This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Media

  • Children Health Insurance Lies

    Perhaps Washington Post’s most partisan hack writer, Eugene Robinson, who is either the most stupid person on the face of the Earth, the most free of common sense, or the biggest liar on the planet, has written a bit of projection this Friday entitled Bush’s Veto Lies;

    Bush’s veto Wednesday of a bipartisan bill reauthorizing the State Children’s Health Insurance Program was infuriatingly bad policy. An estimated 9 million children in this country are not covered by health insurance — a circumstance that should shock the consciences of every American. Democrats and Republicans worked together to craft an expansion of an existing state-run program that would have provided coverage for about 4 million children who currently don’t have it.

    It was one of those art-of-the-possible compromises designed to advance the ball toward what has become a national goal.

    First of all, Eugene, there might be nine million children without health insurance, per se, but all nine million of those children have government-provided health care through medicaid. And if Democrats wanted to “advance the ball” as you put it, why does the Washington Examiner today report that Democrats aren’t in the mood for compromise with the White House?

    Bush, who vetoed the bill on Wednesday, told a Pennsylvania crowd he is willing to increase his funding proposal for the program if it will lead to a deal with Congress.

    But both House and Senate Democrats insisted there is no room for compromise.

    House Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., called Bush’s overture “an insult” and said he is a president out of touch with reality who used his “macho pen” to hurt children.

    “If he thinks he can waltz in here, with his secretary of Health and Human Services, and sweet-talk us, he can’t. We’re not going to compromise. If he’s hoping for that, he’d better hope for something else,” Reid said.

    House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said, “We have compromised all we can compromise,” but then added, “We’re always willing to talk.”

    Seems to me that the President has been willing to compromise since the beginning of this discussion, but the Democrats froze House Republicans and the White House out of the negotiations. The only reason the Senates Republicans were asked to participate was because of the 60% needed to pass legislation in the Senate these days.

    In fact, the President said he’d have signed the bill if Democrats had made CHIP available to children who live in households with an annual income of 200% of the poverty line – but the Democrats intentionally made the goal for families with an annual income of 300% (about $60,000) of the poverty line. I’m pretty sure a family with $40-60,000 of annual income can afford their own health insurance without the government. So Democrats let it fail because they’re trying to hand out entitlements to the wealthiest Americans – how’s that feel Eugene?

    Well, Eugene Robinson – disingenuous person that he is, says the people between $40-60,000 “fall into a perilous gap”;

    The program Congress voted to expand provides health insurance for children who fall into a perilous gap: Their families make too much money to qualify for Medicaid but don’t make enough to afford health insurance. 

    How can they not afford health insurance when the family is making more money than I have most of my life – and I always had insurance for my kids. I considered it part of my responsibility as a parent. In fact, I made sure they had health insurance until they were 21. Maybe the problem isn’t President Bush – maybe it’s the Democrats (and Eugene Robinson’s) fault for making it seem as if it’s Government’s responsibility to provide healthcare instead of parents.

    Robinson repeats this idea throughout the piece;

    Health care is arguably the biggest domestic issue in the presidential contest and, while the candidates and the country may be all over the map in terms of comprehensive solutions, there’s a pretty broad consensus that some way has to be found to ensure that children, at least, are covered.

    The only candidates talking about it, at any length are the Democrats – but I understand Robinson’s failure to admit that, as I’m sure this supposed journalist is only listening to the Democrats and those are the only candidates this journalist will accept as “his president”.

    And more ignorance from partisan hack Robinson;

    The president said Congress was trying to “federalize health care,” even though the program in question is run by the states.

    The why is the federal government paying for it? The Federal government doesn’t just hand over money to the States without strings attached, or haven’t you read even a page of Title 21 (Public Health) of the Code of Federal Regulations which contains 9 volumes of text in regard to state-run programs.

    And so what if 72% of Americans were “for” the program according to the Washington Post survey – how many understood what was in the bill and what was in dispute? Do you think I trust the Washington Post to honestly survey Americans? Has that ever happened?

    More Robinson drivel;

    Bush seems to be upset that Congress didn’t adopt his pet idea to tackle the health insurance issue through — guess what? — tax breaks. None of the major players on Capitol Hill thought this would work.

    Um, Eugene, no one “on Capitol Hill” thought any of his other tax cuts would increase revenues and stabilize a failing (Clinton) economy – but they did. To ask anyone in Congress to approve of a tax cut or a tax break is like asking a crack addict to go cold turkey. Or haven’t you lived in Washington DC long enough to know that? You have, but you’re not honest enough to tell the truth, are you?

    The actual truth is; the Democrats need an emotional issue to take the focus off of their dreary record of national defense – and this is the one they’ve chosen.

  • Money for nothing

    Wall Street Journal’s Jackie Calmes writes to day that money from “big business” is shifting away from Republican politics;

    New evidence suggests a potentially historic shift in the Republican Party’s identity — what strategists call its “brand.” The votes of many disgruntled fiscal conservatives and other lapsed Republicans are now up for grabs, which could alter U.S. politics in the 2008 elections and beyond.

    Some business leaders are drifting away from the party because of the war in Iraq, the growing federal debt and a conservative social agenda they don’t share. In manufacturing sectors such as the auto industry, some Republicans want direct government help with soaring health-care costs, which Republicans in Washington have been reluctant to provide. And some business people want more government action on global warming, arguing that a bolder plan is not only inevitable, but could spur new industries.

    In other words, real Conservatives are leaving the fake Conservatives behind. And people who just don’t understand politics and government are going to the Democrats.

    New York Times’ Michael Cooper reports that Democrats are surpassing Republicans in the presidential race for cash;

    The Democratic presidential candidates continued to raise significantly more money during the last three months than their Republican counterparts, according to official and unofficial third-quarter fund-raising tallies that were released yesterday.

    Senator Barack Obama, the Illinois Democrat, raised at least $20 million over the summer, more than $19 million of which could be spent on the primary — showing that he continued to be a formidable fund-raiser. It was unclear whether he still led in fund-raising, as he did this spring, because Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton did not release her tally. (Her aides had said that they expected to raise a similar amount.) John Edwards raised $7 million, and Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico raised $5.2 million.

    A race for cash – for what? Name recognition? Which of the Democrats have problems with that? Thanks to the mainstream press, Americans can probably name every one of them. And their agenda is just as easy to recite – get out of Iraq raise taxes and pay for anything a particular audience wants.

    No sooner does the Washington Times announce that Obama surpassed Clinton with $20 million, the Post announces that Clinton raised $7 million more. And Reuters quotes Clinton’s campaign manager;

    “Hillary wanted you to know that this was our best quarter yet,” her campaign manager, Patty Solis Doyle, said in an e-mail to supporters. “This is the moment when your dedication defied the skeptics.”

    Skeptics? Who was skeptical? Was there ever a Clinton donor who turned her or her husband down for money? They take money from every pyramid schemer and Buddist monk that’ll hand it over. So what’s the surprise?

    The problem is the candidates’ ideas. They worry more about our feelings than the realities of the world. They spend more time pandering to any group who’ll listen to their mindless rambling on about how they’ll spend other people’s money (read that: YOUR money) than they do about a plan to actually fix the problems facing us.

    They’re at the point where they’re promising to hand over $5000 to every child that escapes the bloody abortionists’ knives – there’s the cradle. Now when are they going to start promising us money for our dead kin?

    Money isn’t votes – the Supreme Court says it’s speech – that’s well and good, but the media is reporting it like it’s the election. Me? I’m out of the money donating business. Every time I hand over my cash for my candidate, I get disappointed.

    All of those millions of Democrats pouring money into those candidate coffers are going to be disappointed, too, when they discover that they’re pouring money down a dark hole. Hasn’t anyone else noticed that Democrats haven’t bothered to keep ANY of their campaign promises from the midterms – the issues they claim won them a “mandate”? Democrats aren’t in the business of solving problems – they’re in the business of making promises they don’t intend to keep – then excuse it away by saying “everybody does it”.

    When I voted for George W. Bush, I knew he’d keep his promises, whether you liked it or not – he hasn’t disappointed me, well, much. I can’t say the same for the Republican crop this year – they change their positions faster than a whip snake. If they win they’ll do it without my money. besides, I’ll need my money to pay taxes if the Democrats win.

  • Marion Barry robbed – again

    Watching the news last night, i saw that perennial DC hero and typical citizen, Marion Barry was robbed this last weekend. (Washington Post);

    The Southeast Washington home of D.C. Council member Marion Barry was burglarized recently, D.C. police said last night.

    Police said the items taken included watches and jewelry. The value of the items stolen was not immediately available.

    Barry had been on a five-day trip to China last month when the burglary occurred, an aide said. On Sept. 20, the former mayor addressed an association of Chinese mayors. It could not be learned from police exactly when the burglary was reported.

    Yeah, well WaPo got it wrong, somewhat – according to the local Fox Five news, the value of the items taken was about $14,000 in jewelry. Keep in mind, Barry owns this much jewelry and takes trips to China while he still owes back taxes to the Federal government all the way from 1999 – which to the last of my knowledge, he’s made no attempt to repay despite the fact that he’s escaped jail by the grace of a Clinton-appointee Federal judge. I’m sure that same judge would keep you or I out of jail, too, for the same offenses.

    I think the most amazing part of the story is that Barry, now twice a victim of crime in the last two years, still thinks gun control in the District is a good idea and he’s still sponsoring a gun control bill to block a Federal court finding on the issue earlier this year. In fact, Fox Five used the burglary incident to highlight his stance against legal guns. Disregarding the fact that crime is on a steep climb in the District according to Metro Police crime statistics.

    Of course, he’s not known as a cracksmoking whore-monger for nothing, I guess.

  • Juan Williams, the Happy Negro

    From Sister Toldjah, I read that Juan Williams is being attacked by Black media as a “Happy Negro”, a term I’m not familiar with, but apparently he is familiar, according to the Time article he wrote about the incident that caused this inflammatory name-calling;

    It started with Bill O’Reilly’s grandmother. And it blew up into charges of O’Reilly being called a racist and me being attacked as a “Happy Negro” (read that as a lackey or Uncle Tom).

    I guess, O’Reilly being the king of primetime cable news programs makes him a lightning rod for every specious charge on the planet. I’m not a fan of O’Reilly or Williams, for that matter, but I think everyone needs to chill on this one.

    I once met Juan Williams, by chance during our lunch hours (we both work within blocks of each other, so it was inevitable). We talked briefly and I found him to be a very friendly fellow. We talked about Panama (he’s Panamanian by birth, by the way, so it’d be tough for him to be an “Uncle Tom” since he shares skin color, but not a heritage with American Blacks) and his career. The first I’d ever heard of him was when we used his book “Eye on the Prize” in a history seminar I took once.

    I’m not fond of his politics, but I’ve always admired him since he took a few minutes of his lunch period to talk with me. I’ve read some of his books, and he’s a meticulous reseacher and writes very well – for a journalist. Given the body of his published works, by that alone, I can’t imagine the Black media thinking that Williams is anything except a proud Black man working for the betterment of Black society. If they want to take the side of braggart thugs creating an image of Black society that is totally out of sync with reality, against Williams, perhaps Black media-types ought to take account of their own values. If it can be said that Williams is carrying water for O’Reilly, then it is also true that the Black Media is carrying water for convicted and potential felons. Who is on higher ground in this discussion?

    Newsbuster’s Noel Sheppard does the background on Media Matters, the group that cherry-picked O’Reilly’s comments as well as the Limbaugh incident this week.

  • Bob Herbert; the ugliest side of racebaiting

    You’ve probably already read the drivel that Bob Herbert stole his weekly check with this week called The Ugly Side of the GOP. He begins his ignorant, valueless rant yapping about giving a Congressional vote to the District of Columbia;

    Enough is enough. Last week the Republicans showed once again just how anti-black their party really is.

    The Republicans are anti-black because they won’t give the District of Columbia a Congressional vote. The District is 65% black – that means there’s 175,000 whites and hispanics in the city that don’t gt a Congressional vote either. Does racist Herbert say a word about that? Nope, the Republicans didn’t change the law because they want to disenfranchise Blacks – most of those disenfranchised moved from a place where they had a Congressional vote to the District where they knew they wouldn’t have a Congressional vote.

    By moving 5 miles in any direction, a resident of the District could get a Congressional vote if it meant that much to them. So the residents of the District of Columbia choose to not have a Congressional vote.

    The only people who need a Congressional vote for the District are the politicians (most of whom are Black – so that must be the people Herbert is concerned about) who want to rape the American taxpayers. That’s the truth – the politicians in the District whip the masses into a frenzy with intellectually bankrupt platitudes to enrich themselves.

    I suppose Herbert blames the Republicans for Katrina, too, instead of the Democrat governor and mayor (a Black) who stood at a distance (in his comfy hotel room in Baton Rouge) and left the people of New Orleans to their fate despite pleas from the Republicans to evacuate the city.

    Someone should remind Herbert that it was a Republican Senate and President that enacted the Civil Rights Act of 1957 that formed the Civil Rights Commission. It was also Republicans that passed President Johnson’s Civil Rights Act of 1964 despite Democrat opposition.

    He also complains about “states’ rights” – that Ronald Reagan announced he was for states’ rights. I remind Herbert, despite his misuse of the word, the Constitution guarentees states’ rights in the 10th Amendment. Herbert should read it sometimes.

    He goes on (and on and on…);

    At the same time that the Republicans were killing Congressional representation for D.C. residents, the major G.O.P. candidates for president were offering a collective slap in the face to black voters nationally by refusing to participate in a long-scheduled, nationally televised debate focusing on issues important to minorities.

    Why should they waste their time addressing issues that Democrats (like Grand Kleagle Robert Byrd) have been paying lipservice to for decades. That’s all racebaiting thugs like Herbert care about – they don’t want solutions to problems, they just want someone to feel sorry for them and someone to tell them how helpless they are, and throw money at them. The Democrats do that well – other people’s money.

    Blacks have disenfranchised themselves – they bought into the Democrat rhetoric and they follow Democrats like sheep – for scraps. And then they demonize Blacks who choose to become Republicans. The Democrats take them for granted and Republicans just don’t work for their vote – because it’s a lost cause.

    And clowns like Herbert, who are in a position to change the way Blacks are treated in the political system, instead take the easy route and run to “Massa” and point out the fieldhands that are sneaking off the plantation.

  • Columbia U; Ahmadinejad’s just an idea guy

    Well, we’ve just watched political correctness jump the shark. Columbia University’s President, this Bollinger guy, through the vocal chords of this Dean John Coatsworth fellow has declared that Columbia would have given a forum to a 1939 Adolph Hitler. But the difference between a 1939 Hitler and a 2007 Ahmadinejad is that the 2007 Ahmadinejad has already been responsible for American deaths – would Columbia University lend a forum to a 1944 Hitler? That is the appropriate comparison.

    Regardless, the little knucklehead from that backwards sandpit will speak, if he doesn’t show up at Columbia, he’ll teleconference to a National Press Club luncheon. Whatever will that accomplish? Who in the National Press Club thinks that anything newsworthy will come out of the opportunity for the Iranian President and former kidnapping terrorist to speak to members of the National Press Club?

    In fact, what will be accomplished, what will be newsworthy or beneficial to any student at Columbia University from listening to the half-pint soccer star wannabe? Even when Columbia University allows a new opinion, a legitimate opinion, a US opinion contrary to what students might hear in their sequestered university surroundings, is presented, they reject it outright because of their tiny closed minds and they won’t allow others to hear the opposing opinion.

    So why would Columbia University allow Ahmadinejad speak? To stick their finger in the eye of the Estabishment. The Man. The Bush Administration. Whyelse? It’s fashionable…New York City, Columbia University fashionable.

    In today’s Washington Times, Robert Stacy McCain writes;

    At Columbia, more than 800 students have joined an online group organizing a protest against the appearance by the Iranian president, who has called for the destruction of Israel.

    University President Lee Bollinger has said the Ahmadinejad invitation is in keeping with “Columbia’s long-standing tradition of serving as a major forum for robust debate.”

    Well, unless it’s the Minute Men or John McCain, of course. The Times’ McCain reminds us of the hypocrisy;

    While Columbia is going ahead with its plans to host Mr. Ahmadinejad, the University of California rescinded its invitation to another prominent figure — former Harvard President Lawrence Summers.

    Mr. Summers, who drew worldwide attention for his comments that biological differences may partly explain the dearth of women among the very highest achieving scientists, was supposed to speak about pursuing academic excellence to university chancellors and the UC system’s board of regents at an informal dinner last week. But the invitation angered some faculty at UC’s Davis campus, who circulated a petition opposing Mr. Summers’ visit and collected more than 300 signatures.

    “Inviting a keynote speaker who has come to symbolize gender and racial prejudice in academia conveys the wrong message to the University community and to the people of California,” the petition reads.

    But Ahmadinejad is strong defender of women’s rights, isn’t he? Well, as long as they wear the clothes he approves and they don’t mind being stoned for their own rape. Seems to me that the NOW gals would have something to say about allowing this goofball to have a forum.

    And what could he possibly say that has value? We already know he has an ignorant world view;

    Ahmadinejad said the American people have been denied “correct information,” and his visit will give them a chance to hear a different voice, the official IRNA news agency reported.

    “The United States is a big and important country with a population of 300 million. Due to certain issues, the American people in the past years have been denied correct and clear information about global developments and are eager to hear different opinions,” Ahmadinejad was quoted by IRNA as saying.

    And what “incorrect information” have we been given?

    Ahmadinejad, who has called the Holocaust “a myth,” encouraged the destruction of Israel and supported terrorists in Iraq….

    If I met a guy on the street and he expressed those views, I’d dismiss him as a crackpot and walk away – but we give foreigners a special forum when they express those views;

    Ahmadinejad is using America with his visit as a propaganda tool, Brad Blakeman of Freedom’s Watch told FOX News.

    “He’s using America, he’s using our democracy as a tool against us,” Blakeman said.

    Exactly – and that’s why Columbia is giving him a forum in which to propagate this basura. It’s how northeast liberals assuage their guilt over their own wealth and padded stations in life.

    Northeast liberals like the “Columbia Coalition Against the War” (h/t Hot Air) who honestly fear Ahmadinejad because refusing him a forum might cause a war;

    We fear the demonization of Ahmadinejad, because we think this demonization contributes to the likelihood of war.  In the current climate, with many on the political right in the U.S. and Israel pushing for air strikes, a campaign against Ahmadinejad is dangerous, regardless of the intentions of most involved.  A call to action, unless it prominently rules out war, implies military action.

    A rally where each speaker denounces Ahmadinejad’s reactionary policies and just a few call explicitly for military action will still be perceived, on campus and around the U.S., as pro-war.

    Pro-war? As opposed to “pro-peace at any cost”? I wonder how these “students” (who apparently think they know everything already – not realizing that students are idiots who have much to learn simply by being students in the first place) would feel about Hamid Karzai or Pervez Musharraf speaking at Columbia about the students’ misperceptions about their respective countries.

    I guess they don’t realize Ahmadinejad’s penchant for being a bloody dictator as told by Amil Imani;

    The 7th century barbaric rule of Sharia has caused millions of Iranians to flee their country. Those remaining have been subject to mass slaughtering, thousands upon thousands of fabricated arrests and thousands more torn away from their homes and their families. They have been subjected to tortures, made to confess to crimes they never committed, and then been either exterminated or sent back to medieval Islamic torture chambers where they simply faded away. It is difficult for many people to even talk about these horrible tragedies and genocides, which continue to exist to this date in Iran.

    Similar to the Nazis who possessed a vast and destructive power apparatus, its new rival, the Islamic Republic, is on the same path of destroying the civilized world. Why the world “looks the other way” about the homicidal, genocidal actions of the Islamic Republic of Iran, is a very good question many Iranians would like to have answered.

    Even northeast liberal Michael Bloomberg shows a little bit of common sense;

    Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Friday that the university was free to invite Ahmadinejad to speak, but “personally, I wouldn’t go to listen to him—I don’t care about what he says.”

    A White House spokesman challenged Ahmadinejad to allow the same free speech he emands from us in his own country;

    This is a country where people can come and speak their minds,” [Tony Fratto] said, adding, “It would be wonderful if some of the countries that take advantage of that here allowed it for their own citizens there.”

    It’s not a free speech issue – everyone in this country has the right to say what they want, anywhere they want. What they don’t have guarenteed is an audience. Nearly every blogger has learned that. My condemnation of Columbia University is that they take some third world goat roping murdering terrorist off of the street and present him as if he has something of value to offer the world, knowing in advance that he certainly does not. He has no ideas worth discussing – and we all know that no one at Columbia has the huevos to discuss anything with him beyond, as Robin from Chickenhawk Express said in her comment here earlier this weekend “Boxers or briefs?”

    Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs says “Sue the Bastards” (she means CU) and finds the planet’s tallest dwarf at the Ritz-Carlton and wonders if the 12th Imam has an adjoining suite. Pam Meister says it’s just another reason to withdraw from the UN. Boker Tov, Boulder! says the midget wannabe mullah will be on ’60 Minutes’ tonight, too. Curt at Flopping Aces reports that the hypocrisy is pretty blatant. Gateway Pundit finds Muslims against the little fella’s forum. Little Green Footballs speculates on the type of people who’ll show up seriously interested in what the dwarf has to say. Michele Malkin says he also plans to meet “9-11 families and war critics”. My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy’s Beth says they really did invite Hitler to speak – imagine my surprise. Wild Thing at PC Free Zone wraps Ahmadinejad in bacon and claims Reagan would have stopped him from visiting New York. Right Voices has the details on the National Press Club tele-luncheon (Note to NPC members, the deli down stairs is much better than the luncheon fare at NPC – trust me. And in this case, the entertainment will be much better). Rick Moran at the Right Wing Nut House writes “The Devil Went Down to Columbia” Patterico says that maybe using Hitler as an example isn’t the best way to convince Americans that Columbia made a good choice. And I’m sure Hatemonger’s Quarterly would have something to say about Ahmadinejad, except that the “crack young staff” has a government mandate to discuss OJ Simpson.

    Update: LGF reports that Ahmadinejad (I’m so proud that I can spell that without looking it up anymore) is converting DailyKos lesbians.

    By the way, today is my birthday so please give me the gift I crave most – the gift of traffic and comments.

  • This is news; it’s hard to sell a house in a warzone

    I guess it’s hard to find bad news about the war in Iraq, but that doesn’t stop the hardworking reporters at the Washington Post from finding it. Reporters like Megan Greenwell;

    With hundreds of thousands of Baghdad residents having fled their homes for the relative safety of segregated neighborhoods or foreign countries, a clandestine system of buying and selling property off the books has supplanted more traditional real estate practices. If families being pushed out are lucky, they are able to sell their homes for some small price, as Ismael did. Wait too long, and their houses might be seized at gunpoint.

    Real estate agent Mahir al-Sultani said business has all but dried up — ironic, he admits, considering how many people are moving in and out. Without exception, half a dozen real estate agents said that houses are still being bought and sold, but that licensed agents have been largely cut out of the equation.

    Even APF and has to admit that things are getting better in Iraq;

    “Attacks nationwide have fallen to the lowest level since before the Golden Mosque bombing,” he said, referring to a bombing which destroyed the revered shrine in Samarra and unleashed a relentless wave of reprisals and counter-reprisals across Iraq that has already killed thousands of Iraqis.

    “Car bombs and suicide attacks have dropped to their lowest level in a year,” Odierno said. “Attacks in Baghdad have reached the lowest level this year and the trend continues to be down.”

    Civilian casualties had dropped from a high of about 32 per day to 12 per day, the US commander said.

    “Al-Qaeda in Iraq is increasingly being pushed out of Baghdad and the surrounding areas,” he said. “We are starting to see a normalisation of life across Iraq and also in Baghdad.”

    But Megan and the Washington Post are having a hard time coming to grips with reality;

    …as the war dragged on and insurgent groups gained power, property values began a free fall that real estate agents say has not yet hit bottom. The wealthy families who had returned to fancy homes in Baghdad left again for the stability of Jordan or Syria, in many cases leaving their houses empty. Lower- and middle-class people, desperate to afford the high cost of emigrating, rushed to sell their homes for any price.

    Maybe Hillary and John Edwards can come up with a way to install price supports in Iraq’s housing market – that’ll keep al Qaeda away and make us safer.

  • Drudge leaves radio

     

    I just got an email from my local radio station (WMAL 630AM) that Matt Drudge will broadcast his last show September 30th. They claim it’s completely his choice to leave radio and focus on the Drudge Report. Since I have a job that isn’t conducive to listening to talk radio, it’s the only show I’ve listened to these last few years.

    I guess there’s nothing left for me to do on Sunday nights except sleep now.