Posted on 02/09/2013 6:20:36 AM PST by KeyLargo
Newsmax
Ben Carson: US Like Ancient Rome; Obama Not My Target
Friday, February 8, 2013 10:05 PM
World-renown pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson told conservative radio and television host Armstrong Williams on Friday that his attacks on the nation’s ills in his speech at the National Prayer Breakfast this week were not directed at President Barack Obama.
In his first interview since upstaging the president at the event on Thursday, Carson, director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore said his comments were “directed at the situation that is going on in our nation and how we can solve it.”
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
Of course anyone who did that to a Republican president would be lauded by Beckel, not criticized.
How did he get invited? ping....
Dr. Carson has what seems to lacking in DC; common sense.
Is he a Republican?
EVERYONE being able to keep THEIR money and money given to them by parents relatives etc. for health insurance is not exactly a tax break, inasmuch as it is the government NOT taking money from people.
Then everyone is paying for their own healthcare. The government is not administering it or nationalizing it.
And by this I also mean every member of congress, every union thug, everyone. All equal and the same.
This could be the best way to transition to what can work, before company-paid insurance and govt insurance and programs distorted the system.
Of course, we also need reform of the legal system vis-a-vis healthcare. No more John-Edwards-types getting wealthy by channeling poor outcomes into malpractice casinos.
I heard Tom Wolfe (Bonfire of the Vanities) say years ago that we lost this country when the Ten Commandments were removed from the Town Square. Then the rules were made by man and there was no longer a reminder that there were things greater than man.
You should watch this speech. Potential outside-the-box candidate for President in 2016.
But how long can Dr. Carson keep at the surgery routine - he is 61/62 years old - this could be his “retirement” plan: to serve our Nation as a true Patriotic leader who wants to actually solve problems! Wow, that does give me a tingle, too....
February 9, 2013
Ambush at Hilton Hollow
Russ Vaughn
Wow! The commander-in-chief of the most powerful military force the world has ever seen walked right into an ambush with no cover, no concealment, and no security at the National Prayer Breakfast at the Washington Hilton. Forced to sit at the dais and suck it up while a renowned pediatric neurosurgeon from Johns Hopkins Medical School, Dr. Benjamin Carson, debunked the concept of Obamacare as well as pointing out the president’s seeming indifference to the national debt, Obama did his best to smile but he simply could not suppress that droned-out expression, the one, you know, that kills.
Obama’s first frown comes a few minutes into the talk when Dr. Carson uses the term, PC, for politically correct, in his discussion of how difficult it is to speak these days without offending someone’s too-tender sensibilities. The doctor uses humor and evokes a laugh from the president but the presidential expression becomes somber again when Carver flat-out states that political correctness is a social evil in the way it prevents honest discourse and the exchange of ideas....
I doubt it. He sounds more like a Conservative to me.
Outstanding speech, but nominating Dr. Carson for president would be thinking •way• outside the box, having never held elected (or even appointed) office. He’d certainly make an outstanding Secretary of Health and Human Services, though, and then perhaps seek the presidency.
Remember Samuel’s list of the curses of having a king? Among them, a king would want the first 10%.
Outside the box, and around the corner and down the street from the box. ;D
I had not heard of this gentleman before.
Since he is such a good brain surgeon it seems like a waste of his talents to make a long shot White House bid. Maybe he could lobotomize the Senate. It would be an improvement.
As Auh2o suggests he sounds like an ideal HHS Secretary.
HHS Secretary, though, like so many of the Cabinet posts on that end of the spectrum is rather a nothingburger job. Personally, there shouldn’t even be such a Cabinet post (that all should be under Surgeon-General, which is technically subordinate to the HHS Sec). Energy (a post suggested for Gov. Palin, insulting if you asked me) is really absurd, which should be a subcabinet under Interior or Commerce. Education, Transportation, HUD, Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security (the latter two of which ought to be clearly under “Defense”), should be folded or removed.
Running him for Senator would be pointless, as he is a resident of Maryland (and Maryland prefers its moonbat pro-government expansion leeches).
Although I’ve said so in the past that some level of political experience (office-holding) should be a prerequisite, seeing what and where it has gotten us in the past 20 years is no guarantee for success. Business leaders, military figures or in this case, a leader in the medical field (even intellectuals, a la Drs. Sowell or Walter Williams) should not be discounted. At this point, could they REALLY be any worse than what we have now, the nadir of our great American experiment ?
It’s clear Dr. Carson is an accomplished figure and had the balls to speak truth to power right in front of his imperial majesty (and denigrate PC to boot !). Courage is something we sadly lack in our elected officials.
As he often does, Wolfe nails it. He doesn't like to be called a conservative, but it is hard not to see that in much of his work.
Surgeon General is sure a cooler title than HHS Secretary. Those kinds of titles are also fun for weeding out the stupid people who think such office holders should be addressed as “General” (as the Bobby character in that Kennedy miniseries insisted though I think he was just being a jerkass) which is even more amusing cause the Surgeon General holds the rank of Vice Admiral. Being unaware of what exactly the hell that position did I once looked it up and learned there are 2 non-military uniformed services, the Public Health Corps and he other one is the “National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Corps”. Sounds like a very necessary service.
I’ve been waiting for a opportunity to talk about how I’d change the cabinet. First off, get some Advil in there. And after 8 of Obama, some hemorrhoid cream too. ;p
Veterans Affairs being a cabinet-level position is just absurd, you may as well put the Postmaster General back in and the maid who does the President’s laundry. It should be under DOD, which I would rename the Department of WAR, to send a message.
Axing HUD is a no brainer.
It would be politically impossible to get rid of college grants but you don’t need an entire department of education to handle that.
I’d put Energy and the EPA (which I believe is an independent agency, the EPA would also be refocused on real enviromental issues) under Interior. I’d also transfer the forest service there from Agriculture where it has no place being. Then I’d ax the farm pork and abolish the DOA altogether.
Commerce and Labor don’t need to be separate.
Homeland Security, if it’s necessary, should be renamed. What the hell were they thinking? The equivalent UK department is called the Home Office but when you add “land” it sounds Nazi-esque. Department of Domestic Security sounds much better.
Oooooh. That’s gonna leave a mark.
Commerce & Labor were briefly a single Cabinet department from 1903-1913 before being split in two (it didn’t exist prior to 1903). But since these are really under the same general aegis, I would fold Labor back into Commerce.
As for Homeland Security, what is it but DEFENSE of our country ? Hence why it is absurd to be separate and apart from Defense. Seems like an excuse to have duplication of that bureaucracy. The leftist moonbats would freak if we returned to the pre-1947 Department of War (then again, so would the Paulbots).
“War” is somewhat of a misleading title, anyhow. When it was created under Pres. Washington, it was really just a Department of the Army (although it exists now as a subcabinet position under Defense, Navy used to have a full-fledged Cabinet position). “Department of the Military” would be a more appropriate title, and that person serving as a Cabinet head should be a bonafide military official (as in Chairman of the Joint Chiefs). Although, of course, one can also understand keeping that with a civilian at the helm (since that post with a General in charge could serve as a perch to launch a coup d’etat, although unlikely with a President making said appointment).
Oh, well, though if I were serving in Congress, I’d want to launch a review commission of all governmental departments to recommend streamlining/merging, et al. Get the ball rolling on rollbacks that will have to be made.
I agree we have wayyyy too many cabinet agencies now, and given that you have at least a half dozen or more people with "Cabinet rank" (U.S. Trade Representative, Ambassador to the United Nations, White House Chief of Staff, etc.) that sin-in at cabinet meetings, it's a wonder they get anything done at these meetings. They have like 25 people sitting there when you could make due with 8.
Ironically it was Ronald "big government is the problem" Reagan that created the VA and gave it a cabinet rank. Totally unnecessary. Also happened near the end of his Presidency.
I had something I saved on notepad a while back on how I'd consolidate and eliminate half the Cabinet positions. Can't seem to find it now. Most of them would simply be rolled back to the original incarnation and given a new name. In the UK, the "Chancellor of the Exchequer" (chief financial officer of the UK) is the head cabinet official, not the State Dept. minister). I'd arrange the cabinet members and seniority somewhere along these lines:
1. Department of the Treasury
2. Department of National Security (CIA, FBI, NSA, ICE, etc.)
3. Department of Foreign Affairs (formerly state dept.)
4. Department of Military Affairs (Army, Navy, Air Force, etc.)
5. Attorney General
6. Department of the Exterior (formerly Interior, EPA sub-level agency)
7. Department of Agriculture & Farming
8. Department of Labor & Commerce
9. Department of Human Services (Welfare, Social Security, HUD loads, college loans, veteran benefits, etc.)
The Vice President would have the option to attend cabinet meetings, but would not hold a "cabinet-level office", per say. (in the case of Joe Biden, there's no point in him attending anyway, though you would certainly want a Vice President with gravitas like Cheney to attend such meetings)
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