Free Republic

Obama's police state By Jeffrey T. Kuhner President Obama is engaging in a relentless assault on our freedoms and constitutional government. The growing backlash against the new Transportation Security Administration (TSA) airport screening procedures signifies that Americans finally may have had enough. There is a grass-roots revolt against state-sanctioned sexual harassment. And who can blame the protesters? Children are stripped of their shirts, and their private parts are touched. Nuns and old ladies are groped by intrusive TSA agents. Breasts have been fondled. Men's crotches have been patted down. Full-body scanners show images of people naked - a clear violation...

World Net Daily reports: Nearly a dozen members of a police SWAT team in western Colorado punched a hole in the front door and invaded a family's home with guns drawn, demanding that an 11-year-old boy who had had an accidental fall accompany them to the hospital, on the order of Garfield County Magistrate Lain Leoniak. The boy's parents and siblings were thrown to the floor at gunpoint and the parents were handcuffed in the weekend assault, and the boy's father told WND it was all because a paramedic was upset the family preferred to care for their son themselves....

Even as the Indian pharma majors are going global, British healthcare companies and medical personnel are keen to increase their presence in the country through tie-ups and public-private-partnership ventures, and West Bengal is likely to gain most from this boom. The National Health Service (NHS) of Britain, with US $100 billion annual budget, is eager to invest in PPP ventures with India's healthcare system and discussions were underway with the government and Planning Commission in this regard, sources said. While British firms are showing interest in making investment here, Indian medical technology firms are also looking up to export equipment...

“Everyone in California must have health insurance," declared Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger as he rolled out a Massachusetts-style scheme to blanket the state in health insurance. The politician who came to power attacking an employer-health-insurance mandate, and vetoed a single-payer bill once in office, is now proposing a health-care plan that relies on the former and will almost certainly result in the latter. Arnold’s health-care program, designed with the loving care of the folks at the New America Foundation, requires everyone to purchase at least a $5,000 deductible health-care policy. It boosts Medicaid roles, opening the taxpayer-supported program to illegal immigrants,...

By ROBERT TANNER, AP National Writer Health care for all — an elusive goal that has tantalized presidents and governors for decades — is roaring back this year with ambitious proposals in a handful of prominent states. The promise: Cover millions of uninsured adults and children. Improve the quality of care at hospitals and doctor's offices. Rein in rising costs that are eating up workers' wages, company profits and state budgets. The problem: Someone's got to pay. And getting those with a stake in health care — doctors, insurers, hospitals, workers, employers, government — to agree on who and how...

Health care for all - an elusive goal that has tantalized presidents and governors for decades - is roaring back this year with ambitious proposals in a handful of prominent states. The promise: Cover millions of uninsured adults and children. Improve the quality of care at hospitals and doctor's offices. Rein in rising costs that are eating up workers' wages, company profits and state budgets. The problem: Someone's got to pay. And getting those with a stake in health care - doctors, insurers, hospitals, workers, employers, government - to agree on who and how much won't be easy. The most...

Paved with good intentions, California's proposed road to Universal Health Coverage will lead straight to chaos. The Governor's January 8th, 2007 proposal aims to provide relief for Californians suffering under a healthcare system in desperate need of repair. It does not lack noble goals. What it lacks is common sense. Achieving a workable solution first requires that we understand the problem. For 4.8 million uninsured Californians, no further explanation is necessary (the often-cited figure of 6.5 million refers to those uninsured "at some point" during the prior year, including many who are currently covered). But for the rest of us,...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger no doubt sees himself as the modern version of Pat Brown, the 1960s-era governor whose bold infrastructure programs literally paved the way for the state's prosperous and growing future. Our current governor has passed or proposed a series of admittedly bold programs: $43.3 billion in infrastructure bonds on top of the $42 billion recently passed by voters, new emissions regulations on top of the global-warming regulatory claptrap, a minimum-wage increase and now the universal health care plan he unveiled last week. But rather than building a solid foundation for the future, these programs encumber the state with...

... Schwarzenegger will need the same people skills to repair another fracture on his right — his deteriorating relationship with the legislative wing of the Republican Party. Right now, that relationship is headed from critical condition to "do not resuscitate." LEGISLATIVE Republicans have every reason to gripe. The governor's most notable "conservative" accomplishments are defensive in nature: He hasn't raised taxes (now debatable, depending on how one interprets the revenue provisions of his universal healthcare plan); he hasn't signed a same-sex marriage law; and he refuses to provide driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. ... There is an underlying irony to...

(snip) Many conservatives rallied around his candidacy because they believed that he truly understood the need to control the size of government and reduce the tax burden on businesses and families. Today, many of those early Schwarzenegger supporters feel he has walked away from his commitment to curb the growth of government. His health-care proposal, which proposes a new tax on California businesses, and his State of the State address, which called for more spending and doesn't fundamentally deal with the state's spending problem, didn't do much to alleviate that concern. Rather than tell Republicans he is abandoning them, and...

The D.C. Council opened its legislative year by introducing a bill that could make the District one of the first jurisdictions in the country to require girls younger than 13 years old to get a new nationally debated vaccine against cervical cancer. Female students enrolling in the sixth grade would be asked to show proof of receiving the vaccine against the sexually transmitted human papilloma virus (HPV) under the bill, introduced yesterday by council members David A. Catania (I-At Large) and Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3). A parent or legal guardian would have the right to "opt out" of the...

ABC, NBC Hail Arnold's 'Bold, Groundbreaking' Health Plan Covering Illegal Aliens Posted by Tim Graham on January 10, 2007 - 09:00. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger seems to be campaigning to be the liberal media’s favorite Republican office-holder. On Tuesday, ABC’s Good Morning America and NBC’s Today publicized his "bold" new plan to offer billions in new state government subsidies to provide "universal" health coverage, even to millions of illegal immigrants. ABC co-host Robin Roberts openly endorsed it: "there is definitely a crisis, and it's good to see at least trying something, something, especially to help those that are uninsured." While ABC...

Gov. Schwarzenegger writes a prescription for disaster. MONTEREY, Calif.--On Monday, Arnold Schwarzenegger presented his proposal for reducing the number of Californians who lack health insurance. His proposal is almost indistinguishable--except in details--from that of the Democrats who dominate the California Assembly and Senate. The Democrats tend to favor solutions involving regulations, government spending and taxes, and Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata's proposal--the main contending Democrat plan--hits the trifecta. It would require employers to provide health insurance; give them the option of paying a tax instead of providing health insurance; and increase spending by expanding both the Medi-Cal and Healthy...

Six-year-old Karlind Dunbar barely touched her dinner, but not for time-honored 6-year-old reasons. The pasta was not the wrong shape. She did not have an urgent date with her dolls. The problem was the letter Karlind discovered, tucked inside her report card, saying that she had a body mass index in the 80th percentile. The first grader did not know what “index” or “percentile” meant, or that children scoring in the 5th through 85th percentiles are considered normal, while those scoring higher are at risk of being or already overweight. Yet she became convinced that her teachers were chastising her...

Jan. 9 - Lieutenant Governor Garamendi, Speaker Nunez, Senate Leader Perata, my fellow servants of the people, ladies and gentlemen... I am honored to stand here once again. I want to thank the legislature, as I did in my Inaugural, for putting the people above politics last year--an election year. The federal government was paralyzed by gridlock and games. But you here in this chamber acted on infrastructure, the minimum wage, prescription drug costs and the reduction of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. What this said to the people is: we are not waiting for politics. We are not waiting...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to call for a bold new environmental plan in his State of the State address Tuesday evening. The speech, scheduled to begin at 5 p.m., will call upon Californians to make the Golden State a leader in the fight against global warming, NBC11's Mike Luery reported.