Economy Improves for Fourth Straight Month!

Our gracious leader was at it again Wednesday at a town hall meeting in North Carolina. The P.R.esident, as I can only refer to someone who spends more time on TV than The Golden Girls (and if you've ever watched Lifetime, you know they're on a lot), hit the neverending campaign trail, teleprompter in tow, to sell the improving economy. You know, the economy that has been shedding jobs like a snake sheds skins and driving consumer confidence down to just a notch above Michael Vick's popularity among PETA members.

"We may be seeing the beginning of the end of the recession," the president told a packed auditorium of pre-chosen audience members. "We have stopped the free fall. The market is up and the financial system is no longer on the verge of collapse."

For those with a short memory, we've been witnessing the Obama Administration see signs of an economic recovery for four or five months now. Come to think of it, April 1st sounds about right, and we're all fools for believing a word. If it seems like deja vu all over again, maybe that's because it is.

"What we're starting to see is glimmers of hope across the economy," Obama bragged on April 10. His economic adviser and architect of the stimulus, Lawrence Summers, concurred. "We can be reasonably confident that it's going to end within the next few months and you'll no longer have that sense of free fall."

This is the same Larry Summers that's also a fan of measuring the strength of the economy by monitoring google searches instead of those actually searching for jobs. But if the glimmers of hope in April were only a mirage, no worries. A month later, with unemployment hitting it's worst levels in nearly 26 years, Barack had another stirring vision.

"It's safe to say we have stepped back from the brink," the president told a Beverly Hills audience on May 27. "The stimulus bill that Congress passed three months ago is starting to improve the economy."

Moses this guy ain't, but half the country seems prepared to follow him across the economic wasteland. This is the same stimulus bill that has only handed out 8% of the hundreds of billions allocated thus far and is only slated to hand out 20% by the end of the year. Vice-president Joe Biden has also been on a speaking tour to spread the good news about the Dems' failing stimulus.

"Thanks to the Recovery Act we are making critical investments in our infrastructure, stimulating billions of dollars of activity and creating millions of jobs like the ones here in Bergen County," the veep told New Jersey officials on May 7.

At the time of the speech, New Jersey's unemployment rate was 8.5%. Today it's 9.2%. The vice-president's appearances have had similar effects around the nation. If he's planning to show up in your town, you might want to treat the boss to dinner. I'm just saying. But at least Biden has been willing to jump off-script and tell the truth on occasion, as he did earlier this month when he admitted to George Stephanoupolos, "we and everyone else misread the economy."

If Obama has had no positive effect on the economy, the same can't be said for the effect he's had on the press. While some were trumpeting his economic healing powers the day after the election, others have gone out of their way to find the silver lining despite poor job reports, to sell the end of the recession as quickly as possible in order to push Obama's socialist agenda. These stooges, whether at Reuters, Newsweek, or MSNBDNC, wait breathlessly on the edge of their seats for anything they can point to as signs of a recovery. You can imagine how overexuberant they'll be the first month there isn't terrible news, as the business cycle naturally runs its course and unemployment drops back below 8 or 9%. Still far from full employment. Nevermind the biggest thing preventing private sector growth right now is increased government debt to pay for the stimulus boondoggle.

I can't imagine what it's like to live in Communist China, but I'm getting a sense of what it's like to experience state-run media right here in the U.S.A. When China or Venezuela publish their unbelievable propaganda, when they stage their silly photo-ops with the very people they're insulting, do the lies really get that much bigger? The whoppers advertised by Brother O's Traveling Salvation Show defy logic and lack credibility. It's one thing to remain upbeat and positive. It's another to pretend your policies are the only thing that can save the economy, pass them, and then lie about how well they are working.

How long before we see the headline, "Great Leader Inspires Confidence"? When such things are written, results no longer matter.

Most Interesting Man in the World Skips Beer Summit

... replaced by least interesting man in the world, Joe Biden, and an egghead professor who threw a tantrum when police tried to make sure his home wasn't being robbed. Who invited the vice-president and why is he drinking non-alcoholic beer? "I don't always drink beer, but when I do I drink Bucklers!"

At least no one is wearing mom jeans.

For the absolute best take on Gatesgate, don't miss Iowahawk's latest opus. I think I'll head down to the pub myself, grab a real man's pint, and watch the rest of the Beer Summit on TV. When do the drinking games start? I don't know if they involve a deck of cards, but you can bet someone will play the race card.

Study: Obese Governments Spend More on Health Care

Governments that fatten themselves on overburdened taxpayers and increased entitlement programs spend too much on health care, a study funded by the CDC recently found. Okay, so that's not exactly what the study said, but it doesn't take a genius to read between the lines.

The findings, released by RTI International, actually showed that health care costs increased for a person as weight increased, to the tune of nearly $1500 more in medical bills per year. That, of course, translates into more prescription drugs and higher insurance premiums for overweight Americans. So you can only imagine what adding these fatties to a government health plan will do.

While I don't know if obesity is a pre-existing condition, I imagine that in the case of someone too large to even leave their house, a private insurance company might balk at covering them. But if health care reform passes as currently proposed under Doc Barack and Nurse Nancy, no insurance company will be allowed to refuse anyone. Not only that, the insurer will be limited to what they can charge the riskier patient based on the average payer's premium.

So if you're young, fit, and healthy - guess what? Your health insurance is going up! You are going to be penalized to make up for the increased costs of insuring the unhealthy and obese. Might as well start smoking now. How's that hopey-dopey change working out for you, kiddos?

Of course, if the state controls your health, maybe the government won't let you get fat. The obesity police could come knocking at your door with tape measures or send you a warning letter if the school thinks your child is getting too pudgy. They could regulate your diet, enroll you in re-education seminars, or raise taxes on fast food, sodas, and fatty snacks. Given the ballooning deficit, the plan's projected cost, and the trend to tax cigarettes, you know that's where we're headed.

Think it all sounds too farfetched? Ask a banker or businessman who took TARP funds. Just like money from a loan shark in the Sopranos, these government goodies come with strings attached.

You don't shrink the size of government by increasing the size of government. The fact I even have to write that sentence is a testimony to how bad the mainstream media is covering this fiasco. Yet that's what President Obama and the Democrats are asking us to believe with health care. Cover everybody, cover them without assessing risks, cover them without charging more than healthy individuals are charged, and somehow it's going to lower costs and boost the economy!

Kind of like the stimulus was going to create all those jobs and keep unemployment below eight percent. Whoops. Your credibility is flatlining, Mr. President.

Graph courtesy of Keith Hennessey via Ed Morrissey.

Rep. John Conyers: Reading is Fundamental?

Someone needs to send the Michigan Democrat Hooked on Phonics. Because after passing the trillion dollar, 1000 page stimulus bill less than 48 hours after it was written, after passing crap-and-trade legislation without so much as seeing a copy of last-minute changes, John Conyers (D-Mich) is ready to vote for state-controlled health care reform without reading it either. And I'm sure he's not alone.

“I love these members, they get up and say, ‘Read the bill!'... What good is reading the bill if it’s a thousand pages and you don’t have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means," John Conyers (D-Mich) told the National Press Club.

Hey, what else do you expect from a statist? All a liberal Democrat in Washington has to hear is that the bill will put the government in control of more wealth. That's it. Case closed. They're the elites, they know best, now just hurry up and sign your life over to Big Brother.

When it fails, just like the stimulus, Mr. Conyers will offer a myriad of excuses and point his finger at anyone who got wealthy during this time. Even if it happens as a result of special-interest-giveaways that he voted for. It's the same as Barney Frank's response to blowing regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, not to mention oversight of the TARP funds. Ramble like an idiot, blame the private sector, and hope the Soros-funded political machine shows up to assassinate the character of your critics and turn the union cogs come election day.

It's not a far fall for an empire once the lawyers and lobbyists can write the bills for the people's representatives without them caring what's in the legislation. Talk about dereliction of duty. Of course, we already know that Rep. Conyers' wife is a crook.

Hat tip: David Hinz at The Minority Report.

Fat Government in a Little Coat

If you've ever attempted to put on clothing that says "one size fits all" only to look in the mirror and feel like Michael Moore wearing a coat designed for actual humans and not elephants, you've experienced the essence of universal health care. While most people think of universal as meaning everyone gets covered, this is only part of the definition. What they fail to focus on, and why it's such a horrible idea, is that everyone gets covered exactly the same. In other words, "Fat guy in a little coooaaaat."

Fat guys in little coats. Little guys in fat coats. This is what all socialist programs are really about. The typical progressive can't stand the idea that someone might get better health care than somebody else, even if you have worked hard, have access to doctors that have worked hard, and are willing to pay for it. That wouldn't be fair. Only Congress are entitled to such perks. So they come up with a size that fits everyone, except it leaves most of us inadequately covered and exposed to bad policy by bureaucrats.

Since it's not feasible or affordable to raise everyone up to the highest standard of health care (any more than it is for everyone to drive a porsche), progressives install government stooges (President Obama calls them "experts") to set minimum standards, recommend affordable treatments, and reject expensive and/or innovative ones. You know, the ones that might actually save your life. This is the same reason why those that receive universal health care in England and Western Europe are three to four times less likely than Americans to survive certain types of cancer, including breast and prostate cancer. In Britain, for example:

Just 41.4 per cent of men and 51.4 per cent of women found to have cancer survive longer than five years after diagnosis - down on the 42 per cent and 53 per cent figures previously reported. Experts blame NHS waste, drug rationing and a lack of cancer specialists for the shameful showing.

To which you might ask: If you aren't free to choose the treatment that could save your life, are you really free? Ben Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson, architects of our Declaration of Independence, would probably wonder the same thing. What did we have a revolution for if we are going to allow the central government to make such life and death decisions? Therein lies the trillion dollar question and the problem with universal health coverage or Obamacare or whatever you want to call it. I'm gonna call it state-controlled health care, because I feel that's the name that best describes it. The state sets the rules and the state controls what care you get and when you get it. And you pay them for this "privilege". Yet the mainstream media wonders why this is a tough sell in America?!

With state-controlled health care, the government looks over your doctor's shoulder and evaluates every decision he or she makes to see if it's in line with their bureaucratic rules and regulations. These have mostly been determined by bean counters for cost-effectiveness, and in fact, even the patient's contribution to society will be evaluated. Let me stress that again. The worthiness of the patient will be questioned and evaluated. How many "quality years" are they likely to gain from an expensive procedure or surgery? If they're over 80 and the medical procedure will only add two or three years to their life, maybe it's better, as President Obama said, to just have them take a pain killer.

For effect, I used to modestly propose that if you really wanted to reduce the carbon footprint that supposedly contributes to global warming, then we could simply eliminate citizens when they reached a certain age, say 75 or 80. Humanely, of course. The net result being this would reduce consumption of products which add to greenhouse gasses while conserving resources that younger generations need. But my Jonathan Swift solution doesn't seem so satirical now. We have a president who wants to determine your treatment based on how much money it saves the government. And if we're to take Obama's Science Czar at his word, eugenics can't be far behind as a possible solution. Hopefully, not the Final Solution.

Rather than providing more opportunities for more people at the starting line, allowing families to pay into tax-free health savings accounts for example, or letting everyone keep more of their hard-earned paychecks, progressives set their bleeding hearts to social engineering, viewing pictures of inequality one snapshot at a time and setting about to even the playing field, never once examining what's on the videotape that allowed some people to get further ahead than others. Hint: it's not dependency on government.

With state-controlled health care, we are giving up our most important right, our right to life (which let's be honest, liberals have always questioned), and allowing the government to choose doctors and treatments for us based on their needs, not ours. Under Obama's reform, you may not get the treatment you need because it's too expensive. Or you might have to wait too long for the treatment, in which time your condition worsens and during which you are unable to work. While the health care itself doesn't technically cost you money, it's easy to argue that you pay a higher price in pain, suffering, and lost wages.

Progressives are quick to state their opposition to the government interfering in the womb, where oddly enough the government would be stepping in to protect life, but they are A-okay with government interference in the I.C.U. And if it's getting too expensive, your condition is improving too slowly, and they need that hospital bed for an ACORN member, it's good night, nurse. Literally.

This is a choice of wealth (for the government, not the individual) before liberty, servitude before freedom. Passing socialized medicine, universal health coverage, Obamacare, whatever you want to call it, is quite frankly a reversal of our Declaration of Independence. This is tyranny hiding behind the stethoscope, supersized government wearing the little white doctor's coat and offering a diagnosis that flies against the Hippocratic Oath. The truth of the matter is state-controlled health care doesn't cure the sick, it condemns the sick.

We're trading the best health care in the world for the government's best attempt to manage it. This is not capitalism or free enterprise. And it sure as hell isn't liberty. This is a blatant power-grab by a far left statist who believes that what belongs to you belongs to everyone, and by everyone he means the federal government.

Ben Franklin once said, "The only things certain in this world are death and taxes." President Obama is not only committed to their certainty, but he is determined to bring them both about sooner.

Obama: I'm Not a Doctor, but I Play One on TV

President Obama stepped out on the mound Wednesday night and delivered another bouncing throw that fell short of the plate. True, the All-Star Game was last week, but his attempt to pitch health care to the American people during a nationally televised press conference didn't fare much better.

Here's Barack "Doc" Obama explaining his version of state-controlled health care to the American people:



Woops, okay, that was during last year's campaign trail. But honestly, tonight's performance wasn't anything to brag about. And liberals have the nerve to make fun of Sarah Palin?! I've heard Paula Abdul make more sense.

I don't have to tell you President Obama isn't a doctor, nor does he have the support of most doctors in this country, though a few organizations run by lobbyists who represent the lawyers who work for some hospitals have gotten behind parts of the bill. Big win for the people there! However, the president can't help but play a doctor on TV.

What was on Doc Barack's mind this time? Tests, too many of them. We have to eliminate all those tests! That's right, waiting room patrons, Doc Barack can save us a whole bunch of money and speed up our treatment time if we just stop trying to verify our diagnosis.

"They're going to have to give up paying for things that don't make them healthier," the president said. "And I, speaking as an American, I think that's the kind of change you want."

Anyone who is a nurse or has watched Mystery Diagnosis on the Discovery Health Channel (TV for hypochondriacs!) can tell you that it's hard to diagnose a patient without running tests. Of course, some tests measure different things, so you might have to send your blood sample to a couple of different labs. And some tests might show different things on different days. So the specialist orders up more than one. But Doc Barack knows better. Those tests are expensive, and if he tells you it's just your asthma keeping you from breathing and there aren't enough hospital beds, you'll get your "breathalyzer" and go on your way.

See now, that's practicing efficient socialized medicine, because the goal of national health care isn't health care per se, it's saving the government money! And there's nothing like doing your part to help the government save money by skimping on your health care so they can spend trillions in kickbacks to big business, political cronies, and special interests. Right before taxing you to death.

Doc Barack also took some time to answer questions during the press conference - eleven of them total in nearly 55 minutes. Does this guy love the sound of his own voice or what? Nevermind giving an ipod to the queen with his speeches on it, I'm convinced this guy listens to his own bloviating while he works out to his shuffle every morning (yes, that was for all you O'Reilly premium subscribers).

In one question in particular, strutting the stuff of his fine medical training pedigree, the president dealt with the tricky issue of diagnosing a sore throat:

"If you come in and you got a bad sore throat. Or your child has a bad sore throat...," the president suggested, "the doctor may look at the reimbursement system and say to himself, you know what, I make a lot more money if I take this kid's tonsils out. Now that may be the right thing to do. But I'd rather have the doctor making those decisions based on whether... the tonsils need to come out... to change... maybe they have allergies, maybe they have something else that will make a difference."

As you can probably guess, that was off-teleprompter. What does that have to do with his plan? I guess it means you have to have a really, really good excuse with approval of a bureaucratic board to get your tonsils taken out (more via Gateway and Hot Air). But more importantly, your doctor can't sell those tonsils on the black market. Then Doc Barack explained the difference between red pills and blue pills.

"If there's a blue pill and a red pill," the president posed theoretically, "and the blue pill is half the price of the red pill and works just as well (as the red pill), why not pay half price for the thing that's going to make you just as well?"

One Pill, Two Pills. Red Pill, Blue Pill. Turns out there is a doctor inspiring all this policy. It's health care by Dr. Seuss. In President Obama's mind, it really is that simple. Everyone gets blue pills! We just cut health care costs in half. The deficit will disappear in no time. If Barack's my doctor, I'm looking to get a second opinion. But I believe the president's following quote might sum up his true intentions best.

"Can I guarantee there are gonna be no changes in the health care delivery system? No. The whole point of this is to encourage... changes."

Well, you can't say he isn't trying to deliver on his campaign promises. Change! Even if it means changing your current health coverage, your current treatments, and your current doctor. Even if you don't want it. Sounds like state-controlled, rationed, government takeover of health care to me.

What Kind of Country Are We if We Can't Put a Black Man on the Moon?

Given all the cable specials, you probably heard that this week marks the 40th anniversary of Neil Armstrong's lunar landing. Yep, it's been forty years since we first walked on the moon. And while we elected our first African-American president earlier this year, overlooking his complete inexperience and Marxist tendencies in order to make history, while we have made great strides to move beyond our often racially-charged past, the only moonwalking done by an African-American thus far has been done on this planet by a crotch-grabbing pop star.

I am outraged. Outraged! In all the moon missions, forty years worth according to my lunar calendar, not once did we send an African-American. What does that say to the black community? That they can't go to the moon? That they have to pretend to go to the moon by shuffling their feet down here? Apparently. Because it's 2009, and still no African-American has taken a step there. Who would have thought that aside from some Baptist churches in Vidor, Texas, the moon would be one of our last establishments that was "whites only"?

Thirty-eight astronauts took part in the Apollo missions. Twelve of them walked on the moon and another 24 orbited it. And they were all as white as wonder bread. Where is the city of New Haven when you need them? How could we let these men be promoted from the Air Force and Navy into outer space when it was clear they did not reflect the diversity of America? What kind of racist test must have been used to favor these all-white crews and participants? What if they ran into martians? Who would bring the empathy?

Paging Sonia Sotomayor. What to make of this, Judge? Isn't it self-evident that a wise latino astronaut, given their background, would make better decisions outside of earth's orbit than a white astronaut? Heck, what about a wise latina? Our space program screams gender bias!

We are so fortunate to have such diversity on earth. And by diversity, I merely mean skin color. Because that's what progressives mean. After all, you don't hear African-Americans complaining that there aren't enough black Republicans or black libertarians or black supporters of Ron Paul. Not when over 90% are voting for Democrats, though technically such a one-sided voting bloc is the opposite of diverse.

Shouldn't we carry as much color as possible into space? Dammit, even the crew of the USS Enterprise included a black woman, a gay man of Asian descent, and something called a Vulcan. So step up to the plate, President Obama. It's time to make history. Again. Since everything you do is historic. Let's put an African-American on the moon.

I won't even complain if you volunteer to go yourself.

(special thanks to The Other McCain for linking to our page... he's the reason why the Bond girls from Moonraker are pictured above: see blog rule 5 of How to Get a Million Hits)

Are We Becoming Michael Jackson?

Michael Jackson sang, "I'm looking at the man in the mirror." And if he would have looked in the mirror before his passing, he would have seen a broke, pill-popping ghost of himself. Once popular, once filled with so much potential, once the voice of his generation, Michael Jackson was a talented phenomena who broke down barriers and sold more records than anyone the world has ever seen. Then he lost his moral compass, quit producing viable material, spent his fortune on the useless and the bizarre, and completely self-destructed.

Is it just me or does this sound like America? Once a great nation founded on the principles of restraint - individual liberty and limited government, once the voice of freedom and democracy for people around the world, once the wealthiest nation on earth, we are now a culture on the decline, our free markets burdened by a ballooning federal government and our moral compass wavering.

We are addicted to unsustainable entitlement programs and dependent on government welfare, popping pills we hope someone else will pay for and spending massive amounts of money on frivolous programs. Our glory days are behind us, we produce nothing viable anymore or at least very little, and we have completely neglected to build the plants and refineries necessary to resupply our energy. Meanwhile, we bury ourselves in never-ending debt, most of it going to a traveling entourage of lawyers and political cronies.

It has been a process of killing ourselves slowly - until now. Under Obama, we are on the fast track to our own sold-out memorial service. If this administration has its way, it will turn every aspect of our lives over to Big Brother, from how much we are allowed to make to what temperature we can set our thermostats at to whether or not we are allowed to get the treatments for what ails us. George Orwell predicted this authoritarian future quite brilliantly when he wrote 1984. His only mistake was not calling it 2009 and setting it in America.

Who could have foreseen such a bleak course for the greatest beacon of freedom and liberty on earth? Yet like Michael Jackson, the signs of our demise have been evident for some time. Now we need the courage to speak the truth. It's time for the people of this country to look in the mirror and realize we aren't the energetic, talented and upstart, cool black kid fronting the Jackson Five or moonwalking in Thriller. Our moon trips are way behind us and we are currently thrilling no one. Our economy is sick, we haven't had a hit in years, and we've butchered our founding values as badly as Michael butchered his nose. Would Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams even recognize us today?

As it turns out, all that media coverage wasn't excessive after all. Michael Jackson, eccentric though he was, is the proverbial canary in the coal mine. And while it's too late for the King of Pop, America still has a fighting chance. We just have to tell the incumbents selling us out in Washington, D.C. to beat it.