Archive for the ‘internet/free speech’ Category

Today on the Morning Meeting MSNBC continued to attempt to discredit Sarah Palin’s victory by claiming that she was “for death panels” before she was against them due to the Healthcare Decision Day. As you might guess the White House, msm and Lefty blogs are all over this like ants at a picnic, one example…

In olden times, Palin might have made this claim at a speech or during a news conference where reporters might have asked questions like: “What proof do you have?” or “Aren’t you just trying to scare people?”

But Palin does not risk that. She takes no questions. She has done her duty as a rabid responder. She has rung the tocsin, sounded the alarm, lit the signal fire.

Truth? Accuracy? Responsibility?

Not her territory.

…or perhaps like ants taking poison back to the nest because their charge ensures that her latest highly footnoted (Politico’s Roger Simon who owns the quote above must have missed those links) response will get a ton of attention:

I join millions of Americans in expressing appreciation for the Senate Finance Committee’s decision to remove the provision in the pending health care bill that authorizes end-of-life consultations (Section 1233 of HR 3200). It’s gratifying that the voice of the people is getting through to Congress; however, that provision was not the only disturbing detail in this legislation; it was just one of the more obvious ones.

and that doesn’t even cover her actual response deep in the post

“Ideally, the delicate decisions about how to manage life’s end would be made in a setting that is neutral in both appearance and fact. Yes, it’s good to have a doctor’s perspective. But Section 1233 goes beyond facilitating doctor input to preferring it. Indeed, the measure would have an interested party — the government — recruit doctors to sell the elderly on living wills, hospice care and their associated providers, professions and organizations. You don’t have to be a right-wing wacko to question that approach.” [5]

I agree. Last year, I issued a proclamation for “Healthcare Decisions Day.” [6] The proclamation sought to increase the public’s knowledge about creating living wills and establishing powers of attorney. There was no incentive to choose one option over another. There was certainly no financial incentive for physicians to push anything. In fact, the proclamation explicitly called on medical professionals and lawyers “to volunteer their time and efforts” to provide information to the public.

Comparing the “Healthcare Decisions Day” proclamation to Section 1233 of HR 3200 is ridiculous. The two are like apples and oranges. The attempt to link the two shows how desperate the proponents of nationalized health care are to shift the debate away from the disturbing details of their bill.

This woman is leading them by the nose. If I’m the Dems I’m almost as afraid as the Romney 2012 campaign. Every time she hits the dems on government healthcare she grazes Mitt.

Update: Oh and those olden times Roger, were they back when the media was covering John Edwards ass?

Update 2:
Hey maybe this is Mitt’s counterpunch. Oldest trick in the book.

Update 3:
How popular is Palin, based on today’s post stats she is more than 50 times more popular than porn.

Update 4: SISU nails it.

And her masterful playing of the national spin machine — check out her FaceBook answer to the president’s dissing of her “Death Panels” meme — continues to leave the spinmeisters reeling. As Judge Napolitano just told Bret Baier, all Sarah has to remember is that freedom rang “200 years ago because people like her were not afraid to challenge authority.”

Yup.

Turned on Morning Joe for a moment this morning after mass and there was Gail Collins, Joe et/al hitting Sarah Palin again over “death panels” like the rest of the media.

No mention of the section of the bill Update: Pat just mentioned it in question or of Charles Lane or even Eugene Robinson (a regular guest) who agrees with their assessment of Palin but is suspicious of the section of the bill.

Sarah Palin not only responds but includes footnotes to those things.

The provision that President Obama refers to is Section 1233 of HR 3200, entitled “Advance Care Planning Consultation.” [2] With all due respect, it’s misleading for the President to describe this section as an entirely voluntary provision that simply increases the information offered to Medicare recipients. The issue is the context in which that information is provided and the coercive effect these consultations will have in that context.

Section 1233 authorizes advanced care planning consultations for senior citizens on Medicare every five years, and more often “if there is a significant change in the health condition of the individual … or upon admission to a skilled nursing facility, a long-term care facility… or a hospice program.” [3] During those consultations, practitioners must explain “the continuum of end-of-life services and supports available, including palliative care and hospice,” and the government benefits available to pay for such services. [4]

Now put this in context. These consultations are authorized whenever a Medicare recipient’s health changes significantly or when they enter a nursing home, and they are part of a bill whose stated purpose is “to reduce the growth in health care spending.” [5] Is it any wonder that senior citizens might view such consultations as attempts to convince them to help reduce health care costs by accepting minimal end-of-life care? As Charles Lane notes in the Washington Post, Section 1233 “addresses compassionate goals in disconcerting proximity to fiscal ones…. If it’s all about alleviating suffering, emotional or physical, what’s it doing in a measure to “bend the curve” on health-care costs?”

And she doesn’t even use Just one Minute post that quotes president Obama or Kausfiles.

I think Palin laid a trap here. She used the word death panels knowing the response it would get to bait the media, they responded as expect and now she can counterpunch with the actual bill, talking policy and draw attention to a bad bill.

By being out front on her opposition she when this bill fails she will be one of the political winners. Those town hall attendees are an instant base and even if some bill passes if the provisions of section 1223 are pulled or modified she can claim victory again.

Oh and Harold Ford blamed Republicans for that section just as I started typing this. Shrum is saying it too. When the topic goes from: “This is a lie” to “It was the republicans idea.” then the game is nearly done.

Update: Scarborough says Rush Palin et/al hurt republicans by speaking out. Can someone PLEASE compare the generic ballot from before they spoke out and afterward and get him a copy.

Update 2: Would it shock you to know that the Hemlock Society (now called Compassion & Choices) claims to have had a hand in writing this section? It doesn’t shock me.

Update 3: Can someone please give Joe a link to this post.

Update 4: Doug Brady gets it.

Update 5: Well that’s out of the Bill. Victory lap for Sarah Palin, not bad for “an irrelevant quitter“, Exit question for Joe and Mika: Would this have been removed from the bill if Palin & Rush had never brought it up?

Update 6: Kos is not amused.

…not to mention webcache.  But you would never know if from the way advocates for Obamacare™ act.

They beat people in front of camera.

Their advocates deny words that were recorded on tape.

They use campain workers families as props

And they put plants in audiances that we’ve seen before.

If you want to know why big media is dying it’s because they ignore this and blogs and conservative writers don’t.

My pre-release review through the Amazon Vine program of Carlotta Walls LaNier’s Biography A Mighty long Way: My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School is available at Amazon.com here.

I think the strength of the book is as a general biography rather than simply a story of one of the key events of the civil rights era. I think it also explains the suspicion that many in the black community sometimes still have even decades after the actions of the 1950 & 60’s are anathema to nearly all. After all this is still in living memory.

What strikes me is the importance of the family structure in her coping with events that she as a young teen didn’t see coming. It is the collapse of that structure in the black community that given her sacrifice is simply criminal.

The book is due out in two weeks, it’s well worth a pre-order.