Undercover at ACORN

“Unless you watch FOX news you probably are unaware of what is happening with ACORN.” I had heard this statement but didn’t really believe it until I talked to a friend who only watches Main Stream Media (MSM) and he was completely unaware of the latest scandals with ACORN. So now I am not sure which is worse, the scandal or that the MSM is sweeping it under the floor. But if you are like my friend, and only get your news from the MSM then let me inform you as to what you are missing…

Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now or ACORN is supposed to help minority communities with housing, voter registration and other issues. Although they have recieved millions of dollars of tax payer funds and are eligible for additional millions in stimulus money they have frequently been found to be corrupt, illegal, and misusing our money. To find out just how far they could go, two conservative activists went undercover and visited ACORN offices with an outrageous request....

James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles, both young white twenty somethings, posed as a pimp and prostitute wanting to buy a house with ACORN's help to use as a brothel for 10-13 under aged El Salvadorian girls and to raise enough money for the “pimp’s” future congressional campaign. Really! They even dressed their parts in over the top outrageous outfits that were parodies of the movie version pimp and whore. He went so far as to wear a fur coat while she wore next to nothing with huge heels and earings. Dressed like this they entered ACORN’s offices where they taped what happened next. And you wouldn’t believe it if it wasn’t on video. (To see for yourself, all of the videos can be found at: http://biggovernment.com/ )

After hearing the couples outrageous request for a house, did ACORN employees throw them out? Did they even try to dissuade Hannah from her life of prostitution? Did anyone mention any of the legalities or rather illegalities of their intentions? Did anyone speak up for the young girls who were supposedly being imported for prostitution? No, No, No and No. In fact, just the opposite. At each office, the ACORN employees went out of their way to assist Hannah in not only applying for a house but also in doing her income taxes and even hiding what she does and her money so that it wouldn’t hurt the pimp’s future congressional run. And the Baltimore office gave out hugs to their prostitute client at the end of their meeting.

But first, the Baltimore ACORN employee helped the couple to find a legitimate line of business or “code” since prostitution is illegal. They suggested she say she was a performing artist. This same employee then brings in their “tax expert” who later determines that the prostitute could claim upwards of $7,000 of her supposedly $9,000 monthly income as expenses and that she could claim some of the girls as dependents.

In Washington DC, the ACORN employee also councils how to get around being a prostitute by telling them to “create false company name to disguise ‘Lady of the Night Thing’” and encourages her to not put prostitute down as business but to set herself as a Sole Proprietor of her own business such as Marketeer or Consultant. When asked by the pimp if he could be the one to put up the money for her and she can do the tricks in the new house, the ACORN employee agrees with a “Yep”. They then tell him that he needs to be just the landlord and shouldn’t have any knowledge of what is going on in the house and he should stay away from that house if he wants to go into politics. The Washington DC ACORN employees go so far as to tell the “pimp” to lie to the police if he is ever asked about what happens in that house.

After these two films were released late last week even though the MSM ignored them, others are finally starting to take some action. Personally, I was thrilled to hear that the Census Bureau will not use ACORN to help with the upcoming Census. Yes! Then yesterday, Congress passed a law which stops million dollar funding to ACORN.

To try to limit any more damage, ACORN has fired most of the employees involved in the sting. The Chief Organizer of ACORN, Bertha Lewis then spoke out saying “This recent scam, which was attempted in San Diego, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia to name a few places, had failed for months before the results we’ve all recently seen.” And so with obvious glee, O’Keefe released yet a third video, this time from Brooklyn, New York.

The New York ACORN office reacted the same way that the Baltimore and Washington DC ACORN office’s reacted. Although this office suggested that the prostitute put her earnings in a tin and buries it in the backyard of her new house! This office also suggests that the prostitute buy the house then transfer it to a third party who then sells it to the pimp so that there is no direct link between the pimp and the prostitute. As for Hanna’s profession, the ACORN employee tells her “If you are going to do it then do it well, and start thinking for yourself.” Enough. You get the drift.

To repeat myself, as outrageous as this story is, the bigger outrage is the fact that NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post and almost every other MSM has yet to provide a detailed story on this even though it has all the elements of a great scandal: sex, brothels, under age prostitution, corruption, etc. I also wouldn't be surprised if there are more videos to follow. And yet, could you imagine what they would do if this was a conservative group and not ACORN with its close ties to the President?

Health Care, 65 Roses and A Prayer

Last year a local news station made a video about a day in the life of my niece, Aubrey Rose. At the time, my niece was an ambassador for Cystic Fibrosis, an incurable disease that she and her family must deal with every day of her life. This emotional video http://www.wftv.com/video/17788642/index.html) shows that life is difficult and the future uncertain for the whole family.

I mention this because in the current discussions of health care I wonder how the government’s plan for health care would affect charities and those with chronic illnesses? There’s been a lot of talk about how the elderly will be treated, but what about those like my niece, Aubrey Rose? Will the government continue to allow her to get expensive medications, participate in clinical trials or go to specialists, particularly if there isn’t a cure? Who will make these decisions? Today it is between you, your doctor and your insurance company. Do you want to have the government become a part of these painful, emotional decisions?

If we had national health care then I could easily see how the government would feel it is looking at the “big picture” and using your dollars to provide the care that would benefit the most. They might ask - is it fair to spend all this money on one child when there is no cure for her disease? Hell yes, if it is your child! And can’t you just see the health care panel denying a CF teen a new lung thinking that she will probably die in another 10 years so let’s give the lung to someone with a longer life expectancy. Wow. This is not what America is all about. A cost-benefit approach is an awful path to go down and we must never take even a first step in that direction. For didn’t some other governments start off with just this kind of questions? First, it was the mentally ill and chronically ill but it went on from there… And even in America, how far might this line of questioning go and where might it lead us?

As I said in the beginning, I am writing about this not only as a concerned citizen but also as “Aunt Patti”. My niece, Aubrey Rose, was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis a few days after she was born. The family was horrified to learn that there is no cure and she was destined to have a difficult and shortened life. In fact, right now her life expectancy is only 37 years old. Can you imagine all that you have done or might miss in your forties, fifties, sixties and even seventies if you were to die in your mid thirties?

Yet my niece is lucky that she was born in America. If she had been born in Ireland, where there is national health care, her life expectancy drops from 37 all the way down to 27! CF patients have ten years taken from an already shortened life because of the lack of care in a country with socialized health care. This should be a huge warning to our country as to the detrimental impact of socialized health care.

Of course, one way to avoid the whole nationalized health care problems is to be healthy. To that end, a lot of people are working very hard to find a cure for CF or to at least give CF patients the means to live a healthier longer life. And we are working hard, too, through our annual 65 Roses Golf Classic. When Aubrey was diagnosed we decided that since government doesn’t give a penny to help the CF Foundation then my family would raise money to help find a cure. But unlike other charity functions which raises money, every dollar donated would go to the CF Foundation and not to some dubious “Trust Fund”, plus 90 cents of every dollar donated to the CF Foundation goes straight to research and not to exorbitant salaries or fancy trips. So you know when you donate money that it is going to truly help out.

Eight years ago my family, friends and the Orlando Chapter of CF started the 65 Roses Golf Classic. About 6 of us worked hard to put on this event but it is worth the effort as we have raised tens of thousands of dollars each year for the CF Foundatoin. Now it’s time for the next tournament. But we need your help. The economy is making it tough on all charities, including our own event. Yet if we help each other than there will never be a need for government to step in. Now that is what America is truly all about – people helping each other without any government interference. And here is how you can help us raise money to find a cure for CF…

If you live in Central Florida, we would love if you could join us at our 65 Roses Golf Classic in honor of Aubrey Rose to be held on November 23, 2009 at the Heathrow Country Club in Lake Mary Florida. Many of our golfers return each year for the golf, great food, drinks, good auction items and for the overall comradery of the group. Plus as a special treat, before the tournament begins, the golfers also enjoy a clinic by professional golfer Chris DiMarco. That is just the start to what is always a fun and rewarding day. Click on this link for more information http://orlando.cff.org/65rosesgolf .

If you can’t be here, you can still help out by giving a donation to this wonderful cause. Your donation, no matter the size, is important since every single dollar is making a real differenced in the search for a cure for Cystic Fibrosis. My family and I would appreciate whatever your budget allows, be it your charitable donation of $10, $25, $50 or $250. Plus this donation is 100% tax deductible. To donate to the 65 Roses Golf Classic to help find a cure for CF, click on this link www.cff.org/lwc/auntpatti.

Aubrey Rose is smart and funny and sweet and stubborn, in other words just like most kids her age. Except as you saw in the video (http://www.wftv.com/video/17788642/index.html) her life is different from her classmates. Yet she deserves, as does every CF child, to have a long and healthy life. And it is up to us to help her do just that. So please, help us find a cure for Aubrey Rose and the 30,000 others with Cystic Fibrosis by donating to our 65 Roses Golf Classic at www.cff.org/lwc/auntpatti. And join me in my prayer for my beautiful niece, Aubrey Rose; that some day a cure is found so that that this terrific little girl who is just starting second grade, will live a long life and will die of old age surrounded by her children and her children’s children in the far far future. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?

One More Thing...

In my last blog, A Patient’s View of HR3200 I argued against the government sending someone to discuss your medical and end of life options if you are seriously ill or injured. Since then I have had people tell me that it is one thing to discuss end of life options with a 51 year old but a totally different matter when the patient is 91. They reminded me of the burden these elderly people were to the system and that there comes a point when you should say enough tests, operations, medical treatments and to simply let nature take it course. End of Life options are appropriate not only for the sake of the elderly person but also because of the extreme expenses to both the family and the government to keep them alive.

I agree, up to a point. In fact I was a bit angered to learn that a friend’s 87 year old mother-in-law had just had a hip replacement operation. This elderly woman suffered from dementia, diabetes, extreme arthritis and a multitude of other ailments plus her family ignored her the one time she spoke out against the operation since they thought they knew best for her. Or at least most did since some family members argued to stop everything and simply let her die but these voices were drowned out by those wanting her to have the operation. Plus I am sure that the nursing home also encouraged the operation for the practical reason of wanting her to be mobile and able to go to the bathroom on her own and not to require diaper changes. Yet all of the family infighting about treatment could have been avoided if she just had a Living Will. But at this point it was too late as she wasn’t capable of making decisions.

So yes, I agree that this woman probably should not get more medical treatment and should simply be made comfortable as she dies. But this puts you on a very slippery slope. For what is the cut off point? If my 51 is too young but there is a need for end of life options for this 87 year old patient then perhaps at 80 people should be denied treatment. Except I look at my own 81 year old mother. If she were to fall I would be one of the ones arguing for a hip replacement operation. Am I being hypocritical? No. For unlike the first elderly woman, my mother is a sharp, active, intelligent older woman who neither looks nor acts her age. My mother at 81 is as active as many a 65 year old. So you can’t use age as the criteria. What might have worked for my friend’s parent certainly would be wrong for my mother.

In fact, my father was only 65 when he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. After only one chemo treatment we realized he was dying and we then wanted to make what little time was left to be as easy as possible for him. In this case we turned to Hospice to help him. If a family member is dying then Hospice is wonderful. So why does the government need to create a whole new panel and one more bureaucratic department? Wouldn’t it make more sense for them to provide government grants to this organization which is already in place and functioning quite well?

The final argument was the costs associated with health care for the elderly. Wow. How cold is that? Liberals actually worry that keeping mom and dad alive and paying for their health care will bankrupt the government. The same problem of lack of funding concerns treating uninsured people. Who is more important – the people or the government? For if the former, we can find the money. Hell, let the banks pay back their bailouts, take the majority of the stimulus money not spent and gee here’s a thought, fire the 30+ highly paid Czars (the Energy and Environment Czar is getting $172,000 for example) and let the Cabinet do its job instead. Money is not an issue. If Obama could find all these trillions for people to buy a car then he can find the money to take care of our parents. Besides, using existing groups such as Hospice would save billions in the projected salaries for new government employees.

Conservatives have made their point about the major problems with HR3200. Now is the time to start offering alternative ideas. Here are a few suggestions; some are already being discussed while others are my own ideas:

• Let the insurance companies create a co-op through which uninsured people can get health insurance. Restrict this to only US Citizens. Illegal immigrants are a tough situation and this country needs to review and revise their entire illegal immigrant policy as soon as possible. Meanwhile the expenses for treating illegal immigrants or citizens who don’t sign up for insurance should be shared by the entire country and not just the border states and those with high illegal immigrant populations.


• Provide grants to encourage and pay for anyone who wants to be a nurse, doctor, technician, nursing home aide or in any other medical professions. We will need all of these once we insure everyone but other than talking about rationing no one has thought of this.


• Use Hospice as the primary end of life care givers. Provide them with grants to expand their current business rather than the government creating a new parallel department. Offer the same grants to any other private company to insure competition.
  
• Make health insurance mandatory when you get or renew your driver’s license. When you renew your driver’s license there should be a Living Will form with the paperwork sent to you. They already ask about organ donations so why not also include Living Wills? Use Hospice or SS to handle all questions about Living Wills.


• Require all Americans including government employees and union members to be a part of whatever new plan is approved.

So come on conservatives. Instead of simply trashing HR3200 you need to start to come up with alternative suggestions. Forget calling people Nazi’s and instead present your Congressman with some great ideas that they can take back to the Senate and House. For we need a Health Care Plan that is truly by the people and not this monstrosity which is a plan by the government for the people.

A Patient's View of HR3200

I recently learned that I need to have more surgery. This will be my second operation this year and my sixth in the past five years. I can’t help but wonder what my life would have been like if we had Obama’s health care plan. Although at 51 I am not quite a senior, I would, however, fall into the chronically ill category. Under Speaker Pelosi’s health plan they would definitely want to send somebody to speak to me and my family about the cost of these expensive surgeries and how I am using up medical resources. Considering how much I have already been through, during their “counseling” I would probably be one of the people who would be urged to just be given pain meds and basically put out to pasture with no further costly care given. No surprise that I am selfishly glad my medical problems are occurring now, before any supposedly new and improved plan is implemented!

Yet it has occurred to me that in all the debates about end of life counseling I have yet to hear anyone mention how your perspective and reasoning changes when you are ill or injured. For example, I am a political junkie who loves to keep up on what is happening in Washington and then to write about it in my blog. And yet since I learned that I have blood clots in my lower aorta which has already nearly destroyed my right leg I no longer care very much about what is happening elsewhere and I have opted out of the politics and discussions whirling around about the health care bill. In fact, I was very surprised to realize just how long it has been since my last blog. That really shows how caught up I am in my own personal drama and ignoring the rest of the world.

I think I am typical in that the world narrows when you are ill. All your focus and energy are inward and you simply are unaware of anything else. So I wonder, how would I react if a stranger, a government official, were to council me about end of life decisions right now? How many people who are ill and weak and tired will simply agree to give up when that is presented as a viable choice in the end of life discussions? I know that I was in so much agony this spring before my last surgery that I am not sure what I would have agreed to in order to stop the pain. While we are in the throws of pain or caught up in an illness or simply physically run down we do think and act differently.

Now try to factor in having someone from the government step into the lives of people who are in pain or ill. They say it will be voluntary but when you are that ill you are in no condition to request this so I don’t doubt that others, including the hospital social worker, might call them in for you or even the panel might stop by as a matter of routine to walk through the hospital. Sure you could tell them to go but you simply don’t care and frequently aren’t totally aware of the surroundings around you.

In April I recall being rushed to the hospital and sitting in the waiting room but after that I have no memory for the next six days other than occasional glimpses of what was going on. I was told I talked and interacted with others but I have no memory of this. So just imagine if an official should happen to stop by or even be called by a family member, who knows what I might have said or which choice I might have agreed to but whatever it was I wouldn’t have had any memory of it later on. And by the time someone tells me what I did, it might be too late.

Even if you are alert, it is still a time when confusion reigns as you grapple with what is wrong with you, what the doctor will do, what is the outcome, how you will cope when you get back home, if you will still have a job, who’s taking care of your family, etc. To add to the confusion is the government expert who would present you with five different choices, including end of life services. This last choice would not only take away your pain but would also allow you to avoid all this hassle and confusion you’re encountering right now and yet end of life is probably not something a person would choose if they were in their right mind.

I thought I read that this end of life counseling was going to be discarded from the health plan. But I just heard Obama’s Saturday radio address. He started off by saying he wanted to debunk the health care myths which are spread by those who would benefit the most. Then a minute or so into his speech he says that death panels are not true and not in the plan. Obama is correct in that the phrase “death panel” is not in the plan but there is a section outlining end of life counseling. So once again he is being a lawyer and specifically calibrating his words to confuse the public.

Obama is also correct when he says that those who have the most to gain are fighting the health plan. For it is every day people like you and me who are protesting this outrageous government take-over of our health care because we know we have the most to lose if it is implemented. And if you think hearing about this is tough, just try to listen to this garbage when you are sick, ill, injured or hurt and require help from the health care system. You want your health care system to make you better, to allow you to get the tests you need, to see doctors who can help you and undergo the operations to make you better. The last thing you need is to have some government stranger butt into your life to tell you that one of your choices is to give up and die.

Short Retort

The title of a column piqued my interest and it not only lived up to its title but made me realize that I wanted to share the article with everyone. It wasn’t until I was two-thirds through that I stopped to see exactly who it was who wrote it. Oh my. OK enough teasing - the column was titled Dirty Secret No. 1 in Obamacare and the author was Chuck Norris. Good thing I decided to link to it instead of plagiarizing from Mr. Norris! In what I assume to be the first of many columns, this article discusses a part of the health care bill which outlines how the US government plans to visit homes of pregnant and new parents to teach them about taking care of children. Wow. I had no clue, did you? But to find out about this particular part of the health care plan that the politicians seem to have skipped over then read this and spread the word ASAP as it is just one more way of government intruding into your home. Here is the link: http://townhall.com/columnists/ChuckNorris/2009/08/11/dirty_secret_no_1_in_obamacare?page=1

Obama's Organizing America

I received an email this week from Obama that caught my attention. In it President Obama stated that “All this week, OFA (Organizing for America) members like you will be stopping by local congressional offices to show our support for insurance reform.” It goes on to say “As you've probably seen in the news, special interest attack groups are stirring up partisan mobs with lies about health reform, and it's getting ugly. Across the country, members of Congress who support reform are being shouted down, physically assaulted, hung in effigy, and receiving death threats. We can't let extremists hijack this debate, or confuse Congress about where the people stand.” And ends with “Earlier this week, the President wrote that "this is the moment our movement was built for" and asked us all to commit to join at least one event this month. This is the way to answer that call, and rise to the challenge of this moment together.”

This alarming language feeding the fear and anger of the far left is totally unbecoming of a President. Sure Obama should encourage his followers to stand up for what they believe in but he is only inflaming the situation by referring to the right as partisan mobs. And I don’t recall hearing that any congressman or woman was physically assaulted, have you?

I also find it ironic that the left accuses the conservative protesters as being part of an organized group and yet here is Obama referring to his group, Organizing for America, and stating that this situation is the reason for this group’s existence. Again, this shouldn’t be something a President does. He should be above the fray, not an integral part of it egging on his supporters and calling his detractors names. It is also a bit scary to think that Obama felt it necessary to start this group just to use when people protest against him. And they are organizing, no doubt about that. In fact some time check out Organizing for America on Facebook

Forty years ago, conservatives were known as "The Silent Majority" for a reason. So based on the historical silence from the right, today’s politicians are surprised to see these previously voiceless conservatives standing up and yelling back. I loved the line from Barbara Boxer (D-CA) who said the protesters had to be fake because they were “too well dressed”! A part of me is oh so tempted to go to one of the Obama Organizing for America events dressed in a formal gown. Better yet, how funny would it be if a whole group of men and women showed up in formal attire? Unfortunately, time has shown that the far left has absolutely no sense of humor when it comes to things like this.

The difference between the two groups of protesters is growing and not just in forms of attire. The right is there because they are truly concerned about the health care plan and what it would do to America and to them. To be fair, some liberals are passionate about universal health care. But many are now showing up because they are angry at the right for protesting against Obama. There have been numerous quotes from the left that a protest against the health care bill is really a protest against the President. Not true. Protesters are simply scared about this health care bill and how it might adversely affect their own personal health care and the ability to be treated properly and quickly when they need medical help.

Again, to be fair, I am sure that some conservatives are misinformed about some aspects of the health care bill, which by the way is actually a number of differing versions that have yet to be finalized. But for the most part the protesters are concerned about the extreme costs of universal health care, potentially intrusive and complete government takeover and how these changes will affect them. On the other hand, I doubt if one in ten from the left could intelligently discuss the 1000+ page bill (including the lawmakers, themselves) and explain why they are protesting in favor of it. In fact, reread that opening paragraph. Does the President give his supporters reasons and arguments to counter the protesters? No. He simply says they must stop them. So much for wanting a "debate" on the issue.

Additionally, the next time the media is showing the two opposing groups protesting on TV, turn off the sound and simply look at the two groups. First, they really aren’t dressed very differently, no matter what some might say. But more importantly, look at their signage. For the most part, those protesting against the health care bill are holding hand made signs. You can tell that most are signs the individual protester made as few are lettered via a graphics shop and they come in various sizes and shapes and with differing verbiage on each one. Then look at the signs of the left, particularly all those uniformed blue ones. The majority are professionally made with many of them having the exact same phrases. No there is nothing wrong with this but it goes back to the argument – which one of the two groups is spontaneous and which is organized?

I just hope that this call to the Organizing for America group to start protesting the protesters doesn’t scare off the citizens who are truly concerned about the health care bill. Or worse, escalate it into genuine physical assaults between the two groups. Remember, this is all lead by politicians versed in Chicago style politics. So I can’t help but worry as to just how far Obama will encourage the Organizing for America supporters to go if this is indeed “the moment it was built for”.

The Sound of America

Did you hear that sound? It is something I haven’t heard in at least ten months. It is the sound of the people finally finding their voices. Americans have had enough and are finally standing up against Obama and the rest of Congress. And these aren’t just Republican tea baggers but Blue Dog Democrats and Independents who are finally questioning the Democratically controlled government and are angry with where Washington is going.

Voters wanted to trust in this newly elected President and Congress and allowed them to push through the stimulus bill, and cap and trade with little to no resistance within the first 100 days. But that is how the American people act – we believe in giving everyone a chance. Even if you didn’t vote for the man, the country was hurting and most of us wanted him to help this country. We didn’t agree with how he wanted to help us but we were willing to give him a chance. We are now realizing that there was a fatal flaw in our generous and naïve trust in President Obama.

You see, it would have never occurred to most citizens that our leaders would enact legislation that would purposively hurt our country. Obama and Congress swore to serve and protect us, right? So we tried to understand the benefits of saddling this country with trillions in debt for economic stimulus bills which might not even implement these jobs for years in the future. We wanted to believe that the cap and trade would help the environment and couldn’t fathom the darker side that it was a way to redistribute wealth and punish successful companies.

But in the past month, Obama has acted in such a manner and Congress has drafted such astonishing legislature that we can’t ignore our misgivings any more. People began to finally wake up when Obama sided with the angry black man vs. law enforcement and when Congress tried to ram through a 1000 page Health Care Bill that would dismantle every existing health plan we have today. Perhaps the epitome of the stupidity found in Washington is the Cash for Clunker program which ran out of money in the first few days. And people are realizing that there can only be some hidden disreputable reason as to why Washington won’t let the banks pay back the bailout money.

I keep thinking of the classic movie Network and the much quoted line “I’m mad as hell and I won’t take it any more.” And it has always been to their own detriment when leaders or other countries dismiss angry citizens. We are basically a friendly and forgiving group of people but when we are angry, we become an entirely different animal altogether. Just ask Japan or Germany or Iraqi’s. We believe in fairness but we also believe in justice. And Washington has not acted fairly to us and we are now out for justice.

Chills now run up my spine as I listen to average citizens confronting their Congressmen. I cheered when the crowd booed Senator Specter when he said they needed to pass the health bill “fast”. I am thrilled when I hear protesters chanting “Just say no” at a Representative’s rally in Texas. I laughed when I read that Senator Diane Feinstein’s office threw out a group of senior citizens who refused to leave her CA office. And I am elated when citizens stop being passive and now are standing up to Washington.

All of this is reflected in the downward spiral of Obama’s popularity. And we must be succeeding because Obama is now going after those who speak out. It is truly scary that Obama wants people to snitch on those who are protesting against him. On Aug 4 a White House website posted the following statement:

There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.

By the way, when did they start referring the Health Care plan as the health insurance reform plan? Did they think just by changing the name people would be lulled into approving this monstrosity? But that is secondary to the chilling intention of this statement; to report people, like me, to the White House for writing unfavorable things on the health care plan. Good grief! How can the older liberals who spent their youth protesting the government allow this to happen? What is happening to my America when the White House goes after anyone who disagrees with them? What is next? Will anyone opposing the government be sent to rehabilitation camps? Will children be rewarded for snitching on the parents as in Nazi Germany or the like the feared KGB in Russia? But this is America, where things like that don't happen, isn't it?

I can’t help but recall Michelle Obama’s telling statement that she had never been proud to be an American until now. This is the America she envisioned? Well, this is not my America. My America is the land of the people, the land of free speech, the land not of socialism but a republic, the land of the melting pot where immigrants flocked to night school to learn English - not the land of diversity and Habla Espanol, the land where if you work hard anyone can succeed – not the land of handouts and welfare, the land where the citizens respect policemen – not immediately label them racists, the land that my father and my nephew proudly served, the land of Patrick Henry, Teddy Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan and most of all the land of the free and the brave. So be brave and don’t let anyone shut you down or scare you into silence. The people have found their voices and must continue to speak out against what they don’t like or else this won’t be America anymore.

The Death Care Bill

The more I hear about this health care plan the more I despise it. The good news is that politicians and people are now talking about the clause in the bill that turns it into a death care bill, not a health care bill. I quoted it in an earlier blog but it deserves to be repeated because people need to know what our government is proposing: “chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives are accounting for potentially 80 percent of the total health care bill” and therefore there will have to be some kind of “difficult” and “democratic conversation” that will take place to give “guidance” as to what patients will receive life-sustaining, and expensive, treatments. Oh great. That's all we need - the government to determine who should get medical treatment. No potential for scandals there, right?

And yet they do have a point. I recently had a discussion about a 93 year old woman who had a hip replacement surgery and I must admit that I thought it was a bit much at that age. I was even more disturbed when told that they had found bone cancer and were reviewing all kinds of treatments to extend the poor old woman’s life for another six months or so. In this case I thought it was a waste of money and the doctor’s time; that the best treatment was to make the elderly woman comfortable and out of pain and let her end her life with dignity.

So in this case I agreed with the proposed health care plan. But this was about cutting off surgeries to a 93 year old. How do you determine what that cut off age should be? Should treatment be stopped at 90 or maybe 80 or perhaps go down to 70? In actuality, the health care plan was written where they could refuse treatment to anyone over 59 years old! Hell, Tom Watson, who will turn 60 in Sept. nearly won the British Open and yet this health care bill will consider him as old and potentially unworthy of medical treatment in 2 months!

Think about the implications of this odious bill. A healthy 60 year old man who has a heart attack could be given minimal treatment while a 64 year old woman with breast cancer could be denied chemo treatment since keeping these “old” people alive would be deemed “too expensive” especially if they lived to the current average age of 78. It would instead be much cheaper and we would free up surgeons and medical centers if we simply give these sick people pain meds and let them die. And yet, one of the first things Obama did upon becoming president was to restore a provision in the Endangered Species Protection Act that Bush had removed that would provide greater protection to animals.

What does this tell us? That liberals seem to be more concerned about the welfare of the spotted owl, titmouse, American burying beetle and other obscure animals than they are for your grandparents, parents, diabetic Uncle, chronically ill sister, paraplegic friend or Cystic Fibrosis niece? And at a time when Obama promises new jobs with shovel ready federal projects he has just hamstrung those very federal projects by reinstating that clause in the Endangered Species Protection Act which would require any federal project to undergo an independent scientific review that might affect a protected species. So these new federal projects needed to provide jobs could be delayed or even stopped because of some mouse or fish or bird. Yet while denying jobs in order to save a damn bug the government is condoning euthansia by denying medical treatment to the elderly. This is insane!

What makes it even more preposterous is if you factor in the liberals religious beliefs. For it almost is forgivable to let the elderly die if, as in most religions, you believe that they will be going to a better place. But liberals tend to be atheists. So they don’t have this comforting belief that those who are dying will go to heaven. To the atheists, when you die, you are dead and gone and that’s it. Believing there is nothing after death makes their proposal to take away expensive treatments from seniors (defined as over 59, mind you) and to simply let them die that much crueler than if they thought the dying would go to heaven. Think about it. How cold is that?

We have got to stop this insanity. Mankind must come first and people should recognize that each life is precious. For if we start to deny aid to the elderly then who will be next? Liberals already deplore using animals to test potentially life saving drugs so they might decide we could save a lot of money (and animals) by not funding research to find cures for chronic illnesses and simply let them die, too. Or will expectant mothers one day be required to take tests to determine if their fetus’s have any chronic illness and therefore the pregnancy must be terminated before the child is born and all the health costs are incurred? What might they decide to do with the mentally ill? Once started how far down that slippery slope will we go?

This is still America. The health care reform is the very antithesis of why this country was founded. For remember that each of us was promised Life, not death, in our country’s Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

A Racist in the White House?

I started this blog partly to rant against the growing power of political correctness in this country. So I might as well say what I bet a lot of people are thinking about the Cambridge situation but are hindered by political correctness: Professor Gates, you were not arrested because you are black – you were arrested because you are at the very least a complete idiot and at worst a total asshole, but again it had nothing to do with your ethnicity, but rather was a result of your own actions.

When a police officer tells you to do something, you do it. You don’t continue screaming profanity and invectives when asked to calm down. Just as you don’t run when told to freeze or fight when told to lie down. Most law abiding people will follow an officer’s directions and if someone doesn’t then the cops have every right to think that the person is hiding something, like maybe he really is a criminal.

For some reason African Americans frequently refuse to follow a police officers’ instructions, even if they are innocent, as in the case of Professor Gates. Their reasoning is that the policemen are accusing them based on profiling, that because they are black the cops assume they are guilty. Personally, I think profiling is a wonderful tool but that is a subject for another day. Instead, to continue, what I don’t get is how does resisting the police help prove their case that the officers were racist? Wouldn’t a better course of action be to act as model citizens, following all of their requests and thereby showing the world that the police are acting unfairly? And don’t give me the argument that they fear the police will kill them if they let the cops capture them or that if they lie down they could be kicked and beaten, because it seems to me that there is a lot better chance of being tasered or killed if they resist arrest.

I also believe that most whites don’t understand why Gates was so upset that the police asked for his ID after the situation was explained to him. If Gates thought the police simply saw a black man entering a house in an upscale neighborhood then yes, I would understand if he was frustrated. But the police explained that they were investigating a burglary report. As Gates was the one found entering the house they approached him. What was racist about that? And at this point, instead of yelling “Racist” shouldn’t Gates have been grateful to the police for protecting his home?

Adding to this mess was Obama’s reaction. You want to know something interesting? Now I might be the only one but I honestly forgot that President Obama was black. He has been on TV so frequently over the past few weeks and I’ve become so use to seeing him that his color simply no longer registers with me. And that’s the way we’ve been told that it should be – we should all be color blind, except we’ve just learned that the President sure isn’t. By now the whole world knows how he labeled the Cambridge police as “acting stupidly” and accused them of being racist. I think he deserves the “acting stupidly” label more than the Cambridge police.

First, Obama acted stupidly by stepping on his own message about the (hopefully doomed) health care plan during his press conference. The Cambridge story totally eclipsed whatever the President said about health care during the first 90% of his press conference. Then in one ill conceived comment Obama shocked a lot of people by admitting he didn’t have all the facts and yet he still sided with another black man against this country’s law enforcement officers by assuming they were racially motivated. Wow. The 2008 election was supposed to usher in the post racist years where African Americans can be whatever they want to be, even President. But Obama blew that all away taking the country back a few steps from the gains he had made last year. More importantly, however, I personally think that for one of the first times, this country saw the real President Obama; an angry black man who holds police officers in contempt and believes that most cops (most whites?) are racists. Scary thought, isn’t it?

President Obama, however, is a smart politician and knew he had to make amends yesterday. Yet even then he refused to be up-front. Oh it is easy for him to apologize to the world for what he perceives were America’s “misdeeds” but he can’t seem to apologize to his own country for his own misdeeds. He spoke a couple of times yesterday supposedly apologizing for his remarks but Obama said neither “I was wrong” nor “I was sorry”. In fact I am not exactly sure what he said except for one phrase that stood out to me: “in my choice of words I unfortunately gave an impression that I was maligning the Cambridge Police Department or Sgt. Crowley specifically and I could have calibrated those words differently." Calibrated his words? Excuse me?

Have you ever known anyone who calibrated their words or even used the word calibrated in that way? His phrase “calibrated those words differently” indicates that Obama does indeed calibrate his words. And once more I’m going to go back to his teleprompter. For it is again clear that when writing his speeches, Obama calibrates each word and phrase so as to give a specific impression and sway the listeners to his side. Putting it all together, I am getting this picture of a slick carefully spoken politician expounding on his message of helping people but underneath is an angry black man who distrusts whites and wants to use his powers to help his fellow blacks even if it is at the detriment to whites in this country. Am I wrong? Perhaps. But I do believe one thing, that Obama’s mask slipped this week and we caught a glimpse of the real racist in the whole situation.

More Lies, Evasions and Falsehoods

There you go again, Mr. President. Once more President Obama played fast and loose with the truth as he hoped to convince people about the health care plan. Let's take rationing which he says won't happen. He also told America that people with insurance won't be affected. Bull. The concept of rationing is totally unknown to Americans. People have never had to deal with rationing, except for the elderly during WWII and gas rationing in the 70s, and therefore most have no idea how it will really affect them.

I became curious after hearing that over 40 million people will be suddenly insured and seeking medical attention. Wow. Seemed to me that would affect us all. With very little effort I was able to find the most recent 2006 census reports showing the number of insured and uninsured people by state and the number of doctors. I could then determine how many people with health insurance, on average, are there for each doctor and then what would be the effect of adding in all the uninsured people. Here is the table I created:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AlQpxl73ztModC11MzFYUXhFOGZ1cDhjYjNSU1JrTGc&hl=en (to access the table see the directions on the right.)

On average, there will be 59 more people for each doctor if the health bill is passed. Ha, and you thought the wait was long now! But look at the states who will gain 80 or more people per doctor (highlighted in red on the table) versus the states who will add just 35 or less people per doctor (highlighted in blue). The states with the biggest burdens are primarily in the South while those least affected are in the Northeast and Rust belt. While states like Mississippi, with large number of poor and few doctors will have an additional 117 people per doctor after the health care bill is passed Northeast states like Massachusetts will have only 22 added people per doctor. No wonder Ted Kennedy is all for it! It will barely be felt in his state.

What this shows is that rationing will be unequal; heavily punishing Southern states which just happen to be more conservative states while the solid blue states will have little rationing. In many ways it is very much like the school system where states like Texas and New Mexico are burdened with large numbers of immigrants, legal or otherwise, whose children are overcrowding their schools. These same crowds will now be found in their doctor’s office once the health care bill is passed. So the cost will be unequally spread throughout the US and further dividing red states from blue states. And rationing will become a way of life for those in the South if the bill is passed.

Then there were Obama’s continuous remarks last night that we pay more for health care but get the same quality of care as other countries who pay $6,000 less per person. Earlier this week, a woman wrote a compelling article and later testified that the exact opposite would happen to special needs children. Her example struck home as she was the mother of a child with Cystic Fibrosis. As the Aunt of a beautiful young girl with CF I am well aware that the current life expectancy is 37 years old. This woman who testified told Congress that in Ireland, where there is national health care, the life expectancy of CF children is only 27 years old. That is what national health care will do – take 10 years off the already shortened life because they don’t have access to the best medicines, doctors and treatments. And in Britain, none of the 38 cystic fibrosis centers in Britain reported that they received enough funding to provide government-recommended levels of care for patients.

Finally, in her article http://www.sfexaminer.com/opinion/columns/oped_contributors/For-special-needs-patients-nationalized-health-care-will-make-things-worse-50815062.html she includes the following chilling statements: Obama has specifically said that the “chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives are accounting for potentially 80 percent of the total health care bill” and therefore there will have to be some kind of “difficult” and “democratic conversation” that will take place to give “guidance” as to what patients will receive life-sustaining, and expensive, treatments.

I’m sorry but that sounds like Nazi Germany, not America. And it scares me and should scare you. Sure, you might be healthy today, but you never know about tomorrow. Three months ago I had a 10 hour emergency surgery to save my right leg damaged by blood clots. I wonder if I had been rushed to the hospital after the health bill had passed if some government official might have instead made the "difficult" decision to provide a shorter, easier operation by simply chopping off my leg instead.

And even if you are healthy for your entire life you most likely will still be old some day; so do you or your loved one really want to be at the "mercy" of the government?