Posts Tagged ‘obamacare’

I must have taken a stupid pill a few days ago…

Posted: May 29, 2010 by datechguy in opinion/news, personal
Tags: , , , , , ,

…because it only just hit me after a good nights sleep why I got that reaction a few days ago when the tea party came up: They believe the vile calumny that they have been told from the day of the passage of the health care bill.

When I offered a reward of $100,000 to be donated to the United Negro College Fund if anyone produced video and audio evidence that this occurred, I was accused of a publicity stunt (because everyone knows that the best way to get publicity in America is to accuse a civil rights icon of lying about racism). Rep. Carson himself suggested that my challenge was “a veiled attempt to justify actions that are simply unjustifiable.” Get it? He calls protesters racist and if you ask him to prove it, you’re a racist, too.

Needless to say, no one has claimed the $100,000.

As you can see Andrew Breitbart has provided 100,000 reasons why it is false, but to those reading from Georgia I want to put it this way. Today cameras are everywhere, if a person spills coffee on himself in Germany it can be on youtube within seconds.

Ask yourself honestly, if a crowd of congressmen and women made a public walk with cameras and recording devices everywhere don’t you think at least ONE of them would have picked up the sound of people shouting racial epithets? And don’t you think that the media would have LOVED to provide that tape? Mr. Breitbart again:

But, I have taken my search one step further. I’ve asked some of the contributors to Big Government to also actively search for video. We have spent the last three weeks searching for any evidence that might support the allegations, without any help from the accusers. The primary accuser, Congressman Carson, who audaciously claimed the crowd screamed the “N-word fifteen times,” would not return our call. So we have gone part way to try and piece together the events of March 20.

Not only is the audio devoid of any racial slur, but the scene at Cannon clearly shows the congressmen coming down the steps completely unobstructed, and with a clear path to the Capitol. And, when we juxtapose the audio accusation Rep.Carson made moments after the alleged event occurred with actual video footage of the moment Rep. Carson claims he first heard the racial slur, it is as plain as day that Congressman Carson was not isolated by a mob and facing a racist throng that could conceivably hurl rocks at him.

I understand the need to protect and defend people you respect and to take them at their word but consider this:

I was held in contempt and found “guilty” of racism because a group of ladies choose to believe that comfortable lie, perhaps they had heard the other side, perhaps not. It is not to the same degree but isn’t that the same thing that a segregated jury might have done say 60 years ago disbelieving a whole group of people for the sake the reputation of people they liked?

If you wonder why the media is held it contempt by many bloggers that is why. Larry O’Connor put it best:

Just yesterday, the AP referred to Ft. Hood terrorist Malik Nadal Hasan as a “suspect.” Apparently, Hasan is afforded the right to be innocent until proven guilty, but tea party protestors are not.

All of this is old news to anyone who reads a blog, but it wasn’t old news for me this week.

Lessons/Differences from Pa-12 and Mass Senate

Posted: May 19, 2010 by datechguy in elections, opinion/news
Tags: , , , , , ,

Chuck Todd, politico and the DCCC continue to spin this election bigtime. However if you look at the factors deep within this race you see that this race was not the Scott Brown race, in fact it was a race that would be tough for a republican. Lets look at the facts:

1. Statewide race vs District race:

On a Statewide level the dynamic is different than on a local level, individual pork projects for example in Boston won’t impress a person in Worcester or the Berkshires, but in a single district pork is much more noticeable. Whatever else you might say about John Murtha he was an incredible “provider” in his district and congressman Critz was worked for him for years. Kennedy’s impact was much less concentrated.

2. Primary Opponents:

What many people may not be aware of is that the democrat and republican primaries for congress were held at the same time as the special election. While economically it was a good move for the county it meant that both Critz and Burns had to win a primary election as well.

Critz took 72% of his primary vote Burns only took 53% With nearly 40k more votes to grab from Critz has a larger margin for error/anger than Burns. That suggests that Burns was not as popular within his own base. Bad sign for Republicans in the fall: Democrat primary 82,000 votes, Republican primary 45,000. In Massachusetts the primary took place weeks before. Brown’s opponent was easily beaten, Coakley won but her opponents supporters were not enthusiastic about her.

3. Other Ballot races.

One of the things often overlooked in Scott Brown’s victory is the fact that due to democrats being too smart for their own good the race was scheduled as a special election. This meant that it was the ONLY race on the ballot everywhere. In a state where democrats have a huge registration advantage in registration there were no races down the ticket to draw democrats to vote. In Pa of course you had a critical primary on the democratic side that drew national attention between Specter and Sestak that drew over 1,000,000 votes statewide.

Consider in 2008 there were 260k votes cast in pa-12 for congress, in 2006 200k. Yesterday there were less than 135k.

4. Registration/party loyalty::

In Massachusetts the majority of voters are NOT democrats. They are unenrolled 51%. That make a huge difference. Scott Brown had an independent base of voters to draw from. In Pa that is not the case. Lets look at the votes totals from 2006 & 2008 again. In 2006 Murtha took 123,000 votes. In 2008 he took 155k votes On the republican side in 2006 Irey took 79k votes, in 2008 Russell (Burns primary opponent) took 113k votes. Critz had a huge number of votes to draw from.

Yesterday Burns took 59k votes. In other words he drew 75% of Irey’s 2006 vote and just over 53% of Russell’s 2008 votes. Critz drew 65% of Murtha’s vote in 2006 and 52% of Murtha’s 2008 vote. In other words Critz drew 10% less than Burns did among his “base” voters from the last midterm and STILL won by over 12,000 votes. Or to put it another way. In order to defeat Burns Critz needed to draw only 49% of Murtha’s 2006 totals or 39% of Murtha’s 2008 totals. Think about that a second. Critz could afford to have over 60% of his base stay home and would have still won!

On a percentage basis Burns outperformed his republican predecessors by 5 and 2 points respectively Critz underperformed by 7 and 4 points. and STILL won by 9 points. Or to put it another way percentage-wise Burns needed to outperform his republican predecessors by 25 & 20% respectively to get to 50% of the vote. This proves that Ali Akbar like Tip knows how to count.

5. Barack Obama:

Scott Brown ran against Barack Obama and his healthcare plan.. Martha Coakley embraced him and the healthcare plan. President Obama campaigned for Coakley in Boston. Mark Critz ran AWAY from the president, saying (now that there is no vote to cast) that he OPPOSED the healthcare plan. He distanced himself from the president and that distance paid dividends. As Steve Maloney put it:

Admittedly, Critz is a good liar. He proclaimed that he was “pro-life” and “would have voted against the health care bill” (that Murtha voted for). He was “against the Medicare cuts” in the health bill. These comments were all incredible, but he said them with a straight face. Pelosi, whom Critz will worship as he once did “Mr. Murtha,” will tell Critz what to do, and he’ll salute and stand at attention.

There WERE incredible but they were made and the people in the district believed him. If he ran as himself it might have been a very different story.

6. No Sicilian in a Fedora:

Finally the most decisive factor. As Roxeanne De Luca clearly pointed out. “‘Every Campaign Needs to Have a Sicilian Guy in a Fedora” Scott Brown had one. Tim Burns did not. Nuff said.

Update: Ruby Slippers has more

Update 2: As does conservatives 4 Palin

Update 3: Robert Stacy who has spent more time than anyone else there puts in his two cents.

You mean business might not keep health care? No!

Posted: May 6, 2010 by datechguy in opinion/news
Tags: , , , , ,

Here is what appeared on this blog March 24th:

Remember it is a lot cheaper to pay the fine than to actually cover the employee, so who is going to have to pay that cost? Back to Dennis:

Next year you’re going to have to purchase the insurance yourself or pay a large fine and face the possibility of prosecution and imprisonment.

So the end result thousands of dollars spent by people on health insurance that will not be spent on other things, like vacations, or restaurants, or that x-box 360 or COLLEGE or the MORTGAGE.

Well look at what it at Hotair today:

It’s not just the calculus of mandates and penalties that has employers considering the option of dumping health care and paying more in salaries instead. The mandate to keep “children” on plans until the age of 26 has employers seeing a steep cost curve. For Caterpillar alone, the 26-year-old mandate will cost over $20 million a year. Under those conditions, the penalties look pretty good. Add on the “Cadillac tax” on some health plans and the expected jump in medical costs from providers dealing with their own set of mandates, and health insurance looks like a very bad risk.</blockquote

They link to this story that says:

Internal documents recently reviewed by Fortune, originally requested by Congress, show what the bill’s critics predicted, and what its champions dreaded: many large companies are examining a course that was heretofore unthinkable, dumping the health care coverage they provide to their workers in exchange for paying penalty fees to the government.

And if that doesn’t do it check this article:

Section 9006 of the health care bill — just a few lines buried in the 2,409-page document — mandates that beginning in 2012 all companies will have to issue 1099 tax forms not just to contract workers but to any individual or corporation from which they buy more than $600 in goods or services in a tax year.

The stealth change radically alters the nature of 1099s and means businesses will have to issue millions of new tax documents each year.

This is a business killer, a large corporation has the staff already doing this kind of thing but smaller business will be paying the price helping to drive them away. I thought the democrats were against large corporations? Amazing how CNN never figured this out before the vote huh?

Remember America, we (collectively) elected these clowns. You wanted Barack Obama and the democrats you’ve got them. Enjoy!

Stupak Retires and somehow Morning Joe decides it’s because people are mean

Posted: April 9, 2010 by datechguy in catholic, opinion/news
Tags: , , , ,

The fact that he totally betrayed his principles and his supporters have very little to do with it of course.

So instead of a phony pro life democrat we will be facing an actual pro abortion democrat in the fall. I’d rather face an honest foe than a phony friend.

Good riddance.

Update: What do you think the job payoff will be for him? I’ll wager Catholics United or some other pseudo Catholic group will put him on the payroll.

Update 2: I’ve always maintained the right thing is usually the smart thing, too bad Bart didn’t figure that out, we will have to pray for him of course.

Update 3: It has hit Memeorandum where Moe Lane agrees with me:

So… Stupak betrays the pro-life movement and his district, then quits rather than face the wrath of either. And don’t weep for him: he’ll segue right into the comfortable life of a DC lobbyist, which means that he’ll probably get a pay raise and will certainly enjoy the remainder of his term, free from the nagging terror beginning to fill the lives of his Democratic colleagues. Because you cannot trust a ‘conservative’ Democrat.

And his point about putting up a fight is well taken.

Update 4: Glenn asks the payoff question too, and Michael Graham’s line is so classic that I can’t make you wait to click the link:

“The Tea Party is the most pro-family org. ever! Everywhere they go, Dems decide to ’spend more time with family.’”

And of course he comments at his own site:

As I wrote in the Boston Herald today, the Left can keep insulting the 48 percent of the American people who think they have more in common with the Tea Party movement that the policies of Barack Obama. But eventually they’ll find themselves like Stupak, et. al.

“Spending more time with their families.”

Maybe more time in church and receiving the various sacraments would be good too.

Update 5: Captain Ed opines:

They fear losing the seat because of Stupak’s high-profile betrayal of his allies in the pro-life movement. If Democrats were really concerned about Stupak keeping his seat, they would have insisted on restoring Stupak’s language in the final reconciliation bill on banning federal funding for abortion. Instead, they gave Stupak a meaningless executive order to cover his (back)tracks — and it didn’t work.

This wasn’t fear, this was acceptable losses for them.

Update 6: The Lonely Conservative mentions it and Stacy has this to say

Stupak apparently figured out something that a lot of other people are going to figure out soon enough: The Blue Dogs will be an endangered species this fall.

Hey squishy republicans, that’s why you fight!

Meanwhile Michelle notes the following:
Yesterday, Stupak was still insisting he’d run again.

Today? Looks like the winds of change have prevailed. Politico reports the pro-life sellout isn’t going to wait for voters to retire him. His press conference is scheduled for 12:30pm Eastern. Stupid votes himself out

I guess saying one thing and doing another is habit forming.
Don Surber who I have linked to much less than I should be lately says:

This is how a representative democracy works: When a representative stops representing the people and instead represents the special interests in Washington, the people should dump him.

And that is what is happening in Michigan, where Democratic Congressman Bart Stupak will retire to a six-figure pension, floor privileges that ordinary lobbyists don’t enjoy, and a campaign war chest he can pretty much spend as he likes.

Update 7: Ruby Slippers notes a change in the narrative :

MSNBC’s Chuck Todd reported Democrats considered this a positive as they had anticipated losing 3 or 4 over the break to retirement. My head is still spinning from that one. I thought health care was going to save them after it passed, why would anyone retire?

Yeah that’s right, weren’t all the pundits saying that once the bill is passed the numbers would recover? I must have missed that bounce somehow.

I don’t want to sound like sour grapes or anything but I’ve been all over this from the start, what does a guy have to do to get a memeorandum link these days? Do they have something against hats?

Update 8: the answer to the above question is of course to link to Michelle Malkin: Welcome readers of Michelle, see how the movie The American President perfectly encompasses what’s wrong with liberalism, Find why Alexander Stephens accidentally foils the re-writing of history in more than one way. Meet Liz Carter running for congress in the Ga-4th district. And meet bloggers from all over in my field guide.

Older Entries
Newer Entries