2 Helena Handbaskets

Sometimes you have to back off a bit and examine a situation from a different perspective. Such is the case with Obama’s healthcare plan.

All this time, the majority of the American public have been outraged at both the process and the product that have been thrust upon them via this monstrosity. Whether acknowledged or not, underlying the unease that many Americans have about the plan is the absolute fact that rationing is an inherent component of any system that purports to provide coverage to a significantly larger segment of the population. Call it what you will, but some bureaucrat will ultimately decide – either on a case by case basis, or categorically – whether or not you, your grandma, or your child is eligible to receive some type of medical treatment.

Up to this point, most republicans, conservatives, and independents, as well as many democrats, have been consistently opposed to the Democrats’ proposals. The latest Rasmussen poll shows only 22% strongly support the Obama-Reid-Pelosi plan. I wonder how long those folks would continue to push for the plan if they realized something that was recently brought to my attention:

Although the tax increases start right away, the actual “benefits” don’t kick in until 2013 or 2014. Given that even the most partisan of talking heads are admitting that Obama is likely going to be an OTP (One Term President), that means that it will be a Republican president who appoints the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the department charged with administering healthcare, following the 2012 election.

I wonder how avidly those 22% of the population would be supporting this abomination if they realized that when it finally is available to them Dick Cheney could be in charge of implementing the programs.

Would this be a case of their karma running over their dogma?

I found this in my email yesterday and didn’t think too much about it. I don’t know where it originated or who did the artwork, but it has literally haunted me for the past twenty-four hours. Where do these people get off dismissing the will of the American people in such a blatant and arrogant manner?

There was a time when an American president was offered a crown and had the wisdom and vision to reject the honor. This man has proven that he has neither wisdom nor vision. More importantly, he has not been offered a crown. But, if in his fantasies he imagines himself upon a throne instead of behind a desk, perhaps he should heed the words of William Shakespeare:

“Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.”

Following in the tradition of such leaders as Catherine the Great, Bloody Mary, and Marie Antoinette, Her Royal Highness, Queen Nancy, appeared on ABC’s This Week to reveal her latest edicts to her subjects – fellow Democrat Congress critters and us – the great unwashed masses. She has evidently concluded that the relative merits – or lack thereof – of the healthcare legislation are irrelevant when viewed through the lens of her agenda. No sacrifice is too great, no one else’s career is more important, no American’s freedom or wallet is too insignificant to be pillaged when found to be standing in the way of the Progressive movement to take over the free market economy. “Time is up,” she said. “We really have to go forth.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged her colleagues to back a major overhaul of U.S. health care even if it threatens their political careers, a call to arms that underscores the issue’s massive role in this election year.

Lawmakers sometimes must enact policies that, even if unpopular at the moment, will help the public, Pelosi said in an interview being broadcast Sunday the ABC News program “This Week.”
“We’re not here just to self-perpetuate our service in Congress,” she said. “We’re here to do the job for the American people.”

What she really meant was, “We’re here to do the job on the American people.”

Bend over. Here it comes.

Like many Americans, I didn’t have the luxury of watching the Healthcare Summit last Thursday because I had to work all day. Since then I have read/heard/watched much about what did and did not happen during the seven hour marathon.

I’ve seen snippets of Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) testimony, but this is the first time I’ve seen the whole piece. I’d love to see him go one on one with the President for about ten rounds. My money would be on Ryan – no question:

You know things didn’t exactly go the way the President intended when the CNN (yeah – CNN!) panel gives the win to the Republicans.

Unfortunately, some people won’t take “Hell NO!!!!” for an answer. So it’s time for all of us to contact our Senators and Reps and make sure they understand who the real bosses are and what we think of this abomination.

UPDATE:
Downhill slide continues: February 27 daily tracking poll drops another point to -21. Way to go, BO!

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows that 23% of the nation’s voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-three percent (43%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -20. For President Obama, the Approval Index has been lower only once.

Data for these updates is collected via nightly telephone interviews and reported on a three-day rolling average basis. As a result, just one-third of the interviews for today’s update were collected following the President’s health-care summit. Sunday morning will be the first update based entirely upon interviews conducted after the summit.

STOP THE PRESSES!!!!

Breaking News From Vancouver, BC

Startling news out of Vancouver today. International Olympic Committee judges have retracted Bode Miller’s gold medal which he won for the US team in the combined downhill/slalom. Instead, they are awarding the medal to Barack Obama, correctly pointing out that Obama is going downhill much faster than Miller.

There was an interesting article in the Washington Post last Sunday that has largely been ignored in the LSM and is just starting to gain traction in the blogosphere.

Dana Milbank presents a pre-emptive defense of Obama’s Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, proclaiming Rahm as the single voice of reason in the inner circle of the West Wing:

“Obama’s first year fell apart in large part because he didn’t follow his chief of staff’s advice on crucial matters. Arguably, Emanuel is the only person keeping Obama from becoming Jimmy Carter… Obama’s problem is that his other confidants — particularly Valerie Jarrett and Robert Gibbs, and, to a lesser extent, David Axelrod — are part of the Cult of Obama. In love with the president, they believe he is a transformational figure who needn’t dirty his hands in politics.” He goes on to claim that Rahm opposed the plan to close Guantanamo, argued against transferring terrorist trials to NYC, and most importantly cautioned against the current health care proposals being forced through Congress against the will of the American people.

By the end of this puff piece, Rahm has become a cross between Dick Morris, Newt Gingrich, Mother Theresa, and George Carlin. How blessed this administration is to have such a mensch in their midst!

PUHL-EEZE!!!

Apparently even some of the left-wingers can’t swallow this unmitigated glob of self-serving aggrandizement. This from The Smirking Chimp:

As I was reading the article lavishing praise on Rahm Emanuel and throwing dirt on everyone else inside the White House, I kept thinking two things. First, how many leaks has Rahm given Milbank over the years? …Milbank gets a cherished inside source so he can seem like he’s got the scoop on what’s happening in DC and Rahm gets a hatchet man that’ll write whatever he tells him to, I mean whatever he leaks to him as “important inside information.” My second thought was, “Wow, what a hatchet job on Jarrett, Gibbs and Axelrod!” Since Rahm is obviously feeding this to Milbank, that is very revealing. You don’t throw these kinds of bombs unless you’ve already lost. This is an act of desperation. It’s bound to make mortal enemies of these people inside Obama’s inner circle. You can’t really work with these people anymore. That means you’re already finished there.

Okay, I sure don’t have any kind of inside information about the inner workings of this group of Chicago pols, but it sure does sound like all is not sunshine and roses amongst the mucky-mucks. With the President’s approval ratings sinking like a lead balloon, the odds are that somebody’s going to have to fall on the sword pretty soon. Could it be the foul-mouthed, obnoxious Chief of Staff? Seems like he’s not making very nice with the other kiddies in the sandbox.

Anybody want the popcorn concession for this circus?

While we were all focusing on trivialities such as healthcare and cap-n-tax, the Obama administration was gleefully planning to spend a chunk of change on a new embassy in Great Britain. Seems the old one in Grosvenor Square was too old, too small, and too frilly for modern use. And, oh yeah, there are some security issues that they needed to address as well.

Yesterday the plans for the new building were unveiled. The design was submitted by an architecture firm in Philadelphia and will be built on a five acre site on the banks of the Thames about a mile away from Parliament. It is a 12 story special-security-energy-efficient-technology-type glass modern design that looks amazingly like… wait for it… AN ICE CUBE!

Oh, the security solution? This 21st Century technological marvel features a semi-circular water feature.

Generally recognized as a MOAT.

For a billion dollars London will now be the site of America’s first architectural tribute to Global Warming – a melting ice cube.

Glenn Beck sure captured the mood of many Americans in his keynote speech at the CPAC convention tonight. Playing on the theme introduced by Ronald Reagan, Beck tempered some of his usual pessimism with – if not optimism – at least hopeful realism.

“It is still morning in America,” Beck said. “It just happens to be kind of a head-pounding, hung-over, vomiting for four hours kind of morning in America. And it’s shaping up to be kind of a nasty day, but it is still morning in America… We are going to go through some tough times, and we are going to be tired as we set things straight…It is a hard road, I know, I have walked it myself. It is a hard road. But we will make it. And at night, we will be beat tired. We will be so tired… But when we put our head down on our pillow to go to sleep again that night, we can be happy because we know tomorrow it will again be morning in America.”

I don’t watch Beck all that often. Mostly because I’m still at work when his show airs, but also because his style is too over the top for my taste. But I have to admit that I watched every minute of this speech. It was actually an engaging and practically mesmerizing oration. His interpretation of Emma Lazarus’ poem engraved on the Statue of Liberty was absolutely brilliant and his underlying message was spot-on.

America’s best days are behind us only if we choose to let them be. It’s time to recognize that the party had better be over before we OD on the good times financed by OPM.

Our VP is certainly right on top of current events, huh? This from yesterday…

Of course, some of us are a bit more concerned with THIS CENTURY!!!!

A float in the annual Mardi Grad parade in the Big Easy seems to have a certain common theme with those in Germany – shall we call it a dissolution with the “hopey changeitude” that permeated the country last year?

From First Thoughts:

On a pride-themed float called “Experiment of His Own Power,” Obama is compared to “The Proud One” of Dante’s Inferno, posing with his Nobel Peace Prize medal, next to several other representations of him—along with Oscar and Heisman Trophy awards, he appears as a five-star general, president of General Motors, and as the “healthcare-expert” Surgeon General—all engulfed by the flames of hell.

Is this the rant of a few comic float-makers, or is it a sign of a graver discontent Obama faces from the American people? For many, it’s looking grim: The effect his leadership has had on Katrina recovery-efforts, for instance, is at least as questionable as the promised improvements in foreign policy and economic stimulus.

Wow. From New Orleans. U.S.A.