Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Blacks hit hard by economy's punch


34.5 percent of young African American men are unemployed

By V. Dion Haynes
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Joblessness for 16-to-24-year-old black men has reached Great Depression proportions -- 34.5 percent in October, more than three times the rate for the general U.S. population. And last Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that unemployment in the District, home to many young black men, rose to 11.9 percent from 11.4 percent, even as it stayed relatively stable in Virginia and Maryland.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/23/AR2009112304092_pf.html

 

Thanks for the help Barry…

 

STIMULATED YET???

McCain in a toss up to keep his seat!!!

Senator John McCain’s future in the U.S. Senate may be a little less assured than previously thought.

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely 2010 Republican Primary voters in Arizona finds the longtime incumbent in a virtual tie with potential challenger J.D. Hayworth. McCain earns 45% of the vote, while Hayworth picks up 43%.

 

Dump this RINO loser!!!  He’s a menace!!!  Draft Hayworth!!!

 

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections2/election_2010/election_2010_senate_elections/arizona/election_2010_arizona_senate_gop_primary

 

 

http://www.jdhayworth.com/

 

 

Friday, September 25, 2009

Have you no shame? Have you no decency?

Yesterday the President of the USA stood at this very podium, spewing his latest anti-USA, Pro-dictator rants.  Just a few days earlier, he again claimed his deity.

 

But to NBC, CNN CBS ABC MSNBC who gave this third world thug want-to-be a hearing, I say on behalf of my people, God loving, and freedom loving people everywhere: Have you no shame?  Have you no decency?  A mere 10 months after the Election, you give legitimacy to a man who denies that the God given nature of our liberty, destroys our economy and binds under the bondage of unemployment, poverty and debt us as servants to the state; merely to exist to pay tribute to the government. What a disgrace!  What a mockery of the Constitution of the United States! 

Perhaps some of you think that this man and his odious regime threaten only the Conservatives.  You're wrong.  History has shown us time and again that what starts with attacks on the Conservatives eventually ends up engulfing many others.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Ask these Questions of your so-called representatives:

1) What is the schedule for re-privatizing General Motors and Chrysler?

 

2) Why are the TARP funds being used by a revolving door slush fund to essure government controll of the banking industry inperpituity.

 

3) If we are sooo "Rich" why are we printing money like it is going out of style and borrowing the rest from China.

 

4) If GM borrows money from the US and the Government sees a legitimate need to exercize control over it, why then does the government expect that China will not attempt to exercise control over us.  What will the cost be? Taiwan?  Will the Chinese have the power to fire the Chairman (Obama) and the board of Directors (Congress)?

Is Obama a Narcissist?

September 16, 2009

By Robin of Berkeley

Many of us are asking ourselves the million dollar question: are Obama and his crew  narcissists?

(Translation:  What in God's name is wrong with these people?  Are they on medications?  Are they off their medications?

 

Are we being unknowingly subjected to some new reality show, Extreme Alien Invasion?)

 

Now as a newby conservative, I have a long way to go to herald myself as an expert on conservatism, neoconservatism, paleoconservatism (whatever that is), and the like.

 

But one thing I do know is crazy -- and that's not just because I've been a licensed psychotherapist for over 20 years.  It's because for almost 30 years I've been eating, sleeping, and living with crazy, what I have dubbed the Psycho Network.

 

There are plenty of nice folks around these parts (although mention the words Sarah Palin or Tea Parties and they'll morph into Linda Blair in the Exorcist).  But we also lots of Bernadine Dohrn look-alikes who appear to have just crawled out from some prehistoric rock.  

 

So, let me take a stab at the burning question of Obama's mental health status. 

 

Is Obama a garden variety narcissist?  Probably, but that's the least of our problems.  

 

Most highly successful people have some level of narcissism.  Generally it's the narcissists -- charming, self serving, deficient in morals -- who rise to the top.  The nice guys and gals who aren't willing to step on their grandmothers for fame and fortune are usually us worker bees.

 

Obnoxious and madly in love with themselves, narcissists are a pain in the butt to have as a friend, spouse, in law, or boss.   They are self absorbed, and mesmerized by their own image.  They love to be around people, and are genuinely puzzled when others find them a turn off. 

 

But while they can be major thorns in your side, they're too busy swooning over themselves to try to control the planet.  They think they're hot stuff, but not the Messiah.

 

Now Obama,  Rev. Wright, Bill Ayers, the Emanuel bros -- we may be talking something way more worrisome than your everyday narcissist. Let's take a look at other character defects, as well as examine another disorder entirely.

 

A more serious type of character disorder is a paranoid person.  Paranoids think that everyone is out to get them.   Nothing is ever their fault. They are Gripe Central, and vividly recall every single insult or offense.   Paranoids are unhappy, suspicious, resentful, and mistrustful.

 

Ringing any bells here?

 

At the extreme end of the continuum is the sociopath (also known as a  psychopath).  These are dangerous people who are not completely human, in my book.  They lack a conscience and view themselves as above the law.   They don't like people, and are devoid of empathy.

 

It would be nice if sociopaths looked deranged and so were easy to spot.  No such luck;  they can be the pillars of the community.  (Think OJ or Scott Peterson, who killed his pregnant wife Laci.)

 

Interestingly,  many sociopaths can easily pass a lie detector test -- they are that good at lying.   While nonsociopaths will sweat during the grilling and set off the detector, sociopaths remain calm, cool, and detached.

 

There's also another whole classification -- delusional disorders.  These people look perfectly fine but have fixed beliefs that don't mesh with reality.  

 

If you've ever wrangled with an anorexic,  you've dealt with someone with a delusion.  Though she is emaciated, faints from hunger, and weighs 90 pounds, she insists she's fat.

 

Or a delusional addict believes he doesn't have a problem with coke and can stop at any time.   Meanwhile, he's clocked some serious jail time, lost his job, and his fed up wife has flown the coop.

 

A great example of a delusional disorder?  Members of a cult.  They believe the leader has special powers, and that they are the chosen ones.  (Sound famliiar?)

 

Now, when people ask whether Obama is a narcissist, they may not be talking about a garden variety narcissist.  M. Scott Peck in his brilliant book,  People of the Lie,  describes  the malignant narcissist (MN), a term coined by Erich Fromm.    

 

Peck is describing a very dangerous creature capable of great evil -- the Hitler's of the world, as well as the SS guards.  His MN is a witch's brew of psychopathology:  a narcissist, sociopath, and paranoid, with a generous dollop of delusional disorder thrown in.  

 

While I'm not in a position to offer a definite diagnosis about Obama, there are reasons to be concerned about his character and his ability to look reality squarely in the face.  Here are some of my impressions and observations.

 

To become well functioning adults, humans need to have completed two tasks:  1. to have learned to attach to people, thereby developing empathy and  2.  to have formed a firm and soild identity via healthy role models. 

 

Yet, Obama was raised with an odd assortment of characters who seemed to have no clue about the emotional needs of a child.  Obama was dragged like a rag doll all over the place, and subjected to conditions that had to be disturbing and alienating.

 

Abandoned by both his parents, Obama's life circumstances were unstable and ever changing.  According to half sister Maya,  they were "untethered. . . .drifting in and out of worlds, here and there."

 

Obama Sr. deserted them to return to his other wife in Kenya (you read this right).  Little Barry lived with his mother, then was shlepped to Indonesia to live for several years with mom and new step dad and half sister Maya.

 

Step dad turned out to be an alcoholic like dad, and mom ferried the kids back to the States.  Then she decided to return to Indonesia, though Obama refused to go.  He ended up living in Hawaii with his grandparents.

 

Obama had this to say about moving in with his grandparents:  "I was to live with strangers."  And: "I'd arrived at an unspoken pact with my grandparents;  I could live with them and they'd leave me alone so long as I kept my troubles out of sight."

 

Feel the love?

 

His grandpa, Stanley, sounded like he had a few screws loose.   He was likely damaged goods from his hellish childhood.  First, his dad abandoned the family.   When Stanley was 8, he discovered the dead body of his mother, who had committed suicide.  He was shipped off to his grandparents and got himself expelled from school for punching the principal.

 

Stanley drifted along himself, eventually joined the military, and married Madelyn.  He was  disappointed when she produced a baby girl (Obama's mother) rather than a son.  In a bizarre and grandiose act, he named her "Stanley."  Sick and tired of getting grief for her name, Stanley ended up going by her middle name, Ann.

 

Stanley and Madelyn raised Obama from around age l0 through high school.  Stanley, an impulsive and hard drinking man,  made one of the most twisted of parental decisions -- to have Barry mentored by the elderly Frank Marshall Davis, purportedly a Communist who worked on behalf of the Soviet Union; a pedophile who wrote a book entitled "Sex Rebel: Black," an alcoholic, a racist, and a misogynist.  

 

Well regarded bloggers have raised the provocative question about whether Davis violated Obama, perhaps by molesting him.  (Read Obama's college era poem Pop, especially the lines, "Pop. . . points out the same amber stain on his shorts that I've got on mine, and makes me smell his smell, coming from me," and see what you think.)

 

Obama himself has said, in his autobiography, that "Frank" made him feel uncomfortable.  Grandpa Stanley and Davis would sit around getting loaded, talking trash about women, and making up smutty limericks.   

 

Whether Davis sexually abused Obama or not, Davis made a lasting impression on his young psyche.    Davis blamed racism and capitalism for all of the problems in society and instructed young Barry, "Don't fully trust white people," and "Black people have a reason to hate."  

 

Obama's identity was ever in flux until he linked up with Davis.  Now he had beliefs he could rap his mind around -- rage at the system.  Obama apparently became filled with resentment and anger even though he lived a privileged life in Hawaii.  

 

As an adult, Obama sought out other people who reinforced and hardened this world view:  black nationalists, like Rev. Wright; 60's terrorists, such as Bill Ayers;  wife Michelle, who never felt pride in this country, regardless of a Princeton education, cushy attorney jobs, and a million dollar mansion.  Chillingly, some of these people, like Rev. Wright, anointed Obama a messiah, which may have only magnified Obama's false pride and delusions of grandeur.

 

Obama could have gone down one of two roads.  One was to face the truth about his life, regardless of the shame, hurt, and grief this would evoke.  But Obama chose another path, the one that allowed him to save face;  he made the personal political.  

 

His father didn't choose to desert him;  racism was at fault.  His mother didn't abandon him;  the system was to blame.  Obama's grandparents didn't corrupt him by giving a creepy guy like Davis personal access to him;  they were acting like typical white people.

 

Obama, I think,  created another reality by blaming white American for his family's faults.  It's a pattern he's continued his whole life, and his associates are also allergic to personal accountability.

 

I picture Obama as a man crying out that he's thirsty although he's standing knee high in a fresh water stream.  He's been blessed by the fortunes of a king -- prestigious private schools and universities, a lavish home in Chicago, two healthy little girls, state Senate and US Senate appointments, and now the Presidency.  

 

And yet deep down, I beileve that Obama is still the wounded, angry little boy whose parents abandoned him and, years later, died.   Rather than resent and mourn them, he's turned his rage on a more convenient target -- the entire United States system -- even though it's that very same system of largely White Americans who elected him President.

 

Is there anything more to Obama et al. than their righteous indignation? Their seething anger?  Their leftist dogma?

 

These are crucial questions because "People of the Lie" eat, sleep, and drink rage.  They are dangerous people because they are soulless, and the soul is where love, forgiveness, and truth live.  They're like fallen angels; there is no there. 

 

Are Obama and his closest advisors, "People of the Lie" -- malignant narcissists?   God, I hope not.  

 

Here are some words of wisdom from M. Scott Peck, and you can rein in on the diagnosis.



The evil are ‘people of the lie', deceiving others as they build layer upon layer of self-deception. . .  . Forever fleeing the light of self-exposure and the voice of their own conscience, they are the most frightened of human beings.  They live their lives in sheer terror.  They need not be consigned to any hell, they are already living in it.

 

Evil may be recognized by its very disguise.... We see the smile that hides the hatred, the smooth and oily manner that masks the fury, the velvet glove that covers the fist....

 

The evil hate the light -- the light of goodness that shows them up, the light of scrutiny that exposes them, the light of truth that penetrates their deception.

 

Information on Obama's childhood drawn from the books, The Case Against Barack Obama, and The Obama Nation,  as well as Wikipedia

 

 

 

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Interesting Health Care Speech Analysis - and Funny!

Bill O'Reilly / Dennis Miller -

 

 

 

Thank Representative Joe Wilson for telling the truth

Thank Representative Joe Wilson for having the guts to tell the truth about Obamacare. 

 

Send a contribution to his re-election campaign.

 

https://www.completecampaigns.com/public.asp?name=Wilson&page=2

 

 

 

Thursday, September 3, 2009

NO to Government Health Care, NO to Cooperatives, NO compromise, NO kidding.

Send this to your representative and Senators:

NO to Government Health Care, NO to Cooperatives, NO compromise, NO kidding.

Let me be so bold as to provide some questions and my thoughts.

 

1)     Cooperatives especially Government Sponsored Enterprises never work.  Note the current debacle of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  Both GSE’s, both failed, both run by political hacks as a reward for years of service to their parties (yours BTW) both now heavily subsidized by the US Government, unfortunately, in-perpetuity I suppose.  I should note that the first Cooperative tried in the US was at Jamestown Colony.  It failed because all products produced were shared equally.  This resulted in starvation and near destruction of the Colony.  Captain John Smith ended this practice, privatized land ownership and voila, success!!!  We are here now as a vibrant and independent country…  Should we be destined to repeat this very same mistake with the same miserable results?  I don’t think that we should.

 

2)     Why can we not deduct our health coverage if procured as an individual while businesses can deduct these expenses?  This seems patently unfair to me.  An individual deduction would make the net cost to the consumer lower, thereby enticing more people to contract for insurance.

 

3)     Why is it that we cannot buy health insurance from out of state providers?  This would increase competition which always lowers cost.

 

4)     Why should we be compelled to buy insurance that covers nose jobs, abortions, sex change operations when we have no need for them or we find the act repugnant and unholy?  This type of coverage causes an additional unnecessary expense to the consumer.

 

5)     Why should a 55yr old couple be forced to buy coverage that covers childbirth when they are beyond their procreative years?  Again another unnecessary expense to the consumer.

 

6)     Why should we be forced to pay for people who willfully choose not to have health insurance?  This is like saying I should be entitled to all Government Benefits, but refuse to pay my taxes.  You know like Charlie Rangel and Tim Geithner. 

 

7)  What about the legal lottery system?  Unnecessary lawsuits cause doctor’s mal-practice insurance to be an exorbitant expense.  In some cases physicians pay $200,000 per year for this coverage.  If you divide this figure in the 2080 hours for a normal work year, this expense is $96.15 per hour.  If the physician sees 4 patients in an hour the per patient cost is $24.04.  This expense is passed to the insurance companies and from them to the person or business that contracts for this insurance.  This does not include the cost of defensive medicine the physicians are forced to perform.  If you are serious about making health insurance more affordable and more available to all stop feeding the parasitic trial lawyers in this legal lottery system.

 

8)     Where in the constitution is the Federal Government authorized in Article 1, Section 8 to impose compulsory health insurance?  The simple answer; The Federal Government does not have the constitutional authority.  Thereby this legislation is un-constitutional.

 

Choose liberty.    We are endowed by our creator with unalienable rights.  These powers are not assigned to a ruling class (you) to be meted out to the governed masses (us).

 “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. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

 “But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security”.

Choose wisely.  Choose liberty.  Choose the blessings of liberty.  NO to Government Health Care, NO to Cooperatives, NO compromise, NO kidding.

Remember you swore an oath on the bible before God to Uphold and Protect the Constitution of the United States.  You did not swear an oath to an individual, a party or an ideology.  You work for us; we do not work for you!!!

Respectfully,

 

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Monday, August 31, 2009

Czar

Originally, the title Czar (derived from Caesar) meant Emperor in the European medieval sense of the term, that is, a ruler who claims the same rank as a Roman emperor, with the approval of another emperor or a supreme ecclesiastical official (the Pope or the Ecumenical Patriarch).

Could the Ecumenical Patriarch be “The One”?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar

 

DID WE KICK OUT THE KING OF ENGLAND SO WE COULD ADOPT CZAR’S???

 

STIMULATED YET???

Fascism

pronounced /ˈfæʃɪzəm/, comprises a radical and authoritarian nationalist political ideology[1][2][3][4] and a corporatist economic ideology. [5] Fascists believe that nations and/or races are in perpetual conflict whereby only the strong can survive by being healthy, vital, and by asserting themselves in conflict against the weak.[6] Fascists advocate the creation of a single-party state.[7] Fascist governments forbid and suppress criticism and opposition to the government and the fascist movement.[8] Fascism opposes class conflict, blames capitalist liberal democracies for its creation and communists for exploiting the concept.[9] In the economic sphere, many fascist leaders have claimed to support a "Third Way" in economic policy, which they believed superior to both the rampant individualism of unrestrained capitalism and the severe control of state communism.[10][11] This was to be achieved by establishing significant government control over business and labour (Mussolini called his nation's system "the corporate state").[12][13]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism

SOUNDS FAMILIAR???

STIMULATED YET???

 

 

Blood Money

Watch the trailer & sign up in support.

 

http://bloodmoneyfilm.com/

 

 

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

The Great Escape

By Thomas Sowell

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Many of the issues of our times are hard to understand without understanding the vision of the world that they are part of. Whether the particular issue is education, economics or medical care, the preferred explanation tends to be an external explanation— that is, something outside the control of the individuals directly involved.


Education is usually discussed in terms of the money spent on it, the teaching methods used, class sizes or the way the whole system is organized. Students are discussed largely as passive recipients of good or bad education.


But education is not something that can be given to anybody. It is something that students either acquire or fail to acquire. Personal responsibility may be ignored or downplayed in this "non-judgmental" age, but it remains a major factor nevertheless.


After many students go through a dozen years in the public schools, at a total cost of $100,000 or more per student— and emerge semi-literate and with little understanding of the society in which they live, much less the larger world and its history— most discussions of what is wrong leave out the fact that many such students may have chosen to use school as a place to fool around, act up, organize gangs or even peddle drugs.


The great escape of our times is escape from personal responsibility for the consequences of one's own behavior. Differences in infant mortality rates provoke pious editorials on a need for more prenatal care to be provided by the government for those unable to afford it. In other words, the explanation is automatically assumed to be external to the mothers involved and the solution is assumed to be something that "we" can do for "them."

 

While it is true that black mothers get less prenatal care than white mothers and have higher infant mortality rates, it is also true that women of Mexican ancestry also get less prenatal care than white women and yet have lower infant mortality rates than white women. But, once people with the prevailing social vision see the first set of facts, they seldom look for any other facts that might go against the explanation that fits their vision of the world.


No small part of the current confusion between "health care" and medical care comes from failing to recognize that Americans can have the best medical care in the world without having the best health or longevity because so many people choose to live in ways that shorten their lives.


There can be grave practical consequences of a dogmatic insistence on external explanations that allow individuals to escape personal responsibility. Americans can end up ruining the best medical care in the world in the vain hope that a government takeover will give us better health.


Economic issues are approached in the same way. People with low incomes are seen as a problem for other people to solve. Studies which follow the same individuals over time show that the vast majority of working people who are in the bottom 20 percent of income earners at a given time end up rising out of that bracket.


Many are simply beginners who get beginners' wages but whose pay rises as they acquire more skills and experience. Yet there is a small minority of workers who do not rise and a large number of people who seldom work and who— surprise!— have low incomes as a result.


Seldom is there any thought that people who choose to waste years of their own time (and the taxpayers' money) in school need to change their own behavior— or to visibly suffer the consequences, so that their fate can be a warning to others coming after them, not to make that same mistake.


It is not just the "non-judgmental" ideology of the intelligentsia but also the self-interest of politicians that leads to so much downplaying of personal responsibility in favor of external explanations and external programs to "solve" the "problem."


On these and other issues, government programs are far less likely to solve the country's problems than to solve the politicians' problem of getting the votes of those whose think the answer to every problem is for the government to "do something."

 

BREAKING NEWS!!!

Ted Kennedy is still dead!!!

To be preserved in a pickled state. 

Kennedy family is at a loss to find enough gin, tonic and olives and a great big fat jar to shake.

 

Moments in the life of "Our Teddy"

Thursday, August 20, 2009

DOES THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT HAVE THE POWER TO ENFORCE "NATIONAL HEALTH CARE" ON US?

WHERE IN THE CONSTITUTION DOES THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT HAVE THE POWER TO ENFORCE “NATIONAL HEALTH CARE” ON US?

 

THE ANSWER IS THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT DOES NOT HAVE THIS RIGHT.

 

ANY SENATOR OR REPRESENTATIVE WHO VOTES FOR NATIONAL HEALTH CARE IS DEFYING THEIR OATH OF OFFICE AND SHOULD BE THROWN OUT!!!  THE CONGRESS IS EXCEEDING THEIR AUTHORITY UNDER THE CONSTITUTION AND STEALING YOUR LIBERTY IN THE PROCESS!!!

Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution lists the powers as:

Section 8: The Congress shall have power

 

1)     To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

 

2)     To borrow money on the credit of the United States;

 

3)     To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes;

 

4)     To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States;

 

5)     To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures;

 

6)     To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States;

 

7)     To establish post offices and post roads;

 

8)     To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;

 

9)     To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court;

 

10) To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations;

 

11) To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;

 

12) To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years;

 

13) To provide and maintain a navy;

 

14) To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces;

 

15) To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions;

 

16) To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

 

17) To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings;—And

 

18) To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof.

 

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Obama to rally grass roots backers on health care

President Barack Obama will Thursday hold a live online and telephone strategy meeting to rally devoted grass roots backers (BROWN SHIRTS) as a backlash over his health reform plan spreads to liberal media commentators.

David Plouffe, who ran Obama's triumphant 2008 election campaign, and now steers the Organizing for America (BROWN SHIRTS) supporter network, said Obama wanted to lay out his strategy and message, as controversy stalks his major reform plan.

"This is a critical time in this president's administration and in the history of our country. I hope you can join us," Plouffe wrote in an email to supporters, (BROWN SHIRTS)  soliciting questions for the president.

Obama mobilized the greatest army of grass roots activists (BROWN SHIRTS) in US history during his capture of the Democratic nomination and the presidency last year.

But so far, it is not clear if those legions of supporters (BROWN SHIRTS) are prepared to turn out in their millions to help him push key legislation through Congress.

The White House has spent the last two days attempting to dismiss reports that it is softening its proposal to create a government entity to compete with private insurers to bring down the cost of health care and to widen access.

A flurry of media accounts on Sunday interpreted remarks by White House spokesman Robert Gibbs and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius as stepping back from the "public option."

"As I've said, now, yesterday and earlier today, the administration's position is unchanged," said Gibbs on Monday.

"I think the suggestion somehow that anything that was said Saturday or Sunday as being new administration policy is just not something that I would agree with."

The administration argues that having a federal component is still a key part of the health care plan, but says Obama is open to any option that will foster choice and competition in the health care market.

Some top lawmakers have expressed doubts that there is sufficient support in Congress for a public option, and are pushing a plan for non-profit co-operatives to be introduced into the health insurance market instead.

Obama's health care reform drive, his top domestic priority, has been assailed in recent weeks by Republicans and angry opponents disrupting town hall meetings held by Democratic lawmakers.

The president, trying to contain the damage to his plan, held two town hall meetings of his own on health care in the western states of Montana and Colorado at the weekend.

But on Monday, he faced the wrath of normally supportive liberal newspaper columnists, who fear he is toning down what had been billed as a generational domestic reform drive.

"If we manage to get health care 'reform' this time around it will be the kind of reform that benefits the very people who have given us a failed system, and thus made reform so necessary," said columnist Bob Herbert of the New York Times.

Eugene Robinson, of the Washington Post, added that "giving up the public option would send many of Obama's progressive supporters (BROWN SHIRTS) into apoplexy, yet the administration has sent clear signals that this is the path of less resistance it's prepared to take."


 

 

Thousands of surgeries may be cut in Metro Vancouver due to government under funding, leaked paper

 

 

By Darah Hansen, Vancouver SunAugust 18, 2009

 

VANCOUVER — Vancouver patients needing neurosurgery, treatment for vascular diseases and other medically necessary procedures can expect to wait longer for care, NDP health critic Adrian Dix said Monday.

Dix said a Vancouver Coastal Health Authority document shows it is considering chopping more than 6,000 surgeries in an effort to make up for a dramatic budgetary shortfall that could reach $200 million.  (CAN’T HAPPEN HERE??? – THINK TWICE!!!)

“This hasn’t been announced by the health authority … but these cuts are coming,” Dix said, citing figures gleaned from a leaked executive summary of “proposed VCH surgical reductions.”

The health authority confirmed the document is genuine, but said it represents ideas only.

“It is a planning document. It has not been approved or implemented,” said spokeswoman Anna Marie D’Angelo.

Dr. Brian Brodie, president of the BC Medical Association, called the proposed surgical cuts “a nightmare.”

“Why would you begin your cost-cutting measures on medically necessary surgery? I just can’t think of a worse place,” Brodie said.

According to the leaked document, Vancouver Coastal — which oversees the budget for Vancouver General and St. Paul’s hospitals, among other health-care facilities — is looking to close nearly a quarter of its operating rooms starting in September and to cut 6,250 surgeries, including 24 per cent of cases scheduled from September to March and 10 per cent of all medically necessary elective procedures this fiscal year.

The plan proposes cutbacks to neurosurgery, ophthalmology, vascular surgery, and 11 other specialized areas.

As many of 112 full-time jobs — including 13 anesthesiologist positions — would be affected by the reductions, the document says.

“Clearly this will impact the capacity of the health-care system to provide care, not just now but in the future,” Dix said.

Further reductions in surgeries are scheduled during the Olympics, when the health authority plans to close approximately a third of its operating rooms.

Two weeks ago, Dix released a Fraser Health Authority draft communications plan listing proposed clinical care cuts, including a 10-per-cent cut in elective surgeries and longer waits for MRI scans.

The move comes after the province acknowledged all health authorities together will be forced to cut staff, limit some services and increase fees to find $360 million in savings during the current fiscal year.

In all, Fraser Health is looking at a $160-million funding shortfall.

D’Angelo said Vancouver Coastal’s deficit is closer to $90 million — almost a third of which ($23 million) has already been absorbed through reductions in non-clinical administration efficiencies.

Vancouver Coastal performed 67,000 surgeries last year, an increase of 6,500 surgeries over 2007.

“What has now happened is that now our wait times are about 25 per cent lower than the provincial average,” D’Angelo said. “We have put a dent in that wait list.”

Brodie acknowledged surgical waiting times have dropped significantly in recent years, particularly for patients needing hip and joint replacements.

He said the proposed cuts threaten those advancements.

“It sounds like we are going backwards here,” he said.

Total health spending in British Columbia was $15.7 billion this year, up about four per cent over last year’s total of 15.1 billion, according to figures provided by the ministry of health.

Health Minister Kevin Falcon was unavailable for comment Monday on the proposed health-care cuts. A ministry spokesman said Falcon is away on his honeymoon until the end of August.

Elsewhere in British Columbia, the province will look to replace the head of the Interior Health Authority, Murray Ramsden, after he announced he will step down at the end of the year.

Ramsden has said his decision to retire is not related to financial problems faced by the authority.

dahansen@vancouversun.com

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