Archive for the Politics Category
Obama “Is Now at the Level of Prime Minister”
Posted in American, Charles Krauthammer, Conservative, Government, In a nutshell, Obama, Opinions, Politics with tags American, Charles Krauthammer, Conservative, demagoguery, Government, Healthcare bill., In a nutshell, Obama, Opinions, Politics, president, reconciliation, Summit on February 28, 2010 by Joann“Half of All Black Children Are Aborted”
Posted in American, Anti-abortion, Culture, Defending Life, News, Obama, Opinions, Politics, United States, Video with tags abortion, african american, American, Anti-abortion, Beck, black children, Congressman Trent Franks, Culture, Defending Life, News, Obama, Opinions, Politics, rush limbaugh, United States, Video on February 28, 2010 by JoannRep. Trent Franks has called President Obama the “Abortion President.” He clarifies the call, but doesn’t back away from it. Congressman Frank tells why:
“I don’t know what it takes to get people to see the obvious. The fact that humanity is very gifted and hiding from something that obviously true. I mean: in this country, we had slavery for God knows how long, and, now, we look back on it and we say, ‘How blind were they? What was the matter with them?’ I mean: four million slaves! This is incredible, and we’re right! We’re right! We should look back on that and question. It is a crushing mark on America’s soul! And yet today, today, half of all black children are aborted. Half of all black children are aborted! Far more black children, far more of the African American community is being devasted by the policies of today, than were being devastated by the policies of slavery.. and I think, ‘What does it take to get us to wake up?’ “
Leave It to Limbaugh to Say It
Posted in American, Politics, United States with tags American, healthcare, Limbaugh.transcript, Obama, Politics, rush, Senate, United States on February 25, 2010 by JoannH/T Frugal Cafe
Transcript portions of El Rushbo’s analysis:
Rush Limbaugh Show: Obama Unveils Health Care Plan: A Defiant “Screw You” to Nation
EIB Broadcast February 22, 2010
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: It’s a suicide pact. I mean, that’s all you can say this thing is. They don’t care. They know Harry Reid is going to go down in flames, they know Obama is going to go down in flames in 2012 — they don’t care. His approval number is down to 45% in Rasmussen. It’s minus -19 on the strongly approve, strongly disapprove Rasmussen graph. The American people don’t want any part of this. They’re still going to ram this thing down our throats. They do not care.
[...]
I’ve been trying to gather as much information on this stupid thing as I can. And, by the way, ladies and gentlemen, I somewhat feel responsible for what’s happening today because it was I and I alone, who, for a year said, “Where the hell is his plan? He doesn’t have a plan!” He’s letting Reid go down with the ship and he’s letting Pelosi go down with the ship over in the House and the Senate, but he hasn’t put his name to any plan — where’s his plan? Well, he’s got a plan now, and it’s still not a piece of legislation. It’s just a bunch of outline and overview things.
[...]
Folks, this is a monster. The first seven pages are a summary, and it’s all Robin Hood, it’s all Robin Hood, then it gets ugly.
It’s the fourth quarter. We got two minutes, he’s down 13 and Peyton Manning is hurt. This thing is going to get uglier and uglier. Do you realize, this line’s actually in it: “The president’s proposal provides that it –” … This proposal is actually in this president’s outline. “The president’s proposal provides that, if necessary, funds will be transferred to the Social Security trust fund to ensure that they are held harmless by the proposal.” That’s an admission it’s going to fail, so they’re trying to create another revenue stream here. So what that means is if Social Security goes broke, revenue from health care taxes will be transferred.
Oh, by the way, do you realize Obama didn’t wait for the CBO. This is a $1 trillion plan, and, you know what? It’s going to insure everybody that’s uninsured, 31 million people now, and it’s not going to add to the deficit. Do you believe that? Yeah, it’s magical. It’s pure magic. It’s going to cover everybody that’s not covered.
He’s going to really choke those insurance companies, too. The federal government is going to take over setting their rates and make sure everybody gets covered, spend a trillion dollars — didn’t he just have these two clowns come out, deficit commission last week, reduce spending commission? And he comes up the following week, hey, here’s my $1 trillion plan, doesn’t add to the deficit, insures everybody. We’ve got a panacea here…
[...]
Do you know how many times the word “tax” is mentioned in Obama’s health care bill? Thirty-five times “tax” is mentioned in the Obama health care bill. So, yeah, Ben Nelson is hung out to dry here. “Eliminating the Nebraska FMAP provision and providing significant additional Federal financing to all States for the expansion of Medicaid.” The public option’s not in it, but what I just read essentially says that it is. If you believe that there’s not a public option in this, you’re too gullible, and besides, this is just phase one.
Now, it also will increase “the threshold for the excise tax on the most expensive health plans from $23,000 for a family plan to $27,500 and start it in 2018 for all plans.” It’s 2010, right? 2018. Nobody’s fingerprints on this thing are going to be around for you to punish. They’re all going to be gone. Louisiana Purchase stands, at least the way I read it. There’s more, ladies and gentlemen. Obama’s plan would set a national eligibility threshold for Medicaid, the federal state insurance program for low-income Americans at 133% of poverty, the Senate preference, rather than 150% of the federal poverty level as proposed by the House. So under the White House proposal states would get 100% federal funding for any newly eligible Medicaid participants for four years, from 2014 to 2017. So the states are being incentivized to go higher and go sign up wards of the state.
Now, there’s no public option, right? They’re big-time touting no public option. But listen to this provision: “Under the White House proposal, states would get 100% federal funding –” and remember, now, this isn’t going to add to the deficit. We get 100% federal funding for any newly eligible Medicaid participants for four years, from 2014 to 2017, with 95% reimbursement the following two years and 90% after that. Folks, I mean we’re talking dead on bankruptcy here, national bankruptcy.
We’re talking about bankrupting the country. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, are broke, there is no Social Security trust fund anymore anyway. That’s why he’s talking about “refunding” it, none of this is sustainable. Expanding any of this is sheer madness. Promising to fund Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, is a lie. We don’t have the money. And as I asked mere moments ago in a very brilliant way, how can President Obama say that he’s setting up a blue ribbon committee to fix the deficit and then make these irresponsible new spending promises? They don’t care. They literally don’t care.
The bipartisan commission is a lie. Obamacare is a lie. The country’s broke, and this just accelerates our already certain bankruptcy. The State-Controlled Media are saying: “Obama’s bill helps cover 31 million Americans.” Sorry, it mandates coverage with the threat of a fine or a tax. It coerces coverage. This is raw, bare-knuckled, government power, fines for not buying Obamacare, unconstitutionality throughout this thing. Thank you, Professor Obama.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: By the way, from the Los Angeles Times, this is from yesterday, headline really says it all: “White House adjusts strategy on Republicans — The Obama administration aims to put members of the GOP on the spot, forcing them to compromise on issues or be portrayed as obstructionists.” That’s the health care summit Thursday at Blair House. Is there any reason now to go to this thing? Somebody help me out here. Is there any reason for the Republicans to trudge up there and appear at this thing?
Obama’s plan, he put it out there. And, look, everybody knew from the get-go this is designed to make the Republicans look like the obstructionists. The Democrats cannot get anything passed in the House and the Senate, and they have all the Democrats they need in the House to do it, and they had all the Democrats in the Senate, they couldn’t get it done, so now they want to shift blame to the Republicans, and the Republicans are being advised by people, “You can’t reject the invitation to the president, you really gotta go to the White House.”
Boehner, I think, there’s a letter he released this morning questioning why they should go now. I don’t know what the status of it is, but here it is: “As voters lose patience with political gridlock –” They are not losing patience. That’s another story that’s being spun. Folks, the American voter loves the gridlock right now. The gridlock is what is saving this country. Gridlock is what is preventing the Obama administration succeeding at their destructive agenda. Voters are not losing patience with political gridlock. Democrats are. “– the Obama administration is embarking on a strategy aimed at putting Republicans on the spot: Either participate in bipartisan exchanges initiated by the president, or be portrayed as the party of obstruction.” You may as well be portrayed as the party of obstruction because you can’t stop ‘em anyway. I mean you can, I guess, now with Scott Brown over in the Senate. I’ll tell you what, this is no slam-dunk. They just made it by three votes in the House on the Pelosi version of this.
We’re getting closer and closer to November and these Blue Dogs over there, the Democrat Party, people are dropping like flies, and I’m not sure they’re going to get this passed out of the House this time. You would think they’ll do it, but where’s Pelosi? You talk about going underground, you talk about low profile, where’s Pelosi? We haven’t seen her, and we haven’t seen Dingy Harry except when he was trying to act like he wasn’t at the Obama town hall.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Now, I want to look at the Democrats here as a couple of parents, in a way. You people know that having children will not save dysfunctional marriages. It just doesn’t work. And to the Democrats, passing Obamacare will not save you. It is going to destroy you! It is a suicide pact.
Troubled marriages become more troubled when new responsibilities are added to couples who are already prone to anger and disagreement — and, frankly, hate each other. Obamacare is not being conceived by a bunch of happy people who are likely to stay together, folks. This health care plan has been prepared in anger…
The purpose of this health care plan is for them to show you who the hell is boss and you think that they think that you are respected. No! They think you are stupid and they’re going to ram this down your throat regardless. There’s not happiness, there is no joy. There is nothing that is positive about the conception of this health care plan. This November, the American people are going to impose a divorce decree on the very Democrats plotting to conceive a bill that will destroy private health insurance, a bill that will grow up to become a doomed single-payer, government-owned and operated, rationed health care system.
The Democrats are giving birth to every movie monster you have ever seen, from Freddy Krueger to… Hell, I can’t remember them all. Every movie monster ever, the Democrats are conceiving it. They are not happy with themselves. They’re in a series of rapid divorces. They’re angry. They’re throwing the kitchen sink at each other — and to try to help themselves out, they are now conceiving a health care plan.
Obamacare is an act of anger, it is an act of desperation, it is a law that soon-to-be-fired Democrats will abandon and leave on the doorstep of the rest of the country. It’s a bill with no visible means of support. We’re getting a total deadbeat offspring of the Democrats here. It has no visible means of support or love. Nobody’s going to love this bill. Nobody’s going to have any support for it. It’s going to be an unwanted, unloved bill, dependent on the expanding bankrupt government. What could possibly go wrong here? What could possibly go wrong?
This bill, while it is right now just an unviable tissue mass which has zero humanity in it, needs to be aborted. I’ve always been pro-choice. I’ve always chosen life, except in this case. This bill needs to die.
This bill’s being conceived by the most unhappy bunch of parents. It’s a bill conceived in grievance and anger and desperation and defiance and an attitude of “Screw you!” to us.
More at Frugal Cafe
Obama Blithely Oblivious or Dishonest?
Posted in Politics, United States with tags American, health care., healthcare, Obama, Politics, Senate, United States, Video on February 25, 2010 by JoannH/T Instapundit and the Anchoress for the recap.
Republicans: “Our health-care alternative — the full text of the legislation — has been available at healthcare.gop.gov for months, which President Obama knows, since he discussed it with us in Baltimore a few weeks ago.”
When You Can’t Blame Bush – Blame America & the Constitution
Posted in Charles Krauthammer, Opinions, Politics, United States with tags America, Charles Krauthammer, Constitution, Government, Krauthammer, Opinions, Politics, United States on February 21, 2010 by JoannCharles Krauthammer makes it plain:
“In the latter days of the Carter presidency, it became fashionable to say that the office had become unmanageable and was simply too big for one man. Some suggested a single, six-year presidential term. The president’s own White House counsel suggested abolishing the separation of powers and going to a more parliamentary system of unitary executive control. America had become ungovernable.”
“Then came Ronald Reagan, and all that chatter disappeared.”
“Desperate to explain away this scandalous state of affairs, liberal apologists haul out the old reliable from the Carter years: “America the Ungovernable.” So declared Newsweek. “Is America Ungovernable?” coyly asked The New Republic. Guess the answer.”
Krauthammer sides with the American people and the Constitution:
“The people said no, expressing themselves first in spontaneous demonstrations, then in public opinion polls, then in elections — Virginia, New Jersey and, most emphatically, Massachusetts.“
“That’s not a structural defect. That’s a textbook demonstration of popular will expressing itself — despite the special interests — through the existing structures. In other words, the system worked.”
Ronald Reagan’s “Shining City On A Hill”
Posted in American, Conservative, Constitution, Culture, Politics, Ronald Reagan, Video with tags American, birthday, Conservative, Constitution, Culture, heroe, patriot, Politics, president, Ronald Reagan, Video on February 6, 2010 by JoannRonald Reagan, where are you when we need you?!
Today would be President Ronald Reagan’s 99th birthday. May God bless and caress him for us, We, the People, whom he loved and lead. We, the People, love and appreciate Reagan, the man, the mench, for his kindness, his integrity, his values, his patriotism, his determination, and his faith in We, the People. He kept the vision of a “Shining City on a hill” before his eyes. So, too, must we! Ronald Reagan is bright in our memory. Now we must live his dream. Freedom couldn’t have found a more clarion voice and heart to shout down the walls of tyranny by speaking with common sense. Listen again to his words of farewell:
President Wishy-Washy
Posted in American, Charles Krauthammer, Opinions, Politics, United States with tags American, Charles Krauthammer, Obama, Opinions, plan, policy, Politics, president, United States on December 5, 2009 by JoannCharles Krauthammer doesn’t pull his punches in Uncertain Trumpet and Obama has no punch:
We shall fight in the air, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields, we shall fight in the hills — for 18 months. Then we start packing for home. We shall never surrender — unless the war gets too expensive, in which case, we shall quote Eisenhower on “the need to maintain balance in and among national programs” and then insist that “we can’t simply afford to ignore the price of these wars.”
The quotes are from President Obama’s West Point speech announcing the Afghanistan troop surge. What a strange speech it was — a call to arms so ambivalent, so tentative, so defensive.
Which made his last-minute assertion of “resolve unwavering” so hollow. It was meant to be stirring. It fell flat. In August, he called Afghanistan “a war of necessity.” On Tuesday night, he defined “what’s at stake” as “the common security of the world.” The world, no less. Yet, we begin leaving in July 2011?
This Makes Obama Pro-Abort
Posted in American, Obama, Political, Politics, Reflecting on the news, Roe vs. Wade with tags abortion, American, Anti-abortion, Defending Life, fetus, fetus 11 weeks, fetus image, Obama, Political, Politics, pro-abort, Pro-life, Reflecting on the news, Roe vs. Wade on October 23, 2009 by JoannOur President Obama has a way with words, but his actions make him a pro-abort President, a pro-abort Senator and a pro-abort inhumane being.
This from Steven Ertelt Life News. com:
November 5, 2008 – Obama selects pro-abortion Rep. Rahm Emanuel as his White House Chief of Staff. Emanuel has a 0% pro-life voting record according to National Right to Life.
November 19, 2008 – Obama picks pro-abortion former Sen. Tom Daschle as his Health and Human Services Secretary. Daschle has a long pro-abortion voting record according to National Right to Life.
November 20, 2008 – Obama chooses former NARAL legal director Dawn Johnsen to serve as a member of his Department of Justice Review Team. Later, he finalizes her appointment as the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of the Legal Counsel in the Obama administration.
November 24, 2008 – Obama appoints Ellen Moran, the former director of the pro-abortion group Emily’s List as his White House communications director. Emily’s List only supported candidates who favored taxpayer funded abortions and opposed a partial-birth abortion ban.
November 24, 2008 – Obama puts former Emily’s List board member Melody Barnes in place as his director of the Domestic Policy Council.
November 30, 2008 – Obama named pro-abortion Sen. Hillary Clinton as the Secretary of State. Clinton has an unblemished pro-abortion voting record and has supported making unlimited abortions an international right.
December 10, 2008 – Obama selects pro-abortion former Clinton administration official Jeanne Lambrew to become the deputy director of the White House Office of Health Reform. Planned Parenthood is “excited” about the selection.
December 10, 2008 – Obama transition team publishes memo from dozens of pro-abortion groups listing their laundry list of pro-abortions actions they want him to take.
Pro-Abortion Presidential Record – 2009
January 5, 2009 – Obama picks pro-abortion Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine as the chairman of the Democratic Party.
January 6, 2009 – Obama chooses Thomas Perrelli, the lawyer who represented Terri Schiavo’s husband Michael in his efforts to kill his disabled wife, as the third highest attorney in the Justice Department.
January 22, 2009 – Releases statement restating support for Roe v. Wade decision that allowed virtually unlimited abortions and has resulted in at least 50 million abortions since 1973.
January 23, 2009 – Forces taxpayers to fund pro-abortion groups that either promote or perform abortions in other nations. Decison to overturn Mexico City Policy sends part of $457 million to pro-abortion organizations.
January 26, 2009 – Obama nominee for Deputy Secretary of State, James B. Steinberg, tells members of the Senate that taxpayers should be forced to fund abortions. Nominee erroneously says limits on abortion funding are unconstitutional.
January 29, 2009 – President Obama nominates pro-abortion David Ogden as Deputy Attorney General.
February 12, 2009 – Obama nominates pro-abortion Elena Kagan to serve as Solicitor General.
February 27, 2009 – Starts the process of overturning pro-life conscience protections President Bush put in place to make sure medical staff and centers are not forced to do abortions.
February 28, 2009 – Barack Obama nominates pro-abortion Kathleen Sebelius to become Secretary of Health and Human Services.
March 5, 2009 – The Obama administration shut out pro-life groups from attending a White House-sponsored health care summit. Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion business, made the invitation list as did other pro-abortion groups.
March 9, 2009 – President Barack Obama signed an executive order forcing taxpayer funding of embryonic stem cell research.
March 10, 2009 – Obama announces the creation of a new foreign policy position to focus on women’s issues. He names Melanne Verveer, an abortion advocate, to occupy the post.
March 10, 2009 – Reverses an executive order to press for more research into ways of obtaining embryonic stem cells without harming human life. The order Obama scrapped would have promoted new forms of stem cell research.
March 11, 2009 – Obama signed an executive order establishing a new agency within his administration known as the White House Council on Women and Girls. Obama’s director of public liaison at the White House, Tina Tchen, an abortion advocate, became director of it.
March 11, 2009 – Obama administration promotes an unlimited right to abortion at a United Nations meeting.
March 11, 2009 – Obama administration officials deny negative effects of abortion at United Nation’s meeting.
March 17, 2009 – President Barack Obama makes his first judicial appointment and names pro-abortion federal Judge David Hamilton to serve on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
March 26 – President Obama announced $50 million for the UNFPA, the UN population agency that has been criticized for promoting abortion and working closely with Chinese population control officials who use forced abortions and involuntary sterilizations.
April 7 – The Vatican has rejected three Obama ambassador nominees because of their positions in favor of abortions.
April 7 – Obama has named pro-abortion law professor Harold Hongju Koh as the top lawyer for the State Department.
April 7 – Put more abortion advocates on his White House advisory council for faith-based issues.
April 8 – Obama nominee for assistant attorney general for legislative affairs, Ron Weich, is pro-abortion.
April 14 – Obama administration releases document that claims pro-life people may engage in violence or extremism.
April 17 – Obama administration releases the proposed guidelines that implement his decision to allow taxpayer funding of embryonic stem cell research that involves the destruction of human life.
April 23 – Refused to appeal a ruling requiring the FDA to allow 17-year-old girls to purchase the morning after pill without either a doctor visit or parental involvement beforehand.
April 27 – Obama’s women’s ambassador Melanne Verveer touted Obama’s decision to send $50 million to the United Nation’s Population Fund.
May 5 – Details emerge about a terrorism dictionary the administration of President Barack Obama put together in March. The Domestic Extremism Lexicon calls pro-life advocates violent and claims they employ racist overtones in engaging in criminal actions.
May 8 – President Obama releases a new budget that allows the Legal Services Corporation to use tax dollars to pay for pro-abortion litigation.
May 8 – President Obama’s new budget calls for taxpayer funded abortions in the nation’s capital.
May 8 – President Obama’s budget eliminates all federal funding for abstinence-only education.
May 15 – Appointed pro-abortion New York City health commissioner Thomas Frieden as head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
May 17 – During his commencement speech at Notre Dame, Obama deceived listeners into thinking he wants a conscience clause, promoted embryonic stem cell research and misstated his pro-abortion record.
May 26 – Appoints appeals court judge Sonia Sonotmayor as a Supreme Court nominee. Sotomayor agrees that the courts should make policy, such as the Roe v. Wade case. Sotomayor is later opposed by pro-life groups and supported by pro-abortion groups and those who know her say she will support abortion on the high court.
July 2- Calls for an unlimited right to abortion at a United Nation’s meeting.
July 7- The Obama administration admits it ignored the majority of Americans who opposed the proposed guidelines that would implement Obama’s decision to force taxpayers to fund embryonic stem cell research.
July 14 – Obama science czar nominee John Holdren is revealed to have written before that he favors forced abortions.
July 30 – Awards several pro-abortion activists with the 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom.
July 31 – Tells the National Institutes of Health to adopt rules that allow embryonic stem cell research.
August 4 – Information becomes public that Ezekiel Emanuel, an Obama advisor at the Office of Management and Budget and a member of Federal Council on Comparative Effectiveness Research, supports rationing health care for disabled Americans that could lead to euthanasia.
August 6 – Obama criticized for asking for people to “snitch” on groups and people who oppose the pro-abortion health care bills in Congress.
August 13 – Obama wrongly said a senator backed the pro-euthanasia components of the health care bill.
August 23 – Said pro-life advocates were making “phony claims” about the health care bills. Also said the claims were false.
August 24 – Releases veterans guide promoting euthanasia.
September 13 – Misleads on the federal conscience clause in a health care speech and misleads on abortion funding.
September 13 – Obama waits two days to comment on shooting of pro-life advocate whereas he commented immediately on shooting of abortion practitioner.
September 15 – Senate confirms Obama’s new regulatory czar Cass Sunstein, who is pro-abortion.
October 5 – Selected pro-abortion lawyer and Georgetown University law professor Chai Feldblum for the EEOC.
October 5 – Announces he will give the keynote speech for pro-abortion group Human Rights Campaign
Go here for links: Steven Ertelt Life News. com:
What can we do? PRAY for our President! Here is a powerful prayer from St. Gertrude the Great:
Jesus, Savior of the World, have mercy on me. You to Whom nothing is impossible, bestow mercy to the wretched. O Christ, Who by Your Cross, hast redeemed the world, hear us.
The Lord is my strength and my glory; He is my salvation.
Hail Jesus, my loving Spouse. I salute You in the ineffable joys of Your Divinity; I embrace You with the affection of all creatures, and I kiss the Sacred Wound of Your love.
Update – The Age of “Just Hope It”
Posted in Charles Krauthammer, Culture, Just Thinking Out Loud, Obama, Opinions, Politics with tags Charles Krauthammer, Culture, hope, Jesus, Just Thinking Out Loud, nobe, Obama, Opinions, peace, Peace Place, Politics, prize, seeds on October 17, 2009 by Joann“Amen” to what he said. Charles Krauthammer commenting on the Nobel Prize Surprise supposedly heralding the shining future of Obama the Peacenik and Flower Child ushering in the Age of “Just Hope It!”
“What’s come from Obama holding his tongue while Iranian demonstrators were being shot and from his recognizing the legitimacy of a thug regime illegitimately returned to power in a fraudulent election? Iran cracks down even more mercilessly on the opposition and races ahead with its nuclear program.
What’s come from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton taking human rights off the table on a visit to China and from Obama’s shameful refusal to see the Dalai Lama (a postponement, we are told). China hasn’t moved an inch on North Korea, Iran or human rights. Indeed it’s pushing with Russia to dethrone the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.
What’s come from the new-respect-for-Muslims Cairo speech and the unprecedented pressure on Israel for a total settlement freeze? “The settlement push backfired,” reports The Washington Post, and Arab-Israeli peace prospects have “arguably regressed.”
And what’s come from Obama’s single most dramatic foreign policy stroke — the sudden abrogation of missile defense arrangements with Poland and the Czech Republic that Russia had virulently opposed? For the East Europeans it was a crushing blow, a gratuitous restoration of Russian influence over a region that thought it had regained independence under American protection.”
Krauthammer hopes too, in the form of a question:
Surely we got something in return for selling out our friends?
Ahh, you guessed it, did you?!
NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, talk it up President Obama. “Peace,peace” and prizes for peace! So there is no peace to speak of, only talk and the shifting sands of duplicity beneath our feet.
Update: Personally, for me, a bumper sticker speaks more to truth and peace than Obama. It says: “No Jesus. No Peace. Know Jesus. Know Peace.” I know Charles Krauthammer wouldn’t put it that way, being Jewish; however, the way Christ preached, of truth and sacrificial love, rings throughout Krauthammer’s body of work. Krauthammer doesn’t hand you ‘pie in the sky’, he preaches the need to slug it out in the trenches with our ethics, morals and integrity in tact.
The Age of “Just Hope It”
Posted in Charles Krauthammer, Obama, Opinions, Politics, Reflecting on the news with tags Charles Krauthammer, hope, nobel, Obama, Opinions, peace, Politics, prize, Reflecting on the news, seeds on October 16, 2009 by Joann“Amen” to what he said. Charles Krauthammer commenting on the Nobel Prize Surprise supposedly heralding the shining future of Obama the Peacenik and Flower Child ushering in the Age of “Just Hope It!”
“What’s come from Obama holding his tongue while Iranian demonstrators were being shot and from his recognizing the legitimacy of a thug regime illegitimately returned to power in a fraudulent election? Iran cracks down even more mercilessly on the opposition and races ahead with its nuclear program.
What’s come from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton taking human rights off the table on a visit to China and from Obama’s shameful refusal to see the Dalai Lama (a postponement, we are told). China hasn’t moved an inch on North Korea, Iran or human rights. Indeed it’s pushing with Russia to dethrone the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.
What’s come from the new-respect-for-Muslims Cairo speech and the unprecedented pressure on Israel for a total settlement freeze? “The settlement push backfired,” reports The Washington Post, and Arab-Israeli peace prospects have “arguably regressed.”
And what’s come from Obama’s single most dramatic foreign policy stroke — the sudden abrogation of missile defense arrangements with Poland and the Czech Republic that Russia had virulently opposed? For the East Europeans it was a crushing blow, a gratuitous restoration of Russian influence over a region that thought it had regained independence under American protection.”
Krauthammer hopes too, in the form of a question:
Surely we got something in return for selling out our friends?
Ahh, you guessed it, did you?!
NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, talk it up President Obama. “Peace,peace” and prizes for peace! So there is no peace to speak of, only talk and the shifting sands of duplicity beneath our feet.
Congressman Mike Rogers’ on Health Care Reform in Washington D.C.
Posted in American, Defending Life, In a nutshell, Political, Politics, United States with tags American, Congressman Mike Rogers, Defending Life, health care., In a nutshell, Political, Politics, reform, speech, United States, Video, Washington D.C. on September 12, 2009 by JoannHow the Mighty Have Fallen
Posted in American, Charles Krauthammer, In a nutshell, Politics with tags American, Charles Krauthammer, In a nutshell, Krauthammer, Obama, policy, Politics, Video on September 5, 2009 by JoannH/T Anchoress for the video link:
Charles Krauthammer isn’t as generous in discerning Obama’s motives, agenda and Waterloo saying in part:
In a center-right country, that was problem enough. Obama then compounded it by vastly misreading his mandate. He assumed it was personal. This, after winning by a mere seven points in a year of true economic catastrophe, of an extraordinarily unpopular Republican incumbent, and of a politically weak and unsteady opponent. Nonetheless, Obama imagined that, as Fouad Ajami so brilliantly observed, he had won the kind of banana-republic plebiscite that grants caudillo-like authority to remake everything in one’s own image.
Accordingly, Obama unveiled his plans for a grand makeover of the American system, animating that vision by enacting measure after measure that greatly enlarged state power, government spending and national debt. Not surprisingly, these measures engendered powerful popular skepticism that burst into tea-party town-hall resistance.
Obama’s reaction to that resistance made things worse. Obama fancies himself tribune of the people, spokesman for the grass roots, harbinger of a new kind of politics from below that would upset the established lobbyist special-interest order of Washington. Yet faced with protests from a real grass-roots movement, his party and his supporters called it a mob — misinformed, misled, irrational, angry, unhinged, bordering on racist. All this while the administration was cutting backroom deals with every manner of special interest — from drug companies to auto unions to doctors — in which favors worth billions were quietly and opaquely exchanged.
More Nonsense Called Health Care Reform
Posted in American, Charles Krauthammer, Government, In a nutshell, Opinions, Politics, United States with tags American, Charles Krauthammer, democrats, Government, health care., In a nutshell, Obama, Opinions, Politics, reform, United States on August 14, 2009 by JoannCharles Krauthammer opines:
In the 48 hours of June 15-16, President Obama lost the health care debate. First, a letter from the Congressional Budget Office to Sen. Edward Kennedy reported that his health committee’s reform bill would add $1 trillion in debt over the next decade. Then the CBO reported that the other Senate bill, being written by the Finance Committee, would add $1.6 trillion. The central contradiction of Obamacare was fatally exposed: From his first address to Congress, Obama insisted on the dire need for restructuring the health care system because out-of-control costs were bankrupting the Treasury and wrecking the U.S. economy — yet the Democrats’ plans would make the problem worse.
Accordingly, Democrats have trotted out various tax proposals to close the gap. Obama’s idea of limits on charitable and mortgage-interest deductions went nowhere. As did the House’s income tax surcharge on millionaires. And Obama dare not tax employer-provided health insurance because of his campaign pledge of no middle-class tax hikes.
Desperation time. What do you do? Sprinkle fairy dust on every health care plan, and present your deus ex machina: prevention.
…..
Prevention is a wondrous good, but in the aggregate it costs society money. Nothing wrong with that. That’s the whole premise of medicine: Treating a heart attack or setting a broken leg also costs society. But we do it because it alleviates human suffering. Preventing a heart attack with statins or breast cancer with mammograms is costly. But we do it because it reduces human suffering.
However, prevention is not, as so widely advertised, healing on the cheap. It is not the magic bullet for health care costs.
You will hear some variation of that claim a hundred times in the coming health care debate. Whenever you do, remember: It’s nonsense — empirically demonstrable and CBO-certified.
Vintage Pelosi Spinning Like a Top
Posted in American, Pelosi, Politics with tags American, obamacare, Pelosi, Politics, spin on July 31, 2009 by JoannALLAHPUNDIT shares Pelosi’s nutty spin here.
“For sheer comic alarmism, this is topped only by The One’s warning at last week’s presser that greedy doctors are after your tonsils. But remember, you’re the ones who are fearmongering.
“They are the villains in this,” Pelosi said of private insurers. “They have been part of the problem in a major way. They are doing everything in their power to stop a public option from happening. And the public has to know that. They can disguise their arguments any way they want, but the fact is that they don’t want the competition.”…
“It’s almost immoral what they are doing,” added Pelosi, who stood outside her office long after her press conference ended to continue speaking to reporters, even as aides tried in vain to usher her inside. “Of course they’ve been immoral all along in how they have treated the people that they insure with pre-existing conditions, you know, the litany of it all.”
Translation: Private insurers are selfishly defending themselves from a statist boondoggle that’ll likely drive them out of business and create a government monopoly. I can’t believe it’s come to this, but Yale Law prof Stephen Carter was so distressed by Democratic attacks on nefarious profit-seekers that he felt obliged to write an op-ed this morning reminding America that profits are actually a good thing:
High profits are excellent news. When corporate earnings reach record levels, we should be celebrating. The only way a firm can make money is to sell people what they want at a price they are willing to pay. If a firm makes lots of money, lots of people are getting what they want.
To the country, profit is a benefit. Record profit means record taxes paid. But put that aside. When profits are high, firms are able to reinvest, expand and hire. And profits accrue to the benefit of those who own stocks: overwhelmingly, pension funds and mutual funds. In other words, high corporate profits today signal better retirements tomorrow.
Another reason to celebrate profit is the incentive it creates. When profits can be made, entrepreneurs provide more of needed goods and services…
We want health care to be cheaper, and the for-profit health-care industry has every incentive to make it so. Supporters of the public option tout Medicare’s cost advantages over private insurance, but those are largely obtained by setting below-market reimbursement rates for medical services (meaning that private patients subsidize Medicare patients). Moreover, the costs of compliance with the hundreds of pages of Medicare regulations are also transferred to the providers, and thus, again, to private patients.
Anchoress take on it:
“MMMhhmmmm, that’s just the sort of incompetent, inefficient nightmare bureaucracy I want managing my health care! The billion-dollar program is already broke, even though the dealers haven’t been paid. And the White House is considering asking for “more money”?Let’s take another look at that handy budget chart, and pity these poor dealers who are just trying to stay in business and keep people employed and have no idea when they’ll ever see a dime of their $4,500 advances paid back.
Please note: Pelosi is not the only one running around pointing the finger and shrieking “villain!” The Democrats are scolding their obedient-monkey-press. Bad, bad mediamonkies!
Senate Democratic leaders on Thursday blamed Capitol Hill media for setting an August deadline for health reform and Republicans for blocking the bill’s progress. . . . [Sen Harry] Reid said reporters created a fictitious deadline of a successful vote by the August recess, and downplayed the fact that the chamber won’t meet that mark.
“That is a deadline that you created,” Reid told a group of about 75 reporters. “It’s not like we don’t have a product. Significant progress has been made …
Open Letter to Senator Tom Udall
Posted in American, Anti-abortion, Archbishop Charles Chaput, Catholic, Constitution, Culture, Culture of Death, Defending Life, Government, In a nutshell, People, Political, Politics, Pro-life, Religion, Spiritual with tags American, Anti-abortion, Archbishop Charles Chaput, Catholic, Chaput, Constitution, Culture, Culture of Death, Defending Life, Government, In a nutshell, letter, life, People, Political, Politics, Pro-life, Religion, Spiritual, Udall on July 23, 2009 by Joann“America is not a secular state. As historian Paul Johnson once said, America was ”born Protestant.” It has uniquely and deeply religious roots. Obviously it has no established Church, and it has non-sectarian public institutions. It also has plenty of room for both believers and non-believers. But the United States was never intended to be a ‘’secular” country in the radical modern sense. Nearly all the Founders were either Christian or at least religion-friendly. And all of our public institutions and all of our ideas about the human person are based in a religiously shaped vocabulary. So if we cut God out of our public life, we cut the foundation out from under our national ideals.”“As Chicago’s Cardinal Francis George said recently, too many Americans have ”no recognition of the fact that children continue to be killed [by abortion], and we live therefore, in a country drenched in blood. This can’t be something you start playing off pragmatically against other issues.”
‘Jane Roe” Arrested
Posted in American, Anti-abortion, Political, Politics with tags American, Anti-abortion, arrest, Catholic, Christian, confirmation hearings, Norma McCorvey, People, Political, Politics, Pro-life, Spiritual on July 14, 2009 by JoannTodd J. Gillman reports:
Norma McCorvey – the Dallas woman known as Jane Roe in the landmark abortion rights case Roe v. Wade – was among the protesters arrested today for disrupting the confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.
The case that bears McCorvey’s court-picked pseudonym – and that of longtime Dallas district attorney Henry Wade, her legal adversary in the case – has been a central issue in judicial nomination fights for years. But McCorvey herself long ago decided that she regretted her role in the fight to legalize abortion, and has worked with anti-abortion activists as a potent symbol of the effort to overturn the Roe decision.
McCorvey, 61, is being charged with unlawful conduct/disruption of Congress, said Capitol Police spokeswoman Sgt. Kimberly Schneider.
“Love in Truth” – “Caritas in Veritate”
Posted in Politics, Pope Benedict XVI with tags Catholic, Christian, Church, Politics, Pope Benedict XVI, Religion, Robert A. Sirico on July 11, 2009 by JoannFrom the Introduction of Caritas in Veritate
“Love in truth — caritas in veritate — is a great challenge for the Church in a world that is becoming progressively and pervasively globalized. The risk for our time is that the de facto interdependence of people and nations is not matched by ethical interaction of consciences and minds that would give rise to truly human development. Only in charity, illumined by the light of reason and faith, is it possible to pursue development goals that possess a more humane and humanizing value. The sharing of goods and resources, from which authentic development proceeds, is not guaranteed by merely technical progress and relationships of utility, but by the potential of love that overcomes evil with good (cf. Rom 12:21), opening up the path towards reciprocity of consciences and liberties.
The Wall Street Journal reports “Anyone seeking a repudiatyion of the market economy will be disappointed.”
The Pope on ‘Love in Truth’
By ROBERT A. SIRICO
In his much anticipated third encyclical, Caritas in Veritate (Love in Truth), Pope Benedict XVI does not focus on specific systems of economics — he is not attempting to shore up anyone’s political agenda. He is rather concerned with morality and the theological foundation of culture. The context is of course a global economic crisis — a crisis that’s taken place in a moral vacuum, where the love of truth has been abandoned in favor of a crude materialism. The pope urges that this crisis become “an opportunity for discernment, in which to shape a new vision for the future.” Yet his encyclical contains no talk of seeking a third way between markets and socialism. Words like greed and capitalism make no appearance here, despite press headlines following the publication of the encyclical earlier this week. People seeking a blueprint for the political restructuring of the world economy won’t find it here. But if they look to this document as a means for the moral reconstruction of the world’s cultures and societies, which in turn influence economic events, they will find much to reflect upon. Caritas in Veritate is an eloquent restatement of old truths casually dismissed in modern times. The pope is pointing to a path neglected in all the talk of economic stimulus, namely a global embrace of truth-filled charity. Benedict rightly attributes the crisis itself to “badly managed and largely speculative financial dealing.” But he resists the current fashion of blaming all existing world problems on the market economy. “The Church,” he writes, “has always held that economic action is not to be regarded as something opposed to society.” Further: “Society does not have to protect itself from the market, as if the development of the latter were ipso facto to entail the death of authentically human relations.” The market is rather shaped by culture. “Economy and finance . . . can be used badly when those at the helm are motivated by purely selfish ends. Instruments that are good in themselves can thereby be transformed into harmful ones. But it is man’s darkened reason that produces these consequences, not the instrument per se. Therefore it is not the instrument that must be called to account, but individuals, their moral conscience and their personal and social responsibility.” The pope does not reject globalization: “Blind opposition would be a mistaken and prejudiced attitude, incapable of recognizing the positive aspects of the process, with the consequent risk of missing the chance to take advantage of its many opportunities for development.” He says that “the world-wide diffusions of prosperity should not . . . be held up by projects that are protectionist.” More, not less, trade is needed: “the principal form of assistance needed by developing countries is that of allowing and encouraging the gradual penetration of their products into international markets.” The encyclical doesn’t attack capitalism or offer models for nations to adopt. “The Church does not have technical solutions to offer,” the pope firmly states, “and does not claim ‘to interfere in any way in the politics of States.’ She does, however, have a mission of truth to accomplish, in every time and circumstance . . .” Benedict is profoundly aware that economic science has much to contribute to human betterment. The Church’s role is not to dictate the path of research but to focus its goals. “Economic science tells us that structural insecurity generates anti-productive attitudes wasteful of human resources. . . . Human costs always include economic costs, and economic dysfunctions always involve human costs.” He constantly returns to two practical applications of the principle of truth in charity. First, this principle takes us beyond earthly demands of justice, defined by rights and duties, and introduces essential moral priorities of generosity, mercy and communion — priorities which provide salvific and theological value. Second, truth in charity is always focused on the common good, defined as an extension of the good of individuals who live in society and have broad social responsibilities. As for issues of population, he can’t be clearer: “To consider population increase as the primary cause of underdevelopment is mistaken, even from an economic point of view.” Several commentators have worried about his frequent calls for wealth redistribution. Benedict does see a role for the state here, but much of the needed redistribution is the result of every voluntary and mutually beneficial exchange. To understand such passages fully and accurately, we do well to put our political biases on the shelf. This encyclical is a theological version of his predecessor’s more philosophical effort to anchor the free economy’s ethical foundation. Much of it stands squarely with a long tradition of writings of a certain “classical liberal” tradition, one centered on the moral foundation of economics, from St. Thomas Aquinas and his disciples, Frederic Bastiat in the 19th century, Wilhelm Roepke, and even the secular F.A. Hayek in the 20th century. It also clearly resonates with some European Christian democratic thought. Caritas in Veritate is a reminder that we cannot understand ourselves as a human community if we do not understand ourselves as something more than the sum or our material parts; if we do not understand our capacity for sin; and if we do not understand the principle of communion rooted in the gratuitousness of God’s grace. Simply put, to this pope’s mind, there is no just or moral system without just and moral people. Father Sirico is president and co-founder of the Acton Institute.
Death Knell for Affirmative Action?
Posted in American, Charles Krauthammer, Politics with tags American, Charles Krauthammer, Politics on July 3, 2009 by JoanneCharles Krauthammer sounds the death knell for reverse racism with the Supreme Courts Ricci decision:
Ricci left Sotomayor relatively unscathed. But not affirmative action. Ricci raised the bar considerably on overt discrimination against one racial group simply to undo the unintentionally racially skewed results of otherwise fair and objective employment procedures (in this case, examinations).
Krauthammer notes (bemoans?) Sotomayor’s survival:
While overturned on Ricci, she is protected by the four dissenting justices who upheld the side of the case she had taken as an appeals court judge. Sotomayor was additionally helped by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s insistence on reading her dissent from the bench, as if to emphasize the legitimacy of her position — and, by implication, Sotomayor’s.
