novatownhall blog

0bama is trying to use the bully pulpit to promote his takeover of our health care system.  Being a member of the PowerPoint generation, he has his eight-point presentation.  Let us take each point seriatim:

1. No Discrimination for Pre-Existing Conditions: Insurance companies will be prohibited from refusing you coverage because of your medical history.

First, we must acknowledge the locus of the problem.  When one moves from one employer’s group plan to another’s, one is not denied coverage for pre-existing conditions.  It is mainly a problem with people trying to get individual insurance.  The solution is not to force insurance companies to accept customers with pre-existing conditions.  That is akin to buying an auto insurance policy after one has been in an accident, and the insurance company is prohibited from refusing coverage and is required to pay for the repairs.  Just as with an auto accident, the policy in force when the diagnosis is made should be held responsible for treatment.

continue reading…

Relatively non-confrontational this time.

However I did try to get the reporter to run this photo to illustrate the paragraph on politics but alas it did not make it into the online edition. Pity, since it is so flattering to both me and Bob.

The Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee has admitted he is incapable of understanding a bill for which he is sure to vote:

He has admitted his incompetence to be a Congressman and should resign immediately.

It appears that another officer, Sgt. Leon Lashley, is in on the alleged/imagined conspiracy against Gates.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — A black police officer who was at Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s home when the black Harvard scholar was arrested says he fully supports how his white fellow officer handled the situation.

Could it be that the white cop, Sgt Crowley, is not a racist after all?  Nah.  Is is possible that acting like an ass towards a cop is something best reserved for mentally defective teenagers.  Not according to some.  “Being a jerk is not illegal,” they say.  This line of argument is a red herring.  Being a jerk is not illegal.  But!!! Acting out, like a jerk, and getting loud with the police can be illegal.  Elements of Disturbing the Peace:

It shall be unlawful for any person to:

1. Make, continue, maintain or cause to be made or continued any excessive, unnecessary, unreasonable or unusually loud noise or any noise in such manner as to annoy, offend, disturb, injure or endanger the comfort, repose, health, peace or safety of any reasonable person of normal auditory sensitivity residing in the area.

2. Use, operate or permit the use or operation of any electronic device, radio receiving set, television, musical instrument, phonograph or other machine or device for the producing or reproducing of sound in such manner as to disturb the peace, quiet and comfort of any reasonable person of normal auditory sensitivity inhabiting the area.

3. Congregate because of, participate in or be in any party or gathering of people from which sound emanates of a sufficient volume so as to disturb the peace, quiet or repose of any reasonable person of normal auditory sensitivity residing in any residential area. No person shall visit or remain within any residential dwelling unit wherein such party or gathering is taking place except persons who have gone there for the sole purpose of abating said disturbance. A police officer may order all persons present in any group or gathering from the dwelling unit to immediately disperse in lieu of being charged under this Section.

From section 1, disturbing the peace includes making a loud noise that is annoying, offensive,  or unreasonable.  Gates was yelling that Officer Crowley is a racist.  Gates was yelling ‘‘THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS TO BLACKMEN IN AMERICA.’  Gates was yelling at the police who were there to protect his property.  Gates was fitting the bill for section 1 above, and venting what is obviously a lot of pent up hatred towards Sgt. Crowlely, who is white.

The police were responding to a report that two black men with backpacks had broken into a home.  Officer Crowly followed SOP, for the sake of his safety and Gates’s safety.  Gates repaid Crowly by calling him a racist and insulting his mother.   Henry Louis Gates was disturbing the peace and acting like an insufferable ass.  His pal, President Obama, is still busy pulling his foot out of his mouth.  Sgt Crowle, after being phoned by Obama, says he still supports the President.

Maybe Gates should learn something about grace and forgiveness from Crowley instead of trying to teach Crowley a lesson or two about race in America.  Maybe the President could learn a thing or two about keeping his mouth shut until he has had time to learn something about the topic in question.

The Obamaists are trying there very best to attack Sarah Palin, aren’t they ?

The independent investigator who has accused Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin of violating state ethics laws is a major donor to the Democratic Party as well as a partner in a law firm that represented Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.

Thomas Daniel was hired by the Alaska Personnel Board in late April to investigate several complaints against Palin, including one filed by an Alaska resident who claims the governor used her official position for personal gain by authorizing the creation of a trust to use as her legal defense fund.

Read Story at FOXNews

Independent investigator ? Right…

To influence American voting you have to address a variety of different levels, so to speak. You have to appeal to the readers as well as the watchers, and also to the vaguely clued in overhearers who really don’t know what the hell is going on but get a whiff here and there while they are waiting in line at Taco Bell. From a tiny bit of political experience I believe it is that third group that will put you over the top or sink you.

The readers and watchers are going to get their info from places like InstaPundit, Powerline, Other McCain, and Ace. These are serious blogs whose writers put in major time and effort.

The third group of American voters is exponentially larger and probably has never heard of any of those blogs. They get their information from driving down the road, listening to the radio, watching their monthly bills and paycheck stubs, and hearing what everyone else is talking about.

For the record, I am thinking NovaTownHall might well position itself as a “Group Three” oriented blog. Personally, I am pretty comfortable just floating the “Dipshit” concept and pushing it to the hilt. “The guy’s a dipshit so let’s go whole hog trumpeting that fact.” Slogans, graphics, blog titles and bumper stickers – I don’t see how we can go wrong and we might very well be able to achieve some good for our nation.

Others are way ahead of us:

Sentiment toward President Obama is shifting fast if bumper stickers have anything to do with it:

How’s that hopey, changey thing working out for you?

Bankrupt America? Yes, we can!

He is not that smart and not that good a perpetual candidate, and definitely not ready for prime time. The dipshit thing has legs, people.

Henry Louis Gates is a professor of African American Studies.  Gates has many publications.  Gates teaches at Harvard.  Gates is obviously intelligent, but intelligence does not inoculate one from racism.  Racism is just another expression of the evil in mankind’s heart.   Intelligence is not a cure for evil.  Harvard has had racists on its faculty in the past.  So Gates is just another permutation.   It is wonderful to see that beneath the skin we really all are the same.

Below is page three of the arrest report, filed by Officer Carlo Figueroa.  The arresting Officer Sgt James Crowley was the man accused of racism.  Note that the arrestee, Prof. Henry Louis Gates acted like an ass, as racist will do when confronted by those they hate.

It appears from the report that Prof. Gates was in no mood to cooperate.  It appears that Prof. Gates was yelling at a peace officer.  This is typically referred to as ‘Asinine’ .  It appears the Sgt. Crowley was asking for the ‘gentleman’s information‘ — oh the humanity!

Since both Officers Crowley and Figueroa did not back off after Gates yelled ‘you don’t know who you are messing with’ — they are obviously are racist bumpkins.   How else could they not know who Henry Louis Gates is?  Why, he is a friend of Obama and the great zimzo.  Gates insisted that a cop doing his job is a racist for asking someone to show information.  A cop asking someone for proof that they are who they claim to be, and, that the house they just broke into is in fact theirs is not a sign of racism.  Screaming ‘THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS TO BLACKMEN IN AMERICA’ repeatedly for the sole reason of intimidating the white cop is a sign of racism.

Given the behavior described in the report it is clear that Gates was over the top.  He could not handle being questioned by a white cop, Sgt Crowley.  Or is it that Gates hates all cops.  This is a different form of bigotry, but maybe not so bad as racism, maybe we could put this incident in the best possible light.  That would be the charitable thing to do.

Since Obama, and the rest of the Democrat party is ready to think the worst possible, we as a nation should then use the same yardstick on the supporters of the Democrat party.  This police report leads one to the inescapable conclusion that is an infantile, self important jerk, who hates the police.  He couches his hatred in racist victimological jargon.  His reported refusal to cooperate, and his yelling of racist remarks fit the charge of disturbing the peace to a tee.

The saddest part of all this three ring circus in Cambridge is that the three ring circus on the Potomac got involved.  The President of the United States tarred an entire police force because his pal was insulted.  The insult of being questioned by a white cop unhinged Henry Louis Gates.  His friend Barak Hussein Obama came to his defense and called the cops stupid, ‘The police acted stupidly.’  Reminds me more of a pair of third graders than a Harvard Professor and the man we elected to lead us from the Oval Office.

Sadly, I just had to un-follow a certain entity on Twitter because all of a sudden every single one of their updates began sending a text message to my cell phone, and we are talking about like 20 messages every minute. I did not change anything in my Twitter setup, and I went in and changed my Twitter settings to not send me notifications of updates, yet the updates kept coming.

So as a pre-emptive apology: If Joe Budzinski stops following you on Twitter, it is not because he does not care, but simply because he can’t have his cell phone beeping like a car alarm throughout the evening.

If I find out why some Twitter messages go to the cell phone, and how to stop them, I will post the info and start following you again. If anyone has a solution to this, I am all ears.

Needless to say I did not watch the jackassery but the folks at Ace had an excellent live blog here. (Just click the play button to read it).

Sounds like the Chosen One just created the makings of a YouTube extravaganza. Good stuff.

UPDATE: A Harvard education don’t mean what it used to.

I believe Rhambo spoke before he engaged his ‘brain’

Hillary Clinton has become a strange spectacle, who really has no dog in the fight but is left with no more of a role than mouthing the words:

Hillary Clinton is not exactly setting the world on fire at the moment, but she is doing her best to compete with Barack Obama over who can give the most apologies for their country on foreign soil. Obama clearly had an edge until recently with major set piece speeches in Strasbourg and Cairo which frankly made the dove-like Jimmy Carter look like Dick Cheney in comparison. You can hardly switch on talk radio in America (with audiences of tens of millions across the country) without listening to outraged callers fed up with their own president rubbishing America’s past actions in front of foreign audiences.

Because it is wonderful to have my good friend LI back in the neighborhood … even with frilly curtains and blue tweety birds for decor. I am totally OK with that.

Though I kind of thought, if they were going for an abstract concept, they would lean toward something with more bass.

From The White House Web Site:

My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.

Reality:

White House putting off release of budget update

We’ve noted the incongruity of America hiring a chief executive who obviously has no management experience whatsoever. But this takes the cake.

In business, sign number one your manager needs to be fired pronto is he hides the financial facts from the owners. Even GW Bush was not stupid enough to try that.

[graphic removed by the style police but piss me off one more time and it's coming back]
It is not just stupid/ignorant: It is also totally unethical to refuse to tell the American people the true state of America’s financial position. Republicans and responsible Democrats need to apply serious pressure on the Obama administration to release the country’s financial data under the threat of articles of impeachment being drawn up ASAP.

This guy needs to be informed he is playing in the big leagues where there is such a thing as accountability, and if he cannot hack it he needs to step down or he will be removed from office.

Heh.

Thank you, Ace.

UPDATE: Welcome to our Other McCain visitors!! And thanks to our buddy RS for yet another Stacylanche, of which few have been repaid by even the barest attempt at a Rule #2 reacharound. My bad. I have a post in the works on some of the brightest stars in the blogosphere and R.S. McCain will be featured prominently, it’s just this year has been a bad year for getting anything serious done in my off hours so I have been totally remiss in acknowledging the latest developments such as the new majordomo of DC blogs.

According to the constitution (see the 9th and 10th amendments) the Federal government is not supposed to engage in certain activities.  Like running a railroad (AMTRAK), or banking (Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae), or running a national retirement system (Social Security).  We all have seen how well these have worked.  AMTRAK has never turned a profit, Freddie and Fannie were at the center of the recent housing market fiasco and your return on each dollar of investment from social security is around 1 percent.  So not only is it illegal for the Federal Government to run a railroad, a mortgage bank, and a retirement fund, it is singularly bad at it.

Now the nation is confronted with a problem, medical care in the US is too expensive.  This is actually the result of the Federal government interfering with natural market pressures.  Medicare and Medicaid, are two outdated and highly inefficient systems that make up some 20% of the market.  The 15 to 40 Million illegals who by law have to be given care in emergency rooms, and who do not pay for their care, are another source of spiraling costs.  Market based reforms such as medical savings accounts, individual choice of medical insurance plans, and cross state portability have all been met with hostility by the Federal government.

The financial disaster we are facing in the field of medical care is a problem of the governments making.  One sixth of the GDP is at stake and we are going to let the Federal Government take it over?  So they can do what?  Make it as efficient as AMTRAK, as cost effective a social security and as prudent as Freddie Mac?  The Federal government has no business running a medical plan either.  It is illegal according to the 9th and 10th amendments of the constitution.  Given the cancer survival rates one sees in other socialized systems, it is more than likely that the Federal Government will be singularly bad at running a medical plan as well.

There are other plans on the table.  There are market based solutions that have been proposed both currently and in the past.  The current administration is fear mongering when they say any delay will bring disaster.  They say we need to pass legislation in the next few weeks so they can start phasing their plan in come 2013?  2013 is four years away.  Why the rush?  The rush is needed because the Socialist, government run plan that Obama is proposing is ill conceived, and will not survive scrutiny.  This is an Federal power grab, not a solution.

UPDATE: Obama admits he does not know what is in the bill he is trying to ram through.  Hilarious!  But all those who oppose the bill are just misinformed or evil.