Obama Care

Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) received a handwritten note Thursday from Joint Committee on Taxation Chief of Staff Tom Barthold confirming the penalty for failing to pay the up to $1,900 fee for not buying health insurance.

Violators could be charged with a misdemeanor and could face up to a year in jail or a $25,000 penalty, Barthold wrote on JCT letterhead. He signed it "Sincerely, Thomas A. Barthold."

This is great. In order to prevent someone from trying to get heath care for free, Obama would throw you in jail and give you free health care.

You just wouldn't understand

A proposal by Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., that would have required the Senate Finance Committee to post the final language of the $900 billion health care reform bill, as well as a Congressional Budget Office cost analysis, on the committee’s website for 72 hours prior to a vote was rejected 12-11.

Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., was the only Democrat to side with Bunning. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-MO, who is not a member of the Finance Committee, said she also supported Bunning’s proposal.

Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., himself admitted that “This probably sounds a little crazy to some people that we are voting on something before we have seen legislative language.” Indeed.

Baucus’ excuse - that it would take his committee staff two weeks to post the bill online – sounds a little crazy too. Finance Committee members are the only ones who vote based on the “plain English” version of a bill, not the legally-binding language.

One big scam

Imagine if there were no reliable records of global surface temperature. Raucous policy debates such as cap-and-trade would have no scientific basis, Al Gore would at this point be little more than a historical footnote, and President Obama would not be spending this U.N. session talking up a (likely unattainable) international climate deal in Copenhagen in December.

Steel yourself for the new reality, because the data needed to verify the gloom-and-doom warming forecasts have disappeared.

Read the whole thing here. Good summary of why BestView is convinced anthropogenic global warming is a crock.

Get your winter coats out

From today's Investors Business Daily. Read it all.

In a speech last week at the U.N.'s World Climate Conference in Geneva, Professor Mojib Latif of Germany's Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences at Kiel University, one of the world's foremost climate modelers and a lead author for the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change acknowledged that the Earth has been cooling and is likely to continue that trend for the next couple of decades. Al Gore, call your office.

Latif has been looking into the influence of cyclical changes to ocean currents and temperatures in the Atlantic, a feature known as the North American Oscillation. When he factored these natural fluctuations into his global climate model, Professor Latif found the results brought the allegedly endless rise in global temperatures to a screeching halt.

Latif conceded the planet has not warmed for nearly a decade and that we are likely entering "one or even two decades during which temperatures cool." Latif still believes in a warming trend and thinks it will resume. But he at least acknowledges the empirical evidence of cooling, that there are factors at work here other than your SUV, and that doom will not occur the day after tomorrow.

Obama Wrestling with Himself

Here is Obama in March on Afghanistan:

"If the Afghan government falls to the Taliban or allows al-Qaeda to go unchallenged," he said then, "that country will again be a base for terrorists who want to kill as many of our people as they possibly can." Afghanistan, he continued, "is inextricably linked to the future of its neighbor, Pakistan," where al-Qaeda and the Taliban now aim at seizing control of a state that possesses nuclear weapons. Moreover, Mr. Obama said, "a return to Taliban rule would condemn their country to brutal governance . . . and the denial of basic human rights to the Afghan people -- especially women and girls."

"To succeed, we and our friends and allies must reverse the Taliban's gains, and promote a more capable and accountable Afghan government," Mr. Obama concluded. As Gen. McChrystal's report makes very clear, keeping faith with that goal will require more troops, more resources and years of patience. Yet to break with it would both dishonor and endanger this country. As the president put it, "the world cannot afford the price that will come due if Afghanistan slides back into chaos."

Now, he is searching for a strategy. We have a serious case of amateur hour in the White House, but we knew that last November.

What if it quacks like a duck?

The president, appearing on ABC News on Sunday morning, discussed his proposal to require everyone to have health insurance that meets government approval:

For us to say that you've got to take a responsibility to get health insurance is absolutely not a tax increase. What it's saying is...that we're not going to have other people carrying your burdens for you anymore.

Right now everybody in America, just about, has to get auto insurance,. Nobody considers that a tax increase.

You just can't make up that language and decide that that's called a tax increase.

Memo to President Barack Obama: It's a tax. Obama insisted this weekend on national television that requiring people to carry health insurance -- and fining them if they don't -- isn't the same thing as a tax increase. But the language of Democratic bills to revamp the nation's health care system doesn't quibble. Both the House bill and the Senate Finance Committee proposal clearly state that the fines would be a tax.

No one needs to buy auto insurance to own a car. The insurance is required to drive the vehicle on public roads. A correct example is homeowner's insurance. It is not required if you pay cash for the property. If you borrow the purchase funds the lender has the right to demand insurance for his property. Not the same set of facts.Obama is obfuscationg with his auto insurance analogy. The purpose of mandatory auto insurance is to make sure the owner or operator of the vehicle while driving on a public roadway is financially responsabile for any damages he causes to someone else on a public roadway. Not to insure himself or his property, that is an add-on. What Obama is attempting to do is analagous to a Manhattanite with a valid drivers license being required to buy auto insurance even though he does not own a car. For the public good to help lower car insurance premiums for everyone else. Of course it is a tax, a fine would require a legal proceeding to have it imposed. So much for the value of a Harvard law degree.

Interesting thought: if Obama followed his own logic about being financially responsible for one's self instead of being a public charge, he would abolish welfare.

The lad is good at exposing liberals

James E. O’Keefe III, the 25-year-old video provocateur whose hidden camera galvanized Congress this week against the advocacy group Acorn in earlier efforts got a woman at Planned Parenthood to agree to target his contribution to abortions of black babies. The You Tube recording is here. His taste in associates, Hannah Giles, is not bad either. She is what they call hot, I suppose.

Huh?

Obama and his liberal sycophants proclaim that the reason we must have health insurance reform is because the health insurance companies are evil and have been ripping us off for years. That might be a reasonable position if these same people were not crafting legislation that mandates everyone buy an insurance policy from these same companies......and if you don't they will fine you. They have lost me somewhere.

We have an ethics epidemic

Yet another member of the black caucus is having problems with the House of Representatives Ethics Committee. I suspect racism. Read it all here.

The House ethics panel said Thursday that it is investigating Rep. Maxine Waters, a California Democrat who came under scrutiny for allegedly helping a bank with which she had ties secure a meeting with Treasury Department officials about obtaining bailout funds.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this year that Ms. Waters allegedly helped OneUnited Bank of Boston get a meeting with Treasury officials to negotiate a $12 million bailout. On Thursday, the ethics panel acknowledged for the first time that it is investigating her.

Sidney Williams, Ms. Waters's husband, was on the bank's board of directors until last year.

The congresswoman's 2008 disclosure report filed in May showed that Mr. Williams had at least $350,000 in investments in the bank. Ms. Waters serves on the financial-services committee that oversees financial institutions.

Show us the names

The House has just voted to 345-75, to cut off all federal funding to ACORN -- using a procedural trick to force a vote on an amendment.

The overwhelming majority of Democrats voted with all Republicans to ram through the measure, which follows the Senate's passage of an amendment barring HUD from funding the community group, which specializes in social services, housing preservation and foreclosure mitigation.

The "Defund ACORN Act," introduced by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) would bar the federal government from doing business with the group, citing several voter registration fraud investigations. But it would also go much farther, prohibiting "any organization that shares directors, employees, or independent contractors" with ACORN from receiving federal cash.

Now we need to see the names of those who voted for child prostitution, tax evasion, and false imprisonment.

Just Wondering

The efforts of our esteemed legislators to extend health insurance to everyone will require mandates that we all buy a policy. This means that young people just getting started in life will have to go get themselves some health insurance which they currently don't want or need. Well, that is not a decision our government is willing to let them make. As things stand now, they have to choose a policy from among those available in their state which tells the insurance companies what must be covered by policies sold in that state. This is why insurance costs more in New Jersey where they have to offer psychiatric care, abortions, and other things one might not need coverage for.

Here is the question. If a 25 year old male is compelled to buy a policy, will he be required to get one which has maternity benefits he doesn't want or need? Or, will the state allow him to buy a policy that costs a whole lot less than one a 25 year old female would have to buy a much more expensive policy to get Ob-Gyn and pregnancy coverage? BestView bets the male will get the weinie.

Just Wondering

By what constitutional passage is the Federal Government allowed to compel us to buy anything under penalty of criminal fines? The Bauchus helath care plan says if I don't buy health insurance, I can be fined $3,800. I know the STATE can fine me if I drive a car on roads, but does that logic extend to the FEDERAL government if I simply breathe air?

Neal Boortz has it figured out

So .. here is what Jimmy Carter, Bill Moyers, Hank Johnson, much of the Washington and New York press corps, Newsweek Magazine and the brilliant thinkers on the American left would have you believe of Americans right now:

• We would be more than willing to welcome cap-and-trade with open arms, even if we paid a thousand dollars or more extra every year for our energy use, if Barack Obama were only white.
• We would be dancing in the streets celebrating the dawning of government control of our health care if only Barack Obama were white.
• It would be just dandy if government bureaucrats rationed health care for our parents, as long as the president is white.
• We would jump at the chance of the government owning ALL of the auto manufacturing companies .. not just General Motors ... if the president just didn't have dark skin.
• We would applaud those ACORN workers giving tax avoidance advice to a pimp and his prostitute if the workers hadn't been black.
• Most Americans - even ones that don't pay income taxes now - would be more than willing to give 70% of everything they earn to the federal government when asked ... so long as they are asked by a white president.
• We would have been thrilled, I tell you ... THRILLED to have all of those Islamic goons being held at Guantanamo be not only released, but sent to be school resource officers at our local government schools, if only a white president put that plan in motion.
• It would be OK if a white president stood back and allowed Iran to build its coveted nukes ... we're only unhappy about that because a black president is doing it.
• Deficits? We don't care about deficits! Make our children and grand children and great grand children pay through the nose for our president's spending habits ... just so long as the president isn't black.
• Government pork? Like we actually care? Look ... you folks in Washington can spend all the money you want - how about more studies of the mating habits of Polish Zlotnika pigs? - just make sure it's not a black president who signs the spending bill into law.
• We wouldn't care if all illegal aliens were counted twice in the next Census ... just so long as the president isn't black.
• Those Black Panther thugs who threatened voters in Philly? The ONLY reason we're upset that they were given a pass is because Barack Obama is black.
• Every single member of the president's cabinet could be a tax cheat as far as we're concerned ... just so long as the president is white.
• Forced unionization? Bring it on! We love card check! We love the idea of union goons threatening and intimidating workers to sign a card saying they want to belong to a union! What we don't like is that a black president is pushing this idea.
• Single-party talks with that Gargoyle that runs North Korea? It's about time we legitimized that little pipsqueak. We're only mildly upset here because the person who is doing that happens to be black.
• More regulation of the finance sector? We could care less! For all we care you can nationalize the banks and decree that only the government can make home loans .. .and you can even apportion those home loans on the basis of race if you want to ... just so long as the president is white!
• Minimum wage? Like we care about that? Raise it to $15 an hour if you want! Just give us our white president back.
• Read it all here
  

Protest Now Redefined

Previously, protest was patriotic and the highest form of citizenship. Now it is the greatest form of racism.

20 Things the Media Will Not Report

From Free Frank Warner

While Democrats rule, if these news stories occur, don’t expect to see them on any front page:

* The failure of Congress leaders to pay their taxes.

* Congress leaders accepting illegal campaign contributions.

* White House pressuring scientists to exaggerate global warming findings.

* White House claiming health care costs are going down when they are going up.

* White House claiming the deficit is not increasing when it is.

* The FBI wiretapping of Americans for purely political reasons.

* The firing of federal inspector generals for purely political reasons.

* The firing of U.S. attorneys for purely political reasons.

* The distorting of NSA, CIA, FBI or Homeland Security intelligence to serve a predetermined conclusion.

* The abuse of detainees by U.S. soldiers and contractors (unless Congress decides to surrender Afghanistan).

* Congress leaders accepting kickbacks from General Motors or Chrysler officials in exchange for laws giving GM or Chrysler an unfair advantage over other automakers.

* The continued paying of Congress leaders by officials of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in exchange for favorable regulations.

* The refusal by the Justice Department to prosecute Democrats who discourage non-Democrats from voting.

* The refusal by the Justice Department to prosecute Democrats who encourage voting by dead, fictitious or otherwise unqualified people.

* Subjecting Soldiers, Marines, Airmen and Sailors to poor health care at military hospitals.

* The failure of “stimulus” spending to create the jobs the administration projected.

* New health care regulations discouraging the number of breakthroughs in drugs and medical procedures.

* The relaxing of banking regulations after the White House and Congress promised tighter banking regulations.

* The failure of alternative energy sources to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

* A Democratic burglary of a Republican campaign headquarters.

Amazing

Yesterday, the U.S. Senate voted 83-7 to ban Acorn from getting funds from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Here are the seven senators who voted to continue supporting Acorn despite its practice--now documented in at least three of its offices--of giving law-evasion advice to people running prostitution businesses:

• Roland Burris (Ill.)

• Bob Casey (Pa.)

• Dick Durbin (Ill.)

• Kirsten Gillebrand (N.Y.)

• Pat Leahy (Vt.)

• Bernie Sanders (Vt.)

• Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.)

Obama's new web site

There is a new Web site at HealthReform.gov, a product of the Department of Health and Human Services. Here is how it is presented in the invitation to contact them:

The Obama administration wants to hear your ideas about health reform.

Contact Us: Share Your Thoughts and Ideas

We want to hear what you think about health reform.

• Share your story and send in ideas about why we need health reform this year

• Show your support for President Obama's commitment to health reform.

Maybe they don't want to hear my ideas.

Yes, Virginia, he lied.

Obama in his speech claimed that his plan will 1) extend coverage to all; 2) force insurance companies to cover “at no extra charge” routine check ups and screening tests like mammograms and colonoscopies; 3) place limits on how much people can be charged for out-of-pocket expenses; 4) forbid yearly or lifetime caps on coverage — and 5) spend less than we are currently spending! You are beyond stupid if you buy that, dare we say it, lie.

Sowell on Health Care

As usual, you need to read Thomas Sowell to understand how Obamacare will affect us all. This is a snippet. Read the rest here.

To tell us, with a straight face, that he can insure millions more people without adding to the already skyrocketing deficit is world-class chutzpah and an insult to anyone’s intelligence. To do so after an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office has already showed this to be impossible reveals the depths of moral bankruptcy behind the glittering words.

Did we really need CBO experts to tell us that there is no free lunch? Some people probably did, and the true believers in the Obama cult may still believe the president, instead of believing either common sense or budget experts.

Joe Wilson's Apology Speech

From John Feehery.
Madam Speaker,

I am sorry that I offended you, Madam Speaker, in any way, shape or form.

I am sorry I called the president a liar on the House floor last week.

I am sorry that the president called Sarah Palin a liar on the floor last week.

I was confused about the Democrats’ real position when it comes to illegal aliens and healthcare. They call Republicans bigots when we say we don’t want illegal aliens to get healthcare, and then when we say that they support giving illegal aliens healthcare, they say that they don’t and then call us liars.

I am sorry to be so confused about your position on illegal aliens getting healthcare in this country.

I am sorry that I was so frustrated that the president said his plan wouldn’t add a dime to the deficit. I am sorry because the CBO has said that the Democrats’ plan would add more than a trillion dollars to the deficit.

I guess the president has another plan that I haven’t seen yet. I am sorry that I haven’t seen it.

I am also sorry when I got angry when the president said that he planned on being the last president to deal with healthcare reform. I must admit that I didn’t know what he meant by that. Did he mean that the bill that passes the Congress this year is going to be so good that no other Congress will ever have to deal with it again? Or does he mean that the end of days is coming, and that after he is done being president, none of us will have to see a doctor, because you don’t need a doctor on Judgment Day?

I am sorry that I am from South Carolina. It really isn’t my fault that I am from South Carolina, but if that offends you in any way, I am sorry.

I am sorry that I speak with a Southern accent. That is how my mother raised me, but if that offends you, I am sorry.

I am sorry I am against the government takeover of the healthcare industry, the automobile industry, the financial-services industry, the energy sector, the fast-food industry and just about any other industry out there. I am sorry about that, but I won’t budge.

I am sorry that Charlie Rangel doesn’t pay his taxes but still is the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, which, of course, is in charge of imposing taxes on the rest of America.

I am very sorry that my first couple of apologies weren’t good enough and that we have to waste time on the House floor seeing if you can get me to apologize one more time.

I am sorry that some might reach the conclusion that the Speaker of the House is making me say that I am sorry again so that my opponent might raise even more money for the next election.

I am sorry that my opponent still doesn’t have much of a chance to beat me, because President Obama just isn’t very popular in my district with more than half of my constituents.

I am sorry if that offends you in any way.

I am mostly sorry that I blurted out on the House floor something that most of my Republican colleagues and more than a few of my Democratic colleagues were thinking.

I think the devil made me do it.

Obama Redux

Obama is giving another health care speech tonight. This is like a salesman that you've shut the door on, who rings the bell again for another try.

Just wondering

California extracts more than half of its income taxes from a fraction of 1% of its citizens. That leaves BestView with the question of whether those wealthy tax payers are bigger idiots for staying there than the politicians who devised such a structure?

On this same subject, what state with a large and powerful labor presence is not in fiscal trouble? I am thinking California, Michigan, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Nevada, and Massachusetts. Florida joins them for other reasons.

Charlie Rangle

A recent Washington Post editorial called for the black chairman of the tax writing Ways and Means Committee to resign his chairmanship. This was based on multiple financial transgressions including tax evasion. Read it here. The following is a letter to the Washington Post concerning this situation and Best View could not agree more.

What am I to think? I hear and read the many comments and speeches of people like Vann Jones, a black man, who is so obviously against the America I know and love. I see our black Attorney General refuse to prosecute the Black Panthers who stood at doors of the polling booths on Election Day slapping night sticks into their hand in a threatening manner. I heard Barack Obama as a candidate say that when elected he would distribute the wealth, and then proceed to do so after the election. I hear some black politicians such as Maxine Waters making what to me are outlandish statements, such as wanting to Nationalize our country. I see so many of them, such as back Congresswoman Diane Watson, praising the likes of Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, et al. I see their most important civic (Al Sharpton, Louis Farrakan, Jesse Jackson) and religious leaders (oh boy, Rev Wright!) spewing what to me is insane and or anti-American rhetoric. In fact, I rarely if ever, hear a black leader on TV in a serious discussion without making what to me is offensive comments. I hear a black governor blame a white racist media for his low polls and he suggested that our President will be the next victim ("You can see it coming", he adds.) And these are just what speedily come to mind as I type without thought.

Today it is Charlie Rangel who's spouting off. What is gnawing at me the most as all of these things parade in front of my eyes seemingly on a daily basis is the mindset of the black community. If all of these leaders think in this manner, and I don't see any media accepted voices on the other side, are we not in trouble? Just taking Congressman Rangel at his word, shouldn't there be some real worries about the thought process within this community? Just listen to this part:

"Why do black people have to bargain for what is theirs? Why do we have to wait for the right to vote? Why can't we get what God has given us? And that is the right to live as human beings and not negotiate with white southerners and not court the votes. Just do the right thing," Rangel said.

Hundreds of thousands of legal immigrants come here every year of all color from India, China and all parts east and west. Most become successful citizens.

Yet the black community stagnates. Why? Don't they have the same opportunities as these newcomers?

These questions have been stirring within me. Don't call me racist, Charlie. Look in the mirror.

Obama kid talk

Obama will address students in our government schools on September 8. This has prompted considerable angst among many parents who are not sure they want the President speaking about subjects better left to themselves. It will be interesting to see how many parents decide to keep their children home that day. One reason was an initial "assignment" in which Obama would ask our children to write letters to themselves about how they could help Obama. Evidently, the outcry has prompted the Department of Education to drop this part of the speech.

More common sense from Cobern

Congressional leaders have been using apocalyptic rhetoric about angry "mobs," "un-American" protestors and "evil-mongers" at town halls because they know that voter concerns about spending may not only derail the "public option" in health-care reform but could turn into a referendum on our real problems—our crushing burden of government and the politicians who defend the status quo. For the sake of future generations, such a referendum couldn't come soon enough.

Read it all here.

Obama will cave

Who thinks Obama will resist his leftist coherts on fighting to win in Afghanistan? Not me.

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) last week called for a timetable to pull U.S. troops out of Afghanistan — the same tactic he and other war opponents used to build congressional support for forcing an end to the Iraq war.

But Obama officials — including National Security Adviser James Jones and Defense Secretary Robert Gates — know the problem is much bigger than Feingold and timetables. They anticipate a growing number of anti-war liberals will call, with increasing force, for an end to the conflict when lawmakers return. Cost could become an issue, too. With deficits high, there will be heavy pressure on Obama to find savings somewhere in 2010 — and war critics see Afghanistan as a good place to start.

Just Wondering

Now that Kennedy has had his royal funeral, will there finally be a wind farm in Cape Cod?

Ex-Congressman Jefferson needs a cell mate

Rep. Charles Rangel, chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, has failed to pay taxes on two plots of land he has in New Jersey, records show.

Rangel's ownership of the small, undeveloped properties came to light on Tuesday only after he drastically amended at least six years of financial-disclosure forms he had filed annually with the House clerk as required by law.

The corrected filings as much as doubled the amount of personal wealth Rangel has claimed going back years and revealed at least $780,000 in previously unreported assets.

The Harlem Democrat concealed somewhere between $38,902 and $116,800 in 2007 income, according to the revised filings.

Among the assets he failed to list was a checking account containing somewhere between $250,000 and $500,000.

Also undisclosed for years were two lots he owns in Glassboro, NJ, about 100 miles from the city.

Rangel is delinquent on his taxes on that property, according to the Gloucester County Clerk's office.

He currently owes $159.39 in unpaid property taxes for the second and third quarters of this year, according to the clerk's office.

Why the delay

Obama says that he will pay for his government take over of our health care system by eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse in such current programs as medicaid and medicare. When will he be asked why not go ahead and do it if it is so easy? It makes you wonder if he needs new law to ration health care for seniors via fiat.

Torture by CIA Confirmed

"An Agency (redacted phrase) interrogator admitted that, in December 2002, he and another (redacted phrase) smoked cigars and blew cigar smoke in al-Nashiri's face during the interrogation," said the IG report.

The IG, however, was unable to clearly establish that the smoke-blowing was intended to force Nashiri to cough up what he knew about al-Qaida's plans.

"The interrogator claimed they did this to 'cover the stench' in the room and to help keep the interrogators alert late at night," said the IG report. "This interrogator said he would not do this again based on 'perceived criticism.' Another agency interrogator admitted that he also smoked cigars during two sessions with al-Nashiri to mask the stench in the room.

Now it is official---racists disagree withObama

President Barack Obama is trying to make positive changes in the United States, but is being fought at every turn by right-wingers who hate him because he is black, former Cuban leader Fidel Castro said on Tuesday.

No sexting

In Houston, Texas, thousands of students are returning to school to discover a new rule: no "sexting" -- the distribution of nude or semi-nude photographs or videos by text message.

In Houston, one of the biggest school districts in the United States, education authorities decided to adopt the new rule before some 200,000 students returned to classes after their summer vacation.

"Some principals raised the issue, so we included a provision saying sending, receiving, possessing sexually suggestive messages is forbidden," said Hans Graff, assistant general counsel at the Houston Independent School district.

Yeah, that will work. Problem solved.

Major Disappointment

BestView is really bummed since we were all ready to snitch on the people here in Georgia who were saying bad things about Obama's attempt to take over the health care system. We wrote him at his spy web site called flagwhitehouse.gov or some such telling him fishy stuff was going on down here and pledged our willingness to turn over names. Now we learn he has decided to close the web site and our efforts will not be required, I guess.

I have great confidence Obama will come up with some other plan, however, so I remain diligent in my efforts to rat out my fellow citizens.....especially those who come to congressional town hall meetings and act like a mob. You all better watch your step out there.

GBS Worries

BestView is worried about the new H1N1 vaccine which will be rushed out this Fall and given to millions including a large number of children.

It is being developed by pharmaceutical companies and will be given to about 13million people during the first wave of immunization, expected to start in October.

Top priority will be given to everyone aged six months to 65 with an underlying health problem, pregnant women and health professionals.

It is being developed by pharmaceutical companies and will be given to about 13 million people during the first wave of immunisation, expected to start in October.

Top priority will be given to everyone aged six months to 65 with an underlying health problem, pregnant women and health professionals.

The main worry is the immunization may lead to an increase in a brain disorder called Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), which could be triggered by the vaccine. GBS attacks the lining of the nerves, causing paralysis and inability to breathe, and can be fatal.

There are concerns that there could be a repeat of what became known as the ‘1976 debacle’ in the US, where a swine flu vaccine killed 25 people – more than the virus itself.

A mass vaccination was given the go-ahead by President Gerald Ford because scientists believed that the swine flu strain was similar to the one responsible for the 1918-19 pandemic, which killed half a million Americans and 20million people worldwide.

Within days, symptoms of GBS were reported among those who had been immunised and 25 people died from respiratory failure after severe paralysis. One in 80,000 people came down with the condition. In contrast, just one person died of swine flu.

I am going to be slow to get the vaccine and that would be my advice to others.

How to lose the argument

The poor White House is losing the fight against the people. The polls show over 50% oppose the Obama attempt to take over health care in America like he did the banks and auto makers. This was evident from the reaction to ordinary citizens at town hall meetings with elected officials. What to do? Well, the smartest, most articulate man in America just happens to be President, so we will send him out to do these town hall meetings and let him set the ignorant masses back in their place. The problem came when it came time to set up these meetings. First, we need the crowd to be supportive and adoring of Obama. Next we need the same passion and outrage that is manifested in real, non-staged town hall meeting in which supporters 11 year old children are not given written questions to read that redefine the concept of soft ball questions.
So, once again, the President messes up the message by refusing to be truthfull and remaining in campaign mode. Even those of us who do not ordinarily pay much attention know that we have a con job being pulled and Obama has lost the debate and his health care take-over is dead in the water. Thank God.

Now they want facts out of Obama to be true

Read it all here.

CHICAGO—The American College of Surgeons is deeply disturbed over the uninformed public comments President Obama continues to make about the high-quality care provided by surgeons in the United States. When the President makes statements that are incorrect or not based in fact, we think he does a disservice to the American people at a time when they want clear, understandable facts about health care reform. We want to set the record straight.

Yesterday during a town hall meeting, President Obama got his facts completely wrong. He stated that a surgeon gets paid $50,000 for a leg amputation when, in fact, Medicare pays a surgeon between $740 and $1,140 for a leg amputation. This payment also includes the evaluation of the patient on the day of the operation plus patient follow-up care that is provided for 90 days after the operation. Private insurers pay some variation of the Medicare reimbursement for this service.

Reform

The way I see the current revolt against the Obama "reform" agenda is as follows:

1) if there is no effort to limit medical malpractice awards, it is not reform
2) if you can't expand your health insurance choices beyond your state borders, it is not reform
3) if tax payers are required to pay for some else's abortion, it is not reform
4) if the rationing of health care involves the government in any way, it is not reform, it is a travesty
5) if there is a public option, it is another travesty
6) if your elected representative is not forced into that public option, there should be riots in the street and probably will be
7) if both parties do not sign on to what is passed, there will be a political bloodbath and there may be one even if it is bipartisan
8) if the American people are stupid enough to accept Obama's reform when he uses the Post Office to support his argument, we will get what we deserve

Amazing Poll

Gallup just report the most amazing poll I have ever read. The number of Americans who say the media have exaggerated global warming jumped to a record 41 percent in 2009, up from 35 percent a year ago. The most marked increase came among political independents, whose ranks of doubters swelled from 33 percent to 44 percent. Republican doubters grew from 59 percent to 66 percent, while Democratic skeptics stayed at around 20 percent.

This is almost clear proof that democrats are unable to think for themselves relative to other Americans. More than 20 % should be skeptical about anything the media prints or says on TV. That includes the direction of sunrise.

The Pelosi Analysis

From Jonah Goldberg.
Nancy Pelosi's accusation that those showing up at townhalls are being sent there as part of an astroturf campaign by the health insurance industry and they're showing up with swastikas.

Now this is a pas de trois of dishonesty, slander, and idiocy. Not only is Pelosi lying when she says protesters are bringing swastikas to these town halls, not only is she suggesting that American citizens are Nazis for having the effrontery to get in the way of Obamacare, but she’s also saying that the alleged swastikas are obvious proof that these protests are manufactured by slick P.R. gurus.

How does that work? What public-relations genius says: “Okay, we need these protests to seem like an authentic backlash of real Americans. Make sure everyone has enough Nazi paraphernalia!”

The BestView Report to Obama

On the White House's blog Wednesday, people were asked to help stop the spread of disinformation about legislation to overhaul health insurance. The post offered an e-mail address, flag@whitehouse.gov, for users to forward anything "on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy."
The following is my E-mail to comply with the request:

Dear White House;
As a good citizen, I am hereby reporting some fishy goings on here in Georgia. These backward people down here think the Obama plan to take over our health care system in Chicago fashion is idiotic and some are even complaining openly. They think the government is inept and can't even execute a plan to give away money to people to buy cars. One lady said that Obama was lying when he said the changes would give more health insurance to more people and save money. If you would like me to send names of these subversives, just let me know.

Your humble servant diligently spying on neighbors,

Gary Best

Don't blame Republicans

The Democrat National Committee and the Obama administration is blaming the Republicans for the protests at town hall meetings which are opposing the nebulous health care proposals being constructed by Congress. This is almost laughable since the Republicans would not be a diminishing political force if they could organize anything.

The iPhone

The Mrs. and I got new iPhones yesterday and really love them. For once, the hype is warranted.

Birther Insanity

This birther phenomenon is almost as amazing as the Palin derangement on the left. Some kooks persist in maintaining that Obama was not born in the U.S. and CNNs Lou Dobbs gives it air time. Now the leftists at MSNBC and various commentators such as Eugene Robinson go wacky with outrage. If everyone would just ignore the issue, it would die, but that doesn't seem likely.

What does a picture say?

Obama, Professor Gates and Sergeant Crowley meet for a beer to rescue Obama from a gaffe that distracted him for a week. This White House photo showing Obama racing ahead of his "friend", the crippled Professor while the cop helps him with stairs is amazing from many different viewpoints, but most of all it is amazing the White House let us see the picture. How many voted for Obama thinking he was a kind, considerate man who was going to look out for the less fortunate in our society. Maybe not so much when he thinks nobody is watching.

Not very sensitive

A physician by the name of David McKalip from Florida used this image of Obama in witch doctor garb to object to the President's health insurance program. Liberal blogs are outraged and it does seem to be rather insensitive.

Birth Certificate Controversy Real

BestView is surprised to keep reading how many are still convinced that Obama is not constitutionally eligible to be President because he was not a natural born citizen. I have always assumed that the matter was roughly comparable to the "grassy knoll" theory, but in this case a real birth certificate would put the matter to rest, evidently. Guess we will just sit back and watch what happens since there seems to be bigger matters confronting us.

Spending Offsets hard to find, evidently

"On April 20, President Obama challenged his Cabinet to cut $100 million in spending over the next 90 days.

The deadline came -- and went -- without a report from the White House on whether or not that promise was fulfilled.

Asked about the spending cuts, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Monday that information still was being compiled."

Reform?

Good analysis from John Stossel:

Leave aside how much power the state would have to exercise over us to run the medical system. Suffice it say that if government attempts to control our total medical spending, sooner or later, it will have to control us.

The administration estimates the cost of its takeover of the health care system to be $1.5 trillion over 10 years with no increase in the deficit. But no one should take that seriously. When it comes to projecting future costs, these guys may as well be reading chicken entrails. In 1965, hospitalization coverage under Medicare was projected to cost $9 billion by 1990. The actual price tag was $66 billion.

Read it all.

Too fat

The liberal bloggers are worried the new Surgeon General is too fat to be a good role model. The concern is available here.

Health Care Rationing

An inevitable consequence of whatever is passed with regard to health insurance is rationing. Cuts in Medicare funding are already a major feature and the result is seniors will be forced out of end of life measures which extend life minimally and cost the "system" excessively. This ethical situation is fascinating to consider in the abstract, but when you or a family member is involved, the decision could easily be different for each of us. The extent to which heroic measures should be taken in individual cases is one decision, who pays for it is another, and finally there the question of whether or not the government makes the decision is the biggest of all in some ways. Liberals seem to want the government to be out of the abortion decision and preeminent in the end of life decisions.

We are so sorry

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton opened a three-day visit to India on Saturday by urging India not to repeat American mistakes in contributing to global pollution, and she passionately defended U.S. demands for help in fighting terrorism.

"We acknowledge now with President Obama that we have made mistakes in the United States, and we along with other developed countries have contributed most significantly to the problem that we face with climate change," she said. "We are hoping a great country like India will not make the same mistakes."

A new definition of government pork

The Drudge Report is having a field day reporting on what the government is doing with the "stimulus" money. One of the items listed in the Recovery.org listing of stimulus expenses is $2,531,600 to buy ham for the needy, soup kitchens, etc. O.K., nobody should go hungry. However, the Department of Agriculture used a no bid contract to buy the 760,000 lbs of ham at $1.50/lb. See the listing here. The same ham is available at Food Lion for $0.79/lb.

Exams for Firefighters

The confirmation hearings for Sonia Sotamayor has brought a lot to the TV about her ruling that a qualification test for promotion in the fire department was thrown out because an insufficient number of blacks passed it. This, of course, meant that the whites who were discriminated against filed suit and the Supreme Court sort of sided with them even though Sotamayor ruled the other way. The claim by the blacks and those who support Sotamayor's ruling state that blacks do not do well on multiple choice exams, are not as well prepared as those who actually study for the exam, and blah, blah, blah.
In my years as a medical school Professor, I have given a large number of exams and the rules of the game hold that even though much of the content of the lectures is largely the same from year to year, students are given access to all the exams given over the previous few years. Therefore, in order for us to really discern whether the students have learned the material, it is necessary to construct an exam in which the questions have been varied in such a way as to distribute the performance over a wide enough span to make a proper assessment. This leads me to my proposal for qualifying exams such as the one for promotion in the fire department in New Haven, Connecticut.
Go to all the minority firefighters in the pool of potential promotees and have them make up an exam. Have them make up the questions and provide the answers. Go over the questions with them and establish that in fact they make sure a fire officer knows about building materials, fire suppression agents vis a vis the nature of the fire and so forth. Exclude the white applicants from the process. Now, take the resulting test questions, rephrase them, switch the alternate (wrong) responses, and give the exam to everyone. After this, let the chips fall where they may and hopefully avoid complaints about the unfairness of the exam and maybe even absurd court cases.

Good Question

Consider Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, VA Hospitals, and any other governmental program. Which is such a success that you want the feds to take over your access to health care?

Afghanistan Report by Michael Yon

Michael Yon for many years, in both Iraq and Afghanistan, has been an independent reporter who actually goes out into the field of battle instead of staying in protected areas like most reporters. This is his latest pictorial report from Afghanistan which ends with the following conclusion. Go here to read it all and see his pictures.

The war is heating up and all signs indicate it will continue to worsen. The Afghan war has become more dangerous, on a per capita basis, than the Iraq war ever was. The unit I will soon be with took five KIA last week and many others wounded. July will almost certainly be the most deadly month so far in the entire Afghan war. The press makes it sound like the British must be shaken, but I know those soldiers. They will be striking back. Needless to say, our people will do the same as needed. Nobody over here is shaking in his or her boots. We don’t have enough troops, or Afghan forces, but our folks are ready for more action and will do what needs to be done.

This may be fun to watch

It didn't take long for Clinton to double cross New York City. Six months into her tenure as secretary of state she has suddenly exempted diplomats from paying some property taxes there. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said her betrayal has cost the city $260 million in lost tax revenues and counting. As New York's junior senator, Clinton fought to make diplomats pay up. And he said her reversal changes a longstanding policy. "Since 1873 they've been saying this is taxable," Bloomberg said.
As might be expected, the senior Senator from New York, Charles "where is the camera" Schumer, will get involved. "We're going to find a way to make sure that these embassies pay and that New York is made whole," Schumer said.

Let the fun begin.

China on a slippery slope to decadence

From China Daily:

A spokesman for China's Hunan Satellite Television said Tuesday that "Happy Girls", its proposed version of "American Idol", had won conditional approval from the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television.

The conditional approval came after a similar reality show planned by Hunan TV was cancelled last year amid criticism that it promoted vulgarity and encouraged youngsters to seek instant celebrity.TV company executives were discussing the timetable and rules of the contest, Li Chao said. But he added they would stick to the tradition of selecting the best singers to the taste of the general public.

Everything's O.K.

President Obama said his $787 billion stimulus plan passed without anyone having read it "has worked as intended". At the time it was described as essential to pass this in order to keep unemployment at 8%. Since unemployment is now 9.5% and rising, maybe it was really intended to be a pork bill and if so, Obama is correct. He wouldn't mis-speak, would he?

Obama's realistic goal

White House officials confirmed that Obama agreed to language supporting a goal of keeping the world's average temperature from rising more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit.

Should be easy considering the following climate report. Read it all.

The latest global averaged satellite temperature data for June 2009 reveals yet another dorp in temperature. This latest drop in global temperatures means despite his dire warnings, the Earth has cooled 0.74°F since former Vice President Al Gore released "An Inconvenient Truth" in 2006.

Get me out of here

The G8 meeting is being held in an Italian town which was recently severely damaged by an earthquake. There have been several aftershocks. A newscast I heard said the host country had helicopters waiting to remove the heads of state should a subsequent quake strike the area. Wouldn't that have been a fun story? The helicopters take out the big wigs and leave the rest of the people to deal with the rubble.

Cap and trade?

Here is a little lesson in logic. If Obama puts a tax on carbon emissions and you have a manufacturing plant is some place like Ohio, would you be put at a greater or lesser competitive position vis a vis a plant in China which does not pay this tax and never will? Once again we are reminded that elections have consequences.

Body Language Mean Anything? Hope not!!!

Palin Derangement Syndrome

It is fascinating to read and hear the reaction of the chattering class to Governor Palin's resignation. All of the liberals just despise her. This is especially true of the liberal females like Maureen Dowd, Ruth Marcus, and Gail Collins.
She is stupid, ill informed, mentally ill, a quiter, and all manner of lower humanity to these elites. Why does she elicit such emotion? Surely the New York and Washington punditry have other things to worry and concern themselves with. Obviously, that is not the case with any liberals including those in the Republican party who are also working behind the scenes to discredit her. One of the most absurd objections to her is her resignation to do something else. How much did we hear when Obama essentially resigned from the senate (even though he collected pay checks each month) and started running for President? John McCain did the same thing. Before them there was John Kennedy, Joe Lieberman, and others. Didn't Hillary resign from the Senate to do something else? Guess that was different since nothing was said about it. Nobody knows anything about Palin's plans or the specifics of her family situation, but the speculation is almost entirely negative and premature. She is obviously a tremendous threat to some large part of the political status quo.

Over Stimulated? Apparently not!

In April of 2008 Bush and Pelosi passed a $168 billion stimulus bill which they said would prevent a recession. The jobless rate was then 4.8%. Next comes Obama who, vowing not to be outdone by Bush, got in bed with Pelosi again and rammed through a $768 billion stimulus bill which nobody had read. This legislation was designed to do almost everything but create jobs and it is proving to be less than effective as the jobless rate is about 17% if you include folks who are discouraged from looking for work and those working part-time who want full-time jobs. The official rate is 9.5%.

So we have an apparent lack of success with stimulus bills. We also have a minimum wage hike going into effect on July 24th which will hardly induce further hiring of those entering the job market for the first time or with limited skills. Something needs to be done and a predictable suggestion comes from Paul Krugman, the liberal Nobel Laureate who writes left-wing drivel for the New York Times. He says---passionately--- that Obama needs to get busy and pass another stimulus bill. Read it here. Yes, it fits the classic definition of insanity. Do the same thing over and over while expecting a different result.

The EPA Muzzle

1. The EPA of the "open" and "transparent" Obama administration decided a contrary report on the contribution of man to our current global cooling which is called global warming or "climate change" is discussed in this Wall Street Journal essay.

BestView agrees with a comment to the article above:

....the silencing of Mr. Carlin along with Al Gore’s lifestyle, reveals the true nature of the hoax, that it is a political tool to further a leftist agenda. If Global Warming was actually occurring and caused by man, then the earth would be warming. It’s not. If there was legitimate concern about the effects on the planet, all “believers” would stop flying, driving and maybe even breathing and there would be intense, open, honest debate in an effort to find real solutions without silencing any particular point of view. Instead we are told to accept climate change on faith and any views such as Mr. Carlin’s which are not supportive of Obama’s agenda are heresy.

And also this one:

I was up at Glacier Point in Yosemite admiring the glacial polish on the granite and reading the signs explaining how the ice in Yosemite Valley had sculpted the U-shaped valley, that 10,000 years ago the ice retreated, leaving the valley as we see it today. I thought "there's your global warming -- it's been going on since the last Ice Age (which was not the first Ice Age)." Why is it that there's a sudden leap of faith that it is human activity causing the warming? Bunch of arrogant people who project trends via computer programs and tell us that C02 is going to get us all when it is an infinitesimal percentage of the atmosphere. Could it be that there's a new religion afoot? One which uses a natural phenomenon to exercise control over people and congeal power in the great and all-knowing government? Let's not bow down to the new czars yet.

Jimmy Carter redux

It looks like Obama has the same foreign policy instincts as Jimmy Carter and will usually come down on the wrong side. We saw this when he puts pressure on Israel about settlements with very little on the Palestinians. Again, he was slow to realize Iran is a brutal terrorist nation and then he came down on the side of Chavez, Castro and other communists in the Honduras' efforts to avoid a fate similar to these failing nations in Central and South America.

With the Obama domestic policy initiatives combined with his international mis-steps, this is going to a long 4 years.

Shocking!!

The White House seems to be retreating from President Barack Obama’s campaign promise that he would not raise taxes on families making less than $250,000.

Under persistent questioning from ABC’s George Stephanopoulos Sunday, Obama senior adviser David Axelrod declined to restate the vow and left open the possibility that the president might sign health care reform legislation that taxes high-cost, employer-provided insurance plans which some middle-class families currently receive tax free.

Raise your hand if you are surprised.

Prisoner Abuse???

"Three days a week, Georgia now serves inmates only two meals. And across the country, there have been increasing reports of substandard food. This is inhumane. Adequate meals should be a nonnegotiable part of a civilized penal system. It is also bad policy. Researchers have found a connection between poor food quality and discipline problems and violence. Georgia has nevertheless decided to save on staff costs by serving just two meals on Friday, as it already did on Saturday and Sunday. The state says it gives prisoners the same number of calories on days when one meal is skipped. Even if it does — and some prisoners’ advocates are skeptical — it can be oppressive to go so long without eating."

This, from a New York Times editorial, suggests to me that my fair state of Georgia is doing the right thing. The entire editorial can be read here, but it fails to mention that an additional rationale for the twice-a-day meal plan is those are on days when the prisoners do no work.

My Michael Jackson Memory

My favorite memory of Michael Jackson was when he married Lisa Marie Presley and someone remarked that this was the best evidence yet that Elvis was in fact dead.

Maybe Reagan made Bush do it

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md, is using the fatal D.C. Metro accident to slam the Reagan administration for failure to adequately fund public transportation a quarter-century ago.

Yet the accident occurred despite the fact that Congress ignored Reagan and funded Metro anyway. Read it here.

Passing

Evidently BestView has been occupied with other things over the past several decades. The passing of Michael Jackson has made a much bigger impression on the rest of world than I would ever imagine. Evidently his music was considered more extraordinary than I realized since his other contributions to society would not seem to be all that iconic. Rest in peace, Michael.

Good enough for thee but not for me

Dr. Orrin Devinsky, a neurologist and researcher at the New York University Langone Medical Center, said that elites often propose health care solutions that limit options for the general public, secure in the knowledge that if they or their loves ones get sick, they will be able to afford the best care available, even if it’s not provided by insurance.

Devinsky asked the president pointedly if he would be willing to promise that he wouldn’t seek such extraordinary help for his wife or daughters if they became sick and the public plan he’s proposing limited the tests or treatment they can get.

The president refused to make such a pledge, though he allowed that if “it’s my family member, if it’s my wife, if it’s my children, if it’s my grandmother, I always want them to get the very best care.

Tax the polluters?

"At a time of great fiscal challenges, this legislation is paid for by the polluters who currently emit the dangerous carbon emissions that contaminate the water we drink and pollute the air we breathe."
So saith Obama at his press conference yesterday when talking about his cap and trade legislation which will impose a tax on power companies, manufacturing companies, agriculture companies and others. BestView doesn't know whether to be sadder about Obama trying to make us believe these taxes (like all other corporate taxes) won't be passed on to consumers or my belief that the average American is too ignorant of such matters to question the annointed one.

Is universal health insurance constitutional?

If the government cannot proscribe -- or even "unduly burden," to use another of the Supreme Court's analytical frameworks -- access to abortion, how can it proscribe access to other medical procedures, including transplants, corrective or restorative surgeries, chemotherapy treatments, or a myriad of other health services that individuals may need or desire?

This question about whether the government's role in deciding who gets which medical treatment is constitutional is the subject of this interesting essay in this mornings Wall Street Journal. Read it here.

Save medicare first

President Barack Obama's Council of Economic Advisers issued a report earlier this month estimating that as much as 30 percent of Medicare spending is unnecessary for improving health outcomes. Given such opportunities for easy savings within government, and Medicare's weighty influence in the broader system (many private insurers set payments by adding a percentage to Medicare's rates), it would make sense to reform Medicare first, see what works and what doesn't, and then apply the lessons of that process later to any system-wide fix. Unfortunately, Obama and Democratic congressional leaders are hellbent on turning the system upside down with radical reforms that are sure to have vast and unexpected consequences. Read it all here.

Here is an interesting comment to this editorial from a reader:

"...have all Fed employees - especially Congressmen - try out the new system for a couple of years before they inflict it on the rest of us. When Congressmen no longer get VIP treatment at Walter Reed, then maybe I'll think their system is good enough for me."

My favorite new scientific study

From Japan:

We have long been warned of the risk of obesity, but a new Japanese study warns that being very skinny is even more dangerous, and that slightly chubby people live longer.

People who are a little overweight at age 40 live six to seven years longer than very thin people, whose average life expectancy was shorter by some five years than that of obese people, the study found.

"We found skinny people run the highest risk," said Shinichi Kuriyama, an associate professor at Tohoku University's Graduate School of Medicine who worked on the long-term study of middle-aged and elderly people.

A wake-up call for liberals?

The following from Newsweek and a fawning reporter, Michael Isikoff, suggests that liberals may just be catching on to the "Obama deviations" from his campaign rhetoric.

As a senator, Barack Obama denounced the Bush administration for holding "secret energy meetings" with oil executives at the White House. But last week public-interest groups were dismayed when his own administration rejected a Freedom of Information Act request for Secret Service logs showing the identities of coal executives who had visited the White House to discuss Obama's "clean coal" policies. One reason: the disclosure of such records might impinge on privileged "presidential communications." The refusal, approved by White House counsel Greg Craig's office, is the latest in a series of cases in which Obama officials have opted against public disclosure. Since Obama pledged on his first day in office to usher in a "new era" of openness, "nothing has changed," says David -Sobel, a lawyer who litigates FOIA cases. "For a president who said he was going to bring unprecedented transparency to government, you would certainly expect more than the recycling of old Bush secrecy policies."

Happy 4th of July

We have been promised by the psychotic idiot who controls North Korea that he will fire a missile at Hawaii on the 4th of July. Our Secretary of Defense says, "I think we are in a good position, should it become necessary, to protect American territory."He thinks? Maybe the reason Secretary Gates is not more certain is when North Korea fired their last missile, our esteemed President of Change announced the very next day that we would reduce funds for our missile defense system. Is there any chance Obama's response to the first missile is related to North Korea's decision to contribute to our fireworks display on Independence Day?

Chump change denied BO

BestView is suspicious of the way dems in Congress deny Obama a few million to close Gitmo---something the entire party supports---and will gladly give him billions and even trillions for other things like buying auto companies and banks. Reckon ol' Barack is giving Congress a wink and nod on this matter?

The dems climate problem

The liberals on both coasts are erroneously convinced that we need to raise taxes on carbon emissions via something like the cap and trade idiocy. This will reduce the elevation of temperatures and reduce the use of coal to produce the electricity to run this country's power grids. Well, it seems that some of the politicians in the democrat party are saying, not so fast. In the middle of the country, energy is produced by coal burning and the farmers are reminding the politicians that warmer temperatures would be welcomed in states like Iowa, the Dakotas and other farm states since the crops would be enhanced. Let the fight begin.

Down Dollar

The Federal Reserve is creating dollars at a rapid pace to help jump-start the economy. Liquid money is up 11% over the past year, the monetary base has increased by 110%, while bank reserves are a thumping 903% larger than they were a year ago.

With this much money being created, the dollar has only one way to go -- down. It's nothing more mysterious than supply and demand. An exchange traded fund that has a symbol UDN which you can buy on the New York Stock Exchange will go up in value as our dollar becomes devalued. I own some in my IRA.

A splendid idea

Why not have the federal government demonstrate that it can provide adequate health care to American Indians, a promise it hasn’t kept for 222 years? Then demonstrate it can provide adequate health care to veterans, a promise it hasn’t kept for 79 years. Then demonstrate that it can reform and efficiently run the health insurance system called Medicare, which it has been been making a dog’s breakfast of for the last 44 years. And then, and only then, take over all of American health care.
Read it all here.

California Morass

Democrats and Republicans in California's legislature are gearing up for battle as they try to close a $24B deficit that could leave the state unable to pay its bills next month. Democrats are calling for higher taxes and fees while Republicans are pushing for $16B in program cuts. Top state officials approached the White House for emergency aid but were rebuffed; the Obama administration is concerned a California bailout would call for other states to want some too.

Politicians really just hate having to do what they are elected to do.

Rape Jokes

David Letterman finally realized that it is not funny to joke about raping 14 year old girls---even if a conservative, pro-life politician is the Mother. Even though many black teen-agers get pregnant sans marriage in the U.S., similar jokes about Obama's daughters getting "knocked-up" will probably never make it to the late night comedian's repertoir.

Too Cold?

It is now more than 200 years since the great astronomer William Herschel observed a correlation between wheat prices and sunspots. When the latter were few in number, he noted, the climate turned colder and drier, crop yields fell and wheat prices rose. In the past two years, sunspot activity has dropped to its lowest point for a century. One of our biggest worries is that our politicians are so fixated on the idea that CO2 is causing global warming that most of them haven't noticed that the problem may be that the world is not warming but cooling, with all the implications that has for whether we get enough to eat.

Read about the effect of cold temperatures on food crops here.

Government Health Care

Every now and then BestView runs across a comment or letter to the editor which captures a point of view with which it is difficult to argue. Such is the following comment on proposed "universal coverage" by The Elector of Saxony at Gateway Pundit.

The problem is that more than half the country pays zero or less then zero in taxes (they receive "tax credits" even after paying a zero tax rate.) More than half the country is functionally illiterate in English, and completely ignorant of the facts of economics, commerce, and mathematics. Such a population gave us Barack Obama, an utterly unqualified President. They will gladly support the leader's "FREE" healthcare, because they are not capable of understanding the broad implications.

Go to the fast-food joints in your town and ask anyone who works there to explain a simple supply curve to you. Half can't read English, the other half can't understand. That's Obama's voting base! Now there are 10's of millions of them who vote Democrat on command.

Show me a farmer who tries to reason with a plague of locusts, and I'll show you an educated Conservative trying to explain the logic of demand-driven, private healthcare over command, statist, communal healthcare to an "undocumented worker" or a half-witted Junior College 3rd year Freshman who waits tables at Chili's.

Prophetic?

About the time our original thirteen states adopted their new constitution in 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years earlier:

A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government.

A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.

From that moment on, the majority always vote for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.

The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years.

During those 200 years, those nations always progressed through the following sequence:

1. From bondage to spiritual faith;
2. From spiritual faith to great courage;
3. From courage to liberty;
4. From liberty to abundance;
5. From abundance to complacency;
6. From complacency to apathy;
7. From apathy to dependence;
8. From dependence back into bondage"

Anyone worried about who the Dictator will be?

Hard to get mind around this deficit picture

Car Bargains

Those Chrysler dealers who were ousted via some formula nobody understands are left with a large supply of cars which were forced on them by the company prior to bankruptcy that must be sold shortly. The incentives provided and promised by the company will soon expire along with the extended warranty behind them. It is tempting to go see how cheaply one could buy one of these vehicles, but I am left thinking of a price which I would pay and so far, none is low enough to make me drive down to one of the soon-to-be-closed dealers.

Open Letter to Obama

The following letter was written by Lou Pritchett, a former Vice President for Proctor and Gamble. It was sent to the New York Times and they, of course, ignored it. However, the letter made its way to the internet and has been circulated widely and confirmed as legit by Snopes.


AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA

Dear President Obama:

You are the thirteenth President under whom I have lived and unlike any of the others, you truly scare me.
You scare me because after months of exposure, I know nothing about you.
You scare me because I do not know how you paid for your expensive Ivy League education and your upscale lifestyle and housing with no visible signs of support.
You scare me because you did not spend the formative years of youth growing up in America and culturally you are not an American.
You scare me because you have never run a company or met a payroll.
You scare me because you have never had military experience, thus don't understand it at its core.
You scare me because you lack humility and 'class', always blaming others.
You scare me because for over half your life you have aligned yourself with radical extremists who hate America and you refuse to publicly denounce these radicals who wish to see America fail.
You scare me because you are a cheerleader for the 'blame America' crowd and deliver this message abroad.
You scare me because you want to change America to a European style country where the government sector dominates instead of the private sector.
You scare me because you want to replace our health care system with a government controlled one.
You scare me because you prefer 'wind mills' to responsibly capitalizing on our own vast oil, coal and shale reserves.
You scare me because you want to kill the American capitalist goose that lays the golden egg which provides the highest standard of living in the world.
You scare me because you have begun to use 'extortion' tactics against certain banks and corporations.
You scare me because your own political party shrinks from challenging you on your wild and irresponsible spending proposals.
You scare me because you will not openly listen to or even consider opposing points of view from intelligent people.
You scare me because you falsely believe that you are both omnipotent and omniscient.
You scare me because the media gives you a free pass on everything you do.
You scare me because you demonize and want to silence the Limbaughs, Hannitys, O'Relllys and Becks who offer opposing, conservative points of view.
You scare me because you prefer controlling over governing.
Finally, you scare me because if you serve a second term I will probably not feel safe in writing a similar letter in 8 years.

Lou Pritchett

Secretary Clinton

Obama's naming of Hillary to be Secretary of State was a masterful political stroke. He brought her into the tent ostensibly but then named special envoys to the Middle East, Iran, the U.N., North Korea, and other places. She has to be the least powerful Secretary of State in history. BestView wonders when she will decide to step out and assert some independence. Should be fun when it happens.

Sotomayor Finances

Sotomayor’s income over the last decade has been over $150,000 per year. One would expect a person with that level of income, and no kids, to have saved up quite a bit of money.

Instead, Sotomayor has a total of $31,985 in the bank, which would be almost wiped out if she paid up $15,823 in credit card bills and a $15,000 dentist bill.

Do we really want a Supreme Court Justice who’ll have $1,162 left in the bank if she pays her bills?

Just Wondering

Would the makers of Fiber 1 initiate a new commercial blitz proclaiming that its cereal was not cardboard if it didn't taste like it?

What psychological void is being filled when Obama feels it necessary to fill the stage with sycophants standing behind him when he makes his daily pronouncements on TV? Do those standing back there realize how degrading their presence is?

If Sonia Sotamayor had said her experience as a Latina enhanced her decisions relative to a black male, would that have been considered a valid assessment and not racist---even if true?

Did the Arabs in the audience listening to Obama list the accomplishments of Arabs to mankind realize that each example (inventing algebra, for one) was centuries ago and autocratic governments have stifled their progress ever since?

D-Day

About this time every year I think about the day we spent at Normandy a few years ago. Since we retired, we have taken numerous trips to countries around the world and none compare with that day on the coast in France. When you stand above the cliffs and consider the obstacle they posed for the brave men who scaled them in the face of machine gun fire, you have to be completely awed. The German bunkers are still there and it is amazing they were ever breached. When you then go to the cemetery and view the sea of crosses, it brings history home as little else does. Everyone should make a trip there prominent on their "bucket" list.

Child Abuse from Liberals

The following is an excellent editorial on the continuing efforts by the liberal education establishment to promote their own interests at the expense of our children--especially those who need help the most. Read it all here.

The Milwaukee Parental Choice Program provides vouchers for some 20,000 low-income, mostly minority children to attend private schools. Because the 20-year-old program polls above 60% with voters, and even higher among minorities, killing it outright would be unpopular. Instead, Democratic Governor Jim Doyle wants to reduce funding and pass "reforms" designed to regulate the program to death. The goal is to discourage private schools from enrolling voucher students and thus force kids to return to unionized public schools.

To that end, Democrats in the state legislature voted last week to cut per-pupil payments to private schools by $165 while increasing public school spending by $400 per student. Taxpayer support for students in the program is only $6,607 per student to begin with, which is less that half of the $13,468 for students in Milwaukee public schools.

Those funding cuts would be accompanied by mandates of dubious academic benefit. One regulation would require schools that have already been accredited to meet additional accreditation requirements. Another would force schools to offer expensive bilingual programs that suck up scarce resources and are spurned by most immigrant parents who want their children taught in English.

Reid on Sotomayor

"I understand that during her career, she's [Sotomayor] written hundreds and hundreds of opinions. I haven't read a single one of them, and if I'm fortunate before we end this, I won't have to read one of them."

Makes you proud of our Majority Leader in the U.S. Senate, doesn't it?

Poor Geithner

BestView is feeling sorry for our Treasury Secretary Geithner who was dispatched to China to convince them that the U.S. is worthy of their continuing investment in our treasury notes and bonds. This must have been a rough trip. While speaking to an audience of students, Geithner said the U.S. was putting in place the foundations for restoring fiscal sustainability. The students laughed at him. Then he said that the U.S. plans to "put in place comprehensive health-care reform that will bring down the growth in health-care costs that are the principal driver of our long-run fiscal deficit". Was his audience in China stupid enough to believe that adding a few trillion dollars in new health care entitlements will bring down the cost of health care? A more important question is whether the U.S. population is stupid enough to buy that shrouded pig.

Two murders

The news media have been quite diligent in reporting on the killing of the abortion doctor in Kansas and commentators have rightly deplored the senselessness of taking a life to protest the taking of life. There is another killing in a near-by state that deserves as much coverage, but let's see if it gets it. Read it all here.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A man with "political and religious motives" killed a soldier just out of basic training and wounded another Monday in a targeted attack on a military recruiting center, police said. The shootings were not believed to be part of a broader scheme.

A police report based on an interview with the suspect says Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, 23, told police he observed two soldiers in uniform, drove up to the recruiting center and started shooting.

"He saw them standing there and drove up and shot them," Lt. Terry Hastings told The Associated Press. "That's what he said."

Bye-Bye Newspapers

Here is a good post-mortem on the newspaper industry. A sample follows:

With few exceptions, most notably the Wall Street Journal, the newspaper industry fell into the classic trap of underestimating the power of the internet. Not only can the internet do a better and more timely job distributing news but it demolished barriers to entry for news gatherers, editors, and commentators. Who can feign surprise? Go check out the price difference between a web server and a block-long printing press feeding a fleet of trucks.

Good as gold?

A 1 oz gold coin issued by the U.S. Mint and decreed by Congress to have a monetary value of $50.00 is the source of an interesting court case in Nevada. Let's assume you have a $50 gold piece and take it to the bank to deposit it. The bank clerk will credit your account for $50 but if you take it down the street to a coin dealer, he will give you about 20-times that amount.

What if you have a construction business and you hire a guy to hang dry wall and pay him in gold coins at a rate of say one gold coin per week and since the worker is an independent contractor as opposed to an employee, you are not required to withhold anything for taxes. Therefore, does the worker owe taxes on $2,600---the face value of his yearly earnings---or something like $50,000? If $2,600, the employee is below the taxable level the government has established for owing income tax. That question is one which should be answered by the IRS when the dry wall guy files his taxes.

Well, as you might imagine, the IRS does not want to worry about individual income tax reports and it is charging the businessman with 57 counts of income tax evasion, tax fraud and criminal conspiracy. If convicted on most counts, he could live out his life in prison. BestView has a problem understanding how the employer is guilty of anything when he uses U.S. coinage as Congress designated it, and if I was on the jury, he would have at least one vote of not guilty.

What if I had a piece of property on the market for $100,000 that I paid $50,000 for and I designated that the buyer close with $2,000 in $50 gold coins---legal tender? Would I have a tax gain on the transaction? One thing I would have is a major problem finding a lawyer to close on the transaction.