I think it’s important to realize that I was actually black before the election. — Barack Obama Read more →
EppsNet Archive: Politics
Thomas Jefferson on Obama’s Healthcare Speech
My fellow Americans — Perhaps it was unfair of me to be critical of President Obama’s healthcare speech without having heard it. There’s not much to do on a Saturday night when you’re dead, so I read the transcript: We’ve estimated that most of this plan can be paid for by finding savings within the existing health care system, a system that is currently full of waste and abuse. . . . The only thing this plan would eliminate is the hundreds of billions of dollars in waste and fraud, as well as unwarranted subsidies in Medicare that go to insurance companies . . . Reducing the waste and inefficiency in Medicare and Medicaid will pay for most of this plan. And how much money are we talking about, sir? Now, add it all up, and the plan I’m proposing will cost around $900 billion over 10 years. WTF?! I… Read more →
Thomas Jefferson on Healthcare Reform
My fellow Americans — Did you watch President Obama’s healthcare speech tonight? Neither did I. But I did learn from msnbc.com’s First Read that he hoped in his speech to explain to ordinary American voters — “call them Joe and Jane from Kansas City” — that his health-care reform will 1) cover nearly everyone and 2) cut costs in the long run. So let me get this straight — we’re going to spend money to save money! Does he think everyone in Kansas City is that stupid or just Joe and Jane? What — you don’t believe we can insure 50 million more people and cut costs at the same time? Well then, you’re an uninformed kook! You’re scared that those cost savings will come from drastically rationing access to care, particularly for people who are chronically ill and/or near the end of their lives? You’re un-American! Probably a Nazi!… Read more →
Satan on Ted Kennedy
One of the things Ted Kennedy and I have in common is that we both love Chappaquiddick jokes. Ed Klein, a Kennedy friend and biographer, was on the radio the other day and said: I don’t know if you know this or not, but one of his favorite topics of humor was indeed Chappaquiddick itself. And he would ask people, “Have you heard any new jokes about Chappaquiddick?” That is just the most amazing thing. It’s not that he didn’t feel remorse about the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, but that he still always saw the other side of everything and the ridiculous side of things, too. HAAAHAHAHA! I hope you like heat, Teddy! I look forward to swapping jokes with you in Hell. Have you heard this one? Q. What do you call 200 Kennedy sycophants at the bottom of a Chappaquiddick pond? A. A great start, but bad… Read more →
Ted Kennedy and Mary Jo Kopechne
The most fitting eulogy I’ve read for Senator Kennedy . . . A Senator from Massachusetts has left office in the only manner possible for an incumbent Democrat, i.e., in a coffin. The New York Times leads off their story on Ted Kennedy’s death with “his sometimes-stormy personal life.” When I think of Ted Kennedy, though, my first thought is always sadness at the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, a promising young woman killed by Kennedy, who waited more than eight hours before seeking help for her rescue. One expects politicians to impoverish constituents with reckless spending; one does not expect them to kill constituents. . . . [Some friends asked today how I would have summarized Ted Kennedy’s biography, if not the way the New York Times did. I observed that he had spent his entire life either as the child of a wealthy family or as a government… Read more →
Thomas Jefferson on Edward M. Kennedy, 1932-2009
I’ve never understood what was so great about this guy. He was immature, a drunk and a womanizer. In 1979, he couldn’t answer a softball question about why he wanted to be president and didn’t even make it out of the primaries. The best thing I can say about him is that he got things done. He had an undeniably impressive track record of passing legislation — most of it disastrous, of course — but he did get it passed. And he killed that poor girl, Mary Jo Kopechne. Don’t forget that. Put her in a lake, then went back to his hotel room and fell asleep. Never even reported it. Far from ending his political career though, the whole Chappaquidick “incident” was written off as just Ted being Ted. As a deceased person myself, I know that death is like following a light into the next world. If you’re… Read more →
Twitter: 2009-08-24
"Alec Baldwin won't run for Senate" #bottomstoriesoftheday # Read more →
Appeasement
There’s a point at which realism shades over into weakness . . . It’s hard to avoid the sense that Mr. Obama has wasted months trying to appease people who can’t be appeased, and who take every concession as a sign that he can be rolled. — Paul Krugman As we all know, you can’t appease terrorists. Oh wait, sorry–appeasing terrorists is worth a try. It’s Republicans you can’t appease. — Best of the Web Today Read more →
White House Adds $2 Trillion to Deficit Forecasts
The nation would be forced to borrow more than $9 trillion over the next decade under President Obama’s policies, the White House acknowledged late Friday, bringing their long-term budget forecast in line with independent estimates. The new projections add approximately $2 trillion to budget deficits through 2019. Earlier this year, the administration had predicted that Obama’s policies would require the government to spend $7.108 trillion more than it collects in tax revenue over the next decade. An administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the report will not be formally released until Tuesday, said the change is due primarily to updated projections of economic growth that are far less rosy than data used when the White House released its first long-term budget outlook in February. — washingtonpost.com I think I’d be way more upset about this if the numbers weren’t beyond human comprehension . . . Read more →
You Better Believe It
These disruptions are occurring because opponents are afraid not just of differing views–but of the facts themselves. Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American. Drowning out the facts is how we failed at this task for decades. — Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, ‘Un-American’ attacks can’t derail health care debate The “facts” to which they refer turn out to be not facts at all but representations about the glories of ObamaCare: “Health insurance reform will mean more patient choice. . . . Reform will mean stability and peace of mind for the middle class. . . . Reform will mean affordable coverage for all Americans. . . . Reform will also mean higher-quality care.” What, you don’t believe it? You better believe it, or you’re un-American. — Best of the Web Today Read more →
Twitter: 2009-08-08
White House Hails iCU-R-Fishy App as ‘Truth Tool’ – http://shar.es/IxfP # Read more →
Helping the White House Keep an Eye on Things
From the White House Blog: Scary chain emails and videos are starting to percolate on the internet, breathlessly claiming, for example, to “uncover” the truth about the President’s health insurance reform positions. There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov. Right. There’s no informed opposition to health insurance reform, only “scary chain emails” and “disinformation” traveling “just below the surface,” whatever that means. It all sounds very sinister though, so as agents of the government, we are encouraging all… Read more →
Carbon Emissions Reduction, Biden Style
There is a permanently restricted area of airspace to the NW of the [Wilmington, Delaware] airport, around [VP Joe] Biden’s weekend house. The airport gets shut down every time Biden commutes home at taxpayer expense. What kind of plane does Biden, a tireless advocate of reduced carbon emissions (source), use for the 15-minute flight from D.C.? “Boeing 757,” was the report from the ramp. “You wonder how the government can criticize private companies for using light jets when they themselves ride solo in the back of a 757.” [Note: the shortest version of the Boeing 757 can hold up to 234 passengers plus a crew of at least 7 (source).] — Philip Greenspun Read more →
Explain That, Galileo!
Obama Drops Faster than Bush or Carter — RealClearPolitics [HT: Best of the Web Today] Read more →
Unicorn Dust and Pixie Wings
Donald Marron points out that another one of those great cost-saving ideas in the healthcare debate (the Independent Medicare Advisory Council) has taken a hit: CBO estimates that the proposed legislation would save a paltry $2 billion over the next ten years, less than 1/500 of the 10-year cost of health reform. Damn that CBO! They keep killing all these great ideas with, like, analysis and numbers and all that stuff. Everything would work out just fine if only they would close their eyes, click their heels together three times, and say, “There is no policy like reform…there is no policy like reform….” — Greg Mankiw Read more →
Trust
I tend to distrust power unchecked by competition. This makes me particularly suspicious of federal policies that take a strong role in directing private decisions. I am much more willing to have state and local governments exercise power in a variety of ways than for the federal government to undertake similar actions. I can more easily move to another state or town than to another nation. (I am not good with languages.) — Greg Mankiw Read more →
Profiling??? PRO-filing?!??!
It took less than a day for the arrest of Henry Louis Gates to become racial lore. When one of America’s most prominent black intellectuals winds up in handcuffs, it’s not just another episode of profiling — it’s a signpost on the nation’s bumpy road to equality. If this man can be taken away by police officers from the porch of his own home, what does it say about the treatment that average blacks can expect in 2009? — Jesse Washington, AP National Writer [In Jim Mora voice]: Profiling??? You kidding me? PRO-filing?!??! “Profiling” implies an absence of facts or evidence. It means “I’m targeting you for suspicion simply because you’re black and therefore more likely to be engaged in criminal activity.” That’s not what happened here. A police officer responded to a 911 call reporting two black males breaking into a house. When he arrived, he found a black… Read more →
California Fiscal Crisis
The median wage of a California state employee is $66,000 (source). The median wage among all Californians (including those state workers) is just over $36,000. The state employee can retire with a full pension in his or her late 40s or early 50s, which essentially means that the taxpayers have to pay for double the number of state workers that are required to provide current services. In addition to salaries that are much higher than private sector equivalents, the state employee has health care and other benefits that by themselves may exceed the total compensation of a full-time private sector employee. The reasonable question to ask is not “How did they run out of cash?” but “How was this ever supposed to work?” — Philip Greenspun Read more →
Sighs and Shrugs
The United States is declining as a nation and a world power, with mostly sighs and shrugs to mark this seismic event. Astonishingly, some people do not appear to realize that the situation is all that serious. — Leslie Gelb, Necessity, Choice, and Common Sense | Foreign Affairs Read more →
To Whom It May Concern
Via Best of the Web Today: “Obama Breaks Silence on Gaza, Voices ‘Deep Concern’ Over Civilian Deaths” — headline, Ha’aretz, Jan. 7 “Obama Voices Concern About Freed Guantanamo Inmates” — headline, Reuters, Feb. 2 “Obama Voices Concern About Pakistan” — headline, New York Times, April 30 “Obama Expresses Concern for Tissainayagam” — headline, TamilNet.com, May 2 “Obama: Long-Term Joblessness a Concern” — headline, CNN.com, May 20 “Obama Says North Korea Nuclear Test a ‘Grave Concern’ ” — headline, Reuters, May 25 “Obama to ‘Voice Concerns’ in Egypt Speech” — headline, Hill, May 29 “Obama Concerned at Sentence of Journalists in NKorea” — headline, Agence France-Presse, June 8 “Obama Names Video Games as Health Concern in Speech to A.M.A.” — headline, GamePolitics.com, June 15 “Obama Has ‘Deep Concerns’ About Iran’s Election” — headline, Newsweek Web site, June 16 “Obama Concern About Oil Speculation Unchanged-W.House” — headline, Reuters, June 18 “Obama Expresses… Read more →