Posted on 08/04/2009 10:25:42 PM PDT by grey_whiskers
The fight over Obamacare has really heated up over the past couple of weeks -- enough to have drowned out the last lingering remnants of the Michael Jackson funeral, Sarah Palin's resignation as governor, the elections and demonstrations in Iran, the State of California's budget, cap-and-trade, the Birth Certificate controversy, the financial meltdown in California, continuing grim economic news, Justice Sotomayor's confirmation hearings, the Professor Gates / Officer Crowley reenactment of Bull Connor in Cambridge (and subsequent kegger with the President), and the release of hostages journalists from North Korea.
Let's review some of the highlights: it hardly seems possible that so much is happening so quickly all at once.
June 23: amidst great fanfare and anticipation, The Annointed One® steps up to the podium to deliver a press conference intended to kick off the propaganda train in earnest, reclaiming the initiative after the stalled Crap-and-Trade bill. In response to an audience member's question concerning her elderly mother, he replied:
"Maybe you are better off not having the surgery, but taking the pain killer."
This begins to crystallize the meme that "old people are going to be pushed out to die" -- as will be publicized later.
July 16: a major blow is struck against the President's plan for socialized medicine, but not from lobbyists. This time, the Congressional Budget Office skewers the cost estimates. As reported in The Salt Lake Tribune: "Though President Obama and Democratic leaders have said repeatedly that reining in the skyrocketing growth in spending on government health programs such as Medicaid and Medicare is their top priority, the reform measures put forth so far would not fulfill their pledge to "bend the cost curve" downward, Elmendorf said. Instead, he said, "The curve is being raised." "
July 24: The Democrat controlled Congress forbids Republican members from using the words "government-run health care" in franking mail to their constituents. (Franking mail is mail sent out "for free" from a Congressman or Senator to their constituents.) Apparently, Democrats have done enough focus groups to know that "government-run health care" goes over like a lead balloon.
August 1: The first rumblings of mass discontent appear. Congressman Lloyd Doggett (LiberalfromAustin - TX) showed up at a Town Hall meeting and got an earful from constituents, who, already angry over the failed stimulus bill, were in no mood for more lies, and came "pitchfork ready." The good Congressman responded to the grass-roots chant of "Just Say No" with a quote that he was more resolved than ever to pass health care reform.
August 3: The Drudge Report puts out a video showing Barack Obama several years ago stating that he wants a single-payer system.
August 4: The White House puts out a video and accompanying email address ("flag@whitehouse.gov") in effect asking citizens to report their neighbors, friends, and any websites which contain "disinformation" about Health Care reform. According to the plea, a lot of this information travels "beneath the surface" (as though this is something bad). I guess when you've spent your whole career astroturfing, and getting your way with bussed-in rent-a-mobsTM, seeing genuine populism can be quite disconcerting.
Along the way, we have had signs that battle is being joined -- Nancy Sibelius being PWN3D by a constituent asking how the government could run health care when it can't even run cash-for-clunkers; announcements from high Democrats that the spontaneous protests are out-of-control extremists paid for by insurance companies and lobbying groups; Senator Chuck Schumer (Hoplophobe - NY) has stated that the Dems have a secret plan to pass the Health Care Bill with only 50 votes (bypassing cloture by using parliamentary tactics) after the Senate's summer recess.
(By the way, why *are* the Democrats in a furor about this, then? With 60 votes in the Senate, isn't this a lock for them without a single RINO cave-in vote anyway? And if all the protests are extremist rent-a-mobs, then the lack of a bipartisan vote shouldn't matter come election time, right Senator? RIGHT?)
And watching all of this, it strikes me, is it really worth all this for the Democrats? Most people will have forgotten, but Health Care Reform (Socialist SecurityTM) is an old, old Democrat wet dream. Jimmy Dhimmi Carter (ex. President Malaise - GA) referred to it in a speech in Cuba in 2002:
"For more than a quarter century, we have struggled unsuccessfully to guarantee the basic right of universal health care for our people. Still, guaranteed civil liberties offer every citizen an opportunity to change these laws."
And we all know how Jimmy Dhimmi Carter turned out.
Bill Clinton-Lewinsky and his wife Hillary (Iron Dingbat, now Second Fiddle SecState -NY) tried to pass Health Care. Even the best efforts of Clinton's "aw, shucks," lip-biting (his own, that is), and sh*t-eating grins failed to save the day.
Can't you take a HINT, Dems?
Americans don't want socialized medicine.
And then you have Barack Hussein Obama.
I think that just as the Malaise Speech defined Jimmy Dhimmi Carter for all time, I think it is likely that health care may be the public face of Obama, for the rest of his term. (*)
You know, like this:
...and they say a picture is worth a thousand words.
(*)(God willing -- not that I wish him ill, but that I want this debacle to be the worst that happens to our country during his destructive, megalomaniac tenure: between Swine Flu, Avian Flu, nuclear proliferation in North Korea and Iran, cuts to the F-22 stealth fighter, the meltdown of the world's financial system, record deficits in the US, massive unemployment, and Russian subs prowling off of the East Coast, a mere failed vote will seem like a picnic.)
bump.
I think one of the most telling features of this deathcare bill is congress exempting themselves from it.
Our own Keith Allahson, er, Ellison was recently asked if he and his family would be placing themselves under this national triage unit plan and he didn't answer the question.
His silence speaks volumes.
This sort of thinking has long been incorporated into the medical ethos. When treatment becomes ineffective or hopeless, the operative standard becomes, "Comfort Measures Only", as I recall the term.
It's all very reasonable, and the big lie here is that we need to move away from a standard of "support life at all cost" that was in fact abandoned years ago.
Cheers!
I guess when you’ve spent your whole career astroturfing, and getting your way with bussed-in rent-a-mobsTM, seeing genuine populism can be quite disconcerting.
That’s the thing about rent-a-mobs, they’ve always had
some control of them, true populist action is something
they can’t predict and it scares the crap out of them,
terrifies them in fact because they know they are guilty
of manipulation and deserve what the “mob” is going to
dish out to them. It’s about time too.
Excellent thread by the way.
Another thing, the reason they are so desperate to not
be the sole creators of this nationalization is they
understand how hated it is and that pushing it through
by themselves makes it totally their own.
If they keep pushing.......somebody will push back. It
hasn’t been necessary ....as yet.
Tet68
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