Political Commentary - Thanksgiving Day 2009

CNS News.com

MSNBC and Chris Matthews vs. MLK and the Catholic Church
By Terence P. Jeffrey

When Martin Luther King Jr. Day arrives in January, MSNBC commentators certainly will not denigrate the heroic civil rights leader by claiming he improperly crossed the line between church and state when he demanded that the laws of this country protect the God-given rights of African Americans. They wouldn’t have the nerve to do to attack MLK the way they’ve attacked America’s Roman Catholic bishops.

Turkeys of the Year
By Michelle Malkin

As we gather round the Thanksgiving table, bow our heads in prayer and feast on the holiday bird, it is only fitting to take a moment to fete the unforgettable turkeys of 2009 -- the stimulus, President Obama, green jobs czar Van Jones, The New York Times,and Tea Party-bashers.

When the Establishment Hates a Right Wing Candidate
By Ben Shapiro

Is Sarah Palin another Ronald Reagan? It’s too early to say. It’s easy to write her off now, but if the economy continues to dive due to the Democrats’ inflation of the currency and earth-shattering spending, Americans will be less apt to worry about Sarah Palin’s moose hunting.

Where the Real Fear Is
By Rich Tucker

This Thanksgiving week, let us celebrate above all else the wisdom of the Founding Fathers. Not simply for bequeathing to us the Constitution – the single greatest governing document in the history of mankind – but for actually having the foresight to write it down. That ensures that, no matter how mangled the supposed “living” Constitution becomes over the years, there’s at least the chance our country can someday return to its roots by simply reading and following the actual words of our Founders.

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Video: Blatant Pork! Landrieu: Sells Her Vote For Congress-care?

November 23, 2009
Video 2:41
Source: Newsy.com

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) withheld her support for healthcare debate until Louisiana got $300 million in taxpayer money for Medicaid. Do Senate votes go to the highest bidder?



2010 is really the time for change! Boot the elders out and get some young moderate and conservative blood in the House and Senate! (Ed. Jim DeSantis)

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Video: Obama-Matthews Love Affair May Be Over?

Chris Matthews Shocker: Obama Making 'Carteresque' Mistakes
By Noel Sheppard ( Bio | Archive)
November 22, 2009 - 15:19 ET

Chris Matthews appears to have lost that loving feeling for Barack Obama.

On "The Chris Matthews Show" Sunday, the once smitten MSNBCer called some of Obama's recent mistakes "Carteresque":

In the Carter presidency, the optics were not exactly robust, and Ronald Reagan rode that to a big victory in 1980. Is the Obama White House sending some Carteresque signals these days? (Video next page)

These "signals" included bowing to the Emperor of Japan, getting nothing on his trip to China, and deciding to try terrorists in New York City.

Potentially as surprising as Matthews bringing these issues up was the Washington Post's Anne Kornblut and David Ignatius agreeing with him...



*****Update: The day after this installment of "The Chris Matthews Show" was taped, Newsweek's Howard Fineman claimed Obama is a lot like Ronald Reagan!

—Noel Sheppard is the Associate Editor of NewsBusters. Follow him at Facebook and Twitter.

Source: Newsbusters.org

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CyberAlert Liberal Media Roundup: Palin, Healthcare, Obama, more...

Tracking Liberal Media Bias Since 1996
Monday November 23, 2009 @ 09:32 AM EST

1. 61% Realize Palin's Been 'Treated Unfairly by the Press'
MSM polls may say a majority don't consider Sarah Palin qualified to be President (60 percent according to ABC News-Washington Post), but just as many people recognize the media's unfair hostility toward her. "About six in 10 Americans (61 percent) think Palin...has been treated unfairly by the press," a Fox News-Opinion Dynamics survey released on Friday - and highlighted on Saturday's Fox Newswatch on FNC - discovered. That's up from 58 percent in January. Half as many, 31 percent, said she's been covered "fairly." While an overwhelming 83 percent of Republicans consider media coverage unfair toward Palin, so do a solid 65 percent majority of independents - and even a significant minority of Democrats: 37 percent.

2. ABC's Johnson Recites Canard Lack of Health Insurance Kills 45,000 Annually
In contending America already has health care rationing, ABC's Dr. Tim Johnson, a universal coverage advocate, on Friday night's World News asserted "we have a lot of rationing, based on income, the kind of insurance you have, the way you can navigate the health system" and "a recent Harvard study estimated that 45,000 people died each year in this country because of lack of health insurance. If that's not rationing, I don't know what is." That "Harvard study," which the CBS Evening News promoted two months ago, was really produced by the Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), a left-wing advocacy group which touts itself as "the only national physician organization in the United States dedicated exclusively to implementing a single-payer national health program."

3. MSNBC's Matthews Finds Obama's Weakness: He's 'Too Darned Intellectual'
At the top of Friday’s Hardball on MSNBC, host Chris Matthews discovered the reason for President Obama’s political difficulties in recent months: “President Obama has his chin out on just about every hot issue out there....He’s exposed and vulnerable. His poll numbers are dropping. Is he just too darned intellectual? Too much the egg head?”

4. Bloviating Dick Cavett Bashes 'Know-Nothing' Sarah Palin, Obsesses Over His Brilliance
Talk show host Dick Cavett, whose TV show went off the air in 1982, appeared on MSNBC, Friday, to trash Sarah Palin as a "know nothing" and someone who has "no first language." Mostly, however, he seemed interested only in talking about himself, prompting News Live host Norah O’Donnell to chide, "Dick, this segment is about Sarah Palin, not about you, Dick."

5. NBC's Vieira and Gregory Write Off Obama Struggles as Merely 'Perception Problems'
At first glance it appeared that NBC's Meredith Vieira and David Gregory, on Friday's Today show, did a decent job of recounting all of the struggles the Obama administration is dealing with from unemployment to foreign policy, but ultimately the pair concluded, in every instance, they weren't actual problems, but merely problems of "perception."

6. On MSNBC, Ebony Honoree Dyson: Obama's 'Brought Sexy Brilliance Back to the White House'
MSNBC publicized Ebony magazine's "Power 150" picks by bringing aboard two left-wing honorees, Al Sharpton and Michael Eric Dyson, during Friday's 11 AM EST hour. "To be on any list with Al Sharpton," Dyson, an author and sociology professor at Georgetown University glowed, "is extraordinarily beautiful." He proceeded to rejoice: "We have a man in the White House who has made, you know, thinking sexy, who's brought sexy brilliance back to the White House."

7. MSNBC's Ratigan Wonders If Americans Should 'Stop Whining'
Citing a Democratic congressman who recently proposed a no whining day, on Friday’s Morning Meeting on MSNBC, host Dylan Ratigan asked: “...unemployment, health care, a couple of wars, Americans got plenty to be frustrated about these days...But some people say stop the whining....Is ‘shut up and deal’ the new American mantra?”

CyberAlert is a daily compilation edited by Brent H. Baker. CyberAlert items are drawn from daily BiasAlert posts and distributed by the Media Research Center's News Analysis Division, the leader since 1987 in documenting, exposing and neutralizing liberal media bias. Subscribe Here!

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Congress-care On Stage: The Political Play Is The Thing

Wall Street Journal OpEd
The Senate's Health-Care Act
For Democratic 'moderates,' the political play is the thing.

As tragedies go, the Senate's Saturday night vote to proceed with a debate on a vast new health-care entitlement wasn't exactly Shakespearean. The outcome was expected but the writing wasn't as good and the acting was more Jon Lovitz than Laurence Olivier. The only real drama was how much publicity and pork the supposedly fence-sitting Democrats could exact in exchange for a vote that everyone knew was a foregone conclusion.

At this stage of the legislative process...Democrats are at ramming speed, determined to pass this destructive legislation at whatever cost before more voters figure out what is being done to them. The designated role for the "moderates" is to protest and posture enough to claim to have "improved" the bill before they inevitably acquiesce in it becoming law. The play's the thing.

Take Louisiana Democrat Mary Landrieu, who claims to have grave concerns about the bill's cost. Those worries became less pressing when Majority Leader Harry Reid added language on page 432 of the 2,074-page opus that would raise the bill's cost by increasing federal Medicaid subsidies for "certain states recovering from a major disaster." Guess which state is the only one that would qualify under that wording?

This political gratuity was quickly reported as costing $100 million, but Senator Landrieu made clear after her floor speech that her vote couldn't be bought that cheaply. "I will correct something. It's not $100 million, it's $300 million, and I'm proud of it and will keep fighting for it," she told reporters.

Note that Senator Landrieu's price included no substantive change in the $25 billion in Medicaid burdens that this legislation will impose on other states, or any reduction in its huge new tax burden on Louisiana small businesses, or any change in the rationing commission it will establish for Medicare. Mrs. Landrieu was voting to enable all of those provisions to take one more giant step toward enactment.

Senator Landrieu did also say she will not vote for the bill on final passage unless its provision for a public insurance plan would only be imposed with a "trigger" if certain measures of coverage aren't met. But as long as the architecture of a "public option" is included in the bill, it will be triggered sooner rather than later.

The bill's new rules and costs for private insurance are so onerous that the public option is bound to be cheaper. This is why Barney Frank says the public option is a stepping stone to a government-run system, and Henry Waxman says the left will build on any form of public option once it is in place. Mrs. Landrieu is merely reciting her political lines.

Then there is Arkansas's Blanche Lincoln, who is up for re-election next year and is doing her best to sound as if she is both for and against the legislation. "We simply cannot ignore the growth in the federal government since the year 2000. I can assure you that the American people have not ignored it," Mrs. Lincoln declared in her Senate floor speech—moments before she said she would vote to proceed with the biggest expansion of government in living memory.

Voters can expect more such faux drama as the debate proceeds on the Senate floor. Nebraska's Ben Nelson will insist on some compromise on abortion coverage, and the National Right to Life Committee will declare a great victory—never mind the rationing the bill will guarantee for the sick and aged. Evan Bayh of Indiana will fight to reduce taxes on medical devices, even as the overall bill guarantees a far higher tax burden on the entire U.S. economy.

Americans shouldn't be fooled by this play-acting. The only way to improve this bill is to defeat it and start over.

Source: Wall Street Journal OpEd

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Congress-care: Bills rely on more than $400 billion in cuts to Medicare.

On Saturday, Democrat Harry Ried got his 60 votes to move the Senate bill to floor debate. He bought off Democrat Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana with a guaranteed 100 million (hidden in the bill) for her state to prop up Medicaid. This is our 100 million, our tax dollars. Democrat Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas was the other key vote.

The Democrats are forging ahead in spite of polls that show overwhelming rejection of massive health care reform among likely voters. And, polls show Congressional approval ratings at an all-time low of 27% among likely voters.

Both the House and Senate bills depend upon over $400 billion in cuts to Medicare or the final bills will be a financial disaster. Seniors will again be the scapegoats for politicians who are out to push a socialist agenda. Medicare benefits will be cut. Our children and grandchildren will be paying the 900 billion dollar bill and be denied a decent quality of life.

Congress and the President still don't get it.

We want less government, less taxes, and we want both parties to stop the partisan games and look out for our interests.

Where is President Obama in all this?

On junkets all around the world, making apologies, bowing like a servant, embarrassing us. At home, he makes appearances like a celebrity but plays it safe on the tough issues facing us. He is not taking the lead. He is more PR man than leader.

I will never forget his slip of the tongue after serving just a couple of months in office. He said - "In my first term..." This says it all. That is his goal. A second term. He campaigns for 2012 while Congress burns our freedom to the ground today.

If you voted for Obama and Democrats, I know you wanted "change" from Congress and from President Obama. I don't believe you wanted "socialism." Unless we speak loudly, we are all going to be victims of a socialist agenda. It starts with Congress-care.

In the case of Congress-care, It is not true that providing health care for the few will be good for the many. And, trying to pay for health care for the few by placing a burden on Medicare recipients through 400 billion in cuts is a sad commentary on the state of our nation.

We should fix health care "one bite at a time" instead of trying to swallow the elephant in one bite!

Jim DeSantis

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The Doctors: Medicare Fix Creates Even Deeper Debt

Yesterday (Nov.17) at 3:00 p.m. ET, the Treasury Department updated its calculation of the U.S. National Debt to: $12,031,299,186,290.07. That $12 trillion record high comes just eight months after it hit $11 trillion and is only expected to rise faster considering the federal deficit for 2009 was over $1.4 trillion. And what is the leftist majority of Congress going to do tomorrow about these skyrocketing deficits? They are going to pile on the spending faster.

The issue at hand is the congressionally created formula for annually updating the payments doctors receive for treating Medicare patients. The centrally planned price fixing formula was designed to control health care costs by tying doctor payments to the overall growth rate of the economy.

Problem is the realities of supply and demand in the health care sector have pushed doctor’s fees higher than the formula allows for. So instead of going back and fixing the formula (or heaven forbid introducing some market based reforms into Medicare), every year Congress passes short-term fixes rescinding the scheduled rate cuts.

Fixing the problem permanently has long been the top legislative priority for the American Medical Association, and in exchange for their endorsement of Obamacare, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) promised them she would do so.

Problem is Pelosi and co. could not figure out how to game the Congressional Budget Office's numbers to show that Obamacare was deficit neutral and pay for the so called “doc fix” at the same time. So they solved the problem by pretending the “doc fix” was not health care reform. But to keep the AMA happy they took the unusual step of combining the debate rules for Obamacare and the doc fix.

As a result, Congress is set to debate the bill tomorrow for just one hour, and no amendments will be allowed. In other words, even if conservative Democrats or Republicans wanted to propose an amendment that would pay for the doctor’s higher payments, they are prevented from doing so.

According to the CBO, just the ten year cost of the legislation will be $210 billion, but the damage does not end there. Medicare is a never ending entitlement program, so the real pain caused by the left’s free spending will be felt for decades to come. According to the latest report from the Medicare Trustees, the 75-year cost of allowing doctor payments to match the percentage change in the medical economic index is $1.9 trillion in more debt.

Americans who are concerned about our nation’s exploding deficits under President Obama and the leftist majorities in Congress should keep the doc fix debacle in mind when considering Obamacare. The deficit neutrality of the House-passed Obamacare bill entirely depends on Congress’ ability to cut $500 billion from hospital Medicare payments over the next ten years. Does anyone believe those cuts will ever happen?

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Health Care Reform Commentary: The New Hampshire Example

Congress' proposed reforms will raise health insurance rates
By Douglas J. Wenners

There are too many Americans without health insurance. For those with health insurance, the escalating cost of keeping it is unsustainable. Unfortunately, the current legislation being debated in Congress is neither sustainable nor practical.

The legislation fails to address the true drivers of health insurance rates: underlying medical costs. And, due to a combination of provisions in the legislation, it will actually dramatically increase rates for individuals and businesses, putting health care coverage further out of reach for some of our citizens.

Insurance rates rise by double digits each year because the amount insurance companies spend on medical care rises by double digits. We should not be surprised by this. Every year, our state becomes less healthy than the year before. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly a quarter of our state is obese. The percentage of adults diagnosed with diabetes in New Hampshire has nearly doubled since 1997.

Government payments to hospitals and doctors are less than what it costs to treat patients. To offset these losses, providers need increasingly higher payments from health insurers. According to the New Hampshire Center for Public Policy, from 2001 to 2007 the total volume of losses associated with government underpayments and charitable care increased by 127 percent, from $179 million to $406 million, or about 15 percent per year. Health insurance premiums in New Hampshire could be as much as 25 percent lower than they are if government programs (Medicare and Medicaid) paid their way.

A lack of transparency in cost and quality is also contributing to the steep rise in health care costs. The cost of a screening colonoscopy in the Manchester area can range from $1,619 to $4,213 depending on where the colonoscopy is performed. Consumers generally have no understanding of this type of cost variation. One would not buy a car, a computer or even a gallon of milk without comparing the price. Yet as consumers we often buy health care without any knowledge of price.

Instead of focusing on problems such as the health of our people, cost shifting and transparency, the focus of the current proposals is on insurance reform. Instead of finding ways to lower health insurance rates, Congress has proposed legislation that will actually raise health insurance rates for many in New Hampshire. According to a recent actuarial study performed by our company, New Hampshire rates for health insurance premiums could rise as much as 93 percent for healthy, young purchasers and as much as 27 percent for small employers unless important changes are made.

One of the reasons the proposals will increase health insurance premiums is that they create an incentive for people to buy insurance only when they are sick, driving up the costs for all. In the Senate Finance Committee bill, the penalty for failure to obtain health insurance is just $200 for adults in 2014 -- well below the annual premium an adult would pay for health insurance. Although this amount increases to $750 in 2017, it is still a fraction of the amount someone would pay for coverage, even after reforms are enacted.

Knowing that they can purchase insurance only when they become sick, consumers are likely to pay the modest penalty instead. Congress must raise the penalties for those who decide not to buy insurance to encourage all Americans to purchase the insurance they need.

The proposed "public option" will not succeed in lowering medical costs or health insurance premiums. Medical cost increases drive health insurance rate increases. If the name of the front of our building changed from "Anthem Blue Cross & Blue Shield" to "Property of the United States Government" there would be no change in the acceleration of medical costs or health insurance rates. Only sustainable and practical reform focused on the underlying cost issues can address our challenges.

As members of Congress move forward to combine pending proposals into one piece of legislation, they need to remember that insurance systems only work if the people who use the services are pooled with those who decide not to. Everyone has to be part of the plan from the outset to share the costs fairly. Most importantly, we must address the rising costs of medical care by improving the health of our state and nation, reducing the effects of cost-shifting and creating greater transparency for consumers. If we do not, then we will still be talking about how to reform our system 20 years from now.

Douglas J. Wenners is president and general manager of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in New Hampshire. To view Anthem's premium impact study, click here (.pdf format)

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Healthcare Debate: Democrat Liberals vs The Roman Catholic Church

Wall Street Journal - Jerry Seib Reports:

'The last thing Democrats need right now is a fight over health care with a powerful group that ought to be an ally in the struggle to pass a bill. Yet that's exactly what may be taking shape with the nation's Catholic bishops. The reason.....

The party's liberal wing is trying to force a retreat from a deal struck in the House to ensure that federal funds aren't used for abortions under a health-care overhaul. It's an argument nobody seems to really want, over a subject almost everybody would like to avoid, yet it hangs overhead like a cloud that won't quite go away.

The Hyde Amendment's language is reproduced almost precisely in the Stupak amendment. The Stupak language also includes provisions saying explicitly that it wouldn't prevent a state or local government from offering supplemental coverage for abortion services, or block a private health plan from offering abortion coverage in a supplemental policy paid for with personal funds. But that hasn't prevented a backlash.

The status quo on abortion policy is, nearly everyone acknowledges, an uneasy one. Yet it is also has held for almost a generation. The trick for Democratic leaders now is to find a way to convince all sides that the arrangement can survive the biggest health-care legislation in memory.'

Edited by Michael Falcone at POLITICO PULSE

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Federal Judge Carter sets Trial Date for Obama's Eligibility!

Many concerned veterans and citizens attended the hearing in Federal Court in Santa Ana in the lawsuit against Barack Obama to determine his eligibility to be President and Commander in Chief. About 150 people showed up, almost all in support of the lawsuit to demand that Obama release his birth certificate and other records that he has hidden from the American people.

Judge David Carter refused to hear Obama's request for dismissal. He indicated there was almost no chance that this case would be dismissed. Obama is arguing this lawsuit was filed in the wrong court if you can believe that. Obama would prefer a "kangaroo court" instead of a Federal court! Assuming Judge Carter denies Obama's motion for dismissal, he will likely then order expedited discovery which will force Obama to release his birth certificate in a timely manner (if he has one).

The judge, who is a former U.S. Marine, repeated several times that this is a very serious case which must be resolved quickly so that the troops know that their Commander in Chief is eligible to hold that position and issue lawful orders to our military in this time of war. He basically said Obama must prove his eligibility to the court! He said Americans deserve to know the truth about their President!

The two U.S. Attorneys representing Barack Obama tried everything they could to sway the judge that this case was frivolous, but Carter would have none of it and cut them off several times. Obama's attorneys left the courtroom after about the 90 minute hearing looking defeated and nervous.

The expedited trial has been set for Jan. 26, 2010.

Great day in America for the U.S. Constitution! The truth about Barack Obama's eligibility will be known fairly soon - Judge Carter practically guaranteed it!

Congratulations to plaintiff’s attorney Dr. Orly Taitz! She did a great job and won some huge victories. She was fearless!

This needs to be forwarded to everyone you know....

Source: RiteOn.org
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