Against ObamaCare? You Don’t Exist.

The new strategy by Barack Obama: Actual protesters against ObamaCare don’t actually exist. Pay no attention to that person with a sign and a question for their elected representative – they are merely unpersons and unworthy of being treated as actual persons.

The double-down on the town hall drama – highlighting the outbursts and deeming protesters as “mobs” – was probably untenable for the White House and Dems.

For one thing, it’s tough for members of Congress to stay on message with such a strategy (ideology and rudeness aside, the protesters are, after all, constituents and therefore not exactly ripe for such denigration among individuals who want to get reelected).

Then there is the fact of democracy itself. Some of the protesters may have been organized by outside groups and some may have been unruly or even unhinged, but it’s difficult for a White House to deem freedom of expression as un-American.

And  so, dear reader, if you disagree with Obama or his minions, you no longer actually, officially exist in any way, shape or form. You are unpersons and unworthy of being treated with any respect whatsoever. If you ask uncomfortable questions – poof – you do not exist. If you hold up a sign other than the officially sanctioned, pre-printed signs supporting all Obama does, says or decrees - poof – you don’t exist.

Please, please go read the whole quote from Obama himself. You are unworthy of respect. You are unworthy of existence itself. You are an unperson – unless you fawn over Obama’s plan. Then you get into one of his venues where you may nod along to all he says.

But I would not advise asking him a question that he does not want to take.

I’ll happily stay an unperson rather than be a drone for this man.

“You Guys Are Crooks”

The unpersons speak up – again.

Today’s assurances by the White House, The DNC and Nancy Pelosi that Nazis, thugs, mobsters and scum don’t actually exist and are not showing up to question the delivered wisdom of Democrats appears to have been mistimed – or an outright lie.

Because those Nazis, thugs, mobsters and scum - who appear to be regular people to non-Democrat politicians – are most assuredly showing up – and making life very, very difficult for the pampered political class.

One elderly man yelled out, “It’s a Socialist country!” Others clapped.

Weiner tried to calm them down.

“Let’s turn down the rhetoric,” he pleaded.

One senior wanted to know how the government would pay for a program to cover some 47 million uninsured Americans.

“Where are the doctors and nurses going to come from to cover all these new people?” he asked.

Sheryl Debling, who declined to give her age, but was not a member of the senior center, came to the meeting to get some answers.

“Where is the money going to come from?” she asked. “You are bankrupting our country. You guys are crooks.”

“You have a lot of good talking points,” Weiner told her, clearly frustrated.

It’s not only the fact people are very suspicious of government taking over an entire industry that’s dooming this scheme, but it’s the smug arrogance, the imperious pomposity of the Weiners of the world that will relegate this to the dustbin. Here you have a man whose entire career is based on focus group talking points and tired liberal cliches whining that someone is using talking points, as if a constituent who’s speaking his or her mind is carefully coached on what to say in public like Weiner is.

The Democrats are playing a very dangerous game here with the constant references to people being un-American, racist and evil-mongers, all simply for exercising their freedom of speech. A slippery slope they may not be happy to be riding down pretty soon if they don’t wise up and start respecting the very people they work for.

Please go over and read the whole thing – it is actually worse than the excerpt indicates. These are really, genuinely upset people trying to get their elected representative to listen. And it is very, very obvious that the politician does not get it.  

 We have a problem here, folks. We have a political class that thinks it can simply dictate what people can think, do or say and are completely flummoxed when the mob does not act in accordance with the dictates of the politicians.

This nation once rebelled against taxation without representation. I think we are now seeing a revolt against representation without cognition.

The Gums Of August

As in flapping gums. The Politico asks if Democrats are losing in August. Their article is concentrating on a Republican, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, but there is real fear revealed here.

After an intimate White House lunch last week, Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley said he was confident President Barack Obama was working toward a truly bipartisan health care reform bill.

But then he went home to Iowa, and the message changed. In a series of tough town halls, he fueled fears of death panels and benefits for illegal immigrants. He suggested the White House would push a purely partisan bill. And he proclaimed himself an outsider in health care negotiations.

“I’m not walking away from the table; I’m being pushed away from the table,” Grassley said in Afton, Iowa, warning that Democrats might go it alone on health care.

Grassley’s Iowa road show shows just why Democrats feared this August recess.

If the Democrats lose Grassley, the top Republican negotiator on the Senate Finance Committee, they very likely lose any hope of a bipartisan bill. Even worse, if Grassley bails, then conservative Democrats like Ben Nelson may follow.

While Grassley has always criticized the process in the Senate, his fresh criticisms, before the home state crowd, are magnified as contentious town hall scenes are repeated across the country. And if the August unrest has spooked a safe, respected senior senator like Grassley, it can’t be good sign for the dozens of much more vulnerable moderates from both parties, who worry that the wrong vote on health care could cost them the job next year.

If Grassley is worried – and he obviously is – then Democrats holding office in red states or districts should be terrified. This is why the White House and Nancy Pelosi have pulled out the stops, first demonizing, denigrating and diminishing protests, then today trying to claim they don’t actually exist.

But they do exist, they will ensure that a yes vote on ObamaCare will mean a rapid retirement for an awful lot of Democrats. Grassley has served five terms in the Senate, enjoys pretty solid support in Iowa and he is treading very, very lightly – that says a lot about how fragile Democrats are on this one.

Keep up the pressure, folks. We have to stop this – really stop this – cold. Do not give them an ounce of relief over this. Make it stop. Make sure Democrats – and Republicans – understand that they can either listen to their voters or they can toe the line for their masters in Washington.

But only one choice means a future in politics. And it is not the Obama/Pelosi way.

Missing The Point

Ed Henry of CNN points out that Barack Obama is facing a tough sell for his ObamaCare out in Big Sky Country. Montanans are very suspicious of letting the Federal government into their most private decisions.

LIVINGSTON, Montana (CNN) — Spend a day in this tiny town about 23 miles or so from where President Obama will be holding a town hall meeting on Friday, and it’s easy to see why his health-care push is facing big problems in Big Sky country — even from the people he’s trying to help.

I arrived here a couple of days ahead of the president in order to get a better read on his reform effort by talking to people like Sonja McDonald, who told me her husband’s job as a diesel mechanic doesn’t provide health insurance for them and their two children.

So I found McDonald at a remarkable local clinic getting a low-cost tooth extraction because she has not been able to afford a trip to the dentist in a couple of years. She voted for Obama and agrees with him that reform is needed, but said she’s worried about the details.

“I believe that there is a health care crisis, I really do,” she told me from a dentist chair in the clinic. “Do I believe that the government needs to be more involved? No! Because I think that they just — whenever they get their fingers in the pot it just kind of turns black.”

Henry points out that the clinic McDonald was attending does what it does with Federal funding.

But here’s the twist: The folks at the local clinic where I found McDonald in the dentist chair — known as “Community Health Partners” — are actually quite comfortable with the federal government. That’s because it turns out that taxpayers pick up 50 percent of the clinic’s $4 million annual budget.

“We’re able to provide health care to someone who walks through the door regardless of their ability to pay,” Dr. Mark Schulein, who runs the clinic, told me.

But here’s the twist Henry misses: If this clinic is indeed working, why in the world do we need to totally change the entire health care system? Why not expand what is working rather than tearing it all down to erect an edifice to Obama and big government? The Mayo Clinic – which, I would think everyone agrees, works very, very well, has slammed all of the plans being touted by the politicians. Why? Because the plans do not work. 

So, end this partisan hack job by the Democrats and start looking at what works and improve it. That is what we need. Not bigger government and bureaucrats deciding who gets that hip replacement and who gets the handful of pills. 

Keep up the pressure, folks. Make them stop this and start looking at what really works instead of what they allow you to have after they take all the best for themselves. And make sure it applies across the board – politicians and Federal employees must be subjected to exactly the same program they want for the rest of us.

Hey, Honey! You Married A Mutant!

The New York Times reports on the discovery of a genetic mutation that results in a person only needing six hours of sleep each night instead of the “normal” 8+ hours.

Researchers have found a genetic mutation in two people who need far less sleep than average, a discovery that might open the door to understanding human sleep patterns and lead to treatments for insomnia and other sleep disorders.

The finding, published in the Friday issue of the journal Science, marks the first time scientists have identified a genetic mutation that relates to sleep duration in any animal or human.

Although the mutation has been identified in only two people, the power of the research stems from the fact that the shortened sleep effect was replicated in mouse and fruit-fly studies. As a result, the research now gives scientists a clearer sense of where to look for genetic traits linked to sleep patterns.

…..

The scientists were searching the samples for variations in several genes thought to be related to the sleep cycle. In what amounts to finding a needle in a haystack, they spotted two DNA samples with abnormal copies of a gene called DEC2, which is known to affect circadian rhythms. They then worked back to find out who provided the samples and found a mother and daughter who were naturally short sleepers. The women routinely function on about 6 hours of sleep a night; the average person needs 8 to 8.5 hours of sleep.

For as long as I can remember, I have slept no more than six hours in any night – unless I was sick. That’s the only times I have slept longer. This has always been a source of wonder for others in my family. My mother in law – here for a few weeks – again commented on how I seem to get up awfully early. (She’s made that observation in the past many times). My wife – again – explained that I simply never slept eight hours. My wife is used to it by now. I simply get up and go do whatever until it is time for her to get up.

So I read this article then went out into the living room and announced, “Hey, Honey! You married a mutant.” She immediately replied, “I knew that.”

Before I told her why.

I think I’m insulted.

But this is interesting. Do you realize that people with this mutation have an extra two hours every day that “normal” people do not?

Now, if I can just figure out how to get the retractable metal claws, I’ll be all set.

Yes, We Have No Un-Americans!

Only a few days after declaring protesters at town hall events “un-American” (and less than a day after a White House spokesman made the ludicrous claim that people were showing up at town halls dressed up as Adolph Hitler) Nancy Pelosi and the White House have now decreed that there actually aren’t any protesters at all!

It’s magic, I tell ya!

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on Thursday argued that despite extensive media coverage of the protests at some lawmakers’ town halls, “I hate to break it to you: I don’t think all the town halls are as you’re seeing them on TV. … While I appreciate that you all have decided that every town-hall meeting ends in pushing, shoving and yelling, I don’t think many, well, I don’t know how many town halls you all have been to. They’re not completely indicative of what’s going on in America.”

The DNC released a statement arguing that “outside the echo chamber of 24-hour cable news, Americans all across the country are attending town halls, holding coffee shop conversations and engaging in respectful, honest debates about the best way to achieve health insurance reform.”

The DNC release pointed to events in North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, California, Indiana, Ohio, Washington state and other areas that have not featured the kind of ugly protests that have been the focus on national news reports.

Similarly, Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) office Thursday afternoon released a similar “fact sheet” detailing events where no protests occurred.

Tah Dah! They aren’t un-American, they’re un-PERSONS.  They have been memory holed because the protesters are gathering sympathy from unaffiliated voters who see or hear about the protests. The solution: no more protests.

Look for the Obama supporting media to suddenly lose interest in anything resembling a town hall. Get those video cameras rolling and get the footage on YouTube. Because, as un-persons, we no longer exist as far as the Obama-worshiping media is concerned.

Keep up the pressure folks, they’re scared and they are doing stupid things as a result.

Toxic Loans Still There

And it is a growing problem for at least 150 banks:

More than 150 publicly traded U.S. lenders own nonperforming loans that equal 5 percent or more of their holdings, a level that former regulators say can wipe out a bank’s equity and threaten its survival.

The number of banks exceeding the threshold more than doubled in the year through June, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, as real estate and credit-card defaults surged. Almost 300 reported 3 percent or more of their loans were nonperforming, a term for commercial and consumer debt that has stopped collecting interest or will no longer be paid in full.

The last three banks closed by the FDIC had nonperforming loans at about 6.5%. The really cheery part of the news? The total assets of these 150 banks come to some $193 billion. That’s 15 times the money FDIC has on hand to address bank failures. 

Unlike the big banks that have been deemed too big to fail, these banks are too small to help. TARP is not there for them. 72 banks have failed already this year.

I don’t think we’re seeing the bottom of this downturn yet, regardless of all the cheerful pronouncements from the Fed.

Bad Sign

This is not good news. Sales of video games plummeted last month by some 29% from 2008 sales.

Despite predictions that the recession would keep us all indoors giving ourselves repetitive strain injury, sales of games and consoles in July were 29 percent down on last year.

It’s the fifth consecutive month of decline.

This is one of those little things that indicates that something really big is wrong with the economy. These games are not really all that expensive, relative to many other things, but they are luxuries. If people are cutting these out, they have real problems. To see this big a decline is very worrisome. It would appear that younger people are getting hit very, very hard by the economic downturn.

The Debt Trap

Desmond Lachman, writing in Forbes:

History is littered with examples of major economic and financial crises in countries that have engaged in profligate public spending. These sad experiences should be raising red flags in the U.S. Public finances suggest that the country could very well be on the path to either a destructive burst of inflation or an outright government debt default.

There is little question that U.S. public finances are on an unsustainable trajectory. In scoring the Obama administration’s 2009 budget, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office projected that government debt is set to increase at its fastest pace in peacetime history. Indeed, the CBO projected that on present policies the net U.S. government debt would approximately double from 42% of gross domestic product in 2008 to 83% by 2019. It also projected that the U.S. budget deficit would remain at between 4% and 6% of GDP even after the economy had fully recovered.

Lachman sees only three alternatives: Tough choices to cut costs and raise revenues, default or hyper inflation. None of these is appealing, but the first option is the only one that doesn’t do potentially irreparable harm to the United States.  

Yet Obama and the Democrats continue to try to spend even more. This should worry you – a lot. This bunch would not know fiscal responsibility if it beat them over the head with a bat. They appear to be totally clue proof. We are reaching a crisis point with a flagging economy and a spendthrift cabal in charge.

Snake Oil Salesman In Chief

Charles Krauthammer:

Free mammograms and diabetes tests and checkups for all, promise Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, writing in USA Today. Prevention, they assure us, will not just make us healthier, it also “will save money.”

Obama followed suit in his Tuesday New Hampshire town hall, touting prevention as amazingly dual-purpose: “It saves lives. It also saves money.”

Reform proponents repeat this like a mantra. Because it seems so intuitive, it has become conventional wisdom. But like most conventional wisdom, it is wrong. Overall, preventive care increases medical costs.

This inconvenient truth comes, once again, from the CBO. In an Aug. 7 letter to Rep. Nathan Deal, CBO Director Doug Elmendorf writes: “Researchers who have examined the effects of preventive care generally find that the added costs of widespread use of preventive services tend to exceed the savings from averted illness.”

I have posted about that particularly egregious lie being peddled right now. More than once, in fact. The fact is that the only curve bending produced by the Democrat’s various and sundry plans is upward. The only “savings” in these plans is in cutting down the freedom of those pesky peasants out there. (Smelly tourists is Harry Reid’s expression for them.)

The Democrats are pushing snake oil. Their plans will greatly diminish choices, interfere between doctor and patient, cost more and give back less. All this is meant to usher in socialist medical practices as the plans are “improved” from year to year. And your freedoms will be eroded further with each “improvement”.

Les Paul, 1915-2009, Rest In Peace

Les Paul, widely credited with the invention of the solid body electric guitar, has died at age 94. Mr. Paul worked with Gibson Guitars and produced the Les Paul signature guitar in 1952. It has remained in production ever since.

New York Times obituary

Gibson Guitars tribute to Les Paul

Rest in peace, Les.