Screwed -- And Not Even A Kiss

There have been as many words written about the Health Care Bill/Law as there are dollars stacked up in our National Debt, so I'm only going to add a few -- everything that could be said has already been said, anyway.

I wasn't around for the birth of Social Security,  retirement was so far off in 1965 that I don't remember any of the flack over Medicare, and I guess my memory has failed so much that even the recent fight over Medicare's prescription benefit has drained out of my brain.   Taken together, they provide at least a cushion of comfort and safety for retirees -- even more so if retirment planning wasn't possible or was ignored.  I know millions of seniors are thankful for that trifecta of government goodies.

Those entitlements have been a part of our landscape for some time now and I'm pretty sure each was a fight, although they did have some bipartisan support, unlike Sunday's House vote on Obamacare.

Every day In my business I see gruesome examples of the damage inflicted by the lack of medical insurance and the inequities of the current system.  I've experienced first-hand the frightening burden of my husband exceeding a lifetime medical benefit, and I worked my tail off trying to keep up with COBRA payments.  I've thought for a long time that "something" should be done about some of these issues, particularly with regard to the working poor and those who struggle every day to just barely exist.  I support on humanitarian and Christian grounds some sort of moderate solution to the obvious problems.

We did not get a "moderate solution" on Sunday night.  We didn't get a reasonable way to provide medical insurance for those without.  We got screwed by overwhelming reform, engineered by the dirtiest, sleaziest politics I've ever witnessed, as the Obamatank rolled over the majority of Americans' wishes. The idealist gasping its last breath inside of me wants to believe the Executive Order promise of no Federal funding for abortion -- the cynical realist says, right -- this from the most blatantly pro-abortion President ever elected.  There will be a back door to that EO and it will be revoked or circumvented at the first possible opportunity (all hush-hush and denied, of course).

The next few months will be interesting and critical as conservatives try to walk this action back to a more sensible solution than has been shoved down our throats (or up the other way, if you choose...).  I think Washington is in for a surprise at the resistance/revolution it has ignited.  I still bite my nails and wonder, though, where ARE the intelligent, committed, dynamic leaders that the Republicans hope will whip the Dems in the next couple of elections?  I hope they surface soon enough to get a foothold in the public consciousness before the next campaigns rev up.  

Here are three links for you that say it all better and more succinctly than I ever could.  Be sure to watch the video -- it's chilling.
HERE
HERE
and HERE.
.
.

The Noses Grow Longer and Longer

When was the last time you believed, without reservation or nagging doubt, one word that you heard from anyone in political office?  Is "oh, bullpoop" your immediate reaction?  Can you honestly say that you take at face value the televised statements from congressional and presidential spokespersons and the principals themselves? 

Exactly how stupid do those twisted souls in Washington and (insert the name of your state) think Americans are?

Or, even more frightening, how stupid are we to believe the downright lies we are fed day after day after day?

I choked on my tea last week as I briefly scanned the evening news.  Mr. Obamarama, having been soundly trounced in his efforts to ram down our throats his unwanted, bloated, outrageously spendy health care reform, suddenly changed his tune and addressed "jobs" for the jobless, amid new and depressing unemployment rates -- while at the same time spanking Wall Street for their continuing evil practices and outrageous compensation packages.  (Obama giveth and now Obama will taketh away, apparently.)

Obviously, some of his czars have decided (since the media has told them so) that the American public is most concerned about the economy, and that's what The Boss should be talking about.  He's also rehired his campaign manager, David Plouffe, as head cheerleader and chief manipulator of the Obamarama presidency. 

So, here we go again.  For weeks, months, and probably years, we'll be treated to Obama The Candidate -- which is the only successful thing he's done in his remarkably less-than-illustrious political career.  Like the Pinocchio he is (who, remember, was a wooden puppet long before he became a Real Boy), he will mouth pretty lies, repeating all the hopey and changey platitudes that got him elected in the first place, telling us over and over and over and over and over (etc.) what he and his "message crafters" think we want to hear. 

Raise your hand if you think this conversation takes place daily in the West Wing:  "For God's sake, don't forget that Americans are completely stupid.  Don't tell them the truth about anything, especially if it makes us look bad.  They don't have a clue about the country's real problems, but don't let them know we don't have a clue about any reasonable, practical options for solving them.  In fact, don't do anything, period -- but by all means make it look like and sound like we have all the answers.  Tell them anything -- they're dumb enough to buy it all.  Above all, don't do any real governing -- just splash about in the kiddie pool and play to the polls. Blah, lie, blah, lie, blah, lie, blah, lie, blah, lie, blah, lie and blah."


Probably, because this strategy worked so well in his last campaign, a portion of the wide-eyed, idealistic voters will swoon again and swallow his swill, Obama's polling numbers will bump up and President O will claim public support and a rousing success. 

Think back over the past few years of reprehensible political and personal scandals (both Republicans' and Democrats') that were perpetrated, denied, denied, denied, admitted to, apologized for and then forgotten. 

Think of the promises made by congressional leaders -- who then backtracked each one in the name of expediency.

Think of the promises made in the 2008 election that have not been kept (transparency of process, for one).

If you dare, take a look at the concerns the conservative media had regarding Obama's qualifications, experience and questionable supporters, then take a look at the lies we were told about each of those.

Lying is certainly not limited to those who work in Washington -- or in State capitols -- but the bullshit detectors certainly seem to work overtime in D.C.  I'm not by nature a cynical person, but following politics (even as casually and superficially as I do) can certainly turn an idealist into a prickly cynic in a very short time.

So, talk on, President O -- tell us what you think we want to hear -- give us another piece of pie in the sky -- move your lips to the puppeteers' dancing fingers.  It's the only thing you're really good at -- but be careful, those are your pants on fire. 
.
.

Trying Not To Empty My Half-Full Cup

I've never known an Aries person who is negative by nature (and I've known more than my share of Aries -- including the one I see in the mirror).  We're considered the infants of all astrological signs -- self-involved, as children are -- but also idealistic and hopeful.  Even when the bluebird of happiness potties on our parade, we, like Scarlett, simply look toward tomorrow and know it will be better...and it almost always is.

I have to admit that this past year has been a trying one for my sunny outlook, and I don't see much on the horizon of 2010 that will keep a smile on my face, unless I turn up my mouth with my fingers.

Oh, I'm not talking about my personal life -- I live probably the most stress-free and comfy existence in the U.S.  But whenever I consider the national and international political landscapes, I can't help but feel a cloud of negativity descend.

I've lived through the "duck and cover" years of the cold war, the fear of imminent annihilation during the Cuban missile crisis, all the skirmishes, police actions, wars and assassinations since the 50's, the attacks of September 11th, and every other danger the 20th and 21st centuries have brought us.  I've never felt as uncertain about our government as I do now, nor as nervous about the competency of any President as Obama -- along with his circus troop of czars and czarinas..

Anyone who has followed this little blog knows my position on the 2008 primaries, campaign and ultimate election of hopey and changey.  The voting public was so completely hypnotized  by polished prose and  improbable promises, not to mention the completely blind and biased media, that critical thinking and cold reason lost the battle at the polls -- and, as it turns out, we will probably all be losers in the end.

I could go on and on in this vein, but I don't want to depress myself or you on the first day of a new year.  Instead, I'm giving you a couple of links to recent articles that will do that job very nicely... take a few minutes and read them, if you're so inclined --   THIS ONE  and THIS ONE.

If you like what they had to say, don't forget about THIS SITE for access to intelligent views contrary to what you see and read from the mainstream liberal media. 

If Gallup or NBC/WSJ pollsters called to ask my opinion on this administration's effectiveness to date, and my confidence in Obama's presidency overall, I'm afraid I wouldn't give Obamarama the B+ grade he recently awarded himself.  I'm pretty sure his grade would look a lot like my math grades in school -- pretty damn miserable.

On that note, let me wish you a Happy New Year -- that's "happy" as in let's pretend the coming year will see some gains in the economy for which taxpayers aren't footing the bill,  let's pretend Congress will do as the majority of their constituents want, not as the dictator in the White House demands, and let's pretend all of 2010 tomorrows will be better days.  I will if you will.
.
.

Dancing With The Politicians

As training for my business, I took a year-long course in most medical ologies  -- physiology, pharmacology, radiology, terminology, etc, -- and, of course, anatomy.  No where in those 37 pounds of books, tapes and videos did I see the position of the cranium and rectum reversed, as appears to happen to people seeking public office.  This unexplained and undocumented condition also apparently afflicts those who comment on these esteemed personages.

I could provide you with a whole page of links to articles written in the past 60 days wherein liberal political pundits and other opinion-shapers are now quickly reversing their former wildly enthusiastic support for Obamarama, based on his muddled and sophomoric performance.   What I find so ironic is that these pseudo-intellectuals are finally coming to the point of view that most moderates and conservatives took during the last presidential campaign.

Here is an excellent summary of where many of us stood all during Barackomania.  This is the text of an email I received today, attributed to Ben Stein:

WE FIGURED HIM OUT! By Ben Stein
Why is President Barack Obama in such a hurry to get his socialized medicine
bill passed?
Because he and his cunning circle realize some basic truths:

The American people in their unimaginable kindness and trust voted for a pigin a poke in 2008.     

They wanted so much to believe Barack Obama was somehow better and different from otherultra-leftists that they simply took him on faith.

They ignored his anti-white writings in his books.   They ignored his quiet acceptance of hysterical anti-American diatribes by his minister,Jeremiah Wright.

They ignored his refusal to explain years at a time of his life as a student.
They ignored his ultra-left record as a "community organizer," Illinois state legislator, and Senator.
The American people ignored his total zero of an academic record as a student and teacher, his complete lack of scholarship when he was being touted as a scholar.

Now, the American people are starting to wake up to the truth. Barack Obama is a super likeable super leftist, not a fan of this country, way, way too cozy with the terrorist leaders in the Middle East , way beyond naïveté, all the way into active destruction of our interests and our allies and our future. The American people have already awakened to the truth that the stimulus bill -- a great idea in theory -- was really an immense bribe to Democrat interest groups, and in no way an effort to help all Americans.

Now, Americans are waking up to the truth that ObamaCare basically means that every time you are sick or injured, you will have a clerk from the Department of Motor Vehicles telling your doctor what he can and cannot do.

The American people already know that Mr. Obama's plan to lower health costs while expanding coverage and bureaucracy is a myth, a promise of something that never was and never will be -- a bureaucracy lowering costs in a free society. Either the costs go up or the free society goes away. These are perilous times.. Mrs. Hillary Clinton, our Secretary of State, has given Iran the go-ahead to have nuclear weapons, an unqualified betrayal of the nation. Now, we face a devastating loss of freedom at home in health care. It will be joined by controls on our lives to "protect us" from global warming, itself largely a fraud if believed to be caused by man.

Mr. Obama knows Americans are getting wise and will stop him if he delays at all in taking away our freedoms. There is his urgency and our opportunity. Once freedom is lost, America is lost. Wake up, beloved America .

I've never understood how those of the American public operating with more than half a brain voted for someone so patently underqualified as the uber-articulate Obama.  However - and equally alarming -- neither do I understand those conservatives who are jumping on the Palin bandwagon and proclaiming her contender-in-chief in 2012.   One word should stop them -- the same word that was NEVER applied to Obama during his campaign -- qualifications. 

Just as I found Obama's public speechifying electric, so I find Sarah Palin personable, likeable, admirable in her firm commitment to conservative values and the way she apparently lives those values in her personal life. 

However, I also think that under no circumstance whatever is she qualified for the office of VP or P of the US, just as I felt, and still feel, that Obamarama has certainly undergone that anomalous anatomical change mentioned in the first paragraph above.

Deciding on who leads the overgrown government of this vast and complex country should not be a popularity contest.  There seems to be major confusion between Dancing With The Stars and Dancing With The Politicians... except that DWTS doesn't impact every facet of our lives the way the DC dancers do.  The American public has become so enslaved to flashy, superficial presentation that true ability comes in a poor second every time, in direct proportion to all loss of critical thinking.  What does that say about the voter and the relentlessly manipulative liberal media?

So, who's next -- Donny Osmond for President?  Or maybe it's time to draft one of those oh-so-clever cartoon people -- that's it.  Shrek for President, 2012. 

Give me a freaking break. 
.
.

Random Ramblings (or, she's in a very bad mood)

Random Rambling Number 1.
I haven't read or listened to anything about Mackenzie Phillips beyond the headlines, so I may be writing this without all the facts (nothing new in the blogging world...).  This is one more aspect of our American culture that I don't understand -- why are the most personal, sordid, illegal, embarrassing and tragic events of a person's life (usually a celebrity) exposed to the world -- and why does the world care about these things?  The rationale usually given is "so I can help someone else learn from my experience."  The actual immediate truth is, "so I can sell my book," although the reason for writing the book may be under the guise of "helping" others.

And to this I cry, bullshit.

I find the lack of privacy in our culture disturbing and distasteful to the max -- and quite alarming, and this goes for Facebook, Twitter, all other social networks and the very personal forms of blogging.

When I grew up, it was called exposing one's dirty laundry to the world and was to be avoided at all costs -- now it's called being open, honest and "taking responsibility for one's actions."  I wonder why this open and honest method of taking responsibility can't be confined to one's family or individuals directly affected by the smarmy situation.  Do you really want to know all this stuff?  I sure don't.  I also don't want to know who has had plastic surgery on which body parts, who has been in drug/alcohol/sex addiction/ rehabilitation one more time, or the vast number of people with whom one has been romantically (ha!) involved with.  I'm also not sure why the general public is expected to respond "Bravo! Well done!" when a celebrity has exited rehab for the 14th time or owned up to the latest felony. 

Excluding the financial return on their confessions, maybe if these people need to assuage their guilt so desperately, they should investigate the Catholic faith, which celebrates the sacrament of Reconciliation weekly. 

Apparently I'm in the minority on this one, though, as these expose-everything-including-my-ouchie-piercing books become best sellers.  What does that SAY about our culture?  Certainly nothing very flattering, for either the exposer or the lapper-upper.  I know "right" and "wrong" are completely out of fashion and qualities only a right-win nutcase might value, but dammit, some things really are WRONG, and I'm neither buying their books nor applauding the victims or perps.


Random Rambling Number 2.I haven't felt up to blogging about Obamarama in the past ten days or so because...well...I'm really sick of seeing his face and hearing his drone, particularly when it comes to his hard, hard, hard sell on health care.  It did occur to me on the occasion of his 437th redundant speech that he is a victim of his birthday and his astrological sign of Leo, the Lion.   I know, I know, astrology is bunk...but I learned it at my mother's knee, and much of it is truth to me.  Indulge me -- and see who this sounds like to you:  (Excerpted From Linda Goodman's Sun Signs)

"You may find him making flowery speeches... on a stage or in front of a circle of adoring friends.  He may waste money but...there will always be an audience."
"Beneath his courteous manner...are smoldering fires of proud dignity and arrogant vanity..."
"He'll either get the center of the stage with dramatic statements and actions, or he'll get it by pouting and sulking..."
"Leos just can't help feeling superior and behaving dramatically..."
And my favorite paragraph:  "Is he kindhearted or dangerous, generous or cruelly selfish?  Does he gain his reputation for superiority under false pretenses.  Whether the Leo man is truly a king or just a pretender to the throne, we may never know.  He has insatiable appetites, and he's as proud as a peacock.  He has an enormous need to command and to be loved by those he rules.  He secretly fears he may fail and be ridiculed . It's a constant inner torture, and the true source of his vanity and exaggerated dignity."

(with apologies to Cathy, my Leo niece, who is an official dues-paying Friend Of Cynwrites.)

Random Rambling Number 3.
 I don't know how valid or respectable THIS LINK is -- it was sent to me by an old friend who parks his car on the right side of the road, but it looked intriguing to me. If you follow the link to THIS ONE, you reach an internet organization, "Operation, Can You Hear Me Now" which is a group dedicated to exposing the liberal bias of the mainstream media.  It's about damn time!

Of all the topics I've written about in this blog the past couple of years, this is the one I feel is the most critical and the most downright frightening.

The simple truth (in my vision) is that if one watches only the Big Four network news programs (NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN) and reads only newspapers like the NY Times, one receives such a slanted, biased viewpoint that all objectivity is lost.  If you consider all the critical issues we face as citizens of the world in 2009 and how important facts are to each of us -- then you consider that the "facts" we are served are as twisted as a cop's cruller -- the outlook for the accuracy of our knowledge and excellence of our decisions based on that knowledge is grim.

We are at the mercy of the folks who work the trenches and ferret out the news for us -- but they then apply their own spin to shade the presentation of that news.  Whether this is due to their own innate bias, the bias of the editorial/managerial staff or the corporations paying the bills simply doesn't matter.


What matters is, ordinary citizens following only the Big Four and newspapers like the NY times do not get objective facts because the writing slants so far to the left.  It seems to me in the past three months or so that Joe and Mabel Everyperson are at last wising up to this.  I've seen more about liberal bias in this time period than in all of the past two years -- and believe me, I've been looking for it (in vain thus far).

We have lamentable, ridiculous political polarity in our country, where each side considers its views as originating from the single valid perspective.  We need all of these viewpoints, and the tenets they are based upon,  to be presented factually, objectively, without bias.  We deserve nothing less from our "news" organizations, and if we get less -- if we get what we've been getting for 40+ years -- we can't call it news.  We can call it opinion or entertainment -- but it doesn't meet the criteria for news.

OK, I'm done rambling.  Have a groovy weekend.
.
.

Jimmy Carter Says I'm A Racist...

...so, I guess if a senior Democratic luminary like former President Carter says it, it must be true.

I didn't support Barack Obama's candidacy for president because I couldn't figure out how or why he was qualified to hold that office.  His only credentials were that he was 1) a lawyer;  2) a former "community organizer";  3) a junior Senator from Illinois who had no legislative credits to his name but managed to vote "present" in the Senate. Yeah, that makes me a racist.

I was alarmed at the internet reports of Obama's ties with ACORN and puzzled that the trusted mainstream media didn't provide any investigative efforts to this questionable link.  Since ACORN helps the poor, which in the East means African-Americans in the majority, I'm certainly a racist on this question.  We all know now what a sterling organization ACORN has been.  The Senate proved it yesterday.

I found the yes/no/yes/no relationship between Obama and convicted domestic terrorist William Ayres far more than questionable -- on the continuum to frightening -- and didn't believe for a second the whitewash (oops) that relationship was given in the campaign.  I've also felt nervous about Obama's ties to sleazy Chicago politics (where some of his closest advisors hail from.) One more racist strike against me.

Anyone who has read this blog over the past year knows my feelings and fears about the liberal bias in the media -- which bias is being recognized and talked about more and more.  Because I don't believe everything the MSM has to say about the Obama presidency -- and because I wonder why they don't say more about the failures to date of his administration -- I'm a racist, pure and simple.

Within my limited understanding of powerhouse economics, I'm sure some Federal action was necessary to ward off an even deeper recession than the one we're enjoying now, but some of Obama's actions and policies have seemed so cavalier with taxpayer money -- your money, my money.  I worry about oversight and accountability for the billions that have been promised in "stimulus funds."  I worry about adding to a national debt that will burden my great-great grandkids.  That worry is only exacerbated by the knowledge that Obama's employment history doesn't include a day when he was required to make a profit.  (Well, maybe some of his billable attorney hours supported a profit center, but that office didn't carry his name, did it.)  Yeah -- scratch another mark in the racist column.

I've written at length here about Obamacare and wondered why we have to attack such a massive problem at this particular time -- when the economy is still so sluggish and experts predict high unemployment for years to come.  Millions of jobs lost are lost for a long, long time -- particularly when the administration is so obviously anti-business.  I wonder about the rush to pass health care legislation when none of it will even take effect until 2013.  I wonder why we can't just fix the obvious problems now in small steps, instead of putting a massive portion of our economy and way of life in the blender and ending up with a smoothie labeled "more government control."  Oh God, that surely makes me a racist, doesn't it. 

I'm confused about the inner workings of the West Wing, where 40 smarty-pants are called "czars" and enjoy unprecedented access and influence over the President -- including the stellar Van Jones of recent fame.  Why, how dare I question the nation's CEO's method of managing his administration -- surely, I'm a racist.

Even though I discussed (here) my personal lack of patriotism, I've not applauded our President's performances during his international visits.  I've felt embarrassed at his wimpy strategy of apology during his many speeches.  I wonder about his appeasement of Chavez and Iran and his odd stance with Israel.  I don't think America has been 100% right 100% of the time, but for God's sake, he's representing our country and appears to be ashamed of it...odd, when he wanted the job so damned bad.  Oh mea culpa, slap my racist cheek!

The most damming evidence against me, though, is the fact that I don't swallow whole the chunks of bullshit that are thrown from the White House and mainstream media hourly.  I actually choose to research facts from  other sources, I try to apply some of my own life experiences and, dare I say it, wisdom, to the problems we all face, and too often that research and thought don't agree with the Obamarama party line.

Yes! Yes!  I'm a racist.  I no longer support the liberal/progressive/Democratic views, so the only conclusion those small-minded, close-minded people can draw is that I'm a racist.

What a cheap shot, President Carter.  What a limited viewpoint.  What a pity.
.
.

My 46-Billion-Dollar Laugh For The Day

Some say there's no such thing as coincidence, and so I did a double-take today when I watched CBS Sunday Morning's story on computerizing medical records -- which 46-billion dollar project has already been signed, sealed and delivered by our generous Congress (article HERE). 

Why the double-take?  Because I had just written a few days ago HERE about my personal experience in computering eight retail lumber facilities and the toll it took on the manager of the project (me), the implementation specialist (me), the trainer/facilitator (me), and my long-suffering, faithful Brit assistant and support tech, Alana, who also quit at the end of the project.  Rumor has it her blood pressure and sanity were stable on her last day (unlike mine).

Compared to the vast reach of the Federally-funded project, which comes with its own Obama-czar, my effort was minuscule -- something like comparing the first Kitty Hawk airplane to an Apollo rocket -- but the molehill problems I encountered have much in common with the moutain facing the health care industry.

According to CBS and the above article on privacy issues, fewer than 20% of medical facilities are now computerized, relying instead on handwritten and hand-filed paper charts.  Congress' largesse will reimburse medical facilities $40-65 thousand dollars for their computerization (not paying for it up-front), and the most laughable part of this program is its deadline -- 2014.

There's no way in hell this is going to happen.  It took me four years to computerize eight facilities, and I had a basically unlimited budget and years of computer and managerial experience.

The business I have operated for the last15 years is an ancillary service related to health care -- in particular, to health care records.  Based on that experience, (and not intending to offend anyone who might not meet this profile), clerical staff positions in docs' offices, clinics, labs and hospitals are usually that of entry-level personnel, managed by people who have worked their way up without credentialed management training, and certainly without much technical training.  Any physician/owner, who I would guess to be over 45, doesn't exactly dance around on keyboard either.  Mid-sized and large offices often have a computer consultant who manages their systems -- techie guys who are not employees and therefor not on site all the time.  Add to this mix language problems, particularly in border states, because "entry level" very often means ESL workers necessary to service ESL patients, and you have a sure recipe for disaster.

My largest client converted to an electronic medical record system about ten years ago.  The actual transition took over two years, but their EMR system is not 100% effective even today.  It can "talk to" one hospital in the area but not to four others, which certainly negates the universal-access claim the proponents have touted as the answer to all medical errors. The Feds have NOT YET established standards between computer software choices so communication will be possible -- yet this is all supposed to be accomplished by 2014?

Remember the old mantra GIGO -- garbage in, garbage out?  It's a cliche because it's just too true.  Breathe deeply, count to ten and enjoy the following relaxation exercise.

Visualize a room the size of your house filled top to bottom with paper charts spanning at least 10 years' history for each patient in your doctor's practice.

One of those file folders is yours, hopefully (but not necessarily) with your correct name, Social Security number and your birthday.  Think about your current state of health, your medication allergies, all the intimate details of your medical history written in your chart, including every time you've phoned the office, had an office visit, a prescription,  lab or x-ray test or been admitted to the hospital.  Now visualize your doctor's handwriting.  Then think about all the errors in billing you've experienced, both from the doc's office and especially the hospital -- and the hassles you've had trying to resolve those errors with them AND your insurance company. 

Now picture Lolita with her two-inch fingernails and nose ring, chewing her gum, thinking about her boyfriend and her new Victoria Secret teddy while she works and chats with her coworker about last Saturday night.  She makes $8.50 per hour.  She's entering or scanning YOUR data into their new system.

Lolita has very little, if any, medical training and her English isn't so hot. She can't spell the drugs you've taken, she can't read the doc's scribble, so she skips stuff or garbles it.  Fourteen lab slips and other pieces of critical information swirl around her tatooed ankles as she tries to scan them, but the scanner jams or just doesn't record, AND she's mixed up your information with the next patient's chart.  She doesn't notice the errors and she doesn't know she's incompetent.  Her supervisor is so overwhelmed by continuing her regular daily duties to keep the practice afloat AND get these **&(%%$# records computerized that she doesn't notice Lolita's errors, either.  

Now, take that same scenario and multiply it by every medical facility in the land.  Your tax dollars at work.  YAY.  This is one of those instances where the theory sounds peachy and the reality will be one of the biggest messes we've ever experienced. 

I don't pretend to know a lot about national and international politics or Wall Street investments or world economics or many other important issues of the day.

I DO know a lot about computerizing facilities that employ uneducated, incompetent, untrained, often untrainable, workers and what the end result can look like.

These porkulus funds have already been allocated, the absolutely unrealistic and unattainable deadline has been set, and there are high hopes for its successful completion.

What are those other old cliches?  Pie in the sky?  When pigs fly?  When hell freezes over?  Or all of the above...
.
.

Slippery As A Snake

I've ranted on so much lately about Obamacare that frankly I'm boring myself, and I assume I'm boring you even more.  I'm not going to analyze a speech I couldn't bring myself to watch, having reached Obama-overexposure-saturation point -- but I am suggesting that you read this article posted by PowerLine.  It covers every salient point from the perspectives of FACT and REALITY and says everything I would say, only much better, and I don't have to do all that typing. 

Oh, yeah -- there are only 1228 days to go in this presidential term.  Whew!
.
.

Houston, We Have A Problem

Aside from working as a "community organizer" the only skills Obama has thus far shown the public are 1) speechifying, and 2) getting elected due to his proficiency in #1.

It's no accident that his 9/7/09 speech to the AFL-CIO harkens right back to these two skills -- whenever a tough situation arises, make a speech, rouse the crowd to cheer "Yes, We Can" and think you've done your job.

I don't claim to be an expert on the inner workings of Congress, but isn't "debate" one of the players in the great legislative game?  There exist many avenues by which proposed legislation becomes law, (see this link, if 7th grade was a long time ago for you, too,) and debate is certainly part of the process.

Now, in this speech to Labor, Obama is telling us the time for debate is over?  To the best of my recollection, we don't have a viable bill in either the House or the Senate, nor has the eagerly-awaited magic Obama White House bill yet been unveiled -- but the debate is over?

Houston, what the heck?

I find it incredibly frustrating that those who speak in opposition to West Wing proposals are continually accused of "spreading lies," of being "right-wing extremists" or "special interest groups" determined to sandbag the Democrats' plans.  Those epithets trickle down from the Obama spout all the way to network media.

Why can't the opposition be considered exactly that -- those opposed to health care/insurance reform, as it has been presented, based on ideological or budgetary grounds?  Why must everyone not marching in lock step with President O be constantly demonized?

This is taken from the above AFL-CIO speech (in case you didn't click the link):

"I've got a question for all these folks who say, you know, we're going to pull the plug on Grandma and this is all about illegal immigrants -- you've heard all the lies," Obama said. "I've got a question for all those folks: What are you going to do? What's your answer? What's your solution?

"And you know what? They don't have one."

The president seemed eager to recapture some of the enthusiasm that propelled him during his campaign. A prolonged recession has sapped morale, he said, as have pundits who warn that "this isn't working and that's not working."

In the face of a collective "funk," Obama reprised a story from the 2008 campaign about a South Carolina official who electrified one of his appearances through a chant of "Fired up; ready to go!" The story was not part of his prepared speech, and the White House later said Obama had launched into it spontaneously. If nothing else, the chant buoyed his aides, who whooped and shouted as the president trotted out the anecdote.

With about 20,000 people listening in and outside the pavilion, Obama said "every debate at some point comes to an end. At some point, it's time to decide. At some point, it's time to act. Ohio, it's time to act and get this thing done."

Yeah -- let's shut down debate and just "act and get this thing done" while we don't have a consensus, while the Congressional Budget Office has controverted Obama's own team's analyses and before Obama's own bill has seen the light of day.

Sounds like a good plan to me -- sounds about like the rest of this administration's actions to date.

Maybe I missed something in the last nine months -- what the hell's the hurry about passing this critical, sweeping, overwhelming legislation that will affect nearly everyone in America in some way or other?

Reform may be inevitable, but shouldn't it be measured, thoughtful and the best solution possible?

Obama may be "fired up and ready to go" but my money isn't all that eager to leave my bank account until we have a plan that just may actually work.  We all know these programs NEVER get repealed.  This reform will be with us until, well, forever.   Can't we wait and do it right, instead of being forced to do it wrong, right now?
.
.

The Problem Is Obvious -- But The Solution Is Three Years Away

Back in the olden, not-so-golden days of my corporate servitude, I played midwife to an aging generation of managers who were forced to enter the world of technology as I computerized their retail lumber stores.  It was a grim project as 1) they were all men over 40;  2) they were old-school lumbermen, macho dudes who chewed tobacco and used redwood logs for toothpicks;  3) they were techno-babies who couldn't type, spell, or click a mouse, and God forbid they learn the logic of a rudimentary product numbering system;  and 4) they resented the hell out of this smart-ass bitch woman who actually thought she knew something.

That thankless project took four years to accomplish  -- four years that came directly off my lifespan, by the way.  Ultimately the computer gods required a sacrificial lamb -- me -- who quit at the end of the project, blood pressure soaring, mind turning to mush and absolutely determined to never again work for or with anyone remotely resembling a male human.

I did learn one important fact, though:  You can't work beyond your level of competence for long without drowning in your own failure and bringing down everyone around you. 

Each manager of those seven retail outlets (gross income in the mid-eight figures annually) was unprepared, inexperienced and unqualified for the job he held.  They had all attained their positions through political maneuvering and expert ass-kissing.  Once established at the top of their individual food chain, they completely relied on corporate managers who did the tough parts of their job for them -- including all of their thinking. The only thing these uber-woodsmen did for themselves was sign their big, fat bonus checks.

The single asset these goofballs brought to the table was their ability to slap backs, wine, dine and grease the customer.  (I had an earlier theory that their elevated management status was due to each harboring a penis in his pants, but that's another blog.)

As it turned out, none of those managers (or their corporate counterparts) was able to make  informed, tough and correct decisions when hard times struck in the form of stiff big-box competition, a slowing building trend and stringent environmental regulations.  One by one they teetered and dropped off the pinnacle of their meager success, never to be heard from again.  That particular company is 100% different from what it was 15 years ago.

So what's my point?  This article by Charles Krauthammer details the many ways President Obamarama has been swimming in deep water ever since his coronation inauguration.  It's a classic example of what I observed so closely in that former life -- a person in power battered by the flotsam and jetsam of uninformed, bad decisions, drowning in his incompetence -- and just possibly sinking the Ship of State with him. 


Note:  If you're asked to register to read the Krauthammer article from the Washington Post, don't hesitate.  Registration is free and you're not obligated in any way, nor do you receive any annoying email.
.
.

How Succinct Can You Get?

Borrowed from
"CharlieFoxtrotBlog.blogspot.com"
via AceOfSpadesHQ
.
.

"Nyahh Nah, Nyahh Nah, Nyahhhhh Nah!"

Although the three major news networks are still out there shilling for President O's "insurance reform" and the naysayers are invariably colored as angry right-wing nutbars, the current temperature of the public's support for incipient health care reform proposals is way below 98.6 degrees... slipping into hypothermia, as a matter of fact.

Of course, you wouldn't know that if all you watch is network news, including "in depth" reporting on Sunday morning or prime time news special features, and if all you read are mainstream media publications.

The bias doesn't always show itself through the vocabulary used in the networks' reporting, it isn't necessarily the video where righteous conservatives are shouting a little too much for comfort, it isn't always the skewed poll numbers. I find it most obvious in the 20-second wrap up at the end of a segment -- the closing sentence that is ALWAYS opinion, not a summary of fact, and ALWAYS accompanied by the knowing, condescending, snotty, sneary little twist of the mouth that says, "anyone who isn't on the liberal Democratic bandwagon (our side, the good guys' side, the smartypants' side) is just too stupid to live, doncha know."

If, however, you spend 30 minutes of your daily websurfing time reading a conservative blog or two, or if you select news reporting from reasonably objective sources, a clearer picture begins to emerge.

Independent bloggers are now providing the objectivity so pathetically and dangerously lacking in the mainstream media. Sure, a lot of it is opinion -- (although openly frank opinion, not reportage couched in opinion as on the Big Three and cable networks or in many liberal newspapers) -- but it's also actual, factual NEWS reporting that somehow never shows up in prime time or front page.

Doesn't it seem weirdly wrong that Drudge, Ace of Spades HQ, or Real Clear Politics are far more reliable and much timlier sources of FACTS than the alphabet soup networks?

Isn't it questionable to the point of outrageous that "one side fits all" is the theme of the mainstream media -- and where far too often the "other side" is never heard from, except to be ridiculed?

Last year, during the runup to the presidential campaign and throughout the campaign itself, I was still hanging around an authors' chat room -- where the acknowledged balance of political party affiliation was about 90% liberal. Woe betide the brave soul who dared to voice the above opinions -- the Puritans' pillory had nothing on the punishment visited upon the independent or conservative chatter. It was the liberal Democratic attitude in microcosm -- the intelligentsia who believe they are superior and independent thinkers, except that they march in lockstep along the party line -- and who could never admit there can be two valid opinions on political matters.

I came to the conclusion then that I've voiced often and strongly in this blog, my very own platform, that as long as the media reporting is aligned with one's own thinking, no bias is perceived and therefore is impossible to be acknowledged. It is a right-wing extremist lie and don't, for God's sake, confuse us with any facts to support the premise.

During the campaign the conservatives got the word out that the mainstream media was "in the tank for Obama" -- something that was patently obvious to those of us who simply wanted more information about this community organizer/senator-who-voted-present-and-did-nothing-more/completely inexperienced yet articulate leftie with questionable ties to homegrown terrorists/master-at-getting-elected-but-nothing-much-else/relative unknown and charming newcomer.

The mainstream media even picked up the mantra and made good fun of being "in the tank" -- and weren't they cute and good sports for poking fun at themselves -- wink, wink, of course we're not, we're oh so objective. Oh - and if you don't go along with our support of the Cheery O, you're a racist (even though this campaign has NOTHING TO DO WITH RACE.)

The result, however, isn't fun or cute. Because there was no -NO- serious investigative reporting, no critical eye focused on the man, the moneyed supporters, the ideologies, the pie-in-the-sky plans and schemes, Obama was portrayed as the Savior who would redeem us all with hopey and changey ideals. He was sold to the public -- who went along for the ride, wanted all that sky pie and didn't demand a closer look -- and here we are -- in the midst of a hugely expensive mess and certainly in line for a bigger, more expensive mess.

I can't help but think that those of us who resisted the media's package and had deep concerns during the campaign -- and since the election - have the right to be be standing now on the sidelines, waving at the Obama train and chanting, nyah nah, nyah nah, nyahhhh nah -- we knew better, we expected this, we predicted it. We just didn't have the votes to prevent it, and the responsibility and guilt for that lie at the media's fungused little toes.

My only hope is that it will be but a one-term disaster and that the far-left crazies will be stopped before they do too much damage. Depending on your news sources, the tide is turning in the public's love affair for President O and for the screwballs in Congress who support him.
.
.

Speaking Up -- Moral Obligation and Duty of Citizenship

THIS LINK is just too good not to be shared with the countless thousands of friends who follow this blog. (hahahahahahaha). Seriously -- it's worth your time, no matter which side of the political fence you find your little feet.

I only have a couple of paragraphs to add. (Well, of COURSE I have to add something.)

I can't think how many times we were encouraged in school to consider the "collective guilt" of both the German and Japanese citizenry who did NOT speak up and protest the evil their respective leaders were wreaking on the world.

During that time of my early education (late 1950's), excuses were not made for the facts that the specific evils were not known and that nationalism blinds nearly everyone to consider opposing views. The world at that time was far more black and white than it is now, and media coverage limited to print newspapers, limited radio and film coverage. Propoganda and wartime strategy included widespread news blackouts and/or fabrication and politicization in Axis countries. Each side was given the rationalization that underpins every war: They were bad and we were good - period.

We had no idea then how very real the threat was of losing one's own family or life for pointing fingers or acting in resistance. I'm not sure even now how many of us can truly imagine what that would be like. Survival is a human's number one priority -- and survival of one's family must be included in that grim list.

Over the span of the past 40+ years, I've seen protesters maligned for being unpatriotic, a threat to democracy, commies, pervs and nutcases. Remember the police actions at the Democratic National Convention in 1968? Or Kent State? Or the many, many times Vietnam war protesters were bashed over their heads and in the press? Think of the confrontations between right-to-life groups with pro-abortion (okay, okay, pro-choice) groups. Certainly not "peaceful" gatherings 100% of the time.

How is the concept of discouraging dissent reconciled with our usually-unspoken feelings that the German population "should have done something" to stop Hitler? Even though we now know it would have been impossible for them to effect any change in his "policies" or actions.

If we feel or know that proposed legislation is NOT in the best interests of this country -- for whatever personal or intellectual reason -- is it not our obligation to let our legislators know how we feel?

Is it not our moral obligation to protest the legalization of fetal murder if that's what our moral code dictates?

Ask yourself why we are now being told that to NOT support Obamacare is unpatriotic? That we who think the proposed legislation is not the answer are foolish, extremist meanies, manipulated by Republican party organizers, and we simply don't understand what our smarter, more righteous brethren want to decide for us?

Forget for a moment that the Republicans don't appear to be able to organize a water balloon fight -- crediting them for this widespread reaction is just too silly.

It's true that Obama won the election and that the Democrats hold the majority in Congress -- and that's a confluence of facts that is just tough for Republicans. It's also true that the American citizen has the opportunity, the right, and in my opinion, the obligation to protest what he/she doesn't agree with.

Why are we being ridiculed for not marching in lockstep when debate and opposition lie at the very core of the democratic process?

Yeah, maybe the town hall groups have been a little rowdy. Maybe the debate should be handled better -- actually, maybe there should BE a debate. Ask yourself why there hasn't yet been one in Congress.

Ask yourself if you're willing to let the Obamacare tanks roll right over you, no matter what you personally think of the proposed legislation.

Maybe you could also write a note to Pelosi and ask her which side then is waving the "Nazi" symbol, invisible or not.

Something "Fishy" on Pennsylvania Avenue

If your only news source is one of the Big Three networks, you likely haven't seen the flap that's sent the blogosphere reeling in the past few days. It hasn't been the lead story on any NBC, ABC or CBS channel that I've seen, but it's certainly all over the Internet.

HERE's the link to the original White House blog where we're asked to send "fishy" emails directly to the White House since they may be filled with "disinformation" about the health care proposal.

HERE's a link to Senator John Cornryn's response to the White House blog where he expresses his alarm at this frightening action. THIS link talks about the Democrats' panic at resistance.

And, just for fun, HERE's a link to a hilarious YouTube video poking a little fun at the whole thing.

Only... the background battle of these skirmishes isn't all that funny.

I can't figure out if President O is simply determined to set the all-time record for "most money spent or allocated and most debt incurred in the shortest time by any president EVER" -- or whether it's the force of his monumental ego that is driving him to imprint his Obamacare logo on our collective asses.

The simple of mind and heart would have us believe he wants health care reform for the good of all. The more cynical of us bleat a wet, sloppy Brooklyn raspberry and say it's just one more facet of his not-so-hidden, far- far-left agenda, aka socialism in the closet. Don't ask and definitely don't tell.

I just can't figure it out -- what is the rush to reform? And more to the point, why does this reform include suppression of dissent?

President O wanted the whole enchilada done by the August congressional recess. Now, the date is September. Where is the time for actual debate? Where is the time for the citizenry to provide input to their representatives? Where is the time for these elected controllers of our lives to even READ the legislation? Why are we in such a hurry to incur another trillion or so dollars of debt that this shaky economy can't possibly support?

Everyone involved in the push to ram this program down our throats, from White House staffers to elected Pelosipeople to mainstream media "reporters" to liberal bloggers, have choked down O's message and are sell, sell, selling it harder than any car salesman with a hot prospect. Oh wait -- I forgot -- the Gov IS that car salesman now, isn't it.

I think they could worry less about DISinformation if they got a little more real information -- and not just prepackaged commercial sound bites -- to the American people.

With its usual Chicago pol tactics, O's team has started its own smear campaign against plain-vanilla protesters who don't like what they've heard about Obamacare. These aren't organized folk -- these are worried folk who don't want to hold out their hands for a government handout, and who don't want their money and health care decisions put into a government bureaucrat's hands.

These are concerned people who want to be heard, not railroaded. Life today in the old US of A is tenuous enough without Congress rushing into long-term decisions that will affect real people's lives at the most stressful of times.

I'll admit I received some "fishy" emails from my conservative brethren. I didn't forward them along to other friends because I didn't believe what I read. There really are some whopping lies and distortions making the rounds along with all those "please forward or you'll die in five minutes" prayer emails. But neither did I forward them to Big Bro in the White House.

When hopey and changey was voted into office, was free speechy given the boot?

If you're not getting BOTH SIDES of the news these days -- and yes, Virginia, there really are two sides to each story, check out the "Great Political Links" I've listed on the right-hand side of this blog. Those particularly worth your time, in my bloggy opinion, are "Ace of Spades" "Powerline" and "Real Clear Politics." "Iowahawk" will make you laugh until you spew Pepsi out your nose.

Headline: Ayn Rand Spinning In Her Grave

Although Ayn Rand's epic "Atlas Shrugged" is completely irreconcilable with my Catholic Christian values, there is still enough truth in her philosophy to send me running around these days like Chicken Little.

I'm sure Dear Dead Ayn herself would admit the sky is indeed falling. Her book, always frighteningly prophetic, has bridged the world between fiction and fact.

This article from the Washington Post today is the single most alarming news story I've read since the Obamarama Circus started its four-year run.

I know the question of caps on executive salaries has been simmering since the first bailout/bonus scandal. Common sense dictates that corporations poised on the brink of the abyss are foolish to perpetuate high-flying compensation packages. Those who have gone begging to the Fed for billions while still paying bonuses are even more foolish and deserve to be bitch slapped for their bad judgment.

Executive salaries and perks have been the guys in the black hats for a few years -- since compensation has become public knowledge and their companies' performances not so hot. Still... in a market-driven economy (which we had until we became a Federally-funded economy), the Big Cheeses make the big decisions, bear the big responsibilities and are ultimately accountable to their stockholders and governing boards. I've always felt that if performances (personal and bottom line) warrant the big bucks, let the Big Cheeses have them. No matter the reward, the job is tough.

I even felt this way when I was a Democrat, because I had enough experience running on the corporate hamster wheel to appreciate the expertise and chutzpah it takes to steer any large company.

Only in Barbie's Fairytopia would lower executive compensation mean anything to me personally -- it's not like they're going to be calculating the differential and sending us all checks, nor are they about to skew the pay scale by sharing it with their employees.

This legislation that the members of the House (those paragons of virtue, intelligence, character and effectiveness) passed will "empower financial regulators to limit pay that they deem inappropriate." That sentence doesn't say who these "financial regulators" will be, but the rest of the article implies they will be government employees. So... a civil servant sucking on the public teat will help determine compensation for an employee presumably high on the corporate food chain -- who steers the corporation that fuels the economy by providing jobs, goods, services AND TAXES --- taxes that pay that same civil servant's salary and the rest of the porkulus.

Atlas Shrugged is too damn long to analyze -- or even summarize -- in a blog posting, but, very briefly, in the story the world's economies -- all of 'em, most spectacularly, ours -- teeter on collapse under the burden of regulations, nationalization of industries, government involvement and the politics of manipulation.

Of course, just as in real life, the evil capitalists are blamed -- after all, they're RICH. The real and total collapse occurs when those evil ones (the actual producers of wealth -- genius industrialists) go "on strike" and refuse to participate in the smarmy world of the bottom-feeders who have been nominally in charge. Rand calls the centuries-long success of this warped system "the sanction of the victim" and the book ends when the victim withholds that sanction and, oh yes, saves the world.

Yeah, Atlas Shrugged is fiction -- but can you say "government bailouts" -- "socialized health care" (and it is - don't kid yourself) -- "cap & trade" -- and now "controls on compensation" ?

Here's an article posted yesterday on Obama's 32 czars who are "in control" in his administration without any kind of vetting, congressional confirmation or oversight.

And here's a link to Amazon.com for Atlas Shrugged. If you're a friend or a family member, buy the book and send me the bill. My treat -- I'm not kidding.

The Obamarama Circus was funny for awhile -- now it's just plain damn scary.

A Nightmare Waiting In The Wings

My business is an ancillary service to the health care industry -- I'm not involved directly with patients, but I am privy to their complete and intimate medical symptoms, procedures, treatments and good/bad outcomes. Over the past 15 years I've seen a small number of documented physician errors and their consequence in medical malpractice lawsuits. I've also seen a whopping change in the philosophy and standards of patient care

Unless you have a history of the same chronic condition for which you've been treated over many years, your chance of undergoing an invasive procedure or very expensive scan of one kind or another is about ten thousand times greater today than it was even ten years ago. Even when a physician relies on his/her education, experience and common sense (for those few who use it), that provider will very often require that you get a scan "just to be sure" -- just to validate their conclusion -- and to cover their ass for malpractice exposure.

Have a belly ache? Get a CT scan. Headache? Hop up on that scanning table and let's "see" what's going on. A little red patch on your arm? Let's do a biopsy! PET scans, MRI scans, CT-guided biopsies and dozens of "oscopies" of one kind or another are as common today as an aspirin and thermometer were in the good old days. Of course these are all terrific diagnostic tools and undoubtedly save lives a thousand times over -- no argument there. But also of course, they are not without serious risks, their results are not foolproof, the tests themselves can be faulty and/or results misinterpreted, and oh, by the way, they are ALL horrifically expensive.... for your insurance company, for you as the insured, and for the taxpayers providing money for assistance programs.

The availability of all these diagnostics has changed the face of medicine and changed the method by which physicians practice their art. Undoubtedly the objective data these tests provide contribute to the quality health care that we receive. Also undoubtedly they are an enormous factor in the cost of that health care.

It's rare when a patient refuses or delays whatever test or procedure a doc orders. Even patients who have researched their own symptoms and are medically sophisticated rarely controvert the physician's request -- after all, they are paying for the doc's expertise and judgment, and after all, there might be "something dreadfully wrong" that can be fixed with drug therapy or surgery. It's been my experience that the only patients who don't comply with the ordered test or procedure are the terminally chicken or the uninsured. It always catches my attention when a patient puts a foot down, draws on common sense and says, "it was only a stomach ache, it went away after two days (while it took two weeks to get in for an appointment), and I feel fine now. Let's skip the scan." The doc, aghast, always documents that the patient refused valuable medical advice, assuring that the patient's eventual demise from that stomach ache will not end in a malpractice action.

I personally find it ludicrous that a $1500 scan will be ordered for a hangnail -- and I find it appalling and completely unethical that the number of scans ordered increases dramatically and exponentially when the doc's office has installed their own scanner. Ooops!

In all the recent blather about Obamacare and the astronomical costs of health care, I've yet to see this scenario mentioned, except in the even-more-frightening situation that a legislator or desk bound clerk may be making those particular medical decisions for us.

If you are at all concerned about the impending health care revolution we're facing, read THIS short and pithy article from Real Clear Politics. It will scare your pants off -- even if you weren't scheduled for that particular 'oscopy.

Boggling The Mind, #457

Even though it looks like Obama's massive health care reform ship is heading toward rocky waters and may, (please, God, please) capsize and sink, there's always the chance that it, or some form of it, will become part of our new reality.

I doubt there is any living, breathing American, guest resident or illegal resident, who doesn't agree that some sort of reform is necessary to provide at least minimum coverage for the uninsured. True, most can be served through emergency room facilities, but that isn't the real answer for chronic medical problems. I have my own personal horror story of dealing with the costs of six months in a transplant facility WITH great union insurance -- and I see through my work what the lack of good coverage can mean. Medical costs account for the majority of family bankruptcies -- due to many reasons, none of which I'm going to bore you with. They've been discussed aplenty recently.

The Clinton administration's attempt at reforming health care took a couple of years to live, languish and die -- from his announced intention in 1992 until the burial amid enormous controversy in 1994. Obama's strategy to announce, campaign and ram it down our collective throats has taken a bare six months -- and the conclusion is still unknown.

In an excerpt from one of his many speeches last week, Pres O said, "we will have health care reform -- make no mistake about it." That doesn't sound very friendly or collaborative to me. It sounds, well, dictatorial. His determination in this goal, as in every other problem that's crossed his desk, is backed by political intimidation, frank threats and Chicago-style arm twisting.

Let's face it, hopey and changey's record of success thus far is pretty damn miserable -- and his failed or failing pet projects have racked up unimaginable debt while being riddled with waste, fraud, and a dearth of oversight.

I came across an enlightening/appalling column (linked below) from Michelle Malkin's VERY entertaining and informative website. It illustrates the heart of what we're facing with O's administration and plans. His proposal passed frightening five months ago and is heading deep into disgust, taking our choices and our money with it.

If you do nothing else today, please, please read her column. In fact, bookmark Michelle's blog and check in with it frequently. Or I'll get my friends in Chicago to "convince" you.

INSIDE THE MONSTROUS OBAMACARE BUREAUCRACY. click and read. Now.

Isn't It Refreshing?

I love that the collective mainstream media has taken off at least one pair of rose-colored glasses with regard to President Obama. While they haven't yet choked on any humble pie, and probably never will because that would mean they'd have to admit to their bias and cheerleading of the past couple of years, they can no longer ignore the poll numbers that show Obama at less than deity status.

Here's what The Huffington Post had to say on July 9th:

President Barack Obama's approval rating in Ohio has fallen rapidly in the past months.

Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,259 voters in Ohio from June 26 to July 7. The poll found that 49% of voters disapprove of the job Obama is doing, while 44% approve.

That is 13 points down from May, when a separate Quinnipiac poll found a 62% approval rating and a 31% disapproval rating.

The most recent Quinnipiac poll also surveyed voters on Obama's handling of the economy, finding 48% disapproval and 46% approval. In May, Obama received a 57% approval rating on the economy.

Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, attributed the new poll numbers to the economic climate.

"The economy in Ohio is as bad as anywhere in America," said Brown. "These numbers indicate that for the first time voters have decided that President Barack Obama bears some responsibility for their problems."

Until now, he said, voters largely been "blaming former President George W. Bush." But now, voters "might be taking out their frustration on President Obama, possibly deciding that the change he promised has not come as quickly as they expected."

Gosh, the President the media elected isn't doing so well. What a surprise. I'm flabbergasted to think that the community organizer with 30 seconds' experience in the Senate can't solve America's and the world's problems in the first six months.

I can understand die-hard liberals voting for any Democrat nominated. I can understand the uneducated and unwashed voting for a rock star celebrity with a nice turn of words and a great smile. But what the hell was everyone else thinking?

Obviously, they weren't thinking.

I lay the responsibility and blame for his election squarely at the media's duck feet. They laughed off or ignored every serious red flag that anyone not pro-Obama raised. Everyone lazy or gullible enough to take the mainstream news anchors and analysts at face value, without checking F-A-C-T-S for themselves, or at least reading opposition challenges, voted as the sheep they are -- and we're now living with the result.

I know, I know, it's too late -- President he is and President he will remain, at least for his first term. One can only speculate the damage he will do IN that first term, but I fear the speculation may not be as bad as the eventual reality.

As a liberal arts major in college I wasn't exposed to any high-level economics classes -- not that I could have understood them had I taken them. Whatever minor gifts I have lie in language, and my mantra from childhood has been, "die, numbers, die!" Still, I was an IT executive for years with budgetary responsibilities (how the gods laughed) and I have run a home business and household on my own for 15 years, so I have at least an inkling of the practical side of money matters.

It just seems to me fiscally irresponsible (translation: stupid) to propose a multi-trillion-dollar revision of our health care system while the country is suffering the deepest recession in 70 years. What kind of fiscally irresponsible (stupid) family would book a vacation cruise around the world when the house, the car, the dog and one kid had been repoed? What kind of -- you know, stupid -- corporation would buy all new computers, company jets, facilities, staplers and paperclips if the bottom line on the balance sheet were too red to be read?

It really makes me nuts to see Obama and his thugish administration tap, tap, tapping like manic Irish dancers trying to spend money THEY DON'T HAVE. Who does that? Who proposes increased taxes on small business -- which provides the majority of jobs in a country at 10% unemployment? Someone without any common sense and any sensibility for people who struggle every day with the reality HE isn't living.

Even if you've managed to keep your customers, if you're a small business, or keep your job, if you're employed, your investments in your home and retirement have lost at least half their value over the past few years, and your personal financial future doesn't look nearly as bright as it did when you made all those cozy retirement plans.

All Obama's fault? Of course not. But having been elected based on hopey and changey, he's not coming through very well, is he? Hope may have won, but hope is going to cost a lot of bucks that we don't have, particularly when hope's health care program is so far out of the realm of practicality.

We may just have to bet on the outside chance that Congress wises up and just says NO. (pardon my snort laugh.)

So far I haven't seen the media sharks doing more than nosing the chum(p) in the water. I'm sure it's way too much to ask that they view empty words, ridiculously expensive proposals and general ineptitude with the jaundiced eye Sarah Palin got at every turn.

Silly me -- an articulate President so completely over his head in wide-eyed leftie idealism doesn't begin to compare with the gravity of a candidate's wardrobe.

One Step Over The Line, Sweet Jesus!

The corporate entity of NBC will never know it, but they suffered the ultimate insult a week ago when I deleted Nightly News from my DVR's list to "record all episodes." If I thought anyone would read it, or once having read it, care, I'd send a snotty slap-in-the-face email announcing that I turned them off in a huff.

The straw sending the camel for an MRI? Michael Jackson's death as the lead story multiple nights in a row while barely reporting the Iranian, Korean and Afghanistan crises. Jackson, twenty minutes, national and world news, five. Not a great score in my book for the millions whose only source of "news" is NBC.

The producers should at least fake one last impulse of honesty and rename the show, "Nightly Entertainment News." Heck, we had barely recovered from Farrah's maudlin coverage and hadn't yet had time to mourn for Billie Mays' death when we were hit with the "tragedy" of yet another probable drug-related demise of a freakoid celebrity.

Oh the pain of it all.

Jackson as great entertainer? Undoubtedly.
Jackson exerting massive impact on America's pop culture? Regrettably, yes.
Talented person with demented childhood and questionable lifestyle? Oh yeah.
Meaningful contribution to American life? Yes, according to those incoherent interviews with the mush-mouthed grieving fans... but certainly not in any serious way for the rest of us.

NBC wasn't the only network to give MJ's death priority by any means. Daytime, afternoon, evening "specials" beat it, beat it, beat it to (pardon me) death, while leaving the real issues of the day unreported -- or barely mentioned.

I've written about the mystique of celebrity many times in this blog and I've certainly bashed the mainstream media about its relentless coverage of celebrities' pathetic antics and morally-bereft lives. I'm sure if news directors were confronted with an angry mob demanding REAL NEWS, they'd haul out the old saw they give as their eternal excuse...the public demands such coverage. (See HERE for a longer rant on this tactic.)

Speaking as one small slice of American pie, I demand objective, clear reporting on important issues that will affect my life and the lives and future of my family -- maybe coverage of our slippage into Big Gov controlling EVERYTHING as we descend into true socialism? Maybe exposure of the thug-like machinations of our new Chicago/Washington administration? Maybe the trillions of present and long-term (eternal) debt we're accruing in the name of hopey and changey? Maybe the lack of any non-Rush opposition voices? We don't hear those voices because the media doesn't do their job -- we may get a 20-second sound bite from one conservative or another, but those comments are always bracketed by the reporter's snide setup and pithy, pro-Obama close. Don't believe me? Pay attention with critical eye and ear the next time.

Just as a quick example, how much detailed analysis have you seen or read about the massive health care overhaul? A word here and there from predictable sources... but nothing to equal the impact this plan will have on all our lives. (Well, all our lives unless you're a member of Congress, which will be excluded.) Where is the debate? Where are the fire-eating journalists eager to bring both sides of an issue to our attention? Or am I being incredibly naive -- am I expecting Spencer Tracy and getting Matt Lauer?

When FDR swept into office during the Great Depression and began his alphabet soup of agencies he hoped would effect real and needed change, there was PLENTY of opposition to his actions -- and you bet your sweet ass it was reported. His bid for the Presidency was vigorously opposed during his first campaign and his administration closely scrutinized from the start -- with his many critics' voluble comments both printed and broadcast. After his attempt to stack the Supreme Court failed, he was pilloried in the press. Ah, the good old days when reporters at least pretended to objectivity and pretended to work.

Just imagine that scenario today going unmentioned, unreported, unnoticed by the media who are in the tank for, in bed with, and up the O'Butt of O'Bama.

As an aside and as confession, I finally got off the ideological fence and registered Republican last week. My dear Democratic father is no doubt spinning in his grave -- but he isn't here to watch this sickening debacle. Sorry, Daddy.

The Land Of Ozzzzzzzzzzz

I sleep so much better at night now, knowing that the nation's Chief Executive Officer, with all his many years of executive experience, responsibility and business acumen, is at the helm of our ship of state.

What? He has no business experience? He has no impressive record of achievement and success? He's only had a couple of jobs besides running for office? How could that be?

Well, I sleep better at night knowing that General Motors and Chrysler, two of three companies forming the bedrock of our auto industry, are once again viable since their billion dollar loans. Whew! I'm so glad they escaped bankruptcy, which, we were assured in January, would send Chicken Little into the streets and completely devastate our weakened economy.

What? GM is now facing almost-certain bankruptcy after all? Wasn't keeping it OUT of bankruptcy the rationalization for the original government loans? Now it's the answer? Are you telling me that a constipated, bloated, overfed, overgrown organization like GM couldn't come up with a completely new, innovative and profitable business model in two months? The same company who hasn't come up with anything really new in 20 years? (I've seen a corporation 10,000 times smaller than GM not be able to come up with new letterhead in two months.)

Well, surely I'll sleep better knowing that our weary troops are coming home from Iraq. Thank God we won't be putting lives at risk and spending all those billions every month fighting in that troubled region.

What? We're escalating the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan? Really? After all that campaign rhetoric? Good grief! And we want to be friends with Iran? How does Israel feel about that?

At least I'll be sleeping better knowing that in this economic climate no reasonable, right-thinking, brilliant economics team would propose massive new government programs to solve every problem that exists in our society. Of course we're going to try to get back on our financial feet before we institute new health care reforms, education programs, paid volunteer programs and pay for all those little piggy earmarks. After all, we need a healthy economy with stable revenues before we wallow in all that pork, don't we? At least the "average American family" won't be facing new taxes. Thank goodness.

You're kidding. All that stuff is actually in the proposed budget -- while the whole world economy flounders like, well, a beached flounder? But only those who make $250,000 and up will be hit with a tax increase? Wait -- doesn't that mean most small business owners, who create 70% of new jobs? By all means, tax the investors, tax the job providers, tax the backbone of the economy.

I'll have to remember to set my alarm as I'll be sleeping so soundly knowing that members of Congress, our elected representatives who speak for us and act for us, will be on the job in Washington. They are all so trustworthy, intelligent, honest, ethical souls, aren't they? Look at how they all reacted to the AIG bonuses. They're my kind of folk.

No! You don't mean they actually took PAC money from the very corporations they loaned taxpayer money to then lambasted for their actions? Those nasty big businesses who honored their employment contracts and paid bonuses? Well, I guess a member of Congress has to be re-elected. We can't fault them. We don't seem to ever get rid of them, either.

Come to think of it, I haven't slept a wink since Election Day, 2008. I wonder why?