For quite some time now I have been arguing against all the Democrat proposed Health Care Reform Bills. In each Bill, and as a total philosophy of the concept of Government-run health care, there are multiple issues that limit freedoms of Americans to choose, lower the quality of care received, and expand the power of the Government while bankrupting us financially.
One of the consistent features of every Democrat promoted Health Care Bill is the thought that health care insurance MUST be mandatory. The reason given is that this will create a reduction of cost for all Americans. It is completely debatable if such cost savings would ever occur, and the proposals that increase competition and potentially lower costs without Government intervention have been unanimously rejected by Democrats.
But there is another facet to the feature of mandatory health care that Democrat politicians and the major media fail to discuss with voters. The results if an American does not accept the mandatory conditions, if the current proposals were accepted.
The most common result is a penalty being placed on the individual American. That penalty has generally been identified as a fine. The amount has ranged from a fixed dollar amount from $1500 – $2500, to a 2.5% tax added to the American in question. This is a huge sum for many Americans, especially during a time of increasing unemployment and may be worse in coming inflationary times.
But this is not the only penalty. Because there is the question, that none in the media have asked, that I am aware of, which would be what if the person in question fails to pay the penalty for not taking the mandatory health care? The current proposal from Sen. Baucus (Democrat) is the first that I am aware of to address this question.
The answer is that the person in this situation would be fined $25,000 and/or placed in jail for a year.
Take a moment to think about that. Especially if you are a person between the ages of 18 -30, the group of Americans most likely not to have health care coverage as they are the group least requiring health care. If the factors of low income and work instability are added in – as this age group is the most likely to change jobs several times and have massive income swings as they finish their educations and try to establish their work careers – then this becomes a more likely scenario.
In effect, the majority of people to suffer either penalties for not having mandatory healthcare are those 18 – 30. Thus they would owe an additional 2.5% to taxes for the Government (a tax hike far from any definition of rich) and would incur another $25,000 to the Government. Or our jails could swell with an influx of these offenders.
So even while students in college, or searching for a job in a difficult or bad economy, one of the driving forces of our economy would be placed under extreme pressures. Which says nothing of the burden they will be experiencing at the same time as Social Security fall into deficit and/or bankruptcy, Medicare costs continue to rocket upwards, and the national debt impacts their lives (which will be almost exponentially higher according to President Obama’s own figures).
This is the nature of the health care proposals that the Democrat leadership in Washington D.C. has sworn and threatened to pass. Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have continuously stated that they will pass legislation on health care no matter the opposition from Democrats or Republicans, not to mention American citizens that overwhelmingly oppose the legislation. Pelosi and Reid, among other top Democrats, are constant in their attempts to discredit anyone that opposes their plans for health care.
So I again ask you my readers, why would you want to re-elect politicians that do not share your views. That are unwilling to compromise or adjust their proposals. That discount any concern or question posed to them. That even unwilling to answer direct questions about health care, even to the point of avoiding the public itself.
Are these politicians really the best choice for America? Are people like Senator Schumer, Senator Gillibrand, Rep. Hinchey (all in favor of Health Care Reform proposals currently in debate, all unwilling to discuss the issues with the public, all refusing to answer questions mailed and emailed to them, and several willing to support groups like ACORN while various Agencies of the Government cut ties with that same organization) really worthy of re-election in 2010?
I’d suggest considering it now, because if they are re-elected and the Health Care Reform Bills are passed in present form, you won’t be able to do anything about it in a jail cell or as you have to sell your house to pay the Government penalty.
‘DwightVanDryver’ reads this article in the UK Guardian, which claims “Dust storms like the one that plagued Sydney are blowing bacteria to all corners of the globe, with viruses that will attack the human body” and snaps :
I get up in the morning and turn on the PC to see what’s happening in the world. Do I worry about my carbon footprint? Do I f***! When I turn to the Guardian, I am confronted by at least one article trying to indoctrinate me into a guilt trip about how I am destroying the planet. Like the telly, I could switch off, so I don’t have to read this stuff; but like the telly if you don’t watch the news, you don’t know what the buggers will be doing next.
What will they be doing next? Well, it looks like the French are going to be soaked with green taxes if Sarkozy gets his way. The Europeans are going to call for draconian cuts in emissions – already overtures have been made at the G20. Copenhagen? Another jolly for the converted, the results of which are going to hit me in my pocket, whether I like it or not.
I am here on this planet by pure chance. The human species may not have evolved had the dinosaurs not snuffed it. It is only by accident that I happened to be born in a developed nation. I could have been one of the unfortunates in a third world country. If I were, what would I think about all of this green shit? There I am, nearly starving with all sorts of parasites worming their way around my gut, and some twat from the IPCC is telling me that I can’t burn anything to heat the few morsels of food that I do have. This affluent guy tells my country that it cannot dig up its own coal and use it in a power station so that I can have a light on at night. Instead, he wants us to import a lot of expensive kit produced by his countries that we can’t afford in order for us to be “responsible” by showing that we care. Nobody has cared about me, or my country. It would be different if we had oil or rare minerals, such as uranium ore. But we don’t, and the world doesn’t give a stuff. This generous world would prefer that we don’t procreate and that we die young, so there would be more for them. As I see it, the West has invented this green shit to keep me in poverty.
Fortunately, by the merest accident, I’m not in this predicament.
Even so, I know that the brainwashing will continue relentlessly, that industries must close and jobs lost for the sake of planet. My standard of living will fall, but not for the high priests of the green revolution. Oh no, the likes of Al Gore will make a fortune out of carbon trading and I shall have to pay for it. I shall have to abide by EU rules and regulations or the government will impose a fine on me. For politicians and the state, the green shit is the best thing since sliced bread. It allows them to control me, to get me used to being controlled, to get me to conform and turn me into a malleable plastic man. My spirit and my individuality will be sucked out of my brain cells and I shall become an automaton: a slave to the state.
Visit 1800blogger to see all of our industry leading blogs.
Dozens of images created, in only six minutes, echoing classic art, telling stories of Ukranian history, bringing tears to the eyes of those watching, the oldest art form, drawing in sand with fingers and hands :
Visit 1800blogger to see all of our industry leading blogs.
Raw Story confirms the below extraordinary video of government agents in military camos snatch and grabbing a protester at the G20 demonstrations in Pittsburgh, is real :
Acoustic weapons, military weapons, were also deployed against civilians in Pittsburgh :
There can be no more debate, America as we knew it is officially dead and buried. The U.S. is more of a police state than Communist China. The only free speech that still exists is on the Internet, in the form of You Tube videos that remind us of what we already knew – the whole country has been hijacked and looted by a criminal gang of globalists who are using their cadre of enforcer thugs to crush any form of opposition to their agenda.
Our only hope is that when the world witnesses scenes like this, it will act as a wake-up call and prevent the planet from sliding once again into tyranny.
The assumption here, perhaps wrong, is that governments of US allies, like the UK, Australia, Canada, are opposed to citizens being treated this way. That they will see this happening today in the United States and react with outrage. But how can they, when such weapons, such police tactics, have already been deployed and used in their own countries?
Here’s how the Drudge Report, who seems hell-bent to spark anti-government clashes, or an uprising, covered the incidents, claiming the abduction of the protester was undertaken by the military :
Pittsburgh police now deny the men in camoflauge were military. But their explanation will likely spark even more outrage. Not military, but military members? :
“Military members supporting the G20 Summit work with local law enforcement authorities but do not have the authority to make arrests. The individuals involved in the 9/24/09 arrest which has appeared online are law enforcement officers from a multi-agency tactical response team assigned to the security operations for the G20. It is not unusual for tactical team members to wear camouflaged fatigues. The type of fatigues the officers wear designates their unit affiliation.
“Prior to the arrest, the officers observed this subject vandalizing a local business. Due to the hostile nature of the crowd, officer safety and the safety of the person under arrest, the subject was immediately removed from the area.”
There is a lot of speculation online that the abductee might be an agent provocateur, who was sent in to the protests to smash windows and give police a reason to strike back against the protesters, who mostly appear to be students milling around, videoing each other. It wouldn’t be the first time a provocateur has been deployed into a peaceful rally for this reason, and then pulled out by police when his mission is completed.
I’ll keep the birthday postings to a minimum, but it’s hard to go past paying a birthday tribute to the brilliant animator Chuck Jones, not in words, but through his own art. For those under 20 who may never have encountered the art of Chuck Jones, this is one of his most accomplished, hilarious and demented works – Daffy Duck in the 1953 short Duck Amuck.
Visit 1800blogger to see all of our industry leading blogs.
A compilation of David Fincher (Benjamin Button, Fight Club) directed ads for AT&T, from 1993, on future tech. Remarkably accurate, considering much of what is depicted has only become commonplace in the past couple of years.
Visit 1800blogger to see all of our industry leading blogs.
Today is HG Wells’ birthday. More than 110 years ago, while still in his 20s, Wells wrote still famous and very readable books about planetary invasion by extraterrestrials (The War Of The Worlds), time travel (The Time Machine) and human cloning and genetic engineering (The Island Of Dr Moreau).
Google pays homage :
Almost everything HG Wells wrote during his extremely prolific lifetime is now available to read online for free. As it should be. While Wells is mostly know today for his science fiction (or as it was wonderfully known in his day, ’scientific romance’), he was also an extremely important essayist, and polemicist, and a remarkable historian.
The world before 1900 seemed to be drifting steadily towards a tacit but practical unification. One could travel without a passport over the larger part of Europe; the Postal Union delivered one’s letters uncensored and safely from Chile to China; money, based essentially on gold, fluctuated only very slightly; and the sprawling British Empire still maintained a tradition of free trade, equal treatment and open-handedness to all comers round and about the planet. In the United States you could go for days and never see a military uniform. Compared with to-day that was, upon the surface at any rate, an age of easy-going safety and good humour. Particularly for the North Americans and the Europeans.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
…the minds of our comfortable and influential ruling-class people refuse to accept the plain intimation that their time is over, that the Balance of Power and uncontrolled business methods cannot continue….
…..we are living in the end of a definite period of history, the period of the sovereign states. As we used to say in the eighties with ever-increasing truth: “We are in an age of transition”. Now we get some measure of the acuteness of the transition. It is a phase of human life which may lead, as I am trying to show, either to a new way of living for our species or else to a longer or briefer dégringolade of violence, misery, destruction, death and the extinction of mankind.
These are not rhetorical phrases I am using here; I mean exactly what I say, the disastrous extinction of mankind. That is the issue before us.
As I write, in the moment, thousands of people are being killed, wounded, hunted, tormented, ill-treated, delivered up to the most intolerable and hopeless anxiety and destroyed morally and mentally, and there is nothing in sight at present to arrest this spreading process and prevent its reaching you and yours. It is coming for you and yours now at a great pace.
Plainly in so far as we are rational foreseeing creatures there is nothing for any of us now but to make this world peace problem the ruling interest and direction of our lives. If we run away from it it will pursue and get us. We have to face it. We have to solve it or be destroyed by it.
Carl Sagan : “I think the essence of the scientific method is the willingness to admit your wrong, the willingness to abandon ideas that don’t work. And the essence of religion is not to change anything. the supposed truths are handed down by some revered figure, and then no-one is supposed to make any progress beyond that, because all the truth is thought to be in hand.
“My sense is that the scientific way of thinking, questioning, some delicate mix of creative encouragement of new ideas, and the most rigorous and sceptical scrutiny of new and old ideas, I think that is the path to the future, not just for science but for all human institutions.
“We have to be willing to challenge, because we are in desperate need of change.”
Visit 1800blogger to see all of our industry leading blogs.
Well in a mere 36 days since I first contacted Senator Gillibrand, I have now received a response. I suppose that can be called a quick turnaround by the standards of Congress these days. In fact most people I know, or have commented on this and other blogs I write for, didn’t think I would get a response at all.
But considering the fact that Senator Schumer responded relatively quickly, the time it took Sen. Gillibrand looks really bad. Still better than Representative Hinchey – who has yet to make any response, like the White House – but bad all the same. Of course the response I have gotten is a form letter.
Like Senator Schumer, Sen. Gillibrand has chosen to give a boiler plate response. Of the 22 questions I asked on August 11th, not one was answered. Not even the most simple and important question – Have you read the Health Care Reform proposal? Maybe my question was too difficult to understand.
Most of the response by Sen. Gillibrand is a restatement of the issue at hand. Which I obviously understand if reading my letter was ever attempted. Even at a glance.
But to be specific, Sen. Gillibrand raises questions for me, not answers them. Which is sad if, as Sen. Gillibrand says,
“I appreciate your point of view and share many of your concerns.”
In the first paragraph of her response she states that Medicare will be strengthened. Though it is factual that Congress and the White House have stated that the only way the Health Care Reform can work as currently proposed is if Medicare, and Medicaid, have massive cuts. In the range of $500 billion, which is still not enough to pay for the Reform.
Of course the reminder by Sen. Gillibrand that the health care system is broken was important. It is the single point that everyone can agree upon.
which is a false number. It can only be reached by including 12 million illegal aliens and 5 – 7 million Americans that CHOOSE not to have health care insurance. That’s not my numbers, its from the White House. Ask them.
But as she closes the second paragraph I again agree that Congress must act. But action does not mean chaos, or failure to be responsible. A quick, rammed through Reform that creates bigger problems than it solves is not the action we need. Creating a program that is as good as the Post Office, as President Obama has compared, or based in a similar manner to Medicare – which is bloated and part of the problem with health care – is not good enough. Bankrupting (more than has been done with the ineffective and wasteful Obama Stimulus) current and future generations of America is unacceptable.
Sen. Gillibrand then goes on to discuss, generally, the quality of care and affordability of any future reform. To which she promotes the public option. Which across America is despised and unwanted by the majority of Americans (outside of the Democrat-led Congress) according to EVERY poll since before I wrote my initial letter. It is an option that 1) requires acceptance lest anyone not taking it would pay 2.5% of their taxes as a penalty. 2) It CANNOT prevent, and likely assures, that any employer would drop any current health care plan and force employees to adopt the Government plan – even if it is inferior to the plan they currently have.
In addition questions of delays in receiving health care, reductions in quality of care, and inevitable annual increases of cost on the national budget (according to the CBO) are raised by the public option. Questions that I asked Sen. Gillibrand, which she chose to ignore.
She continues to state
“I am committed to addressing this important issue and will work with my Senate colleagues on bipartisan solution.”
Which is really the funniest part of this form letter. Because it is a fact (as found at Politifact) that all the Heath Care Reforms proposed and being debated (except for the Bachaus Bill created yesterday) are completely devoid of ideas or options presented by Republicans. So if you call Republicans trying to remove loopholes and interject proposals that actually make sense, and yet get shut out of the Bills, “bipartisan” I suppose she is working. If you call Senate Majority leader Harry Reid and Speaker Nancy Pelosi threatening to pass the Health Care Reform without any Republican support – or even several Democrats under a ‘nuclear option’ (requires 51 votes in Senate) – ‘bipartisan’ I suppose you also count to five with all yur toes and fingers.
The letter closes with Senator Kristen Gillibrand stating she hopes I will stay in touch. Which I already have. But considering how far behind she is in (not)responding to what I have to say, I expect an answer by December.
Let me ask you, my readers, is this the kind of Senator you want in the Senate? Is this a fair representation of the concerns and issues that constituents have? Is this the kind of person you want to re-elect in the 2010 mid-term elections?
I asked 22 questions, that I have read, been told, and pondered on the Health Care Reform. Between responses from both Senators for New York, no comment yet from 1 Representative (Hinchey), and the White House I am left with even more questions than what I started with.
Yet, mark my words – as I know you always do and I am greatful for – each of the elected officials I have written to will flood the airwaves with political ads insiting that New Yorkers re-elect them. Somehow I see less reason to do that today, than I did 36 days ago.
…(this shows) the electron density around one nucleus. Behold the s and p orbitals. Generations of students have learned these as abstractions, diagrams on a page. I never thought I’d see them, and I never thought I’d see the day when when it was even possible.
So now it becomes a bit more clear. The connection between Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and ACORN.
As I have stated before Sen. Gillibrand was one of 7 Senators that voted to have ACORN keep it’s funding from the Government. At the time I was at a loss for why this might be the case. Especially in light of the multiple videos highlighting ACORN employees, across the nation, engaging in acts to defraud the Government and abuse taxpayer money.
Then I received an email from a reader in New York State. They refered me to a link at The Albany Project. Which I set about verifying. And then I found the confirmation from the New York Daily News – June 16, 2009.
Senator Gillibrand got votes promised from ACORN. And likely Working Families Party, which the head of ACORN also is tied to.
Just from my own speculation I believe that this endorsement also carries more than a bit of cash as well. Though not enough to be the top 5 contributors to Senator Gillibrand.
To be fair, ACORN does not show in the top 100 contributors to Senator Gillibrand. ActBlue, Goldman Sachs, the Teamsters Union, Citigroup, Cablevision, Morgan Stanley and Pfizer all do, but not ACORN. At least not directly.
Still, an endorsement form an organization known to (allegedly) commit voter fraud on behalf of Democrat candidates is worth it’s own weight in gold to a junior Senator that was never elected to the position and wants to be re-elected. At least I would believe so.
Perhaps it is this recent and critical (according to the New York Daily News) endorsement that motivated Sen. Gillibrand to be among the very few Democrats in the nation that voted to continue to fund this organization with taxpayer money.
If I am wrong, I welcome Senator Gillibrand to respond to this post. Or she can contact me directly and I will provide that conversation to you my readers verbatim. Or I am always willing to interview Senator Gillibrand in person on video.
All just a bit of information that I suggest voters in New York State consider while Senator Gillibrand floods the airwaves with political ads celebrating how great she has been for New York State and why we should re-elect her.
The following is a verbatim copy of a email letter sent to Senator Kirsten Gillibrand at 7:41am today. Feel free to copy and paste this letter to the Senator as well.
Senator Gillibrand,
I am a 41 year old, New York State resident, American citizen, professional blogger, small business owner and member of the press.
I have been following coverage of the investigative reporting on ACORN that has been released during the last week. I have followed the responses of ACORN to these videos. I have read about the accusations of lawsuits by ACORN, and the potential charges being brought against the individuals that have highlighted the corruption of various ACORN offices.
I have a question for you.
Please explain to me, as a constituent and tax paying business owner of New York State, why you were among the 7 Senators that voted to continue to give the tax dollars of myself and other New York residents to ACORN?
I believe that I have a right to this answer. Because if even 1/10 of the problems and crimes highlighted in this video are accurate, and they have been noted to occur in our State, then I do not wish this organization to receive any of my tax dollars. Nor do I believe the majority – if not all – New York Residents would wish this either.
In 2010 you will be seeking re-election. I am aware of the fact that you support HR 3200, but did not conduct any town hall meetings to discuss this controversial topic. Nor did you respond in any manner to a letter and email sent previously to you about this issue. I am aware that you have received an endorsement from ACORN this June.
If I am to vote for your re-election, I believe that the very least you can do is to explain your vote for ACORN. As one of the 2 Senators of the State of New York whose responsibility is to represent me and others in this State, I believe this is a duty you have.
Thus if you have made a statement explaining your actions, please make me aware of it. If you prefer, as I would, a direct response you can reach me at info@vassconsult.com or 718-344-6921. I am also willing to meet with you for an interview on this subject that I can present to my readers in New York as well as the 125 countries around the globe that read my writing every month.
Sincerely,
Michael Vass
President – M V Consulting, Inc.
718-344-6921
info@vassconsult.com
That is the question being asked by politicians across the nation right now. And this question is being promoted by the major media, rather than addressing questions about the Obama Administration or any organization that even tangially is connected to it.
Democrats want to know the answer to this because they want to pass the health care reform that every poll in America has shown for over a month is hated by the majority regardless of political affiliation.
Add to that the recent and continuing embarrassment of ACORN, a major liberal supporting organization, and you have the perfect time to obscure anything that could catch the average Americans attention.
Republicans want to know the answer to the question in an effort to block the Health Care Reform, prevent the Cap & Trade, highlight ACORN, and retake the Congress in the 2010 mid-term elections.
This is high stakes politics. And it all comes down to joe average.
Depending where you stand, politicians are preparing to mount an onslaught of political ads favoring one of the 2 positions above. Democrats hold the edge on this, in that President Obama is still obscenely loved by the media. Thus anything he proposes is covered positively, and any potential negative is avoided like the plague.
Anyone that might doubt this has only to watch CBS, NBC, MSNBC, and/or CNN and look for news about the major news of ACORN. If you only watch those news media, then you likely have no idea what I am talking about. Thus is the power of the Obama Administration.
Republicans are determined to highlight the current ACORN news, and address the publics discontent over health care reform. This and the complete failure of the Obama Stimulus are their only way back into a controlling position in Congress – or at least one house of it.
Honestly I don’t think that my readers are stupid. I think you are informed. But it is the mass of people that don’t follow politics that are the question. They are uninformed about what is happening, and the 30 second soundbites that most politics are based on these days is so biased to be insane.
Yet, it will only get worse as we enter the 2010 mid-term election cycle. The news media has a vested interest in supporting President Obama. The Republicans have a vested interest in breaking that connection. And average joe is lost in the middle wondering if anyone in politics is even remotely honest enough to vote for.
I won’t try to answer that question for anyone. While I lean far more conservative and Republican, they are far from perfect. But considering that I follow politics daily, I am more comfortable with their views than what the Obama Administration is doing or proposes to do.
The thing that both parties fear is what I will advise. Ask questions. Why are they doing what they are. What is the most likely outcome of their actions. How will this affect the future generations of this nation. And most importantly, what are the details.
That is the answer to the abovementioned question. Are Americans willing to ask for the details and make a decision based on just that?
If you are, then America will improve – regardless of an individual political preference. If not, guarantee the demise of the nation under either party.
So as we enter the 2010 mid-term elections, do not hold a false feeling of superiority or smugness of right. Neither party is on a path that is without fault or failure. But without asking for the details, both are assured to succeed in creating an America that anyone over the age of 21 has never seen before.
It’s remarkable how small they managed to make the September 12, 2009 protests in Washington DC look on the evening news in Australia. The crowd was described as “in the thousands”, while the footage shown of those gathered on lawns around the Capitol was shot from about grass height, giving the impression of maybe a few hundred only gathered there :
An interesting amount of activity on the rooftop to the left.
Visit 1800blogger to see all of our industry leading blogs.
Disclaimer:
All American Blog is owned by 1800blogger which is a (for) profit organization. We are not a charity. If you send any money through this button, please understand that the money is being used for working capital for All American Blog and 1800blogger. Please check with your accountant to see if this is a tax-deductible contribution.
