Showing posts with label personal liberty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label personal liberty. Show all posts

Monday, April 11, 2011

Expose George Soros - Sign the Petition


For several years, left-wing billionaire George Soros has called for a reorganization of the global economic system, claiming even back in 2009 in a Japanese op-ed article that "reorganizing the world order will need to extend beyond the financial system and involve the United Nations." 

While Soros financially backs groups like MoveOn.org, ACORN, and more than 1,200 other organizations in the hopes of destroying the American economy by creating a "global sheriff," the media continually turns a blind eye to one key factor:  the United States was founded on principles of liberty and sovereignty from other ruling nations. The United States is not and should never be the global socialist Utopia that Soros envisions.

However, unless the media stops laying the tracks for Soros' global plans, our nation will surely face the loss of liberty as we have never seen before.

In an effort to expose Soros' plans to destroy the American economy in favor of a overarching global regulator, The Media Research Center has a petition available for citizens demanding the media tells the truth about his plans.

From the MRC Action petition website:
George Soros is bad for America, and the media aren’t saying a word. That’s why the Media Research Center -- the nation’s foremost liberal media watchdog has launched its national “Demand the Media Tell the Truth About George Soros” petition -- alerting the public, and holding the liberal media accountable for their active participation in Soros’ anti-American plans in bringing our nation down.
Click here if you'd like to sign the petition!

~Gee

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

The Hippocratic Oath and Hypocrisy: Free Speech in the Era of Obama's Nanny State

Following the passage of the health care bill, Florida urologist Jack Cassell exercised his first amendment right to free speech and posted a sign on his office door which reads, “If you voted for Obama, seek urologic care elsewhere.  Changes to your health care begin right now, not in four years.”  Dr. Cassell expressed his frustration with a bill that he believes will irrevocably harm if not ultimately destroy the health care system as we know it in this country, specifically the care he gives his patients.  Although Dr. Cassell, a registered Republican, did not refuse to treat anyone – including Obama voters, which he acknowledged would be unethical – patients who dare tread past his sign will visit a waiting room stocked with a variety of conservative pamphlets opposing Obamacare.  “This is what the morons in Washington have done to your health care. Take one, read it and vote out anyone who voted for it,” a waiting room sign reproves. 

In response to Dr. Cassell’s sign, Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.), the same congressman who suggested Republicans’ only answer to the health care is for the sick to “die quickly,” has now attempted to further quell opposition to Obamacare and the president’s far left politics of redistribution.  Most troubling, Grayson has pulled out the proverbial and all too often unfairly employed “race card” and alleged that Dr. Cassell’s sign is tantamount to a refusal to treat black people.  Rep. Grayson told the Sentinel that Dr. Cassell’s behavior disgusted him. “Maybe he thinks the Hippocratic Oath says, 'Do no good',” Grayson said.  “If this is the face of the right wing in America, it's the face of cruelty. ...Why don't they change the name of the Republican Party to the Sore Loser Party?”

While Rep. Grayson’s comments undoubtedly malign Dr. Cassell, I believe this is part and parcel of a more insidious agenda of the Bolshevik left in this country to systematically suppress free speech, especially political in nature, and to construct an “enemies of state” list.  The Fox News network is one such enemy that has met squarely with the opprobrium of the Obama administration.  President Obama has himself called Fox “troublesome” and “vitriolic” in an interview with CBS’ Harry Smith: 

OBAMA:  When you listen to Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck --

SMITH:  It's beyond that.

OBAMA:  It's pretty apparent and it's troublesome.  But keep in mind that there have been periods in American history where this kind of vitriol comes out.  It happens often when you've got an economy that is making people more anxious and people are feeling as if there's a lot of change that needs to take place.  But that's not the vast majority of Americans.  I think the vast majority of Americans know that we're trying hard, that I want what's best for the country.

Maya Angelou has said, “If someone shows you who they are, believe them.”  Barack Obama attended Jeremiah Wright’s church for twenty years and absorbed his bitter, racist, and anti-American rhetoric, yet it is Fox News he deems “troublesome,” not the “damning” of the country he claims to love.  Like Peter, Obama denied his relationship with Wright, but his speech betrayed his disavowal.  On the campaign trail, Obama told us who he was, but we did not believe him:

“You go into these small towns of Pennsylvania like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them and they fell through the Clinton administration and the Bush administration, each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are going to regenerate and they have not.  And it's not surprising, then, that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustration.”

It’s not so much that this administration is against free speech; they are simply against the speech of those who refuse to fall in line with their agenda of “fundamentally transforming America” through the premeditated obsolescence of self-reliance.  Keith Olbermann spewed hate speech at the Bush administration from NBC for eight years, told President Bush to “shut the hell up,” because “someone had to,” and he didn’t have the “creativity or presence of mind to throw a shoe at him.”  Olbermann called on President Obama to prosecute former President Bush for war crimes.  Yet, the liberal media and their cronies in Washington remained silent as he utilized his pulpit to incite violence against then President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

President Obama has indeed divided this nation, but I believe that that is precisely what he came to do; while his propagandized campaign so artfully crafted an image of the future president as the great unifier, his fourteen months in office are instead a reflection of a man who came to divide and conquer.  Obama is who he said he was, and he is doing what he said he would do.

Evidence abounds that our first amendment freedoms are under attack, and there is no better example than the aspersions this administration and the lame-stream, State-controlled media have cast on the tea party demonstrators.  Despite any actual evidence, despite countless organized and peaceful protests, the tea partiers have been branded with the twenty-first century’s scarlet A.  On the day the health care bill was signed, Congresswoman Pelosi, in nothing short of a calculated photo-op, accompanied the Congressional Black Caucus to the Capitol building amongst a sea of tea party protesters.  Beneath the city of Washington exists a labyrinth of rails, the Metro system.  There was no reason, other than for the imperious pomp and circumstance to which this administration has crowned itself entitled, for Rep. Pelosi, et als., to walk above-ground to the Capitol. 

This wanton display, so patently self-aggrandizing, I conjecture, had a deeper motive to incite violence, or at the very minimum, to create a scene that would send a thrill running up Chris Matthews’ leg.  Undeterred that an altercation did not, in reality, occur, the administration fabricated one.  Racial slurs and invectives, they alleged, were hurled during the anti-Obamacare protest, the “n” word was called fifteen times, and a representative was spit upon.  The countless cameras surrounding the Capitol inexplicably failed to capture this vituperative rhetoric.  Had this actually occurred, it would have been a front-page headline across the nation, especially from those news organizations who support this administration’s proclivity for massive government expansion and industry takeover.  That it did not is a testament to the lengths this administration goes to impose its will upon a people it deems either too recalcitrant or dim-witted to realize what’s in their best interests.  After all, we have to pass the bill to know what’s in it.

More cries of racism have ensued.  Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tn.), during an Internet radio show, insinuated members of the Tea Party have an agenda of bigotry and hatred and have demonstrated a “hardcore angry side,” even “without robes and hoods.”  He alleged that the organizers have shown “opposition to African Americans, hostility toward gays, hostility to anybody who wasn't just a clone of George Wallace's fan club.”

            Americans have come to a crossroads.  The American people and tea party protesters are not radicals, as this administration and President Obama would have us believe.  The act of disagreeing with the policies and politics of a black president is not a smoke signal for racism.  We aren’t overly concerned; in fact, I believe we aren’t concerned enough.  We aren’t bitter clingers; we proudly cling to our faith and the freedoms our forefathers fought and died to bequeath, and when besmirched with false labels of racism and bigotry, we cling boldly to the Truth.  We see this administration’s socialist agenda corroding the Constitution, crippling the private sector, increasing taxes, and decreasing personal liberty, and we’re tired of standing idle.  We aren’t afraid of the bullying and intimidation anymore.  What we used to accept, we no longer will.  President Obama, you’ve shown us who you are.  Now, it’s our turn.

~elf

Monday, March 29, 2010

Obamacare: An Appeal to Pity




How did Congress expect to convince the public that they, the federal government, could manage our health care better than any of the other diseased programs over which they have taken control?  Simple:  they didn’t expect to convince us, because they couldn’t.

When the nation asked legitimate questions, Congress couldn’t come up with adequate answers, so they ignored their constituents. They let the phone calls go to voice mail while Obama subtly diverted the nation’s attention elsewhere and Congressional liberals followed suit and cleverly drove the conversation down a shameful detour. When they did finally respond, Obama apologized profusely to the nation, insulting the intelligence of the average citizen by claiming we, the people, didn’t understand his grand plan because he had not explained his roadmap to a successful health insurance reform clearly enough.  Yet, when the nation still pressed for answers, Obama swiftly flipped the issue on our heads, calling our compassion and concern for the less fortunate into question and demanding to know who we are to question his decision-making skills in the Great Name of Humanity.

Now, instead of addressing the nation’s debt, instead of facing the sad fiscal and broken reality of existing Medicare and Medicaid programs, and instead addressing the concerns of the nation, Obama (and his Congressional liberals) made an appeal to pity, an appeal to the humanitarianism of their cause, and an appeal to the morality of our souls.

This health insurance overhaul is for the children, he cried.  It’s for the single mothers, they told us. How can conservatives oppose a bill that addresses such a noble cause, they accused.

Sure, to the casual observer, this argument makes a liberal look much more empathetic (whereas someone who wants to “Kill the Bill” comes across looking like a greedy, money-grabbing rich guy who does nothing but drink gold and use his poor, lower-class servants as a foot stool).

I can see how it is easy it is for them to villainize those who oppose the health care bill with ad hominem and straw man arguments. It’s much easier for Congressional representatives to brush aside healthy debate from their constituents as meaningless if it’s coming from people they’ve pegged as ignorant, heartless, less morally aware, and therefore, in need of government control in their lives.

…but maybe, just maybe, people who oppose this bill still wanted to see health insurance reform as much as those in favor of it.  Maybe they care about people just as much as those who directly favor the bill. I know, it’s crazy talk to think like that, especially when EVERYONE knows that inherently, those in favor of the bill are the ONLY ones who are more empathetic, who care more about other people, and who are less selfish, whereas those who oppose the bill, are just a bunch of greedy, millionaires who don’t care for anyone but themselves and would be much happier in a world without smelly, expensive pill-popping, old people to worry about. Let’s just say (strictly hypothetically, of course) that people on BOTH sides of the issue care about reform and helping the disadvantaged…

After all, the nation never got answers to its questions.  We, the people, are still left wondering, who will control the flow of tax-dollars? Who decides where this money goes? Who is deciding MY health insurance plan benefits? Who is deciding my doctor / patient relationship? How will we pay for this debt?

We still want answers. 

Now, this week, as the pharmaceutical company Medtronic informed its employees that they will be forced to lay off 1,000 employees in the coming months, as Caterpillar and John Deere announced that they will take a quarter billion dollar hit thanks to the new health care tax laws, as 3M estimated they will take a $90 million hit, we still want answers.

We still want to know why it wasn’t possible to find a reform solution without imposing new tax burdens on companies.

We still want to know why it wasn’t possible to find a solution that didn’t involve bribing politicians for their vote when the overwhelming majority of constituents did not support the bill.

Wasn’t it possible to find a solution that didn’t exempt certain states or interest groups from paying into the proposed taxes?

Wasn’t it possible to find a solution without violating our personal rights to make the decision to go without health insurance (which I’ve personally done before) without being fined up to 2.5% of our income?

Wasn’t it possible to cut costs and make health insurance more affordable by cracking down on the existing Medicare / Medicaid fraud? (After all, if people have less opportunity to steal, insurance companies wouldn’t have to eat so much of a loss and they could lower premiums.)

Wasn’t it also possible to cut costs, not by pulling funding from the non-existent money in the social security piggy bank or taxing the people out the ears, but by increasing competition and allowing individuals to buy insurance across state borders?

The answer – to all of these questions – is yes. 
Under the weight of these questions, however, Obama’s appeal to pity simply did not hold its own. It still doesn’t hold its own.

It is with these questions in mind that Obama and Congressional liberals need to realize that opponents of this bill are not denying the humanitarian travesty that exists when people cannot afford adequate health insurance coverage. We are challenging the Constitutional and fiscal travesty of a federal law that 1.) is beyond the Constitutional reach of the government, and 2.) passes into law against the direct will of the people, and does so thanks to back door deals and bribed votes and at the expense of our economy’s integrity.

After all, no one questions the fact that it is an absolute disgrace when people go hungry, go cold, or go without adequate health insurance coverage, especially in a country as prosperous as the United States.  Shame on me as an individual if I do not do my part to help my community members in need – however, no government official has ANY authority to force their humanitarian causes on me under penalty of jail or fines if I fail to comply.

All the government is doing by deciding our health insurance is taking away our liberty to make our own health decisions. (Oh, and to fine us up to 2.5% of our income if we choose NOT to take the government policy? Yes, that’s directly unconstitutional as well.) 

Think about it: Government can’t protect liberty by taking it away. It’s illogical – illogical AND unconstitutional.

So how about it, Congress?  How about it, President Obama?  Will you ever hold yourselves fiscally accountable and answer our questions or will you continue to invalidate our concerns with your smokescreen appeal to pity?

I’d venture a guess that we will continue to receive the latter response, however, it is interesting to watch our politicians in the meantime deny that the health insurance overhaul isn’t socialism…when inherently, it is.  Universal government-sponsored and mandated health care IS socialistic, in that A.) it is a public, communal (government) ownership of the health care system, and B.) it distributes a commodity based on “fairness” and “equality” (i.e., wealth redistribution) rather than economic or market principles. 

Economically speaking, government-mandated taxes toward humanitarian causes (wealth redistribution) actually are NOT charity, despite the common confusion by the two.  Also economically speaking, government mandated taxes toward humanitarian causes ARE a disservice to the cause of humanitarian aid.  In fact, it has been proven that for every $1 of government-spending toward a charitable cause, up to 50 cents in private giving is displaced (i.e., not spent on the charity).  

Economists call this the crowding-out effect. In other words, the basic principle is that as government spending on charity increases, people privately give less to charitable causes.  Exhibit A: FDR’s New Deal programs during the Great Depression. Government spending went from 0% to 4% of the GDP and church-based charity ALONE dropped by 30%. 

Constitutionally speaking, it is beyond the federal government’s responsibility to force by law citizens to “shoulder” any humanitarian or charitable burden on its citizens. (Not to mention that it’s an oxymoron to claim that a government-mandated tax is “charitable.”  Anything that is forced or required on someone else is no longer charity, even if it is for a good cause.)

I can’t help but wonder if Nancy Pelosi or President Obama has ever heard of the “Winterhilfswerk” – the Winter Aid.  It was a “charity” program designed by the Nazi Party back around the 1930’s. Every year they collected ‘donations’ in the altruistic name of helping the needy, but if families didn’t contribute toward the cause, well…they would run into a bit of trouble with the local Nazi authority.  In fact, the popular propaganda slogan used to promote this program was: “Keiner soll hungern! Keiner soll frieren!” (Translated to: No one should go hungry! No one shall be cold!) 

Sound familiar to the appeal to pity currently employed by Congressional liberals?

There’s a slight shift that’s surfaced in the current health insurance debate that’s an interesting twist to these old German national socialist propaganda catch phrases: instead of openly advocating socialistic policies under the banner of human rights, the socialistic health insurance push is now subtly being advocated as an inalienable or natural right.

The problem with this argument is that inalienable rights are actually rights that are inherent to us: what we have. Inalienable rights are NOT what the government (or anyone) gives us.  We have the right to life and liberty – the government cannot take these away. However, just because the government is obligated to make sure these rights are protected (again, for a government to take them away would be direct oppression), it does not follow to say that they can be GIVEN by the government. 

Regardless, how has it become the common misconception that the U.S. government did not provide assistance (health care) for those in need prior to the passing of this health insurance bill? Has everyone honestly forgotten about two programs called Medicare and Medicaid?

Here’s a funny idea that Obama and Congress failed to address: the supposed 45 million uninsured. According to the 2007 U.S. Census, 21% of the 45 million uninsured Americans were illegal immigrants.  Close to 40% of the uninsured 45 million had incomes exceeding $50,000 but simply chose not to enroll in an insurance policy (either as an individual or through an employer).  Furthermore, according to the Urban Institute, 22% of the uninsured 45 million were eligible for Medicare / Medicaid, but they simply never signed up for a program.  That means, the government, despite the fact that Medicare / Medicaid programs are specifically designed to assist various groups of people who can’t afford insurance, was willing to re-create the wheel and blow billions of dollars because people basically hadn’t filled out their name and address and licked a stamp to mail the form.   

This left only about 2.7% of the 45 million uninsured who did not – could not – get a health insurance plan.

Let’s also not forget or confuse (as our politicians are so apt to do) that a health insurance plan is not the equivalent of health care. In other words, just because one does not have a health insurance policy, it does not mean they do not have health care – it just means their treatment costs will not be subsidized by an insurance company that they’ve been paying into. 

The difference between health insurance and health care is a crucial distinction, because it is a far cry to claim that any percentage of our population cannot get health care, especially since by law, any sick John or Jane Doe steps who within 150’ of a hospital will receive treatment and care far superior to that around the world. (This is true regardless of a person’s citizenship in this country – a point well demonstrated in California, where hospital costs and insurance premiums skyrocket above the rest of the country’s rates, thanks heavily in part to the significant influx of illegal immigrants crossing the border in the hopes of receiving better care, receiving better care, and disappearing when it comes time to pay for the better care they received here than in their home country.)

Again, this is not denying the fact that the system still needed to be tweaked to include the 2.7% who are slipping through the cracks, but this certainly changes the game a bit, doesn’t it?

Suddenly, the immanent crisis looks a wee bit exaggerated, when we actually look at the facts.  Suddenly, the billions and billions of dollars that will drag us into debt claiming to help one-sixth of the population seem a bit more like… overkill. Suddenly, the thousands of layoffs (and billions of dollars in losses) that companies are just starting to announce seem a bit more unnecessary.

Considering Medicare fraud has been estimated to be the cause of costing taxpayers about $60 billion every year, instead of reinventing the wheel and forcing an entire nation of 300 million citizens to switch to a new government plan, why didn’t our Congress even CONSIDER strengthening the amendments in False Claims Act (FCA), for example?

While we’re putting ideas on the table that, despite the massive government overhaul, did not get addressed, why didn’t insurance policies get put back in the hands of the consumer?

Why didn’t they even consider encouraging Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), which have been shown to reduce fraud over standard insurance programs by up to 90%?  HSA programs (health savings accounts) allow customers to pay the health care providers directly for the care received.  This has a direct two-fold benefit: A.) people are more responsible when it’s their money they are writing checks for, and B.) it reduces fraud, and by extension, health insurance premiums.  

Why is some obscure politician deciding what we do with our bodies?

Why didn’t they consider allowing states to increase insurance competition across state borders?  Increased competition forces hospitals and insurance providers to lower costs and premiums, thus making insurance more affordable, so that seems like it should have been a given.

For that matter, why weren’t states allowed to have more control over the Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP / COBRA programs? The states will ALWAYS put their constituents’ money to better use than the federal government.  In fact, return more control to the states in general.  That has the potential to address wasteful spending in a plethora of fiscal areas.

After all is said and done, do we really think our federal government is competent enough to balance the Health Care checkbook? 

No, we don’t, which is why we can’t help but legitimately wonder if now, when we see moths flying out of our nation’s Social Security piggy bank, when we’re told to turn our attention elsewhere while the government takes control of 20% of our economy, if this unconstitutional show of fiscal irresponsibility won’t bankrupt our economy. 

After all, just think back to 1992, when House Members bounced 11,435 checks (from their own House bank)... are you concerned yet?

~Gee