Not Hardly

Here's how the New York Times thinks of Ted Kennedy's legacy:

The record Mr. Kennedy leaves after 46 years can only be envied by his peers as they join the nation in mourning his passing after a 15-month fight against brain cancer — a record firmly anchored in Mr. Kennedy’s insistence that politics be grasped and administered through the prism of human needs.

The prism of "human needs."

Really.

And what was the last signature issue that Ted Kennedy campaigned hard to get passed and signed into law before he left the Senate?

A shockingly brutal tax on the poor to pay for the health care of children of middle class parents.

Human needs? Gimme a break.

Look with me through the prism of liberal needs and it all makes perfect sense.

It Couldn't Happen To A More Deserving Democrat

This made my day:

Moran's town hall descends into chaos
By William C. Flook, Washington Examiner Staff Writer

Rep. Jim Moran's [D-VA-8] town hall meeting descended into chaos Tuesday night as protestors clashed -- in one case violently -- with supporters of a broad federal health care expansion, leading the 8th District Democrat to angrily seek to evict some of the loudest demonstrators.

Moran and former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean addressed a crowd of at least 2,500 at South Lakes High School in Reston, weathering hours of catcalls and heckling mixed with shouts from supporters.

Outside, a spillover crowd of protestors and counter-protesters shouted slogans at each other. A man in a Cato Institute T-shirt scuffled with a man wearing an Obama T-shirt, punched him in the face, and was shortly after kicked off the property by police officers.

Police said they were seeking to avoid arrests to help keep the crowd under control.

Inside, the scene was just as raucous. Moran -- fuming that his introduction of Dean was met with jeers -- finally lost his temper with the crowd.

"There are hundreds of people in this gymnasium who can't hear [Dean] because of a handful of people," Moran said. "These folks are not from the 8th District, they don't really belong here, and I'm going to ask them to leave." [link]

A "handful of people"? You decide:


Looks more like hundreds. All of whom appeared to be really pissed.

I've never seen anything like this. Those who brought this country to the position its in - and make no mistake, Howard Dean and James Moran were at the center of the effort - are being called to account for the mess they've created. Finally.

You guys rock.

No Compromise. No Retreat.

The Roanoke Times editorial page yesterday (and today) made clear that, since the GOP was unwilling to "compromise," their pals in Washington should pass health care reform without them. Their idea of compromise, of course, is always the same package: Come up with a bad liberal idea and sit down with the opposition and determine just how bad it is going to be.

Republicans, to their credit, have said NO. They're not going to inflict further damage on a once-great nation.

But they need to go further than that. They need to confront this bunch. And send them into exile. Forever.

Jennifer Rubin:

It’s the Personal Liberty, Stupid
Republicans must listen to the voters and finally give them what they demand: less government in their lives.

The pressure to find some middle ground on cap and trade, ObamaCare, financial regulation, and an uber-consumer protection agency will become intense. But the Republicans would be foolish to provide cover for and assist Democrats in pursuit of a goal — more government — which is at odds with the wishes of a majority of Americans, including those critical independent voters. And oh yes, it’s never a good idea to vote in ways contrary to your party’s stated core message.

In some sense Obama has been invaluable to libertarians and conservatives. It is one thing to rail against excessive discretionary spending but it is quite another to have the public see how ominous a force (not to mention how expensive) government can be when it seeks to regulate and control the most intimate decisions about one’s family finances and personal health. Who would have thought Obama would have created such a consensus in favor of keeping government’s mitts off private insurance companies, doctor-patient interactions, and end-of-life care?

It therefore would behoove Republicans to return to some first principles and explain that their opposition to Obama-ism goes beyond the eye-popping debt and the implications for future economic growth. It is about personal freedom. With this in mind the platform for Republicans struggling to avoid the tag of “do-nothingism” practically writes itself.

In place of ObamaCare, Republicans offer tax credits for individually purchased insurance, market competition (including the right to buy insurance across state lines), and legal reform. In place of cash for clunkers and government-run car companies, Republicans offer car company stock divestiture. In lieu of spending the remainder of the non-stimulus plan monies, Republicans urge tax reform, including reduction of corporate taxes and payroll tax relief, and restoration of funds for a real shovel-ready program: the F-22.

The contrast between the parties is especially great for young voters who were swayed to vote for the hip, young guy over the grumpy senior citizen in 2008. It turns out the hip guy wants to force them to buy health insurance, load debt and an enormous future tax burden on their backs, and raise energy prices. It’s not very 21st century. As Michael Barone observed after ticking off the list of statist policies at the core of the Obama agenda, “The larger point is this: You want policies that will enable you to choose your future. Obama backs policies that would let centralized authorities choose much of your future for you. Is this the hope and change you want?” [link]

I think it has become clear that the kind of change that Obama has introduced is not the kind of change that the American people were expecting.

But they still hold out hope. Hope for real change from the past, not continued growth of government and unsustainable federal profligacy.

The Republicans have a real opportunity here. But sitting down with the Democrats and hashing out a compromise on how long the rope should be with which we hang ourselves cannot be part of it.

Fight them. End it now, before it's too late.

The Real Enemy

Republicans who are willing to negotiate the length of rope we are to use to hang ourselves.

Like this guy, who was their alternative to Barack Obama in the last election.

For the love of God.

And This From a Democrat

It's no secret that the Republican Party establishment and the American people have turned against Obama's efforts to destroy the coal industry and our health care delivery system at the same time (in the forms of cap-and-trade and ObamaCare). But it is a bit of a shock that there is a growing number of Democrats who are voicing their opposition to the heavy hand of government as well. Today's offering:

Landrieu says she would likely oppose government insurance option
By Greg Hilburn, The News Star

U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu told a relatively friendly overflow Monroe Chamber of Commerce crowd that she would likely oppose any government insurance option in health care reform and lobby against a proposed energy tax known as Cap and Trade.

Landrieu, D-La., who spoke during a chamber luncheon today, also met with local doctors earlier and briefly addressed about 15 demonstrators opposing a public insurance option and Cap and Trade.

When asked after her speech if the senator would support a public option under any circumstances, she said, “Very few, if any. I’d prefer a private market-based approach to any health care reform that would extend coverage.”

“I’d like to cover everyone — that would be the moral thing to do — but it would be immoral to bankrupt the country while doing so,” Landrieu said.

As to Cap and Trade, Landrieu said, “I’m not supporting that approach, but I’m open to hear modifications.”

“I’m going to be as strong a voice as I can that we still need oil and gas in America,” she said. “We don’t need less drilling. We need to do more as we move toward a greener grid.” [link]

She's sounding a lot like a Republican these days, isn't she? I wonder why that is.

Curiouser and Curiouser

I read the news item in some paper yesterday of the young twerp in Denver who took a hammer and broke a number of windows at the local Democratic Party headquarters. Along with the obligatory news that a Democratic official there immediately blamed right-wing hate ("Clearly there's been an effort on the other side to stir up hate. I think this is the consequence of it.") for the attack.

But the news included a suggestion that the "right-wing hater" was actually a Democrat, to one extent or another.

Because the information provided at the time was so flimsy, I decided not to mention it. Until other information came out, anyway.

Now other info has been made available and the perp can be better categorized.

He (she?) is, in fact, a nut:

Democratic HQ window-smashing: Health care, gay rights and Maurice Schwenkler's other identity -- Ariel Attack
By Jared Jacang Maher, Westword

When news first broke yesterday that eleven windows had been smashed at Colorado Democratic Party headquarters in Denver, initial speculation pinned the blame on conservative anger over Democratic heathcare reform efforts. When it emerged that one of the two suspects arrested in connection with that crime, 24-year-old Maurice Schwenkler, had once canvassed for Democratic candidates on behalf of a liberal political fund, the theories got weird.

[T]he suspect is not a Republican or a Democrat. Rather, Schwenkler is a local transgendered anarchist who also goes by the name "Ariel Attack."

So if it wasn't the healthcare debate raging on television screens across the nation, what motives might we assign to Schwenkler's alleged act? Some of the websites involved with the fundraising listed Ariel Attack as a "transgendered activist" associated with Bash Back!, a radical queer group that formed in the run-up to last year's political conventions.

On March 9, Ariel Attack was listed as the author of "Obama's War on Queer and Trans Youth," a blog on the Queers Against Obama site that denounced the president's move to repeal the don't-ask-don't-tell policy. The piece sees this change as a cynical ploy to create a false sense of equality for gays when the actual aim is to recruit more boots for the troop surge into Afghanistan. The blog also criticizes so-called wealthy gays for their apparent complicity ... [link]

OK.

This kid needs a role model. Or a psychiatrist. Fast.

Is It Worse Than We Thought?

According to an official with the Federal Reserve in Atlanta, it's far worse:

Real US unemployment rate at 16 pct: Fed official
Breitbart

The real US unemployment rate is 16 percent if persons who have dropped out of the labor pool and those working less than they would like are counted, a Federal Reserve official said Wednesday.

"If one considers the people who would like a job but have stopped looking -- so-called discouraged workers -- and those who are working fewer hours than they want, the unemployment rate would move from the official 9.4 percent to 16 percent, said Atlanta Fed chief Dennis Lockhart.

Lockhart pointed out in a speech to a chamber of commerce in Chattanooga, Tennessee that those two categories of people are not taken into account in the Labor Department's monthly report on the unemployment rate. The official July jobless rate was 9.4 percent. [link]

It would seem that a person being jobless would be considered unemployed, but I can see how difficult it would be to separate out those who wish to work but aren't working from those who simply wish to stay home.

Still ...

A Look Into Our Future

This is how government cuts costs when it comes to health care. Today Britain, tomorrow the United States of America:

'Cruel and neglectful' care of one million NHS patients exposed
By Rebecca Smith, Medical Editor, London Telegraph

In the last six years, the Patients Association claims hundreds of thousands have suffered from poor standards of nursing, often with 'neglectful, demeaning, painful and sometimes downright cruel' treatment.

The charity has disclosed a horrifying catalogue of elderly people left in pain, in soiled bed clothes, denied adequate food and drink, and suffering from repeatedly cancelled operations, missed diagnoses and dismissive staff. [link]

* 70% of our monumental health care expenditures today goes to care for the elderly.

* Obama's chief reason for pushing his health care plan is to reduce costs.

* Fewer beds, fewer doctors making less pay, fewer hospitals, less oversight.

* "Elderly people left in pain, in soiled bed clothes, denied adequate food and drink, and suffering from repeatedly cancelled operations, missed diagnoses and dismissive staff."

* Costs contained.

Do You Suppose ...

... the Democrats wished Ted Kennedy hadn't died during the Congressional recess when his death can't be used to their advantage?

'Win One for Teddy,' Say Dems Pushing for Health Reform

A fitting memorial to the Kennedy passing: pass Health care bill

Byrd wants health bill renamed for Kennedy

Darn the timing. We need to pass it now.

Did you expect anything else from this bunch?