The Smoke Break

You want some brie with that whine?

Democratic Compassion In Action

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During the Senate’s struggles to cobble together some semblance of a piece of unconstitutional legislation they can tout as “health care reform”, the public option fell off the table.

Good news.

Or is it?

The “individual mandate”, the most particularly unconstitutional tidbit designed to force everyone to buy health insurance, subject to criminal prosecution by the IRS if you fail to pay the tax penalty for non-compliance, is still in place.

Which means that while the Democrats run around like Chicken Littles wringing their pseudo-compassionate hands over the abhorrant profits of those Evil Insurance Companies aka corporate oligarchies, they intend on forcing those who can’t afford to buy health insurance in the private sector today to buy health insurance in the private sector tomorrow or else levy tax penalties and jail people when those tax penalties can’t be paid.

Do they plan on claiming an increase in “jobs created or saved” when we then need to build more jails?  Or is this their idea of providing affordable housing for their constituents?

Quote Of The Day

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“Does anybody think that the teabag, anti-government people are going to support them if they bring down health care? All it will do is confuse and dispirit” Democratic voters “and it will encourage the extremists.”

(President Walking Eagle to House Democrats before the vote on HR 3962)

Now there’s a real class-act statement for you.  I wasn’t sure it was possible for Barack Obama to debase the office of the President of the United States any more than he already has but…color me wrong.

Why They Call It A “Practice”

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What doctors and lawyers do is called a “practice” because they are always trying to get it right.

This was born out by the latest news that the American Medical Association’s alleged “endorsement” of HR 3962 wasn’t really a proper endorsement after all.  Not that the need to follow proper procedure has ever stopped President Walking Eagle from weaseling or bullying to take what he wants, of course, but in this case, those of us who were baffled and stunned by the unexpectedness of his remarks on the eve of a forced vote for the bill sure hoped something had gone awry.

And, indeed, AMA members who understand the ugly effects of the legislation on their field have let it be known that PEW’s use of an endorsement was made without the formal approval of the organization’s House of Delegates.  Which means there is really no endorsement at all.  The matter will be put to rest by the AMA following their own procedures properly on Monday.

May sanity prevail.

Little Blue Balls

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You can’t go home again.  This is a truism on many levels, but more appropos than ever when applied to Speaker of the Nuthouse’s decision to force a vote on a health care takeover by the government this weekend.

It’s not only some wide-eyed-innocence-by-Botox attempt to rush through what is known full-well to be fundamentally unconstitutional legislation.  It’s a calculated move to keep Democrats from facing their real boss:  their constituents.  The summer’s sizzling townhall meetings (many deliberately avoided by not just blue but by cajone-less unrepresenting representatives) demonstrated clearly that the American people want no part of this government takeover of the private sector so Congress’ self-proclaimed queen has decided to keep her spawn safely hidden beneath her skirt.  If they returned home for the weekend they may have to actually talk to constituents who’ve done more than they and read the bill and don’t like it.  Don’t you know it’s much easier to ignore emails and have staff handle phone calls than look someone in the eye and lie to them?

“The thing that Pelosi has going for her right now is that a lot of her members are more afraid of her than they are of their constituents,” says the GOP insider. He notes that Pelosi has plenty of weapons to make life miserable for members who cross her — “any benefits the member can have for the remainder of this Congress, the kind of support they’ll have going into next year’s election, and if they lose, what kind of post-Congress opportunities they will have.” All could be endangered by a vote against the health care bill.

Poor little blue dog Democrat babies.  The Speaker of the Nuthouse has wrapped her claws around their little blue balls and is squeezing hard.  But her squeeze is nothing compared to the outright castration coming to them courtesy of their constituents if they go along with this.

Quote Of The Day

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This was included in one of today’s emails:

“Calling an illegal alien an ‘undocumented immigrant’ is like calling a drug dealer an ‘unlicensed pharmacist’.”

Or like calling the people we elect to send to Washington “representatives”.

“Dignity does not have a price in our country.”

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“We will not back down.  Dignity does not have a price in our country.”

Do you know who said this?  Is your first guess that it must have been a proud American?  Do you think it was someone who values freedom?  Perhaps someone who values the Constitution?

Guess again. 

Honduran President Roberto Micheletti told this to Honduran radio today.  Not only is the Obama administration strong arming its socialist agenda by cutting more than $30 million in aid to this poor country, now, in an attempt to pressure Micheletti to step down so that exiled Manuel Zelaya may be reinstated, the United States has revoked his visa.

You will recall that Zelaya is an ally of socialist and anti-U.S. Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez.  You will recall that Zelaya was forcibly removed from office after he attempted to put in place constitutional changes that would allow presidents to seek re-election beyond a four-year term.  A little Chavez-type trick that the Honduran constitution expressly forbids.

So, as we have already noted here at the Smoke Break, we have yet another idiot hoisted firmly on his own petard yet one who is deemed worthy of Barack Obama’s support.

This makes me shake my head in disbelief.  And it is wickedly sad.  It creates one of those “what the hell?” moments.  The kind we’ve experienced far too many of, lo these last 8 months.

Quote Of The Day

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Blog comment about the First Lady dozing off during Ted Kennedy’s funeral mass on Saturday:

“I wonder if she was dreaming about her friends Bill Ayers and Bernadine, and how they love sirhan sirhan so much that they dedicated a book to him, and she gets to sit here with his victims family. Here she is sitting in that church nodding off thinking about what a small world it is. She is at Bobby’s brothers funeral, and oh how she can’t wait to call her best girlfriend Bernie to tell her about her day with Bobby’s relatives.”

The Big HR 3200 Lie: Coverage Of Pre-Existing Conditions

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One of the biggest complaints about health insurance is that many companies deny coverage for pre-existing conditions.  If you think about it, this is like asking someone to insure that your car can get you from point A to point B when it doesn’t have an engine.  Doesn’t make much sense, does it?  Certainly, you can see it’s a losing proposition for the insurer, who knows full-well they’ve given you the right to demand they drop in an engine for you.

But coverage for pre-existing conditions is one of the rallying points being used by the administration to sell health care reform, and it’s a rallying point to which the remaining Kool-Aid drinkers cling like conservatives cling to their guns and religion.  President Obama is now saying it like it’s a magic mantra, and the Congress critters are repeating it like proper little parrots.  Just the other day, in New Hampshire, Obama opined,

“This is not about putting the government in charge of your health insurance. I don’t believe anyone should be in charge of your health insurance decisions except you and your doctor.

“I don’t think government bureaucrats should be meddling but I don’t think insurance company bureaucrats should be meddling.”

And right on the administration’s own website, they state their plans for health care reform will:

Require insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions so all Americans regardless of their health status or history can get comprehensive benefits at fair and stable premiums.

Sweet!  No idea how we’ll pay for it but the problem’s solved, right?

Not so fast, Weedhopper.  They are all lying.

HR 3200 contains the following:

Section 111.  PROHIBITING PRE-EXISTING CONDITION EXCLUSIONS. 

A qualified health benefits plan may not impose any pre-existing condition exclusion (as defined in section 2701(b)(1)(A) of the Public Health Service Act) or otherwise impose any limit or condition on the coverage under the plan with respect to an individual or dependent based on any health status-related factors (as defined in section 2791(d)(9) of the Public Health Service Act) in relation to the individual or dependent.

In order to understand what this really means, it’s necessary to go look up the dependencies.  This is a very important point because those dependencies are being included, not specifically excluded.

PHSA section 2701(b)(1)(A):

IN GENERAL.-The term “preexisting condition exclusion” means, with respect to coverage, a limitation or exclusion of benefits relating to a condition based on the fact that the condition was present before the date of enrollment for such coverage, whether or not any medical advice, diagnosis, care, or treatment was recommended or received before such date.

PHSA Section 2701(d)(9):  The term “health status-related factor” means any of the factors described in section 2702(a)(1).

Section 2702 (a)(1) of the PHSA says:

(a) INELIGIBILITY TO ENROLL.-

(1) IN GENERAL.-Subject to paragraph (2), …a group health plan, and a health insurance issuer offering group health insurance coverage in connection with a group health plan, may not establish rules for eligibility (including continued eligibility) of any individual to enroll under the terms of the plan based on any of the following health status-related factors in relation to the individual or a dependent of the individual:

(A) Health status.
(B) Medical condition (including both physical and mental illnesses).
(C) Claims experience.
(D) Receipt of health care.
(E) Medical history.
(F) Genetic information.
(G) Evidence of insurability (including conditions arising out of acts of domestic violence).
(H) Disability.

(2) NO APPLICATION TO BENEFITS OR EXCLUSIONS.-To the extent consistent with section 701,…paragraph (1) shall not be construed–

(A) to require a group health plan, or group health insurance coverage, to provide particular benefits other than those provided under the terms of such plan or coverage, or

(B) to prevent such a plan or coverage from establishing limitations or restrictions on the amount, level, extent, or nature of the benefits or overage for similarly situated individuals enrolled in the plan or coverage.

SEC. 701. INCREASED <<NOTE: 29 USC 1181.>> PORTABILITY THROUGH LIMITATION ON PREEXISTING CONDITION EXCLUSIONS.

(a) Limitation on Preexisting Condition Exclusion Period; Crediting for Periods of Previous Coverage.–Subject to subsection (d), a group health plan, and a health insurance issuer offering group health insurance coverage, may, with respect to a participant or beneficiary, impose a preexisting condition exclusion only if– (1) such exclusion relates to a condition (whether physical or mental), regardless of the cause of the condition, for which medical advice, diagnosis, care, or treatment was recommended or received within the 6-month period ending on the enrollment date; (2) such exclusion extends for a period of not more than 12 months (or 18 months in the case of a late enrollee) after the enrollment date; and (3) the period of any such preexisting condition exclusion is reduced by the aggregate of the periods of creditable coverage (if any, as defined in subsection (c)(1)) applicable to the participant or beneficiary as of the enrollment date.

Not a whole lot of change when all is said and done, is there?  This is what will give the federal government, through its numerous “advisory” committees, the right to decide when and what kinds of care will be provided.  In exactly the same way that insurance companies today decide the risks they will take when insuring someone’s health.

Which makes the federal government no better than the “evil” insurance companies they are subtly and not-so-subtly villifying to get you to buy their snake oil.

No, Mr. President, I Will Not Shut Up

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The left wingnuts have been doing a lot of chest-beating these days about regular Americans daring to speak out against the administration’s continuing plans to flush the country down its personal, gold-plated toilet.  While groups like the SEIU, ACORN, and President Obama’s campaign arm, Organizing For America (aka Moveon.org) send out millions of emails and even put up help-wanted ads to pay people to attend townhalls to make it look like socializing America’s health care system is really and truly the medicine America wants to take, sensible, worried conservatives are also extending feelers and finding they aren’t alone with their grave concerns.  And they are setting aside their inherent independent streak to meet up with one another and go to tea parties and townhall meetings with one, single purpose:  to tell their unrepresenting representatives face-to-face and in no uncertain terms that it’s high time they do their job.

As the media continues to show us day after day, they are met with scorn and ridicule at best (the mainstream media being equally juvenile as the administration); with a beating from SEUI members at worst.

And all President Obama can do is to tell concerned Americans to just shut up and let him fix the mess.  The so-called mess he helped create as one of the majority Democrats in the Senate of the previous administration, but atruth conveniently shed as quickly as the time it took to pull up his Superman Underoos and hit the eternal campaign trail.  The very same Senate that allowed the self-proclaimed “best and brightest” like Tim (“tax cheat”) Geithner to take down Wall Street, with a little help from irresponsible who-cares-if-they-can’t-afford-to-pay-back-the-loan types like Barney Frank.

To this I say:  get over yourself, Barry.  There is no “health care crisis” in America.  No one is denied health care, unless perhaps they happen to be unfortunate enough to show up at the Chicago hospital where your wife put in place that clever little plan to divert less-than-wealthy folks to other hospitals.

Unlike Canada and Great Britain, America’s medical machine continues to roll out great and wondrous things and our free market economy benefits from Canada’s rationing when their patients are sent to New York and Michigan for treatments.  And let’s not forget the money that comes in from all those American sperm donors who are filling in the gaps in Canada’s socialized infertility program, eh?

No, Barry, there is no “crisis” here at all.  Grow some real cajones, poke your head out of your little bubble, and understand that you’ve driven this country into unimaginable debt and we, the American people, aren’t buying your spin any more.  We know your hands are just as bloody as anyone in any previous administration, and we know you want nothing more than to wallow knee-deep in the blood of hard-working Americans based on some unnatural view of “fairness” sown into your psyche by the radicals and entitlement-derangement syndrome types with whom you have spent your life.  All your theories are nothing but.  Read your history.  None of your ideas are new and history shows us they don’t work.

In what can only now be seen as a sort of madness you keep beating the dead horse.  Too bad for you that there is only a very small, niche market in America for British comfort food.  We want no part of what you’re putting on our menu; indeed, we’d like nothing more than for you and all your communists and radicals to shut up and get out of OUR way.

The truth is we don’t need you, Barry.  Never have.  Never will.  Maybe because you really didn’t grow up amongst us you don’t realize that we, the average American, are tough, we are resilient, and we are brave.  You misread our silence as acceptance, Barry, and that is your big mistake.  We are also a patient lot.  Administrations come and administrations go and that includes yours.  The slim minority of us who didn’t vote for your flowery rhetoric hoped you were just another wacked Carteresque blip on the political radar, but as these first few months find this country being usurpped by unaccountable, radicalist czars and our unrepresenting representatives – which includes you, Barry – are no longer even pretending to listen to the voices of those who sent them to Washington to represent them, we will no longer remain silent.

This is your real Waterloo, Barry.  The boy who would be president, now the man with a messiah complex who would be king, must finally come face-to-face with the American people.  A people who aren’t stupid and who know full well that when all is said and done there is a difference between wants and needs, and will only tolerate for so long petty crises manufactured solely for the gain of a few fools.

In your snobbish, childish, and decidedly classless derision and dismissal of us you’ve now crossed the line.  Yes, the sleeping dragon has awakened and this enemy within – Congress, you, and your administration – will be cut out like the cancer you have become.  We, the people, will do this cleanly and without remorse. 

You have failed, President Obama.  Should you have had even the slightest shred of decency to wince or to make the briefest pause as the figurative torches and pitchforks come towards you and those of ill-intentioned like minds with whom you surround yourself, we, the American people, might perhaps have once forgiven you and allowed you to claim your immaturity as an excuse.  But you are the audacious one, aren’t you?  Go ahead and cling to your dreams, sir, but we, the American people, will cling to our guns and our religion as the symbols of our Constitutionally-guaranteed freedoms, and we will continue to shout it out for all the world to hear. 

For it is there that rests America’s great faith and the real, most true hope of all.

I Am The Mob

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On the one hand, it’s delicious fun – in that train wreck kind of way – to watch leftwing heads spinning like nuts being tightened by a master mechanic in an overweight, Burkenstocked version of “The Exorcist” as average Americans catch on to the monstrous devastation being heaped upon our beloved country, but on the other, I’ve had more than my fill of suits and lemmings drunk on Kool-Aid endlessly bleating their psychobabble about why I’m angry and speaking out against the policies of this administration. 

Frankly, my dears, I am just your average American citizen.  I go to work, I pay my bills (including my taxes – hint, hint, Obamabuds), I care for my family and my friends, and I care deeply about the freedoms we have in this country.  I care so deeply about those freedoms that I take the time to read the pork-laced swill spewed hastily by Congress and labelled as legislation.  I take the time to listen to the words coming out of lips both painted and unpainted and I pay attention to the actions that follow.  Actions that, inevitably, do something different.

I have never been one to tolerate fools easily and now the attacks being perpetuated on me, a plain, old, hard-working American citizen, through the continuing onslaught against my Constitutional freedoms, have set my teeth on edge and prodded me to the point that I get up out of my chair and march on the street.  As an American citizen it is my right to do this.  And there I find thousands of others who are thinking exactly the same thing.

This government is out of control.  And we, the people, want that control back.

Because I dare to choose to exercise my Constitutional right to assemble or my Constitutional right to voice my opinion, I am labelled any of the following:

  • Bitter
  • Right-wing extremist
  • Mob member
  • Destructive
  • Ringer
  • Astroturf
  • Racist
  • Redneck
  • Teabagger

What is frightening is that these labels are not placed on me (or on any of the other millions of Americans who now find themselves unexpected participants in our process of government) only by those with whom I disagree.  These labels are placed by our Community Organizer in Chief, that Great Divider of the United States, President Obama, and by members of his administration.  Most recently, campaigning at a rally for Virginia’s Democratic gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds, President Obama said:

“I expect to be held responsible for these issues because I’m the president.  But I don’t want the folks who created the mess doing a lot of talking. I want them to just get out of the way so we can clean up the mess.”

Yo, Barry.  You ARE being held responsible.  But the only “mess” here is the one created by you peeing on my leg and then having the audacity to tell me it’s raining.  You are responsible for creating the most enormous deficit this country has ever seen, and doing it in only six short month’s time.  And we, the American people who hold down real jobs in the real world, something about which you haven’t a clue, we aren’t buying your excuses and your “oopses” any more and we certainly aren’t buying your exortions to “spend more to save money”.  The truth is that the current economic “recovery” you’re so quick to claim would have happened had you done absolutely NOTHING.  We see through your rhetoric and we aren’t buying what you have for sale, especially not your takeover of American medicine.  And we are not going to get out of your way.

Encouraged by the President’s childish attention to matters that ought not concern him, such as his “friend” Professor Gate’s recent idiotic behavior, his administration gleefully casts stones as well and is now doing everything they can to marginalize and demonize the American people.  Attempting to divide their precious left from right, blacks and Hispanics from white, they are calling on their unions and the Obama campaign astroturf (including government-funded – read:  our hard-earned tax-dollar-funded – ACORN) to bully people like me and you who take the time to attend a townhall.  They are paying people – with our hard-earned tax dollars – to collect information from snitches about people who disagree with the facts set down in black and white in their draft health care reform legislation and are using the Secret Service to contact those people as a way to intimidate and silence them.

Listen.  Do you hear that sound?  It’s those stones hitting the walls of their glass houses, and it’s growing louder every day.  For the truth is that any argument is lost once one side begins calling the other names.

Mobs may shout.

But anger votes.