and consistent advocates of big government as the solution to all problems.

As the praise was piled higher and deeper for the phenomenal job Hillary has done as Secretary of State, I wondered what world they were living in.  Where, in the real world, are things better from Hillary’s efforts? Is the middle east better? Do we have better relationships with our enemies, or even with our allies?  One Senator at the Benghazi hearing did offer a concrete example of Her Greatness’s achievements –  The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves.  Yes, indeed.

The facts  show repeated pleas for additional security in Benghazi as the danger and violence escalated.  The pleas were ignored.  On the night of 9-11, officials knew almost immediately that the attack was a planned assault and they knew there was no demonstration prior to the assault.  They crafted lies and a huge cover-up far more consequential than Watergate ever was.  With the media’s help, they successfully sold their lies.

The media act as defense attorneys for their friends and prosecuting attorneys for their enemies.  Their political allies are portrayed as smart, competent, good people; their enemies are stupid and bad.  News stories are filtered just that way.  And the facts don’t matter.

If there is economic destruction under a President’s policies, it is his fault if he is a conservative; someone else’s fault if he is a liberal.  The way economic news is reported is determined completely by who is in power.  A liberal leader with 8% unemployment, skyrocketing deficits, increasing poverty can be portrayed as a good man headed in the right direction.  A conservative with a much better record will be endlessly criticized.

Scaring the truth out of 3 terrorists by pouring water down their throat is reported as inexcusable torture if a conservative does it.  But, killing suspected terrorists with drone missiles, instead of interrogating them, is not so bad if liberals do it.  Guantanamo ceased being bad with the change of administrations.  Going to war with Libya without congressional approval was fine because a liberal did it. If you give government money to your contributor friends in business, massive amounts of money, it’s not a corruption story if you are a liberal.   If you secretly tell the Russian leader that you will be free to give him concessions after the election, it’s not selling out if you’re a Democrat, because you mean well.  And if you cheerlead the Muslim Brotherhood in the Arab Spring takeover…  well, you meant well there, too.

That’s the power of the (D).  KKK grand kleagle Senator Robert Byrd (D) was protected all his life from charges of racism.   Ted Kennedy (D) drove off a bridge and left a girlfriend to drown while he hurried home to plot a strategy for self protection. But self protection was easy – he is a Kennedy with a (D). The media worked hard and long to try to protect Bill Clinton (D) from his serial sexual predations and John Edwards (D) from his lies.  Barney Frank (D) played a major role in causing the sub-prime meltdown and he escaped unscathed.  And for black politicians (D), no level of corruption is taken seriously.  All that matters is that you support keeping black people on the Democrat Plantation.

But if your name is followed with (R), there are at least two strikes against you to begin with.  If you tap your foot in a bathroom stall, (Craig (R)), or kiss an unwilling girl (Packwood (R)) the media will cover the story intensely until you resign.  Clinton (D), can warn of Iraqs WMD’s, say “I guarantee you he will use the arsenal“, and pass the “Iraq Liberation Act” calling for regime change, but Bush (R) is a liar for agreeing. Congressmen (R) who sound the alarm about unsustainable spending and debt are called extremists and obstructionists.  This is actually true to some extent because they are trying to obstruct the path that leads to certain economic destruction, but the media faults them for exactly that effort.  And if you are a black leader (R) who has escaped the Democrat Plantation, the media will heap scorn upon you.

Obama and Hillary know that their failures will be hidden as much as their lackeys in the media can possibly hide them.  As liberals they are, by definition, good and right in the eyes of the media.  That is the narrative that they can count on.  There is incredible power and safety in the assurance of that false narrative.  This system works well for liberals, but not for our country.

A free country needs an adversarial press to question authority and hold those in power accountable for their actions.    In free societies, the press has an important role in countering the natural tendency of those in power to abuse their power.  It is more clear than ever that the mainstream media have abandoned that role and have joined forces with those in power.  They speak with one voice and have shared goals.  The media role now is to create and perpetuate myths that justify increasing the power of government.

SecondComing

Newsweek editor Evan Thomas was on Hardball with Chris Matthews after President Obama’s ’09 speech in Cairo.   Matthews had been having “tingles” up his leg from Obama’s greatness.   Thomas trumped the tingles by saying that Obama was “sort of a God”.   Thomas predicted that in the middle east, this new God would, “…bring all different sides together…  He’s the teacher. He is going to say, ‘now,  children, stop fighting and quarreling with each other.”

When Thomas’ childish view of middle east diplomacy was crushed by reality, did he change his view of Obama?  No.  The recent inauguration cover for Newsweek touts “The Second Coming”.  God lives!  The narrative is impervious to facts.messiah

John Dickerson, the political director of CBS News, made it clear last week that he stands ready to help Dear Leader any way he can.  He suggested to Dear Leader that he, “can only cement his legacy if he destroys the GOP. If he wants to transform American politics, he must go for the throat.”  Niccolo Machiavelli Dickerson will continue to do everything he can to destroy conservatives and advance the all powerful state.  You can count on it.   And he would shine Obama’s shoes, too.

The media groupies should be embarrassed by their behavior, but they do not appear to be.  They are in a bubble insulated from contrary opinions and all smugly certain that big government solutions are the only solutions.  This is not a trivial problem.  Even though we have alternative media, the Old Media are still a powerful force.  Obama would not be President without their help.  Not the first time and not this time.

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Just for fun, here are a couple of clips to demonstrate the intelligence of ‘news’ reporters.  Both clips are from MSNBC, the easiest place to find fools, but sadly not the only place.  In the first clip, the reporter is discussing the Easter Island stone statues with a scientist who has studied them.  The reporter, with a straight face, asks the scientist if she thinks the statues walked to their current location, or were put there by space aliens, or could they possibly have been put there by humans who lived on the island.  I have seen CNN’s Soledad O’Brien demonstrate similar levels of self-assured ignorance.

After Chris Matthews watched Bill Clinton speak at the Democrat convention last fall, he shared with viewers some fan-boy thoughts about Clinton.  He said, “I always figured that if Bill Clinton landed on Mars, he would know how to do it with them, he would know how to reproduce, he would know everything.”   Wondering if Bill Clinton would know how to have sex with Martians is just something Chris thinks about.

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